Proportions 2.5.2 mini-patch feature preview

[PvK]

Well, the point of the change is to make it so that you can only spread your production abilities about as efficiently as (or at least, not much more efficiently than) can by done via colony ships. Especially, your ability to build colony ships. Because, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be able to colonize much more quickly and efficiently by sending out a space yard ship to build a colony ship at the colony location, than by sending out a colony ship built at the homeworld.

Supposedly in Proportions, a colony ship includes a large amount of the things necessary to establish a new colony capable of supporting signifigant populations and industry and so on, on a completely alien and probably very inhospitable planet. Many of these things are only available in sufficient quantities, and/or buildable, at a homeworld or fairly established colony. These sorts of things would be represented by organic resources, and the ability to build with them at a location.

The requirements for building military equipment are considerably less diverse, and can mostly be covered by the kinds of things represented by mineral resources and mineral construction ability.

Moreover, one of the design ideas was that by making colony ships slow and expensive, the task of colonizing distant worlds would require planning, investment, escorts, and danger of attack. The fast SYS tactic tends to shortcut this.

Now, the maintenance costs of a spaceyard do abstractly acount for the expense of supplying construction materials to it (via those invisible small resource transports we have to assume exist). However, in the current state of the mod, it becomes both faster and more efficient to build colony ships at or near their destination using space yard ships, after a few systems' distance from planetary shipyards. I don't think the technique should be entirely prohibited, but I do think it should be made less efficient.

So some combination of the organics cost method we've been discussing, and/or adjusting the speed and cost of space yard ships, seems needed to restore the goal of making it more difficult to spread the production base and colonies into deep space.

PvK