Is there really a great need to buy a construction ship?

[uncleseano]

I'm half thinking about it just to fill it with drones to speed up build jobs because at present I've been really unlucky, with some modules taking 45 mins to complete.

While I'm at it is 30 the max amount of drones that can be used at any one time?

[Alith-Ahnar]

No and yet there will be a moment in time when you would love to have one ready at a moments notice.

[uncleseano]

That makes sense to fly out and see how many drones they have but just so I'm clear how many drones is optimal? I know they can hold 100 but it's 30 still the limit that they can use at any one time?

[Tanvaras]

Yes, I always have one or more as every time i "really" need a builder I can not find one free, and if I do its got like 2 drones and takes til the end of time to build my station. So I always try and get one sooner than later stocked with builder drones.

[ARY//RØK]

Using your own construction ship is a could way to farm high level engineers.

[Gregorovitch]

In X3 there was a big reason to buy your own Mammoth - in fact several of them - as it made station building much easier, quicker and in the long run cheaper than hiring them because you had to pony up hiring fees per individual module fetch trip from the shipyards.

This is not so in X4 because a) hiring a construction ship is dirt cheap in X4 (one flat fee per station build no matter how big) and b) construction ships are not responsible for actually getting the build components from shipyards/equipment docks etc and transporting them to the build site like they were in X3, standard freighters are.

Once you equipped your own Mammoth's with jump drives, for example, you could really get building in X3 because the hired ones crawled to the shipyards and back to get the modules, maybe two or three at a time from memory. But nothing like this sort of advantage exists in X4.

The only question that remains is the effect of construction ship specification and origin on the speed of module construction in X4, and on this I am not yet entirely sure. I have noticed that there can be a wide difference in module construction times, anything from 20-80 minutes per module, and I am not sure where that discrepancy comes from. I could be based on

* module race origin vs build site sector ownership
* module race origin vs construction ship race origin
* construction ship crew expertise/equipment spec/loadout

Possibly a combination of all three. Without knowing full details of such modifiers it would be difficult to evaluate the cost/benefit of owning your own construction ships in X4 with accuracy.

[Pathogenic]

I find construction ships are a great crew training resource. Get a construction ship with 200+ service crew, and have the ship work on building your stations. They will all gain experience, some of them a substantial amount of experience. Some of them will get good level pilot skills, others will get good manager skills. You will be able to train a large core of skilled pilots and managers by using your own construction ship.