Picture album - my 5x shipyard support space city!

[Loneshade]

Looks nice, pity the pics are so small. can't see the layout properly.

will do once competed
Edit Mar. 10th: So far, 3 days after completing the core design, the station is now 33% built....

By the way i was thinking about ware relay stations to get the goods to argon prime or other shipyards with this stupid 5 sector limit.
So the idea is that i build relay stations near other shipyards that are within 5 sectors of my production plex and get the wares flow to the shipyards like that.

Working on that - see also the discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=146&t=414569
I basically attached a huge lot of storage (28 L-sized storage modules) to a repair dock, along with the T4 factories (https://i.imgur.com/G3si6eh.png)
The repair dock should allow me to define buy prices, the T4 fabs to define sell prices. Now I want a low sale price and a slightly lower buy price... and then we'll see what happens.
with the right config and If all works well, I'd hope it will buy products from my (and maybe other) fabs and sell it on with a small uplift.

Update Mar 10th: My first test trade station went into operation yesterday. So far though, its still buying up wares, filling its storages.... and draining cash.
Gotta see for it to fill up, to figure out if it will actually start making profits. Also gotta watch it closely then, to see if my station traders will sell to it.

[pref]

Now I want a low sale price and a slightly lower buy price... and then we'll see what happens.

Why would your traders prefer those deals then? They need to make profit on a deal even if it's player stations.
Since you cannot limit ATs to player stations, they will just sell the wares to a nearby station that has a way higher buy price then your slightly higher one.

[Loneshade]

Why would your traders prefer those deals then? They need to make profit on a deal even if it's player stations.
Since you cannot limit ATs to player stations, they will just sell the wares to a nearby station that has a way higher buy price then your slightly higher one.

Hmm my primary goal was a higher sales range for my goods that my remote megaplex can't sell to / reach to.
If there's a station wanting them at that (slightly higher) price that the trade hub offers, then i guess its working and doing its job, right?

[pref]

If there's a station wanting them at that (slightly higher) price that the trade hub offers, then i guess its working and doing its job, right?

Not sure, because then your relay station might not get much wares and the point (supplying that shipyard 7 gates away) will be missed.
Selling is not an issue, my station could sell a lot to nearby shipyards. The question is if it's possible to supply other shipyards and station builds further away.
Pity i cannot play due to this bug with sounds, really annoying and game gets so messed occasionally i'm afraid it would also mess up my saves.

Anyway if you have time when your setup is done please give me a reply. Curious if there is a way to control ware flow to some extent at least.
I see a couple of possible pitfalls right now, but if you can make it work i'd be really interested.
Would be really nice to get some goods over to TEL folks to help their ship and station building.

[vadiolive]

I still hope egosoft allow this artis upload their creation in workshop
I usual lazy to do this kind stuffs , its not my thing , even in XR i loved build station (maybe because scale ?)

[Thufar]

Pref,

Really nice job on the megaplex. I simply am in awe of 1) your imagination as I have none, 2) your artistry and design skills and 3) your perseverance. I'd like to join the bandwagon and have one like it in my game. However, I have no skills at editing xmls for the construction plan. Any chance you could post a savegame of the updated station with the extra L storage facilities on page 1 so I can save the build plan and get it that way?

Regards,
Thufar

[pref]

Pref,

Really nice job on the megaplex. I simply am in awe of 1) your imagination as I have none, 2) your artistry and design skills and 3) your perseverance. I'd like to join the bandwagon and have one like it in my game. However, I have no skills at editing xmls for the construction plan. Any chance you could post a savegame of the updated station with the extra L storage facilities on page 1 so I can save the build plan and get it that way?

Regards,
Thufar

Thanks a lot Thufar! Hope later it will serve as inspiration.

Here is a save, where i also added shipyards/eq docks.

BUT beware:
1. In beta forum i saw a post about stations not selling ship build related wares once you add a wharf/dock. So if that's true most of the endproducts the station has will not be possible to sell,
2. Adding SY/docks altered storage ratios heavily, claytronics storage has decreased because of that significantly while ship building resource storage like hull/engine parts has increased by a LOT. Which is really bad considering it has 20x claytronics and 6x engine part production - but now the station has much more (several times) storage for engine parts then claytronics for ex.

For these reasons it would make sense to remove the dock/SY modules entirely, and build them elsewhere so you can use the products more freely and can have more stock for the best selling ware.

You can just grab the base connector module leading to them, and drag the whole structure part to someplace where you aren't allowed to place it. Then all these modules should get removed once placed "incorrectly" with just one edit.
I will definitely remove them or just use an earlier save as soon as i can play again.

[Thufar]

You're very welcome, Pref, and thanks for the save.

Hope later it will serve as inspiration.

Of that I'm quite sure, with the exception that it probably already has.

BUT beware...

Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I've got quite a lot of station parts to... um... "acquire." Speaking of station parts, can wharf/shipyard parts only be purchased? That's my understanding.

Regards
Thufar

[pref]

can wharf/shipyard parts only be purchased? That's my understanding.

Yes, they cost a couple hundred million.
Ships cost more, but ship BPs you can also EMP. I got paranid capital BPs that way before 2.0 was released.

Never tried but maybe you can also get S/M ship BPs if you own one and EMP it? Though those BPs are cheap.

[russbo]

Just curious, if I load your xml plan into my construction, what module blueprints would I need? All of any specific race, or, did you use blueprints from all different races? Just wondering how many blueprints I'd have to buy or steal to do this.

BTW, truly awesome work.

[pref]

Just curious, if I load your xml plan into my construction, what module blueprints would I need? All of any specific race, or, did you use blueprints from all different races? Just wondering how many blueprints I'd have to buy or steal to do this.

BTW, truly awesome work.

Thanks!

I edited OP as well, here is a link to the complex calculator layout, you can see the list of all the required modules. It's mixed, wanted to have mixed race personnel so i have all kinds of folks on the station plus workforce grows quicker that way.

Also a note, the xml build plan is not self sufficient entirely, i wanted to see how traders work. This was my first bigger plex so i was curious of how AI handles stuff.
There is an excess of 2 or 3 metal refineries, and it's short by a flower or wheat farm and an AM cell fab. In case you want to make it fully self sufficient you just need to swap those. You should still fit in the workforce requirement that way.

[pref]

Update Mar 10th: My first test trade station went into operation yesterday. So far though, its still buying up wares, filling its storages.... and draining cash.
Gotta see for it to fill up, to figure out if it will actually start making profits. Also gotta watch it closely then, to see if my station traders will sell to it.

How did this work out for you? Didn't get an alert for the post updates so i just saw this.

[russbo]

Thanks Pref. I looked at the xml file and could see mostly Teladi structural components, paranid and argon habitats, argon docks, teladi shields and turrets, etc, but occasionally there were other little things thrown in. That link really helps. I've never used a loaded xml file to build anything, so this should be interesting. Wasn't sure if the game would warn me if I didn't have the necessary blueprints. or would just crash and throw me out...

Stupid question if I may, just want to make sure: these xml files go into My Documents/Egosoft/X4/xxxx/, but I already have a "constructionplans.xml" file from something I saved. I see that in my current xml file, I have four saved layouts, so to add yours, just add to my existing file? (copy and paste one into the other)?

"There is a single root XML node and multiple <plan> childnodes with a "name" attribute that has the value of the name entered when the associated plan was saved in-game." So it all goes into one file?

And does the "player ID" number have to be changed to my player ID, or does it not matter? I see multiple "Player ID" in my constructionplans.xml file already, even though it's just me.

[pref]

Thanks Pref. I looked at the xml file and could see mostly Teladi structural components, paranid and argon habitats, argon docks, teladi shields and turrets, etc, but occasionally there were other little things thrown in. That link really helps. I've never used a loaded xml file to build anything, so this should be interesting. Wasn't sure if the game would warn me if I didn't have the necessary blueprints. or would just crash and throw me out...

I would be surprised if your game crashed because of missing blueprints. Probably you just can't use the plan until you don't have all of them.

Stupid question if I may, just want to make sure: these xml files go into My Documents/Egosoft/X4/xxxx/, but I already have a "constructionplans.xml" file from something I saved. I see that in my current xml file, I have four saved layouts, so to add yours, just add to my existing file? (copy and paste one into the other)?

"There is a single root XML node and multiple <plan> childnodes with a "name" attribute that has the value of the name entered when the associated plan was saved in-game." So it all goes into one file?

And does the "player ID" number have to be changed to my player ID, or does it not matter? I see multiple "Player ID" in my constructionplans.xml file already, even though it's just me.

The xml has this structure:

Code: Select all

<plans>
  <plan ...>
      ...
  </plan>
  <plan ...>
      ...
  </plan>
  ...
</plans>

You can merge the 2 constructionplans: just copy this section

Code: Select all

<plan id="player_1550811153" name="Ergosphere final xCont">
  ....
</plan>

under the <plans>...</plans> node in your xml file.
So do not just append my plan to the end of your xml file, add it right before the </plans> tag or right after the <plans> tag.

The "player ID" is just a unique ID - just make sure there are no multiple plans with the same ID value.

[russbo]

Thanks Pref, I had figured that out. It's a huge file, I missed one line when I copied and pasted. Didn't realize that there were twenty plus other plans on that file. What a remarkable piece of work!

Now I have something to spend all these credits on...

[pref]

Now I have something to spend all these credits on...

Have fun spending..

Are you on 2.6 or beta?

[pref]

I think i finished this plex in a sense that it can now serve npc ship needs for all classes without downtime due to lack of resources. And also i have a dna in space finally, an old dream has come true! Thanks ES!!
There is over 2k station parts now and i can still fly around it.. i honestly expected it to crash. And 40 km off there is no real fps impact.

Had to break it down to 2 plots but for reference this is the prod module count:

23 adv electronics (5 less might be good)
24 weapon component
44 hull parts
32 engine parts (10 less might be enough)
6 drone component
5 turret component
5 antimatter converter
5 field coil
5 shield component
4 missile component

This is not an exact resource need but a above it, didn't even try to balance it below 5 unit resolution. Has been running for quite a long time open for all factions.
With faction limitations the ratios might be a bit different and lower then this obviously.

[KiwiNZ]

Very cool, mate! I always just tried to build as compact and efficient as possible but never for beauty. Your station is amazing and beautiful! Well done!

[pref]

Very cool, mate! I always just tried to build as compact and efficient as possible but never for beauty. Your station is amazing and beautiful! Well done!

Thanks!

After some time i can safely say that it doesn't make more money at all with the added capacity - so 20 weapon components + hull + engine parts + advanced electronics less gets the same income. Or the eco statistics graph is unreliable.

I assume this also means that the same amount of NPC orders will still get queued and the average amount of queuing with current max queue limit is not high enough to slow down production,
even with just 5-10 weapon components, 20 hull and 10 engine parts.

Anyhow since i can supply NPCs with all kind of ships the war has turned entirely, split took tharka's and a couple of their former sectors that had fallen to xen hands earlier, teladi a matrix sector and argon stole 2 grand from the teladi..
All this without me hurting the xenon.

So there is a way to "win" the xen war peacefully, just build in peaceful locations until the SY is ready.
Then you can adjust faction strength on your shipyard's logical overview

[KiwiNZ]

Very interesting war development.

Does your city actually sell to NPC? I remember in an earlier version of the game, a self-sufficient shipyard would rather stop production when storage allocation hit 100% than sell anything to get it down.