Resources
Posted by TSeeker on March 28, 2008 at 11:28 am
We have already mentioned several times in comments that Beta 6 would include more resources than just money. There are in fact several types of natural resources which can be mined from various sources such as nebulae or asteroids. There are 3 different types of resources: gases, minerals and dark matter. While dark matter is a one-of-a-kind resource, gases and minerals come in different sub-types.
Resources are extracted from mines on a planet’s surface, or using mining stations, which are specific space station modules equipped with mining ships; however, to ease the process, the empire never manages these mining ships directly. They are considered a part of the station.
Different types of minerals can be found on both planets and asteroids. To find minerals on a planet, owning it is enough; special agents can also obtain this information from planets owned by other empires, and probes sent to investigate a planet may be able to discover it as well. Minerals in asteroid belts can be located using probes or a mining station’s scouting abilities. Note that, to spot minerals other than titanium and copper, some technologies may be required. Some resources can be extracted faster than others due to their nature.
| Name | Frequency | Extraction rate | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Titanium | Common | Easy | Planets, asteroids |
| Copper | Common | Easy | Planets |
| Rhebium | Common | Medium | Asteroids |
| Strentium | Rare | Medium | Planets, asteroids |
| Kirhium | Rare | Hard | Planets |
| Rhodunium | Rare | Hard | Asteroids |
| Dororhium | Very rare | Futile | Planets, asteroids |
| Rhundantium | Very rare | Futile | Asteroids |
| Nothentium | Very rare | Diabolically Hard | Planets |
All of the game’s planets and asteroid belts feature some of these resources. However, the less common an element is, the smaller the amount of it which can be found and the lower its regeneration rate.
Gases can only be found in nebulae; in order to first discover a source of some gas, a player has to first send ships or probes to that location, or use a mining station’s scouting abilities. None of the gases are visible by default, they require at least one of the nebulae extraction technologies.
| Name | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Nerhedion | Common |
| Trikantion | Common |
| Rhanthion | Rare |
| Korion | Rare |
| Strivestron | Very rare |
| Irunstrion | Very rare |
All types of gases are present in a nebula, but the less common a gas is, the smaller the amount. The rate of regeneration depends on the nebula’s class - class 8 nebulae will regenerate more than class 1 nebulae. This is balanced in the end as, the higher the class, the less common the nebula type is.
The final type of resource is dark matter. Dark matter can be obtained from the Oort cloud of systems neighbouring a black hole, provided the player has the appropriate technologies. Dark matter can be detected either by probes or by the mining stations’ scouting ability.
The amounts of dark matter available are relatively high around natural black holes, and much smaller around black holes created through the space-time drilling technology. In both cases, the regeneration rate is low.
Do you think there are enough resources? Too many of them? What do you think of the few details included about extracting resources?
April 5th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Hmm… I have a few questions (well pretty much just 1 which is reiterated over and over :P)
What are they going to be used for?
Will some of them be primarily for Commerce? Will some be used for buildings/building ships? Are some used more by certain races? Will Dark matter be very common, providing you are in the right place to find it? Are the gasses used in weapons/techs and if so/not what else/then are they used for?
If you haven’t any real idea, that is OK… As long as you get one eventually
April 6th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Use of resources: required to build advanced buildings / ship parts / space station parts. Commerce isn’t the primary objective.
Use shouldn’t really be linked with species. Most of the tech graph is human so all players should have an equivalent use of resources whatever their population composition is.
Dark matter should be rare.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Isnt the theory of darkmatter that 90% of the universe is made up of darkmatter… Or somthing like that?
April 13th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
A bit less than that, but basically, it’s somewhere between galaxies - not the kind of place you usually go. Besides, since no one seems to be able to make heads or tails of whatever it is, I figured we could add to the confusion without feeling too bad about it ;->
May 7th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Well, my point is that if (a bit less then) 90% of the universe is made up of dark matter, even if it IS between galexies, shouldn’t it be relatively abundant?
June 15th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
The point is we don’t represent space between galaxy in the maps. We might consider what we call the LW universe is a single galaxy. The places where dark matter is abundant would then be out of the boundaries of the map. And you can’t go there. In the area where you can go, it isn’t abundant.