Colonization for Beginners

The basics

Almost any system body (planet, moon or asteroid; perhaps even comets?) can be colonized (gas giants are an obvious exception). In this tutorial, I'll assume you're colonizing a planet, although the process is identical for all system bodies. You don't need actual colonists to live there; a colony might consist of only a single Deep Space Tracking Station (DSTS) and serve as a listening post.

Before you can ship anything to a planet, you need to mark it as a new colony first. Right-click the planet on the map, then select "New Colony" from the populations sub-menu. Your new colony will now appear in the Population window (you have to close and re-open it to see the change).

Different populations can co-exist on a planet. They could be aliens, or a genetically modified species under your control.

Colonies can be abandoned at any time. Click the "Abandon Colony" at the bottom of the Population window. Everything you leave behind will be lost and cannot be recovered later.

Mining Colonies

If you haven't run out of precious minerals, you will do so, sooner or later. Time to dig for more.

First, make a survey of all the bodies in the system, then identify your most urgent mineral needs. In the Minerals tab on the System Map, you'll see all surveyed bodies, their mineral content and accessibility (1 means optimal mining rate, 0.1 is worst). Find one that contains a good and accessible amount of the required minerals (50 tons isn't worth mining), then designate it as a colony, as described above.

Also pay attention to distances. If you choose an asteroid several billion km from your industrial center, expect long travel times.

Now you need to ship some mines there. If it's a planet with a low enough Colony cost, you can use normal mines, like on your home planet, operated by colonists. But it takes time for the colony to grow and you'll have to build infrastructure for them. Also, most worlds are unsuitable for habitation. So build a few dozen automines that don't require workers and ship them there. You can do that yourself, by creating repeating orders for a group of your freighters, or let the civilian sector handle it (see Commercial Shipping).

Note that a mine or automine, like most installations, weighs 25,000 tons. They can be shipped in parts of 5,000 tons each, but that takes a lot of time (and fuel). Assembling and disassembling happens automatically.

The third option is Asteroid Mining, which is possible only on asteroids, not planets or moons, due to their higher gravity. You just need to build ships with one or more Asteroid Mining Modules and send them to the asteroid. No further orders are required. They will slowly mine all minerals and deposit them on the surface, where they themselves (if equipped with cargo holds) or other ships can then pick them up and and ship them home.

Civilian ships transport your mines, but not the minerals themselves. To do so, select a freighter and order it to "Load X", where X is whatever Mineral there is available on the colony, and set a minimum amount of at least 1 ton. Then select "Load all minerals" as the next order. That way the freighter will wait until that minimum amount has been produced, instead of flying home empty. Select your destination world (most likely your homeworld) and order the ship to "Refuel at colony". Finally, check "Cycle Orders" so the ship will repeat the orders indefinitely.

Note that sometimes, the civilian sector builds mining complexes on its own. You can choose to buy their production; you still have to ship the minerals yourself.

A final consideration is whether to build Mass Drivers. These things are used to automatically propel minerals from colony to colony without the need to send freighters. A Mass Driver can be built on your homeworld and then shipped to the colony, just like a mine. One is capable of launching 5,000 tons per year, or receiving an unlimited amount. In the Mining tab of the Population window you can set a driver's destination. Just don't forget to build one at the receiving end as well, or you will notice a sudden and rather drastic decrease in planetary population. Of course, you can always decide to target an alien colony with your mass drivers and send them high-speed mineral packets as a token of friendship. And if said colony doesn't have a mass driver installed - hey, that's not your fault.

Naval Bases

Your ships cannot operate away from a base forever. Even with in-flight refueling, their need for Maintenance constantly increases, until the breakdowns become too numerous to continue the mission.