Harvesting question

[Corinthian]

I need to make sure I'm not missing something here...
I can't tell if my Harvesters are actually doing anything besides moving around my solar system. Someone told me that I can see the cargo in the hold by going to the AI tab and clicking on a harvester. That worked once but now I can't seem to see any cargo, ever in any of them...

What I need to know is this:

1 - I don't need anything else at another planet besides a harvester route going to it when the planet is within my Home system... correct??

2 - If there is a planet that has 100Ku CO and a planet that has 10Ku CO is there a difference in the harvesters collection rate and haul from that planet?

3 - Does the planet with only 10Ku eventually run out of Ore?

3 - Does the planet distance within a solar system matter in terms of how long it takes to complete a route or are all planets considered the same distance from each other in a single solar system?

Thanks

[VanderLegion]

Take this all with a grain of salt since I wasn't in the beta so all I know is what I've learned in the last day, but:

re: seeing the cargo in the Ai tab
This only applies when the ship actually has a load and is on it's way back to the destination planet, it'll show how much cargo it's carrying. Otherwise, it'll show Harvesting or something.

1) Correct
2) The collection rate is based on the ship's cargo space. The harvesters you can build starting out have 250 space, so whether the planet has 10k or 100k, it'll make no difference in the collection rate.
3) Assuming it has a mineral production rate (10Ku/+1Ku for instance gains 1Ku per hour), it'll never run completely out, but once you run out of the stored minerals, you'll be getting less than a full load every trip as you'll only be picking up however much has been produced since the last load
4) No Idea

[Corinthian]

Thanks for the info!
So I just checked my harvesters and found 2 carrying. One had 130cu and the other had 63. What produces that difference if each has the same collection rate?

[VanderLegion]

I'm assuming if you look at the planets they're harvesting from, they're at 0Ku/+(whatever their resource production rate is). Basically, your ships are making the trip faster than the planet can produce resources, so when the harvester gets there and does it's job, there's not 250 units for it to pick up, so it just grabs whats there and heads back home. If you're harvesting a planet with a stockpile (such as a new outpost in another system), then you should get a full load every time until you drain it's stockpile.

[Corinthian]

You are so right... Me stupidio

[Tsagoth]

If there is nothing at all there when the harvester(s) arrive, they will sit idle until they are able to load.