Mars Ore... well: I've read many good points on this, pretty much all of them my own which almost never happens with any topic.
At this point, dear game designers, you'll see: we won't take no for an answer regarding this, it will have to be reworked in some kind of way.
But let me make a couple of points of my own and partly reiterate:
There is no sensible reason for the synthesized Ore to be produced at this low rate. Besides it seeming rather bone-headed to potentially have to tear down a qurter of one's city to have 30 synthesizers running for 6 months to attone for not having stocked up tens of thousands of units, it's not as if Mars access has been blocked anyway, because we do keep having access to the Martian deposits for Earth-based synthesizing of Mars goods, and unless the Mars independence was a hostile takeover (which is wasn't because all sectors remain green and we all celebrated the independence), we retain all planetary access while, of course, the colony is now self-governed so we can't build in their city now: logical.
So IF planetary access had heen diminished to a point where we can use the Martian deposits but can't explore the sites anymore, the Matians would take over exploration and trade with us, no? So we do keep access to Martian soil an thus, in a way, have the deposit for Martian Ore.
But: Why, at the point of having found a way to synthesize a good=material, would we need any access to a deposit or any base materials? If you really synthesized brass in the full meaning, you wouldn't need any copper now, would you? Same way as we toady can synthesize gas for cars without ever having drilled a single hole into the earth.
And if we take consistency into account, look at the other sources of special goods: The harbor and the terminal both easily make 100 units daily outside of the city grounds. Sure, they cost quite a few goods but those are tradable. Now for this to match, we'd have to put up 25 of these hens who lay four golden eggs a day and need broad ways which all in all takes more space if we were to put the Arctic harbor and the Terminal in our city now, only to toil away months on end?
Guys, I know you employ people leaned in the ways of psychology, whoever thought this would be a good idea suuurely was feverish with the Wu flu, no?
We all know, some toil has to be built in the game, but not like this! At least give us, say, the normal Earth rate with deposit, because we, as I showed, should have access to it, be it passive or active; it would be bad enough to whip up 20-some k for AB and Venus with 20/d per synth. You can always increase production cost or make it need other (additional) stuff.
Or how about amking the exploration sites available but now, the peaceful way is mandatory and cost for negotiations are ALL possible Earth-based goods, you know, as a way to show the ongoing trade between the the planets, surely the former colony retains a desire for many goods they do not produce themselves?
In the end, we should be able to produce a reasonable amount of Mars Ore in a sensible way. As it stands now, a lot of players have and will put themselves in what feels like a dead end with the exit door behind us slammed shut; we can dig ourselves out, sure, but only through the use of teaspoons. This cannot be in anyone's interest, can it?
