Civilian mining complex

This article contains information relevant to both the C# and VB6 versions of Aurora. Where differences exist, they are noted in the appropriate sections.

A Civilian Mining Complex (CMC) is surface facility built and managed by the private sector. CMC are either built as part of new Civilian Mining Colony established on mineral rich planets, moons and asteroids; or as an expansion to already existing CMC facilities.

Each Civilian Mining Complex is equivalent to ten automated mines. Each Civilian Mining Colony can have several CMCs and comes equipped with a Deep Space Tracking Station, a built in Mass Driver and a small garrison. Such civilian endeavors are beneficial to your Empire, as even a small bare-bones facility will gain you access to additional raw materials and expand your sensor coverage in that area.

Civilian Mining Colony

New civilian mining colonies can be established on mineral rich planets, moons and asteroids if you don't yet have a colony on them. They are more likely to form in empires with large racial income (reflects the size of the civilian economy), and systems with large populations.

When a mining colony is formed it comes equipped with 1-3 CMCs, a level 1 Deep Space Tracking Station, and an infinite amount of Mass Driver capacity for civilian use. Where each CMC output is equivalent to 10 Automated Mines using the Empire Mining Production ## Tons technology when it comes to determining extraction rate. Like other mines, they're also affected by the governor's Mining bonus.

Each CMC also gets a small garrison consisting of 575 Infantry (INF+PWI), 8 Resupply Infantry (INF+LOG-S), 6 Anti Tank Team (INF+LAV), 4 Anti Air Team (INF+LAA), and 1 Infantry HQ (INF+HQ). The troops' design will be created when the first CMC drops down, and new garrisons will retain the tech level of that design.

In VB6 Aurora, a Garrison Battalion or a low-tech infantry (if the TN Garrison unit has not yet been researched) is created, named, and placed on the body upon CMC creation.

In addition to the check for new mining colonies, all existing colonies are checked if they will be expanded current facilities by adding one extra CMC. Though new mining colonies will only be placed on an empty body, once a CMC exists the player can use it as any other colony under their control. (in VB6, another colony may be created by the player and used as a population center, mining base, military depot, etc.) This will not prevent expansion of the CMC in the future.

When the minerals on the body a CMC is located on are all extracted, the colony will disband itself, generating an event and freeing the body for the player. If the player has placed anything on the CMC colony beforehand, however, only CMCs themselves are removed.

In VB6 Aurora, a message will generate about the CMC shutting down. At this point, what will be left is a generic colony, possibly with some minerals stockpiled and a Garrison Battalion. All that is left is to verify that the stockpile is empty, pick up that garrison and abandon the body.

Mechanics

C#

Each construction phase (5 days by default):

If a race has at least two colonies with population or infrastructure, that race rolls a random number from 1 to 50,000. If that random number is less than Annual Wealth * (Construction Phase Seconds / Year Seconds), a check is made for a potential new civilian mining complex. For example, for a race with 20,000 annual wealth checking during a construction cycle that is exactly five days, the number needed to pass would be 274 (20,000 * 432,000 / 31,536,000), which is 0.55%.
If that check is passed, a list is made of all suitable locations for a civilian mining complex. A suitable location is a system body with at least 10,000 tons of Duranium or Gallicite that has an accessibility of at least 0.7. That system body must be in a system with at least one population of ten million and must be less than 80 AU (approx. 12 billion kilometers) from its parent star. If orbiting a non-primary star, that star must be within 80 AU of the primary or have an Lagrange Point within 80 AU that can link to a Lagrange Point within 80 AU of the primary.
Once all suitable locations are determined, each location is given a score based on the total amount of minerals with accessibility of 0.5 or higher. Duranium scores double. The new mining complex is created at the location with the highest score. Population is not a factor beyond the ten million limit required for consideration of the parent system.

For each existing civilian mining colony, a similar check is made in the construction phase to determine if an additional complex is added. For this check, the roll is 1-100,000.

VB6

Each production cycle, the game will check for new mining colonies. A new Civilian Mining Colony will only generate after a number of conditions are met:[1]

First, a random number is generated between 1 and 1,000,000. That random number is compared to annual empire wealth generation. If the random number is smaller than the annual empire wealth, the next generation step occurs. Otherwise, no new CMC will be generated that production cycle.
Next step is to determine which system a body will be generated in. Each System with more than 10m population is ranked from most population to least. The most populous system has a 50% chance to go on to the next step. If that fails, the next populous system is given a 50% chance, down the line. If all systems fail the chance, the CMC will be generated in the largest population system.
Once a system has been chosen, a body must be chosen. First, the body must be surveyed and have no existing colony on it. It needs to orbiting the same star as the selected population, and be no more than 80AU away.
On the first run through those bodies that qualify, Aurora checks for deposits of either Sorium or Duranium in excess of 25,000 tons with 0.8 accessibility or greater.
If no bodies qualify, Aurora then checks for deposits of either Sorium or Duranium in excess of 15,000 tons with 0.7 accessibility. A tonnage check similar to 4B is performed to evaluate which body gets the CMC.
Once either step 4 or 5 find at least one candidate, Aurora finds the total mineral deposits for each body. The deposit size is multiplied by accessibility, ignoring all deposits of 0.4 or less.

Finally the world with the greatest total deposit is selected and a civilian mining colony is created on that body.

Additionally, Each production cycle, each existing CMC is checked for expansion. For each CMC, a random number between 1 and 4,000,000 is selected, and if the number is less than annual empire wealth, the CMC expands by 1.

Gathering Wealth or Resources

Civilian Mining Complexes can be managed from the Population and Production screen F2, 'Mining' tab. Where the 'Civilian Mining Complexes status' can be set to:

Minerals go to Civilian Sector: The default settings, is to have the CMC send their output to the civilian sector. This will yield 125 units of wealth per year per CMC in taxation, regardless of how much minerals are actually being mined out.

Purchase Mineral Output: Alternatively, you can purchase the CMC mineral output for 250 units of wealth per year per CMC. This amount is also not dependent on the amount of minerals that are extracted.

If you buy minerals this way, you can to direct the Mass Drivers of the CMC toward one of your colonies where you want to stockpile this minerals input. The colony must have a mass driver of its own to receive minerals, but only 1 mass driver is needed to receive any amount of minerals. Additionally, you can choose not to set a mass driver destination, in which case the minerals will stockpile and can be picked up by a cargo ship.