Modular ship construction (cross posted from ship design)

[Charlie Beeler (OP)]

Hmm,  now there is an idea,  Modular ship construction.

An ability to combine 2 or more slipways within an individual shipyard to build an oversize ship might be a good idea.  Not as a starting capability though.  I think it should be a researched tech that is then applied to individual yards.  To start with it should only add the ability to build oversize ship, later tech advances would be needed for improved ship construction rates.  Maybe even a veriant of experience for yards that influences construction rates.  

Grub for ponder?n

[Steve Walmsley]

Hmm,  now there is an idea,  Modular ship construction.

An ability to combine 2 or more slipways within an individual shipyard to build an oversize ship might be a good idea.  Not as a starting capability though.  I think it should be a researched tech that is then applied to individual yards.  To start with it should only add the ability to build oversize ship, later tech advances would be needed for improved ship construction rates.  Maybe even a veriant of experience for yards that influences construction rates.  

I must confess I am not keen on the combination of slipways to build larger ships, partly because it will be tricky to handle from an interface perspective but partly because I want players to decide whether to build shipyards that handle a a small number large ships or several medium size ships. However, I do sympathise with the desire to have larger ships in Aurora, to make them faster to build and to make it easier to create shipyards capable of building larger ships. I'll make a separate post with the steps I am going to take to handle this.

Steve

[Brian Neumann]

"Steve Walmsley I must confess I am not keen on the combination of slipways to build larger ships, partly because it will be tricky to handle from an interface perspective but partly because I want players to decide whether to build shipyards that handle a a small number large ships or several medium size ships. However, I do sympathise with the desire to have larger ships in Aurora, to make them faster to build and to make it easier to create shipyards capable of building larger ships. I'll make a separate post with the steps I am going to take to handle this.

Steve

What I was actually suggesting was that multiple slipways in a single shipyard that could already build the size ship you want could be allowed to combine their building speeds to some extent.  This would make a high capacity shipyard with several slips have to choose between making multiple ships at the same time or one ship faster.  The other side of this is if you want one ship faster, you should not get as many ships over time as having each slipway work on a different ship.  The choice would be few ships built in a reasonable time, or more ships taking siginificantly longer to make but getting more of them at once.

Brian

[Steve Walmsley]

What I was actually suggesting was that multiple slipways in a single shipyard that could already build the size ship you want could be allowed to combine their building speeds to some extent.  This would make a high capacity shipyard with several slips have to choose between making multiple ships at the same time or one ship faster.  The other side of this is if you want one ship faster, you should not get as many ships over time as having each slipway work on a different ship.  The choice would be few ships built in a reasonable time, or more ships taking siginificantly longer to make but getting more of them at once.

This might be possible. To avoid any interface issues I would just have empty slipways divide a portion of their capacity among other tasks into the same shipyard, using modular construction as you suggested. There would probably be a tech line that increased the portion of capacity that could be used in this way.

Steve

[Haegan2005]

This is a good idea. The ability to share smelters and fabrication facilities between slipways is a necassary capability of a shipyard. But if fewer then all of the slipways are being used then it would amke sense that the shipyard support base would be able to focus on only the slipways being used.

What I was actually suggesting was that multiple slipways in a single shipyard that could already build the size ship you want could be allowed to combine their building speeds to some extent.  This would make a high capacity shipyard with several slips have to choose between making multiple ships at the same time or one ship faster.  The other side of this is if you want one ship faster, you should not get as many ships over time as having each slipway work on a different ship.  The choice would be few ships built in a reasonable time, or more ships taking siginificantly longer to make but getting more of them at once.

This might be possible. To avoid any interface issues I would just have empty slipways divide a portion of their capacity among other tasks into the same shipyard, using modular construction as you suggested. There would probably be a tech line that increased the portion of capacity that could be used in this way.

Steve