Spaceport on every colony ?

[GHerr]

Should i be constructing a spaceport on every colony? the answer was no in DWU, but you had the option to create starbases with minimun stuff in order to have Medical and Recreation. But without that option currenting im wondering if i should. designing a barebones one for new colonies would be an option but then i would have to micro manage upgrades as well and manually set resources to very low. or maybe the costs and resource distribution impacts would be minimal and i don't need to worry about it ?

[SirHoraceHarkness]

I always built at least a small space port on every colony in DWU for the economic and happiness bonuses to the planet and they always came in handy during wars when I needed to quickly build up additional fleets. I'm doing the same in DW2. If you want to barebones them to save costs then go ahead.

[OrnluWolfjarl]

Spaceports mostly pay back their costs through economic and happiness (= more taxation) bonuses they provide to a colony. Yes you should build one at every colony (unless it's a really crap colony that gets max population under 1 billion).

Early game you don't have the space to be making anything else other than barebones Small spaceports, so I don't see why you would need different designs. Late game, you get access to Medium and Large spaceports. You can keep Small spaceports as barebones, and have Medium and Large for the more important colonies.

My small spaceports just have Medical, Recreation, Commerce and Labs + a bit of Shields/Armor + a couple weapons to keep space monsters at bay. Early game I won't really bother with Shields, Armor or Weapons, because I'd rather pay the pirates than pay the maintainenance costs (and the micromanagement) to defend against them.

Also, early game you shouldn't view spaceports as defensive structures, except against monsters. They are really not that great, and you'll end up losing them (and the money you used to build and maintain them) if you rely on them to defend you. They don't have the space, and you don't have the tech to equip them to stand up in a fight. At most, I'll give them a couple missiles and a fighter bay, if I want them to support a defensive fleet around a colony.

[GHerr]

thanks. i'll start rectifying. also, i did not know this: You can even replace Construction Yards with Docking Bays to avoid ships being produced at colonies that don't have a lot of resources when using Build Orders.

[OrnluWolfjarl]

thanks. i'll start rectifying. also, i did not know this: You can even replace Construction Yards with Docking Bays to avoid ships being produced at colonies that don't have a lot of resources when using Build Orders.

Sorry I should clarify because I had the impression I had done this last week but apparently I didn't after loading my game just now.

You still need 1 construction yard otherwise the design is not legal.

[Emperor0Akim]

Spaceports also provide 2 or 4 more docking bays to your planet, which speeds up delivery of ressources.

While we are at it : I find the Research Information on Space Ports confusing.

The Information tells me that a Space Port has 4 or 6 or how many Large Hangar Bays, which I read as :
Hangar Bays of the same size.
But then it got two size 50 Bays and two size 100 bays. I guess this trend will continue with the larger space ports

I think this information needs to be cleared up.

[zgrssd]

I absolutely built them everywhere feasible*.

Aside from the part where they provide colony support, it helps a ton to have a lot of shipyards. It helps distribute any construciton orders from you or the Private economy. Or from you.

It also allows you to find a repair and retrofit facility near your fleets all the time.


*I had some issues with Gravitic Storms destroying most new base and ship construciton

[Es78]

Always build space port. I am playing on the hardest difficulty and you need them for one reason.

Reseach

That you can also use them for buiding ships, docking freighters faster, the recreaction and medic bonus, is just a extra benefit of them.

[Omena]

Always build space port. I am playing on the hardest difficulty and you need them for one reason.

Reseach

This. Research potential is limited and gives stacking benefits. You want to maximize it at every opportunity.

[Dampfnudel]

Should i be constructing a spaceport on every colony? the answer was no in DWU, but you had the option to create starbases with minimun stuff in order to have Medical and Recreation. But without that option currenting im wondering if i should. designing a barebones one for new colonies would be an option but then i would have to micro manage upgrades as well and manually set resources to very low. or maybe the costs and resource distribution impacts would be minimal and i don't need to worry about it ?

Yes you should build them at every colony.

More research, more construction.

The impact of min max design is too small to bother

[Miravlix]

In my early games I build a Med/Rec monitor stations on some planets.

But it doesn't come with a lab slot and the game doesn't really support multiple active versions of one design category, so I've set my length between spaceports to 0 and pop size for small to 0.

I might up the number needed for larger spaceports, so more just stay with small.

Talking about labs, the miner has a 100 unit slot and we have the small miner to replace the large miner, so why not make all mining ships have a lab instead.

PS: The game has a rule that only Ports and Research stations can have labs.