What do you do with surplus resources?

[Orelius]

I normally use the surplus I have to construct fortresses everywhere.  Namely, on every important chokepoint and border world.  This leads to tragic brownout incidents later, but that's a story for another day.

I'm curious as to how everyone else deals with the ever growing problem of hitting the resource cap.  What do you do with your surplus resources?

[x4000]

Mercs!

EDIT: And also, I launch continuous offensives against the AI, anyhow, meaning I never hit the cap.  Churn and burn that cannon fodder.

[keith.lamothe]

I'm generally building a lot of fallen spire stuff, which eats resources like the cookie monster eats... well, cookies.

But if the m+c is creeping towards the cap and nothing obvious springs to mind:
1) Fill out any turret cap if I know where I want them.
2) It's time to lay out more space docks, more engies, and speed build a fleet right into the face of whatever AI planet I want dead next.  In extreme cases (or youngling/autobomb cases), FRD'ing straight from the docks into the enemy.
3) If I'm really desperate, turn on the ZPG that's generally under construction from the Trader from early in the game.  A group of engies can make 2M m+c disappear real fast doing that.

[Oralordos]

Wow keith, I generally do the exact same things with my surplus resources. I guess great minds and all that. 

[Shrugging Khan]

Don't bother with Mercs because they use up energy and are so expensive I'd never dare to send them to the fight. Don't bother with building unnecessary turrets because I don't need them.

So yeah. My school of thought is ye olde Dock-On-FRD-Into-Enemy-Territory; quite possibly with redirector posts on the enemy world sending them onwards to further locations - thereby keeping multiple systems cleared.

[chemical_art]

Stockpile them:
Maybe unlock forts, a little more likely to buy mercs,  but much more likely send the  current fleet into the grinder, so as to rebuild them.

[zoutzakje]

I always use my spare resources to build martyrs. Can't have enough of them.
or send my botnet to some enemy worlds to make some extra zombies, meaning I will have to repair the botnet after. That'll drain your resources.

[kuresuti]

Merc beam frigates and/or ZPG building.

When I build mercs I usually just let them sit deep into my territory until I have a sizeable force. They cost a lot, but don't underestimate the beam frigates, they will give you a huge edge if you get more than a few.

On another note, it would be awesome if you could randomize the non triangle ships available from the merc shipyard every game (or atleast the option to randomize). It has gone far enough for me to expect the beam frigate to be a part of my army late game, the phantom 4th member of the triangle you could call it, though it's probably because of my turtle like playstyle which allows me to get them almost every game, but still...

[Wanderer]

Sit on it and wait 5 minutes.  If I still don't need it, wait 5 minutes more. If I'm still at 1M each, build a fort.  That deals with that for 30 minutes.  Why? Half my fleet died while I was building it.

Mercs are too expensive.  Z Gen I go out of my way to build or ignore utterly.  My money's in motion.  If it's not, I'm already playing wrong or I need to wait a few minutes.

[Coppermantis]

If available: Zenith Generators, maxing out starships, turrets, and mercenary ships.

[Kraiz]

Starships,
ZPG,
Mercs - Yes, they're expensive.  however, mixed in decent amounts with your fleet ball, I lose very few of these.  Even when going at Mark IV worlds I never lose more than maybe 10-20 of each type if I have them all loaded, and that's under poor conditions.  They require a huge investment and patience to not be tempted to take the few of them you do already have and send 'em into battle too early.
And i fthat fails... FRD Space Doc Assaults.

[Catma]

Forts and mercs will use up money fast. You can scrap the fort later and get an infusion of emergency resources if you need it.

If my cash is like 800k or above I'll build mercs, and stop when it gets down to a few hundred K. Who cares how much they cost? Mercs are much more cost effective than wasting unused cash. If you don't play really fast and aggressive you are probably gonna make use of mercs, since you'll probably hit resource cap a lot. Don't be scared to use them, either. You're never gonna "get your money's worth" out of mercs, priced as they are. Just think of them as kind of bonus ships that make your fleet a bit scarier. Or, hoard them like kuresuti does until you have a significant force of them.

And obviously if you have zenith traders you can throw down all sorts of goodies, pause them, and continue building when you have too much cash.

[PokerChen]

About the Zenith Traders... one should always start building 1*players ZPGs before they capture one.

Most useful amongst others is counterspy if you encounter cloaked unlocks. Blackhole machines next on a fortressed world, followed by armour remover and tripler. Orbital Mass Drivers are so-so, and only significant if you lack serious firepower against lead ships (you won't technically need one, say, if you already have a spire city.)

I find radar jammers IIs to be too expensive, as are Ion-2s.

[Wanderer]

I find radar jammers IIs to be too expensive, as are Ion-2s.

Heh, odd.  I find Radar IIs to be the most powerful thing they sell.  All my mid-range turrets never die to Missile Frigates anymore.

[TechSY730]

To answer the OP.

Defenses on a choke-point world (if needed)
Then star-ships (how many depending on need)
Then mercenaries (depending on need, if any)
Then some of my Zenith Trader projects

And this is not a strict priority list, sometimes I will go down a priority if I don't need the higher priority stuff at the time.