SPACE EXPLOITATION SYNDICATE : MINING PLANETS

[smilo]

In the SPACE EXPLOITATION thread some people offered the idea to include the possibility to set-up colonization on other planets or moons. The ideas go from simple maps where you can set-up small mining facilkities to recover resources to seperate maps where you can start conquering a new world.

This thread has the goal to elaborate furher on the simple mining facilities. How would these facilities be set-up and maintained. What are the improvements and/or sience required. What kind of resources would be mined and how does the mining take place. How do you get them back to Earth. ETC...

This thread is parallel to the general SPACE EXPLOITATION thread. So any general ideas about space exploitation should still be posted in that thread.

[EnochF]

Yikes! I don't know how long this thread will be around. Did you clear this win the Honorable Yin? It's kind of an overly-specific topic, isn't it?

I mean, I've got plenty of ideas along this line, but... is anybody really listening? I mean, the participation in the Space Exploitation thread pretty much consists of five or six people, out of the forty or fifty regular contributors to Apolyton. A lot of them seem to think Civ III should end more or less at the same time that Civ II ended, in 2020, or at least before 2050, when the Unity was supposedly launched.

I'd really like to get these history buffs excited about space travel. Sure, you can conquer Assyria and crush the French and win in 1000 B.C., but there's an entire solar system out there waiting for you! Join us!

Try a game at Deity where the Russians, the Chinese and the Indians are all on the Moon before you've launched your first rocket. Now you've got to conquer space. Isn't that nice? The odds are against you, but if you can send enough spies into enough enemy strongholds, you just might be able to do it. They've got space stations with fusion reactors and they're building a Mars colony ship. Can you stop them?

We need more people with more ideas. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like we're stagnating over here.

[Tornado7]

I totally agree. (I only signed up two days ago, so don't start) Why do people want to blindly follow what's already happened when there's the potential for so much more??
On topic, while I would enjoy playing in the entire solar system, on full maps, here are some ideas:
Robotic factories-built "in" a city. but after completion are sent to whatever rock you want it on, contributes shield and trade. Orbital farms could work the same way, contributing food instead. Colonies would just be a improvment in orbit that could hold 3 or 4 people and grow enough food for them. The difference would be that the would belong to the civ, not the city, and would only be destroyed if the civ is destroyed.

[Paul]

I would like more future in Civ3. It would be nice if after conquering earth you could colonise other planets and other solar systems and meet alien civilizations.

Who says you have to use planets?

I read somewhere that one asteroid two miles wide holds up to $50 trillion in platinum, gold, and other mineral goodies. That's just one asteroid. There are maybe 40,000 asteroids out there.

So why not have asteroid mining stations? Some of the larger asteroids (like Ceres and Vesta) can actually be colonized- you can play on those. But others you just mine for stuff.

Sound insane enough?

[NotLikeTea]

I would like to see less future in CivIII (well, just as much as CivII, but less than most people here are advocating)

Why? Civ is an historic game, and the future is a domain of SF, for the moment at least. Games that try to combine history and SF usually do a poor job at both.

Also, consider this. CivIII is one game in their "Sweep of Time" trilogy. SMAC is another game in the series. What would be the third? It could take place before Civ (unlikely, as there isn't that much to do before civilization exists), it can take place at the same time as SMAC (on earth, but unlikely since SMAC deals with the death of Earth) or it can take place after SMAC.

The third option looks most likely, but even the second is plausible. In both cases, planetary exploration, colonisation, mining, etc would fit in perfectly! These are all good ideas, but they belong in their own game. In Civ, they could only seem to be poorly grafted on. I look forward to seeing them eventually, but not in this game.

(BTW, is this an authorised thread? I don't think so, so I'll post this in the main space thread, too...)

[EnochF]

All right, I think I have a compromise... (and it's about time, because once Yin really starts paying attention, five will get you ten he'll very politely shut this thread down)...

Y'know Test of Time? Course you do. Test of Time has this thing called the "Extended Game" which involves colonizing a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. (Ha! Take that, O ye who are constantly using the "Sweep of Time" argument!)

So do the same in Civ III. Only this time, the Extended Game involves colonizing the solar system and eventually Alpha Centauri.

Then... make Extended Game optional so as to satisfy the history buffs. Then we can go on arguing with each other ("Extended Game is for wusses!" "Go back to ancient Rome, plebeian!") without having to deprive either one of the optimal Civ III experience.

[yin26]

Sorry, guys. I've been in a deep coma trying to finish the list. Indeed, this topic is probably not going to see our next incarnation (after the list is sent). But I am including what we have anyway for version 1.0 of our list--who knows?