How to jumpstart civilan ships

[consiefe (OP)]

I played the old Aurora a lot back in the time but now I reaally feel like a newbie.  Created a colony on Luna but I need Civilians for big shipments. 

Thanks again for this gem.

[DFNewb]

I played the old Aurora a lot back in the time but now I reaally feel like a newbie.  Created a colony on Luna but I need Civilians for big shipments. 

Thanks again for this gem.

You just need to put colonists on a body other than your starting one.

[Ekaton]

What determines civilian growth beyond that? The number of colonies.
, how busy it is transporting stuff and presumably getting paid, the number of civilian mines, or perhaps all of these?

[Froggiest1982]

What determines civilian growth beyond that? The number of colonies.
, how busy it is transporting stuff and presumably getting paid, the number of civilian mines, or perhaps all of these?

It's a combination of natural growth coded based on the number of colonists plus eventual governor or sector bonuses from Admin administrators.

[Father Tim]

I played the old Aurora a lot back in the time but now I reaally feel like a newbie.  Created a colony on Luna but I need Civilians for big shipments. 

Thanks again for this gem.

Build your own (government) freighters & colony ships and move stuff yourself.

- - - - -

Commercial shipping doesn't really get going until you have at least two populations of ten million or more.

And subsidizing shipping lines doesn't exist anymore, so you just have to wait for them to grow on their own.

[Person012345]

What determines civilian growth beyond that? The number of colonies.
, how busy it is transporting stuff and presumably getting paid, the number of civilian mines, or perhaps all of these?

Civilian lines get paid for the jobs they do, then they use that money to buy new ships. The busier they are the bigger they'll be.

[stabliser]

... The busier they are the bigger they'll be.

So dont encourage them.  I made that mistake.  After I stablised a jump point they crashed the economy by kidnaping half the population from the homeworld. 

[skoormit]

... The busier they are the bigger they'll be.

So dont encourage them.  I made that mistake.  After I stablised a jump point they crashed the economy by kidnaping half the population from the homeworld. 

You can prevent that by setting your HW population as "Stable" rather than "Source". That tells the civvies not to take population from there.

[skoormit]

What determines civilian growth beyond that? The number of colonies.
, how busy it is transporting stuff and presumably getting paid, the number of civilian mines, or perhaps all of these?

A civilian line will build a new ship when
a) there is an immediate shipping need (available freight for export matching import need elsewhere, or available population at "Source" colony matching unfilled pop capacity at "Destination" colony) that is large enough to fill a new ship and that does not have a civ ship already assigned
and b) the civilian line has enough money to build a new ship.

By creating and growing new colonies, you naturally create the need for civilian shipping capacity.
If you want them to grow faster, you can make lots of transport contracts. For example, make contracts to move 1000 infrastructure to Luna, then when it is done, make contracts to move it all back to Earth. You pay the lines for each shipment they make, so this is essentially a way to subsidize them.

[Gabethebaldandbold]

What determines civilian growth beyond that? The number of colonies.
, how busy it is transporting stuff and presumably getting paid, the number of civilian mines, or perhaps all of these?

A civilian line will build a new ship when
a) there is an immediate shipping need (available freight for export matching import need elsewhere, or available population at "Source" colony matching unfilled pop capacity at "Destination" colony) that is large enough to fill a new ship and that does not have a civ ship already assigned
and b) the civilian line has enough money to build a new ship.

By creating and growing new colonies, you naturally create the need for civilian shipping capacity.
If you want them to grow faster, you can make lots of transport contracts. For example, make contracts to move 1000 infrastructure to Luna, then when it is done, make contracts to move it all back to Earth. You pay the lines for each shipment they make, so this is essentially a way to subsidize them.

or better, tell them to move financial centers to places that need jobs, I just moved almost a 100 finantial centers to the moon, and to mars, along with a lot of LG infrastructure, and now I have like 6 shipping lines, and I haven't even left sol.

[stabliser]

... The busier they are the bigger they'll be.

So dont encourage them.  I made that mistake.  After I stablised a jump point they crashed the economy by kidnaping half the population from the homeworld. 

You can prevent that by setting your HW population as "Stable" rather than "Source". That tells the civvies not to take population from there.

I was aware but those sneaky civs lured me into letting them take a few locally and waited till I wasnt paying attention and then "voom! like a rat out of an aquaduct."