Space ports - which size?

[Sarkus]

With the expansion I'm back to playing DW a lot and an issue I've never been able to figure out is the whole space port thing. The galactopedia says you should probably have at least one space port in each system where you have a colony, but that seems to be about the extent of the advice on the subject. So here are my questions:

1. Is there any reason to build more then one space port in a system?
2. How do you know which size (Small, Medium, Large) you need?
3. Is there anything that suggests an upgrade to a bigger size is needed or would be beneficial?

Thanks for the replies.

[Lonck]

AFAIK space ports on every colony increase trade income.  Freighters are bought and build at space ports.  Space port size it seems is only for weapons and cost.  The bigger the space port the more weapons it has and the higher the resources needed, the higher the time to build it and higher the cost.

[Krob]

Until my economy gets up and running, I usually put a small in every system. Later, I'll have a small at every planet since mine double as battlestations. With the expansion, I managed to get a planet with +200 to colony income, so, um, I've upgraded all my smalls to mediums. And still have a net income of 2.2 million. Crazysauce. Generally though, I only upgrade the stations above important planets (rare luxuries, ruins that give empire bonuses) and maybe along my front line.


K

[Shark7]

If you look in the policies, what is suggested there already is a good rule of thumb. 30M+ small, 500M+ Medium, 3000M+ Large.

Also, I personally set it up so that a small space port is built the instant I colonize a world. Its a nice automation feature that takes care of something I would do anyway.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: Shark7

If you look in the policies, what is suggested there already is a good rule of thumb. 30M+ small, 500M+ Medium, 3000M+ Large.

Also, I personally set it up so that a small space port is built the instant I colonize a world. Its a nice automation feature that takes care of something I would do anyway.

Can you explain how you automated this feature to build a port? I'm in the habit of dropping a small port on every colony myself to start with, and would love to turn that over to the AI.

[Shark7]

Find the icon up top that looks like a little notepad...the empire policies screen. Its the one to the right of the pie chart icon.

IF you scroll down to the colonization options, you will see the drop box for automation, suggestion or manual.

You will also see two things in this area:

When establish new colony, always recruit new troops (checkbox)

and

When establish new colony, always build this base: (dropbox)
Just choose Small Spaceport in this drop box, then click the 'apply policy' button.

Doesn't matter if you set colonization to manual or automated...when the colony is established, the spaceport will start building.

[Flaviusx]

Thank you! It's these little refinements that make the expansion so nice.

[Spacecadet]

You can also get to the Policy Editor from the Empire Summary screen - upper right I believe.

[elliotg]

Some more thoughts about spaceports:

Larger spaceports have more docking bays, so if there's a lot of trade at the spaceport then that will help with throughput. Larger spaceports also have more construction yards, allowing you to build more ships at once.

[sanderz]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

Some more thoughts about spaceports:

Larger spaceports have more docking bays, so if there's a lot of trade at the spaceport then that will help with throughput. Larger spaceports also have more construction yards, allowing you to build more ships at once.

does the same apply for "commerce" pods on a station - i.e. the more you put on the more economy boost you get?

[forsaken1111]

The spaceport recreational and medical facilities also make your population happier, which means you can pull more taxes from them.

[Sarkus]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

Some more thoughts about spaceports:

Larger spaceports have more docking bays, so if there's a lot of trade at the spaceport then that will help with throughput. Larger spaceports also have more construction yards, allowing you to build more ships at once.

Is there any way to determine demand, though? Or do I have to just watch the spaceport and see how many freighters are coming?

[Litjan]

ORIGINAL: Sarkus

Is there any way to determine demand, though? Or do I have to just watch the spaceport and see how many freighters are coming?

If you use the new pullout menu on the left side of the screen, it will list all the spaceports for you - and will also show how many ships are waiting to dock. If you see big lines over extended periods of time, it should be time to upgrade.

[forsaken1111]

ORIGINAL: Litjan

ORIGINAL: Sarkus

Is there any way to determine demand, though? Or do I have to just watch the spaceport and see how many freighters are coming?

If you use the new pullout menu on the left side of the screen, it will list all the spaceports for you - and will also show how many ships are waiting to dock. If you see big lines over extended periods of time, it should be time to upgrade.

That is the list of ships queued to be built, not waiting to dock.

[forsaken1111]

However you can see the docking queue by opening the construction yards screen and clicking on docking bays for a space port.

[Aures]

ORIGINAL: sanderz
does the same apply for "commerce" pods on a station - i.e. the more you put on the more economy boost you get?

No, only one per base is effective. Same deal with medical and recreation facilities. It can sometimes be worth putting multiple components that do not stack onto a design in the name of redundancy but it is not something I bother with for those components.

As a general note, remember the designations of small, medium and large are only names for roles. You are free to design the different space port sizes with as many docking bays etc as you want.

[WoodMan]

Assuming your economy is still growing and you could hit money problems at any time my rule of thumb is:

Small Spaceports first, preferably built one at a time so you don't accidently end up losing all your cash in maintenance fees
Medium Spaceport only for military defence purposes
Large Spaceport only for very important military defence purposes

Once you get a bit bigger your economy should be powerful enough to maintain some medium and large, but before then I make sure I only build them if the planet they are over needs to be defended, like Korabbia or something.

[Carewolf]

The most important part is the community services and the docking bays. For a new colonies just pop up a small base with as little "port" as possible, that is as little as one construction spot. If you have a base at every colony anyway, then the capacity at each is not that important anyway. The community services is medicin and recreational, this helps keep colonies happy. I usually throw in a long range scanner as well, and throw out the research labs. In the original, research was better done in big labs, and in the expansion the construction ships seems to be building all the research labs I need automatically anyway.

[ehsumrell1]

Remember also, the more Space ports you have, irregardless of size, the more locations
you have to built military ships for your fleets. The private sector is also building
ships at your space ports. If you don't have an adequate number of ports, one side or
the other will take "forever" to built enough ships to either augment the economy or
defend your empire.

Don't forget that you can always create/design a Starbase that is a Fleet Depot/Shipyard
of sorts. I like to built one at my home Capital planet mid-game. Also, like Woodman previously
stated, at any planet that I own with either of the extremely rare resources. I design mine
with a large number of construction yard, plants, cargo and dock components. Large shielding but
no weapons (to reduce maintenance costs). I will place a small dedicated fleet and one or
two defensive bases with it for protection. This starbase serves me two-fold. One, it can crank
out small ships (frigates, destroyers) very swiftly and cruisers and capital ships in a
decent amount of time. Two, it can refuel a large number of ships simultaneously.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

Assuming your economy is still growing and you could hit money problems at any time my rule of thumb is:

Small Spaceports first, preferably built one at a time so you don't accidently end up losing all your cash in maintenance fees
Medium Spaceport only for military defence purposes
Large Spaceport only for very important military defence purposes

Once you get a bit bigger your economy should be powerful enough to maintain some medium and large, but before then I make sure I only build them if the planet they are over needs to be defended, like Korabbia or something.

My general rule of thumb is to build 1 large starport at my homeplanet. I mod this to have 12 construction bays and LR scanners when available.

The other planets all get a small starport modded to have only 1 construction bay, but 4 docks. No sensors.

Medium starports get reduced to 2 construction bays and no LR scanners. Mediums get built when planets are much larger.

This works because I put a monitoring station in each new system I colonize to provide the scanners, rather than having a scanner on every startport. This is far cheaper in the long run, since I rarely need more than 3-4 large starports, but I will have lots of smalls and several mediums...scanners on all of those are redundant and expensive.