50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

I just realized that at least in this Version, if you put a colony module on a transport ship it counts towards the 50% requirment, I noticed because that warning went away when I put a gas colony module on a small transport. That could make it more useful to send out small transports and forget about the colony ships all together.

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

Hum? I will have to try this out.

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

50% of your ship must go to components that have the cargo ability. Any component that has any amount of cargo storage will count (even modded components with a storage ability of 0kT)

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

There is nothing that would prevent this, but I don't get how you think it would be more useful. The only diff between the colony and small transport hulls is the picture.

Later in the game though this idea has merit. A destroyer hull with a colony module can have 6 engines instead of 5.

One of my fav's is a light-cruiser-hull with a colony module. You can cram in extra supply storage for those more distant colonies. Or more cargo for more population or prebuilt defensive units for colonies in hostile areas.

A battleship hull is big enough for all three colony modules. Giving you a very expensive, but very usufull ship that can colonize anything.

Geo

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

You can also make expense colony ships that have weopons by using the battleship hull. Then you can glass an enemy planet and then drop you own colony on it. This is a cool tactic for one way missions.

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>One of my fav's is a light-cruiser-hull with a colony module. You can cram in extra supply storage for those more distant colonies. Or more cargo for more population or prebuilt defensive units for colonies in hostile areas.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Or enough armor to survive and place a colony in a system on the far side of an unstable warp point.


------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

I frequently like to take the older ships from early in the game (ie. the destroyers) and create a design to use them as colonizers when they outlive their useful life in the regular fleet. I too usually settle on having all my mid-late game colonizers based on the light cruiser hull.

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

I've added "Colony Arks" to my game setup. I've also altered the default colony ship and the size of colony modules in my game to justify the special class. Else, why not use destroyers? So, a basic colony ship is 400kt and the module it 300kt. A Colony Ark is 600kt instead of 400kt size. As long as it has the "colony module percent requirement" the AI recognizes it and uses it. I haven't tried to make them put weapons or shields on them yet, but they do put the proper amount of supply storage and cargo storage in them.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 03 June 2001).]

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

You could also carry extra population in a transport that has a colony module and cargo bays, thereby giving the colony a big boost at the start. I'll have to try this.

Re: 50% Cargo Containers on Transports
 

I'm a big fan of using medium transports for colony ships a little later in the game. As noted, the colony module helps take up the 50% cargo space requirement. The 1/2-price hull makes it cheaper than a light cruiser for maintenance, and I get much more room for extra cargo, extra supply and some defense, too. Only drawback is the 5-engine limit, but at least it's not any slower than a normal colony ship. No modding necessary.