Trifler
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Joined: 5/7/2007
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It seems that with the Legends expansion, running out of industrial resources seems to happen more easily. Perhaps players simply don't start with as large of a stockpile as before. I don't know. In any case, it's effectively game over in some situations. If the resource you need is somewhere nearby, but in another empire's territory, then you can still get some via independent freighters and from freighters of that empire if you're on friendly terms. If there are no planets with the resource you need anywhere nearby though, you will never, ever, be able to get it. Thus, game over.
Based on this, I compiled a table for myself of the resources required for all of the components you start out with as well as a few second tier components. After doing that, I decided to write this guide for the people who are frustrated with their empire suddenly grinding to standstill without even a notification window popping up to say "Hey! We're out of this resource!" :)
The strategic resources are: Aculon, Argon, Carbon Fibre, Chromium, Dilithium Crystal, Emeros Crystal, Gold, Helium, Hydrogen, Iridium, Krypton, Lead, Nekros Stone, Osalia, Polymer, Silicon, Steel, and Tyderios.
Caslon and Hydrogen are fuels (Hydrogen fills two roles). Everything else falls into the Luxury resource category and are not used for construction at all.
I'll start with a run-through of the components you can't do without:
Command Center - Every ship and station requires one, so there's nothing in the game you can build without one. It requires Gold, Polymer, and Silicon.
Fission Reactor - Every ship and station requires a reactor. Not necessarily this one, but this is the one that everyone starts with. It requires Helium, Iridium, Lead, and Steel.
Standard Fuel Cell - Every reactor needs at least one. This is the one everyone starts with. It requires Polymer and Steel.
Gerax Hyperdrive - Every ship needs one. This is the one everyone starts with. It requires Carbon Fibre, Helium, and Steel.
Proton Thruster - Every ship needs a few. This is the one everyone starts with. It requires Carbon Fibre and Steel.
Thrust Vector - Every ship needs at least one. This is the one everyone starts with. It requires Carbon Fibre and Steel.
Life Support - Every ship and station needs at least one. It requires Gold and Polymer.
Hab Module - Every ship and station needs at least one. It requires Polymer and Steel.
Corvidian Shields - You *can* build without them, but survival isn't likely without them. This is the shield everyone starts with. It requires Gold, Helium, and Lead.
Standard Armor - Standard Armor only requires Steel.
Maxos Blaster - This is the weapon everyone starts with. It requires Gold, Helium, and Nekros Stone.
Energy Collector - Extremely valuable for stations and having at least one on every ship is a good idea as well. It requires Chromium, Gold, Polymer, and Silicon.
Those are the basics. I'll talk about the race-specific components later. They don't really change things up much anyway, and some make things more difficult.
Some things to note:
* Steel is the most common requirement and it's used in large quantities besides. Fortunately, it's common.
* Carbon Fibre is essentially the "propulsion resource" since it's used by all things related to propulsion. You can build stations without it, but ships must have it.
* You must acquire a source of Carbon Fibre, Gold, Helium, Iridium, Lead, Polymer, Silicon, and Steel fairly early on or your production will stall and you may not be able to get it going again. Chromium is also essential, but it is possible to design all of your ships without any Energy Collectors to save your Chromium for your mining stations. You can make the Chromium you start with last quite a while that way. However, that's only a delaying tactic to give you more time to find some.
Not sure how to find out how much of each resource you have? Click on the "Ships and Bases" button at the top of the screen or press F11. Make sure your main Spaceport (or whichever Spaceport you want later on) is selected and click on the "Cargo" tab. On that list you can now see what it has. The "Reserved" column lists resources that freighters or Constructors are already en-route to pick up. I do not know if the storage is limited to the Storage Bays on the Spaceport or if the colony itself adds to the storage capacity. It seems probably since a default mining station has 20 storage bays and a default spaceport only has 6, but I have no way to find out for sure.
The Expansion Planner is extremely helpful in finding resources. It lists everything your exploration ships have mapped out. You can see all of the resources you currently have mines on as well, so you can see if you need more of a certain resource. Thanks to Evrett for mentioning this tip!
The following are locations where you should look for strategic resources. In some cases I may have missed some.
Barren Planets and Asteroids - Gold, Iridium, Lead, Steel. Iridium is somewhat less common than the other three, but still quite common.
Continental - Carbon Fibre, Chromium, Polymer. Also various common resources.
Swampy - Carbon Fibre, Chromium, Polymer. Also various common resources.
Ocean - Dilithium Crystal, Polymer.
Desert - Silicon (the *only* source I've seen!).
Volcanic - Aculon, Emeros Crystal, Nekros Stone, Osalia.
Gas Giant - Argon, Helium, Hydrogen, Krypton, Tyderios (Frozen Gas Giant only).
Ice - Tyderios. Other than Tyderios these only have Luxury resources.
I find the number one PITA to find is Chromium, unless I start on a planet that has it. Carbon Fibre takes second place, followed by Silicon and Polymer. Once in a while I have a game where I have a hard time finding Nekros Stone.
It's unfortunate that there no system in place for substituting a resource when necessary. Something like using Steel in place of Polymer or Carbon Fibre when they aren't available, but with a speed penalty. Or, perhaps have an alternative Engine module that doesn't require Carbon Fibre but has poorer stats than the Proton Thruster, to use that example again. Even a black market where you could spend credits to buy (at a high price) resources you can't get your hands on.
Low Resource Strategies
A certain number of civilian ships are built for each colony you control automatically. Another certain number are built for each spaceport. You can't tell your Spaceport not to build them, but...
Idea from Kadrush: "Make every civilian ship obsolete at game start."
Using this idea, and by not creating a new design, you can prevent the AI from building new civilian ships until you have acquired the strategic resources you need.
You don't have to pay credits for civilian ships, but they do use your resources. This means that if you go around colonizing like crazy, your Spaceport will breeze through a lot of resources building all those civilian ships. Keep this in mind when colonizing. If you do decide to colonize, then that's also a good time to see if you can do some upgrades on the freighters, passenger ship, etc. Mark the old design obsolete and then the new design will be used when your colony ship reaches the planet (Upgrading your old freighters requires scrapping them. You can't even Retire them to recover some resources). The main upgrades to look at for civilian ships are more efficient reactors, faster and/or more efficient hyperdrives, and faster and/or more efficient engines. Better shields never hurt if you have them when you do the upgrade. I usually remove the weapon from the Small Freighter.
If you run low on Chromium, I mentioned the idea of not using Energy Collectors on ships if you start running low on Chromium up above. In addition, you should reduce the number of Energy Collectors on your mining stations to the bare minimum needed to cover the Static Power usage. You should also avoid using Ion Cannons, Torpedoes, or the Impact Assault Laser, as they use Chromium. Also note that Weapon Plants use Chromium (but not Energy or HighTech Plants).
If you run low on Carbon Fibre, you can try using fewer engines and thrusters on your ships. That's about all you can do.
If you run low on Silicon, cutting Energy Collectors will help there as well. In addition, Countermeasure and Combat Targeting modules use Silicon.
If for some reason you can't find a place to build a Nekros Stone mine, you have three options:
1) Research Shatterforce Lasers ASAP. They use Emeros Crystal instead of Nekros Stone.
2) Switch to Fighters. However, make sure you have a source of Carbon Fibre first. You'll also need to research larger ship sizes to be able to fit even one Fighter Bay.
3) Switch to Missiles. Again, you'll want a source of Carbon Fibre for these. They're easier to fit than Fighter Bays, but they have about half the DPS to Space (size) ratio of Maxos Blasters.
4) I was surprised Rail Guns use Nekros Stone, but they do.
Race-Specific Components
NovaCore Reactor - Quameno. Requires Aculon, Helium, Krypton, and Silicon.
Velocity Drive - Dhayut. Requires Carbon Fibre, Chromium, Steel, and Tyderios.
Turbo Thruster - Ackdarian. Requires Aculon and Carbon Fibre.
Velocity Drive - Sluken. This is actually a Thruster, not a hyperdrive. Requires Aculon and Carbon Fibre.
Swift Vector - Mortalen. Requires Carbon Fibre and Steel.
Pulsewave Cannon - Wekkarus. Requires Chromium, Dilithium Crystal, Iridium, and Tyderios.
Shaktur Firestorm - Boskara. Requires Chromium, Dilithium Crystal, Iridium, and Tyderios.
S2F7 Repair Bot - Ikkuro. Requires Carbon Fibre and Steel.
ShadowGhost ECM - Kiadian. Requires Gold, Polymer, and Silicon.
Raptor Targeting - Ugnari. Requires Gold, Polymer, and Silicon.
Another thing to keep in mind in regards to your starting race is the type of planet they start on. If you start on a Continental or Swamp planet, you may very well start with Carbon Fibre from the get-go. Likewise, you have a good chance of starting with Silicon if you start on a Desert planet, etc.
< Message edited by Trifler -- 9/2/2012 1:13:10 PM >
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Early Game Resource Guide - 
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