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Tuesday, May 31, 2022
PrUn Alternative Start - Metallurgist
Thanks to a friendly account reset by the developer, I was able to try and blog about yet another Prosperous Universe starting package: The metallurgist. This profession extracts ores and then smelts them (usually with carbon and oxygen) to make metals. The starting planets either have iron ore or aluminum ore, so there is a decision to make. One good choice, shown as 5 stars (great) in the Company Creation Assistant is Deimos in the Antares system. Decent concentrations of both aluminum ore and oxygen, and not too far away from the Antares commodity exchange. Only that in the "square" of the 4 main commodity exchanges, Antares is the opposite corner from the most populous region of this universe, Moria.
In Moria, another 5-star option is proposed, Vallis. Less oxygen here, but good iron ore concentration, and right next to Moria station. However, the online handbook recommends Montem. Which is a bit weird, as the Company Creation Assistant only gives Montem 4 stars, and the iron ore concentration is much lower. So, which advice do we follow? Now Montem is one of the most popular planets in this universe, and it has a good concentration of limestone. So instead of choosing the more conventional option of Vallis, I decided to go for a variation and chose Montem. Because I messed up my start as a constructor, starting as metallurgist on Montem is actually a opportunity to do both. My previous attempt had taught me that limestone is an important limitation of starting as a constructor, and with the other material needed being iron, that obviously combines well with metallurgist.
So I started on Montem with the recommended set of buildings: 2 pioneer habitations, an extractor, and a smelter. And then I immediately went off script, and started extracting limestone, rather than iron ore. Montem really is bad for extracting iron ore, and it is cheaply available in large quantities at Moria station. I set the smelter to make iron, however there are two possible recipes, and I am missing the flux for the more profitable one. Time to do some shopping.
With the building materials for extractor and smelter, the metallurgist starting package has somewhat fewer prefabs than other packages. That is compensated by a bigger pile of cash, 45k to start with. Which is great news: Even with buying the iron ore instead of extracting it, and buying basic and luxury consumables for a week, and buying the carbon, oxygen, and flux for the smelter, I still have plenty of cash. So I can buy the building materials (76 MCG, 3 BBH, 3 BDE, 4 BSE) for a prefab plant immediately. And my base even has room for the pioneers that prefab plant needs, so it just takes one trip to Moria station and back before I am in both the metallurgist and the constructor business. That is some quite decent profit, even in the Moria system, where there are a lot of other metallurgists and constructors.
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- posted by Tobold @ 6:30 AM Permanent Link
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It could be me, but I did not get out of the getting started info that, IMO, "your only chance, ever, of getting on the optimal planet for your profession is amongst the first choices you make when you know the least."
Constructor had appeal for me, it seems like something everybody needs. In particular, when new [Steam] players join, a quite small % will stay long enough to need advanced materials. But even people who stay for a couple of weeks will spend a lot on base construction mats. IDK what the game's retention rate is but it seems like a majority of the new player cash is spent on construction.
The consolation is here I get to read what it is like. TY
Constructor had appeal for me, it seems like something everybody needs. In particular, when new [Steam] players join, a quite small % will stay long enough to need advanced materials. But even people who stay for a couple of weeks will spend a lot on base construction mats. IDK what the game's retention rate is but it seems like a majority of the new player cash is spent on construction.
The consolation is here I get to read what it is like. TY
Apparently that used to be not a problem. Every starting planet has like 400 plots available, and before the Steam release there were free plots where people could build their second base on. But new players can get a "ghost plot", which is to say they can get a plot even if all plots are already gone. So with the Steam release planets like Promitor suddenly had 1000 players on 400 plots, so no more free plots for people's second base.
Note that the starting planets are "optimal" only in as far as they are close to the commodity exchange and are "tier 1", that is to say you can build on them without needing extra materials e.g. insulation against low temperature. But if you are looking around, you can find tier 2 or 3 planets, which are still reasonably cheap to settle, only a few jumps away from the commodity exchanges, and having much better resource concentrations than the starting planets.
Note that the starting planets are "optimal" only in as far as they are close to the commodity exchange and are "tier 1", that is to say you can build on them without needing extra materials e.g. insulation against low temperature. But if you are looking around, you can find tier 2 or 3 planets, which are still reasonably cheap to settle, only a few jumps away from the commodity exchanges, and having much better resource concentrations than the starting planets.
Tobold got me started and what I've found to be a pretty good strategy is to find someone willing to invest in you. In my case I've been able to find someone willing to make long term contracts with me to buy Drinking Water. Since he's buying for 10 days in the future, but pays me immediately, I can expand much faster. The cost (interest, so you will) is a slightly lower price then the open market, but for me that is easily offset by the fact that I can build 10 days earlier than I otherwise would have. It also has put my plans to fill a full ship with low level mats (RATS, DW) and send it to a different commodity exchange on the back burner. Since that would give me the cash 14 days later it's not nearly as interesting as what I'm able to do now.
Now, this will not work for right after the inevitable reset on launch, but for now it's a good way to catch up a little to the people that have been around for a long time.
I'm now 7 days in and tomorrow I'll build my 5th rig and 2nd processor filling up to 300 pioneers. Now, that will mean that over those 10 days I'll spend 75-80% of my resources on fulfilling my contract - I'll catch up then to let you know if that was still fun!
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Now, this will not work for right after the inevitable reset on launch, but for now it's a good way to catch up a little to the people that have been around for a long time.
I'm now 7 days in and tomorrow I'll build my 5th rig and 2nd processor filling up to 300 pioneers. Now, that will mean that over those 10 days I'll spend 75-80% of my resources on fulfilling my contract - I'll catch up then to let you know if that was still fun!
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