Space Yard Ships
 

Is there anyway to get several space yard ships to work in cooperation on a single project?

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"He's dead, Jim."-- Lt. Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy |Chief Medical Officer / USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

I don't think you can do it. Many have commented that it might be cool if we could, but I'm not sure if that is really the issue. You could always Mod bigger shipyard components.

I feel the issue is more related to the accelerated build issue and how you 'pay' for it and deal with it. As Emperor Zod just posted, the current system of emergency build has some major drawbacks.

Personally, I'd rather we had some form of ramp-up system whereby each shipyard might have a limit on how much it could build and increase construction each turn.

This could be tied to either the shipyard 'capacity' as it currently stands or some population factor on the planet.

If it were I, I'd just tie it to the current shipyard capacity. We might as well arbitrarily keep our arbitrary numbers.

In this scheme of things, if a shipyard had a 1000kt capacity build limit per turn, then it could increase, indefinitely, its construction capacity by either 1000kt on the first turn and each turn thereafter or, if ya like double its current capacity, or +50% or whatever design feels is a 'cool' number.

If you stop using the yard for a turn, then you start again at 1000kt limit for the next,(first), turn. Sorta gives the feel of assembling the means of production and expanding capacity rather well I think.

What this means is that you need to keep producing at some real level to have the ability to respond quickly and up production.

This is not a new concept. It has been around for years in various board war games.

This might solve some problems here.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DirkHowitzer:
Is there anyway to get several space yard ships to work in cooperation on a single project?

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Re: Space Yard Ships
 

Why doesn't 'Emergency Build' affect planet happiness that way cranking up production demands did in SE3? If you had a -1 percent happiness for each turn of emergency build I think people would be a bit more cautious about using it. Maybe even -1 percent for the first 5 turns, then -2 percentfor the next five turns. It could be really difficult to get that Last 5 turns, and you would have DIMINISHING RETURNS as the dropping happiness reduced production. Is this not perfectly logical and realistic?

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

I personally like that someone said it should cost more to emergency build. If you have your workers work overtime then you have to pay for it somehow. It shouldn't end up costing the same. The happiness issue would also help balance it as well.

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

The closest thing I know of to having several shipyards work together is to build a ship, then retrofit it to a more complex design. As near as I can tell, all shipyards join in the repair effort from that point on. It's not really much help, but there it is.

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Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nyx:
The closest thing I know of to having several shipyards work together is to build a ship, then retrofit it to a more complex design. As near as I can tell, all shipyards join in the repair effort from that point on. It's not really much help, but there it is.

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Do you ever build repair ships or even repair bases outfitted with the Repair Component III which can repair 8 components per turn? A Battlecruiser or 500KT Space Station can mount 3 of these components for a total of 24 components repaired per turn.

When I play, I like to send a couple of these Repair Battlecruisers with my fleets in addition to a Spaceyard Ship. This makes it very easy and quite quick to do in-place upgrades of ships fighting on the front lines.

Couple that with supply cruisers mounted with tons and tons of Solar Collectors III, and you can easily maintain a nice moving battle far from home.

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

I do that quite often, though I've found shipyard ships more useful since they can build replacement troops, fighters, and smaller ships while out on crusade. Repair ships can only keep the original fleet in fighting condition.

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Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nyx:
I do that quite often, though I've found shipyard ships more useful since they can build replacement troops, fighters, and smaller ships while out on crusade. Repair ships can only keep the original fleet in fighting condition.

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True. But doesn't a repair component III repair more components per turn than a Space Yard III component? Plus, the Space Yard component is much more expensive, and you can only fit one one a ship.

Speaking of Space Yard Ships with your fleets... have you ever gone to the Construction Queue screen and, in a mad rush to tell all your space yards to build stuff, accidentally selected the space yard ships that are currently moving from one place to another? Very annoying... Especially if the SY isn't traveling with a transport if it's building units. :-)

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

Space yard III components also repair 8 items per turn the only downside is they take up a lot more space. They are 400KT instead of 150KT also you can put more than one repair components in the same size ship to repair more per turn and use less space. But then the space yards are more useful because they can build as well as repair so its a trade off.



[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 25 January 2001).]

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

Personally, I don't really care if emergency production is altered although being more realistic is always nice. What I care about is the AI knowing HOW TO USE Emergency Build. I agree (for playability - is that a word?) that these can be "arbitrary" values for production increases /penalties as long as the AI uses them also. As it stands now, the Emergency Build seems to be a "cheat" since the AI never uses it.

That IMO is the only problem with any of these "loopholes" that allow human players advantages over AIs. If the AI uses them also, they're no longer cheats....

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

Here's a question that I can't seem to find an answer to:

What exactly can space yard bases (not ships) built in their stationary orbit? Can they only build ships or can they build satellites, mines, troops, etc.?

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Cheers!
Jeff George

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JeffG:
Here's a question that I can't seem to find an answer to:

What exactly can space yard bases (not ships) built in their stationary orbit? Can they only build ships or can they build satellites, mines, troops, etc.?

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I have been able to build troops on a space yard base. They show up in the cargo section of the planet the base is orbiting.

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

Space yard bases can build anything except facilities since there are no spaces for facilities on the base. The only catch is if you build units you have to have some storage in that sector to hold the completed units. If it is orbiting a planet it will use the planets storage. If you have built a base for instance on a warp point then you will need cargo storage units on the base to hold the units you build. Maybe you could move a transport ship or other ship with cargo components into the sector to hold the units but I have never tried this to see if it worked.

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tomgs:
...Maybe you could move a transport ship or other ship with cargo components into the sector to hold the units but I have never tried this to see if it worked.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, this does work.

The game is designed so that any newly constructed units will fit in whatever cargo storage is available in the sector--whether it be a space station, transport, mine layer, satellite launcher or carrier. Remember that all unit launch components can store any type of cargo. (This comes in handy sometimes if you don't have a transport handy but you do have a carrier, satellite launcher or mine layer around.)

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by raynor:
...any newly constructed units will fit in whatever cargo storage is available in the sector--whether it be a space station, transport, mine layer, satellite launcher or carrier.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is a cool feature for you minelayer types (Yes, I admit I've used this before...).

Sit on one side of a Warp Pint with a BattleShip outfitted with a Space Yard and Mine Layers (and of course the other obligatory components).

Build mines 2 turns - warp - lay mines - warp - repeat!

Re: Space Yard Ships
 

I like Tenyru's idea about ramping up production. This is the way it is in real life, you just don't immediately switch production of a new item to maximum.
Another idea on this line would be to have an increase in cost when you switch between items. If you build 5 of the same ship in a row at the same yard the cost per ship and time per ship could decrease as each was built. This would allow you to have yards that build specific ships faster than others.