Space stations?

[roug (OP)]

I am just wondering, what are the uses of space stations?
Is it possible to build a military station? What about maintenance and deployment time?

[consiefe]

Military systems with space stations (no armor checkbox) does not work. You can make huuge maintenance modules, orbital mining stations, fuel harvester bases, orbital habitats as space stations and tow them in place. Another benefit of space stations is it does not need to be build in shipyards which are limited by tonnage capacity. You can make them from industry tab, changing the dropdown menu for construction.

[AlStar]

A military station would just be a ship that doesn't have any engines (would need to be built in a shipyard, AFAIK). Main benefit would be that you could stuff an awful lot of weapons on such a structure.

[consiefe]

Also you can either build military stations in orbits of populated planets which takes care of deployement and maintenance or you build habitat/recreation and maintenance modules with that no armor checkbox to service your military station. Those commercial space stations have a lot of uses and flexibility.

[Noriad]

Stuff a hull with a lot of terraformer modules, set it to "no armor" to turn it into a space station, build many of them with factories and move it using a tug to the planet you want terraformed. Saves having to build, expand and tool a shipyard. And depending on the number of factories you assign, it's much faster than a shipyard.

[Father Tim]

I am just wondering, what are the uses of space stations?
Is it possible to build a military station? What about maintenance and deployment time?

Well, "space station" is not a term Aurora uses;* most people use it to mean a unit with no engines.

A "Structural Shell" has no armour but may be built by planetary industry at a colony with a Spaceport.  A regular vessel (i.e. with at least 1 armour thickness) can be built with no engines (generally in order to get more space for other stuff).

Either type can be moved via tractor beam by a ship with engines.  If such a "space station" is at a colony, it can benefit like any other vessel from maintenace facilities, shore leave, a cargo-handling installation, etc.

People use "space stations" for all kinds of things:  terraforming, orbital mining, sorium harvesting, orbital habitation around extreme bodies, anti-missile defense, weapon platforms. . . I suspect it won't be long before we see someone tug a 'bombardment base' along to help their ground invasion of an enemy colony.

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Military "space stations" require maintenance like any other military vessel, but if at a location with enough Maintenance Facilities will not put any time on their maint clock (and thus will not raise their failure chance).  At a colony with enough population or recreation modules, they won't accrue time on their deployment clock either.


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*  EDIT:  "Space Station" is an entry in the Hull dropdown tab in the Class Design window, but said entry has no effect on the mechanics.  You can design a battleship or fast colony ship and call it a Space Station.

And as Noriad points out, Aurora uses it to refer to Strucutral Shells in the class design summary.

[Noriad]

Well, "space station" is not a term Aurora uses; most people use it to mean a unit with no engines.

Incorrect. If you design a vessel with no engines and select "no armor", Aurora actually says
"This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes"