Matrix Games Forums

Hi, noob for sure. I keep finding that a design is not showing up for builds. Eventually I figure out what the full requirements are to actually queue one up.

Example was carriers. Finally found the correct research branch and tech that enables them. Now at the start of a new game, I want to build a medium base. I cannot see the design in the construction list. I currently have a small port.

Going to the help I get (imo) lame information. Why does it not list the requirements for building a base or a given ship? This is what I need, not some vague info on what they are used for in the game. I had the same issue when I wanted to build an escort.

I had no place that told me, I needed to have a port to make one. I keep thinking my design was missing something. I got this for escorts :"Escorts are the smallest type of military ship." No kidding.

"Use escorts to patrol smaller colonies and bases." Thanks for that info.

Really anyone think that is helpful? I would rather see, you need at least X, Y or Z to build an escort.

So in short why does the med port not show up in the construction list? What do I need to build one and will that be enough to build escorts and frigates? Thanks

The 'size' of anything you build is restricted by your 'construction size' tech which is located in the (I believe) 'Energy and Construction' tech tab. There you will find the various size restrictions (or size-levels) that are available to you.

I know this isn't an ideal solution for you but I thought that it should be mentioned where that particular information is located.

The size restriction I know about, but iirc that would show up when I save the design. In this case I just did an auto update of the port. So it should be fine for size.

I just do not see the design in the construction list to select it for purchase.

1. The ship construction menu from the set of buttons on the top of the screen has drop-down menus that you can use to switch between designs in a specific category of ship, in case you have multiple designs in the same class. This menu defaults to the most recently updated design, which, if you allow the computer to create designs, will not usually be a design you manually created.

2. Auto-update does not necessarily meet size restrictions; take a look at the design by opening the design window and editing it, and make certain that the design really does fall within your construction limits. If there is any red text at the top of the ship design editor, read it and add something to fix the problem. Any yellow text in the same area can be ignored if it isn't a size warning; if it is a size warning, you will need to remove some components or research at least one more level of the construction technology before you can build ships to this design.

3. Upgrading your shipyard does nothing at all to help with construction of larger vessels, unless you've somehow managed to put too many construction yards on to support with the number of factories on the shipyard.

4. All ships need to have at least one of each of the following: a reactor, a command center, a fuel cell, a habitation module, a life support module, a primary thruster, and a vector thruster. All military ships must carry at least one weapon. Carriers must dedicate at least 40% of their size units to fighter bays (or maybe it was 50%? Regardless, it'll tell you in the ship design editor if you do not meet a requirement), but may also be built 50% larger than the current size limit. Mining and resupply ships need the appropriate extractors and a cargo bay; resupply ships additionally require a docking bay. Some further restrictions for ships: reactor output must be greater than the static energy requirements of the ship, as otherwise it will not be able to move, charge shields, or fire weapons. Ships require 1 life support and 1 habitation module per X size, where X is determined by research into support systems.

All ships should probably carry at least one of each of the following: a hyperdrive (not explicitly necessary, but virtually required even for ships not intended to ever leave the system in which they were constructed), a shield generator, an armor plate, and an energy collector (more accurately, enough energy collectors to cover the static energy use of the vessel). Arming civilian ships is unnecessary and arguably counter-productive, as the added weaponry makes the civilian vessels more expensive and arguably does not increase their survivability, and additionally can use up stocks of strategic resources necessary for the construction of your space navy.

5. Colony ships, resupply ships, carriers, troop transports, and passenger liners are the only ships whose construction is gated by technology; additionally, colony ships, troop transports, and passenger liners are only gated by technology on a pre-warp start. All other ship types can be designed and built from the beginning of the game, though you will likely not have a high enough construction limit to create designs where there is a worthwhile distinction between "escorts" and "capital ships" if you design both at the very beginning of the game, which is why the default designs for each ship category as provided by the game will not generally become available until a certain amount of construction size research has been completed.

6. The five main military ship roles (escort, frigate, destroyer, cruiser, capital ship) primarily determine how the computer uses them, if the vessels are left automated, and which vessels are included in fleets if fleet formation is automated. Capital ships and cruisers will rarely be seen outside of fleets if fleet formation is automated, whereas escorts are most commonly found accompanying a freighter or visiting an outlying mining station. If you decide to manage fleet formation and directly control all vessels in the navy, then the roles are there mostly so that you can have five distinct designs optimized for different roles within your navy. For example, I typically use frigates as colonized system defense vessels, formed into small squadrons and assigned a colony as a homebase, and so I would rather use a fast-initiation hyperdrive on my frigates than a high-speed hyperdrive as, for in-system duties, a fast jump initiation provides quicker response than a high top hyperspeed.

Thanks for the response. You would not by any chance be the Aeson that played Civ3 on Apolyton years ago?

Anyway, All I was trying to do was to auto upgrade to get some new fuel cells and add some armor. I can see the design in the list of designs, just fine. If I use all design view I see the default one. The default was a over 1000 and the updated one was 1140 iirc.

I know the game seems to be able to cheat the size limit, but my designs cannot. The issue is that some designs are allowed an increase. I saw one that said 50% over stated size. So I have no idea what the true limit is for a med port, except the construction limit for bases says 480 (with my current tech).

That seems to be way too low for even a med, let alone a large. I suspect it is a size thing and will remove my updated one and see what happens.

As far as upgrading your small spaceport to medium one goes, you can select your spaceport first, then right click on it and select retrofit from the menu and upgrade it to a med or large spaceport.

There are really two (okay three with Carriers) size limits.

Shipyards at Spaceports have the lowest size limit, depending on your Tech level.
You can build Private and Military ships at Spaceports.

Carriers (built at Spaceports) are the only ship with an over size (50%) - they can be 50% larger than the largest Military ship you are currently able to build.

The Planet has another size limit (which is the largest).
You can build Constructors, Spaceports, Colony ships, Defense Bases, and Resupply ships at Planets.

Resort Bases, Research Stations, Mines, Monitoring Stations, and the like can be built by Constructors along the same lines as Planet limitations I believe.

ORIGINAL: RICO7878

As far as upgrading your small spaceport to medium one goes, you can select your spaceport first, then right click on it and select retrofit from the menu and upgrade it to a med or large spaceport.

You can also do this from the Ships Screen by selecting Spaceports or Construction yards (generally).

Just an FYI that there is usually more than one way to do things or access information in DW.

It would seem that I cannot. I do not see a retrofit selection.

If I set the selection of designs to all buildable, non obsolete. I see the original, now as I deleted my upgraded one and removed the obsolete from the default. BTW a small is nearly size 600.

Lack of funds or resources should not prevent me from seeing the design in the construction screen, only from either buying or finishing the build. So I do not have a clue why it is not an option to build, at the space port. Being build at a colony removes the construction limit, but what the new cap is, I have no clue.

ORIGINAL: vmxa

It would seem that I cannot. I do not see a retrofit selection.

If you have the Spaceport selected (left click on it and it is in the lower left screen), you should have a drop down menu if you then left click on the Spaceport (or near it).

The left click show two items. One is the planet, the other the space port. Right click shows a longer list and includes a build list for research labs and construction ships.

Ok, I did another auto update to the default med space port. I made no changes to it. I was then able to see retrofit and select either med or large. Why the large did not show, I guess was due to not being valid for a small?

Thanks all

ORIGINAL: vmxa

Ok, I did another auto update to the default med space port. I made no changes to it. I was then able to see retrofit and select either med or large. Why the large did not show, I guess was due to not being valid for a small?

Thanks all

Could be the stage of your game - ie, you can't build a design that large yet.