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[Goumindong]

I think part of the problem is that people do not realize that building industry and accessibility will get you on someone’s *** list.

You can generally avoid expeditions (besides pirates) by simply accepting a low profit and growth. A low hazard planet will produce minor profits with no industry and minor to significant defenses.

If you keep accessibility low (~50% or lower) you can even produce reasonable quantities and be safe because you’re not exporting enough to be a problem

[experiencedickerson]

I had one game so far with the new patch. Playing a spacer start with self imposed no commissions restriction, my fleet was slightly underpowered to deal with the pirate invasion fleet that came unexpectedly early. iirc pirate fleets don't have a capability rating like a normal faction expedition but they sent a weak armada. I had to quickly go and buy up a couple of frigs and a destroyer that were in a neighboring black market to beef up my fleet and met them nearby some of my faction patrols. lost a few ships but we managed to hold them off. Next expedition i was able to bribe off for 100k. By the third expedition my defenses have been able to take care of everything with ease. If something was to be changed, i would like to see a way to set default response to AI inspection in faction doctrine ex. 1st time bribe 100k, second time resist.  

[Schwartz]

I think part of the problem is that people do not realize that building industry and accessibility will get you on someone’s *** list.

You can generally avoid expeditions (besides pirates) by simply accepting a low profit and growth. A low hazard planet will produce minor profits with no industry and minor to significant defenses.

If you keep accessibility low (~50% or lower) you can even produce reasonable quantities and be safe because you’re not exporting enough to be a problem

I'm just quoting this for emphasis. It makes sense. If you're trying to play with the big boys, they're gonna *** on you. In that light, keeping low-profit colonies and letting them grow before you expand seems like a reasonable choice.

[Serenitis]

If you're trying to play with the big boys

They're not very big if a months old size 3 world in the arse-end of nowhere can take ~30% of the market share of anything just by existing.

I don't know about anyone else, but one of the primary reasons I want a colony at all is to produce supplies and fuel that I can use in a convenient location that does not require that I travel back into the core. And just doing that alone is enough trigger this nonsense.

Hell, the very first world I colonised got roflstomped just for having active tech mining.

[StarGibbon]

I think part of the problem is that people do not realize that building industry and accessibility will get you on someone’s *** list.

You can generally avoid expeditions (besides pirates) by simply accepting a low profit and growth. A low hazard planet will produce minor profits with no industry and minor to significant defenses.

If you keep accessibility low (~50% or lower) you can even produce reasonable quantities and be safe because you’re not exporting enough to be a problem

I'm just quoting this for emphasis. It makes sense. If you're trying to play with the big boys, they're gonna *** on you. In that light, keeping low-profit colonies and letting them grow before you expand seems like a reasonable choice.

It may make a *certain* amount of sense from one point of view (while breaking the rules of the faction relations system the player has already learned in the game), but it also runs contrary to decades of game convention wherein players doing similar colony building things, in similar looking screen interfaces, are rewarded by growing their colonies and buying add-ons when they can afford them.

If you're going to fly in the face of convention (for instance, choosing to use something other than WASD keyboard movement in your PC game), you better have a *really* good reason reason for doing it, and an aggressively transparent instruction system. I don't think the game has either at present.

[code99]

If you're trying to play with the big boys

They're not very big if a months old size 3 world in the arse-end of nowhere can take ~30% of the market share of anything just by existing.

I don't know about anyone else, but one of the primary reasons I want a colony at all is to produce supplies and fuel that I can use in a convenient location that does not require that I travel back into the core. And just doing that alone is enough trigger this nonsense.

Hell, the very first world I colonised got roflstomped just for having active tech mining.

^This

I find this whole expedition thing quite nonsensical. I dont want colonies to be free money with 0 risk for the player but surely a better system can be thought up instead of these annoying punitive expeditions that make no sense from any point of view (especially economical points of view ... magic is used i guess)

[Schwartz]

Yup. If the player can corner a market this easily, then the NPC market needs strengthening. I think no one will disagree that faction planets are underpowered.

A consequence of this might be that stronger markets will be less paranoid about sending fleets your way, since player colonies will have less of an impact.

[TaLaR]

Yup. If the player can corner a market this easily, then the NPC market needs strengthening. I think no one will disagree that faction planets are underpowered.

A consequence of this might be that stronger markets will be less paranoid about sending fleets your way, since player colonies will have less of an impact.

Though upkeep will need to be reduced too. Currently it is balanced for grabbing large part of global market.

[SolarWind]

Hello everybody.
I recently started playing this game and found it very addictive and interesting.
For a long time, I planned and saved money to create my own colony.
I wanted to have a colony so that I can build my ships according to the blueprints I found, as well as for trade and construction of my own infrastructure.
I constantly carried out missions of various factions and even pirates, and accumulated funds. As a result, I accumulated a good reputation, 700K credits and created my first colony, in a remote system, on a planet with a 150% hazard level(could not find lower than 150%).
I invested all the money in the infrastructure, built a light and heavy industry, but did not forget to build a lvl-2 Hi-Tech Battlestation and heavy ground batteries. I built all this defenses, thinking that it would reliably protect the system from pirates, who almost immediately began sending their raids. I built a Patrol HQ, upgraded it to lvl 2, and patrols began to fly around the system. Everything would be fine, but after a couple of months HELL began...
Hegemony and Diktat sent giant navy, against which there was no chance.
I managed to defeat the fleet of Hegemony by participating in the battle along with my Battlestation, but at the same time I lost 2/3 of my so hard assembled fleet, than paid a loss of reputation with Hegemony.
In my fleet there was one light cruiser, 3 frigates and two small aircraft carriers.
But against the Dictate fleet nothing stood...
There were some 4 giant capital ships + a bunch of smaller destroyers and cruisers. My Battlestation was destroyed and the fleet was defeated...
I didn’t have 200k to bribe these expeditions, but even if I used it, how much time would I have enough money to restrain these raids?
My colony had a net profit of about 80k per month before the invasion.
Hegemony and Dictat did not like the open market and my production of transplutonium, although my market global share was only 4%.
This is really unfair and discourages the desire to build colonies.
From previous forum posts, I realized that even simple fuel production would cause punitive expeditions.
So what should I do? Colonies without markets and production(which bring punishers) will not give profit, and wandering around the galaxy on assignments of other factions all the time is also boring.
What is your algorithm to build a colony and survive?

 

[Megas]

When starting out with your first colony...

Build an orbital station as soon as possible, ideally after Spaceport
If major factions do not send expeditions at you, pirates will be sent instead, and they come fairly early.  Their raids are not as powerful as expeditions from major factions, but you need the station to have a chance to defeat their raids without your direct intervention.  If you need a waystation before the orbital station, that is fine (you want to be able to restock on crew, supplies, and fuel), but you probably need to defend against that first raid personally.

Build Patrol HQ early
You need a patrol or two to reclaim relays that got stolen periodically by enemies.  This does not need to be built immediately, but it is annoying going back yourself to reclaim relays and your stability.

Do NOT use Free Port early
1) It aggravates Luddic Church and Hegemony to send expeditions at you.  They do not send expeditions if you do not have Free Port on.  That leaves Diktat, League, and Tri-Tachyon sending expeditions at you for producing too much, if pirates do not raid.
2) It makes expeditions more frequent.
3) It lowers stability, which you probably have not stacked up high.
4) It does not increase income enough until you start producing organs (at size 6) and you can maintain 10 stability even with -3 penalty.  Free Port is very useful for population growth too, but until you can defend against expeditions, colony growing faster than your fleet or capability to deal with is not a good idea.

Do NOT use Growth Incentives early
Growing colony fast sounds nice, until that expedition you cannot deal with because you could not build up or upgrade your fleet and colony defenses fast enough wrecks everything.  Colony growth increases production, which is the last thing you want when trying to keep a low enough profile to avoid their attention.  Once you can deal with expeditions, then crank it as high as you can afford, but not before then.

Do NOT use industries that produce too much of a given commodity
Any amount from Fuel Production or Heavy Industry will aggravate Diktat or League.  I think Light Industry might aggravate early as well.  The only safe industries early that can produce stuff for money are Farming, Tech Mining (via loot), and maybe Mining.  Mining will aggravate Tri-Tachyon if too much (rare) ore is produced.  Stuff like ultrarich ores, Industrial Planning, or colony growth can put ore production over the top.  By size 5, your colony might be too big to limit production enough, and you need to be ready to deal with expeditions.  Once you decide you are ready enough for expeditions, then get Industrial Planning and build Heavy Industry and those other vital jackpot industries.

Do NOT take Industrial Planning 2 early
The perk that increases production commodities by one, which is useful for meeting demand and increasing profits, might make you produce too much stuff (see above) and attract expeditions.  Use administrators for Industrial Planning if you must, but do not get the skill yourself until you are ready to deal with expeditions from majors.

Pather Cells are bugged and are mostly harmless
As long as colony stability is 2 or higher, all attempts at sabotage will fail.  The worst they can do is a permanent -1 stability if you do not seek out and destroy Pather bases.  This will be fixed next release, but that is months or longer down the line.

[SolarWind]

Megas, thank you very much for this helpful reply!
I almost wanted to start the new game, but I found that i can disassemble my industries for 75% return or remove the administrator. My admin has level 3.
Now i will try to turn into a quiet agrarian planet, so as not to anger this mafia.

On the other hand, there is another question:
What kind of defenses in the system will enough to deal with any expeditions, without a player's babysitting?
In my case High Command patrol HQ and Hi-Tec Battlestation could not resist.
Upgrade to 1.000.000 credits Star fortress will solve all the cases?

[Megas]

You need at least one High Command per system, but ideally, you want two or more per system.  That said, three or more can slow down old computers due to lots of fleets crawling around.  I probably would use two per system (at least High Command and Military Base, if not two High Commands) if I can as a compromise between enough patrols and framerate for my old computer, assuming enough planets in the system.  With Free Port on, you probably want either Commerce or Military Base/High Command just for the stability bonus.  (Both having both will hurt income too much.)  For spare planets with plenty of bases in the same system, Patrol HQ does not hurt.

For ground defenses.  Short answer, you need to stack everything, including Planetary Shield from the Red Planet, to get enough ground defenses.  You do not need the Planetary Operations skill, but it might help get enough up sooner until you get Planetary Shield.  Of course, this is moot if you rely on a Star Fortress for stability (and you will if you use Free Port unless you have bonus stability from Planetary Operations or unused personal colony slots) because you do not want that to go down ever.  Ground defense is the last line of defense if they blow through your patrols and Star Fortress goes down.

Keep in mind that battlestations and star fortresses are expensive and require high commodities.  Earliest you can support Battlestation in-faction with Industrial Planning is size 4, and Star Fortress needs size 6.  (You can build sooner if you do not mind relying on cross-faction imports.)  But do upgrade those stations as soon as you can afford and support it.  You need that stability bonus if you rely on Free Port, and more advanced expeditions will not have much trouble breaking lower-tiered stations if they penetrate your patrol screen.

P.S.  Early, if you avoid expeditions, then all you really need to repel pirates only is an orbital station and patrol HQ, provided you destroy pirate bases targeting your colony as soon as they target you.  They will grow bigger if left alone, but as long as you clean up pirates regularly, they will not be much of a problem.  Once major factions start targeting you, you need much more.

[Megas]

One last tip:  Selling blueprints of powerful combat ships (and maybe weapons too) at Black Markets will upgrade pirate fleets.  Pirates will learn those blueprints.  (Note, pirates will only learn new blueprints if you sell blueprints yourself at a black market.  They will not learn new blueprints any other way in a no-mod game.)  There was one topic recently where someone sold a Paragon blueprint found early at Black Market to jump-start his game, and pirates are using Paragons against him!

[Lucky33]

This is really unfair and discourages the desire to build colonies.

This is a perfect illustration to the eternal "why the factions dont colonize" question.

What is your algorithm to build a colony and survive?

Its pretty simple. Buy Dram. Take several recon missions and make several 100K. If you are lucky you'll find a decent ship (capital or heavy carriers) in the markets. If you're completely out of luck just buy Falcon (P) and grab couple of frigates as escorts. Do some bounties and level up. Spend some time this way and sooner or later you will be able either to claim some disabled ship which will be of use or you will find them on the market (ignore anything lighter than cruiser-carrier). Just stuck to the Top region of the Core worlds (Thule-Mayasura). There is an abandoned storage near Mairaath in Mayasura and Kazeron in Thule is the top notch military market. Also dont forget to visit Askonia. Remember to not hesitate to buy even D moded capitals and heavy carriers (black market is fine too). After that you will snowball through bounty hunting. In no time you will get decent battlegroup, high level and 7 digit number of credits.

Check nearby constellations with red beacons and find yourself a suitable system for the colonization. If you dont have Nanoforge at this point... well... go and do some exploring. And quests. Before colonizing.

At this point you can finally settle down. There is no challenge left anyway.

[lethargie]

As lucky pointed out, his advice are not very good if you want to enjoy colony.

My advice would be start by exploring, do the scan derelict/survey world etc mission. Develop a fleet that can survey well by using surveying equipment but try to keep upkeep to a minimum. You should come across nice systems. Try to grab one with a low difficulty planet, couple extra planet and a space for a com relay. Build nothing more than a waystation and maybe a space station.

Stockpile all the weapons/millitary hulls you can on this world. Explore all the sector around your new base where you can restock on fuel/supply. Kill some bounties. Start building farming if you can, or mining. Colonize the other planets of your system.

Try not to build your heavy industry too late, that way you can start producing ships before you really grab the attention of the big factions.

Plan your perfect 30 ship armada and lay waste to the sector (peacefully of cource, we aint savages)