Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (Full Version)

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ArrowRL201 -> Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 3:11:09 AM)

Somewhat new player here.

Been wondering what the hell Manufacturers do. According to the description, they turn raw materials into components that are then used by construction yards. However, I've tried adding them on their own to see if I can get freighters to drop off their load there. They don't seem to do anything. Is there any point in having manufacturers in a starbase on their own, without a construction yard?

Same with Life Support and Hab modules. It seems that each hab module requires a life support module, and I don't see a point in having one and not the other. Would it not make sense to simply...combine the two?



Mandras -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 4:09:36 AM)

I believe someone here determined you need precisely 1 of each type of manufacturer per 30 construction yards, although 2 is probably good just to be safe. They seem to make parts as orders come up, although you'll often seen small amounts of excess components in your starport/planet stockpile.

Freighters take raw resources to starports or controlled colonies. I believe that Large Space Ports have a higher priority vs Medium and Small, although distance seems to be the key factor. I've had my freighters stockpile 20,000 loros fruit in some insignificant starbase I had found abandoned, while my poor homeworld was sitting at only 250 units.

You only need the bare minimum life support modules as dictated by ship size (enough to make the red warning text go away). Personally, I always add a lot of extra hab modules because they increase defense against boarding attempts. Giving your mining stations 300-500 defense by adding couple dozen extra hab modules really cuts down on (succesful) pirate raids.



Tcby -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 4:48:07 AM)

Alternatively you can add assault pods, which have the same effect and can capture your attackers. They do take up more space, though. Roughly double.



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 4:52:08 AM)

Ok, new question then - how do I tell what is stockpiled at a given base/planet/starport?



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 4:56:12 AM)

quote:

Ok, new question then - how do I tell what is stockpiled at a given base/planet/starport?

For planets: open the colony list, select the planet you want to examine, go to the cargo tab.
For bases, spacestations, and ships: open the ships and bases list, select the base or starport you want to examine, go to the cargo tab.
For spaceports, construction ships, and planets: open the construction yards list, select the desired constructor, go to the cargo tab.
For anything: select it, double click somewhere on the selection details overview in the lower left corner of the screen, and go to the cargo tab.



Mandras -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 5:11:00 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Aeson

quote:

Ok, new question then - how do I tell what is stockpiled at a given base/planet/starport?

For planets: open the colony list, select the planet you want to examine, go to the cargo tab.
For bases, spacestations, and ships: open the ships and bases list, select the base or starport you want to examine, go to the cargo tab.
For spaceports, construction ships, and planets: open the construction yards list, select the desired constructor, go to the cargo tab.
For anything: select it, double click somewhere on the selection details overview in the lower left corner of the screen, and go to the cargo tab.


Personally, I like to select the planet or base and double click its name in the bottom left. Brings you right to menu with the cargo tab, also the construction yard tab so you can order ships to be built specifically at this one station.



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 6:43:49 PM)

Is it possible then to have freighters drop their supplies off at a manufacturer, which then ships the finished components to a construction yard elsewhere? I'm trying to provide different areas for my freighters to go to aside from my ports.



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 7:46:46 PM)

quote:

Is it possible then to have freighters drop their supplies off at a manufacturer, which then ships the finished components to a construction yard elsewhere?

I don't believe so.

If you really want your freighters to go visit something that isn't a spaceport or mining station, build some starbases with construction yards, manufacturing plants, docking bays, and cargo bays out in the middle of nowhere. Freighters will (erratically) attempt to maintain a small stockpile of resources at that base, and will also occasionally deliver fuel if necessary. This is also true for any stations built in deep space where energy collectors do not function - freighters will occasionally be assigned to deliver fuel to the station to keep its reactors functional.



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 7:52:37 PM)

Does it make sense to have a 'warehouse' starbase that contains surplus materials?



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 9:22:59 PM)

Not really. Planets have effectively infinite storage capacity and are probably the best locations for shipyards, anyways, and freighters won't deliver resources to something that doesn't have a use for them (excepting the small quantities that get stored on stations to give them something for the upgrades).



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 10:33:00 PM)

So there's really no point in having a manufacturer on its own without a construction yard, and you can have up to 30 conyards per one manufacturer of each type (1 high tech, 1 weapons, 1 energy for 30 conyards, or 2 high tech, 2 weapons, 2 energy for 60 conyards)?

I fail to see what the point is in having so many conyards...



Tcby -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 11:33:02 PM)

The amount of yards = the amount of repairs or new builds you can do at the same time. If you are in a war, you want to build your fleet all at once. That way, the total time taken to build the fleet is the time it takes to build one ship. If you build 30 ships with only 6 yards, it takes much longer and you have the ships you built first sitting around wasting fuel and costing money. Or you have them charging into battle when the rest of their fleet is still being slowly built.



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/2/2014 11:44:35 PM)

The number of yards is the number of ships you can build simultaneously at the station, so more construction yards means that you can put through a big order for ships and have it delivered fairly quickly, assuming you have the resources to build everything without stalling. More than 30 yards is probably excessive, but putting a shipyard with 25 or 30 construction yards over the homeworld means that you won't need to worry much about civilian freighter constuction seriously delaying the delivery of important military vessels under most circumstances, and it keeps a large portion of your shipbuilding capacity in a location which is presumably well defended and in a region where you've built plenty of mines, meaning it's less likely to be destroyed by an attack or suffer from resource shortages. Later on, a big shipyard like this can build a decent fleet all in one location, meaning you don't need to worry about waiting for your ships to come in from 10 different shipyards scattered across your empire.

It's certainly not the kind of thing you'd put over every colony, or even over every major colony, but having a few major shipyards in your empire is certainly useful.



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/3/2014 1:22:33 AM)

Geez, I guess I really should start skimping on building ports on my planets. I kind of found it annoying having to build fleets far from the fight and having to make them refuel and stuff, but I suppose...yeah.

Though with only one major starport constructing ships, wouldn't that mean every single freighter the universe will attempt to dock with that one base?



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/3/2014 1:28:28 AM)

Like most of the other advice you'll find on the forums, it really comes down to personal preference. Having that one big shipyard that simultaneously completes 30 warships in the same location is useful, but so is having repair facilities and new construction in a forward area. Either way will work, and both have their own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Also, that 'every freighter in the universe' is trying to dock with the station isn't necessarily a disadvantage; rather, this is a safeguard against resource shortages. If there's only one location where ships get built, the freighters aren't wasting as much time trying to deliver supplies to locations that, while short of resources, aren't building anything at the moment while the shipyard which has stalled construction due to a resource shortage is ignored. This is a big reason why some advise you to only have one spaceport in your empire for a long period of time, or only have a spaceport for every few sectors, as it concentrates the resources that the private sector freighters have to distribute into a few main nodes rather than spreading the resources out among many lesser nodes.



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/3/2014 2:18:03 AM)

I guess I'm too used to other games where I'm used to stockpiling resources. I wish there was a way to liquidate them into cash - I find I typically have giant piles of freighters, ostensibly carrying cargo, but am strapped for cash more often than not.



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/3/2014 3:50:48 AM)

This is a bit of an exploit, but you can force the private sector to hand over some of its money by redesigning the private sector's ships and bases every once in a while. The private sector pays you for the resources to retrofit ships and bases and will retrofit to the latest available design relatively soon after said design becomes available (and with civilian stations and perhaps freighters, you can force them to retrofit sooner than the computer might otherwise have ordered them to), so deciding, for example, that large freighters are going to trade in a cargo bay for an extra proton thruster this year and then reversing that decision next year will bring money to the state's coffers as the private sector retrofits its freighters to your arbitrarily altered design, and does so more or less by selling the resources to the private sector. Be careful not to drive the private sector into bankruptcy if you do something like this, and remember that doing this often and for no reason is an exploit, not intended game play.



ArrowRL201 -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/3/2014 4:04:17 AM)

I honestly would rather simply use the Galaxy Editor - that seems like too much hassle =P That said some way to liquidate my extra resources would be nice.

It looks a little strange not having bases positioned around my colonies. Everything seems so...plain and open, I guess. Should I just make a 'civilian' starbase/spaceport with docking, containers, and medical/recreation just so my freighters have additional spots to drop off their luxury materials and/or strategic materials for the colony itself?

Somewhat off topic, but do you know if there is a way to create world destroyers in the galaxy editor? I've asked but apparently no one knows, or no one's talking.



Aeson -> RE: Manufacturers, Life Support, and Hab Modules (7/3/2014 5:13:51 AM)

quote:

It looks a little strange not having bases positioned around my colonies. Everything seems so...plain and open, I guess. Should I just make a 'civilian' starbase/spaceport with docking, containers, and medical/recreation just so my freighters have additional spots to drop off their luxury materials and/or strategic materials for the colony itself?

Again, it's personal preference unless you're really looking to optimize. If you want to, there's not a significant problem with keeping a small spaceport around each planet, with perhaps two or three construction yards and half a dozen docking bays. The computer doesn't distribute resources as well with many small and some large spaceports as with only a couple large spaceports, but it's rarely crippling if you have a decent number of mines. If you are looking to really optimize resource distribution while keeping a station or two over every planet, then yes, you do want to have a base design with medical, recreational, and commerce facilities and a few docking bays but no construction yards (this cannot be a spaceport, as the three spaceport roles all require construction yards as part of the design, but it could be any other state base you want to use, with resort bases and starbases being somewhat obvious choices as resort bases already have most of what you'll want and starbases are frequently unused).

quote:

Somewhat off topic, but do you know if there is a way to create world destroyers in the galaxy editor? I've asked but apparently no one knows, or no one's talking.

Sort of. If you go to the 'ruins' tab in the galaxy editor, you can give yourself a ruin with a superweapon in it. Make sure the ruin gives you super beam weapons by double-clicking on the planet you added the ruin to, and you can set the weapon it gives you (your choices are super area weapons, super beam weapons, or warp field precursors, and yes, it is kind of odd that the first hyperdrive comes from Ruin - Superweapon, but it's an existing ruin that gives technologies so I'd guess that's why it was used). Give yourself an exploration ship near it. Exit the editor, have your exploration ship trigger the ruin, and go design a planet killer (the standard world destroyer icon is at the top of the list of possible ship icons, if you want to use that one), and make certain that you include at least one Death Ray (note that Death Rays require a significant amount of reactor storage capacity in order to fire; check and make sure your design has enough before you save it). Go back into the editor and spawn one or more of these custom-designed planet killers. Double-click on the planet killer and set its empire to 'none.' I don't know how to make it so that you need to repair it before you can use it, so this thing will be a ready-made planet killer for the first one to find it. It may also be the case that the debris field in the ruins tab will randomly spawn with a planet killer in it, but I don't know if this happens, nor do I know how to force it to spawn this type of debris field.

You may also be able to take the super beam weapons tech away from yourself afterwards under 'Edit Empires' -> 'Edit Technology,' but I don't know for certain.



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