Unbuilt components: what's missing?

[Grotius]

So I'm trying to build a Construction Ship, and it's 98% done, but one component is unfinished. How do I tell which one? It would be helpful to know so that I could figure out what the backlogged resource is.

Thanks in advance.

[Aeson]

A better way to figure out what the backlogged resource is would be to open the station or planet (whichever is building your vessels) overview and look at its cargo tab. There, it should list all of the resources present at (Amt. column) or reserved at that station. Any resource where the reserved amount is greater than the amount in storage is a cause of backlogs.

If you really want to check which components are not yet built, you can select the ship while it's under construction, open the ship overview, go to the 'components' tab, and look for components with a yellow-and-black slash pattern instead of a normal component icon. These components have not yet been built, and one or more of them may require resources that your station doesn't yet have.

The 'construction yards' button on the upper menu bar in the main game screen is one way to get to the station overview; the 'ships' button in the same area is a way to get to the ship overview. You can also double-click the design name or panel background of the selected object panel in the lower-left corner to reach the overview screen for the selected object, be it a ship or station or planet.

[Grotius]

Thanks very much, Aeson. I found the yellow/black hash icon you described; that helped me understand. I'll also try comparing reserved cargo to stored cargo. Thanks again.

[Antarian]

In Space Empires V, you can define which components are constructed or repaired first, this would be very helpful. So when building a battlestation for example, it get's the reactors and the shields built first, then builds weapons, then fills out the soft fluff last, so the base can at least defend itself if a rival empire feels like interrupting the build, as they do.

[CyclopsSlayer]

ORIGINAL: Antarian

In Space Empires V, you can define which components are constructed or repaired first, this would be very helpful. So when building a battlestation for example, it get's the reactors and the shields built first, then builds weapons, then fills out the soft fluff last, so the base can at least defend itself if a rival empire feels like interrupting the build, as they do.

One thing about that in Distant Worlds; Shields won't charge, weapons won't fire until everything is completed.

The ONLY exception to this I have found are Fighter Bays. Place the Bays at the top of the construction list and they will complete and launch fighters if fired upon as they are built. You cannot pre-launch as a group until like other weapons everything is completed.

edit: Items build in the Top Down order they are listed in in the ship/base design.

[pycco]

shields do charge and weapons do fire before the ships is complete. it depends on what order you have your ship set to build. you can produce ships with full shields easy, if built in right order.

[CyclopsSlayer]

ORIGINAL: pycco

shields do charge and weapons do fire before the ships is complete. it depends on what order you have your ship set to build. you can produce ships with full shields easy, if built in right order.

On every Base I have built the Shield and Energy counter doesn't even start to build up while even 1 item remains unbuilt. Firepower shows a positive number. BUT the shields won't build, weapons won't fire with no Energy. Fighters WILL launch with no Energy.
Ships launch with NO Fuel so no reason to believe they would have energy either. notice the very first thing a new ship wants is to refuel.

BTW, this is the order my Colony Outpost Bases are built. I really should move the Reactors down the list as they serve no purpose and replace them with Armor.
1. 3 Reactors
2. 10-15 Fighter Bays
3. 10 Shields
4. 10 Fuel Cells
5. 4 Energy Collectors
6. 5-10 Weapons depends on game but Torps/Gravitic typical
7. all the rest Command, Recc, Med, Commerce, Hyperdeny, Armor etc...

[Jeeves]

First of all, don't use the random order AI generated designs, which put life support and habitation last, because without at least one of each a ship or base won't function. In my designs I add components in the following order :
1) warp drive if ship
2) command center
3) commerce center if base
4) damage control/ repair bots, and ecm if I have tech
5) Armor
6) Life support
7) Habitation
8) the warp inhibitor at level 6 if I have the tech, prevents enemy ships warping close in.
9) if spaceport, medical center and recreation center
10) VERY important - energy collectors, which will put energy into the reactors and thereby to the shields as soon as the shields start building
11) Reactors - also for bases if advanced reactors are available specify them first, then at least one obsolete alternative reactor to improve odds of having SOME reactor early in build
12) Shields - Best capacity and recharge rate first, then for bases one of every kind of shield you have tech for because advanced shields are complex requiring various resources - it gets you SOME shield early in the build
13) Assault pods and point defense if tech available
14) Fighter bays for large warships and bases
15) fuel storage
16) docking bays and cargo bays if base
17) mining engines if base
18) proximity array,, combat targeting, other misc small specialty equipment
19) WEAPONS at last! But the point defense, fighter bays and assault pods have already been added. I put the ion defense, ion cannons, tractor beams, and gravity weapons early, then all the smaller weapons, then the larger ones in order depending on total size for ah type of weapon set.
20) last of all long range scanners for spaceports.

For ships it doesn't matter much if you put engines last of all, because it ain't goin' nowhere until built unless its spaceport is shot out from under it, in which case you have bigger worries than incomplete ships LOL.

Lonnie Courtney Clay
EDIT p.s. when you plant or conquer a colony, if you buy a base right away, then it gets some components free even if the colony has no resources. Unfortunately, and probably by Elliot's evil impulses, that list never includes a command center, and any ship or base MUST have a command center to operate...

[ReadeB]

You guys rock... thank you for unlocking yet another mystery

[Loose Cannon]

ORIGINAL: CyclopsSlayer

ORIGINAL: pycco

shields do charge and weapons do fire before the ships is complete. it depends on what order you have your ship set to build. you can produce ships with full shields easy, if built in right order.

On every Base I have built the Shield and Energy counter doesn't even start to build up while even 1 item remains unbuilt. Firepower shows a positive number. BUT the shields won't build, weapons won't fire with no Energy. Fighters WILL launch with no Energy.
Ships launch with NO Fuel so no reason to believe they would have energy either. notice the very first thing a new ship wants is to refuel.

BTW, this is the order my Colony Outpost Bases are built. I really should move the Reactors down the list as they serve no purpose and replace them with Armor.
1. 3 Reactors
2. 10-15 Fighter Bays
3. 10 Shields
4. 10 Fuel Cells
5. 4 Energy Collectors
6. 5-10 Weapons depends on game but Torps/Gravitic typical
7. all the rest Command, Recc, Med, Commerce, Hyperdeny, Armor etc...

Sorry, on ships the energy collectors work and shields will start charging before all components complete. The attached screenshot shows 2 unbuilt components (2 thrusters) with full energy from the one collector and shields starting to charge. In a few days the ship will complete and start moving.


edit: didn't attach the picture the way I wanted

[CyclopsSlayer]

I stand corrected. Very carefully watched a build at a site with slow construction of 1 system a day. Of the 96 systems in the design, when it had 5 left I first saw energy and shields.

What was weird about it is that the collectors, reactors, shields and what not were built for a while, with no power generation. As the build awaited a shipment of Emeros(sic) for the Torps, the last items built. Suddenly with 5 of the 10 Torps built, generation started.
I fully understand the reactors, no fuel = no power. But the collectors I felt should have been active earlier.
Yards, Cargo, Docking, all seemed to be active nearly as soon as the system was completed.

[ReadeB]

Any way to reorder the existing components? Seems kind of silly to have to re-add everything in a particular order to get a marginal increase in functionality.

[Jeeves]

ORIGINAL: ReadeB

Any way to reorder the existing components? Seems kind of silly to have to re-add everything in a particular order to get a marginal increase in functionality.

I put in a request to Elliot for a simple move component up and down using the arrow keys in ship design two years ago, but nothing happened. Put it on the wish list if you like...

Lonnie Courtney Clay