Materials shortage at constructor ship

[stan.collins]

I am building a gas plant with a constructor ship and am getting a "Construction delayed due to materials shortage" message even though I replaced the small cargo bays with standard cargo bays. I thought constructor ships were supposed to carry everything needed to complete a job with them. What gives?

[piccolo255]

Check the construction summary of the station, it's available in the design window. Add up all the materials in there. Does your construction ship have enough cargo space for it? If not, add more cargo bays.

If that is not the problem, it's possible that the spaceport where your construction ship took materials didn't have enough in stock. AFAIK, if that happens, the construction ship will take as many materials as there are available, and will go and build with that. When it runs out midway, it will wait for cargo ships to bring it the rest directly.

This second issue is more difficult to solve.

Limit the number of spaceports and place them strategically around your empire, don't build them on every planet or even in every system. If you have too many spaceports your resources will be spread out and problems like this one will start happening.

Build more mines, also spread out around your empire. Don't focus all your mining station in a small area, cargo ships will try to spread the resources around but it will take a long time.

Sometimes, if I want to build a station but know that the closest spaceport doesn't have the resources, I will instead order the same station to be built closer to a spaceport with enough resources. Once the construction ship takes the materials and starts moving towards the "fake" build location, cancel the construction order and give the real one. It's a lot of micromanagement and I'm not always sure if it works, but it's worth a try every now and then.

[stan.collins]

The "size" of the various component modules of my gas plant add up to 292.
The "quantity" of the various raw materials needed for all components adds up to 397.
The "cargo capacity" of my constructor is 1,500.
I have multiple thousands of each raw material needed for the job at the space port from which I dispatched the constructor.

I don't understand how I could have a shortage.

[TwoTonGamer]

It may be possible your gas mining station design updated with a recently completed research project while the construction ship was in transit to build it. When the construction ship arrived and started building the latest design it may have found itself short on something or other.

When this has happened to me I have cancelled the constuction ships build order and then instructed it to "repair" the mining station. If a private cargo ship is on its way with the needed supplies then the construction ship stays there and waits for its arrival. If no cargo ship is on its way yet I have noticed the constuction ship goes and gets the missing supplies itself.

[stan.collins]

I hadn't considered this. However, I have not updated the design since I created it. My tech is not that far along. Nor is my economy really strong enough to pay for upgrades right now.

Is there any way to equate "size" of a component or "quantity" of a raw material with "cargo capacity"?

[piccolo255]

Constructor ship's cargo capacity should be based on the raw materials' quantity. The base's components are made from the raw materials on-the-spot, in the construction ship's production labs, so the component size is irrelevant.

One thing to note is, each station also keeps a basic supply of 50 units of each strategic resource, reserved for future upgrades. I don't recall if the construction ship brings this reserve together with the building materials, but it could be another reason for the shortage.

BTW, did the shortage happen only on that one construction job, or does it happen with every mining station you attempt to construct? You could try giving another construction order, and observe the construction ship's cargo as it picks up the materials.

[stan.collins]

I have come to realize that this happens only outside of my home system as I have no problem with plants there.

I will try your suggestion and see what I can see.

[stan.collins]

In trying to figure out this issue I've discovered something that seems unreasonable to me. I have a construction ship that I built at a colony which is low on resources because it is new. I sent it to my home space port, which has plenty of resources, to pick up materials to build a gas mine. When I issued the build order, instead of picking up the needed materials where it was, the ship left my home space port EMPTY headed for the space port at the colony where it was built (I presume to get the materials there). Why would this be? It seems to me that a construction ship should load any needed materials at the nearest port or, better yet, at the nearest port that has all of the required materials to do the job.

[piccolo255]

From my experience, construction ships get the materials from the spaceport nearest to the construction site. The location of the ship itself is completely irrelevant.

I referenced this fact, though I didn't state it explicitly, in my first reply here. I described my micromanagement strategy, where I 1) order a build somewhere close to an established port, 2) cancel after the construction ship picks up the resources, and 3) give a new build order at the actual location.

The above workaround only makes sense since the construction ships take materials exclusively from the spaceport closest to the construction site. If you were unaware of this mechanic, it's very likely that it is the source of your problems.

[stan.collins]

Sorry I misunderstood you. I was unaware of this. I thought they took their materials from the space port closest to them at the time they got the build order. It appears the freighters are not moving materials around as well as they might. I have one space port that has NO caslon, even though it is at a colony on a moon orbiting a gas giant with a caslon gas mine.

I will use your method from now on.

Thanks for the help.

[Dray Prescot]

What I would do is send the constructor to a Star Port / World that has ALL the materials needed in enough quantities to build the type and design of Base you are planning to build. Then after the construction ship is at that Star Port. Give it an order to build that exact design somewhere very close by. It will then pick up exactly the right materials in the quantities needed at that Star Port. Then as soon as the construction ship leaves the Star Port, change it's orders to build the desired base at the location you really want it built at. The construction ship will now go to the Star Port closest to the desired site, and then since it already has the necessary materials onboard, it will finally go to the correct site and build the desired base with ALL of the needed materials in the right quantities onboard. This is round about but it gurantees getting it built with no delays for lack of material.

The OTHER thing you can do is keep your basic starting designs for mining stations and star ports/bases SIMPLE without requiring unusal materials. That way they are less likely to get held up during construction by lack of rare materials that many of your colonies/worlds are short on.

The basic problem is due to not having direct control over private freighters, i.e. you can not tell them to take this cargo list from place A to place B in Distant Worlds.

Another thing that I do is put mining complexes, both gas and regular onboard (possibly even luxury), with enough static energy sources to power the ship. That way if you are short on a material being mined at that planet or nearby, you can either mine it there or go that nearby location to mine the missing materials and then return to the unfinished construction site. This can save on time consuming voyages to go back to a distant base/source to get some missing items. It also gives you a way to possibly refuel the ship.

Finally, check out the Bacon Mod, it gives a limited way of ordering the delivery of some materials by private ships from A to B.

[stan.collins]

O. K. In watching the process closely I've discovered something I don't understand. When the construction ships leave port to build a gas or ore mining station they carry the required materials plus 50 of every strategic material except Emeros Crystal, Dilithium Crystal, Nekros Stone and Osalia (25 of each). When they've finished the job they leave EVERYTHING there and return empty. Does anyone know why? Are they acting as small quantity supply depots? The mining stations don't need these materials to function, do they? The reason I ask is that I've read that we shouldn't build more mining stations than we really need and this would dilute my major stockpiles, thus necessitating more mines.

[Fupa Chalupa]

I think it’s for future upgrades

[Fupa Chalupa]

Or it’s because constructors don’t return to the spaceport after finishing the task, do those mats get picked up by the next freighter

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by stan.collins:

O. K. In watching the process closely I've discovered something I don't understand. When the construction ships leave port to build a gas or ore mining station they carry the required materials plus 50 of every strategic material except Emeros Crystal, Dilithium Crystal, Nekros Stone and Osalia (25 of each). When they've finished the job they leave EVERYTHING there and return empty. Does anyone know why? Are they acting as small quantity supply depots? The mining stations don't need these materials to function, do they? The reason I ask is that I've read that we shouldn't build more mining stations than we really need and this would dilute my major stockpiles, thus necessitating more mines.

Originally posted by piccolo255:

One thing to note is, each station also keeps a basic supply of 50 units of each strategic resource, reserved for future upgrades. I don't recall if the construction ship brings this reserve together with the building materials, but it could be another reason for the shortage.