Optimal space ship configuration revisited...

[Scouse Gits]

RJM - In Comparison Game #1 my ship only had a 79% chance of success.

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SG(2)

[solo]

Space ships will always arrive if you can launch (percentages only apply to the number of colonist that will survive the trip).

Being able to launch with less than 15 structurals is news to me, and I will run some tests on this today.

No minimum is enforced in early landing games. Use any ploy you want to get your ship to AC faster.

[solo]

I tried some tests, but can not get the launch button for any combinations I tried using fewer than 15 structurals. If someone can do this, I'd like to see an example.

I tested the following, using one of each module for each test:

12-1-1
13-1-1
14-1-1

12-2-2
13-2-2
14-2-2

While looking around the web, I found the following table, listing flight times for various configurations. The first number is the number of components, the second is the number of structurals, and the third number is flight time. One of each module and Fusion power was included for these table results:

2-15-36.1
4-15-21.0
6-15-15.7
8-17-13.2
10-21-10.0
12-25-8.3
14-29-6.7
16-33-5.7

Adding more of anything to these configurations will just slow down a ship or make it so it can't launch. For earliest dates, it's most important to build in as few turns as is possible to take advantage of the switch to 1 year increments.

[La Fayette]

solo

Your table corresponds exactly to the one included in Winkler's 'Scrolls of ancient wisdom' (and my own experience).
May I add that the given flight durations correspond to a Space Ship with 3 modules (1 of each kind).
People interested in hign scores may build ships with up to 4 modules of each kind (hello shade )

[Bloody Monk]

An example of the type of ship referred to by La Fayette...

39-8-8-444 11.7 yrs,

which if I remember rightly gives 400 points to the final score.

Not a likely choice for Early Landing, however.

Monk

[debeest]

Presumably there is a formula that determines how many structurals are needed in order to "connect" each component and module. At one point, I thought that it was two structurals per component plus one structural per module, based on the sort of standard 15-6-3 ship, but that's not right.

Samson, you busy?

[Carolus Rex]

Hm... If I do survive to launch a space ship I just want the thing to spend as little time as possible in flight... 'Cause I'm expecting (uninvited) visitors should I launch...

Guess it has to be the optimal configuration then...

Carolus