Space activities are expensive and your income opportunity in the early stages primarily come from contracts for building space colonies for other Nations. When you have your own colonies producing a surplus you can go for delivery contracts but that is not really relevant for the early part of the game.

Almost all income opportunities are only available if you build up your own “supply chain”. Space stations function as hubs/supply chain. If you are to build a colony on the moon for one of the other nations you need one space station around Earth and one around the moon so that you can hire people from any nation on earth. The same apply for deliveries to, or purchase from earth

When you start a game there are space stations above the Moon and Mars. Which nation that owns them will be chosen at random each time you start a new game. (So if you get a bad taste in your mouth by dealing with a specific nation you can just start a new game)

It is natural to aim at the Moon first simply because it is close by so travel time is measured in hours. Travel time from Earth to Mars makes creating colonies for other nations very difficult, only exception being for the nation that has a space station there.

The existing local space station around the Moon or Mars have two major benefits.
- all deliveries and staff hires from the local station are more or less instant
- you can build your own space station with resources from the existing local station.

The easiest way to learn the mechanics of the game is to start with a colony build on the Moon or Mars.
Borrow i.e. 100 000 000 on a 12 month repayment plan to get started. You will not be able to pay back the loan but that does not matter as you are not intending to pay anyway. By trial and error you can create a build layout you feel works for you as a starting point in a “proper game”. After abandoning your colony you can do the same for constructing your “standard” Space Station.

When you have a reasonable grasp on the basics it will be quite easy to start a “normal” game from scratch. That’s to say - borrow money to build a space station orbiting Earth, then another orbiting the moon. Next step will be to take on a contract for building a colony for another nation. After finishing a couple of contracts you should have managed to repay all your debts and be ready for your own expansion and/or do more contracts if you wish.

I believe that many players may never go for a “long game” but simply find hours of fun in just trying out different versions of colonies and space stations. Why not - you play it the way you want.

Some controls to remember

Step 1

I started to build several versions of a colony on the Moon. This intention was simply to test the mechanics of starting a colony and to create a “standard start build” I was happy with. Because most colony contracts in the early part of the game asks for a colony for 20-30 staff I focused on a builds for similar sized test colonies. Next I started building a small space station for max 12 persons. They would have 6 researchers and a skeleton crew to operate, but was not intended to be profitable. This did however not turn out to be so brilliant as I first thought. A new version was made as a pure transit station with a main focus on hallways with sofas to act as transit station when hiring staff from earth. The only staff on the station is a maintenance worker and a doctor.

Step 2

Play a game from scratch. (Actually have started more than once but who’s counting)
Building space stations, contract colonies on the moon, space station orbiting Mars, building a colony for the nation having their own space station there.

Where to place a new colony

Obviously you want somewhere with max extractable resources if you build a colony you aim to keep. But on the moon the most important initially is to find a location with as many days to sunset as possible. Keep an eye on the information given as you move around the surface. At the start you are dependent on solar panels and batteries so you want max number days with daylight.

If you find that the site you want to be that is still in darkness you can let the game run for the needed game days until sunset before you start constructing. The only disadvantage is that you waste some days so that the first debt payment comes sooner.

The moon cycle is generally 14 days of sun followed buy 14 days of darkness but there will be variations depending on where you put down your roots. One site I used had 15 days night and 13 day.


The challenge of powering your colony - Day/night cycle, panels and batteries

One very important thing to consider is that there are no thermostats on heaters and coolers (IR diffusers). Unless you manually turn them on/off they will be going full blast all the time regardless of the outside temperature. On the Moon it it is viable to do manual control on the coolers for heaters it is out of the question.

How many batteries for a moon colony = (Power use x days of night x 24) / 83 3333

In a my early builds on the moon, intended for up to 40 persons, I needed approx 20 batteries to cover the power demand, including some margin. In the same colony I found that approx 15 solar panels was enough, but to be able to charge faster, and to have something to go on in case of many errors, I ended up installing 20 Panels.

The Martian cycle is less demanding as a Martian “Sol” is approx 24h 40 minutes. You need just a few batteries, but as the solar panels are much less effective you need many more of them.


Heating/cooling – avoiding frostbite and heatstroke

In my first try the staff got frostbite and died. In the next they got roasted and died when we went in to the final days before sunset. I forgot to take in to consideration that it would get extremely hot outside in the constant sunshine. At the start just after sunrise the temperature outside is < -170°C. but just before sunset it may well be close to +120°C.

Below +20 inside may be unpleasant but below 0 is hazardous.

The single module apartments are heated when you install “basic furniture pack”. This pack use 7W and keep temperature at 20°C even at the coldest periods. The power demand of +7 indicate that one small heater is included in the pack, but if you look closely it appear to be 2 heaters, which suggest that you get a “power discount”.

In general one small heater in a single module will not be enough for heating during the coldest periods on the moon. Two per module is a little more than needed but I use that ratio simply because it’s very easy to relate to.

Remember to check the temperature inside before you hire staff. The temperature in the hallways with sofas and other internal places the staff will use for work, rest and recreation should be on the + side before the first arrivals. Your aim is to be stable +20°C, but you do not have to wait with hiring until you reach that target. If you are on the plus side, and rising, you are good to go.

Note that in your own colonies you do not need to heat storage or server rooms, but on contract build you have to heat these rooms to.


Extracting resources from the moon

- There is no atmosphere so equipment that extract gases is irrelevant.
- There are no liquids so equipment for this purpose is pointless.
“Experimental bore” can be used from the beginning for mining for Helium-3
“Experimental drill” can be used from the beginning for mining Ice, Regolith*, Iron, Non-Ferrous metals(NFM), Refractory metals, Rare metals, Noble metals and Transuranic elements

It is very easy to see if outdoor mining equipment is useful or not. If you chose a model from the build menu you will be shown the expected yields. If zero its obviously no point building it.


Important challenges in early production chains

You need Carbon in several key production/recycling chains like water purification but carbon cannot be purchased from the local space station in moon orbit. You can make Carbon from CO2, but CO2 cannot be found in the moon environment, and you cannot purchase that locally either. People create CO2 but the amounts are limited.


Staff hire

There is no need to pay and provide for people that do nothing, so if the travel time for new employees are limited you need not hire biotechnologists and workers for industry until there is raw materials available for their work.

You should read carefully on the candidates description. It is obviously a bad idea to hire people demanding special treatment and/or make everyone else miserable. If you found a colony on contract you do not have to be that cautious as it will be somebody else’s problem as soon as you transfer the colony to its new owner

The shuttle bringing new employees can take 7 persons.


Comfort and salary

Demands for pay and comfort increase as a worker gets more experienced. Personal traits also contribute.

Salary is generally not a very important factor in your economy but the starting level give an indication of how skilled a worker is and what level of comfort they might expect.

Comfort is by far the most important challenge, and it is not obvious how the functionality of supplying comfort points works. This is also in my opinion one of the weak points of the game. It will need some improvement.

Canteen – If you build the room with windowed modules you get a start level of 10 per person. Then comes the points from tables. Everyone must have a seat.
A table for six may give 30 points, while a single seat table gives 10. However the 30 points on the big table seem to be divided on the number of seats so in reality each person only gets 5 points.

Relax area – If you build the room with windowed modules you get a start level of 10 per person. Then comes the points from seating and other inventories. I found that the easiest way to offer good comfort from the beginning was to give each person their own “Armchair” and “Soft cabinet”

Shower Area – In the description it is stated that one shower stall can serve 7 persons. There is not the same info on Chaise Lounge, Benches and Locker but based on test run it appear that they have the same coverage. If you do not get the max just try to ass some extra ionventory.

Toilet Area – Works in the same way as the shower area. When I built 1 set Stall, Wash and Dryer for every 7 person I got max comfort points

Apartments - If you build the windowed module and use basic inventory pack the occupant will receive 30 comfort points . That will do for a while but eventually you will need to build Spacious apartments with misc furniture to keep people happy.


Assignments

You have to actively give each member access to apartment, workplace, toilets, showers canteen and relax area. They cannot use facilities unless you have approved.


Research

Research speed per researcher when you start is initially extremely slow. But they will improve fast so I do not fell a need to hire lots of researchers. For my games 6 of each branch seem to work well

I did not feel the need for the “Game mod” Natural disasters right from the beginning of playing Solargene.

The main reason for using “Beginner” was the 100% refund when deleting. When testing numerous different layouts this is the best setting.

Abbreviation used in the guide:
Electronics=EL
Medicine= Med
Noble Metals=NM
Non-ferrous metal=Nfm
Nuclear Fuel=NF
Optics=Op
Oxygen=O2
Polymer=P
Rare Metals=RM
Refractory Metals=ReM
Steel=S
Tranuranic Elements=TM
Water=H2O

When you build on station above earth and on above the moon you will have access to people and products from all Nations on earth in addition to the local station that one Nation already will have around the moon.

Even if the game aim at being realistic there is of course limits to how far it is possible to go and still have a playable game.

Two simplifications” that can be mentioned are:
- you do not own or control the shuttles. “They are just there”
- shipping cost is fixed 700:1 regardless how much of the shuttle capacity you use

Travel times are however linked to distances. If you buy from “local suppliers” the delivery will be almost instant, but shipments from earth to the moon will need several hours. Other places like mars deliveries will naturally take much longer.

First you will need money. I borrow 60 000 000 on a 12 month repayment plan. That is intended to cover both space stations (Earth and Moon)

Launching a new Station
You start by choosing which nation you want to buy a “Start Package” from. If you are building a station that is intended to be moved to another location in the solar system you should choose carefully. If it are just to be stationary it dos not matter much what you decide.

The Start Package includes: 1 Node, 2 storage modules (very limited capacity), 1 Storage tank, 4 Solar Panels, 1 Thruster, 1 Shuttle dock


1st and 2nd Order*
100 O2
350 Nfm
1000 S
100 P
100 Op
600 EL
150 NM

* On earth you cannot get all of it from one nation so you need to place two orders to get started with expanding storage

First delivery

Initial build focus on storage and power.

3rd & 4th order
1400 O2
650 Nfm
4000 S
1400 P
400 Op
1800 ReM
200 RM
250 NM
500 EL

The finished storage area

Efficient deliveries

Station has two seating areas for transfer of staff.
The transfer area in use

Thea stations crew area (1 maintenance worker and 1 medic)

The finished station

Checking temperature - very hot

When temperature is stabilised buy 2200 O2, 3000 H2O, 500 Med, 3000 Rations

And it is ready for hiring

Acknowledge the hire

Assigning tasks

Rinse and repeat the actions on the moon

Now it is time to make some serious money, but you need to up the stakes by borrowing more. You can borrow once from every nation.

In the game used for this guide I borrowed another 60 000 000 at this stage.
First contract was signed with Europe.

Initializing

Finding a suitable spot

"Just say NO"
It is important that you do not designate the colony for the contract partner before all demands are met. Also I want to hold on to this colony while I take on further contracts

The landing platform you create on the moon has a storage capacity equal to a fully loaded shuttle.

My first order:
700 O2
3000 Nfm
100 ReM
1100 RM
100 NM
3000 S
300 P
200 Op
1100 EL

The first shuttle delivery

During the initial power build you need to wait for the construction bots to charge so at the very beginning the game must run.

When you have set up some real power you can pause the game as much as you want during the construction.

When you have some real storage capacity you can place a much larger order.
My second order:
1800 O2
4000 Nfm
2800 ReM
1100 RM
500 NM
10000 S
2800 P
1200 Op
1700 EL

I keep this first colony as my private research base until two other contract colonies have been build and delivered to it's new owners.

The first research

I had only 27 000 000 left at this stage so another 30 000 000 was borrowed.

A contract with Japan. Colony built and delivered.

The India contract is a lot more lucrative but also have more strings attached.

When you are ready to deliver a colony to its new owner you press "Reset"

Go back to the contract again and press completed-

When the India colony had been delivered I went back to the first colony and delivered to Europe.

All debt is paid and I am rich. Now I will head for Mars, but first I build a Moonbase for myself. Primary purpose for this base will be research.

JAG Moonbase
2nd floor view
1st floor view

No big surprise what the first step will be

Building my standard space station

USA has their own station here so I sign a colony contract with them to test a Mars build.

Mars has a "normal" day/night cycle so you can focus primarily on resources when you look for a site.

One noticeable difference compared to the moon is that the landing platform has much less storage capacity.

The first order
200 O2
1100 Nfm
200 RM
100 NM
2000 S
100 P
200 Op
1500 EL

The power build will be different on Mars as the solar panels give less power and the battery need is limited.

For the colony I built for myself after the USA base was delivered the remaining order, not including consumables and perishables, was:
4000 O2
2500 Nfm
2400 ReM
700 RM
500 NM
11000 S
4400 P
3200 Op
3500 EL

The build continue

The Mars base built for USA

Deliver the base to the new owner

Look at the travel time if the staff had to be brought from the Earth.If you want to build a colony on Mars for some nation without a space station you need to adapt by hiring a small temporary crew locally that can take care of the station while the staff from Earth is making the long travel.

This was the base I built for myself

"I am loaded"


I do mot often revisit my guides so if you have questions it is better to post them under general discussions,