Been playing a lot over the weekend, I must say that there have been many improvements since the last time I played but, one ongoing problem with this game that I tend to overlook myself (although soon reminded of again) is how much time is spent running errands all the time. Some sort of automation is seriously needed. Playing the game literally feels like trying to play Dyson Sphere Program without ever using conveyor belts and logistics vessels. Just to sustain fuel and ammo levels, I have to: -Go between my mining BAs and manually transfer ores from autominers to BA storage (for logistics access). -Do the same for water and plant-based materials. -Go get the freighter from the orbital station, fly around picking up ore, water, plant fibre etc. -Take it all back to the orbital station, start up fuel and ammo production. -Wait for production to finish. A few minutes off-time! -Load everything back onto the freighter. -Fly around and distribute fuel and ammo as needed. -A few minutes off-time again! -Repeat from step 1. This cycle only repeats itself a few times until it just becomes a massive chore. I cannot imagine what it would be like if you play without autominers and resource depletion on, then you have to add prospecting and manual mining into that cycle as well! And you cannot venture too far from home, you have to keep an eye on things because, if your bases run out of power, its an even bigger headache getting everything back up and running again. Now imagine keeping your ships fueled up, armed and repaired as well, suddenly AI ship services becomes a blessing - a blessing you still need to pay for though. Of course, the best solution would be to stick with a single CV but, then there really is no long-term goal to work towards. Since the game is lacking in late game content, I usually set long-term goals like "conquering" planets and sectors by destroying the main drone bases, PV bases etc. and building my own bases in their place. But you cannot really do this because one too many BAs and things become impossible to manage all on your own.
Why are you doing separate trips for refueling autominers and retrieving ore? Why not combine these steps with a dedicated autominer ship? You wouldn't need the mining BAs anymore.
I find it much faster to just zip by with the motorbike to transfer ore from autominers to storage, then I just do a flyby with the freighter to collect ore without having to land or manoeuver into a loading position. Mining BAs is there for RP and immersion - to have actual mining facilities like mining on industrial scale should be. Fuel for autominers last a long time and I don't bother keeping the mining BAs fueled up anymore (otherwise all the errand running will really be too much!), right now, its only my three main BAs I really look after since they're important for production. I also keep BA shields on permanently, which does increase fuel consumption but, I find BA shields to be vital. Repairing a damaged BA is an even bigger chore!
Well, there are easier ways if you feel like simplifying. I'm pretty sure most forms of logistics automation would run headlong into the lack of simulation away from players. Self-contained stuff like autominers and BAs fudge it well enough. I doubt objects interacting automatically with each other would work as reliably.
Production, mining and fuel consumption is already simulated away from the player so, being able to build autominers and water generators on BAs for using the same storage, or power sharing between nearby BAs, could be doable without having to reinvent the wheel. And just those two examples will already lighten the load considerably. And since resource and production levels are simulated in the background anyway, being able to transfer stuff from a designated container on one BA to a container on another BA could be done, at least in the same playfield. The trick is in doing it in a believable way. We deal with a lot of resources, components and devices that we produce. Cannot see how it would be a bad thing to have some more logistics and management over it all. Improvements can still be made to lessen the tedium, especially in the late game.
I could very well be wrong but I think the game just fakes background simulation by calculating things like power usage and constructor output based on when a structure unloads/reloads. Nothing actually get processed on a structure while its unloaded, it all get figured out after the fact when it loads back in. But that's just my guess based on what I have seen. It would explain a lot of the weird bugs with power consumption and solar panels. But yes the current system could work for an expanded logistics system. Unfortunately, Unity doesn't support background simulation or logistics. Kind of like how Unity doesn't support fixing the so called 'bullet through paper problem'.
