Trade Ports Vs Refinery

from Sins Forums

I have just started getting back into sins after having many months away from it (6 months), i used to be to handle the hard AI's ok, i have started at trying to take on the harder levels, i have always been slow at expansion and have allowed myself to get bottled in so to speak. I play as TEC and like to build tons of trade ports and expand slowly. I have made myself expand quicker now, but never fill comfortable with the lack of credits i have compared to my slow starts and the lack of funds to invest in fleet, research, but i do have many more planets.

Ayway to the point, having reviewed a few games it comes clear to me that the harder level AI's have higher crystal and metal incomes overal and from astroids. This has got me wondering should i drop a trade port per planet for a refinery or drop a trade port for refinerys when you have many nearby planets.

Please could you comment, state what you think about using refinery's, how many to use, when not to use and balancing refinerys with trade ports.

 

P.S if this is already been discussed in the forums i apologise for doubling up.

strategy
5,553 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Its an old discussion, but no worries. Trade ports + Black Market (especially with TEC's ability to get better prices through research) beat refineries hands down. Focus on expanding quicker and attempt to get the perfect white line of trade to improve trade ports.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Depends on the situation

Below is the link to the previous discussion

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/361782

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Ryat, reply 1
Focus on expanding quicker and attempt to get the perfect white line of trade to improve trade ports.
End of Ryat's quote

The perfect white line do you mean the longest route possible to increase the income from the route, or is this just a figure of speech ?

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting BlackKnight0, reply 3
The perfect white line do you mean the longest route possible to increase the income from the route, or is this just a figure of speech ?
End of BlackKnight0's quote

Probably both lol. I mean you shouldn't let expanding your trade routes be your sole factor in determining what worlds to take, but try and get as large an Empire while planets are still neutral and only after that think about setting your best trade chain.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting BlackKnight0, reply 3
The perfect white line do you mean the longest route possible to increase the income from the route
End of BlackKnight0's quote

This one.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

On a per-cost basis, trade ports are your top pick in virtually any situation.  On a per-logistic basic, refineries will win out if you have low resource income or lots of serviceable extractors.

Remember that refineries have tight stacking limits, so find a good location and put all your refineries there.  It's generally a poor idea to spread out your refineries over multiple planets.  Usually I reserve refineries for locations that will service 12 or more extractors.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

I'd say absolute minimum 16-20 extractors before they are viable (which is rare).

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

If you happen to find a Desert with two volcanics and two ice worlds around it, build them there en masse.  Basically, unless you have a ton of asteroids in the same space and you don't have some monster chain, build refineries.

The way TP's work is that for each planet/starbase in a chain that extends the length of the chain by one more gravity well, you increase the output of all TP's everywhere, even if not in the chain.  As a result, there would eventually come a time (although probably impossible to achieve) where you have a chain so ridiculously long that you are cranking out like 100 credits per second per TP.  In that case (which is likely to hit the 2G limit long before it is achieved), you are going to be stupid to ever put down refineries.  Ever.

 

As a general rule, TP's>Ref's, but if you come across a planet joined to other planets, each with a ton of asteroids, put it there.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Thank you for your comments, i will look for locations  that have a high number of astroids before using refineries. I will play about with using refineries and see if this brings a benefit.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

I'd say absolute minimum 16-20 extractors before they are viable (which is rare).
End of quote

At 16+, they're absolutely must-have.  Absolute minimum is 8, in practical terms they usually make sense around 12.

The biggest problem they have is a high cost, both in terms of research and in building the structure.  On a direct comparison of 1-logistic slot, they're highly competitive.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

The biggest problem is that the ideal spot to put them is usually a frikin asteroid... in which case u cant put all 3 unless u can afford not to have a traderoute go through that place or u already have a SB there and it can be ur traderoute... which is unlikely.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Meh, if you can't plot down 3 refineries but it's still a good spot, make due with 2.  I don't think this is a huge deal.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Biggest problem is this is so freaking rare. 12+ only happens maybe half the games you play (but some other player may have grabbed it first) and 16+ is almost unheard of. Makes the refinery very niche.