The release of the major content patch Colonization - Phase III is coming closer and closer.
So what exactly can you expect with the arrival of Phase III? What new things will it bring to the universe of Gods and Idols? How will your current empires change? Will there be a wipe?
Before we get into the nitty gritty details of it all: The colonization content patch is a big one, there's a reason it was split in three parts after all. So I may miss some things in this post; and any numbers should be seen as examples and not final. Let's get on with it!
There will not be a wipe when Phase III goes live. All existing planets, buildings, and resources will remain just fine.
New buildings, mechanics, resources, shipyards, and colonization will all appear in Phase III.
Some of the new buildings include the Space Elevator class and the changes they bring to your planets, both in terms of how much material the planet produces, but also how much it can process (Refine Ore into Iron for example)
A planet with fully developed Space Elevator infrastructure will be able to process much much more than that one planet could ever produce on its own. Shipping raw resources back to your industrial hub is definitely something you want to be doing.
As it currently looks, Phase III may launch without the ability to set up trade-routes, I know it sucks, but trade routes are a big feature and I want to make sure it works properly and not rush it in. So for a while you may just have to settle for having a few planets that can't ship goods between them.
Space Elevators also change the way you interact with the planet. Specifically, Space Elevators require much less micro-managing than the City stage. The idea being that once you upgrade your capital and/or industrial hubs to Space Elevator tier, you should not have to constantly go back and check on them and change what/how they are producing.
To this end, most of the Space Elevator tier segments are fully autonomous: They have upkeep, and they produce various goods. For example an Industrial Space Elevator segment is able to consume absurd amounts of Ore and output all refined variants (Such as Iron, Copper, etc) without the need for you to set specific production slots/lines.
That's not to say there will be nothing for you to manage. Beyond managing any new colonies you set up, which all start in the same City stage you are currently used to, there will be new things to take care of in the Space Elevator modules/segments.
But these things shift more towards dealing with events and guiding the direction of your followers than explicit direct control over things.
Once you reach the Space Elevator stage events will start happening that will require your direct input to take care of. Some of these will be simple binary decissions, "do or don't". Some will be hazards that require physical intervention such as potential asteroid impacts that threaten your planets. More details on these events may be revealed at a future date.
With the arrival of Shipyards you will finally be able to build your first ships.
Phase III will launch with only two types of ships available to construct: The Pioneer Ship, and the Industrial Ship.
Using the Pioneer you will be able to colonize other planets in the same star system as your capital. The Pioneer is not capable of interstellar travel in Phase III, but you will be able to expand to other star systems in the future.
The Industrial Ship, as the name implies, is used to perform industrial operations in the star system. At the launch of Phase III this will be limited to setting up Asteroid Belt Mining Operations, which will provide a wealth of resources, but requires the presence of an asteroid belt which means one less planet.
The Industrial Ship is also what you'll be using in the future to create space stations... and other space-construction projects.
As with the Space Elevator stage itself, there are random events associated with both new colonies, and asteroid mining.
Some of these events can be very destructive if left unchecked, and your feedback on the tuning of the "difficulty" of these is very important to me so remember to post that feedback! :)
If you have any questions feel free to post them below, on the forums, or on the Discord and I'll answer them in the next update.
Finally, I'll leave you with this bit of information: In the current test build, a Pioneer costs almost half a million resources, and an Industrial Ship is not far behind.