Building time ships

Last few games I played constructors took 50 turns to build on turn 1 by turn 50 that should be reduced to a 5 at least but that depends on how you build your planets and how many other planets you find nearby, if you add them to the sponsors of your first starbase and tech level by then.  Another player told me can crank out a constructor every turn by turn 60 with the Yor.  I generally hate micromanagement and when I get my major production systems up later in the game they crank out capital ships in a few turns each.

Well, every ship takes a fixed number of mps (manufacturing points) to create, based on its hull and components.  Each planet can assign its population every turn to 4 separate endeavors:

1. wealth (bc)
2. research (rp)
3. manufacturing/social (mps on the ground = planet hex improvements)
4. manufacturing/military (mps to this planet's assigned shipyard = ship building)

So the ship cost in mps, divided by how high you've set your #4 (or the sum of all #4s, for all planets assigned to the same shipyard), determines the build time.

80 turns means you're being inefficient  Consider that by turn 90, I will usually have colonized 6-10 planets, created 2-4 sensor wagons + 10-20 weenies (N.B. a fully loaded small hull fighter is a weenie), made contact with 3-5 other AIs, and have started the tedious process of invading the nearest 1-2 AIs' planets with my dropships.  This isn't fast; it's probably only average (among players who micro-manage as maniacally as I do).  Anyways, you want to cut your build time down to "a few" turns, where "a few" means 1 weenie per turn from an average forgeworld (that specializes in mps), or 2 turns at most for a constructor, transport, or sensor wagon.  (Actually, it's more like 1.5 turns, since every other turn you can dial down your forgeworld to about half military to finish the ship, half something else like research or wealth.  It might suck as a research planet, but suck is still better than throwing away your excess production for nothing.)

To cut down your build times (for everything, not just ships), it pays to focus your effort on one goal, and constantly shift goals.

• Build up your worlds first.  While your planet has tiles to build, slide its Govern slider max leftward (= 100% social, 0% military), and have it build its own hexes up.  Building up a forgeworld (ring of factories around a Solar/Fusion/Antimatter Power Plant) makes it a mid-game weenie-launcher: it can easily reach 100 mp.  After your planet finishes its build-out, slide its slider max rightward (= 100% military) and have it build ships.  (It may need to build its own shipyard first.)  Then it finishes 1 weenie per turn, or 1 constructor (+ some excess) every 2 turns.
• Edit your ship designs.  Count space hexes to determine the minimum number of engines + life support you need to get a job done.  Design a custom constructor or colony ship with exactly that much, and no more.  No point wasting mps and build time on things that will vanish without ever helping you.  Don't just settle for the default designs.

Here's a contrast in styles.  Suppose your homeworld is doing the default thing of 1/3 population to each of bc/rp/mp, and your Govern manuf slider is at the default 50% (half social, half military).  You have 1 hex, 1 ship, and 1 research project all under construction at the same time.  Each of the 3 says it will be done in "(3)" turns.  You have a choice:

• Method T: Click "Turn" 3 times quickly.  You get:
• T+1: nil.
• T+2: nil.
• T+3: A hex, a ship, and a technology.
• Method M: Edit your production every turn to finish 1 item each turn (and dump any excess into the 2nd).  You get (for example):
• T+1: A hex (say, a Factory).  Choose a new hex to build up (but we'll assume you give it no mps).  Adjust again.
• T+2: A tech level (say, a cost reduction to ship building :))  Choose a new technology (but let's assume you give it only excess rps).  Adjust again.
• T+3: A ship, plus some excess.

Which path is "better"?  That depends on your tolerance for (um) spreadsheets in space.  Method T is quick, fast, simple, and can let you whip through hundreds of turns in 1 evening.  That's a valid way to enjoy the game, it's probably good enough to beat the placeholder AIs, and it could be great fun to a "visiting" gamer who has dozens of games to choose from every day.  Method M is more efficient, because your benefits compound: those 2 extra turns you had that Factory boosting your manufacturing is already a small advantage that the T methodist will never recoup.  However, M takes much more tedious effort, up to 20 minutes per turn(!), which is (more than) its own punishment.  Somewhere between those two extremes, pick a niche that makes sense to you.

Wow, I wish I could do that Gilmoy, but I am wired different.

I play intuitively, with the same goals in mind, but I have no doubt you get better results and a quicker victory.

By turn 100 I usually have a few planets that can turn out the weenies in 1-2 turns, if I were still building them and 4 turns is common for cargo ships.

For those new to the game, the beta (place holder) AI is not hard to beat at any level if you build population, factories, and keep income dialed to zero. Use diplomacy, and buy tech and surveyors from the AI. You live off of anomalies and trade and after turn 100 I start building market centers and dialing up income. Once you get your bc up to 15,000 or so you can buy anything from the AI except their planets. The AI is always broke and with diplomacy tech, you pretty much own them.

You can see that I usually play the peace game. I enjoy the combat but I am reluctant to start wars. I am looking forward to the AI being a bit more aggressive and not allowing me to take the path of least resistance. 

We must dial up the Drengin need for Aggression against pacifists such as you! All who do not serve us will be crushed under our iron shod boots!

Actually I rarely ever warmonger. It just sounded good after your post. I find playing the Drengin really tedious and they need some production bonuses early on to get going and also some bonus 'pirate' ships to raid others economy to help them along..

It would be nice if we can mod or build in some diplomacy leanings for some races..perhaps not hard coded but put up in XML and can be 'changed' easily if the player desires. 

I would LOVE to see the Drengin in cahoots with all its surrounding Pirates and running a Gangster style government where they use proxies or Pirates to raid/attack the Human player and still being able to go to the United Planets with a strait face and say it must be Pirates...hehe.

Or you simply write calculation applications to do the work for you:

But then again i am beyond the pale when it comes down to micro-managing .

Hehe.  I already do that with Excel formulas.  Haven't even needed to open the Excel VBA Editor.

I plug in my remaining (social bc, military bc) for 1 planet (N.B. assuming 15 bc/mp), and it computes two sets of numbers (to arbitrary precision, but I clip it at 4 digits):

• mp and slider% to minimize social
• mp and slider% to minimize military

These are always within +/- 1% slider setting of each other.  Then I choose the one that wastes fewer tenths

You still must pixel-hunt, which sucketh forever.

You do have to decide if it is worth lost of production to specialise planets I play both ways, because how they did galactic civilizations two if you focus priority you get fewer points on let's say science then the total points of a non focused planet.