Repairing ships that are literally falling apart?

[Jacob/Lee (OP)]

Well, about every month I get a message that something on one of my combat ships has broken and needs to be repaired.   My question, how do I repair these ships and stop the messages?

Also, how do I form sectors?

[jRides]

You need Engineering Spaces on your ships - Look at Est Time as a good indication of what is enough, I usually aim for 2 years or above.

Engineering Capacity (MSP) points are used to repair the broken components, and the Est Time is an estimate of how long it will take to use all this up, you can replenish MSP with the "Resupply From Colony" order.

While ships are in the field their Maintenance clock will count up - and as that clock increases and parts get old, more breakdowns will occur. The Maint. Clock is reset with an overhaul, you need to move your ship to a colony with an adequate amount of Maintenance facilities (as shown in the Economics Window, Summary tab) to cover that size of ship and use the "Begin Overhaul (rewind clock)" order to start that overhaul, the longer your ship has been in the field and higher the Maint.Clock value is, the longer the overhaul will take.

Form Sectors by building 'Sector Command' facilities on a colony, (industry tab) then in the economics window at the bottom use the Sectors button, this will open the "Assign Systems to Sectors Windows", you can sort them out there.

EDIT: there was a bit of chat about maintenance and maintenance facilities a few days ago in this thread which might help.

[James Patten]

Or you can turn off Maintenance requirements (on the first window that comes up when you select the game).  Personally I play with it off, resupply and maintenance is something I don't want to think about.