Colonies
General information about colonies:
- If you buy a Colony in the TE3000 HUD, then this will enable disasters. If you don't buy a colony, then the HUD will be like the regular Full Version HUD, and you won't see any disasters. However, unlike the Fed HUD, the default handling of a disaster is not as destructive to your colonists. It will default to the cheapest (not free) option, and you will lose a small percentage of colonists. Another major difference from the Fed HUD, is that the zero cost option, will actually generate income for you, at a cost of 2% of your total colonists. While, the cost in colonists may seem high, there are also random events that allow colonists to join you, which have the potential to more than offset your losses if you choose this option.
- Each colony improves your income by 100 credits/ship to a maximum of 300 credits/ship.
- You can have a maximum of three (3) colonies. When you buy more (fourth, fifth, sixth,..etc.) colonies, it replaces the colony with the least citizen capacity.
- A recent option is that you can choose yourself which of your colonies is replaced by a new one. This only happens when you have at least three (3) colonies.
Minimum requirements for a colony:
- Rank at least: Trader (50 ships total)
- Amount of total ships required are not confirmed exactly. Estimates are:
- 1st colony: (around) 50 ships total
- 2nd colony: (around) 70 ships total
- 3rd colony: (around) 90 ships total
- You get an offer to buy your first three colonies about once a day (24 hours); when you don't buy it will come back after about 1 hour
- For your first 3 colonies, you will receive a colonist boost equal to 50% of the new colony's capacity.
- Once you have 3 colonies, you will have opportunities to upgrade them.
- These upgrade offers will show up every 5 days. [Actual elapsed time needs confirmation.]
- You will be asked which colony you wish to replace. (Defaults to the smallest colony.)
- When you upgrade, you will receive a colonist boost equal to 20% of the new colony's capacity.
- Warning: If your total ships have declined, you may have colony offers that are smaller than the ones you already have.
- The max colonist % is 150%, after that, you will lose excess colonists
Prices of colonies range from around 480K credits to over 2B credits (and still rising!), depending on rank, total ships, citizen capacity, kind of colony and maybe more variables. More research is necessary.
Colony Types
| Type | Benefits | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Terrestrial | Higher payout per colonist at census | Terrestrial planetoid, Volcanic Dwarf Planet, Telluric Planet |
| Mining | Random credit bonuses & random quantities of ore | Mining asteroid, Iron-Nickel Moon, Yttric Planet |
| Orbital / Man-made | Discounted disaster handling and research | Orbital laboratory, Colony Starship, Advanced Starbase |
Colony Classes
| Class | Name | Colonist Capacity | Cost | Total Ships Required | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terrestrial Planetoid | 2,000 | 437,500 | Min: 50 | Terrestrial |
| Mining asteroid | Max: 149 | Mining | |||
| Orbital Laboratory | Man-made | ||||
| 2 | Advanced Orbital Laboratory | 2,500 | 1,417,500 | Min: 100 ? | Man-made |
| Medium Planetoid | Max: 224? | Terrestrial | |||
| Large Mining asteroid | Mining | ||||
| 3 | Iron-Rich Asteroid | 3,200 | 3,937,500 | Min: 150 | Mining |
| Orbital Vehicle | Max: 299? | Man-made | |||
| Small Icy Moon | Terrestrial | ||||
| 4 | Carbonaceous Asteroid | 4,000 | 8,859,375 | Min: 225? | Mining |
| Icy Moon | Max: ? | Terrestrial | |||
| Orbital Spacedock | Man-made | ||||
| 5 | Orbital Base | 6,000 | 18,000,000 | Min: 300? | Man-made |
| Volcanic Moon | Max: 724? | Terrestrial | |||
| Silicate Asteroid | Mining | ||||
| 6 | Large Volcanic Moon | 9,000 | 50,000,000 | Min: ? | Terrestrial |
| Magnesium Asteroid | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Advanced Orbital Base | Man-made | ||||
| 7 | Rocky Moon | 17,000 | 122,500,000 | Min: 725? | Terrestrial |
| Binary Iron Asteroid | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Colony Spaceship | Man-made | ||||
| 8 | Advanced Colony Spaceship | 30,000 | 242,000,000 | Min: ? | Man-made |
| Plutonic Moon | Max: ? | Terrestrial | |||
| Iron Asteroid Field | Mining | ||||
| 9 | Iron-Nickel Moon | 50,000 | 393,750,000 | Min: ? | Mining |
| Colony Starship | Max: ? | Man-made | |||
| Volcanic Dwarf Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 10 | Small Volcanic Planet | 125,000 | 484,000,000 | Min: ? | Terrestrial |
| Advanced Colony Starship | Max: ? | Man-made | |||
| Selenic Planet | Mining | ||||
| 11 | Starbase | 240,000 | 800,000,000 | Min: 4000? | Man-made |
| Xenolith Planet | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Waterworld Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 12 | Advanced Starbase | 430,000 | 1,474,560,000 | Min: 6250? | Man-made |
| Telluric Planet | Max: ? | Terrestrial | |||
| Yttric Planet | Mining | ||||
| 13 | Artificial Moon | 800,000 | 4,000,000,000 | Min: ? | Man-made |
| Diamond-core Gas Giant | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Blue-green Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 14 | Terraformed Star System | 2,000,000 | 300,000,000,000 | Min: ? | Terrestrial |
| Ore Rich Star System | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Dyson Sphere | Man-made |
Advice on colonies
Considering the above, it's a personal choice what to buy. But there are some "general rules" that can be helpful.
- When you handle one of the disasters, a man-made colony (Orbital spacedock, Colony starship, etc.) lowers the cost of handling the disaster, including the cost of research.
- When you need (some) extra income, the mining-type colonies gives some extra credits from time to time, and the asteroids/moons/planets (non-mining type) produce a greater output per colonist at census-time, yielding a greater overall payout for the census.