General Strategies

[ChickenHawk07]

Great starting stradgey write-up Enforcer.

A personal difference on Harvester collections though. I generally use small harvesters on all planets in any sector except for one "Hub" planet. I use the small harvesters to take ore from the planets in each sector and deposit it on the designated Hub planet of my choosing. I then use a Resource Harvester or greater to take all the collected ore
From the Hub and move it to a colony. From there, depending on which specialty I've
Chosen, I will either leave the Ore at the colony, or move the ore from all colonies to a single "Main Hub" Colony. If I'm playing as a Warrior, I do not build anything larger than a Resource Harvester, as the RO requirements and Research time are better spent elsewhere.

[Enforc3r]

Just did calculations, you don't lose out on all that much if you send your harvester for more than the recommended travel distance.
So now I'll just send them straight for home till I do more calculations on the small harvester method. The method I first use brings me
back ore faster at the start of a server IMO.

[WhiteLion]

I didn't notice any difference in speed or warp time between harvesters and small harvesters so I create small harvesters until I skill up to regular ones, and then i slowly replace the small ones I've made.

If the only difference is cargo space, it's clear you should only make harvesters. Also the amount of cargo they hold is so much more than a small harvester that I think it's a moot point to even bother with small harvesters after a while.