Ship construction from the new player perspective

[Madnewmy]

it’s kinda counterintuitive to spend a few hundred A-fabs to save 500k on a ship cost currently

[Frostwood]

As a returning old player getting a ship would be out of my price range even at the height of my power(where I was pulling in 1 mil/week), and this took about a year of buildup to even get to that stage.

As it stands right now shipbuilding is more a “win-more” mechanic.

[JohnoTheTeacher]

Relatively new player here (joined up around Christmas).

I would assume that I’m a mid-range player, not spectactularly brilliant at the game but also not particularly poor either. I’m now getting to the point, maybe 3-ish weeks in, that I’m starting to need to import materials for my own factories (a base on another planet is still in the future, but it’s coming soon). The price of a ship (in materials and/or whole) should be set such that a player at my stage should be able to purchase one reasonably cheaply, if only because soon I’ll need to choose between an income from shipping or the ability to move the resources I need.

Right now ships are so overpriced that the average player can’t even see a point in the game where they might become accessible.

It seems to me that there should be a “used ship” market - where high level players can sell their ships (but also basic low-range ships should be injected into the universe periodically to ensure that the price doesn’t get beyond players).

[Talmar]

I think what is needed, is that there be System Ships that can be built, without the FTL drives, that you can make with Techs. To add the FTL element of the ships, you will need Engs and Scis. This will give us system ships to move about the various planets early in the game, but it will take a while to get jump capable ships, to move to other systems. With the CX’s being moved off planet, I think it would be a good idea if the Devs actually looked at this a bit harder. Cheap system ships you can build with Techs would be a good way of making goods hauling in system more viable

[Gladi099]

So who makes the NV1 for the BR1 that a System Ship still needs?

Ah yeah, Scientists…
Same for the A-fabs for the Shipyard…

The issue is not the FTL drive.

[Visinvictus]

@Gladi099

So who makes the NV1 for the BR1 that a System Ship still needs?

Ah yeah, Scientists…

It’s pretty simple to fix this:

• Move NV1/NV2 to the Ftl engine
• Combine BR1 and BR2 into a single BR module, and add 5 Workstations (BWS) to the list of components required
• Remove ACS from the STL engines, and adjust STL engine formulas accordingly. I have quoted my suggestions for fixing STL engine formulas from another thread below.
• Remove WAI from LIS, WR, and AIR formulas entirely. Replace with something from ELP and/or software dev such as basic AI.
• Remove the different size crew quarters recipes and replace with a single crew quarters, but the number of crew quarters scales with the size of the ship.

@Visinvictus

Another balance change that would help make the smaller cargo bays useful is if we would need multiple (much cheaper) STL engines on a ship depending on the size of the cargo bay. In real life, the more mass your ship has, the more thrust it will require if it is going to reach orbit. For an example of how this could work in game, the number of engines required could be 1 for a ship with a tiny cargo bay, 5 for a large cargo bay, and 8 for a high load cargo bay.

To balance we would need to remove the ACS from the STL engine formula (especially since the description of this item specifically mentions FTL reactors), and each engine would require 1 Fuel Pump, 1 Nozzle, 1 Flow control device, some Fluid Piping, some quantity of Thermofluid (coolant) depending on the type of engine, an amount of metal or alloy of an appropriate level for the engine, and a fastener kit.

I would also probably want to remove the BOS requirements for Combustion chamber and replace it with something else, and adjust the Nozzle recipes so that only ANZ and HNZ require AML time.

[Thuan]

AML runs perfectly fine on techs. But the building prefabs might need to be scaled down to Rfabs instead of Afabs.

I said it before, and on other posts and the discord.

Make the tech level ships STL only, slow , low cargo ( upgradable , and I like your suggestions that if you want a bigger cargo bay, you will need more STL Engines on the ship ) .

Once the universe get to eng / sci level, we unlock building of FTL ships, and the faster / bigger STL engines

[Visinvictus]

@Thuan

AML runs perfectly fine on techs. But the building prefabs might need to be scaled down to Rfabs instead of Afabs.

My comment was more about questioning the need for Pyrex (the most commonly known brand name for Borosilicate glass products) in the combustion chambers of our futuristic space engines. Being able to build AML with RFABs would be nice, but I think from a “lore” perspective it is probably the building that makes the most sense to actually require AFABs.

[Gladi099]

@Visinvictus

My comment was more about questioning the need for Pyrex (the most commonly known brand name for Borosilicate glass products) in the combustion chambers of our futuristic space engines

The thermal insulation tiles on the Space Shuttle were coated with a borosilicate glass.

Maybe because of this? Just guessing.

[Visinvictus]

@Gladi099

The thermal insulation tiles on the Space Shuttle were coated with a borosilicate glass.

Yeah I am aware, I looked it up as well. It would make sense if it was a component for heat shields, but I’m not aware of any applications it has in engines. With the quantities involved, it seems like the entire combustion chamber/engine is made out of glass.