Prefab PDC Transportation

[sublight (OP)]

What's required to transport PDC components?

I can't seem to figure out how to move the prefab units off earth and over to my growing martian colony.

[Dutchling]

Freighters with cargo bays should do the trick iirc.

[sublight (OP)]

What order option should I be looking for?

I've been moving installations across the system, but I'm apparently overlooking whatever gets the PDC's into the cargo bays.

[Dutchling]

Never mind my previous post, you need to construct prefab PDC's and move those. Than engineers or construction factories can assemble them on the body where you unload them.

[Thiosk]

Its a command in the F12 window-- you choose load component (can't remember the exact title) then you select the components from the appropriate box.  I haven't moved prefabs in 5.52.  In the previous version, I had trouble with picking up a specific number of the components, so I would put them all on a planet, start the assembly project, and pick up the rest.

[sublight (OP)]

Still can't figure it out.     

At bottom is a screen shot of what I think is supposed to be the correct screen.       On planet are three different prefabed PDC's, each 1-component large.     

Am I looking at the wrong window, overlooking something obvious, or looking at a bug?

Edit: Hmm.      That didn't show up.     
Well, my avalible Load actions appear to be:
Load Research Lab, Load GFGF, Load Maintnance, Load Construction, Load Ordnance, Load Mine, Load Auomated Mine, Load Mass Driver, Load Infrastructure, Load Fuel Refinery, Load Ship Component, Load Tracking Station, and assorted Load Minerals.     

Link to referencing screenshot:
hxxp: i181. photobucket. com/albums/x184/sublightrun/AuraLoadClip. png

[Dutchling]

I just tried it in-game, the correct order is load PDC component. Do your freighters actually have 5k cargo space?

[Mini]

Are you sure you built prefabricated sections, and not actually built the PDC?

[Beersatron]

This is the correct link (since he is a young account the URL is intentioanlly malformed by the forum)



First thing that I noticed is that you are short 5000 cargo space. It is best to have freighters with 5 Cargo holds (25000 cargo space) as that is the basic multiplier for factory sizes.

If you go to the construction/production screen for Earth and click on 'Stockpiles' do you see the PDC components listed in the relevant box?

It should be ship components in the top left, missiles in the top right, PDC components in the bottom left and then fighters in the bottom right.


*edit*
Use SM Mode to unlock and change your freighter design to be 5 holds, then go to the ship listing screen and cycle/click on each freighter so the existing ones are converted (using fairy dust) to the updated design. Then lock the design again and switch SM Mode off.

This means you wont have to redesign the ship from scratch and then retool a shipyard.

[sublight (OP)]

I tried a conventional start, and the Coontz happened to be the first TN transport built, designed when I only had 15,000 ton yard capacity.  New improved transports have been built, but the Coontz are still the most numerous in use, transporting 0. 2 automated mines at a time. 

Stockpile shows three types of prefab PDC, one component each.


Uhm, I'm also getting a lot of Type 52,53,73 error messages.  Think I should try reinstalling?

[Beersatron]

I guess it could be that the 'Load PDC Component' command is only shown when you have at least 25000 cargo space, what happens when you add another Coontz to that task group?

What is the full text for those errors you listed?

[Brian Neumann]

I guess it could be that the 'Load PDC Component' command is only shown when you have at least 25000 cargo space, what happens when you add another Coontz to that task group?

What is the full text for those errors you listed?

generally speaking if the requirement is for 25,000 cargo space it needs to be all 1 ship.  This is the fundamental reason that so many designs of freighters use 5 cargo holds.  If you have less than that you can not ship most installations on your ships, this includes automines by the way.

Brian

[Dutchling]

generally speaking if the requirement is for 25,000 cargo space it needs to be all 1 ship.  This is the fundamental reason that so many designs of freighters use 5 cargo holds.  If you have less than that you can not ship most installations on your ships, this includes automines by the way.

Brian

Are you sure? Because I used to move automines with 5k cargo freighters before in small parts.

[sublight (OP)]

Thanks for the 25,000 cargo tip.

It turns out PDC's can only be moved by ships with at least 25,000 cargo.

Just about every other installation can be moved piece-wise (I'd been moving automated mines, factories, mass drivers, and terriformers on 10,000 cargo ships), and had assumed they would be good enough to move components only taking up 5k space.  Nope.  Larger transport fleets didn't work.  Cargo manipulators didn't help.  It was only after the shipyards finished building my first pair of of 25,000 cargo 'heavy lifters' that the 'Load PDC' option appeared.

Guess the next step is to research an even bigger commercial jump drive so the PDCs, and the heavy lifters carrying them, can leave the system. 

[Marc420]

Nice.   This seems to be different from other places and the wiki that list a PDC component as 'one cargo hold'.

In PDC construction, 1 section size is equal to 2500 tons.   Ie, if you design a 2499 ton PDC, it says its one section.   If you design a 2501 ton PDC, its says its 2 sections.

Now, on the shipping side of things, a player now finds out that it takes a big 25,000 ton transport with 5 cargo holds to transport that one 2500 ton PDC prefab section.   I can see a 2500 tonsection taking 5000 ton of cargo space as a prefab 'kit'.   But it seems to be a bit of a stretch to say that this 2500 ton pdc section needs 25,000 ton, all on one ship, and that the unit is apparently such a massive one-piece unit that it can't even be divided between ships.   If you saw the simple little passive-sensor only PDC that I'm trying to ship, this would seem really funny.  Its two 250ton passive sensor units, plus enough crew qts and stuff for the operators.     Well, let me copy it over here.   Read this, then see if it makes sense for it to need 25000 ton of continuous cargo space on one ship.

Code: [Select]

PDC - Passive Sensor Post class Planetary Defence Centre    750 tons     60 Crew     100 BP      TCS 15  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 6-7     Sensors 30/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0

Thermal Sensor TH5-30 (1)     Sensitivity 30     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  30m km
EM Detection Sensor EM5-30 (1)     Sensitivity 30     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  30m km


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 1 sections
Well, thanks at least for this forum post that explains the answer as to why I can't load my simple little sensor PDC onto any of my 5kt cargo ships.   Someone should sticky this info, or stick into an FAQ or something until the rest of the info catches up with these rules.

Early in the game, this matters as now it appears that not only do I need to move up from 5kt to 25kt transports, but that I've got to build the shipyards that can build them and the jump gates that can fit them, all to say I want to move a couple of passive sensors to another system and drop them on a rock.