Understanding Resources
It is important to learn the fundamentals of Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, and resources are the most fundamental, yet complicated aspect of this game. In order to build a Refinery one must first build a Colony and before that, a Power Plant. These three buildings are the basis of all resource gathering in Dominion, and are equally important to each-other.
In Dominion one Colony will allow you to hold a maximum of 100 "Men" as resources, each additional Colony appropriately increases the capacity by the proportionate ratio. To complete the idea, in order to house 500 "Men" one must have 5 Colonies.
A Colony's purpose secondary to housing "Men" is producing "Men." A Colony will produce "Men" at the very slow rate of around 5 men per minute, each additional Colony will increase the production rate by the same proportionate ratio. To upgrade a Colony one must pay twice the cost of one Colony, the upgraded Colony will produce at x3 the original rate, or around 15 men per minute. You pay the same price as having purchased three colonies, however you did not have to use the production cue to build the "extra two;" the only catch is that the colony still only houses 100 "Men" after upgrade.
One Refinery has the potential of gathering 1,000 resources per minute, though it's production rate is affected by your power supply. It is important to build and upgrade Power Plants in order to maintain a steady resource gather rate; if your power supply drops below 100% your Refinery will gather proportionately slower, the lower the amount of power you have, until it will stop gathering at 0% power. To complete the idea, one Refinery at 50% power would gather 500 resources per minute. Like the Colony, each additional Refinery increases the gathering rate by the proportionate ratio. Therefore, 5 Refineries would gather 5,000 resources per minute at 100% power.
Visual example: In the picture above, I have 50% power and two refineries, thus these two refineries are only gathering at the rate of one refinery. Stressing the importance of managing high power levels to insure a high gather rate.
Understanding Build Order
The first few buildings in Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 present themselves quite obviously and naturally, however understanding exactly how the building order is affected is important to ensure speedy development. In order to view the entire unlocked buildings tab one must, and must only necessarily build one Main Plant, one Power Plant, one Colony, one Headquarters, and must only necessarily upgrade one Main Plant, one Colony and one Headquarters. If any of these latter three upgraded buildings are sold or destroyed, the buildings tab will revert to the original state.
At any point in the game if you do not have at least one Power Plant, you will not be able to build a Colony or Refinery. You must also have at least one Power Plant in order to build an Umbilical.
Visual example: As you can see in the picture above, I have built at least one Main Plant, one Power Plant, one Colony and one Headquarters, however I have only upgraded one Main Plant, one Colony and one Headquarters; yet am able to view the entire buildings tab. The Power Plant does not have to be upgraded to accomplish this.
