Shipyard ships

Level 20? of shipyard tech is what you want as you correctly guessed. I don't think I have any reccomendations for the ship. It's a big component 300 or 500 kT I think, but you don't really need anything else on the ship, unless it has to fend for itself. The things to remember are that it can't move while it's constructing, except in the sector it's in if it gets attacked, and that it will take a long time to build your ships from it. I don't know the exact details off the top of my head, but it's a fair bit slower than a planet based one.

IIRC it's lvl10, 400kT (so you'll need a medium freighter) and 1000 production.

Even upon getting the tech to max level, the space yard component (which tops out at lvl 20 something) gets 3000 production.
But it can repair also, so you can be building stuff and repair damage ships/units also.

I like using space yard ships to make bases away from my planets/systems

Don't underestimate Space Stations/Starbases with space yards. They have half maintenance cost. They make handy stations for major planets.
Planet builds big stuff, stations build units and smaller ships. Get a huge planet and after a few years and building a dozen base space yards, you can churn out batches of small ships once or twice a year using just the bases. Can also produce lots of units, but don't forget cargo bays to hold units produced on ships/stations.

The space yard is invaluable for supporting an offensive that is taking a long time. If you can hold a forward position long enough, you can have a repair/resupply point right on the enemy's front doorstep, or even a base with lots of big guns and missiles/torpedoes, or even a base crammed full of supply and ordnance storage and lots of solar collectors and a repair bay, so it can repair and resupply ships. Toss in the fact they can repair damaged ships while they are building.

Toss in the emergency resupply/reordnance pods on the supply based stations, it is simple to repair them after they are used, allowing them to be used again, iirc.

A handy support ship is a general purpose unit deployer that can deploy drones, sats, fighters and mines, to support the space yard ships, or just make a base that has a space yard and unit deploying components.

You can even build stations in a sector with a warp point, make it hard for the enemy to get at a warp point and into your systems, or build on a warp point in your system and make it a turkey shoot for anything coming out of the warp point.

There's nothing worse than a fighter base (or reeally big ship) that can replace/repair its own fighters and repair ships/bases/units with it.
Or a starbase with a space yard, two repair bays, and enough defenses and firepower to pulverize anything that isn't a full blown baseship. If you build that kind of thing in enemy space, they will have a much harder time getting you out or otherwise make it harder for them to get their system/planets back.

Patience is a virtue, good things come to those who wait, etc...

Shipyard ships are useful, and also needed, but only late in the game. Since the Space yard component is so bulky and slow, it has to be placed on very large ships, and will be effective, to some extents, only at the higher levels.

Nonetheless, in late game, you can build a ship quite useful for "routine" work.
My shipyard ship is a lvl 10 Dreadnought. It has:
8 x quantum engine
4 x solar collector
4 x quantum reactor
10 x cargo bay
1 x satellite bay
1 x master computer
1 x basic sensors
1 x solar sail
1 x emergency resupply pod
1 x self destruct device
1 x SPACE YARD
1 x repair bay
1 x cloacking device
1 x mine layer
1 x cobalt warhead
1 x security station
37 x ordnance storage
51 x supply storage

with such an array of stuff, it's able to travel practically forever without resupply.

It's main purposes are:
1) to construct spy-satellites (large satellites with all types of sensors) and put one of them in the centre of every system I want survey;
2) to construct large satellites with weapons and put them in stategic points (for instance, warp points);
3) the same as 2) for mines;
4) to construct troops and deploy them on planets as needed.

For safety' sake, it's roaming only my systems, or unowned ones, but its cloacking ability will serve it well enough in enemy's ones.

So said, if you plain to create ring or sphere worlds you need a Shipyard ship.

One last point is that Ship space yards can analize captured ships. Their build rates aren't great, I use them mainly for repair and unit production.

SEV, more than a feeling.

Nothing is more satisfying then having a starbase sitting on a warp point blasting everything come through with long range weapon. But remember to reposition the base.

Remember! If someone is trying to kill you, you kill them first!

Shipyard ships are important in both offense and defense, because they're what allow you to build space yard bases -- and bases in general -- anywhere you want. You can't concentrate construction on warp points without space yard ships -- which is something you need to do, for an effective defense. On offense, you'll want to establish construction centers in enemy territory, and be able to repair your own fleets, so space yard ships are an important part of any offensive.

The best space yard ship, in my opinion, is a medium freighter with nothing but a space yard and as many engines as can be crammed on. The lowered maintenance on freighters helps a lot, because of the insane cost of space yards (and all the engines that will need to be put on to make sure the yard can move at a decent rate). Base space yards are an even better deal, though, so that's what I've usually got my space yard ship producing.

But I can't argue that a heavy carrier with a space yard is insane fun. I mean, it's not the most effective strategy, but it sure is a good time, sitting in an enemy system with a few mobile construction centers that are also combat worthy.

~ Kingside_Bishop

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