my thinking is that:
I can get more colonists from the rebels when they have 100 colonists compared to them only 50 colonists. More rebel colonists to defect to your colony
I doubt the rebel colonists die off, if anything, they increase. So that's at least 50 more colonists for you eventually.
> 2 colonist landers = 50 colonists for you + 50 colonists for rebels = at least 100 colonists for you eventually
> 3 colonist landers = 100 colonists for you + 50 colonists for rebels = at least 150 colonists for you eventually
> 4 colonist landers = 100 colonists for you + 100 colonists for rebels = at least 200 colonists for you eventually
------------
On Easy Difficulty, there's likely no natural disasters, and if I remember reading right, most (or maybe all) of your buildings don't even breakdown nor explode, so ya weather satellite probably isn't needed.
Orbital Observer isn't necessary, as you've made the rebels a ghost town before turn 100 (the enabling of communications and trade with the rebels). Easy and especially Beginner Difficulty anyways. It's nice though to be able to watch the rebels though, lol.
Obviously the Intersteller Probe isn't really needed, until the end of the game (after you win the game via starship launch, can you actually colonize another planet, as a continuation of your game, as you play on that new planet?)
on my version, the ULBI probe is needed to pick what planet in the star system you want, which is important, unless you don't mind doing new games until it~AI selects the planet that you want, lol.
obviously, the communication satellite and geological probe are important, though I'd like to do a game without them, as they feel a bit like cheating, and I'd like to have to learn to work with the Communication Towers, and even heck, explorer robots would finally be useful~needed~have a purpose, lol.
all satellites and probes can be researched anyways too. so, you don't need to take them at all. They're available for taking for personal difficulty, as it's a lot more hard without them for a good part of the game, until you're able to research them.
-------------
20 Food = 100 Colonists fed for 1 turn
1 Food = 5 Colonists fed
50/5 = 10 Food
10 Food feeds 50 colonists for 1 turn
20 (max) Food feeds 50 colonists for 2 turns
as you can see, food actually makes like no difference, as 0 Food and 20 Food isn't significant at all.
And you lose life anyways for the 5 turns until you build your agridome. And at best you're only preventing 1-2 deaths, even with 20 food and 50 colonists, max.
---------
though I still need to test the life support, if it prevents death after you land or not.
---------
ya, I'm not sure of the point of the cargo landers, I guess they'd hold your extra tokamaks or solar plants, but otherwise, you only need 1, which will hold all of your food. Hmm, maybe also an extra seed factory (if you can take extra ones), I never thought of trying to take more than one, it could be useful, lol. For a second colony.
---------
can you give actual specifics?, like how many turns do you go through, while just pumping out residentials, with only your chap, spew, and agris. when do you start to build other things? do you have crime problems (need to build police)? do they complain of requiring other buildings? I have many questions that I don't know the answers to, lol.
do you try to do research right away? how many labs do you build on what turn?
etc etc etc
----------
I'm slowly testing out stuff on Easy Difficulty, as I've always played on Beginner, as I was a little kid back then, but now that I'm older, I want to try more of the challenge, and I'm struggling with figuring out with the limited resources, hehe.
I also don't use automatic trucking. It takes a bit to learn how it works, if you don't already know, but (besides having to do it yourself) the only difference is that on the automatic trucking, you get a free-created truck with every mine you build for that mine. With autotrucking off, you got to build more trucks for each mine, so no free trucks, lol. The one question I have, that I don't know yet, is: do you lose a truck's carried resources, if you assign that truck to another spot? I think it must be yes, which makes trucking a bit more difficult to manage, lol.
If, you're not playing on Beginner, you pretty much have to use the MPG of SPEW (lots of residentials), it seems.
Also, I'm still not sure which is better to do: many SF only lvl mines, or to use all 4 lvls.
I think it is correct that each mine, regardless of how many lvls (though I haven't tested this) only gives: +2 PrecAB (+2 PrecA and +2 PrecB), but you only get 15 of the other resources, and they're farther away from your colony.
~vs~
only +2 PrecAB, but 60 (at 4 lvls) of the other resources, less reources needed for the mines too (as you got fewer mines), and it is extremely close to your colony's Seed Smelter.
--
the former, means that you don't need as much MPG, due having more of the PrecAB from the mines. However, this doesn't work out this way, as you've less of the other resources, which you need too, and thus you need the MPG for them.
the latter, means that you only need the MPG (residentials) for your PrecAB, and this can be really good, but in the longer term, this might cause problems as your mine(s) runs out faster (less total resources).
---
the nice thing is that the reources are "teleported" from your smelter to your storage tanks, which is much better than dozing land and building factories that make road materials, but smelters aren't cheap in the beginning of the game, lol.
Also, a quick note, at least in my version, you don't seem to use resources until you built (and the resources) go to your storage tanks. Though I haven't tested this out maybe enough turns, but it seems like your processed resources just stay in your Seed smelter unused, until you build your storage tanks, much like how you can't use your robots with your robot control, until you built the warehouse.
-----
I'm also, working on new build orders, which I think is better, as I'm building right from turn 12, which saves (or gives) me ~10 (extra) turns, compared to from in building from turn 20, and the morale drop isn't that much if you do it right, hehe.
Z = Dozer
_ = a tile
D = Digger
P = Seed Power
T = Seed Tube
C = (Seed) Command Center
L = Seed Lander
F = Seed Factory
S = Seed Smelter
M = Mine
North: 0-7 turns
___D____
ZZPTC___
ZZTLT___
ZZFTS___
___Z____
_______M
North: turn 12
___D____
HAPTC___
TTTLT___
REFTS___
___W____
_______M
H = CHAP
A = Agridome
R = Robot Command
E = SPEW
W = Warehouse
this enables you to have the 5 necessities (CHAP, AGRI, SPEW, RC, WH), and also to have uninterupted tubing, including the 2 residentials as soon as possible: 8-17 turns
Turn 8: Doze UG and adjacent to UG air shaft
Turn 10: Doze UG on one side of turn 8's doze tile
Turn 12: place a tube and a 1 residential, and doze on other side of turn 8's tile
Turn 14: place another residential (2 residential total), and doze on opposite side of the UG air shaft of~from~in~relation~to turn 8's tile
Turn 15: 1st residential is built, and doze on a side of turn 14's tile (this dozer just came from the warehouse from your seed factory building dozers)
(Turn 16: doze on other side of turn 14's tile)
Turn 17: 2nd residential is built, (and place your 3rd residential, and ~ 512 Morale = it has stopped decreasing and is now going to be rising)
(Turn 18: place your 4th residential)
(Turn 20: 3rd residential is built, and SPEW is built)
(Turn 21: 4th residential is built, +3 MPG)
-----------
Turn 25 is the first Birthing: 95 to 110 pop
so you need to have the 2nd agridome built BEFORE turn 25 (otherwise you'll get -2 pop ~ 2 deaths), so that means you must be able to place your 2nd agri on turn 19 (19+5=24), which means you must have dozed a spot on turn 18 (this is doable using my method above, hehe).
----------
the MPG (or as you call it: "SPEW+Residences") is certainly NOT a bug, lol.
it's quite neccesary, to use the recycling of the SPEW's MPG from the residentials (and also the UG Factories ~ Light Industries make useable waste too, but this is obviously not a likely good source for MPG, lol. Unless you don't need or don't want the residentials and their +5 per each birth rates, and~or if you need their luxuries, clothing, or medicine production). This is definately intended, as this game was made during the recycling craze of the time back then in the U.S., lol.
It's near impossible for the mines to sustain your colony in the early game (unless you're doing a very minimalist colony), so the MPG is vital until you get nanotech.
----------
According to the one poster, you need uninterrupted tubes (is this confirmed?):
_BTB_
BBTBB
TTTTT
BBTBB
_BTB_
T = tubes*
B = buildings
_ = a tile space
* and usually the middle T is where the Seed Lander was, just how the AI builds ~ which is probably what you should do too, as the AI needed to be coded to be able to survive, so probably this pattern, "+", is actually required~optiminal
though, the tubes only seem to need to be connected to your chap (and maybe a few other buildings), aside from obviously all the buildings it needs to connect to.
tubes (only needed to carry) = air, ?mpg?, power, ?food?, (and ?H2O?, but does anything create this? or does water come with your chap?)
so, if this is the case, then you can use this, for a better placement structure or pattern.
------------------------
and I understand what you said, for what you do, lol
a "+" with the CC being the center of it, right?
------------------------
factories (SF) and labs (UG) use the most resources, both during construction and for maintence.
------------------------
I'm slowly making a table of the buildings' required resources, as the faq~guide on gamefaqs (?jstendor's?), isn't completed, lol. It's missing a lot of buildings, argh.
