What do these things do?

[randal7 (OP)]

I'm finally far enough into a game to start researching some of the less straightforward techs, because guns and engines have gotten too expensive. I'm not clear what some of them do. I'm using 4.91.

1) Maintenance Production X SP per annum - first of all, the number in the title and in the description don't match. Second, I initially thought this meant maintenance facilities automatically made X amount of maintenance supplies, but this does not seem to be the case. In fact, supplies are made by devoting construction factories. So, what does this do?

2) Max Tracking Time Bonus vs Missiles - I gather this allows better targeting of missiles relative to speed. But is this for the whole fleet, based on how long the long range sensors have tracked the missiles, or per ship, based on how long the fire control has targeted the missile?

3) So far I've never built a salvage ship. Are the more advanced salvage modules just faster, or is there some other advantage?

Thanks for any help given.

[Brian Neumann]

1.)  Maintenence modules on a planet have changed since this was written.  What they do now is provide a place for ships in orbit to not run up the time on thier clocks.  The catch is that the ship has to be no larger than the tonnage listed on the summary screen to benifit from this.  While it may not sound like much it has a big impact on the game.  Ships in orbit under this limit can stay there ready for combat without using up their maintenance supplies and increasing the time on the maintenance clock.  The increasing time is important because the longer a ship has been out the greater the chance of having a maintenance failure is.  If I recall the originall post the failure rate listed on the ship design screen is for a ship that has been out for 1 year.  At 2 years it would be double that, three years tripple, ect.  You can see how having the ships in orbit without this can be very important.

2.)  Not sure.

3.)  It just provides for a shorter time to salvage the entire wreck.

Brian

[randal7 (OP)]

1.)  Maintenence modules on a planet have changed since this was written.  What they do now is provide a place for ships in orbit to not run up the time on thier clocks.  The catch is that the ship has to be no larger than the tonnage listed on the summary screen to benifit from this.  While it may not sound like much it has a big impact on the game.  Ships in orbit under this limit can stay there ready for combat without using up their maintenance supplies and increasing the time on the maintenance clock.  The increasing time is important because the longer a ship has been out the greater the chance of having a maintenance failure is.  If I recall the originall post the failure rate listed on the ship design screen is for a ship that has been out for 1 year.  At 2 years it would be double that, three years tripple, ect.  You can see how having the ships in orbit without this can be very important.
Brian

So there is no point in researching this tech line, then?

[Hawkeye]

On the contrary!
Design a PDC with nothing but 5 Maintenance modules.
Prefab one and assemble it at a forward base --> FAC base ready to go (some minerals required for it to work)

Prefab more of them and assemble them at a hub/sector base --> fleet base ready

Advantage of modules instead of maintenance facilities: Don´t need population!!

[UnLimiTeD]

Yeah, but as maintenance modules are civilian in 5.2, that will be next to impossible, given they'll be five times the size.
Maybe a PDC only Maintenance module thats lower size?

[Erik L]

Maintenance Supplies X per Annum tech.

When you give a ship the order "Resupply at colony" it draws from the maintenance supplies which are made by construction factories in a manner similar to fuel. No supplies on the colony, and the ship won't resupply. These are the supplies used while the ship is out of dock.

[randal7 (OP)]

Maintenance Supplies X per Annum tech.

When you give a ship the order "Resupply at colony" it draws from the maintenance supplies which are made by construction factories in a manner similar to fuel. No supplies on the colony, and the ship won't resupply. These are the supplies used while the ship is out of dock.

I'm still unclear on the benefit of this tech. Are you saying ships use fewer maintenance supplies as "X" gets higher? As in, this is the supply equivalent of the fuel efficiency tech line? I like the idea, but the name and description suggest something else.

From the game:
Maintenance Production 60 SP per Annum

2000 RP

Increases production of maintenance supplies by each maintenance facility to 12 supply points per year.


I am still in 4.91; is this tech maybe broken in this version? Or am I just not getting it because I'm looking at it cockeyed somehow?

[Erik L]

Maintenance Supplies X per Annum tech.

When you give a ship the order "Resupply at colony" it draws from the maintenance supplies which are made by construction factories in a manner similar to fuel. No supplies on the colony, and the ship won't resupply. These are the supplies used while the ship is out of dock.

I'm still unclear on the benefit of this tech. Are you saying ships use fewer maintenance supplies as "X" gets higher? As in, this is the supply equivalent of the fuel efficiency tech line? I like the idea, but the name and description suggest something else.

From the game:
Maintenance Production 60 SP per Annum

2000 RP

Increases production of maintenance supplies by each maintenance facility to 12 supply points per year.


I am still in 4.91; is this tech maybe broken in this version? Or am I just not getting it because I'm looking at it cockeyed somehow?

That means you produce 12 instead of 10 pts. It increases the output.

[randal7 (OP)]

Are maintenance supplies and supply points not the same thing? If they are, my maintenance facilities do not produce maintenance supplies,  or anything else, for that matter. If not, what are supply points? I researched one level of this tech, but one maintenance facility still only supports a ship up to 200 tons. I can't think of what else supply points would be if not either maintenance supplies or support. I seem to be missing a key concept to understanding this.

[Erik L]

Maintenance = Supply points. They are made by construction factories.

Maintenance Facilities (and modules) only work while on (around) a colony with mined minerals. You can ship Maintenance/Supply points to a FARP if you wish. I usually do this, or have a fleet of tanker/supply ships with a sorium harvester orbiting a gas giant with Sorium.

[randal7 (OP)]

OK, I am now officially more puzzled than when I started.

Maintenance Supplies X per Annum tech.

When you give a ship the order "Resupply at colony" it draws from the maintenance supplies which are made by construction factories in a manner similar to fuel. No supplies on the colony, and the ship won't resupply. These are the supplies used while the ship is out of dock.

I'm still unclear on the benefit of this tech. Are you saying ships use fewer maintenance supplies as "X" gets higher? As in, this is the supply equivalent of the fuel efficiency tech line? I like the idea, but the name and description suggest something else.

From the game:
Maintenance Production 60 SP per Annum

2000 RP

Increases production of maintenance supplies by each maintenance facility to 12 supply points per year.


I am still in 4.91; is this tech maybe broken in this version? Or am I just not getting it because I'm looking at it cockeyed somehow?

That means you produce 12 instead of 10 pts. It increases the output.

You seem to be indicating here that this tech increases the amount of SP produced by maintenance facilities. While this is what the tech description says, it does not match my observations in-game, nor does it match what you say here:

Maintenance = Supply points. They are made by construction factories.

What I don't know is: what does the tech "Maintenance Production (X) SP per Annum" actually do? It doesn't increase SP production by maintenance facilities; we agree that SPs are built by construction factories. It doesn't increase the tonnage maintained by an individual facility. I am trying to decide if this is worth researching, but I don't know what if anything it does for me.

I appreciate everyone taking the time to answer, and I apologize if I'm unusually dense today.

[Beersatron]

Steve changed the way maintenance supplies were created around version 4.8 or so but he forgot to remove that tech line until version 5.0.

You can just ignore the tech line.

It use to be that maintenance facilities built the actual maintenance supplies in a way similar to fuel refineries. Now you make the supplies from the construction interface.

[Steve Walmsley]

I'm finally far enough into a game to start researching some of the less straightforward techs, because guns and engines have gotten too expensive. I'm not clear what some of them do. I'm using 4.91.

1) Maintenance Production X SP per annum - first of all, the number in the title and in the description don't match. Second, I initially thought this meant maintenance facilities automatically made X amount of maintenance supplies, but this does not seem to be the case. In fact, supplies are made by devoting construction factories. So, what does this do?

That's an old tech that is no longer in the database, at least not for v5.20 anyway.

2) Max Tracking Time Bonus vs Missiles - I gather this allows better targeting of missiles relative to speed. But is this for the whole fleet, based on how long the long range sensors have tracked the missiles, or per ship, based on how long the fire control has targeted the missile?

Its based on the time you have been tracking the missile contact with any active sensor.

3) So far I've never built a salvage ship. Are the more advanced salvage modules just faster, or is there some other advantage?

They salvage faster. There is no other advantage.

Steve

[randal7 (OP)]

Thanks. That's what I was wondering about.

[UnLimiTeD]

After all those guessing and all the discussion, Steve comes in, and suddenly, knowledge.
See the light!