Straightforward question about asteroid/nuetrals claiming

Straightforward, merely knew forum lore will know the answer exponentially quicker than researching it out extensively.

 

What are the rules for the claiming and seizure of nuetrals and asteroids.  I seemed to find in an SP game that, despite having a Progen, I couldn't seem to colonize / claim a some nuetral extractors.  It wouldn't let me colonize select them directly, and cap and a handful of units milled around for a bit without an auto-claim effect kicking in. 

 

So I shrugged and went elsewhere, made a note to what-the-hell play around with that save later.  I figured I'd need to either forum ask or experiment-research how it worked when one wanted to divide up extractors amongst allies anyway.

 

On a tangent, I'm fairly sure I watched a replay where Fergie would simply not die, and was colonizing things ridiculous sprawled around the star system, so I didn't think it could be culture based.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a colonizeable asteroid itself - the naming of the nuetrals (the naming of pretty much everything) could be better, will check that.

 

For flippage cases, I have seen the extraction feature (forget it's precise name) on colony frigs, where you can suck enemy extractors dry and flip them yours.  Was confused about the whole nuetrals / space junk claiming rules though.

 

Amusingly newb question.  Thanks for any answer pings.

18,461 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top

Make sure you have enough anti-matter.

If your allie took over the nuetral, you cannot take it until you are enemys.

Reply #2 Top

Okay, your post is a little confusing, but I'm guessing you are unsure how to capture neutral extractors (metal/crystal asteroids) in special grav wells (plasma storms, space junk, etc.)

 

First, your Progen won't help.  To capture neutral extractors you need to use the "Crew/Capture Extractor" ability on Missionary Vessels, Colony Frigates and Vasari scout vessels, which allows you to take possesion of enemy/neutral (but not allied) extractors (commonly just called "Neutral Extractors" regardless of owner) in plasma storms, space junk and gas giant etc. gravity wells (reffered to as uncolonisable grav wells, or UCGWs) and gives you a line of sight in that grav well.  These grav wells cannot be colonised in the normal manner by capital ships w/colonise or colony frigates.  They provide a fixed rate of metal/crystal extraction per extractor and nothing else (aside from line of sight).

 

Culture does not affect these extractors in the slightest.  They can be captured in your culture, enemy culture, no culture, whatever.  And "Crew Extractor"cannot be used on enemy extractors around colonised planets, which is what I first thought, nor can it be used to suck the crews out of enemy vessels ("Crew Extractor", geddit?).

 

Hopefully that answered your question.

Reply #3 Top

Thanks, Electron.  That answers quite well.  I had no scout or colony frigs, and thus could not capture the nuetral, but did not realize that was the rule.

 

I found the variety of space junks / giants / storms a little unclear at first, like many things, they make sense with enough gradual plays as one builds up the missing manual.  So far as I grok it they are semi-equivalent in being aesthetic variants of neutrals.

 

My original post was magnificently unclear and sprawling, thanks for wading through it to answer.

 

-evoke

Reply #4 Top

 

Capturing and holding the neutrals is an important part of the game because they can provide a real boost to your economy.  The other nice thing about them is that their extraction rates are completely independent of culture or allegiance.  You might hold neutrals in areas where you would otherwise have a 25% allegiance, but they still produce resources for you at 100% + any extraction rate bonuses you have researched.

Capital ships cannot capture neutrals at all.  Advent and TEC use their colonizer frigates and Vasari use their scouts.  This is a huge advantage for the Vasari since scouts can zip around the map whereas colonizer frigates cannot pass through more than two uncolonize planets without being knocked down by the militia.

Reply #5 Top

I believe neutrals produce resources as if they were normal extractors at 133% alleigance (someone had pointed this out earlier on the forum).

Reply #6 Top

 

Yeah, maybe they're better than normal extractors at 100%.