Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers |
I discovered an alternative initial build that gives significant initial advantages. The key is starting with advanced light hull technologies. Balance Mod 1.14b.
A barebone shipyard will fit in a lvl 2 light hull.
With light ship tech lvl 3 I can put three ion engines into the hull for a movement of 6+. Will get faster into the next system than building a spaceyard on a new colony. Still cheaper than a shipyard.
Cost: 3500 mineral vs 4800, with supply consumption adding up to almost the same.
That means, with selecting traits carefully, one can build a shipyard in a turn without emergency build. Or with emergency build but spending nothing on the construction bonus.
Take the same lvl 2 hull. I can have a colony module with full engines and a sensor, even some armor if I insist. While upkeep cost is almost twice as much, construction cost is 250 minerals less (lvl 3 ion engines, no sensor, 4750 vs 5050). With lvl 1 engines the difference is more. But main advantage is that the ship is faster by one movement point - now combine this with Ancient Race, even propulsion exert trait and even advanced engines. A movement speed of 14 vs 10 of the basic colony ship, you are guaranteed to expand much faster.
The second application has drawbacks in the upkeep cost, but the first is a no-brainer. My suggestion is to raise shipyard size from 300K to 400K.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
Not only is it easy to get remote construction ships available very early, but as things are with just a single size of Construction Yard component, an early freighter design with construction yard pretty much constitutes the optimal design for the length of the game. Yes you can upgrade the yard tech level, engines etc but the larger hulls only provide extra "utility" space - the larger ship and base hulls cannot accommodate a greater construction capacity.
I'd really like if there were some larger construction yard components - 450, 600, 900kt - around which to develop your empire's construction capacity. Perhaps limited to bases if it were overpowered on ships as well. It might be an incentive to research the Base Construction techs, which I seem to often skip over in my games...
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
I agree with the change back to 400kT for the Space Yard component. I had been holding off on the change until the upcoming v1.15 because it's a pretty disruptive change for save games and existing vehicle designs.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
I like the idea of multiple types of portable shipyards.small( current) and large at least. Large would be somewhere around 700..
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
I support that idea, but only if the small shipyard has it's construction rate only 1/4 of the normal one.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
You mean planetside? hmm... Considering the boost you get from Pop on planet, they're already only 1/3 as effective. Do you think they should be less than that?
I just thought of another idea... Portable Spaceyard expansion widget! Something around 100-300kt that you stick in with a portable spaceyard to augment the abilities of the spaceyard.
another idea is to make the portable spaceyard components increase in size as they increase in techlevel.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
No, I meant compared to the current space-based one.
Same sRe: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
I've stopped building colonizers since in BM you can build faster small freighters with a colony module. I'd rebalance that too.
----------
See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
the small one currently starts at 1000. Do you think 250 would really be better? Especially if it has the growth rate cut by an equal amount. Maybe halve it?
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
What do you mean growth rate? The component cost? It's building defense and mining bases so early in the game that is IMHO the problem with a construction yard component that you can fit on a small freighter.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
by growth rate I meant the effectiveness of the component. If you cut the effectiveness and the rate that it increases the max tech level will be weaker than the current tech's starting tech.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
Well,
When you all figure out the math let me know. 
I may need to make similar adjustments to the B5W mod.
Loyalty above all else except honor.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
The Space Yard component is 2-3x more expensive in the upcoming v1.15 versus previous BM versions.
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
Glad to hear that 
Re: Balance Mod - small freighter shipyards and colonizers
Furthermore, a base space yard has a mintenance cost of 600 mins, the freighter with 3 engines would have a maintenance cost of ~800.. not that much of a difference for the added movement capabilities!
But maybe that's the reason the lvl3 light hulls is so expensive? (besides leading to nowhere...)
Since when was this changed? I'm still playing a multiplayer game where I specifically rushed to lvl2-3 Medium Hulls, to get these Medium Freighters because no other ship would hold a 400kT Space Yard.
It was more balanced that way IMHO.