Colonization question re: strong links

[CMDR Bausell]

I have a moon with three surface slots and one orbital slot. I want to build two refinery hubs on the surface of this moon, with a coriolis station in orbit and a tier 1 civilian surface port filling the last surface slot. The reason for this is because refinery products differ between surface and space — only surface ports can produce CMM composites, while only orbital ports can produce tritium.

If I were to build in such a configuration, however, would strong links be formed from the refinery hubs to both the surface and orbital ports? I’m worried that the facilities would switch to only the surface port and the coriolis would be reduced to latrine status. Right now I just have the coriolis port and a single refinery; the second refinery is placed but not yet built.

I ask because I’m seeing unexpected behavior on a moon elsewhere in this same system. I built a medium agricultural settlement and then a tier 1 scientific port on the same moon, thinking I’d see a high-tech economy with food for sale, but the only food the market sells is synthetic meat (which I suspect would have been produced by the port alone) and when I selecy an orbital slot to build in above this same moon it shows no strong links available despite the presence of both completed constructions on the planet. It’s like the port is consuming the link with nothing to show for it.

I’d had grand plans of using combinations elsewhere; farms feeding into industrial ports, refineries feeding into an asteroid base in orbit, but not sure now if it’s a problem with economy links or an inherent issue with stations with assigned economies. I had thought those ports (industrial, scientific) were meant to behave as though they had one existing strong link to their respective economy types while still accepting other market links.

 

[Kira Goto]

A surface port passes on its refinery economy links (and/or planetary influence if it differs from the stuff you built on the planet) to the Coriolis/whatever you may have in orbit, nothing to worry about there. Built a planetary port myself post-update 3 and it linked to an orbital port just fine with four refineries supporting it.

 

[cmdr remo_d]

I have exactly that configuration. Lots of good stuff - CMM and Ceramics on the ground as with Semiconductors and Superconductors. Coriolis has insulated membrane. You want the moon to be rocky.

 

[cmdr remo_d]

Everything eats ag products. If there are more slots on the moon that you already have an ag settlement, add more agri settlements.

 

[Mr T]

You want the moon to be rocky.

Yeah, this is an important point to consider as the planetary influence could override the influence from your refineries (if not rocky)

 

[CMDR Bausell]

I have exactly that configuration. Lots of good stuff - CMM and Ceramics on the ground as with Semiconductors and Superconductors. Coriolis has insulated membrane. You want the moon to be rocky.

Nice. What would the end result look like if I went with an industrial port instead of a civilian port on the surface, so Refinery-Refinery-Ind. port-Coriolis?

Like I said I just got nervous when I went Agriculture-Tech port and the build menu for the orbital slot shows no strong economy links at all. The plan had been to put my T3 station above it in the end.

And yes, both of these are rocky moons with life around the same gas giant.

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

Nice. What would the end result look like if I went with an industrial port instead of a civilian port on the surface, so Refinery-Refinery-Ind. port-Coriolis?

You definitely don't want to do this, industrial will eat a lot of the refinery products.

Like I said I just got nervous when I went Agriculture-Tech port and the build menu for the orbital slot shows no strong economy links at all. The plan had been to put my T3 station above it in the end.

The UI isn't very good, it won't show any predicted links between stations that were originally colony type. But surface stations will link to orbital stations around the same body.

And yes, both of these are rocky moons with life around the same gas giant.

Rocky is not the only thing that matters, there should be no geos or bios on the body to make it properly suitable for a refinery build. Otherwise you're likely to lose production of some items.

 

[CMDR Bausell]

You definitely don't want to do this, industrial will eat a lot of the refinery products.


The UI isn't very good, it won't show any predicted links between stations that were originally colony type. But surface stations will link to orbital stations around the same body.


Rocky is not the only thing that matters, there should be no geos or bios on the body to make it properly suitable for a refinery build. Otherwise you're likely to lose production of some items.

Ah. Colony it is then. Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately I don’t have much in the way of choice in this system, there’s only a ringed gas giant with a bunch of life-bearing moons and a non-landable ringed ice world. Claimed a few other systems though, main benefit of this is to be able to source most of the construction materials needed for future products without having to jockey for parking at a trailblazer every time. Thank you for clearing things up.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Bio signals aren't as bad as geo signals in this context (though better to avoid both if you can)

Bio signals add agricultural (only consumes biowaste, of the things refinery exports) and terraforming (only consumes semiconductors, superconductors and polymers). You can probably get at least superconductors and polymers back on to the export side by building some extra refinery hubs. (Semiconductors you'd have to be lucky with, and if you're not lucky there's probably no amount of refinery hubs which will fix it). So you're losing 2-4 outputs, none of which are needed in large quantities.

Geo signals add extraction (only consumes explosives) and industrial (consumes almost all refinery exports). You can try to cancel that out by adding extra refinery hubs but there are quite a few commodities that's unlikely to work for, and you may lose some of the big bulk commodities even if you fill the planet with them.

 

[CMDR Bausell]

Bio signals aren't as bad as geo signals in this context (though better to avoid both if you can)

Bio signals add agricultural (only consumes biowaste, of the things refinery exports) and terraforming (only consumes semiconductors, superconductors and polymers). You can probably get at least superconductors and polymers back on to the export side by building some extra refinery hubs. (Semiconductors you'd have to be lucky with, and if you're not lucky there's probably no amount of refinery hubs which will fix it). So you're losing 2-4 outputs, none of which are needed in large quantities.

Geo signals add extraction (only consumes explosives) and industrial (consumes almost all refinery exports). You can try to cancel that out by adding extra refinery hubs but there are quite a few commodities that's unlikely to work for, and you may lose some of the big bulk commodities even if you fill the planet with them.

Good to know that about geo. Thought it helped both extraction and refinery, didn’t know it added industrial and reduced refinery output.

 

[Kira Goto]

Good to know that about geo. Thought it helped both extraction and refinery, didn’t know it added industrial and reduced refinery output.

As far as I recall the patch notes, the only strong link boost refinery gets is from major or pristine reserves (aka basically every system to be colonized/available for colonizing).

The reduced refinery output is more due to the internal market consumption from industrial influence than any inherent negative effect of geo signals on the refinery economy. As an example, a Coriolis I built pre-update 3 above a high metal content world with geo signals is not exporting polymers, aluminium, liquid oxygen, copper, insulating membranes… to name the or some of the colonization-related exports it is missing. (But it has retained steel, titanium and semi/superconductors)

Meanwhile a surface port on that same planet has CMM composites [the reason I wanted it], superconductors, liquid oxygen, polymers and maybe aluminium (I don’t recall for sure on that one) alongside steel and titanium, but industrial auto-consumes semiconductors, copper, ceramic composites and probably some other stuff. And I have a feeling I just got lucky with some of the demand/supply rolls to have polymers and liquid oxygen available from that planetary port because it was not enough to keep it at the Coriolis even with 4 refinery hubs*.

*They might be there if Frontier was not arbitrarily treating planet influence coming from a planetary port as a “strong link” which subjects it to a boost instead of simply passing it along at base value.