User:Tyrianna Asconsdottir/Setting up a planetary colony: Difference between revisions

This instruction will not cover the process of finding and scanning a planet for resorces. This is already covered in [[Planetary Industry#Planet Scanning|Planet Scanning]] and [[Identifying valuable planets]].

[[File:System_information_window.png|thumb|Solar system: Information]]

You can access the planet view by right-clicking a planet in the overview or any other list ans select "View planetary industry". You can get a list of avaible planets from opening the "Solar System: Information"by clicking on the systems name in the top left corner and select the "Orbital Bodies" tab. Each planet has their own information page accessed by the familiar[[File:Info_button.png|frameless]]-icon. The only game-relevant attribute in this window is the radius and the extractable resources. It also has a button "View Planetary Industry" at the bottom.{{clear}}

Once you are in the planet view, you can drag and zoom to see the planet from different angles. In the top-left corner are two tabs. "Build" and Scan". To set up your colony you can use [[Colony management#Colony Layouts|templates]] or go building-by-building.

The location of the [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]] on the planet is not overly relevant. In most cases it will not be connected to the rest of the colony and not used to export products from the planet if it can be avoided. Your [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]] provides Powergrid and CPU to your entire colony. This is similar to ship fitting limits how many buildings you can build on a planet. Everything takes a certain amount of CPU and Powergrid, including the transport-links between the buildings. The [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]] itself does not need to be connected by a link to provide the fitting resources. It just needs to exist somewhere on the planet. However, if you double-click any empty spot on the planets surface it will center the view on the [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]], so having it close to the rest of the colony might make navigating back there easier.

A [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]] is always deployed at its lowest level. The CPU and Power it provides for the colony in this stage is very limited and hardly useful. To upgrade the [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]] you have to click it and select the first tab with the green plus-icon. Here it will show you the level it can be upgraded to, depending on the level in the [[Command Center Upgrades]] skill. To upgrade you will have to hit the "upgrade" button at the bottom.

There are two methods to get resources to the planets surface. Extracting and Importing.

* Extracting: If you are building a extraction-planet, you mine the resources from the planet with extractors, usually refine the extracted materials to some degree and export them up from the planetary surface into space. Follow [[Setting up a planetary colony#Step 2.1: Extract resources|Step 2.1]] for building a extraction planet

* Importing: If you are building a factory-planet, you import the resources from space, refine it with processors to one or more higher grade materials and export them up again from the planetary surface into space. Follow [[Setting up a planetary colony#Step 2.2: Import resources|Step 2.2]] for building a factory planet

There are hybrid configuration, that use both methods, but in most cases it is more efficient to do one or the other.

At one point you will want to export whatever you produced on the planet to space to use it or ship it somewhere else to process it further or to the market. A [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command Center]] can be used to launch goods to a can into space, but this is more expensive and can only hold 500m³ at a time. At a [[Planetary buildings#Launchpad|Launchpad]] you can export your products to the customs office in space around the planet. A single [[Planetary buildings#Launchpad|Launchpad]] will overload a [[Planetary buildings#Command Centers|Command centers]] CPU if its not upgraded.

{{button|CTRL}}+{{button|LMB}} one building, then release {{button|CTRL}} and click the building you want to build a link to. A link can always used in both directions, so it doesnt matter in what direction you build it. Materials can only be routed through up to six transiting buildings. Generally it is enough to connect each new building to exact one already existing building for all buidings to be connected.

The number of Basic Factories should be balanced against the amount of raw materials the extractor can produce. Too many Factories will not get enough resources to run all of the time and the fitting they take up would be better spend in additional extractor heads. Too few will let the buffer storage fill up eventually and any excess raw materials would then be lost. Each Basic Industry Facility consumes 3000 raw materials per cycle. Each cycle takes 30 minutes. So each Basic Industry Facility will consume 6000 raw materials per hour.

For each Industriy Facilities you have to select, what it schould produce. Double-click on each of them and select the schematic to be installed. The tooltip of each schematic shows what inputs are needed. Once you double-click a schematic or hit install, the system takes you directly to the routing dialog. Notice the canged cursor, that expect you to doubleclick or select a destination for the produced material.

Export and sell or transport to a factory palanet, repcocess further and sell then.

To export commodities to space you have to be undocked in the same system. You can be tethered or cloaked for this. Right-click the Customs Office from the overview and select "Access Customs Office". Select the right launchpad in the upper right corner if you have multiple. Drag&drop resources to and from the offide to the launchpad. Hit "transfer" when you are done.