Retrofit Rant

[luke_slovakian]

Hey you guys can look at retrofit cost like this.... Older models of components would be easier to update because there will be more options available but the later technology is more specific in a section and requires more care to upgrade and thus making it cost more and the older version.
Get what I am trying to say?

[Fyron]

Given that these are the only 2 moddable lines (not counting cost of the components) that affect this aspect of retrofitting and that the other retrofit mechanics are hard-coded, this can't be adequately addressed in SEIV unless there is another patch to the exe. But it can be brought up here for SEV.

It can, after a fashion. Make the cost to remove -10. Now, removing a more expensive (hence higher level) component will give you back more resources than removing a cheaper component, so it will cost less to upgrade DUC IV to V than it would DUC I to V.

There are only a few components that get cheaper with more tech levels in stock SE4 (I can only think of engines), so they would be the exception for more obselete components being more expensive to upgrade from than less obselete components.

[Atrocities]

Retrofitting is heavily over rated. Don't be fooled, it is not as practical as you might think. Sure retrofitting a ship is cool, even using the retro series designs is neat, but making it actually work in your favor is a real PITA. Good luck and enjoy.

[Fyron]

Retrofitting ships is a necessity... you can keep your DUC armed ships without sensors or ECM, I'll retrofit mine to the latest tech.

[Atrocities]

I never have time to retrofit anything in a PBW game. By the time the ships are retrofitted, the game is over, or the design is so obsolete that the ship is worthless.

[Slick]

A general strategy I use is to build ships that are a split between latest tech but sub-optimized to build them faster based on spaceyard construction rate. They are complete enough to go into battle if necessary. When they are built, I send them to one of my Ship/Fleet training centers for 3 purposes: 1) to be trained to 20/20, 2) to be retrofitted to the latest design, 3) to be put into a fleet. A ship can continue to be trained while being retrofitted.

Typically at one of my training centers, I have several Space Station Spaceyards which provide repair capability for all these retrofits and are always building ships or, more likely troops, to support my fleets.

I normally build ships in a set ratio. If I have the time, each fleet gets at least 1 troop transport (for capturing planets), 2 minsweepers (for redundant minesweeping capability, total usually >100), 2 spaceyard ships (for field repairs, field retrofits and field building of replacement troops), 1 aux ship (supply if necessary, anti-cloak, long range scanning, repair if necessary, and maybe medical bay), and finally enough combatant ships to take on enemy fleets and capture planets - starting around 20-30. I'll also build the occasional infrastructure ship (planetmaker, warp opener, warp closer, pop transport, etc.)

So my internal spaceyards churn out these ships. Then they are sent to the training centers which are a revolving door of new ships coming in, with retrofitted, trained fleets leaving. While being retrofit and trained, the large number of ships at the training center provides defense for this most valuable sector. When new ships arrive, they are temporarily placed into a "holding" fleet where they instantly get the 20% fleet training bonus for sector defense and to unclutter the ship display. In these systems, I commonly move all the warp points into this sector as well to force any incoming enemy to face a large number of ships no matter where they came from.

So, retrofitting is a key element of my play style.