Scrap and salvage efficiency

[Napivo]

As some of you know I am a new player and I only play single player for now trying to understand the system for which 1000's of page are written

While I enjoy Fighting the AI as the stupid ignorant human I am... I can't for the love of god figure out the salvage system.

Why don't the Cleanup drones, for witch I have not found any use, increase the efficiency of a planets scrap rate?
And what does?

[keith.lamothe]

Welcome to the game

Why don't the Cleanup drones, for witch I have not found any use, increase the efficiency of a planets scrap rate?

Because I haven't yet heard or thought of a way of integrating them into the process that would not cause substantially more fiddliness than fun.

And what does?

Each command station type has its own efficiency:
Home: 50%
Econ: 5/10/15%
Logistics: 10/20/30%
Military: 4/8/12%
Warp-Jammer: 10%

That's the only thing which impacts the rate.

In general you don't need to think about the salvage mechanic in an ongoing way for it to work for you.  You make decisions about where to take the majority of AI attacks (you may even dare to take them on your homeworld to greatly increase your effective salvage) and which command stations to build and which (if any) to upgrade.

So, like the other economic mechanics, knowledge of the system and careful thought is helpful (and, taking all the economic stuff together, quite necessary) but the majority of your mental effort is supposed to go towards your military strategy and the execution of that

[Fleet Unity]

Here try reading this post click on the Salvage section after that read the  Salvage Revisions it may help you out.  http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Post-7.000_Beta. For the cleanup Drones they clear minefield remains on enemy planets after your ships have destroyed (flown thru) them.

Edit: also its to prevent the AI from rebuilding its own mines also if you beachhead a planet (using a mobile builder to built on enemy plants that have supply) if the minefield remains are close to a wormhole you may not be able to build close to it if you want. The only time this is a problem is if you playing with a AI set to Mine Enthusiast as they use Lots of mines.

[Napivo]

I am going to throw something into the wind, and hope it does not come back to haunt me but...

Why don't the Cleanup drones recover, I don't know, 5000 metal/second from destructed ships ( friend and foe)... Giving lost debris to the AI (on his planets) and the gained debris to the player....

That way We'd need to go clean up our attacks to avoid counter attacks from the AI

I must admit I have never beaten the  AI above lvl 7