Gain tech from scuttling ships?

[K0ldsoul]

I just paid the the ghost fleet 25000 to join me. I noticed that I gained some techs right away. I was wondering if scuttling their ships gives any tech research bonus or completely unlocks techs?

[OddQuasar]

Scuttling will not generate any tech. In order to get Tech, you need to issue the ship a "Retire" command. That will essentially "unbuild" the ship at a spaceport, and allow for tech gains. Just be aware that it can be a lengthy process.

[Sabaithal]

To add to the above, in recent updates you don't get massive tech gains whenever the ships in question are only 1 or 2 tech levels above your current (in terms of component used). Some acquired ships might be more useful to you as fleet ships instead, for a time.

As a general rule I always retire captured escorts, and keep destroyers or higher until mid-game. If its a frigate it heavily depends on the loadout. If the frigate has minimal weaponry, or warp drives I will retire it. Otherwise I generally use them in a single fleet of captured ships "ghost fleet".

But how much bang for buck you're getting highly depends on your game settings. If you're playing a pocket empire playthrough (minimal habitability, minimal colonization range) or using the slowest research speed then retiring captured ships can be a valuable source of tech gain.

[Dervix]

You can usually get a few advances in early tech by retiring the ghost fleet ships but it's definitely not worth it.
The best use you can get out of them is capturing pirate ships, or at least find a gravillex, loot the crystals and drop them in your homeworld.

[K0ldsoul]

Thanks for the info, I also gained two bases. One of them is far away from my home world, is it worth keeping it? should I scuttle it or maybe disable supply if possible? it looks like it is taking a long time to resupply the base.

[TheMac]

Originally posted by K0ldsoul:

Thanks for the info, I also gained two bases. One of them is far away from my home world, is it worth keeping it? should I scuttle it or maybe disable supply if possible? it looks like it is taking a long time to resupply the base.

I keep all those bases if not for anything but the research they provide. If you are lucky enough to find the graveyard of the Freedom Alliance fleet, then you're looking at maybe 20+ derelict ships to disassemble, and having a few more shipyards to help with the task might be useful.

[Ax4711]

I just had the Freedom Alliance sector in my recent game. It has derelict high tech ships from three races. The light ships are easy enough to repair and retiring them produces the greatest tech boost ever.
Generally you can look at the ship's details and when you see superior components it's usually worth to retire them if you can get in some ships of your own.