I thought I would solicit opinions, advice, tips and tricks on the asteroid mines. So far they haven't been a major part of my game because:
1. You have to build more space miners and I am generally busier building constructors and war ships.
2. They take so long to turn an asteroid into a mine (is there a way to speed this up? Is it always five rounds?)
3. Bunches of them defect to me throughout the game anyway. Yet, I never remember to go back and optimize where the asteroids should be beaming their benefit.
4. I can't tell what stage of advancement the mine is at by looking at it. This kind of stinks. Wouldn't it be better if the four tiny pieces which represent an asteroid filled in one at a time as they upgraded instead of completely filling in on the first upgrade?
Here is what I have learned by myself. If you are going to build a miner, wait to do it until you have enough minaturization to do it on a tiny hull so the miner is cheapest. Also, don't completely wipe an enemy out until his asteroid mines have flipped to you, otherwise all the mines go "poof" and disapear and I haven't the inclination to rebuild them.
So what am I missing?
I found the asteroids useful for those lower quality planets to get the production of buildings out. At the start for instance, if I have a class 6 planet, I've got five squares to use, which typically means a farm, plus economic centres to make the planet a small part of the economy that is gradually turning over. No room for factories, generally not much money for rush buying, but redirect a few asteroids and I suddenly have a planet with its own factory working away.
Secondly, if a few asteroids redirect to a high military planet, and the cumulative benefit means a starship is out in one or two less turns, then I've saved a lot more time, and in effect, getting a bigger military much more faster, obviously.
I find asteroids good in circumstances where you really want more tiles. Most of my games I like to concentrate on tech and build things like trade goods and super projects/galactic wonders. A lot of the time I need to build one of these things and I just don't have an optimal quality planet for it.
If I'm running miners though it's a lot easier to find a planet where I can stuff these one-offs and still have them build fast. Every one I build lowers that planets production capacity but the asteroids effectively keep the wonder factory running.
Has anyone meantioned how long the game is expected to take? IN longer games miners can mine for a long time.
Just get some tiny hull mining modules early and let them work slowly, Its easy I still mine on tiny suicidal games tho. [e digicons][/e] Usually to help factory planets get to 1 constructor a turn . Think thats about 95mp a turn. Once there any extra not so bothered about. Also i upgraded the miners to traders early if run out of space mining techs.
If you intend to win games in about a year guess mines irrelevant really but if not playing that fast certainly nice
I disagree. I do not spam and automate miners. I look for a specific minefield near one of my planets. I generally do not build them until I can make Tiny Miners. I make one miner for each asteroid field. If I don't have the required tech, I sentry them (they have no maintenance cost). Once, the mine field has reached ultimate status, I upgrade them to constructors or possibly traders.
You can also unload an extra Tiny Colony ship and convert it to a Tiny Miner for only 24 BC.
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