Expansion planner

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tracek
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2013 3:53 am

Expansion planner

Post by tracek »

I have two correlated questions with respect to the expansion planner:
1) How can I get list of all bodies in explored systems that contain given resource, e.g steel?
2) Regardless of all my clicking in the planner, combo box "resource targets by your empire priority" remains empty. Changing filtering option does not change a thing. What I expect is to find all resources needed by my empire sorted by demand, but either I am doing something wrong or my understanding of this listing is incorrect.

Thanks!
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: Expansion planner

Post by Bingeling »

1) In the expansion planter filter by galaxy priority. Your empire list may be empty if there is no demand, but someone, somewhere, should have some... Then filter on steel.

Or if you want some quick location info. Go to the galaxy map, select "known resources" and select steel. If you click the yellow dots you will see the object behind. This is not very useful for very common things that may have lots of sources in each system, though. But this also gives objects in enemy systems, something I don't think the planner gives. Very nice when looking for the somewhat rare strategics, or the ultra rares.

2) See above, your priority list may be empty. This is the list of possible location sorted by the AI preference at the moment. If you want to browse more freely, use galaxy priority instead.
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feelotraveller
Posts: 1040
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:08 am

RE: Expansion planner

Post by feelotraveller »

Yes 2) is weird in it's logic.

At the moment in my game I have no sources of Nekros Stone, less then 1k spread across four colonies, half a dozen known minable locations, and yet my 'resource targets by empire priority' list is empty. Need I add that it is early game and my weapon(s) of choice use Nekros... [8|]

Could be more than a bit misleading for newer players...
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: Expansion planner

Post by Bingeling »

I think the need may be triggered by demand. And I believe demand may be "below the comfort level" of a colony. So if your capital spaceport thinks it needs 1000 nekros stone, and you got 1500, demand will be 0. But if you only have 900, demand will be 100. This would make it possible to have 0 demand for a strategic that you are using, but have no sources of.

I am not 100% that this is what demand actually is, nor that priority is linked to demand.

This demand theory fits a common situation of huge stores and some demand. Some location lacks it. What is the comfort level of a colony? I guess depends on spaceport, maybe population, and it should be possible to figure out if persistent enough of observing a rather small empire that is not too well off with resources. If demand is linked to empire priority should be even easier to check. At least the empire priority list is empty at game start in pre-warp.
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feelotraveller
Posts: 1040
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:08 am

RE: Expansion planner

Post by feelotraveller »

That all sounds reasonable. Hopefully you get bored enough to check it before I do...

From memory 'comfort level' is linked to the caution of the race involved. So maybe the dominant race at a colony sets the comfort level. Certainly different races appear to have different levels initially ordered for their colony after first conquest for roughly same population.

Generally I find the 'empire priority' list pretty useless. I would say absolutely useless but it does a somewhat decent job for luxuries in the very early game.
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: Expansion planner

Post by Bingeling »

The "comfort level" is a somewhat random expression, and I guess it is pretty fixed for strategics, and that luxuries depend on what you have seen. There is no demand for an ultra rare you don't have access to, for instance. Apart from maybe something about luxuries, I would be amazed if it depends on dominant race.

If this hidden level for how much resources a colony wants exist (as it appears it does), it would be so lovely to see who has above, and who has below this level on the "map". It could say a whole lot about inadequate freighter work, though [;)]

For strategics at least, I think what is needed to know if supply is adequate is:

1: Store levels. If you can remember if the "suspects" store increasing that is a good sign.
2: Some sources for everything.
3: If there is demand it should be much smaller than stores, and the transport value should be significant compared to demand.

I believe mined resources are dumped at either nearest spaceport, or nearest colony. In the game I watched this all had spaceport [:(]. It is easy to test in shadows by eye measuring the closest spaceport, select it, and observe that the traffic in and out of the mining system all having red vectors. Any white ones should bring retrofit materials (or fuel) to a mine in the system, or possibly be on a refuel mission.

So if you have an imbalance of mines, say a large empire with large colonies, and all steel mines are around the capital, you should see this by huge stores and huge demand, and inadequate transport coverage. If you select a spaceport with shortages, you should see freighters bringing it goods from "far away". Btw, I think the build order tool is sneaky, now. It distributes the builds to where there is resources. So that almost all ships are built at the capital could also be a sign of something not being quite right...
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feelotraveller
Posts: 1040
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RE: Expansion planner

Post by feelotraveller »

I'm sure that in RotS/Legends the amounts of strategic resources stored at spaceports depended upon the caution of the race involved (what I took 'comfort level' to mean). I would be surprised to see that this changed in Shadows but it may be less clear now that colonies consume resources.

Mined resources go to the nearest spaceport if they are simply being delivered from the mine. The other case I have seen is when a location has a demand for a resource - then it is delivered from the nearest available location which can be straight from the mine, another spaceport, or even goods at some other location which are in excess of what it requires to keep on hand (e.g. retrofitting supplies).

You make good suggestions about how the 'empire priority' list might be reconfigured but lets not kid ourselves about the chances of that actually happening. [;)]

That said the red transportation vectors are a great innovation and (to me at least) an unexpected bonus.
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