A natural resource is a generic term that covers everything from fossil fuel reserves through to rounding up natives for slavery.

There are two primary methods of exploiting these natural resources, through mining complexes and through resource complexes. A third complex, the exchange complex is closely related but requires the starbase to give something in exchange for the resource.

Knowledge of Resources
Normally a starbase or outpost will be built on a location that contains a natural mineral deposit. For more information on the construction of outposts and discovering natural resources see the ship rulebook. Here it is presumed that the starbase knows about the various resources to be exploited. This involves having access to data. This data must be known to the player, through political transfer, affiliation data or simply by being at this location. This data does not need to be on a list although attempting to start exploitation of a resource costs stellars so attempts to exploit random resource ID numbers will result in exorbitant stellar fees, so should be avoided.

All resources are classified by a number of parameters. These are as follows:

Resource ID#
This is unique to the resource. This is needed in order to exploit the resource.

Item Produced
This is the specific item number. It may be a unique item such as Venetian Jewellery or a more generic item such as Standard Food.

Extraction Complex
This refers to the type of complex that is necessary in order to extract the resource. Mining complexes are generally needed for ores discovered through prospecting. Resource complexes are needed for ores or other items that have formed under more unusual circumstances that defy normal mining techniques, i.e. those found through investigation. Resource complexes are often used to tap flora and fauna for trade goods.

Yield
This is the maximum amount (in mu's) of the item that can be produced by a single complex in a single week.

Drop Step
For every multiple of the drop step the amount of mu's per complex will decrease by 10%. In other words, while the number of complexes exploiting the resource is equal to or under the drop step, each complex will produce the yield in mu's each week. If the number of complexes present is twice the drop step, half will produce the yield each, the other half will produce 90% of the yield each.

Quantity
This is the amount of resource remaining on the world. In the case of common ores, this may well be so big that it is classed as infinite. Infinite is classed as requiring more than 20 years to exhaust the stockpile using the current number of complexes. In some cases where the Drop Step is very high, it can mean that establishing a large number of complexes can theoretically change an infinite stockpile into a finite one.

Change
Ores are generally formed over millions of years. For this reason it is generally the case that ores have a zero change. This means that eventually the resource will become exhausted. Biological resources may also be in stability with their surroundings so that any form of exploitation will eventually cause extinction. Again these will have a change of zero. Most biological resources however are capable of being exploited up to a threshold. This is the weekly change. This will often be slightly larger than the yield multiplied by the drop step. Exploitation above this amount will decrease the quantity present.

As the change is calculated on a weekly basis, this is considered the average over a year. Take for example a tundra region where much of the year is spent buried under snow and there is only a brief growing period. The change will actually be low as it represents 1/52nd of a yearly change as opposed to the dramatic change in a few weeks of the year. In these cases the change will be much lower than the yield multiplied by the drop step.

It is always a judgement call as to how many resource complexes should be built especially if there will be no further uses for the complexes once the resource is extinct.

Location
This is the source of the resource. Generally this is a specific sector although it can even be a position location as in the case of some strange alien technology that is located within the starbase.

Dispersion
Even though a source may be present in one sector, it is often the case that it extends beyond the sector into adjacent sectors. A dispersion value of one indicates that the resource is present throughout the entire world or is sufficiently common/accessible that it can be exploited from any sector. Such a resource will be classed as a global resource. Typical planetary resources are common background ores such as metals, hydrocarbons and basic elements. Biospheres often have food sources that can be tapped from anywhere on the planet. It is generally the case that only planetary wide resources are exploited by more than one starbase or outpost, however all calculations for output are based on the total number of complexes exploiting the resource, irrespective of location. At the opposite end of the scale, a dispersion of zero can only be exploited in the source sector. As the dispersion tends from zero to one, the distance at which the resource can be exploited increases, although there is fall-off in the yield based on a function of the dispersion and increasing distance.


This utility is very useful for determining output.

A starbase or outpost report will show the minerals present that can be exploited using mining complexes. This will only however show the minerals that are common data or are present in the affiliation/private political data list, e.g. hellenium is unknown to the owner of an outpost. As such, even though the outpost happens to be on a rich source of it, it will not be listed in the mineral report.

See also Exploration in the Starship rules and IGN has an in-depth article called Mining - Everything you wanted to know.

Due to the diverse nature of the produce of resource complexes, these are never revealed on a starbase or outpost report unless the base is already exploiting the resource. If it is not, it is entirely up to the owner to keep track of what is available for exploitation (many players share the information by adding the data to the affiliation library). This makes the knowledge of resources a valuable asset. Informing controllers of other starbases and outposts on the same planet can lead to rapid over exploitation of the resource, to the point where tapping it becomes pointless.

% Change
Resources can sometimes have a change that is a % rather than a fixed weekly number. This means that the change is based on the current stockpile. This might be a function of birthrate that is based to the quantity of potential parents.