09-13-2020, 03:22 AM
A note about Production Centers...
An unclaimed star system can produce PV every turn in the amount of its PV value that can be collected. Once Colonized, it produces three times its PV value each turn, but you must still collect (Load) it onto a ship (including Shuttles) each turn to claim it. This means that most systems will be collected by Shuttles and taken to a nearby Production Center for conversion into PI to spend. However, this process of delivering raw materials seems laborious at first and some players are tempted to avoid it.
The method for doing this is to Develop all the Colonies to turn them into Production Centers (PCs). Now the PV will turn into PI automatically each turn. As a bonus, you'll be acquiring five times its PV value instead of only three times. But this does not usually turn out to be as good a plan as it seems at first. By using many PCs your wealth is distributed widely and stretched thinly. You'll rarely have enough in one place to build large battleships or carrier groups. And while you can move PI around manually, it's much more difficult than using an ongoing Shuttle command for moving PV. Likewise, PCs are more valuable and need more defenses, but it is unlikely that you can build enough defenses in every PC to be able to defend them adequately. Many PCs also tends to require more actions than usual to maintain such an organization over the long term, and actions are often a limited resource.
So, the better strategy is to Develop only a few PCs where each one is fed raw materials by Shuttles from several nearby Colonies and focus your energies there.
An unclaimed star system can produce PV every turn in the amount of its PV value that can be collected. Once Colonized, it produces three times its PV value each turn, but you must still collect (Load) it onto a ship (including Shuttles) each turn to claim it. This means that most systems will be collected by Shuttles and taken to a nearby Production Center for conversion into PI to spend. However, this process of delivering raw materials seems laborious at first and some players are tempted to avoid it.
The method for doing this is to Develop all the Colonies to turn them into Production Centers (PCs). Now the PV will turn into PI automatically each turn. As a bonus, you'll be acquiring five times its PV value instead of only three times. But this does not usually turn out to be as good a plan as it seems at first. By using many PCs your wealth is distributed widely and stretched thinly. You'll rarely have enough in one place to build large battleships or carrier groups. And while you can move PI around manually, it's much more difficult than using an ongoing Shuttle command for moving PV. Likewise, PCs are more valuable and need more defenses, but it is unlikely that you can build enough defenses in every PC to be able to defend them adequately. Many PCs also tends to require more actions than usual to maintain such an organization over the long term, and actions are often a limited resource.
So, the better strategy is to Develop only a few PCs where each one is fed raw materials by Shuttles from several nearby Colonies and focus your energies there.