Newbie query re: mothballing ships.

[Elowan]

Is it a workable idea to mothball hulls with the basics such as bridge, crews quarters, and life support and then unmothball and retrofit as the occasion demands or will you get the "we can't build over 50% yad-da-da-da?"

Or is it better to fully equip them, mothball and then unmothball-retrofit new advances and adding other components to fill spaces you've left?

Dweebs need to know this stuff.

[Fyron]

It depends on how long you plan on having them mothballed for.

[Baron Munchausen]

You can refit ships while they are mothballed. But building ships with just control components is a waste. You'll have to create a 'refit path' of multiple upgrades due to just that '50 percent rule' you noticed, and the final cost will be much higher than just building new ships with full equipment.

The best approach to use with mothballing is to use it to maximize resource conservation. Bring back your older ships and mothball them when the new ones are ready. If you are short of resources you can scrap for the small percent you get back but it's better to hold them until 'Ultra-Recyclers' are built to get maximum returns. In the mean time, you can design 'updates' and apply them whenever your resource storage is topped out and you'd be wasting the production anyway. This keeps the old ships 'usable' in an emergency. And you can stills crap them for decent returns at a later date when you get Ultra-Recyclers.

Important points:

1) Ships and units are resource STORAGE only slightly less efficient than storage facilities one you get the Ultra-recycler.

2) Mothballed ships have to be kept relatively up-to-date to be useful. When you need them for an 'emergency' it'll probably be too expensive to upgrade them.

3) Resources that would otherwise go to waste are best used to build units or upgrade mothballed ships.

[ July 02, 2002, 21:33: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Klebdog]

You can also go into the setup of thegame itself and change the 50% rule to whatever suits your need (i.e. 90%).

[Suicide Junkie]

Empty hulls with just the basics ARE good for at least two things:

1) Put them in fleets, and train lots of fleets cheaply. Add real ships to the fleet as you build them, and send 'em off with full experience instantly.

2) Decoys. It never hurts to distract your enemy with a stack of 30 Whoopass-class empty-hull dreadnaughts while your real forces are elsewhere

[Baron Munchausen]

The old 'shell game' idea, huh? I suppose that would be usable against humans. The AI seems to know what you really have in a given location. At least if people use this strategy the 'Long Range Sensors' start to have real value. As it is, you learn everything that is in a ship class anytime you get into combat with it. All you have to do is send one little scout in to see the composition of an entire fleet. A small price to pay if you save a flet of deadnoughts from disaster. If the scanner jammer also worked in combat things would be different.