How to automate private and mining ships

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Passero82
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:52 am

How to automate private and mining ships

Post by Passero82 »

So I have all my settings on manual however I don't care about the private ships and mining ships so I left the upgrade to Aumtatic and retrofit to Automatic

I thought that this would take control over upgrading my ships when I got new technology but this does not seem to be the case...

For example my fission reactor has been finished a while ago but my private ships still are using the old basic space reactor.
They also don't seem to fit the warp bubble generator.

Also how does the automatic retrofit works when I manually upgrade a design?
I once upgraded by small space station to include shields and armor when that tech was finished but I still had to manually give the order to retrofit my only space station...

I am a bit confused on how this workflow works.
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: How to automate private and mining ships

Post by Bingeling »

I am not sure what you are doing...

You do manual design, but not on the private ships? Then the AI designer must be on, and you uncheck the state ships on a list in the list in empire screen (in the research section). To avoid the AI from making design alongside your manual ones.

The private ships themselves are bought, used and retrofitted by the privates, and outside your control. Do they have a design with the warp bubble, though? If design is on manual, you have to make new designs for them.

Nothing should happen automatically unless the right option is on automatic. If you have manual for everything, you have to be the one that tells the spaceport to retrofit.

The "retrofit option" in the design part makes more sense if you see on the design itself rather than just in the design list. It says something like "only retrofit if manually told to". It makes the AI stay off retrofitting from that design. And a ship with such a design should not be retrofitted if you tell its fleet to retrofit.

The auto upgrade for a design probably says that the AI will mess with it (upgrade it) if AI design is on. With manual/manual (upgarde/retrofit) you can make your own little cruisers for special missions while the AI at the same time designs it normal cruisers. And the AI won't interfere with your special cruiser design or retrofit them to normal cruisers (and should not do so even if the ship is automated).
NephilimNexus
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2014 1:25 pm

RE: How to automate private and mining ships

Post by NephilimNexus »

Private sector ships can be very slow to upgrade. Two things that determine when they do is how much of a surplus the private sector has (visible in the Empire screen, unless you're playing pirate, because pirate economics are fubar) and just how much of an upgrade is being offered. Meaning that if all an upgrade does is add a few points of armor then they might never bother with it, but an upgrade that changes an engine or increases hull size will get done faster.

Note that even then it may not make much sense. Of course there is a scam you can pull as an Empire player where you just scrap outdated private sector ships, which forces them to buy all new ones - which dumps a lot of money into your wallet very quickly & easily.
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Shark7
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RE: How to automate private and mining ships

Post by Shark7 »

You'll start to appreciate the fact that civilian ships don't immediately go to upgrade when you start having resource shortages and nothing gets built. The civilian ships upgrade over time, preventing you from having your entire merchant fleet stuck in a retrofit queue and nothing moving the resources you need to actually complete those refits.

Now that would be a game breaker. [X(]
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'When in doubt...attack!'
Jakerson
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Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:46 am

RE: How to automate private and mining ships

Post by Jakerson »

ORIGINAL: Shark7

You'll start to appreciate the fact that civilian ships don't immediately go to upgrade when you start having resource shortages and nothing gets built. The civilian ships upgrade over time, preventing you from having your entire merchant fleet stuck in a retrofit queue and nothing moving the resources you need to actually complete those refits.

Now that would be a game breaker. [X(]

This the reason why private ships retrofit slowly in worst case if all private ships retrofit all at once and consume all resources then your empire run out of resources and your whole transport fleet is stuck retrofitting and then you whole empire economy collapses.

Then you cannot build anything because all private transport ships stuck in retrofit and whole resource trasporting private ships out of action at same time.
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Shark7
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Location: The Big Nowhere

RE: How to automate private and mining ships

Post by Shark7 »

ORIGINAL: Jakerson
ORIGINAL: Shark7

You'll start to appreciate the fact that civilian ships don't immediately go to upgrade when you start having resource shortages and nothing gets built. The civilian ships upgrade over time, preventing you from having your entire merchant fleet stuck in a retrofit queue and nothing moving the resources you need to actually complete those refits.

Now that would be a game breaker. [X(]

This the reason why private ships retrofit slowly in worst case if all private ships retrofit all at once and consume all resources then your empire run out of resources and your whole transport fleet is stuck retrofitting and then you whole empire economy collapses.

Then you cannot build anything because all private transport ships stuck in retrofit and whole resource trasporting private ships out of action at same time.

I thought that was what I said, perhaps I was unclear?
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