Your first moon base is challenging
because a space rocket is the only vehicle available to get it started.
The space rocket is difficult to maneuver and cargo space is limited. This topic shows how to build a moon
base with only one rocket trip to the moon.
Once your first moon base is operational, you will have the materials needed to manufacture spacecraft. Spacecraft enable you to carry passengers and large amounts of cargo. This makes starting the next city vastly easier, whether it is on a paradise habitable world or the harshest inferno magma ball.
Home City Infrastructure
Prepare the home city to support a moon base. Build up the infrastructure that is needed in the home city before you go to the moon.
Build an airport
terminal in the home city. An
airport
terminal creates a trade connection with all other cities in the solar
system that also have an airport terminal. Roads and wharfs
similarly create land and sea trade connections between cities. Trade connections allow supplies to
flow between the cities that are interconnected.
Build a broker in the home city. A broker imports all
types of commodities from cities that are connected.
Each level of the broker causes it to import a larger percentage of the
commodities available. Retail
stores,
cantinas, and grocery stores also import commodities from connected
cities, but only the products
they sell. None of them sells eludium so, without a broker, no eludium
would ever be imported from the moon base we are planning to build.
The moon base will consume a large amount of air. A
broker built on the moon will import air and all other kinds of
commodities, including water, from the home city. Water can be
converted to air by a refinery to augment the air supply. To
prepare for the air demands of the
moon base, manufacture both air and water in the home city.
Build an eight-level refinery
in the home city. Set the refinery to manufacture air. There are
several processes for making air. Select Air using Atmosphere to collect
breathable air directly from the atmosphere. By the way, this process
does not require a breathable atmosphere; it can be used in a harsh
atmosphere to extract breathable components.
Build wells and treatment plants to produce water. Water
wells can be dug anywhere on the terrain, no specific geological
formation is required. Treatment plants can be built on the coast and
on land. A treatment plant on land requires a source of ice to convert
to water. Ice is mined where ice is present on the terrain.
The airless environment
of the moon will be deadly. Build a two-level armorer. Set one level to
make environment suits and set the other level to make environment suit
helmets.
Go to a retail store and purchase an environment suit and a helmet. Read How To Go Shopping for more information. An environment suit isn't essential if you can't afford it.
Finally, build a pharmaceutical lab to make medical
kits. A medical kit is not essential but it is a cheap alternative if
you cannot afford an environment suit. You'll need to heal yourself a
lot.
The home city now has the infrastructure necessary to support a moon base.
Plan to carry everything you need to build an airport terminal and a broker on the moon in one trip. Those two buildings are needed to connect the new moon base with the home city. Once the moon base is connected to the home city, supplies can be imported and colonists will begin to arrive.
The Construction window shows what is required to build each building. When a building is selected, the Construction Materials section shows a list of commodity icons. The tooltip on the construction commodity icons shows the actual number of each commodity needed to build the building in the current environment. Harsh environments add 1 electronic part, 3 metal, and 2 plastic to the construction of every building level.
Fly a space rocket to the retail store in the home city. Land as close as possible to the retail store.
Exit the rocket so
you can
shop at the retail store; don't walk far from the rocket. Buy three
crates. Build a carpenter or a plastic factory if necessary to
manufacture crates.
Buy all of the materials needed to build the airport terminal and the broker on the moon. Buy spares of each due to the failure rate of materials when fetched. The table above shows a suggested Total With Spares that will fit into 3 crates; your choices for spares may vary depending on the quality of your construction materials.
If you can't afford all of this stuff, don't buy the stone. It can be foraged from the ground on the moon. Read How To Forage From the Environment for more information.
Get into the rocket. You are carrying over a ton of construction materials so movement will be slow but not impossible.
The second seat in the
space
rocket enables you to bring a citizen colonist along with you.
On the Comm window, press the Load
Crew, Passengers or Troops button. Offer the seat to a passenger
and a citizen will get into the rocket with you. The space rocket must be landed on a
road slab to board a passenger.
By the way, the second seat can be used to carry cargo, instead of a passenger. To use the second seat for cargo, get into the rocket and drop one of the crates in your inventory. It will be placed in the second seat position. Click on the crate to pick it back up. The crate can only be picked up if you are inside the rocket. This works for other items and in other multi-seat vehicles too.
Fly the rocket to a moon or other planet. Do not try to land on a large gas giant or the sun; you will not survive. Look for a good site to build a moon base. Avoid the north and south poles because there are restrictions on building when the terrain tiles get too squashed near the poles.
Locate
eludium and lumenite. They are mineral resources
so they will be labeled in top-down view. If you find both eludium and
lumenite, but they are on different worlds from each other, build the
first base where the eludium exists. Eludium enables you to
build a spacecraft with gravity drives. Without lumenite, the ship
could not have wormhole drives. However, that spacecraft
would make building a second base at the lumenite outcropping far
easier than using a rocket.
Ice is valuable if you find it. Colder moons will often
have ice patches. Ice can be
mined and converted to water and air, enabling a moon base to become
self-sufficient.
Radioactives provide fuel
for nuclear power. The presense of radioactives is a positive factor
when selecting a location for the moon base, if you intend to build
nuclear power plants.
Small distant planets can be difficult to spot. They are easier to spot when the rocket is moving very fast. Look around when moving quickly and the smaller planets will be more apparent.
The fuel cell on the rocket
lasts 20 minutes. If you explore your solar
system using a rocket, bring extra hydrogen with you. The V key will refuel your current
vehicle using items in your inventory.
Land on the moon at the site you have selected for the moon base.
Switch to top-down view and
build the town square of the moon base in
one of the four terrain tiles next to the tile in which
you landed the rocket.
Build a road slab in the same tile that you landed the rocket. The Labor window can be used to do the work without exiting the rocket.
On the Comm window,
press the Debark Passengers
button to unload
the colonist. The space rocket
must be landed on a
road slab to unload a passenger. The colonist leaves the rocket
and joins the local population, becoming a citizen of the new moon
base. The new citizen will help construct the moon base.
Build an airport
terminal on the terrain next to the road slab. Lift off with the rocket
and land on the airport terminal construction site.
Move a hammer and a soldering iron into your ready inventory. Your ready inventory is any inventory position that is not inside a container.
Exit the rocket. Drop all three crates of construction materials where you are standing. Get back into the rocket.
On the Labor window, press the Fetch button. The fetch button attempts to fetch materials from the city's inventory and it also fetches from materials lying physically in the construction site, such as the crates. You may have to fetch more than once if any of the commodities fail their quality check in the first fetch.
On the Labor window, press the Work button. The work button checks to see if the needed tools are in the city's inventory and it also checks your ready inventory. Apply work until the airport terminal is completed.
Exit the rocket. The air inside all buildings is breathable without an environment suit. Pick up the crates. Get back into the rocket.
Use the Construction window to build a broker. Fly the
rocket to the broker construction site and build it the same way you
built the airport terminal, using the materials in the crates.
The new moon base is now connected to the home city. It may take a few minutes for the first shipment of supplies to arrive. Cities import commodities every six minutes. The new moon base is ready to grow.
Unlike a habitable environment, citizens in a harsh environment work all the time whether there is power or not.
Build mines to extract
eludium and lumenite.
Lumenite mining
requires tongs, a tool your city may not be manufacturing. When a
building is selected on the Construction window, information about the
building is shown at the lower portion of the window. The manufacturing
process for the building can be selected using a combo box at the
bottom. When a manufacturing
process is selected, the tool tip on the combo box shows the
requirements to run the process.
Add homes to the moon base by
building houses, apartments or
condominiums. Homes are needed for the population to grow.
Build a power plant.
Power is needed for life support. Power production is the first
priority when delegating jobs in a harsh environment. Citizens
will work the power plant before anything else.
Build a refinery. Set
the
refinery to make air from water. Refinery
operation is the second priority when delegating jobs in a harsh
environment. Citizens will work the refinery before anything
else except power production.
Food production consumes precious water. Imported food is usually sufficient. Food production is the third priority when delegating jobs in a harsh environment. Food production can help a moon base to become self sufficient. To produce animal by-products at a farm in a harsh environment, you must bring an animal to the farm.
Remaining jobs are allocated after power plant, refinery, and food production jobs are filled.
Once your first moon base is operational, you will have the materials needed to manufacture spacecraft. Spacecraft enable you to carry passengers and large amounts of cargo. This makes starting the next city vastly easier, whether it is on a paradise habitable world or the harshest inferno magma ball.
This topic assumes you have built
a city on a habitable planet that is
manufacturing space rockets, such as a new emperor's home planet. That
city will be called the home
city. Read How To Build Your First City
if you have not built a home city.
Home City Infrastructure
Prepare the home city to support a moon base. Build up the infrastructure that is needed in the home city before you go to the moon.
Build an airport
terminal in the home city. An
airport
terminal creates a trade connection with all other cities in the solar
system that also have an airport terminal. Roads and wharfs
similarly create land and sea trade connections between cities. Trade connections allow supplies to
flow between the cities that are interconnected.Build a broker in the home city. A broker imports all
types of commodities from cities that are connected.
Each level of the broker causes it to import a larger percentage of the
commodities available. Retail
stores,
cantinas, and grocery stores also import commodities from connected
cities, but only the products
they sell. None of them sells eludium so, without a broker, no eludium
would ever be imported from the moon base we are planning to build.The moon base will consume a large amount of air. A
broker built on the moon will import air and all other kinds of
commodities, including water, from the home city. Water can be
converted to air by a refinery to augment the air supply. To
prepare for the air demands of the
moon base, manufacture both air and water in the home city.Build an eight-level refinery
in the home city. Set the refinery to manufacture air. There are
several processes for making air. Select Air using Atmosphere to collect
breathable air directly from the atmosphere. By the way, this process
does not require a breathable atmosphere; it can be used in a harsh
atmosphere to extract breathable components.Build wells and treatment plants to produce water. Water
wells can be dug anywhere on the terrain, no specific geological
formation is required. Treatment plants can be built on the coast and
on land. A treatment plant on land requires a source of ice to convert
to water. Ice is mined where ice is present on the terrain.The airless environment
of the moon will be deadly. Build a two-level armorer. Set one level to
make environment suits and set the other level to make environment suit
helmets.Go to a retail store and purchase an environment suit and a helmet. Read How To Go Shopping for more information. An environment suit isn't essential if you can't afford it.
Finally, build a pharmaceutical lab to make medical
kits. A medical kit is not essential but it is a cheap alternative if
you cannot afford an environment suit. You'll need to heal yourself a
lot.The home city now has the infrastructure necessary to support a moon base.
Preparing
For The Journey
Plan to carry everything you need to build an airport terminal and a broker on the moon in one trip. Those two buildings are needed to connect the new moon base with the home city. Once the moon base is connected to the home city, supplies can be imported and colonists will begin to arrive.
The Construction window shows what is required to build each building. When a building is selected, the Construction Materials section shows a list of commodity icons. The tooltip on the construction commodity icons shows the actual number of each commodity needed to build the building in the current environment. Harsh environments add 1 electronic part, 3 metal, and 2 plastic to the construction of every building level.
| Town
Square |
Airport
Terminal on Moon |
Broker
on Moon |
Total |
Total
With Spares |
|
 Flag |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
 Electronic Part |
7 |
1 |
8 |
10 |
|
 Mechanical Part |
10 |
10 |
12 |
||
 Metal |
28 |
3 |
31 |
40 |
|
 Plastic |
14 |
2 |
16 |
20 |
|
 Stone |
75 |
40 |
115 |
150 |
|
 Textiles |
24 |
24 |
30 |
||
 Hammer |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
 Soldering
Iron |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Fly a space rocket to the retail store in the home city. Land as close as possible to the retail store.
Exit the rocket so
you can
shop at the retail store; don't walk far from the rocket. Buy three
crates. Build a carpenter or a plastic factory if necessary to
manufacture crates.Buy all of the materials needed to build the airport terminal and the broker on the moon. Buy spares of each due to the failure rate of materials when fetched. The table above shows a suggested Total With Spares that will fit into 3 crates; your choices for spares may vary depending on the quality of your construction materials.
If you can't afford all of this stuff, don't buy the stone. It can be foraged from the ground on the moon. Read How To Forage From the Environment for more information.
Get into the rocket. You are carrying over a ton of construction materials so movement will be slow but not impossible.
The second seat in the
space
rocket enables you to bring a citizen colonist along with you.
On the Comm window, press the Load
Crew, Passengers or Troops button. Offer the seat to a passenger
and a citizen will get into the rocket with you. The space rocket must be landed on a
road slab to board a passenger.By the way, the second seat can be used to carry cargo, instead of a passenger. To use the second seat for cargo, get into the rocket and drop one of the crates in your inventory. It will be placed in the second seat position. Click on the crate to pick it back up. The crate can only be picked up if you are inside the rocket. This works for other items and in other multi-seat vehicles too.
Blast
Off
Fly the rocket to a moon or other planet. Do not try to land on a large gas giant or the sun; you will not survive. Look for a good site to build a moon base. Avoid the north and south poles because there are restrictions on building when the terrain tiles get too squashed near the poles.
Locate
eludium and lumenite. They are mineral resources
so they will be labeled in top-down view. If you find both eludium and
lumenite, but they are on different worlds from each other, build the
first base where the eludium exists. Eludium enables you to
build a spacecraft with gravity drives. Without lumenite, the ship
could not have wormhole drives. However, that spacecraft
would make building a second base at the lumenite outcropping far
easier than using a rocket.Ice is valuable if you find it. Colder moons will often
have ice patches. Ice can be
mined and converted to water and air, enabling a moon base to become
self-sufficient.Radioactives provide fuel
for nuclear power. The presense of radioactives is a positive factor
when selecting a location for the moon base, if you intend to build
nuclear power plants.Small distant planets can be difficult to spot. They are easier to spot when the rocket is moving very fast. Look around when moving quickly and the smaller planets will be more apparent.
The fuel cell on the rocket
lasts 20 minutes. If you explore your solar
system using a rocket, bring extra hydrogen with you. The V key will refuel your current
vehicle using items in your inventory.Moon
Base Alpha
Land on the moon at the site you have selected for the moon base.
Switch to top-down view and
build the town square of the moon base in
one of the four terrain tiles next to the tile in which
you landed the rocket.Build a road slab in the same tile that you landed the rocket. The Labor window can be used to do the work without exiting the rocket.
On the Comm window,
press the Debark Passengers
button to unload
the colonist. The space rocket
must be landed on a
road slab to unload a passenger. The colonist leaves the rocket
and joins the local population, becoming a citizen of the new moon
base. The new citizen will help construct the moon base.Build an airport
terminal on the terrain next to the road slab. Lift off with the rocket
and land on the airport terminal construction site.Move a hammer and a soldering iron into your ready inventory. Your ready inventory is any inventory position that is not inside a container.
Be
sure your
environment suit is on and your helmet visor is closed before exiting
the rocket.
If you do not have an environment suit, prepare to perform the next step quickly.
If you do not have an environment suit, prepare to perform the next step quickly.
Exit the rocket. Drop all three crates of construction materials where you are standing. Get back into the rocket.
On the Labor window, press the Fetch button. The fetch button attempts to fetch materials from the city's inventory and it also fetches from materials lying physically in the construction site, such as the crates. You may have to fetch more than once if any of the commodities fail their quality check in the first fetch.
On the Labor window, press the Work button. The work button checks to see if the needed tools are in the city's inventory and it also checks your ready inventory. Apply work until the airport terminal is completed.
Exit the rocket. The air inside all buildings is breathable without an environment suit. Pick up the crates. Get back into the rocket.
Use the Construction window to build a broker. Fly the
rocket to the broker construction site and build it the same way you
built the airport terminal, using the materials in the crates.The new moon base is now connected to the home city. It may take a few minutes for the first shipment of supplies to arrive. Cities import commodities every six minutes. The new moon base is ready to grow.
Growth
Tips
Unlike a habitable environment, citizens in a harsh environment work all the time whether there is power or not.
Build mines to extract
eludium and lumenite. Lumenite mining
requires tongs, a tool your city may not be manufacturing. When a
building is selected on the Construction window, information about the
building is shown at the lower portion of the window. The manufacturing
process for the building can be selected using a combo box at the
bottom. When a manufacturing
process is selected, the tool tip on the combo box shows the
requirements to run the process. Add homes to the moon base by
building houses, apartments or
condominiums. Homes are needed for the population to grow.Build a power plant.
Power is needed for life support. Power production is the first
priority when delegating jobs in a harsh environment. Citizens
will work the power plant before anything else.Build a refinery. Set
the
refinery to make air from water. Refinery
operation is the second priority when delegating jobs in a harsh
environment. Citizens will work the refinery before anything
else except power production.Food production consumes precious water. Imported food is usually sufficient. Food production is the third priority when delegating jobs in a harsh environment. Food production can help a moon base to become self sufficient. To produce animal by-products at a farm in a harsh environment, you must bring an animal to the farm.
Remaining jobs are allocated after power plant, refinery, and food production jobs are filled.