Non-FTL Spacecraft

[EvilTom]

Hello,

Do you have to put an FTL engine on a spacecraft?

This may be helpful I'm creating cheaper system defence ships for isolationist RPers.

 

[Tilarium]

From watching the let's play I think you don't have to. I've not seen one do it though, so I won't say it's 100%

 

[Laexio]

do ships that make use of wormholes use ftl drives?

 

[Splinter00S]

do ships that make use of wormholes use ftl drives?

Yes, they said in one of the streams I think that warp ships couldn't use wormhole stations because wormhole ships need a wormhole key or something to interface with the wormhole station.

 

[Zorromorph]

I don't think you can, it's one of the four mandatory parts(battle computers are another, sensors I think). For these you can change what is there if you have another type, but you can't remove it entirely.

 

[swiftsvre]

You can actually remove all FTL drives from a ship, but I'm not perfectly sure whether the design can be saved then.

 

[lordvagrant]

You could build a station with lots of hanger modules for small craft

 

[Mitchz95]

In Scott Manley's let's-play it looked like you could choose to go without any FTL drive. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

 

[Solismar]

You can remove drive, but didn't seem to affect ship cost, so no real reason to not have one.

 

[Uridium]

You can remove drive, but didn't seem to affect ship cost, so no real reason to not have one.

I think people want to make more of the ships power available to its weapon systems etc....

 

[darkmonk56]

I like the way you think...hadn't considered making a system defense fleet by simply removing FTL's....

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

You can actually remove all FTL drives from a ship, but I'm not perfectly sure whether the design can be saved then.

Wiz said that it wasn't possible, but he said it a while ago so it may be different now.

 

[Stoßtrupp Gold]

The ships would still use up your naval capacity, so you can´t build a decent system defense fleet and still have a capable FTL-fleet.
If your empire is larger and you have several planets to protect, the method of system defense fleets would scatter your Navy all around your empire.
That would make you an easy target as those defense fleets won´t stand a chance against FTL-fleets thats uses the full navy cap.

 

[EvilTom]

The ships would still use up your naval capacity, so you can´t build a decent system defense fleet and still have a capable FTL-fleet.
If your empire is larger and you have several planets to protect, the method of system defense fleets would scatter your Navy all around your empire.
That would make you an easy target as those defense fleets won´t stand a chance against FTL-fleets thats uses the full navy cap.

I agree. Generally in strategy games I find static defences to be lacking just because you can often build a ship or fleet that does the same thing as a station but can then move around. Turtling rarely works for me.

There was a point though... It was for an isolationist role-playing idea I had, so there won't be a large empire.

 

[K-vald]

I just tried it in-game, and yes, you can have ships that don't have an FTL drive at all. But they can't leave the system.

 

[essi2]

Hmm... System Defence Force.. maybe

 

[EvilTom]

I just tried it in-game, and yes, you can have ships that don't have an FTL drive at all. But they can't leave the system.

Awesome, I love that the PDX team are playing this and discovering new things! Thanks for the update.

Hmm... System Defence Force.. maybe

Yes... I was initially thinking this. I'll have to try it, but it may not be worth the trade off. From the sounds of it, it won't make ships cheaper to produce, but will mean you can fit more weapons on it, perhaps. We'll see!

 

[essi2]

Yes... I was initially thinking this. I'll have to try it, but it may not be worth the trade off.

Yes, it might not be worth the upkeep, perhaps something to look at for mods or future game features. Like a PDF, but in space.

 

[Atalvyr]

It does not really seem to impact ship cost, so there is no reason to do so currently.

It would be a cool thing to add such a cost though (balanced with the hull cost to keep total cost the same), to allow cheap planetary defence forces. IIRC maintenance cost is derived form ship cost, so it would be a cost effective way to use up any excess fleet limit to fortify key systems.

 

[Kaiser Timo]

I just tried it in-game, and yes, you can have ships that don't have an FTL drive at all. But they can't leave the system.

Whoa, nice! Are battleships without FTL drivers cheaper than those with?

It opens up for a lot of strategy in regard of MP and such!