Orbital Refineries & Trade Ports

How do they work?

Published on March 25, 2008 By Verkinix In Sins of a Solar Empire

Hey all,

So I'm still trying to figure out how orbital refineries and trade ports work. I understand that they generate resources, but I am interested in the scale at which you receive resources, if distance between planetary bodies are a factor, and if multiple structures in the same orbit increase income linearly, exponentially, or logrithmically.

I have been testing this somewhat and cant seem to figure things out 100%. I've noticed that 1 trade port and 1 orbital refinery in each planet yields uneven results. I typically will have 40k credits and <100 metal/crystal. So I end up spending credits on minerals (as a side note, the black market screen should be on the main interface instead of in the pirate screen). Am I simply missing something with the orbital refineries? In my logic, there shouldnt be that big of a discrepency between credits and materials. Perhaps someone can explain things in more depth.

Thanks!

Comments

Astax

on Mar 25, 2008

dont use orbital refineries till they get a boost, they are mostly worthless now

Trade ports give credits/second based on your longest route. So how you place them is important. All tradeports will generate income, but not all will increase the size of your route.

Kade Shaderow

on Mar 25, 2008

Orbital Refineries will import minerals from every adjacently-jump lined planetary body/nebula/asteroid field mines and the mines in their own gravity well, with a maximum of 3 refineries per mine. (Sometimes less...I want to say max of 2 refineries. Sometimes I've seen refineries import more than 1 per mine)

With Trade Ports, the way to use them effectively is to string them along the main trade route of your empire, you can find this by hovering your mouse over your credits-display, and a white line between nodes will appear. These trade ports earn a premium over others.

Oh, and trade port bonuses stack too, so don't hesitate to stack 'em up.

dont use orbital refineries till they get a boost, they are mostly worthless now

If you're a Vasari in a metal-deficient system or Advent/TEC in a crystal-deficient system this is bad advice. A better rule is to use orbital refineries either at jump nexuses or put them in last.

Verkinix

on Mar 25, 2008

It would be nice if they worked like the trade ports and had cargo ships that travelled between planets. But as it is right now, they are more expensive then trade ports and produce far less income. I hope these get buffed soon.

What do you mean by jump nexuses? Like Hub planets that have multiple prongs of jump lanes? Or planets near the star? Or something entirely different?

Also, does the distance from an asteroid belt affect how many resources are brought in? Logically it wouldnt, but then again, multiple frigate factories produce individual ships faster, so logic can be thrown to the wind in favor if "funability".

Astax

on Mar 25, 2008

If you're a Vasari in a metal-deficient system or Advent/TEC in a crystal-deficient system this is bad advice. A better rule is to use orbital refineries either at jump nexuses or put them in last.

No it's not. Just build tradeport for half the costs and buy metal/crystal.

Bobucles

on Mar 25, 2008

These trade ports earn a premium over others.

I've never seen this. What I have seen, is that a a big trade route benefits all of your trading posts equally. the actual bonus is defined in the gameplay.constants file, if you have the reference file pack used for modding:

playerTradeNetworkDef
incomeRateBonusPerLongestNodeDistanceNode .075

I think that bonus applies per full facility. It's a seemingly small bonus, but with a big enough trade route you can increase the production of your trading posts by over 50%! I've seen a 1.7 income post put out over 3 a piece, with a large enough route and upgrades.

Verkinix

on Mar 29, 2008

So I was playing, but I didnt see a line of trade route. Am I missing something? It would be nice to have a handle on the economy because, even with economy setting on fast and build and other things on slow, economy still comes in incredibly slow. Anyway, thanks for all your help thus far

Durikkan

on Mar 29, 2008

So I was playing, but I didnt see a line of trade route. Am I missing something?

If you hover over your credits at the top of the screen I think it will show a white line of trade between systems, but that may have changed, I'm not sure.

Hollow Man

on Mar 29, 2008

Yep, just checked, it draws a white line. I never would've known it was showing most profitable route of trade.

-HM

Verkinix

on Mar 29, 2008

Thanks! It was so suttle that I hadnt noticed it before. Hopefully now I can utilize that to increase my profits 10 fold!

Now, is there a correlation between the trade ports and orbital processors? Like does one affect the other? Or are they their own entities?

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