Jump Gate construction ship - feedback and help

[bjflatman (OP)]

Hi folks, first post here.  Been tinkering with the game now for just over a week.  Starting to get the hang of it i think.  However, Went to design a Jump gate construction ship and i am questioning my design.  If i could get feedback i would greatly appreciate it.  Be kind! I am still learning this Sensors and ship design are what i really struggle with right now. 

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Oliver H Perry class Construction Ship    77,150 tons     3324 Crew     4271.4 BP      TCS 1543  TH 1500  EM 0
972 km/s     Armour 1-161     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 250     PPV 0
Maint Capacity 8650 MSP    Max Repair 38 MSP
Jump Gate Construction Ship: 180 days

Ion Engine E0.8 (10)    Power 150    Fuel Use 8%    Signature 150    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 29.2 billion km   (347 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Erik L]

That's a crapton of maintenance supplies. Cut it in half, especially since you are using civ drives.

[bjflatman (OP)]

Thanks Erik.

That is one I was wondering about.  I still don't understand the commercial design part, on how much maintenance supplies are adequate and how much is just over doing it. 

[Napoleon XIX]

It's a civilian ship - you probably don't need more than 1 or 2 engineering spaces.

[Erik L]

Thanks Erik.

That is one I was wondering about.  I still don't understand the commercial design part, on how much maintenance supplies are adequate and how much is just over doing it. 

You see the Max Repair entry? That's how many maintenance supplies you'll use at most at once. Go for 3-4x that value, and you should be okay.

[bjflatman (OP)]

Thanks again.  That information is very helpful. 

[Erik L]

Just remember... there's 3000 people on these forums. That's 3500 different opinions on what is right

[Thiosk]

Well, since its a civilian ship, don't you need just... one engineering space?  Don't need damage control or any of that stuff either.  Just inflates cost.  Remove all that stuff.  Commercial ships don't need maintenance in order to smooth out the logistics of the game a little bit.

Because the ship is so slow, flying back to earth for more fuel will be annoying in the early game-- and can take as long as building the gate in the first place.  Perhaps dump in about 3x the fuel you have presently. 

I don't have my game open here at work, however, i'm fairly sure I put a commercial jump drive on my gate ship-- that way, a pair of them can fly out together and gate both sides of a jump point simultaneously, rather than spending half a year going one way and another half year coming back.

[LtWarhound]

While you don't technically need more than one engineering space on a jump gate constructer, its good to have them.  My rule of thumb for this class: Carry enough supplies to repair the engine and the jump gate construction module, once.  The first time you get a JGC ship stuck on the wrong side of a jump point after it survives an attack that destroys its ability to run or build a gate to run through, you'll understand why.

Other civilian ships get enough to rebuild the engine, and that's it, unless its a dedicated resupply ship.

[Antagonist]

I havn't tried yet, but won't a jump drive on a construction ship allow ships without a jump drive to gate through? In other words, allow you to use the jump gate before the year long construction is over.

[Ashery]

Only commercial ships.

Considering the size of jump gate constructors, I wouldn't consider it to be a worthwhile investment for every construction ship. Now, that's not to say you couldn't have a single jump capable constructor (or any jump capable commercial ship of sufficient size) travel with a large group of construction ships and build a long line of jump points simultaneously, but I wouldn't consider that normal operation of jump constructors.

[Antagonist]

Well, I tried this.   Its expensive but in my opinion worth it since I have cargo ships with 10 cargo holds, making them quite large and approaching the size of the construction ships.

I have seen however that it doesn't seem like civilian ships take advantage of civilian jump tenders at all, which is a shame.   My own civilian ships can jump through fine to found colonies, but the civilian ones seem to wait till after the gate construction is completed.   Least as far as I could see.

This is a shame, because for a next game I was considering Jump Gate-less play.   That is, simply place a civilian ship equiped with 70k civilian drives and 10k military jump drives on every jump point I want to access, least on the more outlying colonies.   They have inbuilt weak passives which I hope to use to detect incoming vessels and I can also withdraw them should I need to.   This is an expensive strategy but doable since both jump drives can be pre-built.   On that note, would civilian jump tenders be able to detect hostiles who jump in at 50k?

[Beersatron]

Well, I tried this.   Its expensive but in my opinion worth it since I have cargo ships with 10 cargo holds, making them quite large and approaching the size of the construction ships.

I have seen however that it doesn't seem like civilian ships take advantage of civilian jump tenders at all, which is a shame.   My own civilian ships can jump through fine to found colonies, but the civilian ones seem to wait till after the gate construction is completed.   Least as far as I could see.

This is a shame, because for a next game I was considering Jump Gate-less play.   That is, simply place a civilian ship equiped with 70k civilian drives and 10k military jump drives on every jump point I want to access, least on the more outlying colonies.   They have inbuilt weak passives which I hope to use to detect incoming vessels and I can also withdraw them should I need to.   This is an expensive strategy but doable since both jump drives can be pre-built.   On that note, would civilian jump tenders be able to detect hostiles who jump in at 50k?

This is because the Civie code can not handle the possibility of that jump tender being moved by the player before it gets their. Since the tender if under your control you may move it without knowing there are civs enroute, the civies get their and cant jump.

I guess it is like a present day cargo vessel relying on a government owned tug to push it into harbour, but the tug has been moved else where for some Super Sekret Government job.

[WHCnelson]

Ok,  I have a question...    Do you still need a freighter to accompany the Jump Gate construction vessel or can it just be the construction vessel for building new Jump Gates...

Thanks for the help

William

[HaliRyan]

Just the vessel.