BSE - Building and Running Colonies

Building and Running Colonies

Classification: Open

Building a Colony

This is a large undertaking, and it is best to contact the Speaker of the House before setting up a colony to see if there are any locations where colonies would be useful. Unless you have a large personal transport fleet then building a colony will take a long time, probably a couple of years. Thus getting approval of a colony site from the Speaker is best since he may be able to organise other ships to initially help in the building of your colony. In addition, large parts of the desired planet will have to be GPIed and prospected so good sites for ores can be found.

Colony Location

Initially all items will have to be shipped in from other colonies so a site near to a major colony is preferential. If you wish your colony to buy and sell goods, then it is again best for it to be near a major colony; for example an affiliations HQ colony or GM run colonies such as Thorn or Rubis. Try to ensure that a round trip, including buying and selling, is within one 140TU go.

Ores

Since most products contain some metal (and it is only these items which contribute to the mass of a colony) then a metals site is essential. Ideally the metals deposit will have a yield of 8.4 or more (should not be less than 5.0), otherwise large number of mines will have to be imported.
In addition a power source, preferentially fissionables, is almost essential (a lot of items also use fissionables in their construction). A good yield of fissionables is 2.5; less than 1.0 is poor and is probably not worth an outpost. Other ores, such as thorlium ore, pulac crystal or rare minerals, are useful. A few suggested yields are: pulac crystal 2.0 (not less than 1.0); thorlium ore 2.8 (not less than 1.0); other ores with yields above 1.0 are good (no minimum limit, check with your PD if you find a site).
Creating an RTS link to a colonies outposts is extremely beneficial since it frees a ship collecting the ore and delivering it to the colony. In addition, mines can be sent to the outpost from the colony so the size of outpost can be expanded. A RTS link of 200MU should be considered the minimum.

Morale and Factory Production

The morale of a colony generally determines the number of factories which can be run. High morale is also useful in preventing your colony being captured by an enemy ground force. Each colonist can provide up to 1 man-hour whereas work slaves will provide up to 5 man-hours. However, slaves of all types are illegal in the Detinus Republic and so can never be kept in a colony nor transported by ships. Maintenance-bots are specialist items with will provide 100 man-hours, irrespective of the colony morale (i.e. each maintenance-bot will run one factory). The Detinus Republic has a continuous supply of these robots. Thus:

Man-hours = No. of colonists * colony morale / 100 + no. of maintenance-bots * 100

Each factory requires 100 man hours, so the number of factories a colony can run is equal to man-hours/100 (up to the maximum number of factories present).

Running a colony

A colony may exploit all items which are found on a planet with its special complexes. It does not depend on the type of terrain where the colony is located.
After each colony report is received, check that the colony will have enough of the following items untilthe next printout is generated: power, structural units, food, hospital complexes, man hours and ores required to build the next batch of items.
In addition, enclosed colonies should ensure enough life supports and environmental domes.
Your colony must have at least one security complex, otherwise it can be easily captured. In addition, you will not be able to board any enemy ships which land at your colony (i.e. those on the colonies ground enemy list).
All colonies of class 5 and above must have a hiport. Having enough hospital complexes to halve the death rate is also advisable. Other complexes are dependent on the nature of the colony.
Due to the absolutely essential nature of research, all colonies of class 6 and above must have the maximum number of research complexes allowed. Class 5 colonies should have a minimum of 6.
It does not matter at all whether you build a lot of one item then another or split the production run into a number of smaller parts. However, the maximum number of factory production orders in any one week is 10, and of course more orders can mean more cost.
It is generally best to get the security, special and hiport complexes built first. Then cycle between outposts, shields, ground quarter and naval quarter items.

Strion bonus

One MU of strion per 4 factories (of part of) will increase factory production by 20%. So if a colony has 70 factories and 30 MU of strion, then 18 MU of strion will be used and factory production will be at
(50*25+20*20)*1.2=1980MU
The following week, there is 12MU of strion left, but obviously not enough to supply all of the factories present. In this case, the bonus is worked out as follows:

Production = ( ( Strion * 4 / factories ) * 0.2 + 1 ) * factprod
where:
'Strion' is the MUs of strion present
'factories' is the total number of tooled factories in the colony
'factprod' is the amount of production of the colony without strion

In the above example, factory production will be ((12*4)/70*0.2+1)*1650=1876MU
Note that due to rounding processes the computer makes in the calculation, it may be 1 or 2 MU different to the value you calculate.

Effects on morale:

Event	Modifier
Class	+1 per colony class
One gambling, restaurant and/or recreation complex per 1000 population	+4 morale
One merchandising complex per 5000 population	+7 morale
One hospital complex per 5000 population	+3 morale
Morale decrease due to death rate	-1 (per 0.5 death rate)
Lack of sufficient structural units	-10
Lack of sufficient environmental domes	-10 if none present and required; if some present, -1 per 1000 colonists lacking
Lack of food	-1 per food ration below 25 (and up to extra 20% death rate)
Security crackdown	-5 per security level

Items given per 1000 lifeforms (e.g. colonists, crew, slaves, alien pets, natives)

Item	Modifier
Food	+1 morale per MU over 25MU's (+10 max.)
Stellars	+1 morale per stellar (+30 max.)
Consumer goods	+1 morale per MU (+20 max.)
Luxury items bonus	Variable (+30 max., see below)
Drugs bonus	Variable (+30 max., see below)

Luxury Items (given per 1000 lifeforms)

Luxury Item	Modifier
Shuttle (31)	+30
Medical Supplies (155)	+13
Jewellery (137)	+12
Luxury Foodstuffs (10)	+10
Luxury Goods (61)	+10
Alien Pets (139)	+10
Cosmetics? (142)	+10
Chic Clothing (158)	+10?
Artworks (84)	+10?
Furs (138)	+9?
Clothing (152)	+6?
Consumer Goods (60)	+1
Heaven Stones (202)	Unknown

Drugs (given per 1000 lifeforms)

Drug	Modifier
Stimbrew	+1
Heaven Herb	+1
Grassjuice	+1
Trumpeter Seeds	+1
Alcohol	+2