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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?  (Read 25184 times)

KopiG

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Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« on: April 02, 2021, 05:58:36 AM »

First time I started to bother with colonies so I made 3 colonies. One is is 75% hazard rating (HR) Terran type +1 farmlands and +0 organics. One is 250% HR with +1 rare ore +2 ore and +1 volatiles. THe last one has nothing special its an Arid world with common things. Now I have industries setup for them, mining for the miner world etc... However If I dont hazard pay they wont grow and draining tens of thousands of credits. Pirates basically do a -3 stability on my colonies. Also 1 Industry seems per pop level seems so low. I cant even refine my goods at the miner world and export does not net me anything. Im at the point where Im close to saying *** colonies and abandon them all. They dont seem to worth anything at all.
Anybody who has colonies could tell me a different story?
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AcaMetis

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2021, 06:20:01 AM »

Colonies have been severely nerfed since 0.9.1, but they can still make a profit...after, you know, multiple years and many millions of credits of investment. Hazard Pay is basically a "Grow while bleeding money profusely/die a slow and painful death while making a slight profit" button for any world above 125%-150% hazard rating, and practically the only good way to make those colonies grow in a reasonable amount of time. At least that I've found.

Pirates are a problem in that the "core" pirate bases can still randomly decide to target your colonies whenever they feel like it, in addition to "player" pirate bases that spring up from time to time specifically and exclusively to target your colonies. Mind, the latter kind are much rarer than they were in 0.9.1, and always start at -1/-10%, so even colonies with basic defensive measures in place will be able to protect themselves for a while. So long as you have a fleet that can take care of -3/-50% pirate bases you won't have too many problems with pirates, once you've fended them off once they seem rather reluctant to come back in my (limited) experience so far.

One piece of advice is to do some solid exploration first and keep an eye out for Domain-era goodies, there's quite a number of them in this version and unless I misunderstand the game mechanics they should make more of a difference to a size 3 colony than a size 6 one.
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Arcagnello

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2021, 06:37:04 AM »

I can indeed tell you a different story:

Previously, colonies were worth it only if you had a combination of good administrators and AI cores to stuff them with, in addition to the constant early colony babysitting.

0.95a has introduced a lot of changes to colonies, most important of wich being "colony artifacts" that can be installed on specific colony structures if they meet the requirements. These can range from improving various aspects of a colony to giving massive boosts to production.

This change, along with a nerf to the speed at wich pirates and the like start pestering your colony, has made founding your first colony a lot easier. Also remember to always keep the Hazard pay on.

You did the best thing by colonizing a terran planet first, since you can easily turn an early profit with just mining and farming. I personally look for my first two planets with the following charachteristics:
1)they must be in the same system
2)the first planet I colonize must have very good farming (good farmland and/or Orbital Solar Arrays massively boosting it), very good mining (both ore and rare ore plus organics).
3)the second planet I colonize must have no atmosphere and a not too high hazard rating. Bonus points if it has low gravity

I tend to build ALL my planets with structures in the following order:
1)first industry and upgrading spaceport into megaport as soon as the spaceport is built
2)space station, patrol HQ, ground defences,way station (in this order)
3)Second industry slot as soon as it is available
4)upgrade ground defences into heavy batteries and station into battlestation
5)Third industry slot as soon as it is available
6)Upgrade battlestation into star fortress
7)Fourth industry slot as soon as it is available

My first planet more or less never upgrades the patrol HQ, I dedicate all four slots into economy, namely agriculture, mining, commerce and light industry. This planet will not attract inspections because there is no AIs, it will not attract pathers because it will have no heavy industries and fuel production and it will have no pirate activity ruining it's economic if you are NOT hostile with the Pirates, wich I suggest you work towards. It will generate between 150k and 250k a month once it reaches size 6 without any AI provided you got a colony artifact or two roiding some of your industries up.

My second planet will be dedicated to heavy industries, fuel production, force projection and a decent income once it gets popolous. I instructed you before to choose a planet with no atmosphere because of this: Heavy Industries using either a corrupted or pristine nanoforge will add the pollution trait to your planet if it has an atmosphere, wich raises your hazard rating. A Syncotron core for your fuel production will also not be able to be installed if the planet has atmosphere. Opting for a planet with the "Extreme heat" as a colony condition might sound counterproductive but it actually is not. There's a colony artifact called Cryoarithmetic engine wich boosts colony fleet size by 100% if it is installed on a planet with Extreme heat, wich will basically make all the colonies in the system invulnerable to raids.

You can more or less do anything you want after that. You can feasibly colonize every single bloody planet in the system and be assured that every single one of them will eventually generate decent income one day. Diversifying the industries and processing facilities of all planets in the system will also make sure you can supply most of the needs in-faction, drastically reducing income loss die to hostilities with other faction and almost completely negating the "incoming shipment lost" debuffs.


You do not even have to strictly colonize only one system. I've currently got 4 colonized planets in 3 different systems generating around 500k a month and this is WITH -65% to accessibility due to hostilities with other factions AND the fact I may have raided too much causing the degradation of a couple dozen planets.

I hope you got to the end of this unending rambling. Thank you if you did and I'm going to be happy if it actually proved to be useful!
« Last Edit: April 02, 2021, 06:43:27 AM by Arcagnello »
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Anvel

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2021, 06:52:25 AM »

have 5 colonies 1 have an income of 600k/m 4 others ~250k/m each, around 1.5m per month, yet at some point, you don't have on what spend the money anyway. Plus you can get any number of supplies in your colonies which is critical.
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KopiG

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2021, 06:52:52 AM »

Thank you so much both of you for t he rplies. I really appriciate. I will try to do something about my colonies. Luckily the enemy pirate station wasnt that strong and I could defeat it yuheeee!
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KopiG

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2021, 06:53:29 AM »

have 5 colonies 1 have an income of 600k/m 4 others ~250k/m each, around 1.5m per month, yet at some point, you don't have on what spend the money anyway. Plus you can get any number of supplies in your colonies which is critical.
Omg thats insane. May I ask how?
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robepriority

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2021, 07:25:30 AM »

The key to profitability is accessibility. Producing excessive amounts of resources won't work if no one can access them. Not only that, but growth is also determined by it.

A colony on the outer edge of space will start with >100 acessibility, but you can boost it with a lot of different aspects.

Sutopia

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2021, 07:55:57 AM »

Superb pacifist tactics:
1. Don’t fight pirates and take their missions. Getting relation to above -50(become not hostile) not only prevent raiding from targeting your colonies but also reduces accessibility penalty for having hostile factions by a big margin.

2. Optional. Dedicated planet for heavy industry/fuel production. They might not make much profit but this prevents luddic path cells from spawning.

3. No AI core usage to prevent hegemony inspection.

By following the above three rules I am able to crank out 600k/month net profit without much hassle other than occasionally replenish business competitors’ relation by feeding them with AI cores.
Self-sufficient can cut down monthly cost by quite a lot so do plan around that.
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Voyager I

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2021, 08:29:32 AM »

To me, the big incentive to colonies isn't the money (though the money is nice) - it's the production.  Being able to print out stack of Tempests and Railguns and other premium-quality gear on demand is a gigantic boost to your quality of life.

It's a far cry from the days when you were lucky to see three Tempests over the course of an entire career and having one die was an instant quickload.
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Igncom1

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2021, 08:40:28 AM »

It's not too bad buying tempests on the market these days, but yeah weapons are always really hard to come across.
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hijoton

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #10 on: April 02, 2021, 06:10:38 PM »

A huge thanks to the detailed breakdown on "how-to"s and Why's.
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Thaago

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #11 on: April 02, 2021, 06:15:53 PM »

Also, just in case you didn't see by mousing over the right place, you can lower the maintenance on colonies by providing their needed goods in-faction up to 50%. Doesn't help with hazard pay (that I know of) but it can really make the difference on higher hazard worlds.
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KDR_11k

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #12 on: April 03, 2021, 09:41:51 AM »

If you want to avoid hazard pay and have a strong enough force you can go for a colony close to a cryosleeper. They have a 10 lightyear range now, don't need to be in the same system anymore (though the effect has some falloff so being in the same system is still beneficial).

If you're not so much in it for the money then building a colony as an outpost for resupplying away from the core worlds can be useful too.
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Duloth

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #13 on: April 03, 2021, 10:47:27 AM »

I usually like to start out making cash by exploring. I'll save whatever artifacts I find in an abandoned platform, as well as dumping excess ships there; I like to have some disposable ships to just throw at the enemy for big battles so that my more important ships can escape if they need to.

My gameplay style changes when I discover an ideal system. Basically, I want to find a system with -everything-; food, organics, rare and common ore, and volatiles. A single world with all of those but food would be perfect for a mining colony, and does sometimes happen. Once I've got that, I start off with a farming world and a mining world to just make me a steady income, and keep going from there; adding any useful domain artifacts. Don't start off paying hazard pay; wait until your farming world(Ideally one with a low hazard rating) has grown so that it will boost other colony growth rates.

During the first few story missions in the most recent update, I found such an ideal system, called Gamma Draconis. Did enough work and side-jobs to found two colonies. Mining and farming. As I kept doing the story missions, I responded to pirate attacks and re-invested in the colonies; building a tech mining on the first world. By the time I finished the current version of the story campaign, I had several worlds in the same system, had a couple of administrators to help, and the whole star system was entirely self-sufficient and making me quite a bit of cash; and able to produce reinforcements when I ended up getting crushed by an enormous pack of Tri-Tachyon fleets and only escaped with like four ships.

And now, with the story over? I make hundreds of thousands of credits per month and can manufacture exactly the fleet I want, with a home system with two high commands defending it(One with a cryo-tech upgrade that gives it ridiculous fleets). Doing something ridiculously risky like trying to decivilize the TT worlds? I build exactly the fleet I want, load up a couple thousand marines, and leave my flagship behind. I can lose the whole thing and be perfectly fine.


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Anvel

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Re: Need advice on colonies. Are they worth it?
« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2021, 11:43:55 AM »

have 5 colonies 1 have an income of 600k/m 4 others ~250k/m each, around 1.5m per month, yet at some point, you don't have on what spend the money anyway. Plus you can get any number of supplies in your colonies which is critical.
Omg thats insane. May I ask how?

Spoiler
[close]
First - accessibility, planets don't even have to have good resources or low hazard rating. Second - starting budget, be ready that at first, they will not bring you some significant amounts of money instead you will pump into them a lot. Third - do not build your first colony far from core worlds, the best is to scan those 3 free core worlds systems and pick the best one, settle there.
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