Question on Freighters

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Pr0d1gY
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Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:53 am

Question on Freighters

Post by Pr0d1gY »

Hey all,

I have been playing distant worlds off and on for a while now but never really dived in depth into things until recently. I started a new game and was beginning to expand into other systems by building some mines at key resources. I only had 1 planet colonized at the time but must of had about 10-15 mines spread over about 4/5 systems.

What I noticed was that the public sector only had a handful (maybe 10 at most) of freighters ranging from small to large. These freighters were really struggling to get resources (and I only noticed because my fuel levels were getting low at my main starport) back to the main starport (the only starport). A lot of the gas mines had 10k plus Caslon on them but wasn't moving.

The main question is this: What prompts the private sector to build more freighters? I had read somewhere before (although it was an old post) that they get built when you colonize a new planet and when you build mines (up to 40 I believe). Is this still the case or is it only when you colonize planets now?

Any insight here would be appreciative
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DeadlyShoe
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RE: Question on Freighters

Post by DeadlyShoe »

what's your private sector's income vs expenditures and cash-on-hand? it can only buy things it can afford. 10-15 mines could be crushing their budget, especially if they are upgraded with lots of defenses.
Pr0d1gY
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:53 am

RE: Question on Freighters

Post by Pr0d1gY »

Sorry for the slow reply. now I'm home from work I can load the game and give more details.

The private sector has over 2mil cash on hand, 400k cash flow.

6 small freighters
5 medium
3 large

I have 21 mines in total (including gas) and 1 planet. Clearly not enough freighters to service the mines. Just not sure why they are not building any more unless its tied to number of planets controlled...

Looking at the expansion planner, there is no strategic resource that is unfulfilled
RiftHick
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:24 pm

RE: Question on Freighters

Post by RiftHick »

My first guess might be that for some reason your freighter designs might have become conflicted or too big for your current allowance so all that you have is older legacy ships back from when your freighter designs where acceptable. Take at each of them, as well as the designs of your mining ships to make sure they are acceptable as they might just be 2 or 3 points oversized due to something like a superfluous weapon or no longer needed extra reactor.

As for freighter construction, destruction of existing ships tends to make the private sector rebuild them either outright or through some notion of equivalency, building new mines causes the game to make new ships to service them. I strongly suspect there is a design issue preventing the designs from being used, it's the only thing I can think of considering you said that you don't have resource shortages.
Pr0d1gY
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:53 am

RE: Question on Freighters

Post by Pr0d1gY »

I can definitely see where you're coming from and thank you for the help.

I have just had a look at my designs for my private sector ships and there was no warnings in any of them stating that they either didnt have a supply of resources or that they were too large for my current construction size.

There are also no ships queued up at one my starport whether private or public. The only thing I can think off is if they are tied to number of planets which just seems silly. I am 3/4 the way through creating a colony ship so will see what happens when I get there.
RiftHick
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:24 pm

RE: Question on Freighters

Post by RiftHick »

Hopefully the new colony will solve your issue, but if it doesn't then all I can think is to change the ports to have more construction bays. I've never seen this issue and I am a slower more wave focused in my expansionism. What I mean by this is I will sit with just my homeworld until it alone can rapidly build up 3 or 4 other colonies while not running negative financially so by the time I'm getting my first other colony I may already have dozens of all 3 freighter types already.
Blabsawaw22
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Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:21 am

RE: Question on Freighters

Post by Blabsawaw22 »

I remember playing with only 1 homeworld colony and having plenty of freighters..


1. I think you can (ofcourse save game before you do this..) but try Scrapping all of your frieghters and have your Private sector rebuild all of them.. maybe it will build more..

2. you can attempt to set your freighters to have either a ton of cargo space or minimum cargo space.. to make them transfer more efficiently.. decide which is better for you.. and then you also could change your mines to have either 1-2 cargo space.. or 20-40 cargo space.. its a test you will have to do..

3. make sure you upgrade to a "large Port" .. this may not even have an effect on how many freighters the private builds.. but worth a shot..

just throwing some random stuff at you..
Kaien
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Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2015 4:43 pm

RE: Question on Freighters

Post by Kaien »

You have enough steel/Aluminium/polymers (and other) for build yours freighters ? Maybe the AI dont try to make a ship if you cannot make this ship ...
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Shark7
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RE: Question on Freighters

Post by Shark7 »

One thing to remember with freighters, they are going to go from one side of the empire to the other constantly. Might be better off to design them with a few extra fuel tanks and to use a different fuel type from your military ships to help ease the strain on your fueling sources.
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