I've since figured out what I was doing wrong, but I thought I'd post this anyway in the unlikely event that there is anyone else out there with self destructing ships.
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I have some questions about wrecks, due to getting a lot of them. Before I start I'll mention that I have been using exclusively military drives, Max size(30) pressurised water reactors, and not assigning officers to any ship. That said, My first wreck, a colonyship, occured in orbit around Earth. Then later as my second colony attempt on mars got started up, my cargo hauler collided with space a bit too hard for its own good. Shortly thereafter, and after a few choice obscenities at my cold and unforgiving monitor, the salvage ship I had built likewise collided with space on the way to said cargo hauler wreck. Thus far this is 60% of my space fleet, with the other 40% surviving likely due to eating up a critical resource that I don't have enough of maintenance wise.
Were these failures to be expected from military drive + no officers? Were they terrorism from the family members of the first ill-fated colonization attempt to mars? As an aside I dropped 10k people onto a planet with no infrastructure, and when they started not breathing I was unable, or atleast unsure, of getting them back onto the ship. I'm fairly certain my incompetence was atleast partially responsible for doing them in. Is the AI demonstrating more competence than myself and raiding me? It was ~2045ish at the time, and I'm not exactly setting the bar very high here folks.
