Weapon Maint costs

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Weapon Maint costs - 6/21/2014 11:09:10 PM

Evrett

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Is there any rhyme or reason to the varied amount of maint weapons require? I found myself ignoring the rail gun line completely due to its high maint costs.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/21/2014 11:38:55 PM

Nanaki

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Component costs are entirely based off of resource costs, which in turn are variable based on how common they are.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/23/2014 10:31:32 AM

fenrislokison

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Weapons aren't really balanced, titan beams and torpedoes are generally accepted as the best ones, then phasers and fighters and in the end rail guns, gravity weapons and missiles.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/23/2014 2:25:36 PM

MikeSF

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well rail guns skip shields, and gravity weapons skips shields and armor so it's no wonder that they would cost more to balance them out. Missiles, well they're just really long range weapons that do not lose damage over range, higher maintenance makes sense there since you're technically throwing away your weapons every time you fire, torpedoes seem energy based (at least via the graphics)

< Message edited by MikeSF -- 6/23/2014 3:27:06 PM >

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/23/2014 3:18:11 PM

pkoko

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I think all weapon components should have higher maintenance costs than now.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/23/2014 4:19:34 PM

Unforeseen

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As stated above, it's all based on component costs not balancing.

< Message edited by Unforeseen -- 6/23/2014 5:19:51 PM >

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/24/2014 1:02:10 PM

Evrett

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So what sets the price of resources ? Is it your personal source # for each resources or the amount of resources in the whole galaxy? Will component maint cost be different every game ?

The current maint cost of a component would be a really useful stat for the component tool tip as I tend to care way more about maint costs then I do about initial purchase price

< Message edited by Evrett -- 6/24/2014 2:04:03 PM >

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/24/2014 2:07:45 PM

Aeson

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Resource costs depend mostly on supply and demand. If you suddenly order 200 ships that each requires 1000 steel, you can probably expect to see the cost of steel skyrocket, at least temporarily until the demand drops. It doesn't matter if you have no stocks or sources of a resource if you have no demand for it; that resource's cost will be low unless someone else wants to buy it. This is often the case for the resources that don't appear in low-tech components in the early game, especially if you're managing your construction ships manually to optimize which resources become available first. Conversely, important resources that are required by many components necessary for many designs will tend to be expensive, at least while you're building ships, even if you have several sources.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/24/2014 3:08:43 PM

Unforeseen

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Cost is affected by supply and demand which is affected by the entire galaxy.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/24/2014 6:17:27 PM

Evrett

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K I'm not sure how to budget for galactic consumption..I want to build low maint ships I can leave around planets to guard against raiders..but your saying that a ship maint cost that today is low could skyrocket if some AI I dont even know about orders a bunch of ships with that weapon using that material? How does one budget for that? Just ignore maint costs until you are in the red?

< Message edited by Evrett -- 6/24/2014 7:18:07 PM >

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/24/2014 6:35:31 PM

Aeson

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quote:

but your saying that a ship maint cost that today is low could skyrocket if some AI I dont even know about orders a bunch of ships with that weapon using that material?

It's possible, though not particularly likely. Budgeting for it just means leaving yourself a bit of extra cashflow, or if you really wanted to do so you could compute the worst-case maintenance cost since resource costs are capped and budget the fleet that way. Aside from that, it's pretty easy to ignore as once the galaxy is fairly well developed the resources will typically cost somewhere around 0.8-1 credit per unit. It's also unlikely for a resource's cost to remain high for an extended amount of time, as the computer-controlled factions and any automated constructors will eventually get around to adding mines for high-cost resources, and if you're paying attention to resource costs and what your own constructors are doing you can help prioritize these.

The big resources to watch out for, as far as costs go, are polymer, carbon fiber, and chromium, as these three are somewhat rare and are used in a number of common components (especially engines and energy collectors), and also steel. Steel is a really big one if you're going with heavily armored designs, as low-tech armor in particular can use enormous amounts of it when you stack up twenty or thirty plates on a single ship, and steel is also used by a fair number of other common components, though it's also fairly easy to find a number of decent sources for it. You should also keep an eye on hydrogen, especially if you're getting to the point in the game where you might start switching over to it as a fuel gas.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/26/2014 2:52:38 AM

Keston

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It took a while playing, but eventually I noticed the actual cost "estimate" given when constructing a design varies widely from the "list price" on the ship components description. With a Nekros stone bottleneck, I shifted weapons design on an interim class to rely on other materials. It would be nice to have a 19th century-style historical price graph on resources to get an idea over time, but unless cash is tight or resources are in shortage I don't pay much attention to ship cost (not min-maxing, but then most real militaries are far from min-max as well).

Question: Are resources and/or cash generated when a ship is retired at a spaceport (for the state, or even for the businesses that do the work), or just research points from ships that are not your own design?

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/26/2014 3:03:31 AM

Aeson

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quote:

Question: Are resources and/or cash generated when a ship is retired at a spaceport (for the state, or even for the businesses that do the work), or just research points from ships that are not your own design?

I am not certain, as I haven't bothered checking it in a while, but I believe that resources are granted to spaceports at which a ship is retired, and I'm fairly certain that money is not. I would not say that the resources delivered in this way are worth bothering about, however, as you'd at best be trading a ship to deliver enough resources to build the same ship.

quote:

It took a while playing, but eventually I noticed the actual cost "estimate" given when constructing a design varies widely from the "list price" on the ship components description.

If you're talking about the cost listed at the top of the item description in the component guide you can bring up in the design screen, I believe that that is the research cost for the technology to obtain the component, rather than the cost of the component.

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RE: Weapon Maint costs - 6/26/2014 4:34:30 AM

Keston

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aeson

I am not certain, as I haven't bothered checking it in a while, but I believe that resources are granted to spaceports at which a ship is retired, and I'm fairly certain that money is not. I would not say that the resources delivered in this way are worth bothering about, however, as you'd at best be trading a ship to deliver enough resources to build the same ship.

My thought was to recycle resources for a new ship design strategy to deal with a critical resource shortage (e.g., destroyers with missiles, that don't use Nekros Stone).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aeson

If you're talking about the cost listed at the top of the item description in the component guide you can bring up in the design screen, I believe that that is the research cost for the technology to obtain the component, rather than the cost of the component.

Thanks - checked a few and they match up. The possibility never occurred to me when designing since the research cost is history for past techs, and it doesn't link to Research, for example, which could be useful.

Financial info seemed intuitive, but it would make more sense in the component guide if present. Though add/remove works well enough.

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