Question about Building your own shipyard

[Rayburn73]

If i buy a Argon XL shipyard, can it build an Asgard or any others race ships (if you have the blue prints for them) or does it have to be a Terran XL shipyard. (not that i am anywhere near that stage yet) Going to try out building a S/M shipyard first. But not being able to buy an Asgard or Syn was an unwelcome suprise at first and now has become a goal. Just don't want to buy the wrong fabrication blue print. Also can't really find what is needed for a self sufficient S/M shipyard... just crazy (crazy for now) self sufficient mega shipyards).

[Sticky]

Yes when you buy any shipyard it can build any class of any race on for what blueprints you currently have. You can set it up to sell to other races or particular races when you can sell to other races is when you can make back all your credits quickly.

If trying to make a self sufficient shipyard Set trade to anyone for your resources needed or build a production to make it yourself. You can slowly build on whats needed depending on your needs in your game, because some wares can be bought really cheap depending on your game seed.

[blackphoenixx]

You can check which ship parts need which wares in the encyclopedia or by clicking on the "+" symbol next to the component in the ship buy screen.

For self sufficiency it's easier to focus first on either Terran blueprints (only needs ecells, computronic substrate, silicon carbide and metallic microlattice) or if you have Tides of Avarice Argon blueprints with Closed Loop build method (only needs ecells, hull parts and claytronics) - since commonwealth ship hulls only cost hull parts and ecells that means you can build any commonwealth ships with just those wares too as long as you stick to Argon equipment (and TEL M shields for some reason).

The race-specific equipment of races other than TER and ARG will always cost the specific parts from the universal build method (shield components for shields, turret components for turrets and so on) which mostly matters if you want to use stuff like blast mortars or Boron stuff, but you can add those over time later.

[trooperrob]

what is required for a self sufficient shipyard depends on the ships you are building
if you have a shipyard that is doing fine, and you buy level 4 split engines (for example) you will suddenly need lots of a new ware (I think antimatter converters in that case).

Tip you need the equipment blueprints to fit your ships out.
You need the ship blueprints to build a ship for the NPC.

I spent years uselessly buying the ship planes when I only owned the equipment dock!

[Sticky]

Think we need to define Self Sufficient. One meaning a Shipyard that profits and supplied by a mix of traders and miners of yourself and other races. Or 2 meaning producing without trading with other races and producing all wares yourself. Either can be done though i suggest having a shipyard and a production station two different stations even if same sector or least 1 sector. Though you need a habitat and the needed production to supply your Crew or Marines for stocking your ships while building.

[Gibbo]

If you build the shipyard and then look in logical overview it will show you everything you need to build as they will all be listed with the minerals and gases. Once you start building what is required a production tab will open up for the ware in logical overview and it will move to its correct place in the production line. When there is only gases and minerals left in the storage tab in logical overview (far left of LO) then you've built everything you need to for a potential self-sufficent shipyard. I find to begin with you need lots of miners and you will probably be buying a lot of ores etc until you get it stable. It's easy to get carried away so be warned lol.

[Rayburn73]

Thanks for the information and tips :-)

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Sticky:

Think we need to define Self Sufficient.

This is true. It could mean several different things to different people.

On shipyards my approach is:

* I want to make all the component wares that go into making ships myself so I can have uninterrupted ship production (this is what I define as "self-sufficient").

* Also to make more profit from ship sales

* To than end I do not rush a shipyard, I build out the production of all the ship components first which, initially, are all sold to NPC faction shipyards for huge sums of money

* I build a separate production station for each component ware. That way I can upgrade all of them in parallel when I want to ramp up production

* I use the vast sums of money gained from sales of all these wares to start collecting BPs of all the ships and equipment from all the NPC factions. The BPs are by far the most expensive part of a shipbuilding venture. When you open a shipyard for business the more BPs you have in you collection the more ships you will sell because each faction want to buy specific models of ship with specific loadouts.

* My shipyard itself is just a big storage section, a habitat section, an elaborate L dock section (a LOT of L freighters will need to unload all the stuff) and the ship construction docks themselves. I spread it all out so it looks super cool, neat and uncluttered (to me anyway )

* My first stage of ship production is an L dock so I can start to produce my own L freighters and miners as these are expensive to buy. I do that as soon as I have the first stage of all the production stations built. I don't really care about building S and M ships early so much since they are cheap to buy anyway except M combat ships but I don't use that many of those.

* I ramp everything up from there, usually starting with an S/M construction module after I've bought a complete collection of S/M BPs from at least two factions.

[trooperrob]

I would recommend not putting it all in one factory.
I have problems late game with miners wandering everywhere from my shipyard.
I keep meaning to work out an ' ideal pattern' that minimises inputs.
eg :
1 factory:
helium, methane, graphene, superfluid, quantum tubes , plasma conductors , field coils and shield components. Only those 2 inputs needed.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by trooperrob:

I would recommend not putting it all in one factory.

Some like to build a mega-complex and I used to do that in X3 myself. In X4 I don't, I go full decentralised mainly because:

* since you can only build one new module at a time per station it takes an unreasonable time to ramp up production in a single station. The more decentralised you are the faster you can expand production.

* With separate production facilities you can take advantage of the extra five sector jumps you can make for each station along a supply chain. In practice it means you can harvest raw resources from 10 or even 15 sectors from your shipyard instead of just five which enables you to leverage the best mining locations available in the game.

[Chico Rodriguez]

There are alternatives to the Asgard. She's not the ultimate weapon, anymore. Now the playing field is level. Check out the Rise of the Ossian Raiders mod.

Now you can cleanse the universe of the filthy Terrans without worry you do not have access to their toys.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Prayermat Landmine:

Now you can cleanse the universe of the filthy Terrans without worry you do not have access to their toys.

Or you can get their Asgard BP off them before you dispense justice