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[WhisperDSP]

By the time I have multiple colonies up and at full speed ahead, I’m usually making between 200-400k/month. I imagine I’ve sunk 5-10M credits in, though. From a return on investment standpoint, it would take many cycles to recoup what you put in but at the same time, there comes a point where you need a money sink because having more doesn’t net you anything really.

I’ll be glad when colonies are more than money factories.

Assuming that I don't go crazy and adopt a more balanced approach to initial building, hopefully the initial costs for many industries will be self-funded.

[WhisperDSP]

BCS, I must run an extremely hungry/thirsty fleet. Newbie I guess - I'm forever having to grab large amounts of fuel/supplies.

I have Salvaging, Containment Procedures and Makeshift Equipment skills which drastically lowers my fleet running costs(most people don't do this because technically it is a waste of skillpoints) I also have five developed security agents on Asharu so I get at least two bounties per trip, and I can always fallback on killing something in a Remnant system if it's on the way. Still, I believe that every "endgame" fleet should have 3 Salvage Rigs in it, they absolutely pay for themselves.

I also use those skills, it's my personal opinion that they are worthwhile QOL. Ditto for the Salvage Rigs, though I'm only running 2 - perhaps I should up the number.

Approx 2 cycles between for inspections, hmmm? I will play with adding AI cores to all and sundry - my current testing has been focused on keeping everything on the down-low to not attract Pather interest. No Tech-Mining, only using one item (Fullerene Spool) on the farming planet, etc.

Pathers will target any successful colony, it's pretty much impossible to not get targeted by them. Might as well go all out with an Alpha core admin/Beta core P&I and special items in every industry IMO.

As for planets, you generally want four:

 - One Habitable with farmland(or aquaculture) and organics - farming, mining, light industry go here
 - One no atmoshpere planet - mining(optional), refining, heavy industry, fuel production goes here
 - One extreme heat planet - High Command goes here. These also will usually have great mining potential which means one industry less for your "no atmoshpere" planet
 - One gas/ice giant for volatiles - usually useless for anything else and with high hazard rating

There is some minmaxing you can do here, for example extreme heat gas giant will save you a planet, or if you're extremely lucky you can get a toxic planet with organics which means you can use autonomous mantle bore on it(otherwise organics are always paired with habitable which precludes it) - but in general goods output is not a problem; you only worry about output in case of High Command(you need Pristine Nanoforge in Orbital Works to satisfy its needs) or if you use it, the Fusion Lamp(need at least Diffuse Volatiles on your Gas/Ice Giant)

Regarding planets, the testing has been along the lines of:

Gas Giant (abundant volatiles, hot - plan was to see if a fusion lamp will make it extremely hot, then High Command it):
Mining (for plasma dynamo + story points to get 10 volatiles for fusion lamp)
Orbital Works (for pristine nanoforge)
Commerce (for dealmaker holosuite)
High Command (for cryoarithmetic engine, when I find one)

Rocky Metallic (moderate ores, no atmosphere, hot, low gravity) -- only colonized because I got a second pristine nanoforge, in retrospect it was a bad idea
Orbital Works (for 2nd pristine nanoforge)
High Command (for cryoarithmetic engine, when I find one)
Fuel (for synchrotron core, when I find a second one)
Commerce (for dealmaker holosuite, when I find a second one)

Arid (decivilized subpopulation, poor farmland, vast ruins, ultrarich ores, common organics, hot)
Farming (for soil nanites)
Mining
Light Industry (for biofactory embryo)
High Command (for cryoarithmetic engine, when I find one)

Barren (moderate ore, no atmosphere, low gravity) -- unused

Barren (sparse rare ore, moderate ore, no atmosphere, cold) -- colonized only for the transplutonics, could have used #2 instead and imported
Mining (for autonomous mantle bore)
Refining (for catalytic core, when I find one)
Fuel (for synchrotron core)
High Command

Being obsessively crazy with the overlapping High Command was not necessary and would have let me deal with only 3 planets. For instance, the farming planet could have been Tech Mining at size 6 instead. A second Commerce or Orbital Works could have been put on the barren mining/refining/fuel planet.

[Void Ganymede]

Would ROI perhaps be a better metric for colony optimization?

You want to colonize as early as possible to get the growth going. Early enough that you don't have millions to pump into AI cored systems. Bringing up colonies to quietly grow while not slowing down your fleet buildout seems best, once money is unlimited and you've explored a chunk of the sector you can optimize revenue.

[WhisperDSP]

Would ROI perhaps be a better metric for colony optimization?

You want to colonize as early as possible to get the growth going. Early enough that you don't have millions to pump into AI cored systems. Bringing up colonies to quietly grow while not slowing down your fleet buildout seems best, once money is unlimited and you've explored a chunk of the sector you can optimize revenue.

ROI would be a far better mechanic.

I’m looking now into low-key building up a farming planet while having scattered techmining planets as I find them. Alex is apparently tweaking the techmining for the next release.

Also looking at a builder-spreadsheet for planets as suggested by CapnHector earlier in this thread. Definitely don’t have the chops or time to make a mod to do it, as he suggested.

[CapnHector]

Oh, whether it's a spreadsheet, tool, mod, or a script, more math is always more fun. Here is something you'll likely be interested in since there hasn't been much discussion of the global market yet. https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=20769.0

[robepriority]

you REALLY do not need to spam defensive structures, especially if you've completed Galatia.

[BCS]

Well, most defensive structures give a Stability bonus. That's the main reason to build them.

And what's Galatia do with this?

[WhisperDSP]

Because there’s either a gate nearby or (in this case) in-system. It’s very easy to get back and defend.

So there’s probably no need for more than:

* base (maybe heavy) ground defenses with drone replicator
* base orbital
* standard patrol HQ
* planetary shield

On every planet other than one, which would have all of them maximum and cryoarithmetic engine.

So what I did was a classic newbie mistake, overprotective to the max. It also took up industrial slots which would have been better used otherwise.

[BCS]

But you don't want - or need - to go back to defend your colonies whenever there's trouble.

The only reasons you have to ever come back after setting everything up is a) to find out the location of the Pather base and b) to find out the location of the Pirate base.

Any expedition can be handled by your colonies' forces and you can take out Hegemony AI Inspection fleets when they're still at Core Worlds.

[BaBosa]

I like just setting up in a system with a gate even if it’s not the best. Much easier and less frustrating to deal with any threats.