Interstellar Logistics Station

The Interstellar Logistics Station is an upgraded logistics station that extends the Planetary Logistics Station with interplanetary and interstellar transport. It can be crafted in an Assembler or from the Icarus Replicator, and it serves as the hub where Logistics Drones and Logistics Vessels manage cargo between stations, planets, and star systems. Each station can hold up to 100 Logistics Drones and 10 Logistics Vessels.

Compared with the Planetary Logistics Station, the Interstellar Logistics Station requires more advanced materials: Titanium Alloy replaces the separate Titanium Ingots and Steel used by the lower-tier station, and the Particle Container requirement is doubled, which also increases demand for Graphene. Because both the alloy and the containers depend on Sulfuric Acid in their supply chains, the station is usually one of the first buildings to force a player into stable large-scale chemical production. The station itself is also used as an ingredient in later construction, including the Orbital Collector.

The station has five item slots, and each slot can be configured independently. The basic modes are Local Demand, Local Supply, Local Storage, Remote Demand, Remote Supply, and Remote Storage. Local settings apply to logistics on the same planet, while remote settings apply to transport between planets or star systems through Logistics Vessels. Storage keeps a slot outside the logistics network while still allowing manual or belt input and output. Items can be inserted and removed manually by right-clicking the item portrait, and conveyor belts can connect to the station’s bottom ports for automated loading and unloading.

A few practical details make the station much easier to use:

• Local Supply and Local Demand work with Logistics Drones on the same planet.
• Remote Supply and Remote Demand are required for planet-to-planet or star-to-star transport and use Logistics Vessels.
• Remote Storage keeps an item available for belt output on the local planet without offering it to remote stations.
• To unload items to belts, a filter must be set on the exiting belt.
• The station does not need a Sorter to insert or extract resources.

For vessel transport, the station must be supplied with power and stocked with Logistics Vessels. Vessels consume power when departing from a station to fulfill a request, while incoming vessels use a separate landing/takeoff animation and do not draw power in the same way. This makes it possible to bootstrap small outposts with a lightly powered station and no vessels, then let remote transport handle supply once the network is established.

By default, vessels cannot travel between stars unless warp is enabled. Logistics Carrier Engine level 4 unlocks warp travel and adds a special Space Warper slot to the station. When a vessel makes an inter-star trip, it attempts to take two Space Warpers for the round trip. If warpers are not available and the Must Equip Warpers option is not enabled, vessels will still depart and may take many hours to complete the journey. Supplying warpers through belts or remote logistics is therefore the standard way to automate interstellar shipping.

The station also has several important settings that shape its behavior: maximum charging power, transport range for drones and vessels, warp distance, and minimum load for both drones and vessels. Maximum charging power determines how quickly the station recharges when it has lost energy, with power draw falling as the station fills up. This makes a newly placed station capable of stressing a weak grid even though its sustained draw is much lower once charged. Point-to-point transports, interstellar routes, and groups can also be configured, with point-to-point being the highest priority and groups providing the broadest pairing option.