Oolite Bulletins

Have anyone ever done something like this :

Either you buy, or construct a factory in space or on a planet/moon.
Req : Credits+Computers+Machines+Alloys/Minerals

At which point you are able to construct your own ship.
Req : Computers+Machines+Alloys+Radioactives

The bigger the ship the more resources needed. There would of course be a rather long production time (weeks) and some expenses to hire workers (or using slaves?).

So build your own ship in game as opposed to out of the game working up a bit of wings and some oxp goodness?

Vincentz wrote:

a factory in space or on a planet/moon.

Nice idea, there are some existing models:

Imperial AstroFactory


Collective Zero-Gravity Factory


Salvage Gang

Vincentz wrote:

At which point you are able to construct your own ship.
Req : Computers+Machines+Alloys+Radioactives

I guess to ten thousands in total value, so need about 2-500t Alloys and similar Machines to reach an enough high cost if other components are just in smaller amounts in a ship. Nice task to gather these into the factory. Another if you  tow a salvage ship into for reconstruction - maybe this should be the first and most required part to prevent the easy access of rare ships.

Vincentz wrote:

some expenses to hire workers (or using slaves?)

Transport slaves into the factory to reduce the working cost: pay them with food instead of credits.

ClymAngus wrote:

So build your own ship in game as opposed to out of the game working up a bit of wings and some oxp goodness?

In the case of a custom ship first you make it in wings, put into an oxp with chance=0 in shipyard.plist and add a factory also. In this way the player first must build up the factory of the ship, then bring in the needed commodities and build the ship.

There could be an option, sort of Outsourcing, where player could make Contracts for other ships to bring in especially Alloys and Machines.
The price would be a a few percent above system prices + a fee for transporting. That way the amount of alloys could be "realistic" without taking years to transport all the stuff.

I like the towing idea, though can a ship Witchjump with a tow?
It could also be combined (or) with buying "Blueprints". The more expensive the ship, the more expensive the blueprint.

Another idea was to be able to construct mines on selected moons/planets to be able to acquire enough alloys.

Vincentz wrote:

I like the towing idea, though can a ship Witchjump with a tow?

Not with a Tow. But with an Escort Deck the Salvage stays with you (I believe I already did that).

That said, I have already thought about player buyable factories, but not for ships construction. I was thinking about commodities creation (like a not soooo expensive in-space hydroponics farm to create food, or a very expensive factory which creates luxuries out of alloys, minerals, computers... which you then can pick up in your ship. Or you buy an addition, an automatic transport ship which sells the produce at the local market (which may become full if you rely on it too much) or buy the raw materials there if available.

I somehow don't like the possibility to create your own ship. But I see that others might like it. I could live with the idea of some "enhancement" shipyards which make exclusive (thus also expensive) conversions from standard ships you may have to bring with you. Those shipyards should however not be player buyable, and they should not be available in all systems, more like TL9+, mainly industrial+ and stable government. And they should not all offer the same conversions so you will have to search for them. Maybe there could be hints scattered around (Spacebars, Spam EMail, Communication message from NPCs, Ads, Snoopers...)

QCS wrote:

with an Escort Deck the Salvage stays with you

The deck is good for small ships, for larger ones you should hire a [wiki]Carrier[/wiki] which is able to transport ships up to Anaconda class into another system.

Even "ship contracts" are possible where others hire you: within the system a Towbar is enough, outside a Deck or a Carrier is needed to bring salvages to a repair factory or semi-finished ships from a factory to a specific station.