Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

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Dragnov
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Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Dragnov »

Hello everyone,

I have recently picked up the and its been all fine and dandy til I have expanded to a dozen colonies: population would not grow, development came to a stall. I have pin-pointed it to resource shortage of everything. Which left me baffled, because I seem to have massive stockpiles... except it seems my private sector is draining all colonies and hauls it to my Homeworld, the only colony with a real space port.

I realized I have been using star bases as rec/med hubs over colonies over actual ports as this was a popular suggestion in some topics I have read. But now it makes me wonder whether its hard coded that only colonies with space ports get resupplied?
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by RogerBacon »

I'm pretty srue that star bases don't receive supplies except as needed for upgrades and fueling. I've only ever seen them in deep space as listening stations. Yes, every colony needs a spaceport.
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by RemoteLeg »

Every colony does not need a spaceport. Spaceports are built to perform specific functions such as build ships, monitor the area, and collect revenue from trade. Sometimes I colonize a planet simply for the strategic value and those colonies rarely get a space port. Like you, I often build star bases for buffing my colonies, but that's another matter.

Perhaps the space port at your home world is doing all the building? That might explain why the freighters are taking all your resources there - the home world has the highest demand for those resources. Try building a few more space ports around your empire and see if the freighters spread out the resources.
Resources can certainly be delivered to planets without space ports.
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stuart3
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by stuart3 »

Resources have to come from somewhere. Have you built sufficient mining stations in and around the systems containing your colonies to supply those resources?
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by btd64 »

I build 1 spaceport for every 3 colonies. Good rule of thumb. You do want to place them in Strategic locations....GP
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SirHoraceHarkness
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by SirHoraceHarkness »

I build a space port on every colony but only the major worlds get a large port. All the rest get a small port for to the economic bonus and due to the near non existent build and upkeep cost. Plus when I need to build a shizzton of ships during a war I can pause and fill up every port with orders and with that much parallel construction you can build entire fleets in a wink.
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Bingeling »

ORIGINAL: Dragnov

Hello everyone,

I have recently picked up the and its been all fine and dandy til I have expanded to a dozen colonies: population would not grow, development came to a stall. I have pin-pointed it to resource shortage of everything. Which left me baffled, because I seem to have massive stockpiles... except it seems my private sector is draining all colonies and hauls it to my Homeworld, the only colony with a real space port.

I realized I have been using star bases as rec/med hubs over colonies over actual ports as this was a popular suggestion in some topics I have read. But now it makes me wonder whether its hard coded that only colonies with space ports get resupplied?
The key with using star bases and not spaceports is that they should not draw any resources. It seems like you may have shipyards on your star bases, which would defeat the point.

If you do not have shipyards, you should not get shortages everywhere, as all freighters would pick up stuff at the spaceport (capital), and it has the only shipyards. The only thing built at other colonies should be the star base and the odd resupply, colony or construction ship.

That being said, you probably want spaceports to cover your area (so it is not too far), but you would never want a construction yard anywhere else than on these spaceports.
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Dragnov »

Thanks for answers everyone. I got massive stockpiles on my homeworld, but my colonies without spaceports got their goods hauled away constantly, leaving them at perma shortage.

No shipyards on my star bases. Maybe the commerce center on it is to blame?
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Bingeling »

What is causing your shortages? Ship construction, mine upgrades, mine building or others?

I assume it is not fuel shortages (those are a separate chapter, you need lots of mines).
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Hattori Hanzo »

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

I build a space port on every colony but only the major worlds get a large port. All the rest get a small port for to the economic bonus and due to the near non existent build and upkeep cost. Plus when I need to build a shizzton of ships during a war I can pause and fill up every port with orders and with that much parallel construction you can build entire fleets in a wink.

hi SirHoraceHarkness, I find your Space Ports strategy interesting and different from the usual ones..

when do you build the small Starport on the new colonizerd planets ?

immediately after colonization (or conquest) or after a while ?
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Dragnov »

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

What is causing your shortages? Ship construction, mine upgrades, mine building or others?

I assume it is not fuel shortages (those are a separate chapter, you need lots of mines).
I am not sure, to be honest, everything gets hauled out of my colonies and nothing seems to be hauled in. I switched my star bases to small space ports and bam, it all gets redistributed. Which is a bit of nuisance for refueling big fleets...
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Retreat1970 »

I am not sure, to be honest, everything gets hauled out of my colonies and nothing seems to be hauled in. I switched my star bases to small space ports and bam, it all gets redistributed. Which is a bit of nuisance for refueling big fleets

Spaceports build ships. You need lots of resources to build ships. It's why cargo ships flock to them. Colonies with no spaceports need the minimum of resources except luxuries which are consumed. As to how many spaceports, I've played with one spaceport and I've played with spaceports on all. It didn't matter to me, but I decided that spaceports on the front lines worked better. Just my two cents.
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Bingeling »

ORIGINAL: Dragnov

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

What is causing your shortages? Ship construction, mine upgrades, mine building or others?

I assume it is not fuel shortages (those are a separate chapter, you need lots of mines).
I am not sure, to be honest, everything gets hauled out of my colonies and nothing seems to be hauled in. I switched my star bases to small space ports and bam, it all gets redistributed. Which is a bit of nuisance for refueling big fleets...
My best guess is that it was the commerce center to blame as you wrote above. If you just put a "recreation and medical" center above the colony under star base design, it should not do anything.

And as you discovered, a few spaceports around can be useful to refuel fleets. But with too many spaceports, they may all lack enough fuel.
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SirHoraceHarkness
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by SirHoraceHarkness »

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo
ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

I build a space port on every colony but only the major worlds get a large port. All the rest get a small port for to the economic bonus and due to the near non existent build and upkeep cost. Plus when I need to build a shizzton of ships during a war I can pause and fill up every port with orders and with that much parallel construction you can build entire fleets in a wink.

hi SirHoraceHarkness, I find your Space Ports strategy interesting and different from the usual ones..

when do you build the small Starport on the new colonizerd planets ?

immediately after colonization (or conquest) or after a while ?

As soon as I start a game I go into empire policy under colonization and set it to build an ssp-1 as soon as a colony is founded. I use icemania's ai mod and the ssp-1 is pure bare bones with little cost in construction or upkeep but has a commerce center for the economic bonus and of course the docking and construction bays. I eventually upgrade them to current tech levels or even go to a medium port if my economy is particularly hot but just the basic ssp-1 really is all you need for secondary colonies.
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Dragnov
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Dragnov »

Welp, I am at loss here, really. 2136 with six colonies going. Seems anything but actual spaceports results in massive shortages in my colonies which leads to revolts and stagnation. Tried taking off commerce center off star bases, but still got the same issue.

Anyone knows how the game distributes resources? Does it spread it even across space ports? Does each space port have assigned specific number of mines? Do freighters actually haul goods from mines to nearest colony and then redistribute or head to whatever is on priority list?

I really want to enjoy the game, but this issue is killing me, ha ha.
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Bingeling »

I am not sure what you are doing, since I have never had those issues. My best guess is that you lack sources or are swarmed by pirates killing/chasing your freighters. Or all your freighters are out of fuel, trying to hump over to the other side of the galaxy where there is supposed to be some fuel available. Or maybe you zero tax, and the civilians are all broke, not being able to afford ships.

With some active mines, you can just build a small spaceport over your capital, fund your 6 colonies, and you will not see shortages if you got mines. You will probably want to upgrade that spaceport, though (as you need some shipyards). And if you are at full war with pirates, you probably have no mines.

Revolt are probably due to taxing heavily or doing something very weird. Look at the colony details that gives a breakdown of happiness modifiers. Lacking resources should not lead to revolt if you tax according to it (it should be a minor happiness modifier).

You should aim to get:

1: One source of every strategic. And probably a spare.
2: Extra sources for common stuff that is much used (steel, gold). And anything you get short of.
3: You want to build a mine on every fuel source.
4: You want at least 10 luxury sources for max development, aiming for one of each type does not hurt.

Putting small spaceports makes the AI work on distributing all kind of strategics everywhere, making freighters busy doing unimportant stuff, but I think they should handle it these days.

The colony will send a freighter to the nearest source to fill its need. Usually a spaceport, possibly a mine.
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by BigWolfChris »

IIRC colonies with ports will aim to have a minimum of every resource. Other colonies will aim for a minimum of any resource used by colonies themselves

All colonies will aim to have luxury resources spread out, and I think higher population worlds are higher priority to getting orders filled

If anything, it sounds like you might have a general resource shortage. If resources were only being taken to the homeworld when it was the only planet with a port, it means the amount it's asking for hasn't been hit yet. And yes building more ports has it distributed, but you'll find you've simply spread out the shortage across worlds. Though unless you're constantly building ships, or neglected making mines, 36 years should have been more than enough, so it is strange
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by btd64 »

I have been monitoring the thread and running some tests. Conclusion, You need to go into the expansion planner and pick planets/gas giants that have the resources you need, closest to your colonies and set them up in the que to build mines. But just the resources you need at the moment....GP
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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Dragnov »

Thanks for all for the posts, guys. I still can't resolve the issue WITHOUT using space port on every single colony. Freighters literally haul everything out of colonies into homeworld which sits at hundred of thousands of each basic commodity. No pirates or wars whatsoever.

I wish I could upload screens but there's forum block due being new member.

Is there somewhere I could edit how much of each commodity each colony needs? How are the minimums calculated?

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RE: Spaceport vs star base over colony: resources shortage.

Post by Retreat1970 »

Why does every colony have to have so many resources? Are they using them? I don't understand why this is an issue. I'm sorry.
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