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[Areyar]

I thought the orbital habs were for the purpose of using planetbased terraformers on planets where no people can be dropped.

[Sheb]

RedKing, I'd go with a smaller ship that has mining modules for the mining part. Maybe Engineer for supplies.

[Jay]

I thought the orbital habs were for the purpose of using planetbased terraformers on planets where no people can be dropped.

Or storing population while you genetically engineer them into people capable of living on the planet.

They're orbital infrastructure (except they're independent of all planetary factors).  That's the gist of it.

They also handily convert it from a shipyard construction to a factory construction.

[RedKing]

Well, the Zion class is designed to work in tandem with a couple hundred mines ferried there by freighters. Once they've extracted everything, they either move on to another rock or the mines get swapped out for construction factories and they start building things. These aren't really intended for potential terraforming targets, but rather for creating a system presence in systems where there really aren't any rocks worth landing on. (And mining big rocks that asteroid miners can't handle).

Plus, at 5 mil population, they create enough of an economy to help generate civilian shipping traffic.

[Flying Dice]

Why put orbhab modules on? They work just fine without 'em. Anyway, you only need a handful of tugs... but hey, whatever you like.

So he can build them with industry rather than in a shipyard

Basically this. If you build them as ships, you have to have a shipyard for them, which means you have to invest in extra slipways and massive expansion that might be more useful for a different ship (say, a super-freighter).

Thing is, I built up two 2-slipway yards to around 1.1m ton capacity for my terraformers. Yes, this took time and effort, but I was working from a conventional start, so I had them at that point before I had ever designed the III-run class, and they'll be ready for when I start building megafreighters and mobile bases. There is no such thing as bad expansion.

Also, my industry has more important things to do than build terraformers. My gigantic civilian shipyards don't.

[Grendus]

Why put orbhab modules on? They work just fine without 'em. Anyway, you only need a handful of tugs... but hey, whatever you like.

So he can build them with industry rather than in a shipyard

Basically this. If you build them as ships, you have to have a shipyard for them, which means you have to invest in extra slipways and massive expansion that might be more useful for a different ship (say, a super-freighter).

Thing is, I built up two 2-slipway yards to around 1.1m ton capacity for my terraformers. Yes, this took time and effort, but I was working from a conventional start, so I had them at that point before I had ever designed the III-run class, and they'll be ready for when I start building megafreighters and mobile bases. There is no such thing as bad expansion.

Also, my industry has more important things to do than build terraformers. My gigantic civilian shipyards don't.

As I said, it's a matter of taste. I don't have more important things to build than terraforming stations, and my shipyards are too small for the size of terraformer I want to build. Much easier to build them as orb-habs and tow them where I want than wait for half a decade to get a shipyard the right size or piddle around with smaller ships (or worse, try to build planetary based terraformers, they're criminally overpriced compared to ship based installations). But if you have a civilian complex   free that's capable of doing what you want, by all means use it, especially if you have other things to build with your factories.

[Flying Dice]

I think we can all agree that the planetary installations are complete rubbish, at least. 

[EuchreJack]

I think we all wish for the day that we can run our entire Aurora Empire offworld.  Planets are for losers!

[LoSboccacc]

I think we all wish for the day that we can run our entire Aurora Empire offworld.  Planets are for losers!

the new shipyard discussion I saw within the newtonian aurora thread  is one good step in that direction.

we can only hope 

[Flying Dice]

It wouldn't really be that difficult, or that big of a change. All we'd need are shipboard modules with the same functions as planetary installations, and we already have proof-of-concept with terraforming modules, asteroid mining modules, maint. modules, and to a certain extent hanger bays.


I'm already salivating over the thought of a MAH-KUH-ROS Frontieresque fleet of ships with different functions, protected by a relatively small but powerful defence force.

[RedKing]

A ragtag, fugitive fleet?  (oops, wrong series) 

I've actually been tinkering around with a scenario kind of like Macross or Star Blazers: An Earth-based start either conventional or just barely TN, with a single huge, extremely advanced ship (by creating another civ, SMing it WAY up in tech, OOBing an SDF-1/Argo, transferring it to the Earth civ, then deleting the advanced civ). And of course, I'd have to put a couple of aggressive NPRs out there in space to be the Zentraedi, Invid, etc.

[BishopX]

It wouldn't really be that difficult, or that big of a change. All we'd need are shipboard modules with the same functions as planetary installations, and we already have proof-of-concept with terraforming modules, asteroid mining modules, maint. modules, and to a certain extent hanger bays.


I'm already salivating over the thought of a MAH-KUH-ROS Frontieresque fleet of ships with different functions, protected by a relatively small but powerful defence force.

Right now the issue is the concept of a colony. Even the new shipyards need to be associated with a planet, moon or asteroid, and for coding reasons, I don't think that is going to change.

[LoSboccacc]

It wouldn't really be that difficult, or that big of a change. All we'd need are shipboard modules with the same functions as planetary installations, and we already have proof-of-concept with terraforming modules, asteroid mining modules, maint. modules, and to a certain extent hanger bays.


I'm already salivating over the thought of a MAH-KUH-ROS Frontieresque fleet of ships with different functions, protected by a relatively small but powerful defence force.

a problem is that maintenance module only repair ship up to a size, and I think that a ship that has 100% maintenance module can't repair itself.

ok I have the idea in my mind but cannot explain properly now. getting a bit ill. hope it's clear. there are a lot of missing links in the train wreck of my thoughts.

[Flying Dice]

No, that's pretty much one of the two issues. Essentially, we need a way to designate a ship as a colony, and a way to either set up a ship in such a way that it can repair itself, or that it doesn't need to be maintained.

[RedKing]

My thought with the SDF-1/Yamato concept was that it would have enough cargo and cryo space to carry colony materials. So as it plumbs deep space, it could drop little resupply bases along the way. Not exactly faithful to the original source material, but it's a decent workaround.