This is a guide to developing colonies in the Solar Fleet game. Colony development is a large part of building and expanding an empire. It is a large part of the game.
The most important thing to know is that colonies operate in 6 hour cycles, updates occur at midnight, 6am, Noon, and 6pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or UTC). Nothing happens for 6 hours, then in a flurry of activity buildings are built, components are constructed, upkeep deducted, and colonies populated.
Planets come in 8 flavors Gaia, Terra, Oceanic, Barren, Arctic, Toxic, Volcanic, and Gas Giant. Gas Giants cannot be colonized. The only difference between them is that you get a different background for each one.
Planets come in 7 sizes, Huge, Very Large, Large, Medium, Small, Very Small, and Tiny. Size is very important as it determines the amount of building space you will have.
The amount of space you have will dramatically affect what you are able to build, and also your final research and industry attributes.
Your base industry score is equal to the planets mineral count. Selecting a planet with a high mineral count will dramatically increase the rate at which it can be developed. Adding industrial infrastructure like mines and factories increase the colony's Industry Output attribute.
This is the industry of your colony, and how much industry you can produce every cycle for construction, or Building components. Your Industry Output attribute determines how long it takes to build a building, divide the required industry by your current industry and round up to determine the number of six hour cycles required to complete the build. The Worm Hole Generator currently requires the greatest amount of industry to complete at 5000. If your current industry is 250, it will require 20 cycles, or five days for the Worm Hole Generator to finish.
The amount of Research Points each colony adds to your empire's research point total is based off the artifact count of the planet. In addition some buildings increase the research attribute. The ability of your empire to complete research projects is based off of your empire's research score. Early in the game raising your research score is important because many buildings and components must be researched before they can be built. The total of artifacts plus research points from buildings is your Research Output.
This is how many Research points your colony produces each cycle to contribute to your empire's research score.
This shows you how much power you produce. A positive number, means you produce excess power, a negative number means you have a power shortage and your colony will shut down. You will not be able to build anything or construct components until you free up some energy by demolishing a building. If you do not have the excess power for the next building you want to construct it is a good idea to build up power plants until you do.
This is how much it costs to keep the colony running every cycle. If you do not have enough funds in your Empire Bank buildings will be destroyed. The cost of keeping a colony "Temp-Safe" is not included here.
This shows you how many components you have in storage (by weight) and what your capacity is. Certain buildings increase your storage capacity. If you are about to complete a ship component and you do not have enough storage, the production of the component will be halted until you have sufficient storage available.
This shows your current Population and the maximum Population you can accommodate. Buildings require a certain population to run, though that requirement may be zero. You can increase your capacity by building more buildings which provide increased population capacity. You will not be able to build a new building unless you have the Population capacity to do so.
Every colony starts with a small accommodation, a Nuclear power plant, and a nuclear missile silo. Demolishing the missile silo is the first thing you want to do, making your colony either "safe" or "temp-safe" makes defensive buildings unnecessary. Do not demolish the power plant or the residence or you will not be able to develop the colony any further.
To initiate construction click on any empty square on the colony layout grid and you will be taken to the Building Screen, clicking on any existing building will give you a prompt asking if you wish to demolish it. The building screen lists all of the buildings currently available for your empire to build, depending what research you have completed different buildings may be available to you.
Each building has the following attributes.
Clicking < Build > will start construction of your building. On the planet view you will see a Blue and white wire frame appear where the building will be. You are only allowed to build one building at a time. When you have researched the technology you will be allowed one building in Orbit in addition to those on the planet.
In general you will want to first build up your Industry buy building mines (Economic) and as needed build Power Plants (infrastructure) or Accommodations (Housing) as required to continue building up industry. Once you reach a desired level of industrial output you can start building up special facilities such as repair bays, shipyards, and wormhole generators.