Maximum Orbital Industry?

[Theodotus]

It appears that the maximum number of orbital shipyards you can build on any earthlike world is 8. Is this correct?

Assuming it is, it gives a different interpretation of what the maximum industry slot numbers stand for.

When I first started playing, I thought that the earthlike plants with more than 40 industry slots could be turned into extreme industrial powerhouses, with 10 or 11 orbital shipyards.

Now that I perceive 8 to be the maximum number, I see that having more than 32 industrial slots actually means that such a world is more versatile -- you can build more of other things that take away industry slots before you impact the world's ability to build maximum orbital industry.

Of course, you can still fill up all the slots with factories, and worlds with more slots can therefore end up more productive than those with less. But the ground-based factories produce so much less industry than the orbitals that I feel less compelled to build them after I max out the orbitals. So to me, it feels like the more industry slots a planet has the more flexible it is.

I love the subtleties in this game.

[Dray Prescot]

That may be the max based on factory slots, but you are also limited by how many domes you can build since you need 16,000 population to build one Orbital Shipyard, and therefore 16 Domes each.

Question anyone, what are the population limits like on gas giants when you finally get the tech to colonize them?

[Premium]

100 celestial platforms is the default.

[Dray Prescot]

Thank you for the info.

So with enclosed coloized colonies having a limit of 75 domes, you can only build 4 Orbital Shipyards. As long as we can still dismantle the regular factories and have the Orbital Shipyards still work, that leaves 35,000 population to run other items such as Hydroponic Farms. Since they need 750 population each that means you can build 46 Hydroponic Farms which will produce either 46,000 food for normal Hydroponic Farms or 57,500 food if you choose the Radioactive World tech at the start of the game, in which case 750 population produces 1250 food each.

Final result, a short fall of 29,000 food with normal Hydroponic Farms or 17,500 food for the improved Hydroponic Farms, per enclosed colony with a limit of 75 Atmospheric Domes along with the production of the 4 Orbital Shipyards or about 20 production points and 4 orbital points before modifiers (including modifiers to food production/consumption as well as modifiers to the Shipyards).

I am not taking into account any colonization modules in the above calculations, so if you had 5 colonization modules in the enclosed colony the limit would go up to 5 Orbital Shipyards, with a total of 30 production points (including the 5 from the colonization modules) and 5 orbital points as well as 40 Hydroponic Farms with a net shortage of either 40,000 or 30,000 food before all modifiers.

Which leads to the interesting question: can you colonize a world with more than colony ship?

I already am using colony ships with 4 Colony Modules, I am not sure what a ship with 5 Colonization Modules would look like, particularly its range and building costs. The raw material building costs of such a ship at hard difficulty would be a major problem in building many such ships, or for more than one colony ship colonizing a world, if that can be done. (you would need 21 Colonization modules to reach 96,000 population and 6 Orbital Shipyards !!!!, I very much doubt that it would be worth it).

I am also not taking into account the affects of such things as Police and military garrisons.

These calculations are not for Oceanic or Earthlike worlds, where the population limits are high enough that the building slot limits may become the limiting factors.

I do have another question: do any Racial modifiers, Technologies, or Game Start modifiers (or anything else) change how much population can be supported by 1 Atmospheric Dome (or other housing modules, if any)? Since I am assuming 1,000 population per Dome.

[K00lex]

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

I already am using colony ships with 4 Colony Modules, I am not sure what a ship with 5 Colonization Modules would look like, particularly its range and building costs. The raw material building costs of such a ship at hard difficulty would be a major problem in building many such ships, or for more than one colony ship colonizing a world, if that can be done.

Yep, early mineral resource scarce is one of my reason for redesigning default colonizer to reduced ranges (2K, 3K, 4K, 5K, etc...) to fit the distance to next colonizable planet. The other is to lower production points by removing unnecessary fuel tanks; and thus, faster built time, leading to early new colonies and quicker expansion. :-)

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

I am also not taking into account the affects of such things as Police and military garrisons.

The planetary governors will increase population to support defensive troops. They are added to the colony's total population, so they consume food and require upkeep resources, but no need for domes (I guess, they have their own barracks or tents). However, this new pop number should not be used to calculate available workers for buildings (domes, factories, mines, shipyards, farms, military bases, & scanners).

What annoys me is the extra workers after a domed planet is built up. Usually less than 750, so they can't be used to construct a new hydroponic farm, but they sit around and eat all day. :-(
I ended up using a passenger transport to ferry them to younger colony. No idle bums in my empire!

[Dray Prescot]

The GM has made it clear in response to a direct question from me that the deleting factories after building the Orbital Shipyards strategy is not intended and should have been corrected as 1.03c, i.e. the new current version. He said that factories could not be deleleted now.

Although I hope there is some provision for tearing down the shipyards so that you can then tear down factories. I can see cases arising, particularly during wartime when you have lost some mining and or food production colonies, where you might have to tear down factories to build mines or farms to replace the lost production.

[K00lex]

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

Although I hope there is some provision for tearing down the shipyards so that you can then tear down factories.

You can always 'destroy' any structure in a planet, including orbital shipyards & research centers. So, easy to retool any planet, just take time to rebuild...

[edgewise_sj]

I have been avoiding using multi-colonizer module ships due to thinking that this is also sorta not as intended so getting used to it would be troublesome. Has there been any clarification on if this will be a thing moving forward or not? It'd really super-strong to be able to get the extra free production and food over hundreds of colonies...

[Dray Prescot]

I am still using colony ships with multiple colony modules, usually 4 sometimes 2,playing under 1.03c. I think the GM is willing to allow this, particularly since he got rid of other things such as colonizing Gaia planets with cloaked colony ships even when the Pirate Fighter garrison was still there.

However, I am not trying to do so at Hard difficulty, which would make the extra raw material cost much harder to live with.

[Theodotus]

Originally posted by edgewise_sj:

I have been avoiding using multi-colonizer module ships due to thinking that this is also sorta not as intended so getting used to it would be troublesome. Has there been any clarification on if this will be a thing moving forward or not? It'd really super-strong to be able to get the extra free production and food over hundreds of colonies...

Ufnv posted in one thread that he found it acceptable and didn't intend to change it or take it out.

I use two colony ship designs: one with only one colony module, which take less time to build and are used for colonizing earthlike worlds as quickly as possible, and one with four colonizer modules, which are used for all other types of worlds, since those world require domes or platforms for any population outside the original colony. The extra production at the outset really helps with those colonies.