8.7 Starports and the Resource Trade |
Building: Starports are useful for intra-system inter-planetary resource distribution. Once a starport is built, it will establish trade routes with other starports around the same star. The resources will then be distributed as needed until there is eventually a balanced distribution between all planets. Starports require workers and power to maintain their function.
Use Starports when the planet next door has resources that your planet needs. Beware that the trade goes both ways, and that other planets may take vital resources away from yours. As such, it is wise to be careful when you allow starports to begin functioning in a star system.
"Resources" is a generic term. Although most players will only ever deal with resources as a bulk item, resources can be broken down into several sub-types:
o Hydrogen: Almost everywhere with an atmosphere. Abundant.
o Oxygen: Almost everywhere with an atmosphere. Abundant.
o Metals: Almost everywhere. Very common.
o Heavy Metals: Location varies. Common.
o Cyro Metals: Varying location, tends to be mid-system. Rare.
o HyperMatter: Found in planets close to stars. Very rare.
o DarkMatter: Found in outer planets. Extremely rare.
o Urdanium: Varying location. Urdanium planets are precious! Defend them!
The quantity of resources a planet can stockpile at any given time is dependent on the type of planet:
- Home Planets: 500,000
- Terran: 300,000
- Arid: 200,000
- Ice: 100,000
- Ocean: 150,000
- Barren: 50,000
Starports also allow players to access a planet's resource stockpile. Pressing Ctrl+P will select the nearest Starport to the player, if there are any nearby. When a port is targeted, pressing Ctrl+U or L will tell the port to send a load of 1000 resources to your cargo and pressing U will unload resources from your cargo to the port. The player must be withing 250gu of the Starport structure or in orbit of the planet the Starport is on to interact with the Starport. |