Orbital Skyhook

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The Orbital Skyhook is required to extract resources from planets in null security space. It retains the functionality of the customs office, allowing characters to continue using planets for Planetary Industry, while also opening up access to colony resources that were introduced in the Equinox expansion.

Skyhooks can be attached to all planetary types but only within player-owned sovereign null security]space, and only one can be placed in the orbit of each planet. A Skyhook has a single reinforcement cycle with similar hit points, resistances, and damage cap to existing Upwell Consortium medium structures such as the Raitaru or Athanor.

Three distinct colony resources are gained from a planet once a Skyhook is attached to it, in varying amounts depending on the planet type.

• Power is provided by gas, storm, and plasma planets through an Orbital Skyhook. It is used by the Sovereignty Hub to bring online the various upgrades available for the system. If a Skyhook producing workforce is destroyed, all power it was supplying is removed from the systems' Sovereignty Hub.
• Workforce is provided by Barren, Oceanic and Temperate planets that have an Orbital Skyhook attached to them. Each planet gives a varying amount depending on type of planet.
  As with Power, Workforce is required to bring online any Sovereignty Hub upgrades installed in the system.
  If a Skyhook providing workforce is attacked and killed, all workforce it supplied is removed from the systems' Sovereignty Hub.
• Reagents are assets that are produced passively by planets that have an Orbital Skyhook attached to them. Reagents start out in an immature state, but over time they will become mature and extractable. This maturation will ramp up in yield over time, effectively creating extractable resources faster.
  • Magmatic Gas - Is provided by Lava Planets, and is used to fuel the moon drill on the Metenox Moon Miner, as well as the Cynosural Navigation (Pharolux Cyno Beacon) and Cynosural Suppression (Tenebrex Cyno Jammer)
  • Superionic Ice - Is provided by Ice Planets, and is used fuel the Advanced Logistics Network (Ansiblex Jump Gate) and the Supercapital Construction Facilities upgrades

Reagents are the only colony resource that can be stolen. This can be done by linking to the Skyhook Reagent Silo which is present on Skyhooks that are harvesting reagents from Ice and Lava planets. The link becomes available once a Silo has been brought down to 10% Shield HP. The linking ship must be a combat ship of cruiser size or larger, or one of the new Upwell hauling ships, and the pilot linking to the Reagent Silo must be in the Omega clone state. Players that are linked to the Skyhook Reagent Silo are unable to warp, use micro jump drives, cloak or tether and their maximum velocity is capped at 1000 m/s. After a ship has begun to link to the Skyhook Reagent silo, completing the link will take 10 minutes and once initiated will notify players in surrounding systems that a theft is in progress. Only one ship can link to a Skyhook silo at a time when committing reagent theft. If reagents are stolen from a Skyhook, the ramped yield will reset and a portion of both immature and mature reagents are placed in a cargo container beside the silo, while all remaining reagents in the Skyhook are destroyed. This makes defending reagent-producing Skyhooks important. Orbital Skyhooks also attract hostile pirate NPCs just like asteroid belts do. This can make the space around skyhooks dangerous to unprepared ships but also provides more PVE opportunities for clever players.

Reagents

Reagents are assets that are produced passively by planets that have an Orbital Skyhook attached to them. Reagents start out in an immature state, but over time they will become mature and extractable. This maturation will ramp up in yield over time, effectively creating extractable resources faster.

• Magmatic Gas - Is provided by Lava Planets, and is used to fuel the moon drill on the Metenox Moon Miner, as well as the Cynosural Navigation (Pharolux Cyno Beacon) and Cynosural Suppression (Tenebrex Cyno Jammer)
• Superionic Ice - Is provided by Ice Planets, and is used fuel the Advanced Logistics Network (Ansiblex Jump Gate) and the Supercapital Construction Facilities upgrades

Maturation

As stated above, reagents start out in an immature state when initially extracted, and are then automatically converted to a processed state which can be extracted. This conversion happens automatically every 3 days and is about 15-16% of the amount of immature reagents currently held by the Skyhook.

For example, assuming a 15% conversion rate and a production of 100 reagents every day, then after 3 days the Skyhook will convert 45 reagents to a processed state, leaving 255 reagents in an immature state. Then after another 3 days the Skyhook will hold 555 immature reagents of which 83 will be converted to a processed state.

Theft

In addition to the automatic conversion every 3 days, immature reagents can also be converted to the processed state by theft. The conversion rate when stealing is 40% and it can be done by both enemies and allies, allowing for self-theft to force an extraction. Importantly, if reagents are stolen any immature reagents not converted are destroyed.

For example, assuming the Skyhook holds 300 immature reagents, then after stealing you will have 120 processed reagents and the Skyhook will hold 0 immature reagents.

Maximizing output

The optimal strategy for maximizing processed reagents depends on your appetite for risk. This is because the longer you wait to self-steal, the more total processed reagents are gained from automatic conversion plus self-stealing, but the more attractive the Skyhook becomes for theft.

At no point in time does the output solely from automatic conversion become better than automatic conversion plus self-steal, however, automatic conversion becomes better than self-stealing every day after 15 days, automatic conversion becomes better than self-stealing every third day after 24 days, and so on. We can see this as, continuing the example above, self-stealing after the first automatic conversion will net you 147 (45 + 102) compared to 120 (40 + 40 + 40) from self-stealing every day, and self-stealing after the second automatic conversion will net you 316 (45 + 83 + 188) compared to 294 (147 + 147) from self-stealing every third day. See the full table here.

In general you should wait as long as possible then self-steal AFTER automatic conversion has happened, but if you know there is a risk of theft then you should self-steal.