Space ports construction time

[Emx77]

I founded new colony on continental moon and ordered building of small space port. However, as time passed construction didn't start. Detailed inspection revealed that colony cargo bay was lacking most of resources required for building such space port. For example, there was need for 229 units of steel, 140 units of lead... none of which were present at colony. These quantities were reserved but private sector sent necessary resources only after two or three years.

Is this normal waiting time for required resources? If not, what could be reason for such a delay? My best guess is that there was no enough private ships and colony itself was far away (this is my first colony and it is two and a half sectors away from my Home world). Is there any way to somehow prioritize construction of star ports in such situations?

[Grotius]

I get that problem too, and I've certainly waited that long, if not longer. I suppose one answer is maybe to set up mining bases nearby, mining key ingredients? I'm not really sure. I hope others weigh in to respond.

[Neotheone]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I get that problem too, and I've certainly waited that long, if not longer. I suppose one answer is maybe to set up mining bases nearby, mining key ingredients? I'm not really sure. I hope others weigh in to respond.

That's what I do and it seems to work only I have other problems keeping me from building star bases or ports....space pirates who warp in and blow up the contruction sites. Then trying to get some fleets to the colony to protect it and they can't make up their minds where they want to REFUEL so back n forth back n forth they go.

[Gelatinous Cube]

The only solution is to expand your economy. Colonize more planets, mine more mines. It starts off slow, but once you have hundreds and hundreds of freighters in your network (if your game is that big) those Spaceports build really fast. Only your early colonies, and colonies that are really far off should suffer from bad supply like this usually.

[Neotheone]

Once I got my two fleets to a far out reach colony I was finally able to build a spaceport and defense bases and they build really fast. I started watching what freighters came in and they were bringing in mostly fuel hydrogen and that c word one. Finally my two fleets started refueling there as I was sitting on top of them not letting them go 20 million leagues to the next "nearest refueling station or port". I bet i had 3 defense bases and 1 starport in less than 10 minutes. So, it must have something to do with "resources" and that base of the OP that is building slow is missing some of them. One thing I like to do in the early game is not build hardly any military ships and go for exploration ships 15, colony ships and construction ships. You get a load of these out there you'll gain resources and colonies fast. It's about the only time I'll micromanage ships as there's not a ton like later on and I can find colonies and nice mining sites in a hurry.

[Gelatinous Cube]

Good job! You're getting there. The key to economic growth is learning how to prod your freighters. I do wish we could set a few "Priority Spots" that freighters would try and rush to, but only if it was implemented smartly.

One good trick is to always build a lot of construction ships whenever you can afford it. They are much cheaper than colony ships, and build much quicker. But they are still expensive, so don't overdue it. If you go into the expansion planner and look for potential resource locations by empire priority, or just look for specific resources, you can queue your automated construction ships to build mining bases just like you can queue colony ships to build/colonize. The constructors will resume automated duties after the queue is done, and you can see in the expansion planner which resources have construction ships queued to go there (and if you mouse over the ship icon, it will tell you the name too).

[Neotheone]

Yep that is what i like to do with low quality low value sources now. Just send miners out to get the resources from them. It's also how I fed that colony out in space away from everything. Now I'm just waiting for those Ancient Pirates to appear but it's funny now that i have 2 fleets sitting there they won't appear. lol

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: Neotheone

Yep that is what i like to do with low quality low value sources now. Just send miners out to get the resources from them. It's also how I fed that colony out in space away from everything. Now I'm just waiting for those Ancient Pirates to appear but it's funny now that i have 2 fleets sitting there they won't appear. lol

Also worth noting that when you have a free trade agreement (and even if you don't, but have trading checked in empire policy) you will automatically sell stuff to neighboring empires, and buy stuff that you need. By keeping an eye on the resources you control (or COULD control... ) you can effectively create a trading empire based purely on profiteering.