Planetary Interaction

This guide is based on Planetary Interaction on the SiSi test server and is current as of May 09, 2010. The information provided here may or may not change when Tyrannis is released on May 18, 2010. This is a work in progress, with the final edit being after the official launch of Tyrannis.

Planetary Interaction 101

Planetary Interaction is the newest feature to be introduced into the EVE universe. The goal of it all is to give those who have choosen the manufacturing role in EVE another avenue in which goods can be produced. It is also believed that this is the inital step in bring about the connection of EVE with the upcoming Dust 514.

The basics of Planetary Interaction are very simple, just as in manufacturing modules or ships, the goal is to gather raw materials which then are made into more advanced products of varying levels. In every system of EVE you will find planets, you purchase command centers from the market to place on these planets. Once the command center is built then you are able to construct raw material extractors to harvest different types of materials to be either shipped off the planet or to be used in the production of basic and advanced goods directly on the planet itself, which is then launched off planet to the awaiting planetary customs office. From which it is collected to be sold or used as you desire.

Planets and Command Centers

Planets in EVE comes in eight different types: Barren, Gas, Ice, Lava, Ocean, Plasma, Storm and Temperate. With each type having different types of raw materials that can be collected. It should be noted that the security status of a system does not effect the types of planets that can be found in a given system but the concentration of each type of raw materials on these planets. In 0.0 security systems, you must belong to the alliance holding sovereignty over the system in order to build command centers on a planet. The different types of raw materials is as follows:

Type

Aqueous Liquids

Ionic Solutions

Base Metals

Heavy Metals

Noble Metals

Carbon Compounds

Micro Organisms

Complex Organisms

Planktic Colonies

Noble Gas

Reactive Gas

Felsic Magma

Non-CS Crystals

Suspended Plasma

Autotrophs

Barren

X

Gas

X

Ice

X

Lava

X

Ocean

X

Plasma

X

Storm

X

Temperate

X

As you can see from the tabel above, most materials with the exception of Reactive Gas, Felsic Magma and Autotrophs can be found on multiple planet types.

Each type of planet comes with its own type of command center and each type of command center is available in six different varieties each being different in volume and giving different powergrid and cpu outputs.

Type	Volume	Capacity	Export Tax	PowerGrid	CPU
Basic	50.0 m3	500 m3	15 isk	5,373 MW	1,007 tf
Limited	100.0 m3	500 m3	15 isk	8,322 MW	6,616 tf
Standard	200.0 m3	500 m3	15 isk	11,121 MW	12,022 tf
Improved	400.0 m3	500 m3	15 isk	13,995 MW	17,530 tf
Advanced	800.0 m3	500 m3	15 isk	16,878 MW	23,037 tf
Elite	1600.0 m3	500 m3	15 isk	19,368 MW	28,037 tf

Since powergrid and cpu are the only limiting factors on how many extractors, production sites, storage facilities, and launch pad may be built on a given planet as well as the links between those facilities, the level of command center that you choose will directly effect how large a production colony you can have. The cost of these different types of command centers are still currently unknown.

The first thing to do to start your new adventure in planetary control is to purchase a command center for the type of planet and at the level that you have choosen. Once purchased, transfer it to a industrial ship and fly it out to the planet. Once at the planet simply select the area on the planet in which you would like to build your command center and select the corresponding command center from the build menu. Drag the icon to the site you have choosen and left click. Click on submit in the build menu to complete the process.

Skills

There are two new skills directly associated with the use of command centers. Command Center Upgrades which gives access to the more advanced command centers to be used on planets and Interplanety Consolidation which increases the number of planets you can build command centers on up to a maximum of 6 planets with 1 command center per planet.

Planetary Infrastructure

There are five different types of structures that you will build on the planet as you develop and grow your colony. Each type of structure can be built as many times as you wish as long as your command center has enough powergrid and cpu to run these structures and the links in-between these structures that you must create.

Extractors

Extractors are the backbone of your colony. They are what extracts the raw materials out of the planet itself. Each extractor cost 150,000.00 isk to build and costs 800 MW and 100 tf to operate.

Once the command center is placed on the planet, the next step is to scan the planet with the built-in scanner on the concentration of each of the raw material offered by the planet. (Though I would recommend doing this before as to find a more ideal and centralized location for your command center and whether or not the planet is worth colonizing at all.) Once you have located an area of concentration for a particular type of material, go ahead and choose that extractor under the build menu. Drag the extractor icon to where you would like it to be built and left click. This is important, you must click on submit in the build menu on the left side of the screen or else nothing will be built. This is true for most of the actions you take in building your planetary infrastructure.

Once the extractor is built, the next thing to do is to select your shiney new extractor and survey the area around it. To do this, left click on the extractor and select the first icon. After a quick few seconds you will be treated to what is available to be extracted from your current location. You are typically given four different choices, each one has a different concentration of material, different amount of materials extracted on each run, the amount of run to full extract that vein of material and the amount of time the whole batch will take. Use the last column of information which is time to run the entire batch as you primary indicator since it will determine how often you have to come back to the planet to set up another extraction batch.

Basic and Advanced Industry Facilities

Industry Facilities are what your new colony is all about. They take the raw materials you extract out of the planet and make them into trade goods for sale or use. Basic industry facilities takes the raw materials and makes them into simple trade goods such as oxygen or water or into more advance trade goods to be used in advanced industry facilities. Advanced industry facilites produces goods that require at least two or more material to produce. Both the basic and advanced industry facilities uses schematics to produce their products, it is unknown at this time whether the schematics will be already known or need to be acquired like blueprints used in more traditional manufacturing processes. Basic Industry cost 225,000.00 isk and cost 800 MW and 100 tf to operate while Advanced Industry cost 450,000.00 isk and 600 MW and 300 tf to operate.

Storage Facilities

Storage facilities can be used in varies way. The first is the point of collection for all your raw materials coming out of your extractors. The second would be the point of collection for products coming out of industry facilities prior to shipping off planet. A storage facility can also be used to store materials brought to the planet from else where in EVE to be used in advanced industry facilities that isn't produced locally. Each storage facility costs 600,000.00 isk to build and costs 600 MW and 300 tf to operate. Storage facilities has a maximum capacity of 5000.0 m3.

The next thing to do will be to build either a basic industry facility or a storage facility and link your extractor to the new facility so the materials can be moved between them. Again remember to click on submit or the link will not be built. Once the link is established click on the product icon and select your raw materials and route it to either industry or storage. Depending on what you decide to do, you can link your basic industry facility into an advanced industry facility and then route the products from the basic facility to the advanced facility to produce more advanced goods, or link directly to your command center or a launch pad to be shipped off planet.

Spaceports

Launch pads do exactly as their name imply. They are used to ship goods off the planet to the planetary customs office sitting in orbit. Launch Pads costs 1,125,000.00 isk and costs 600 MW and 1,600 tf to operate. Launch pads are the most expensive structures to build but do offer 10,000.0 m3 capacity to store goods prior to transport off planet.

Final Thoughts

If you are starting out a small operation or setting up your first colony, the thing to watch out for it getting your infrastructure too spread out on the planet. The reason for this is that the powergrid and cpu costs to link your varies structures can suck away everything that your command center is able to provide. Each link costs about 0.1539 MW per KM and 0.1575 tf per KM to build. While this does not seem much you must remember that you are dealing with things on a planetary scale and distance can stretch very quickly.

Okay, so here are key points to remember:

Use the correct command center for the scale of operation you intend to have.
Scan the planet first for material riches.
Build mulitple extractors for the same material.
Link your structures, but minimize the number of links you use and the distance between your structures.

Planetary Interaction

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