Stack Construction Ships

[Old Man Casey]

Hello Stellaris,

I was wondering if construction can stack, increasing the speed of construction. Like the science ship assist option? What do you think?

 

[BrokenSky]

You mean like having a single construction ship in orbit around a planet to boost planet construction speed, analogous to 'assist research'?
Or do you mean having several construction ships on a megaproject (I can't think what else would take enough time to warrant it) to speed up construction?
(Or something else?)

 

[HFY]

Construction ships are very cheap right now.

If they were expensive or limited-quantity (somehow) then stacking them up might be reasonable.

As it is, if you were allowed to stack them up, you'd just get swarms of 50+ construction ships thrown at every Megastructure project.


So I'd say that's not a good mechanic for the current game.

 

[Fulgrymm]

I do concur with HFY's point, but I would like to point out that this problem can be mitigated by putting a cap on how many constructors can stack at once.

 

[MagnusDux]

I do concur with HFY's point, but I would like to point out that this problem can be mitigated by putting a cap on how many constructors can stack at once.

But then you'd always use the max number of construction ships anyway so it would only increase micro.

 

[Fulgrymm]

But then you'd always use the max number of construction ships anyway so it would only increase micro.

Then a softcap whereby the bonus increases logarithmically, such that each successive construction ship gets a smaller and smaller bonus.

 

[Casko]

Then a softcap whereby the bonus increases logarithmically, such that each successive construction ship gets a smaller and smaller bonus.
But then you'd always use the max number of construction ships anyway so it would only increase micro.

But then you'd only use the most efficient amount.
......
or just max amount because all you care is cutting the 10 extra days off of the next part of the Dyson sphere anyways so it wouldn't really work.

A better way to handle such things would probably be some project or tech that increases the construction ship build speed, kind of akin to how we have techs to increase survey speed and planetary construction speed.

 

[Incompetent]

With construction ships being so cheap, any added capability is just going to lead to massive spam. I wouldn't want to make construction ships expensive in raw materials, as it would severely slow down the early game. I think you can make a case though for having a limited empire capacity for construction ships (either through fleet cap, or some other mechanism similar to starbase cap), and that way you can make them more powerful, to be used in a targeted way depending on your priorities. Powers could include things like orbiting a colony to give it faster build speed, or repairing ships where an upgraded starbase isn't present, salvaging debris for resources (as opposed to science ships salvaging for tech), granting some speedup on megastructure building with diminishing returns, and so on.

If you did this though, I think you'd want to take some of the most menial jobs away from them (such as building basic mining/research stations - honestly, past a certain stage of the game this could just be something your starbases are capable of doing in their system), so that you don't need to keep microing them between these tasks and the more interesting roles.

 

[Old Man Casey]

You mean like having a single construction ship in orbit around a planet to boost planet construction speed, analogous to 'assist research'?
Or do you mean having several construction ships on a megaproject (I can't think what else would take enough time to warrant it) to speed up construction?
(Or something else?)

For megastructures, or shipyards.

 

[Old Man Casey]

But then you'd only use the most efficient amount.
......
or just max amount because all you care is cutting the 10 extra days off of the next part of the Dyson sphere anyways so it wouldn't really work.

A better way to handle such things would probably be some project or tech that increases the construction ship build speed, kind of akin to how we have techs to increase survey speed and planetary construction speed.

How about a corps of engineers? They can travel on a military transport and "assist" the construction?

 

[Ryika]

How about a corps of engineers? They can travel on a military transport and "assist" the construction?

What would be the benefit of such a system?

 

[Old Man Casey]

With construction ships being so cheap, any added capability is just going to lead to massive spam. I wouldn't want to make construction ships expensive in raw materials, as it would severely slow down the early game. I think you can make a case though for having a limited empire capacity for construction ships (either through fleet cap, or some other mechanism similar to starbase cap), and that way you can make them more powerful, to be used in a targeted way depending on your priorities. Powers could include things like orbiting a colony to give it faster build speed, or repairing ships where an upgraded starbase isn't present, salvaging debris for resources (as opposed to science ships salvaging for tech), granting some speedup on megastructure building with diminishing returns, and so on.

If you did this though, I think you'd want to take some of the most menial jobs away from them (such as building basic mining/research stations - honestly, past a certain stage of the game this could just be something your starbases are capable of doing in their system), so that you don't need to keep microing them between these tasks and the more interesting roles.

Yes. How about adding a feature where the construction ships can recycle stations? Or they themselves mine small asteroids while waiting for an assignment?

 

[Old Man Casey]

As it is, if you were allowed to stack them up, you'd just get swarms of 50+ construction ships thrown at every Megastructure project.

Wow... 50 construction ships

 

[Pancakelord]

Yes. How about adding a feature where the construction ships can recycle stations? Or they themselves mine small asteroids while waiting for an assignment?

I could see this being a pretty easy thing to add to something like the mining guilds civic. every couple months the game could spawn a short special project, needing a con ship, yielding some resources, or boosting the output of whatever is nearby. It's busy work, but some might enjoy the novelty of getting +250% output on a rare crystal mining station for 24 months or whatever.

You could buff quite a few things this way. e.g. Mechanists origins: will start granting timed bonus robot output with special projects - even if you synth ascend - and so on.

 

[Old Man Casey]

What would be the benefit of such a system?

To avoid spamming 50 construction ships, one assigns a corps of engineers! You get speed, but at cost!

 

[HFY]

I could see this being a pretty easy thing to add to something like the mining guilds civic. every couple months the game could spawn a short special project, needing a con ship, yielding some resources, or boosting the output of whatever is nearby. It's busy work, but some might enjoy the novelty of getting +250% output on a rare crystal mining station for 24 months or whatever.

If it required a Leader -- with Unity upkeep and opportunity costs included -- then I'd buy that sort of repeated project.

 

[Ryika]

To avoid spamming 50 construction ships, one assigns a corps of engineers! You get speed, but at cost!

No, I mean in general... why complicate the system? I don't really see the benefit of the idea yet.
If things feel too slow, why not just suggest to decrease construction times across the board?

 

[Pancakelord]

If it required a Leader -- with Unity upkeep and opportunity costs included -- then I'd buy that sort of repeated project.

Yes there definitely ought to be a cost involved - in this case i'd probably add whatever resource to the upkeep cost of the constructor whilst its busy.

I've been working on a personal trait mod for a while (every species trait [just organics for now] both positive and negative adds "interesting" leader traits & triggered effects linked to planet designation or climate).

• With respect to these timed special projects, the model I currently use is you need a governor with a specific trait to spawn these in their sector.
• For example
• Conservational pops can spawn a Governor with a "Conservationist" trait
• This governor, when employed, will trigger periodic special projects that will spawn alien fauna/pet deposits on planets in that sector, you can let it expire or pay a 500CG cost to complete it - giving you the option to build an alien zoo.
• Then, any conservationist pops on a world with an alien zoo will passively create +1 unity. In addition to the usual -10% CG upkeep. (+2 if you keep a conservation governor employed)

Spoiler: plan

Most of the triggered effects (e.g. double robust if fortress world) is implemented - most of the more complex scripted leader effects* i'm holding off on until situations drop.

* looking at making an unruly Governor trait ("Resistance Coordinator") spawn uprising situations on occupied worlds in that sector for the enemy - useless in a total war as it deletes sectors, but i'll give it more thought.

 

[MathyM]

I already forget to assign science ships to half of my science worlds. There’s enough micro as it is. Thanks.

 

[Franton]

@stacking: could be interesting if and only if there were a significant cost attached to it, e. g. when stacking would require use of a leader! (current construction tasks yould still be done without leader)

@ new tasks for construcion ships (e. g. assist construction on planets): this could be interesting even without pimping the cost.