ok, this is embarrassing but....

[Leedot]

Hi Eslosh -

- Umm.. no, it shouldn't be. Planets won't produce RO unless you have advanced materials collection and not every planet produces both RO / CO but they all produce something. If your planet isn't producing anything at all let us know and we'll take a look at it on the server. My guess though is you have a gas dwarf / jovian planet which only produce RO and you haven't researched advanced materials collection.

- No, you can only set planets as your source / destination. Small harvesters can do everything regular harvesters (or cargo ships or freighters) can do. The two main differences between all trade related ships is their speed and how much cargo they can carry.

- Your ships will only defend the planet they're located at.

[dbresson]

What a great thread! I appreciate all the great answers on here! I've learned a whole lot!

I have two more newbie questions to add:

First: I've read here about the harvesters draining the ore from a planet faster than the planet can churn it out. Does anyone actually know the actual rate in time that these harvesters take ore from a planet (and if you do, does it differ with the different harvester ships)? Just curious.

Second: I've been working on stuff in my tech tree. What are the different ranks for for each tech? For example, if I just trained a specific tech, and it's now Rank 1/9 - if I train in again it'll be 2/9 and so on, all the way to 9/9. Does the "special ability" this tech gives me get better with each rank or something? What does the rank mean?

Thanks for the help all! And thanks to Zarksoft for a great game!

[ChickenHawk07]

What a great thread! I appreciate all the great answers on here! I've learned a whole lot!

I have two more newbie questions to add:

First: I've read here about the harvesters draining the ore from a planet faster than the planet can churn it out. Does anyone actually know the actual rate in time that these harvesters take ore from a planet (and if you do, does it differ with the different harvester ships)? Just curious.

Second: I've been working on stuff in my tech tree. What are the different ranks for for each tech? For example, if I just trained a specific tech, and it's now Rank 1/9 - if I train in again it'll be 2/9 and so on, all the way to 9/9. Does the "special ability" this tech gives me get better with each rank or something? What does the rank mean?

Thanks for the help all! And thanks to Zarksoft for a great game!

The time it takes a harvester to harvest the available ore on a planet is dependent on a few factors, 1) How far away from the destination planet the Harvester is, ie: Length of round trip route. 2) How much ore the Harvester can take in a single load, and 3) How much ore that planet makes per hour, which is the +# you see in the planet info or when clicking on a planet that you own.

If an outpost is in the same sector as the destination planet, one small harvester can pretty much clean out a mining outpost and keep up with the hourly rate at which the planet is producing. At that point, you can just assume you are receiving the full amount per hour the planet is capable of producing. Hope that helps.

And for your second question, see my post above this one.