more on shipyard use

[Gandalf Parker]

I must be getting brave. Remember Im a newb as far as you guys are concerned.

This also some other things Im messing with. I designed a fueler (escort, no engines, all supply with a couple of solar panels) which seems to work well for a quick refuel of shipyard ships. Leaving it behind in key locations makes for a nice gas-station pump. The 3star nothing-else systems are great for that. In higher traffic areas that I dont own, can a solar-paneled ship hide in a storm and still build up its supply?

For planets, a satellite fueler is faster but for a SpaceDock Ship the escort Version is for lack of launching ability. How do you get around the having to have cargo and launch on a shipyard ship (or base if there is no planet)? Can I create a cargo/launch ship or base and have a yard build sats/fighters/mines/drones? Do they need to be fleeted?

[AgentZero]

For point 1, you supply ship will still build up supplies even hiding in a storm. As for the second question, I think as long as there is cargo space somewhere, the newly constructed units will be placed in it. I remember building a similar ship to your refueler, except it had a SY on it as well. I used it to support a pair of carriers that were raiding enemy ships. Every time the carriers ran low on fighters, got damaged, or ran low on supplies, they nipped back to the fueling station for a top up.

[Alneyan]

A ship hiding in a storm (crafty Gandalf) replenishes its supplies as anywhere else within the system. It does not work for nebulaes and other special systems however.

You cannot fleet satellites with vessels, or any other unit except fighters. But fleeting fighters with ships will not cause them to share their supplies, so do not put fighters along with a ship with nearly no supplies to make them share their common pool. Bases may be fleeted with ships if you switch the appropriate option on in settings.txt

A spaceyard vessel or base can launch units on its own, so long as you have the space to put cargo and/or launch components on board the ship (a spaceyard base could have a Spaceyard, the needed components, one Minelayer and one Cargo bay for example).

[Gandalf Parker]

Alneyan said:
A spaceyard vessel or base can launch units on its own, so long as you have the space to put cargo and/or launch components on board the ship (a spaceyard base could have a Spaceyard, the needed components, one Minelayer and one Cargo bay for example).

That much I had done but I regretted the space used. For the expense of a shipyard Id rather use other spaces for protection. What I would rather do is create a "warehouse" Version to sit next to it with just cargo space and launchers. If that gets taken out then its not such a big loss.

Plus, as the early game progresses I can create a ship of cargo and sat laucher, then later one with cargo and mine launcher, cargo and drone launch, cargo and fighter launch, as I research each of them. Even in later game I think it would work better than adding all of the launchers on a shipyard. In fact, if I use transports for each I can even move the stuff around abit.

So apparently fleeting or having them in the same location will provide this ability in most cases. Good to know.

[rdouglass]

Yes, I too use that kind of strategy except you need to remember that if you plan on using any of your units in combat in that sector, be sure to have enough of the launch components as well as storage components to be effective.

Sure, you can put lots of fighters on a base with just 1 Fighter Bay and all the rest storage, but you'll be very limited still as to the number you can launch in combat. Even if you have the launch components on other vessels, I don't believe you can transfer cargo in combat - they need to be already on that ship with all the launchers. My rule of thumb is at least 10 "launch" components (you'll be able to launch 20 fighters at a time) and the rest Storage components. Or mine layers, etc.

But you knew that already...