Colony

Colonies are settlements on planets. Owning a colony can provide a wide range of benefits to a player - for example, they can be a good source of monetary income and can provide rare or powerful items through Ruins. Most planets also contain Commodities which can be extracted using the appropriate Base Items. These commodities can then be sold or used to build other items using Blueprints. Some commodities are also necessary for training Skills and can only be obtained through extraction or trade with a colony.

Creating a Colony

In order to create a colony, a player must first decide on a suitable planet. Planetscanners are typically used for this purpose. A number of different factors may influence the decision making process, and it is impossible to provide an entirely comprehensive guide in such a brief article. One may seek the help of a more experienced player, or make the decision based off of what they know and what they hope to accomplish. Suitability is one of the most important factors to consider.

Once a planet has been selected, a player must establish a Base on it. For more information on setting up bases, follow this link. After the Base has been built and made operational, a Trading Bay ought to be equipped. The Trading Bay is the primary avenue through which a Colony will interact with the player.

After having a Trading Bay set up, the next step is to build a Colony module. This will establish the Colony itself. Following construction of the Colony, a Colony tab will appear the next time the player docks.

Maintaining a Colony

Commodities: Buying and Selling

Colonies will buy and sell the commodities offered by the Base's Trading Bay. The current prices a Colony is willing to pay are displayed under the Colony tab. A Colony will attempt to buy or sell what commodities it desires if the prices, and a few other factors listed below, are appropriate.

As an example, if the Base is selling Rations for 100 credits each and the Colony is willing to buy Rations for 150 credits each, the Colony will buy the Rations since the Base is asking for less than the Colony's buying price. If the prices were reversed, then the opposite would be true: the Colony would attempt to sell Rations to the Base.

The number and amount of commodities a Colony will buy or sell is based off a number of factors:

• The Population of the Colony
• The prices the player has set
• The prices the Colony will pay
• The Suitability of the Colony

Rations

Colonies, like Bases, need Rations to survive. It is important to ensure that the prices for Rations are balanced such that neither the Base or the Colony will run out and starve.

Peasants and Population

A Colony's Population will grow the more Peasants it gains. Colonies will produce Peasants at a certain rate on their own, but this growth rate can be supplemented by selling Peasants to the Colony.

Ruins

Ruins are ancient objects found buried somewhere on the planet and will occasionally crop up when you least expect them. They range from extremely valuable to worthless, so consult someone before paying too much for something your don't know about. Once a colony uncovers something, you can add it to your trading bay's menu to check out the stats. Every class of item except Augmenters can be found in Ruins, from commodities to ships. There seem to be a limited number of units of each ruin that they find, and a single planet may hold as many as six but as few as one Ruin item. Not all planets have ruins though; planet scanners can be used to discover them, but only the most powerful will show the really rare ones.

Tips

Suitability, Suitability, Suitability... Suitability affects many aspects of the colony; the higher the suitability rating, the better. The Colonial Administrator skill raises the suitability for any colonies owned by that character and can be very useful to that end. For more information, see Suitability.

See Also: Colony Blueprints and Terraforming Project Blueprints

Looking for a Guide? Check out Biobawls's Colony Guide