Why won't my private passenger ships retrofit?

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: Rumpelstiltskin

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

the mining stations are owned by the private sector yes, but are built by the state through his building ships.

Yeah, but those construction ships were built entirely with resources harvested by private sector, so we're right back at square one.

I also have never lik3ed the idea that the private sector pays the state for ships. Maybe they should pay something along the lines of a tax but paying for the whole ship has always bothered me. Its too easy to exploit. Many people run at 0% tax rate for years, relying only on ship construction.

[Bingeling]

The game is easy to exploit. The privates paying the state for ships is what the game is balanced around, so if that is modified the effect on the AI would have to be checked.

From my point of view, it would be nice if DW2 is less exploitable, but it won't really matter for me. I do not sell useless tech for cash, I have never used 0 tax much, and I do not run retrofit shenanigans on the civilians to get their cash. And removing all kinds of potential exploits could turn away a lot of players too.

But I can always dream of a new game where there are real trade-offs of all kinds. Where it is not easy to just add "more fuel cells" to cure range issues, and not so easy to see through AI mechanisms to get rid of enemies during war.

0% tax has been changed over time, but I hope it will be replace through a different kind of mechanic to boost new colonies by spending some effort. 0% tax on the single colony should not work, but by upping the tax on the main colony you ought to be able to somehow fund the boost of another one.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Personally, I have no problem with expecting the player to show a bit of restraint and not abuse the gameplay systems too much. Oftentimes, it's absolutely necessary in order to support mechanics that allow for a lot of player freedom; with that freedom comes the potential to exploit it.

I realize though that other people whose playstyles involve utilizing every advantage they possibly can to its fullest sometimes have psychological issues with this, since an advantage that doesn't involve a cheat code or the developer console is basically just sitting there and calling to them.

It's been said before, but SOME advantage from a low/nonexistent tax rate does make sense. If the colony's government and people have more financial resources at their disposal, then they're able to procure more and do more. In essence, setting a 0% tax is like subsidizing the fledgling colony.

[Shark7]

The passenger ships may not be retrofitting due to having a lot of missions queued as well.

If you have a resettle policy, or if you have a lot of Resort Bases, the ships may have a long queue of 'Pick up people, deposit them here' missions to clear out before they can go in for a retrofit. Since I have both of those scenarios active in my current game, the passenger ships take forever to retrofit.

That is the one thing I can think of that might explain it. Upgrade your construction ship designs, and you will be able to see it as well. The construction ships will finish whatever was in their build queues at the time you made the design change before actually going into port to retrofit. I'm betting the passenger ships have a similar logic when it comes to missions and retrofitting.

Also, I'm like Bingeling when it comes to the civilian ships. I do make changes to them, but I may only upgrade them twice during an entire game. And only when I get new reactors, engines, etc that actually make them better ships. So if mine never get around to retrofitting because they are too busy doing what I need them to do, it doesn't really bother me.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

ORIGINAL: Shark7

The passenger ships may not be retrofitting due to having a lot of missions queued as well.

If you have a resettle policy, or if you have a lot of Resort Bases, the ships may have a long queue of 'Pick up people, deposit them here' missions to clear out before they can go in for a retrofit. Since I have both of those scenarios active in my current game, the passenger ships take forever to retrofit.

They didn't even have a queue; or if they did, then they weren't displaying one properly. Normally, when I queue a retrofit for other types of civilian ships, a (1) appears to the right of their current task to indicate that there's 1 task in the queue. The passenger ships had no queue displayed, and even if they had, if the retrofit had queued properly then the queue readout surely would have incremented by +1. Instead, there was absolutely no feedback whatsoever.

It's just very strange all around. Even those of you who clearly have a lot of experience with the game don't seem to be sure what's going on.

I'd post the save file on Google Drive, but I'm not allowed to post links yet, so that's out.

[Bingeling]

I am quite sure that the AI never queues missions. That is a tool for the player. The AI should always complete its missions, sit for a moment with no mission, then get a new one (that moment may be very short). The main shortcoming with this is that it can give some rather silly effects. Like military ships on 1/3 fuel heading in to refuel a station that is under attack and such. And never diverting a ship to refuel on a long trek.

The best way to have lost ships is to have them on a mission to go across the galaxy without a jump drive. If under a serious fuel shortage, they will try to head to that tempting independent for fuel (that is sure to be swarming with pirates if they even can get there in the time frame of a game).

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I've never seen a civilian ship with a queue either unless I'm the one who gave the order which created the queue, but I obviously haven't been playing DW for very long, so it's hard to be sure about anything until I've got a few more games under my belt.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: Rumpelstiltskin

I'd post the save file on Google Drive, but I'm not allowed to post links yet, so that's out.

when you will be allowed, please post the link of your save file: I will take a look trying to find a possible explanation to the passenger ship upgrade issue.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo


when you will be allowed, please post the link of your save file: I will take a look trying to find a possible explanation to the passenger ship upgrade issue.

I will. It's not so much that I need help at this point, it's that it's a mystery that must be solved!

[OzoneGrif_slith]

I've never seen a civilian ship with a queue

I actually had many civilian ships with queued missions in my last game. It was late game and I never upgraded the cargo space, and the civilian ships were not many enough to support the whole logistic.

When I seen "2 queued missions" on my civilian ships, I suddenly understood why so many constructions were at a crawl!