How to upgrade repaired abandoned ships?

[Jens@Saxony]

I was lucky in my current playthrough and found some really cool abandoned ships. But they really lack on fuel storage, so I would like to upgrade them.

Issue is, all ships have less crew capacity and in the edit mode the "Upgrade to" option "None" is selected, so I can't save changes to "Last hule" or something else (red marked crew info, save button disabled). When I do a new upgrade template of this ship design with a new functional version, the old template will not be upgraded to the new one because of "None" option. Same with abandoned stations.

Is this "a feature" of the game that you can not upgrade abandoned ships and stations? Or is it a bug? Or did I miss something?

What is your experience?

[fidsquid59]

There is currently no way to upgrade found or captured ships. The only way you can 'upgrade' them is to convert them to your own nations designs.

I regard this as one of the failings left in the game.

[Ricardo]

Is not possible, to create own project based on captured ship, and then to improve this project in designer?

[Nightskies]

Originally posted by fidsquid59:

I regard this as one of the failings left in the game.

The issue has been brought to the dev's attention and saves have been provided. Hubhubhub. This is a failing. However, it's a relatively small one, because...

On the bright side, these ironically broken fixed ships still retain their full value as research material. Send 'em to be retired! Or use them defensively!

[Thineboot]

Since there is still one answer missing, you can upgrade any design to an own design, with own designs being unlocked in your research tree.

Which is a shame, because you can steal designs made for other races, but you end up redesigning them in your own style. You can capture ancient designs or, like OP, you can repair them without problem, but you can't use the available space to add extra crew quarters - the original designers had researched higher tech crew quarters. I'm perfectly fine with not building new ships with unresearched tech. But you should be able to modify existing ships with your own tech.

The same goes for pirate bases. You can't modify them but you can replace them with a fresh new spaceport in places where you're not allowed to build one.

If it were me, we couldn't repair those broken, unresearched tech at all. Adding research points to those techs like retiring them. Bring them to specialised research stations and use them in conjunction with a constructor to gain knowledge about those lost techs. And when you're done with it, when you've broken down the remains, gain some research points on those hulls - they're broken, you don't fully understand the structures.

Stealing tech is perfectly fine. But it should be a logarithmic gain in points. Basics, no problem. But all these races out there use their own designs and their research fits their designs - and you don't have all the other tech based on their designs. That way the spy game would not have the overwhelming effect, but would rather speed up your own research - not replace it entirely for those techs.

Sorry, got carried away ;)

[Tooslow]

It does seem counterintuitive that you're able to repair a technology you don't understand but I suppose that's why you can trigger a research boost when doing so. It is just a game, after all.

I do dream of a game with less rigid ship design, where you can take say the engine or hyperdrive from an ancient alien ship and jerry-rig it to one of your own hull types.

[Jens@Saxony]

My thanks for clarification. Maybe you can do upgrades in the future. It would be cool to keep some alien layouts. We will see.

[Reviera]

This is sad news. Just one more way Stellaris has this game beat. I use the human race but the ship designed for the ships themselves look like a POS. Kinda wish there was a template model mod for each class of ship.

[Tooslow]

Originally posted by Reviera:

This is sad news. Just one more way Stellaris has this game beat. I use the human race but the ship designed for the ships themselves look like a POS. Kinda wish there was a template model mod for each class of ship.

Think you replied in the wrong thread, buddy.

[Dray Prescot]

There is a particular problem to watch out for with old ships that you are now trying to use.

Many of the higher tech ships use Quantum Reactors for their power source, for instance many old colony ships, old relic warships, and lost refugee colony expeditions from other galaxies, that can be discovered while exploring our Galaxy.

The problem comes if your Empire does not have Quantum Reactor Tech (most Empires can research it eventually). Those ships do not have adequate source of power for their Hyper Drives even when they have fuel, and so they crawl through space like a turtle, with speeds in the 50s compared to normal speeds at least 10 times faster, and even faster if you do have Quantum Reactor Tech (after you acquire it somehow).

Even the starting version of Quantum Reactor Tech, is not good enough to get full speed, you will need the version 2 of Quantum Reactor Tech to get full speed.

So do NOT try to move those ships long distances in Hyper Space, because they will be very slow and take a long time to get there, IF you do not have Quantum Reactor Tech.

Send them to your nearest friendly system, or a nearby system if you want to use them to colonize a new world.

If you can get them to a nearby Star Port, particularly the non Colony Ships, they make good ships to retire to get bonus research points. Depending on what Reactor Techs are still unresearched in your Tech Tree, retiring them might help you get progress toward Quantum Reactor Tech.

The Colony Ships will have a random Race onboard and can be useful in colonizing a world that you can not colonize, at all or easily. Pick the closest available suitable world to colonize.

If you want to kept them because they are powerful, send them to a nearby friendly system and then leave them there as a Garrison ship(s) for that system, at least until you acquire Quantum Reactor Tech,