Lacuna reduex

I would have normally placed this as an edit for the Gas Giant section, but I want special attention brought to this.  I have just started to build my level 30+1 settlement platform, the one that I acquired in a trade.  Look at this screen shot and tell me what you notice.



Look at that!  13 days, five hours to build!  Damn near 36.5 million waste produced an hour!  The wait for the build is no big deal, but holy crap that waste...  I believe a Waste Chain is in order; a waste chain is when you have transport ships, particularly scows, automatically transport waste into that system's sun.  I just hope my spaceport has the required berthing for a scow.  *pause*  YES!  Yes it does!  A scow only requires a berth rating of 1!

WARNING!

Don't build a level 30 gas giant settlement platform... dear god no. My build for the level 30+1 completed at roughly 1:30a this morning; came into work, fired up Lacuna, jumped onto my colony and imagine my surprise when I see that 56.4 million units of waste are being generated an hour. My happiness was at negative 411 million! It would have taken 60 DAYS to complete any build! Even with a waste chain, I was producing more waste than what could have been pushed.

Instead of trying to salvage the colony, I abandoned it. No big loss, all things considered.

But, I do have to question this. I had prepared everything in the event of the "current production" totals, which it should have been (in my opinion). Thinking back, however, and the same thing had happened with the level 9+1 settlement platforms.

So anyway, just heed this warning: be prepared for the worst when settling a gas giant!

Stockpile

Initially, I had the Stockpile building on my home planet; I reasoned that it was needed there because that's where the Capital was (Stockpile can only be built on planet with the Capital), and the Capital was there because it generated happiness and so on.

Was I ever mistaken.

It is true that most players would probably have their university on the planet that is their home world, and thus the Stockpile would be crucial there; I, however, am not like most players. The Stockpile is essential wherever you plan on constructing your university. Why? The Stockpile allows you to build resource facilities beyond level 15... this would include waste management structures.

At level 24, my university puts out over 620,000 waste an hour. I was able to reduce the waste storage amount down to about 62,000 an hour, but at a cost: 19 waste converters. I landed up having only two plots left (out of 48). That's a lot if you think about it, half my planet was reserved to handle waste! And at those totals, I would not be able to take the university to the next level, which would be producing over 961,000 waste an hour! I was screwed, I limited by empire's growth.

So, by destroying the Capital and Stockpile on my home planet, I was able to rebuild them on my university world. I am gradually leveling up my waste converters while destroying others, thus allowing for greater resource and waste management and freeing up plots.

Let that be a second lesson (next to the gas giant one)... Stockpile your university! If you were upgrading your home world as described, you'll still be pumping out the happiness to allow for further colonization; and with your university world, with the university's level and now having the Capital, you very well may end up having a second colonial producer (especially if you take advantage of the waste sculptures).

On my way to a level 25 University.

Placing the stockpile on the same planet that is constructing the university was a good idea.  I've been able to free up a lot of plots (18 available, versus the two from last post).  What's helping with this is the fact that I am also destroying any constructed establishments, and going strictly with plans.

On my University world, I have the following...

• 10 SAWs
  
• Spacepost
  
• Shipyard
  
• Capital
  
• Stockpile
  
• Archaeology Ministry
  
• Planetary Command Center
  
• Ore Refinery
  
• Oversight Ministry
  
• 4 Waste Digesters
  
• 5 Water Reclamation Facilities
  
• 1 Waste Energy Plant
  
• 2 Waste Exchangers
  
• University
  

With the above, I will be destroying the waste management buildings as I level up the exchangers; The exchanges put out a phenomenal amount of product while consuming a hefty amount of waste, more than what the waste management buildings do individually.  In fact, that is what I had done to free up space.  That, and grand use of the Halls of Vrbansk.

The Halls, if you remember, allow you to level up artifact structures: to increase it to level two, you need to sacrifice two Halls; to increase to level 16, you need 16, and so on.  Halls can be found, but the easiest way is through combining glyphs.  Glyphs, in turn, are discovered in the Archaeology Ministry; the higher the Ministry's level, the better you will be at finding glyphs.

I have eleven worlds, all of them have level 12 or higher Ministries.  I then ship all my glyphs to the university world.  I could combine the glyphs to form the plans before I ship them out, but a glyph only counts as 100 units, whereas a plan counts as 1000.  It takes four particular glyphs to make a Hall.

Please note my above list.  Notice anything unusual?  No?  There are no production facilities, nothing for food, ore, energy, or water (not counting waste management).  There are no storage devices.  That's because I've been utilizing plans either discovered or "purchased" with essentia from the Trade Ministry's Trade tab.  Plans do not take up a plot, and at higher levels far surpass anything you can construct.

Plans and levels

• Level 12 Amalgus Meadow - produces 575661 food per hour
  
• Level 12 Algae Pond - produces 575661 food per hour
  
• Level 10 Malcud Field - produces 239609 food per hour
  
• Level 14 Geo Thermal Vent - produces 1383025 energy per hour
  
• Level 11 Volcano - produces 618063 ore per hour(total does not reflect increase due to ore refinery)
  
• Level 13 Natural Spring - produces 923042 water per hour
  

My production needs are met (couple this with what is produced along with the waste facilities and the Planetary Center).  And now for storage.

Storage

• Level 7 Ravine - holds 1664069 waste
  
• Level 19 Interdimensional Rift - stores 154667320 food, 154667320 ore, 160000676 water, 154667320 energy, and 160000676 waste
  

I essentially don't need the ravine; I may get rid of it, but since it doesn't take up a plot, might as well keep it.

A level 25 University is going to produce 275000+ additional waste an hour, which will easily be contained and controlled by the Waste Exchangers.  Once I have the waste under control, I can then upgrade the exchangers one more time and get rid of most (if not all) of the specific waste management facilities.

Seems Lacuna is gearing up for some additional AI encounters...

Quote :

I hope this message finds you well. Once again, it looks like your playing with technologies beyond your understanding, may open you up to another attack. Not only do you have a Cult growing around the worship of fissures, but it appears the Sābēn Demesne have another way to exploit them.

We're not sure what they have planned, but we have monitored their transmissions and they seem to be ready to make another push. You may want to be extra careful with any Black Hole Generators that you may use.

Your Trading Partner,

Tou Re Ell

Lacuna Expanse Corp

I have this colony world that is just about filled up.  Oh, I have a few available spaces on the map where I could build things, but I only have 2 plots.  The problem I had with this world is that it got to the point were I wasn't able to generate enough resources to upgrade my buildings.  I could have used some Halls to level up the artifacts, but I've been hoarding all those for my university (now at level 27, thank you).

So what to do?

Instead of wasting even more resources to build or level up more buildings, I decided to take advantage of some "natural" formations... you know, those artifact plans such as trees, lagoons, patch of sand... as long as I could upgrade them, I would use them.  This goes against some land features such as rocky outcrop and lake, where they can't be leveled up.

Here, take a look at the image of the world with which I speak.



See all the extra bodies of water?  Not the beaches / biger lakes, but all the smaller round lakes.  Those are leveled up lagoons.  A level 20 lagoon generates 960 food per hour and 495 water per hour.  It may not seem like much, but it is a free resource generator, doesn't take up any plots, and costs nothing to upgrade.

Eventually, when I'm done upgrading the university, I'll start hitting up my other colonies with the Halls, in an effort to reduce my building count, and to make things pretty much self-sustaining without the need for additional structures.

Game bug?

Remember when playing the game, how we would get a warning stating that we couldn't build a resource building past level 15 without a Stockpile? I've just found out that you can.

According to the Lacuna Wiki, a Stockpile allows you to build resource buildings past level 20 on the planet in which the Stockpile is placed. I checked my other colonies, and sure enough, I can upgrade the level 15 resource structures. I swear, I tried to upgrade them before, but would get that warning saying I couldn't (unless I had a stockpile).

Which now begs me to wonder: does a stockpile on one world effect the structures on other colonies? It must, as I'm now upgrading that which I couldn't before. What I'm thinking is that maybe, just maybe, a Stockpile allows other colonies to build to 20, while its own colony can go beyond that. Seems kind of bizarre, I know, but what else is there?

Unless, of course, it's a bug, which also seems unlikely as the production staff are quick to resolve any problems.

Any way you look at it, it's weird. I certainly am not going to complain about it! This little issue now allows me to upgrade a building and then get rid of another... as an example, mines. Look at the above screen shot, note that I have four mines. Why, by upgrading one of them, I could easily get rid of one or two of the others, freeing up more plots!

Power of Halls

This is just a bragging post, nothing of real note here.  I'm proud of this accomplishment!  If anything, this demonstrates the power of Halls (and what power they have!).

Acquiring Halls isn't that hard, you just need to gather the collect glyphs and then combine them.  The following image shows what three level 15 food plans, one level 14 volcano (with level 16 ore refinery), one level 16 geo thermal vent, and one level 16 natural spring can produce, along with a level 23 Inter-dimensional Rift to store those resources and waste.


Just to clarify, because this image is a bit fuzzy, I am generating 3.6M food, 2.8M ore, 2.3M water, 2.3M energy, and 2.1M happiness an hour.  My waste is at -507k an hour, but that'll change one I begin upgrading the university.

{EDIT}

I should clarify that these numbers are skewed due to the university requirements. A level whatever produces quite a bit; I can post those numbers later. What is left, as seen in the above image, is what is remaining after the university takes its dues.



{EDIT COMPLETE}



See all the happiness being generated?  That's mainly because of the university; level 27 generates 1,865,707 happiness an hour.  The additional happiness is coming from the junk sculptures.  I'm posting this picture, my junk yard if you will, to show 'crunch because I remember way back when (when he first started this game) he would go on about his balls o' junk.  Me, just two more university levels to go and then I can build the pyramids (the final junk sculpture).  The two identical buildings on the right are the waste exchangers, and the one in the middle is the ore refinery.





Lastly, a screenshot of the world in question.  By using the Halls, I've been able to remove every normal resource producing structure, and with the exchangers at the levels they are, I was able to remove all the other recycling centers.  Keep in mind a level 27 university generates over 2.3 million in waste an hour.  I currently have 24 plots available, but I know there is no real way for me to use them.  I could build the structures I haven't yet (ie, spy training centers), but I have other planets for that.  So, I'm going to continue with the original plan.

Game Bug?
correction

Normally, this would have been an edit, but it has been a couple days since that posting.  Anyway, I was going through the Lacuna Wiki when I came across some information on the university.  It seems that for every, well, here, allow me to quote directly.

Lacuna Wiki wrote:

Each university level above 25 will give +1 to the maximum level a normal resource building can go; for a max of +5 at university level 30 (the university itself is not required to maintain this bonus). Added to the maximum stockpile bonus, that means the capitol's normal resource buildings can reach level 30 while those on other planets can reach level 20.

So it isn't a bug after all, just something that I hadn't read previously.

Garbage Park



My university reached level 29 at some point during the night, which means it's time to complete the construction of my garbage park!  Now that I've achieved this lofty goal, I wonder if I should even consider hitting level 30.  I probably will, but there isn't a real need for it as there are no structures that can be built at that level (currently, I might add).

I have the resources for it, more or less.  The level 30 university requires 1.6 billion of each resource to be built, with an upkeep cost of, well, here:



I can easily do this.  I mean, my storage already holds 1.38 billion of each.  Increasing the dimensional rift to level 25 would grant a storage capacity of 2.15 billion, and increasing the resource producers won't be that difficult (gotta love the Halls!).

I suppose after I upgrade everything to the point where a level 30 university is feasible, I'll just start upgrading my other colonies.  Why have all those glyphs and Hall plans go to waste?  Who knows, maybe I'll start constructing universities on my other planets to really boost my happiness / population levels.

Oh, did I mention that I have 13 worlds now?  Yep, thirteen.

Just a few things to make mention of:  Off to colonize world number 14, two days away from starting construction on my level 30 university, and level 26 lagoons are freaking amazing!

First, my new world.  It'll be, coincidentally, located within the same system as my originating world.  I like having at least two planets within each system as it helps in my defense, but I have been unable to do so with this because this system was under the jurisdiction of a different clan, one which did not allow for colonization from others.  Luckily, that group no longer exists, and the system has been taken over by another, one that hasn't put a restriction on colonization.  The red arrow indicates the soon-to-be new world.

{Update}  World has now been colonized, and lucky me, it has some artifact structures already in place from the previous occupant.  Yay!




The university.  I am producing either more than enough or just enough resources to build the level 30 university (see stats below).  Currently, my waste production is at -2.8 million (two level 23 waste exchangers) and happiness at 4.7 million an hour.



I currently have an Oversight Ministry at level 16, which helps in construction.  I've also got the Interdimensional Rift set at level 25, giving me a storage capacity of 2.1 billion for each resource.  Keep that in mind as I show you the upgrade costs for the university.




The waste per hour issue won't be an issue after the build.  It's going to increase by about 3.1 million an hour, so in actuality mine will go up to roughly 300K an hour.  Not worried at all!  The total amount of waste I have on hand will disappear in two days three hours; seeing as how I begin construction in two days, that'll push the waste back up, then I can begin recycling it.

Lagoons.  At level 26, they produce 13,298 in food and 6,878 in water.  Level 27, 20.6K in food and 10.6 in water.  I'm currently beefing up the other free resource producers (sand and trees) to see what they do.

{EDIT}

In 8 days, 12 hours, and 56 minutes, I shall have attained a level 30 University. Glory to the empire!

Alrighty.  I've had a level 30 university for some time now, and all I'm doing is slowly upgrading pre-existing buildings, creating Hall plans to level up some natural formations (for resources) so I can remove other buildings (for more available plots), and in general creating a sea of self sustaining highly defensible planets (easily accomplished, what with my having two or three planets per system).

At some point I may begin attempting to terra-form other planets, and maybe eventually the construction of a space station, but I want to increase my defensive measures first.  This is going to be a slow process, but one that'll prove worthwhile in the end.

In the meantime, I've taken to the creation of a second empire, one that I am building with the experience and knowledge of things I have done with this current one so far.  Right now I am still an isolationist, though I have a level 20 university.  I have no mines, water plants, electrical plants, nothing of that nature... although I do have some farms (to increase happiness with each build).  I used my initial essentia to buy a massive group of level 7 plans; though this is a great way for an initial build, at some point the massive amount of resources being generated will dwindle, which is why I have taken to building a series of formations (lagoons, trees, sand pits) and maxing those to generate more resources, all without sacrificing plots.  Initially built everything in a rough shape of a swastika so every resource could have it's own sector.  The only things I have not built are those items that would rob me of my isolationist standing: Espionage, Munitions, SAWs.

It may look like a mess, but I'm not going for aesthetics here.  Going for practicality. I should note that the sand and the trees are still being leveled up to match the university's level.

Natural resources

Technology bad, ecology good!  Bad carbon footprints, good naturally reoccurring and renewable resources!

I've taken to building and upgrading some natural formations, those that you can level up normally (without use of Halls), instead of building more structures.  Granted, the resources won't be as high as those produced in a factory, but at the same time these don't produce waste, don't consume other resources, and don't take up any plots.

Keep in mind that these plans will need to be upgraded to level 5 or so before they begin to produce resources, and that the numbers they produce will be rather low until about level 20 (if not higher).  You might also want to note the upgrade cost, and think it might not be worth it due to a low return...  but it is, it is.  Remember, you have a cap as to how high you can upgrade a resource generating building...  there is no cap for 'natural formations'!  Okay, there is a cap: university level +1.  According to the Lacuna wiki, you are only allowed 9 each of these "decorations" on any given planet; although the wiki does say that these produce resources, it fails to mention exactly how much.

Patch of Sand - This produces ore, the exact same type of ore (and percentages of) that a mine would on that planet.  A level 24 Patch will produce 4600 ore an hour, but takes 311000 ore to upgrade it from 23 to 24.  A level 29 Patch will produce 42,000 ore an hour (at a cost of 5,100,000).  A level 29 Patch is equal to a level 16 Mine as far as production goes... but does not include the resources consumed or waste produced!

Lagoon - This produces both water and food (algae).  A level 27 lagoon will produce 32,000 food and 17,000 water an hour, at an upgrade cost 2,920,000 of both ore and water.  This is equal to a level 17 or 18 farm and a level 13 Water Production Plant.  Replace two structures with one?  Hells yeah!

Grove of Trees - This produces electricity.  I haven't gotten too far in their upgrading yet, so I really can't say what the numbers are.  A level 21 grove produces only 740 in energy, at an upgrade cost of 58,060 water, but remember it is at this point that they begin to produce a great deal of resources.

Oh!  There's one more very important fact about leveling up these plans versus a structure: build time.  We're taking minutes here, MINUTES, instead of hours or even days!  Why, within no time at all (resources pending) you can have your planet up and running, without using any plots!

{EDIT}

As an example as to the speed of building these, I was able to build five Grove of Trees and upgrade them to level 20 today, having started at (I believe) 8a. Of course, your results will vary, depending on how you created your species. As mentioned earlier, it is as these levels that the decorations begin to almost double their production values.

Natural Resources
Part Two

These stats are for the non-plot consuming, freely upgrade-able and easily found naturally occurring resource generating plans as described in the post above: Patch of Sand, Lagoon, and Grove of Trees.  Your stats may be different, depending on how you created your species; for example, I have a rating of four in farming and mining (I don't know what category power production falls into).  All stats reported are for a level 30 structure.

Patch of Sand - Produces 65,000 ore an hour, at an upgrade build cost of almost 9,000,000 ore to go from level 29 to 30.  Ore production is still increased depending on the level of your Refinery.  **This is equal to the production values of a level 17 Mine.  A mine at this level consumes 2200 food, 2200 water, and 2200 energy an hour while also producing 5500 waste an hour.  In my opinion, a Patch of Sand is worth the cost.

Grove of Trees - Produces 38,000 in power an hour, with an upgrade cost of almost 9,000,000 water to go from 29 to 30.  **A level 15 Singularity Plant produces 215,000 power, while consuming 2700 food, 2400 ore, and 2800 water an hour; it also generates 10600 waste an hour.  In my opinion, a Grove of Trees is not worth the cost, as there is little in return when compared to the Singularity.

Lagoon - Produces 77,000 food (algae) and 40,000 water an hour, at an upgrade cost of almost 9,000,000 in both ore and water to go from level 29 to 30.  For production, this makes it equivalent to a level 19 Algae Cropper at 68,500 food an hour, or level 18 Apple Orchard or something else of that type (each food producer makes different amounts, depending on what is being produced and a level 15 Water Production Plant; cannot use Atmospheric Condenser in this comparison because their output varies depending on planetary type.  A level 15 Water Production Plant consumes 3700 food, 18500 ore, and 18500 power an hour, while also producing 3700 waste an hour; a level 19 Algae Cropper consumes 2600 ore, 8000 water, and only 500 waste an hour, while also producing 28500 in power.  **All told, I believe that the lagoon is a worthy investment as a food source, but don't build this if you're looking for water.

Since a colony occupies a grid of 11 squares by 11 squares (giving you 121 plots, 120 minus the Planetary Command Center), you have plenty of room to build these plans without jeopardizing your colony's growth (or room for expansion).  As you are limited to nine of each type, you can build 27 all together, thus easily leaving 90+ plots for normal structures.  And, seeing as how most high-end planets are within the 50 to 60 plot range, you have nothing to worry about.

At the maximum plans allowed, you'd be looking at 585000 ore, 693000 food, 342000 power, and 360000 water an hour.  No waste, no consumption, no plots removed from your count.  It may not seem like much, but when you factor how much waste would be generated should you build normal structures (and then the resources consumed with those same structures).

The best thing about these plans is, as mentioned in the above post, build time.  If you have the resources, you can quickly build these up on a resource starved planet.  Being natural formations, they are also immune to the workings of foreign spies, and don't count against your plot totals.

So then, are they really worth the effort and upgrade cost? Keep in mind the level of your resource producing structures are limited! The ones on your capital planet are limited by how high of a Stockpile you have (every three levels of the Stockpile equals one extra level of resource building). For every university level above level 25, you can upgrade a resource structure by 1: all told, the capital planet can have a resource producing structure at level 30, while the other planets will remain at level 20.

A level 19 mine produces 150000 ore, so you may think that it would be better to construct a mine instead of the Patch... but you aren't factoring the waste or resource consumption. Almost 7 million in resources to build this from 18 to 19, 18+ hours of construction, and 13500 waste an hour is what you can expect (consumption of 5500 of each resource... nominal). You would need four mines at level 20 to equal the nine Patches. Four plots gone, roughly 55,000 waste an hour. So yes, the Patch is worth it. Wait, let me change this to 'hell yes'.

The Lagoon? For food alone, yes. You should build other food producing structures anyway (generates happiness on future builds), but this shouldn't be over-looked. Even for water it isn't bad, but as mentioned, don't build it for water as there are other more cost effective means. You really can't have too much food.

What about the Grove? A resounding hell no, not when one Singularity Plant at level 15 can produce the same amount of energy as nine maxed Groves. The resource consumption (nominal) and waste production (16,000 waste) is manageable.

...

On a different note...

All your normal structures are rather useless once you begin assembling the Halls with your mined glyphs; take those to upgrade the volcano, natural spring, and geothermal vent (not to mention all the food producing plans). Level 16 volcano? 5,820,000 ore an hour. Level 19 spring? Try 12,800,000 water an hour. Level 19 Geothermal vent? 12,400,000 power an hour. Level 17 Almagus Meadow / Algae / Malcud? 5,150,000 each, respectfully. You won't even need structures if you do this!

Thought I'd make an extensive update post, seeing as how it's been quite some time... and to hopefully drum up some interest in others joining again

My empire, Umbra Ianuam, spans 15 colonies in seven systems.  My systems are relatively close to each other, so that I can better defend my worlds.  I thought about expanding over a wider area, but this suits me just fine.  Not only do I have two or three planets in each system (effectively making a Ring of Death with my SAWs), but I have plenty of time to send fleets of fighters and sweepers from one system to the next should the need arise.  Luckily, the only thing that has ever come my was are scows or placebos from the game's AI.





The worlds I control are listed below, in no particular order.  The final colony I'm going to make a separate section for, just because there's a lot going on.


































The main colony world is this; it contains my level 30 univeristy and the start of a space station lab.  Because a space station acts like a colony ship, I won't be able to colonize an orbit until I hit 49,154,414,351 happiness.  That's going to be a lot, especially since I'm only generating a small fraction of that; too bad you can't pool your happiness from all your colonies!  As soon as I can, I'm going to be building as many happiness generating buildings as possible, but right now I'm just trying to reduce the negative waste counter.  This will empty in about a month, so I have some time left I suppose... but with my leveling up the Munitions Depot and Space Ports structures, that'll make the waste go from -176K to -86K, something which is (believe it or not) more manageable.





As you can see in the empire map, I have three likely areas in which I can place my space station: in orbit 3 of the system owned by that face icon, the empty orbit in the topmost system, on the empty space (orbit three), or the system that's on the bottom, off center left (orbit four).  The empty planets would probably be easier... but now that I look at it, orbit five of the center system (an asteroid occupies that space) might be more ideal; it's centrally located, meaning it'll encompass my empire.  Decisions, decisions!

As far as my world build-up goes, I've been focusing on waste management and apartments. The two key structures, the Space Ports and Security Ministries, are at level 18; this is good to detect most intruders and offers the best protection against the enemy AIs. At some point they'll have to be increased, but I'm working on making mine a happy empire to live.

Haven't really come across any hints or tips lately, other than garbage scows and waste chains are great; a waste chain has your scows run on auto-pilot, dumping waste (a per hour rate you choose) into your system's sun. Other than that, nothing.

I'm ranked at 192 as of this writing, which is pretty good I think, seeing as how I haven't attacked anyone or built any offensive devices. Might have to soon, just to mix things up... but for now, I play defensively.

Want to join me? Follow this link!

https://us1.lacunaexpanse.com/#referral=6be9394c-e726-3d34-b14a-18202008d249

Planning ahead for my mini working vacation... been scrambling this past week to complete builds and to make sure that there wouldn't be any waste issues since I'd be away for four days. Think everything's good to go. Current builds are going to take roughly two to three days to complete, and most waste centers will take a couple weeks to fill (or empty, case may be). With each planet having an extensive amount of drones and sweepers, not to mention 10 SAWs each, I'd even be fairly certain I can hold my own until my return, or rather, hold my own against the automated enemy AIs.

This is why we don't have nice things

Call this simply a slipping of the mind, or sheer absent-mindedness on my part, but boy did I ever screw up.  Seems I forgot to adjust my automated scow waste disposal service for one of my colonies... and when I checked on my progress this morning, well... let's just say I could have lost a colony if I hadn't acted as quickly as I did.

The image you see below is the result of five hours of fixing a sinking ship, and managing to get it afloat again.



What you don't see is what this world was like when I first logged on this morning.  BOTH Waste Exchangers were at 0%, my Well was at 75%, and the Archaeology Ministry was at 50% or less, don't remember.  Electric production was at -120k something.  Water was at 15K, Ore at 5K.  Energy storage was at zero, which meant I couldn't repair anything  because I needed energy to do repairs... and as soon as I sent energy to that colony, it was quickly eaten up by the negative feed.

I knew I had some glyphs I could utilize to upgrade the natural formations that produce resources, but I couldn't access the Archaeology Ministry because it was broke.  So I thought I would do the smart thing and lower that a level.  Fixed!  But alas, I was missing some key glyphs to produce Halls... went to a different colony and began to launch a series of Halls to resurrect this world.  But in the meantime...

Lowered a few other key buildings, buidings that sucked a lot on energy.  The Trade Ministry went down quite a few levels, as did the Refinery and the Mine.  Sadly, now that my energy production was just barely producing, my mine was falling; on the plus side, it was only reduced to a -35k / hour, and I had 7 million ore in reserve.

With the first batch of Halls, I boosted my Geo Thermal Vent; second batch brought the mine back up; third batch leveled up both.

And there you have it, the final result being what you see above.  Thank goodness I had the means to lift myself up!

Holy crap. Remember my world dedicated to the university? Okay, so I have the maxed out center of learning, producing 3 million plus of each resource, and on my way to finishing a level five Space Station Lab, all in an effort to build, that's right, a space station. I want to give it a go, or at least make one so I can get the award.

Anyway, in order to make a space station, you have to follow the same requirements as you would for any other colonization. With my already having fifteen worlds, I need 49,154,414,351 happiness. The world with the most happiness is only making 7.8 million happy an hour. Since that world already has 16.4 billion, let's see... that gives me a remainder of 32,754,414,351... divided by 7.8 mil... okay, just over 4199 hours to produce enough happy to colonize another world.

Wait, what? That's... fuck me, 174 days. Damn. Okay, while I'm working on that, let's try a different approach: increase my happiness. I know! I'll level up my waste sculptures! With a level 16 Oversight, it shouldn't take too long, right? And, since the Pyramids are the best one for happiness (and since it is already level 5), I'll just sacrifice some of these Halls here to bring it up to level 6. Piece of cake!



Ugh.

*sigh*

Just won a contest on Lacuna, and was awarded 50 essential and a level 15 Pyramid Junk Sculpture. Yay! Demolished my level 6 Pyramid so I could construct this bad boy...

It's going to take 60 days to finish construction. Huh? But it's a plan, by gawd, it should only take 15 seconds! Oh, I know, I'll just instantly complete the construction by spending essentia; but should I spend six points, or five?

Since my capital planet is now producing over 702 million units of happiness an hour, I have quickly over-passed the required amount to colonize a new world.  Over-passed?  Hell, I have double the amount needed!

As such, I am making a mad dash to level up as many Trade Ministries and Propulsion Labs as possible... up to level 15 for the Ministries... so I can produce a fleet of galleons to quickly and efficiently send resources to my proposed space station.  I've already the ideal spot for it, too.



Please note that the only thing altered on the map is the erasure of neighboring systems; distances between my worlds (circled in green) and systems are as they normally appear on the charts.  You'll see that there are three arrows on the map.  The vertical one is my primary focus for my space station, as it is the most centralized.  However, at this time I don't know if I can claim a field marked with an asteroid.  The two horizontal spots are my back-up zones; still kind of centralized, but not quite ideal.  Even with these choices, one is occupied by a world, and the other is an empty space.  Everything seems to be covered, I just need to read / research the needs of a space station (my space station labs are all at level 6).

On a different note, between massive amounts of Halls and the prize of Essentia, I was able to rapidly increase the level of my Pyramids to level 22; that generates 695,126,270 happiness an hour. With the remaining Halls (I shipped a lot of glyphs to this world from my other worlds), I was able to put the Interdimensional Rift at level 30, and the "natural" plans in the high teens; producing over 14.5 million of each resource from this one planet alone, so hopefully this will cover most of the resource costs to operate the station (which is also why I want this to be in the primary location, easier to supply).

Within three days, all of the Space Station Labs (remember, you need modules A, B, C, and D) will be at level 20; while building this up, I have also been performing massive upgrades of all my colonies' propulsion centers, food productions, and increasing general resource output by means of Halls and such things as sand pits, lagoons, and forests.  By time my Space Station Lab hits as close to 30 as I can, I should be able to replenish the finalized station without any problem.

As I already have the hull built, I was able to learn that I can send the hull into any orbit, not just the ones my species can occupy.  A space station cannot, however, be sent to an empty orbit, or one that is occupied by an asteroid.  Don't know why not, but ehh, it is what it is.

...

Some of you may have learned that I have a secondary account; this was set up to test my ideas that I've been posting here.  Yes, it may be considered cheating when one considers that my main account gains essential whenever my secondary levels up the university, but I don't see myself as actually cheating; I'm not doing this to gain extra points.  If I were, I'd have multiple accounts, something that I did many years ago.

This secondary account is called Shi'ar (as in the Shi'ar Empire), with my home world being called Throneworld.  From my checking the game stats, there are no Kree or Skrull (in case any wanted to ask).





I'm happy to say that so far, everything is going well, albeit rather slowly.  I only have this one world so that I could maintain an isolationist status, but as you can see things are alright.  The university is currently being built to level 24; 78 structures on the planet, with an average level of 14.  Currently have an active waste chain which I'm using in conjecture with my waste exchangers... as I level up an exchanger, I reduce the waste chain's flow to maintain a balance, so I can see what needs improving.  Though this colony is a bit screwed in glyph mining, I do have active excavators and will be building a Mining Ministry relatively soon.  Once I can get a hold of some Halls, I can reduce or remove some resource structures to gain more plots... or heck, upgrade Hagness to automatically gain plots. I am hoping to have the university hit level 30 before I try colonization, as well as having high leveled structures, but we'll just have to see how well this goes.