Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

I`ve been playing with Warp Points Not Connected on a large map. In my current Game I has a small group of 5 systems, with perhaps 24 planets, of those 5 were size 15- 20, the rest 1-3`s.

I had built up about 400,000 reserve in Minerials and 200,00 in radioactives.

After researching the ability to open warp points, which was well into the Game, I built 5 Battleships, 2 Minelayers and 2 Battle Cruisers,in which I just had Quantum Resonators to open a Warp Point to another system.

Seems a very modest force to me, given my production, and at that time I was at +1100 Minerals and +1200 radioactive production. I stopped all research.

However as soon I moved the Fleet out of the planet orbit the supply fell through the floor and went to -185,000 minerial and - 120,00 radioactives. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

Needless to say in 2 turns the entire fleet was disbanded by the AI and that Game was over.

What`s up with that ? Why would moving the Fleet cost Minerials, and why the sudden drop ? Is there a game setting I need to toggle ?

This seems nuts. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

Open your Construction Que and select USAGE from the tabs. This will show you were your resources are going production wise.

Also, ship maintenance is sometimes costly.

Those Warp Opener ships do cost $$ to maintain.

You can mothball ships by having them at a planet with a ship yard facilitie. You should see a green recycle symbol, click on it and you can mothball ships or scrap them.

Place things on hold in your construction que to save $$.

Also when colonizing a planet be sure to optimize the facilitie choices you make. If the planet is 9% mineral, 140% farm, and 88% Rad, building Mineral Facities on that planet is about pointless.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

I think the problem is the Warp Opener ship. They are insanely expensive to maintenance because the Warp Opening component costs a ton. I always mothball it at a shipyard immediately after its use.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

I used to do that too, but not often anymore. By the time I research it, and the ship gets built, I always make sure to colonize a ton of planets, and I'm rolling in resources.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

True 'nuf, that does seem nuts. But I don't think that's whats happened. Even in orbit maintenance would have backrupted you.

And I really don't get the supply drop to the floor -- did you forget engines and supply storage, and just not notice the red ballel when in orbit?

For some reason, I tended to forget to put engines on warp point openers and planet creators/smashers -- more so than other ships. Dunno why that is, just excited I guess.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

If he forgot engines the ship wouldn't have moved at all.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

He says supply fell through the floor AND went to "low Resource amounts". I believe Black Cat is confusing supplies with resources. Doesn't explain the maintenance problem though.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

Yes, I did mis-state the " supplies "", the Thread title should have been "Resources", in fact all were in supply. It was the low resource issue I was talking about.

It seems that even vast empires can`t maintain large Fleets, even without expensive units like Warp ships and Star killers.

With owning over 30 systems now on a large Map, many very rich size 20 planets, and maxed resource techs I can only really support about 20 Dreadnoughts, 2 CVL`s some few Cruisers and 2 Aux. repair Ships and 1 Warp Ship.

I`ve come back to the Game recently, and when I got it on first release, I really don`t remember this huge maintance cost issue for Ships. Was this introduced in a recent Patch ?

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

What did you set your Maintence Aptitude to when you set up your race? Because unless you dropped it, you shouldn't be having such severe maintenance problems.

In the future, if you don't do this already, ALWAYS set your Maintenance Aptitude to 110%. It makes a huge difference.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

In addition to being absurdly cheap to purchase. 500 points for the ability to support 67% more ships...

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

That can't be right. I'd like to see your game, because you should be able to keep MANY more ships than that. I would think you are missing something, and it seems most likely you have forgotten to build space ports in all your systems.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

Maintenance/ component costs weren't changed significantly in any of the later patches, as far as I can remember. Of course if you're now running a modded game - or if you used to use modded files- that could explain the differences between what you see now and what you remember from your earlier experiences of the game.

If you're not using mods and never have, then modding the game might be the answer you are looking for. Simply tweak (copies of) your data files to increase the output of resource production facilities and the capacity of the storage facilities. That will allow you (and your enemies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif ) to support larger fleets.

EDIT: Cheeze's spaceport suggestion is a good one as well. DO you see little red barrel icons on all your extra-system colonies?

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

Another possibility to explain your economic shortages: have you lowered your resource gathering characteristics and/or your maintenance aptitude? Doing so would cripple your economy, especially in the case of maintenance, since lowering maintenance will kill your economy very quickly.

Along the same lines, what is the current happiness levels of your worlds? Happiness is paramount to determining resource income, and so the number of ships you can safely supporter. Or have you taken something besides "peaceful" as an happiness type?

Besides such odd Empire setups, I see no other reason why your economy would be in such a poor state, if you have expanded well and developped your colonies.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

The spaceport seems like the probable culprit to me, given this quote. A 30-ship fleet shouldn't bring surpluses down to ~1k levels for a 30-system empire. In fact, very little should bring it down to ~1k. What's not clear is why they would start disappearing after that. Maybe the numbers above were actually the amounts left in storage, not the leftovers from each turn. That could explain why a single turn would be enough to start scrapping.

Re: Supply ...Can`t Get There from Here
 

Are you saying that each of these 5 battleships, 2 battleships, and 2 minelayers had a quantum resonator? If so, each of those ships would have had at least 15K each in minerals maintainence - and could explain a sudden 120k deficit if they all were built around the same time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif