Colonization - njthomson/SrvSurvey GitHub Wiki

Colonizing the galaxy is much easier using SrvSurvey integrated with https://RavenColonial.com. Once enabled these systems will auto track cargo needed across many projects, whether working solo in groups or using Fleet Carriers. It works best if everyone runs SrvSurvey but for those who aren't, most operations can be done manually on the website.

The primary feature for Colonization in SrvSurvey is the "shopping" overlay, showing what is needed, what you have on your ship and what is already loaded on linked Fleet Carriers:

The basics

Colonization features can be enabled and accessed through the giant :construction: Colonize button on the main SrvSurvey window. This is how you can view your current build project(s), refresh local data and most importantly - create a new project. It will light up blue when there is something interesting to do. There are more options in the External Data in Settings, described below.

The shopping overlay will appear any time you enter any Commodities Market or when docked at any construction site. What cargo needs are shown depends on how many projects you have and where you are, more on this in Working with many Projects below.

If you have key-chords enable, press ALT+S to force this overlay to appear at any time. You can also press ALT+CTRL+S to trigger an immediate refresh of Colonization data at any time.

Creating a Project

Whilst it's possible to create projects on https://ravencolonial.com it's better to create them using SrvSurvey as it has access to important details from journal files.

To begin you must be docked at a construction site. Choose New project ... from the giant :construction: Colonize button on the main SrvSurvey window and the following will appear:

Choose the build type from the drop-down, which will filter orbital or ground sites depending on where you are.
A project name will be suggested but you may change it.
The architect name will default to your Commander, but this may not necessarily be correct.
Notes can be any free form text.

If you're not sure about the architect or build type enter Construction Services in the game a look at the right hand side:

When ready to create hit the Create button and the project page on https://ravencolonial.com will open, see guidance about that page.

The Shopping Overlay

Colours and symbols are used to indicate relevant conditions with cargo items sorted to match their order in market places. When docked at construction sites, they are alpha sorted to match that view.

Column	Description
Need	How much of the item is needed
FCs	How much of this item is stored on linked Fleet Carriers, see Working with Fleet Carriers below. This will be hidden when there are no linked Fleet Carriers.
Ship	How much of this item is in your ships cargo hold

UI treatment	Description
Dim with ❌	When docked: these items are not sold in the current market place
Trailing ✔️	Your ship or linked FCs have enough in cargo
Trailing ✋	Your ship has an excess in cargo
Green text	Your ship has the required amount in cargo

Colonization settings

There are a few setting to optimize how SrvSurvey processes and displays data for Colonization. They can be found in the External Data tab.

Setting	Description
Enable colonization features	Enable or disable all Colonization features
Track cargo at linked Fleet carriers	Uncheck if you do not want to track cargo bought, sold or transferred at linked Fleet Carriers at https://ravencolonial.com
Show Fleet Carrier aggregate counts	Show/hide the `FCs` column in the shopping overlay
Share column with ship cargo counts	Reduces overlay width by showing FC numbers in the same column as Ship cargo, rendered in darker colours. If ship has item in cargo, that will be rendered instead
Show delta vs sum	Suppose you need 200 Steel and FCs have 150 or 225. Check this to see `-50` or `+25`
Highlight with 🏁 if ship can load enough on FCs	When docked, highlights if your ship can hold sufficient quantities of an item so that FCs would have enough. Shows the difference needed in Yellow
Collapse cargo groups when enough on FCs	Reduces overlay height by collapsing groups when FCs have enough of all those items

Working with many Projects

The shopping overlay will show different cargo needs depending on where you are:

When docked at a construction site: the overlay will show cargo needs for that specific site, whether it is tracked or not.
If in a system with tracked projects: it will show aggregate needs for just local projects, with title "N local projects:"
Otherwise it will show aggregated needs for all projects in all systems, with title "N total projects:"

It is likely you may have multiple projects but you only want to focus on one at time. Marking a project as primary tells SrvSurvey to only show cargo needs for that project.

When docked at a construction site, from the giant :construction: Colonize button on the main SrvSurvey window: use Set primary or Clear primary as needed.
This can also be done on the project's page at https://ravencolonial.com, but be sure to Refresh colonization data afterwards.

Occasionally you may dock at a construction site tracked by other commanders. You will see a message "⚠️ Not a member of this project" in such cases, and can open the page for this project from the giant Colonize button on the main window.

Working with Fleet Carriers

Using a Fleet Carrier to stock up on necessary commodities is an obvious choice for efficiently building new colonies. SrvSurvey and https://ravencolonial.com make this process much more efficient by linking Fleet Carriers to projects and showing the sum of their cargo in the shopping overlay and project pages.

On the shopping overlay, Fleet Carrier cargo counts will be red when insufficient quantities have been collected.
This changes to green once there is enough and makes a ✔️ show next to the commodity name.
Use setting Show delta vs sum to toggle between showing the sum of cargo on Fleet Carriers, or the difference between that and how much is needed.
Use setting Highlight with 🏁 if ship can load enough on FCs to show that difference when you ship could purchase enough to be done.

Note: :t-rex: Journal files do not reveal how much cargo is stored on Fleet Carriers unless those items are for marked for sale :t-rex:

Cargo quantities will be tracked relative by SrvSurvey as cargo is bought, sold or transferred from Fleet Carriers. As you get started please use links to your carrier on https://ravencolonial.com to establish which cargo items are already stored.