Where are all the commercial ships?

[Xithias47 (OP)]

My game has been going on for about a decade now, but there is only one commercial ship (a luxury liner). I've colonized Mars up to 10m population with my own ships (though it doesn't have any minerals), and I have 3 other mining colonies. There is one civilian mining complex, but that's it. What am I supposed to do to encourage commercial ships to appear?

[sloanjh]

My game has been going on for about a decade now, but there is only one commercial ship (a luxury liner). I've colonized Mars up to 10m population with my own ships (though it doesn't have any minerals), and I have 3 other mining colonies. There is one civilian mining complex, but that's it. What am I supposed to do to encourage commercial ships to appear?

Is the shipping line making money?  Does it have enough cash on hand to buy a new ship?  The cost of the new ship is the number of build points, IIRC, so if you've got super-mongo-huge (that's a technical term ) civie designs then it might not be able to buy any.  The typical freighter has 5 cargo holds (so it can hold a single factory/mine/automine/...).  The typical colony ship has 4-6 cryo-bays.  Also, you should check the F5 screen to make sure that your freighter and colony designs really are classified as commercial - you can mess this up by putting sensors of size>1 or military engines on the class.

Note that there's a "subsidize" button on the civie shipping line screen that allows you to transfer some cash from your empire to the civie line.  I wouldn't use this, however, unless the line doesn't have enough money to buy new ships.

John

[Xithias47 (OP)]

Here are the designs for my commercial ships

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Alpha class Colony Ship    17150 tons     168 Crew     729.4 BP      TCS 343  TH 300  EM 0
874 km/s     Armour 1-59     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Capacity 27 MSP    Max Repair 25 MSP
Colonists 50000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 20    

Nuclear Pulse Engine E0.7 (3)    Power 100    Fuel Use 7%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 74.9 billion km   (992 days at full power)

This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes


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Echo class Freighter    34950 tons     243 Crew     415.4 BP      TCS 699  TH 700  EM 0
1001 km/s     Armour 1-95     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Capacity 7 MSP    Max Repair 25 MSP
Cargo 25000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 20    

Nuclear Pulse Engine E0.7 (7)    Power 100    Fuel Use 7%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 36.8 billion km   (425 days at full power)

This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes


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Hotel class Luxury Liner    15900 tons     593 Crew     706.4 BP      TCS 318  TH 200  EM 0
628 km/s     Armour 1-56     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Capacity 28 MSP    Max Repair 25 MSP
Passengers 1250    Cargo Handling Multiplier 10    

Nuclear Pulse Engine E0.7 (2)    Power 100    Fuel Use 7%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 80.7 billion km   (1488 days at full power)

This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes

All their build points are at around 700. What should the build points be at?
The shipping line has 1308 wealth, and their income is 60. Should I subsidize it? It has had this single ship for quite a few years now.

[Brian Neumann]

If you want colony ships you may want to subsidize a line when it does not have enough for a colony ship, but does have enough for a freighter.  Otherwise there is a distinct tendency for the computer to keep buying freighters over colony ships.

Brian

[Xithias47 (OP)]

My problem is that the shipping line isn't buying any ships even though it has enough money.

How long does it usually take for a shipping line to buy ships?

Does population have anything to do with this? My population on Earth is 600 million right now.

[AtomikKrab]

when did it buy the liner? shipping lines don't buy ships that often, that could be it.

[UnLimiTeD]

It seems to be a little random at times, I had two shipping lines with a freighter each, granted each of them another 1000 wealth, I'm not really lacking, and nothing happened.
After several years with no bought ships, both suddenly expanded, bringing the amount of civilian ships to a whooping 6 within less than a year.

[The Shadow]

Huh.  My shipping line buys ships right and left.  I was a bit generous with the cash in the early years, but not recently.

Of course, they *need* to keep buying ships, because they keep stupidly sending them to a hostile alien system to be shot down!  I may have to go conquer those guys just to let my civilian shipping line build up.

EDIT:  Do you have colonies for them to take people to?  If they can't make money doing it, they won't do it.

[Xithias47 (OP)]

Yeah, I have a Mars colony that's pretty large now from my own colony ships.

How exactly is a shipping line's income calculated? Is each delivery just worth $x?

[Elvin]

In my own experience, the more colonies you have the more the civilian lines will build ships. More new shipping lines tend to appear as well. I think there's some kind of maximum profit possible calculated by the system, and then if this number is x greater than current profits from all liners, it makes a new ship/shipping line. So try expanding out to some more colonies, and try to minimise your own ships' involvement in it, just plant the foundations for a new colony.

[Xithias47 (OP)]

Alright, I'll try making more colonies and involving my ships less. Thanks for the help everyone.

[Father Tim]

My problem is that the shipping line isn't buying any ships even though it has enough money.

How long does it usually take for a shipping line to buy ships?

Does population have anything to do with this? My population on Earth is 600 million right now.

Shipping lines do not buy ships, they build them (though Aurora doesn't bother showing you their shipyards) and thus they have a build limit - if the (abstracted away for performance reasons) civilian shipyard doesn't have enough capacity available it won't build anything, regardless of wealth.

[jocan2003]

Subsidising them should make them improve their shiyard add more slipway etc.... because in the game im playing right now if i dont get my freighter involved well i dont get much stuff moved around and i love civilian to haul my mines etc for me, less micro management.