Moon as a Military Base ?

[smith121363]

I had a start as the Earthers and I had a small moon that had an Earth Atmosphere. It had very little land, some Ag., a little ore, and no energy. I thought it might make a good military Base/Outpost. But when I added a Spaceport it turned into a Colony. Is there a way to build Military Bases on such a moon without it becoming a Colony? The available land mass and resources was not enough to create a Colony but would make a good Army/Airforce production area. To be honest I think it should have stayed as part of the original world. If we ever have people living on our moon are we going to consider them a Colony or an extension of Earth. Probably very debatable for the game and irl.

[Balthagor]

There is a hard rule in the game that ever planet surface is its own colony. Otherwise if faction A had an ore facility on the planet and a finished goods facility on the moon, the ore would be used to make finished goods even if faction B had full control of the space above the worlds. Resources are plant bound, build queues of units are planet bound. No faction can own territory on two different worlds.

Once you have that colony, you can use the normal diplomacy system to transfer goods from A to B and then transfer completed units back from B to A if you wish. One part still missing is migration treaties to move population. That's probably going to be another 2-3 updates away.

This is based on version .829

[smith121363]

Ok, I get the hard coded land part and I understand that as long as I don't build anything on the surface of my home planets moons I can control the space around them with the Orbital Stations I build. But I don't understand why building an Orbital Station around another planet instantly turns it into a colony even though nothing is built on the planet and there is 0 population on said planet. Shouldn't I retain control of the space around said planet until it is colonized or a spaceport is built on it?

[Balthagor]

The same issue would arise. Products from one side of your solar system would be accessible from the entire other side, even if there was an enemy fleet separating the two. Same owner means same inventory, and we judge that doesn't make sense here.

[smith121363]

I have been experimenting and I do see what you mean. I do seam to have a lot of control of the colonies and I have figured out I can use my trade ships to " trade" with them to get them going. Migration will help a lot.