Bases never finish building

[gheed123]

So I ordered a construction ship to build a defensive base, then I told him to stop to repair a ship. Now the half finished defensive base is sitting there for 6+ months, my construction ship doesnt show a hammer if I hover above it to finish it nor does my colony appear to take over the task. Stuck at 32 unfinished sections.

Same for a space port that I ordered to make at that same colony. Stuck at 39 unfinished sections for many months.
Whats going on?

I also like to this opportunity to ask another question:
I send my fleet against some furry aliens and expect to destroy them with my superior technology. But their ships seem to bypass my shields completely. On a capital ship I have like 500 shields left but with 100 sections destroyed. How can such simple creatures bring such great shame to my fleet? What ridiculous weapons do they use?

[invaderzim]

The furry guys probably have railguns or gravity weapons. Railguns are possibly the most annoying weapon to deal with early game. I haven't tried it, but you might be able to use tractor beams and the standoff command to push them back and kill them at range. Massing shatterforce lasers would probably also work.

[hammer58]

I figured out a trick to get the constructors to finish building a partially built structure.
 
The problem stems from the fact that the constructor needs to have the correct stuff on board to finish the job.
In order to do that the constructor has to go back to a planet (most often your homeworld early in the game) to reload the proper strategic materials needed to finish the job. The trick is to get it to reload before it tries to repair the object. Often I have to manually fly the constructor to my homeworld first. Then once it is at my homeworld I give it the order to repair the partially built station. Watch as it goes first to your homeworld to pick up the strategic materials then flies out to the station and will actually finish its construction. But if you upgrade the station before it is finished it will require more strategic materials that you do not currently have on board. And you will have to fly back and forth again with another load.
 
Done this too many times already in my game. Getting a bit old. I like the additional realism of running out of supplies but sometmes it becomes more a function of fighting the game than it is fighting other races.

[gheed123]

thx both of you, i will try as you suggested.

[Plant]

I think tractor beams push/pull based on firepower rather than unit stances.
How would manually flying the constructor help it to reload?
So it wouldn't reload automatically if it is nearer to the unbuilt mine?
I generally have problems getting mines to finish building if unfinished or damaged whilst building
Even making bases is hard, unless you manually tell a constructor to build it, because the asking a constructor to build just seems to select the nearest constructor, ignoring their building queue.