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[Tarran]

I haven't played in a while but don't ships only have part of their total mineral cost in their wreckage?

Yep. And that makes sense; some of the stuff's been blown up.

And what about sorium wastes?

I think you mean fuel. What waste? The sorium/fuel is burnt completely, there's nothing left to recycle.

Missiles?

You can scrap them for resources, I don't see any place not being able to scrap them for minerals.

The massive amounts of resources spent on repairs?

What? The minerals are used to repair the ship, there's nothing left to recycle.

Random clumps of resources from left over fighting could collect. That would be a good way to recycle.

What kinds of minerals would you recover? Lasers, masons, particle beams, EM beams, and plasma torpedoes don't use minerals. Railguns and Gauss guns use extremely small amounts of... something that would likely continue through space and be unrecoverable due to never stopping and just continuing through space at extremely high speeds. Missiles self destruct. Anything left from lasers or any other kinds of beam weapons would be utterly melted, missiles would just shatter bits to uselessness. What would be left to recycle?

[Micro102]

So the Trans-Newtonian defy physics? Energy cannot be created or destroyed, there cannot be a 100% efficient power source?

Missiles blow up, where are the left over scraps?

If something is broken it's just broken, not vaporized, Whatever is replaced should be recyclable.

The left over minerals would be scraps of material too small to gather individually collected over time.

[Earthquake Damage]

So the Trans-Newtonian defy physics? Energy cannot be created or destroyed, there cannot be a 100% efficient power source?

Missiles blow up, where are the left over scraps?

If something is broken it's just broken, not vaporized, Whatever is replaced should be recyclable.

The left over minerals would be scraps of material too small to gather individually collected over time.

No need to quibble over nigh-impossible feats like collecting every last particle of space dust.  That's just silly.

Personally, I'd be satisfied with some means of synthesizing minerals.  For balance, set the rate high enough that a dirt-poor empire can build just enough (over the course of several years, perhaps) to get a new mining operation going, but low enough (and the monetary cost high enough -- don't forget you need money for production, too) that it doesn't compete with mineral extraction.  So you still want to expand your mining operations as much as possible, but it's still possible to recover provided nobody kicks you while you're down.

In addition, the ability to build conventional industry using pure cash instead of minerals would be nice.  You can start with it.  It doesn't cost any TN minerals, since you clearly had it pre-TN.  But you can't build it.  It's horribly inefficient in terms of manpower (something like 10 CI = 1 factory + 1 fuel refinery + 1 I-forget-what for the same population requirement as 10 factories), so it'd only be useful when you don't want to consume minerals.

But none of that will happen.  Poverty - Cheating = Instant Game Over.  That won't keep me from bitching and moaning, though. 

[Tarran]

So the Trans-Newtonian defy physics? Energy cannot be created or destroyed, there cannot be a 100% efficient power source?

Huh? I don't get what you're trying to say.

Missiles blow up, where are the left over scraps?

You mean the tiny bits of space dust? You'd be wasting more minerals trying to collect them then you would get.

If something is broken it's just broken, not vaporized, Whatever is replaced should be recyclable.

Can't argue with that. However, how do you know the systems are replaced completely and not just the broken parts of them? And systems are destroyed, not broken.

Edit: You mean broken from maintenance, not combat? Well, yeah, they should be recyclable, but think about it, for one, where would they store the broken and replaced object? Second, why would they keep it, not just throw it away? It's like metal trash, you throw it away once it's finished it's job and been proved broken.

[Earthquake Damage]

You mean broken from maintenance, not combat? Well, yeah, they should be recyclable, but think about it, for one, where would they store the broken and replaced object? Second, why would they keep it, not just throw it away? It's like metal trash, you throw it away once it's finished it's job and been proved broken.

Objection!

Consumers may throw metal goods in the garbage, but businesses (I'm thinking manufacturing and such) do not.  Scrap metal is valuable.

[Micro102]

I was thinking more along the lines of all the space dust settling on planets or asteroids, allowing for deposits to be found again.

And yeah they are definitely going to recycle that expensive rare metal.

[Tarran]

Guys, you're forgetting, where are the crew members going to store it? In the same place they got the replacements, AKA in the maintenance bays? And why would they want to store it? They certainly aren't getting anything out of saving the metal as far as I know.

[Earthquake Damage]

They certainly aren't getting anything out of saving the metal as far as I know.

The maintenance crew?  Maybe not.  Their boss (the captain)?  Maybe not.  Their boss's boss (or someone further up the chain)?  Very much so.  Commercial ships answer to someone up the corporate ladder.  The rest, being military and such, pretty much answer to the state (you).  I should think both groups would have policies and people in place to ensure that valuable resources are not merely jettisoned into space (exception:  denying those resources to an enemy).

As for where they're going to store it, IIRC even the smallest ship has unlimited space for survivors/POWs from life pods.  Surely it's not too big a stretch to also handwave some storage space for whatever remains of a damaged part. 

[Shade-o]

I don't like how everything requires magic elements. Why does a financial exchange, a military academy, or a factory have to be made of physics-warping materials? Or a shipyard, even? It's not warping around like a starship, it's just in orbit. And infrastructure! It's gas masks, pressure suits, and airlocks. We have those now.

[darkedone02]

I wonder if it's possible to automate my cities a bit without me doing any of the micro-management's. For example, let the planet and it's populution build anything, research anything, and whatnot... AI controlled.

[Cheese]

I don't like how everything requires magic elements. Why does a financial exchange, a military academy, or a factory have to be made of physics-warping materials? Or a shipyard, even? It's not warping around like a starship, it's just in orbit. And infrastructure! It's gas masks, pressure suits, and airlocks. We have those now.

It's sort of like when someone in dwarf fort or minecraft stumbles across huge deposits of gold or some valuable material; they use it for everything, simply to show how damn rich they are.

[forsaken1111]

I don't like how everything requires magic elements. Why does a financial exchange, a military academy, or a factory have to be made of physics-warping materials? Or a shipyard, even? It's not warping around like a starship, it's just in orbit. And infrastructure! It's gas masks, pressure suits, and airlocks. We have those now.

I agree with you on financial exchanges, but military academies would need the TN materials for training weapons, demonstrations, possibly training craft that are abstracted into the training process. Shipyards must be made of a TN material to be strong enough to act as a framework for ship building in orbit, as well, and probably to allow the storage of other TN materials/components in the shipyard prior to/during construction.

[Rift]

Well.. i'm going to go out on a limb here and say they use the TN materials for things other then jumpdrives simply because they are well.. more efficient? or... cheaper since the society is geared towards it... ie.. has all those nice TN factories pumping out tons of TN widgets...  For example maybe a financial center is equipped with TN-using computers or TN-communication equipment that increases its efficiency... and thus makes it far more desirable to the point traditional non-TN financial centres couldn't compete.
..i agree that it would be nice to have a fall-back to convential buildings though.

[forsaken1111]

I would imagine TN material would be amazing for buildings on the ground. You could make them as tall and oddly shaped as you want because gravity doesn't affect them.

[Earthquake Damage]

Infrastructure shouldn't cost TN minerals.

For your consideration:  Populations can produce infrastructure automagically as a trade good, mineral-free.  Therefore infrastructure doesn't require minerals.