Colonies
General information about colonies:
- Colonies are critical to your ability to generate revenue, especially at higher ranks.
- Once you buy a Colony, this will enable disasters, similar to the Fed HUD in regular TE. 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 only lose a few 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 which allow colonists to join you (normally 1%, but occasionally as much as 5%), 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, you can choose which of your colonies is replaced by the 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) 60 ships total
- 3rd colony: (around) 80 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 4-5 days, although the delay can be significantly longer. Many players have reported waiting 2 weeks or more. Frequency of upgrade offers MAY depend upon your current colony population percentage - this has not been confirmed.
- You will be asked which colony you wish to replace. (Defaults to the smallest colony.)If your colonies are all of the same size, and you miss the 'which colony would you like to replace?' message, it defaults to colony number 1. This may have been the oldest colony, need more evidence to confirm.
- 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
Advice on colonies
It's a personal choice on what to buy. But here are some "general rules" that can be helpful.
- Terrestrial colonies provide bonus credits per colonist at census time. This bonus decreases with rank, but the bonuses are cumulative. So, 3 terrestrial colonies will yield 3x the bonus of a single one.
- A man-made colony (Orbital spacedock, Colony starship, etc.) lowers the cost of disaster handling and research.
- Mining colonies randomly yield bonus credit payments, as well as quantities of enectrium. (Enectrium is required for building the flagship for the Director's Quest.)
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: 90 | 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: 499 | Terrestrial | |||
| Orbital Spacedock | Man-made | ||||
| 5 | Orbital Base | 6,000 | 18,000,000 | Min: 300 | Man-made |
| Volcanic Moon | Max: 699 | Terrestrial | |||
| Silicate Asteroid | Mining | ||||
| 6 | Large Volcanic Moon | 9,000 | 50,000,000 | Min: 500 | Terrestrial |
| Magnesium Asteroid | Max: 1099 | Mining | |||
| Advanced Orbital Base | Man-made | ||||
| 7 | Rocky Moon | 17,000 | 122,500,000 | Min: 700 | Terrestrial |
| Binary Iron Asteroid | Max: 1499 | Mining | |||
| Colony Spaceship | Man-made | ||||
| 8 | Advanced Colony Spaceship | 30,000 | 242,000,000 | Min: 1100 | Man-made |
| Plutonic Moon | Max: 2199 | Terrestrial | |||
| Iron Asteroid Field | Mining | ||||
| 9 | Iron-Nickel Moon | 50,000 | 393,750,000 | Min: 1500 | Mining |
| Colony Starship | Max: 3999 | Man-made | |||
| Volcanic Dwarf Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 10 | Small Volcanic Planet | 125,000 | 484,000,000 | Min: 2,200 | Terrestrial |
| Advanced Colony Starship | Max: 6399 | Man-made | |||
| Selenic Planet | Mining | ||||
| 11 | Starbase | 240,000 | 800,000,000 | Min: 4000 | Man-made |
| Xenolith Planet | Max: 9999 | Mining | |||
| Waterworld Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 12 | Advanced Starbase | 430,000 | 1,474,560,000 | Min: 6400 | Man-made |
| Telluric Planet | Max: 24,999 | Terrestrial | |||
| Yttric Planet | Mining | ||||
| 13 | Artificial Moon | 800,000 | 4,000,000,000 | Min: 10,000 | Man-made |
| Diamond-core Gas Giant | Max: 49,999 | Mining | |||
| Blue-green Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 14 | Synthetic world | 1,000,000 | 62,500,000,000 | Min: 25,000 | Man-made |
| Interstellar Asteroid Belt | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Terraformed Binary Planet | Terrestrial | ||||
| 15 | Terraformed Star System | 2,000,000 | 300,000,000,000 | Min: 50,000 | Terrestrial |
| Ore Rich Star System | Max: ? | Mining | |||
| Dyson Sphere | Man-made |
- Note: The min/max ships in the table above are estimates if they are recorded in italics and followed by a "?".