When to build spaceports?

[Encadi]

Hey i been mostly buildign spaceports in every system i colonize at least 1 in every system and didnt notice a slow down in my econimy, however reaidng the manual it says you shouldnt build one in every planet? Do you guys follow any rule of thumb of mroe or less when and where to buy spaceports? Thnak you

[Ostwindflak]

I build one on every planet. It helps for resources getting to and from the planet, refueling and repairing ships, and for some planetary defense if your main battle fleets are away. I typically don't run into money issues making one on every planet. I also only build large SP on planets that are going to produce well for my empire. All others get small SP or medium SP.

[Encadi]

aaah so its an ok and used strategy to build at least a small spaceprot in every plnaet? the instruciton book kind of not recomend this so iw a sa bit lost

[Raap]

Optimally, you'll want a small one for every colony and larger ones for really important colonies(i.e. lots of population, rare resource, strategic location, etc). However, space ports can come with hefty maintenance costs, so if you find this approach is too expensive to you, you can build only a single space port for every 'cluster' of systems.

Their primary purposes are refueling/repairing/constructing ships, planetary defense, and acting as resource pools for construction ships and transports.

[pycco]

SP are to let the ai know where to stock pile resources if you have to many it will lead to lots of in transit resources. you can put any component on any design to enable it to do what is required of said design. i would strongly suggest keeping SP to a minimum.

[Retreat1970]

I agree with using few SP. I put a commerce center into small Defence Bases and turn them into quasi-spaceports that can't build/repair but can resupply/trade.

[Encadi]

Im confused now so some people spam Spaceprots and other sjust put one every X number of systems? both strategies work perfectly? =p Does it even matter hehe

[Raap]

Sometimes you can afford to spam them, other times you can't ^__^ There's really no set rule, more star ports is just more convenient sometimes.

[nedcorleone1]

ORIGINAL: Encadi
Im confused now so some people spam Spaceprots and other sjust put one every X number of systems? both strategies work perfectly? =p Does it even matter hehe

A spaceport on every planet is a luxury that only the rich can afford. Every other planet is a nice tradeoff between supply throughput and cost.

[Locarnus]

I find small spaceports too expensive for every colony. Since I design my stuff myself, I kind of shifted the vanilla designs.

First, my homeworld spaceport is a unique design called CentralSP, additional to the LSP.
My LSP resembles more a MSP without labs, but is set to only manual refit (so that LSP colonies dont upgrade to CentralSP and vice versa).
My MSP is more like a SSP without labs, and can auto refit, since there is only one MSP design.
My SSP is a budget version of a SSP, no labs, 6 docking bays, only 1 constr yard, 1 fuel cell, some shields and armor, 1 cheap reactor, all energy supplied by collector(s), which is cheap due to no weapons, depending on the state of the game - and of course med bay and recreational.
Since i have fast jump system defense ship(s) stationed there anyway (on non auto, set to engage system targets) to protect the mining stations as well, i dont have to pay twice...

[LSD]

Space ports have facilities for the population making them happier and (i think) increasing population growth. So on top of having a place to dump resources and manufacture components, you also get that bonus. AND it defends the colony.

Even with the maintenance, they almost always pay for themselves.

[Shark7]

You can make it with just 1 spaceport for quite a while. I have up to 30 colonies before I build my 2nd starport.

The thing to remember with starports is that every starport will take priority on pulling resources to it. Meaning every starport requires a supply chain, and that chain may pull resources away from the planets. If you find yourself having resource shortages, having multiple star ports compounds the problem.

My suggestion: I generally would build 1 starport per every 10 colonies. And don't build immediately, wait quite a bit until your resource stocks are sufficient to multiple star ports.

[Draakon]

Build Starbases with the commerce, medical and recreation modules. They don't have the big maintenance cost of a spaceport (unless lots of weapons, shields, armor etc), they help to develop the colony a bit as well as you can build them on a colony before it gets colonized by Construction Ship. Assuming of course the size is small enough with the tech you have.

[Jim D Burns]

I’m in the camp of building one on every planet, especially early in the game when they are relatively cheap. I build only LSP’s as they are able to deal with most pirate fleets on their own in the early game. Late game when I need money to pay for the expensive capital ships I reduce the number of LSPs in my empire to one per system in any system that does not have a gas mining station in system, so my fleets will always be able to refuel in the system they are in and not have to fly away to refuel.

Jim

[Encadi]

How about systems with multiple colonies? worht putting small ones maybe or jsut keep it centralized in one planet?

[Jim D Burns]

Early game every planet gets one because my ships aren't nearly as good as the pirates so the big Star Ports are there mainly for defense. Late game, one per system that has no in system fuel source, but if it's a border system I usually put multiple defense bases per planet, including those without the space port.

Jim

[Icemania]

This thread from the Guide to Guides Mk II maybe of interest: RE: Mining??!!!!

[Encadi]

Thanks for the replies guys!

[MoloMowChow]

Does the game treat the differently sized star ports in different ways? With my current setup I've designed the "Small Starport" to just be my customized Home Colony star port that's bigger than a medium star port. I even added like 20 construction yards on it and everything.

[pycco]

no its just names and different images, you can already pick any image you want.