Colony ship design

[vmxa1]

Ok, I have to ask, why does a colony ship have a retro engine and a thruster?
I asked as I wanted to upgrade the colony ship and dropped the retro for a sublight. I could not fit the improved thruster in. I wonder why do I need a system drive and a star lane drive? Do I need both?

[smellymummy]

as far as I understand, all ships need a system drive, for any kind of movement. this sucks since the system drive sure does take a lot of space. even orbitals need a system drive.

but think of it this way: you send your colony ship to some remote system, and another race ship arrives at the same time. they intercept and attack you. without that system drive (provided the game actually lets you get out of a system without one!), I kind of wonder just how fast you'll be able to move the colony ship

i'm not 100% sure though since I never tried to fit a ship without a system drive so if anyone knows better please clarify

[Defkon]

Well for a colony ship you'll want it to be a "starship" so that it can get to other stars. "system ships" have no warp engines, and are stuck in the system you build them in. (good for system colonies, and defensive ships)

For a starship, i think your required to have both a warp engine, and a type of thruster. But since thrusters only come into play during combat (AFAIK) there's no real reason to put anything other than your smallest/cheapest thruster on a colony ship..

[Main_Brain]

I did this:
Newest Warp Drive
Fitted retro engine and cut the speed to 500.
Saves usually enoiugh space for the new warpD.
Regarding no System Drive: Invalid Design

[smellymummy]

I think you're right about cutting down the system drive's speed, it cuts down on the space and price.

I've noticed it happen, but I'm not sure how exactly it's calculated.

[vmxa1]

Makes sense and that is what I had done, so I guess I stumbled intot the truth, thanks.

[vmxa1]

BTW way AFAIK the AI will not build any system colony ships, I have not seen it, even when colonizing planets in the home system.

[canamrock]

Drop the system engines as low as possible. You can usually just cut them to Thrusters at 50-200 units of movement, and save the extra room for a beefier warp drive. That's what'll really matter for a Colony Ship. For most other ships, it's usually not worth it to cut back on the system movement, though.

[Dracil]

If you noticed the original ship designs, they had the speed at 150

[Main_Brain]

But newer Warp drives get smaller not bigger? :=)
im working on a colony ship with 4 colony pods..
4000 starting pop thats like a good Start! :=)
dont want to get the design to big.. Light Cruiser perhaps?

[salamander]

BTW way AFAIK the AI will not build any system colony ships, I have not seen it, even when colonizing planets in the home system.

I've had the AI build system colonies on me a few times so it does happen, maybe not as much as you would like though. I generally tell my planets what to build directly anyway.

[smellymummy]

Originally posted by vmxa1
BTW way AFAIK the AI will not build any system colony ships, I have not seen it, even when colonizing planets in the home system.

is it possible to tell the difference between a system colony ship and regular one?

if you'd see an AI task force on the map named 'Colo Detachment'.. then that would mean its a regular colony ship. you can't really see the AI's system ships, right? unless theres some info screen I've been missing?

I remember reading in the manual, a gamers tip I believe, about knowing what kind of ships the AI has so you can design your own ships to counter them. maybe that just means reading the labels of the AI's task forces, but if theres some info screen somewhere that i've been missing where is it!

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by smellymummy

is it possible to tell the difference between a system colony ship and regular one?

A System Colony Ship is diplayed with your other System Forces.
It has the same tactical Sign as all other System Ships (for Example your Hawk Defence Corvettes).
So I think also AI-System Colony ships would share this tactical sign with their other Systemforces instead of having the tactical sign of a Colonization Force.

[vmxa1]

I have not seen it queued up to be built. Once it was built, I do not know if it would be distinguishable from the other.

[Proteus_MST]

Thats true.

The AI viceroy also didn´t build them for me.
I had to manually put them into the Building queue to have them built.

But when I built some of them, they appeard with the other System Ships and could only be distinguished from the other System Ships by clicking on them and reading the Ship Types.