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I never, ever use my space miner, ever. I find the technology is too expensive, and not helpful enough i have the most fun playing all-factories, i like having a lot of ships, so I build bundles of +Economy Starbases to boost output. (1) Do People agree with this assessment of the space mines and their miner? Am I ignorant in a slight way, I have faith you will tell me if I do. So, knowing this, and the fact that it's a Cargo Hull I sat and thought what I could do with it that would be helpful (I used to scout). Then I saw Colony Ships also have cagor hulls so I started up grading the Miners into Colonies, it costs like 170. I've found that, because I do this I can have another Colony up and running by the time my eco. hits the shitter, and this really helps on those perfect game where you rushed your colony ship out to a class 15, only to have a class 20+ be discovered by the vision gained by the colony. I also Find the second turn (T1 spent upgrading) colony keeps my homeworld at 100% approval for an extra turn. Note: I do this opening almost exclusivly, even on Tiny/Small Galaxy, and a bunch of Rares (rare plants, asteroids, ect.) And with this I use the second colony ship to farry people from homeworld to nat. expo. (natural expantion for the non-Starcrafters) On some maps I can do this an Infinite amount of times because moving one space into the plantet doesn't use a move (2) Is this garanteed? part of a commonly used strat? (3) Could I use the Miner better than as a colony ship
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, if there are asteroids nearby your homeworld its definitely worthwhile to at least build the initial mines with your starting miner. That extra (free!) production is always helpful. I find my colonization is limited more by pop growth than industrial output.

Space miners are cheap to build, upgrading to a colony ship for 170 is probably a good idea if you need to nab a high-PQ planet fast. You can always build another miner, but having the AI nab a high-PQ planet you wanted is troublesome.

If you're playing on rare asteroids advanced space mining might not be worth the effort unless you have a research lead. I would eventually research it just to trade to the AI.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've occasionally converted my starting miner to a colony ship, but in early game I put it on a bit of mixed duty, mining some and modest scouting. Plus, the bonus production really does add up on when you mix it with econ starbase arrays.

That extra (free!) production is always helpful.
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I thought you still had to pay for the production boost from a mine even if there is no maintenance cost?
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I always turn mine into a colony ship. One of the AIs will mine my asteroids pretty quickly, and then not too long after they will flip to my side from being next to my homeworld. Early on, I dont find that the bonus is much help from the ateroids. Later, as GW said, when you get starbases going they are more of an advantage.

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Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ah, you're right, it isn't free. I thought it was for some reason.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I usually bump it to a colony ship as well. Little tidbit for you. When you upgrade your starting miner to the standard colony ship it should cost 66 BC, not 170. BUT, if you look at the 2nd option, I think it is 44 BC with 3 BC for 4 weeks, for a total of 56 BC. A savings of 10 BC!!  ;p  One of the rare exceptions in the game where it is cheaper to extend the lease than to buy it outright. Too bad you only save 10 BC...

Sometimes if I see a juicy military or morale resource I will upgrade to a constructor if I am concerned with a minor or another civ taking it, and if Im the Korx I will often upgrade to a freighter and use it to "scout" and establish a super early trade route.