Automate or not?

[Grotius]

I put everything on manual! I did that initially just to force myself to learn how everything works, and then I didn't feel like putting anything back on auto.

[adecoy95]

i automate taxes, ship design, agent recruitment, troop recruitment, and i have build ships set to ask, so that i can decline all of the useless defense ports. i find that the ai will ask me to build a pretty heafty amount of ships for defense, so i can focus more on my own custom doom fleets and colonization/diplomacy

[hidden_asbestos]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan
Put some of the options to suggest and you'll have a much more immersive game. Trust me!

[;)]


They seriously need to add a passive advisory system though, either by a queue of suggestions or something at the side of the screen. That would be great.

[torrenal]

ORIGINAL: Baleur

ORIGINAL: Equendil
Select ships -> upgrade.

Yeah but, the problem is, it only replaces exising modules as long as it can fit the new ones, right?
So you'd have like 2 cargo storages for the rest of your game, although upgraded.
If you actually let it design them, it may remove 1 redundant module and add a new better but higher size module.
So you might have 3-4 cargo storages later on, with 1 removed crappy engine to make room.
I....... think? Thats how it works with military ships anyway.

For merchant ships, I've only found issues with this when it comes to passenger ships. (Silly, but they favor ignoring the nice, handy space-port and will instead dock at the planet. All well and good, until you get a backlog of waiting ships > 50, and some nervous pilot takes a pot-shot... urk hang on..... need to find a nearby repair ship to fix my latest set of stranded passenger ships...) For cargo, space ports do a so-so job of moving materials around, and just as your budget to build new stuff increases, so does your supply of ships to move material around. I've seen no strong need to increase the number of cargo modules on ships -- it still only takes a couple ship-loads to empty a mining station, reducing it to 1/2 a ship load won't help, and really, you won't be normally be building things so fast that you need to get supplies faster...

I find myself adjusting designs for:
New types of components (if I just unlocked the first: Torpedo, Damage Control, Targeting computer, ECM, Hyperdeny, etc), a number of the 'Superior-but' components, such as the Megatron Z4 shield, and many of the 'Inferior-but' components (Shaktur Firewater, erm, storm)
As things evolve and I face taking out more bases or pirates become too much of a nuisance, I may redesign the destroyer, cruiser and capital ships around a heavier arseonal, or the Troop Transport around more speed.
----

It's not hard really.... if you get a new type of tech that seems handy (Neat, damage control), add it to the designs you want to have it, once. Order some retrofits and call it done.
If you get a new level of tech that seems handy (Oooh... VelocityDrive), Use the Upgrade Selected option, and then order some retrofits.
If it's been a while since you upgraded anything, use the upgrade selected option and again order some retrofits.

The only really tedious part for me is at the start, when I tweak the designs to meet some minimums (ie: make sure all my ships are fast enough to chase a moon when they run short on fuel, carry some armor to protect against wildlife, and have any starting techs as are useful). As this generally involves me making multiple manual changes to most designs, it takes time. Mid game, if I get something that should be put to immediate use in my ship designs, I just need seconds to apply it to the designs that need it.

//Torrenal

[Equendil]

ORIGINAL: BaleurYeah but, the problem is, it only replaces exising modules as long as it can fit the new ones, right?
So you'd have like 2 cargo storages for the rest of your game, although upgraded.
If you actually let it design them, it may remove 1 redundant module and add a new better but higher size module.
So you might have 3-4 cargo storages later on, with 1 removed crappy engine to make room.
I....... think? Thats how it works with military ships anyway.

Well, I haven't had any issue keeping my freighters, passenger ships or even my mining ships the same (well same type of components, they get upgrades) throughout an entire game. If for whatever reason, I wanted to do some alterations, I would not need do it for every new tech, most likely just once.