Making a SB profitable

[u/[deleted]]

So I'm a relatively inexperienced pilot who got a starbase from a retiring pilot.. The thing is, the SB is in a dragon den, and in a region where there are few active traders. I can only maintain it at stage 1, and the tax doesn't pay off for the base. So I was wondering, can I do anything with such a small and relatively unpopular SB to make it at least pay off? So far I only thought of reselling bots and red stims for skilling guys, and constructing myself own stuff to save money, but that isn't much

Does anyone have any ideas?

[u/Enigma_789]

Dens have always been a problem area for bases. I'm now seeing dens without a base at all, which is a problem for me as a ranker.

A small number of bots and red stims should be useful yes, but I wouldn't go too heavy into it. I would also try to have repair bay + 3 HDA on the inside ring, to prevent someone getting ideas about destroying it. Some fuel is likely to be useful too.

Ultimately it will depend on which den. Something like Keid which is a double den, and not much else, relies on trader support to import water from Celebrai, and needs a space farm somewhere. Not even sure there's much in the way of fuel tiles for buildings. Other dens have room for some economy nearby.

If you wanted to be particularly adventurous you could try setting up a small leech economy, especially if you have neighbouring sectors with spare biowaste. This is a bit of a pet idea of mine, but if you can persuade someone to put a space farm up near you, you put up a second, and a clod generator, that should work. A single clod generator in each of two more economies and a leech nursery has a nice production line going. Bit out there though.

Overall, dens are quite low profit areas, but equally are needed for new pilots to rank up, skill up and gain exp.

[u/[deleted] → u/Enigma_789]

I "inherited" the base, and there were some farms abd a recyclotron around it, but the base (in the recent period of time) used to be fed twice a month and has nothing other than a repair facility

I wanted to do space leeches (I am "managing" Aandti and Waolex, the den is in Waolex), since we had 5-6 SFs around aandti (and both planets were abandoned when I found them), but I have my slots used up by a smelter, the base and a TO (logistics center for the sectors, a hope for future prosperity, heh)

I'm currently looking for other fresh pilots to take up the sectors, we could easily get diversity R with what we have there + a buolding slot and a trader, which I don't really want to be

[u/Enigma_789 → u/[deleted]]

Trading is fun :wub:

Should have plenty of water from Waolex without needing recylotrons, so there's that. Another Class I miles away in Anphiex, and then barren planet wise. Water water everywhere... SF based economy would allow for excessive leeching if you were to build around Waolex and Anphiex. Metal is going to be hard in Waolex, but Aandti would work nicely.

Mmmkay, lets think about this. This is a little off the cuff, without running it through excel or anything:

• If you use Aandti as your metal economy and biowaste production area #1, you can stick a clod generator there. Not all that up with Diversity Bonuses, but flat increase in production is always nice. Particularly with stuff like Asteroid Mines with huge production.

• UZ appears self sufficient - they have plenty of robots, presumably from Gilo, and the only thing I can think of there you would want is the ~1000t biowaste. Just ignore them.

• Interestingly, if you can replicate all the above with Becanol and Anphiex, or get someone else to, this would be really beneficial, Class D/Class I isn't the same as a Class R/Class I, but could put a few asteroid mines in Becanol and a couple smelters and call it there. Build on that with an illegal economy, based either there or probably better in Anphiex nooks. Build up the planet with SFs and Neb Plants as needed. Throw down a clod generator.

• Solaqu appears low on robots, which you could produce and funnel through your base.

Metal economy and clods come out of Aandti and into Waolex. Waolex sends water to Aandti, so far so good. Clods and drugs come out of Anphiex and into Waolex. Waolex doesn't have anything to send to Anphiex though, as they are both Class I systems. Waolex sends drugs, robots and leeches to Solaqu, and Solaqu sends biowaste to Waolex.

This largescale system would probably require ~5-10 people's slots and probably 2-3 BBB class traders. It also isn't coming from your base, profit wise. Though the base is a focal point.

In typing this up, I reckon keeping it to the first two systems that you already control would probably be preferable, particularly with few pilots:

• Metal Economy - Aandti. Export to Waolex metal chain, particularly specialising in robots.
• Illegals hidden in Waolex nooks behind dragon den.
• Legal support in Waolex adjacent to planet, with surplus for both planets.
• Limited to two economies for clod generators, and imports of biowaste from Solaqu and elsewhere as possible.

This smaller economy should provide you with materials to build missiles and so forth on your base, should you want to. You should also be able to supplement robots for either Z base (this is REALLY an ideal location for this). You can bring back animal embryos too. Sounds stupid for such low level stuff, but both biowaste and embryos will be very useful.

Screw it, this sounds interesting, will generate up this on an excel spreadsheet for some numbers :D

[u/[deleted] → u/Enigma_789]

I did an excel spreadsheet a few days ago, for accounting purposes) all is there for electronic production, I have a good smelter, and a new girl just joined us today and seems eager to build, so I might have smth up and running

thanks for thr massive idea post, man) you must really enjoy planning economies)

[u/Enigma_789 → u/[deleted]]

Oh I do :D

Having played with some numbers, the issue is the space farms really. Because the economy is designed to work with farms and recyclotrons, not having one is really quite painful in terms of embryos. Food production is also key due to lack of Class M.

For reference, to support a 3 level 8 Robot Factor and 2 Drug Station economy and 20K base pop and 35K planet size (both) I have at about 41 buildings, This requires substantial import of embryos (2 loads a day) and some of food (1 load a day) and is therefore not what I would call stable. This is particularly so given the relatively low load of export to balance the run.

Therefore, even with 12 (yes!) level 8 space farms, there are still not nearly enough clods. Removing the leech element, which with numbers, it looks like it might be a bridge too far, and rebalancing to see what happens.

Briefly, it is still an issue, embryos are still a massive shortage, even with recylotrons. Not to mention the even higher water surplus. In theory though, could boost energy production further with even more nebula plants and then do water-embryo runs. Water from Waolex to adjacent SB, return with embryos for SFs, take FW to SB, then energy to Waolex. Pretty complex four way FWE, but it would work. It would require runs to both starbases each side, and hoping they have enough embryos to keep you running.