Starting facs for homeworlds...

[Marty Ward]

I know that 9 shipyards on the homeworld caused the AI to pump out ships! Maybe I will try a few games with three yards on a homeworld, I think I could modify 2-3 AI's to get a feel for how they handle it.
I'm definately gonna try 9+ in a hotseat game though. Then you would have a planet worth risking you entire fleet to capture, or defend!

[DirectorTsaarx]

I had an interesting thought: maybe the restriction on planetary spaceyards should be "one per [x] facilities on planet". And make [x] a settable option. Make the default high (as in more facilities than you can put on a sphereworld) so it doesn't affect the current setup, but then modders could change it. Setting the value [x] to 20 would allow huge worlds to build 2 spaceyards; [x]=10 would allow 2 spaceyards on medium and large worlds, and 3 on huge worlds; etc.

What do y'all think? I know it requires hardcode change by MM, so would it be worthwhile?

[Suicide Junkie]

I like it!

If you rounded off instead of rounding up, then you could have a restriction of no spaceyards on tiny worlds.

Perhaps it should be based on atmosphere; for airless worlds, spaceships would have a natural environment on the surface, and could take off easily. So, vaccuum worlds could have more spaceyards than other atmospheres, which could be limited to one...

Separately, what if ships can only be built at space stations, but bases can be built from planetary spaceyards.

SO, you need a space yard to get the base, which builds the ships in orbit.

[Nitram Draw]

Taking that thought a little further, how about limiting the number of certain facilities on specific colony types. Right now the colony designation doesn't mean much, it mostly just tells the AI what to build.
What if you could only build one of any facility on a planet except the facilities that fit that type of colony. For example you designate a colony a mining colony. The only facilities you could build more than one of were ones that directly provided or improved mining.

[jc173]

I'm not sure that would work out unless your allowing the players to setup several different colony blueprints and they have to follow those. Personally I liked mixed ability colonies, such as multiresource colonies and my military colonies usually combine the different shield facilities, training facilities, and such. Besides there could be problems, when you colonize a planet you can hit cancel when it tells you to choose a colony type, if you hit cancel the colony has no type. Or you could continually switch colony types to build the facilities you want anyhow. It's an interesting idea, but in a game like this I would prefer less hard rules to follow and more flexibility. Just my opinion.

[Nitram Draw]

I see both sides.
Switching or mixing colonies give the human a distinct advantage over the AI. The AI follows rigid rules so I don't have any problem with the same rules for me.
In a hot seat game where everyone is tailoring the colonies to their style of play it is more enjoyable to have the flexibility.
Sorry to have gotten away from the original thread.

[jc173]

Like I said it's an interesting idea, I'd prefer for it to be an option really or be able to design and load up my own facility queues. Better yet give the AI a little more flexibility in being able to pick planets and what facilities to construct.