There is one thing I've always wondered about: how come the planets in Zorg never run out of resources to mine? Do asteroids that hit the planet just allow for larger mining operations? Or do the mines that me build on the planet actually go into space and gather the metal and crystal from nearby asteroid belts?

Speaking of the resources, how much of the resource does it actually take to build these buildings? I mean, what is the real-life comparison to a "Zorgian" resource unit? A pound? Kilogram? Ton? Or is it more like a size measurement? A square foot? A square meter? This would make more sense.

Sorry for the rant. I'm just sometimes curious about how video games compare to RL.

Moved to the appropriate forum

Although this doesn't work because the Terraformer is not described to perform this function, this would be a viable real-life solution: As a planet is mined, resources are poured into the Terraformer, which is more of a process than a tangible building. Nanobots are sent out to scour everything, including stray atoms wandering around the universe. According to what the computers say, it will then, using the resources poured into the Terraforming project, turn whatever matter it can find into a desired element, and transport it back to the planet, eventually building up another landform.
Of course, another way is to create matter out of energy, which is very inefficient, as a small atom holds an unprecedented amount of energy, and that is why a pea-sized antimatter colliding with a pea-sized matter creates a Hiroshima-level explosion with the same detrimenting radiation.
IPMs should be a lot more devastating than just 12k base damage. Then again, it does take a lot to hold a little antimatter. Unless the IPM creates the antimatter shortly before collision.

Of course, it is very easy to find atoms in space. On average, there should be one hydrogen atom per square meter, more or less.