colinization ships

[cootterman]

How do I make my Colony ships resupply their colony pods?

[Madbiologist]

You need them to go to a Starbase, as in you need to give them the orbit command and select the planet that has the Starbase. You should get a message next turn that reads: "... ... has received a retrofit" or something like that with the ships designation where the ... ... is.

[Zalthun]

Yeah, orbit a world with a starbase, which...I've said before is kinda...umm...

How about we change this? How about a starbase refits them in ONE TURN where as it takes FIVE TURNS to refit them from capital orbit? Devs? Anyone?

[NacNud]

Since this is basically a repair issue it would seem like the Shipyard would be more relevant than the Starbase. Maybe it's just me.

[Fairin]

but in its current form, it gives the starbase some meaning =)

oh no look out starbase a fighter is inc comming! star base report damage! .. starbase! report!... shes dead jim.

[Zaimat]

Since this is basically a repair issue it would seem like the Shipyard would be more relevant than the Starbase. Maybe it's just me.

I do agree that having a shipyard should also work for refits and repairs. I'll make a note to make that change. Thanks.

Starbases have other benefits such as they extend your scan range by a factor of 5x from the colony they orbit, and an array of weapons for defense. Shipyards on the other hand increase ship building production and will probably be required for mothership class ships once we change that.

[dstar]

Since this is basically a repair issue it would seem like the Shipyard would be more relevant than the Starbase. Maybe it's just me.

I do agree that having a shipyard should also work for refits and repairs. I'll make a note to make that change. Thanks.

Starbases have other benefits such as they extend your scan range by a factor of 5x from the colony they orbit, and an array of weapons for defense. Shipyards on the other hand increase ship building production and will probably be required for mothership class ships once we change that.

Will you have ships that need repair/refit/refill (for colonization pods) automatically orbit a planet with a starbase/shipyard when entering a system?

[Zaimat]

Will you have ships that need repair/refit/refill (for colonization pods) automatically orbit a planet with a starbase/shipyard when entering a system?

I think it would be a good change, I'll be looking at doing this. more in this thread about this.

[frostlad]

I like the idea of refilling the colonization ship after orbiting the home planet for 5 turns or something along those lines. Even 6 or 7 turns might be worth it.

It seems silly that the best strategy to expand quickly, and get lots of money, seems to be something like the following, mostly because the maintenance cost on a starport is so much.

Build colonization ship and scout (find planets to colonize)
Go colonize the first cool planet (or mars if you don't find anything better)
Immediately start building a new colonization ship on home planet and the new colony
Realize that the colonization ship costs you 200 mc in maintenance but is worth little more than a scout so scrap it
Buy / build colonization ships as fast as possible and scrap them after they've colonized since it is cheaper to colonize / scrap than to pay the 2 bc maintenance cost on the starport

The math breaks down something like this (sorry, I don't have the game open so numbers aren't exact):
2 bc / turn for starport maintenance
10 bc to buy starport

Colonization ship = 1.3 bc
rush order colonization ship = 3.8 bc
Colonization ship maintenance = 200 mc

So if it takes 3 turns to get to a new planet and back to the starport the equivalent costs of buying and scrapping vs maintenance are as follows.
buy and scrap = 5.7 bc
starport method = 15.4 bc

[Tich]

I was surprised when after colonising a planet, I still had a colonise ship, I was expecting it to be used in the colonisation process