I'd like a way to speed up station construction without mods

[Falcrack]

Current station construction times take an age in X4. I don't think having it take as long as it does is good for gameplay. I'd just like to petition the devs to have a way to increase the station construction speed. For example, if you could hire multiple builder ships per station, with each construction ship working on a separate module, it would greatly speed up the process.

[vvvvvvvv]

Been requested before, and would be nice to have.

One of the possible proposals were :

* Allow builders to use more drones (currently they cap at 30 or so?)
* Allow station sto use more builders and build several modules simultaneously.

[Gavrushka]

The option I'd like to see to speed it up would to be able to build neighbouring stations with internal supply loops. That way you could indeed have a half dozen or more builders working in tandem, and ware movement between each factory automated via something akin to station traffic. Probably look better as well. - You could maybe even have the option to build a 'megaplot' of a dozen juxtaposed sites with a kilometre or two gap between each, and then modularly expand it as you saw fit. - Would make shipyards a little easier for me.

[taztaz502]

Be great if they added a way for us to speed up time.

[Falcrack]

Be great if they added a way for us to speed up time.

SETA is not the solution I am looking for here, thanks.

[Jeraal]

I would like to use more builders up to a limit with diminishing returns. Two builders, twice as fast. Three, 2.5. Four, 3. Idea being, too many chefs.

[RPINerd]

* Allow builders to use more drones (currently they cap at 30 or so?)

Woah wait is this correct? So my builder with 100 build drones is just wasting drone components??

[Falcrack]

* Allow builders to use more drones (currently they cap at 30 or so?)

Woah wait is this correct? So my builder with 100 build drones is just wasting drone components??

Yup pretty much. 30 is the max it will use. Maybe get a few more though in case it loses some drones for some strange reason.

[vvvvvvvv]

* Allow builders to use more drones (currently they cap at 30 or so?)

Woah wait is this correct? So my builder with 100 build drones is just wasting drone components??

Well, there's a gotcha. Your builder can lose drones while building (usually in a crossfire if there's fight nearby), and it cannot replenish drones until it finishes building. Because you can't unassign a builder from an active project. So those extra drones give you a safety buffer. But the builder isn't using them otherwise.

[Falcrack]

Because you can't unassign a builder from an active project.

That's another thing I wish they would change about builders.

[Ashmodai]

I'm all for it but it should come at a hefty price increase. At least like 1.5x more expensive for 20% increased build speed.
Either through more ressources or just a work tax or sth like that.

[BitByte]

Increasing build speed by allowing single builder to use more drones to multiple modules. Let's say if builder have 150 drones it would be able to build 5 modules simultaniously. But this would be only possible IF construction plan allows such. So when you build first module (e.g. S/M dock) it would be build using 30 drones. When it's ready then next modules around this (e.g. pier dock and cross mdoule) could be build at the same time and builder would use 60 drones. When cross is ready and there would be 3 new modules attached to it those could be build at the same time (120 active drones as pier dock would be still under construction too).
This way construction would stay in some sort of order and possible to manage. Also it would make more sense to have builders with higher construction drone amount.

1 problem if using multiple construction ships is managing consturction operation. That would require more complex management for builders and also indication which builder is working what module.
Without indicators it increases risk if you want unassign builder and it's the "wrong one" that also would break construction order.

[Feloidea]

I'm all for it but it should come at a hefty price increase. At least like 1.5x more expensive for 20% increased build speed.
Either through more ressources or just a work tax or sth like that.

Why would it need to be more expensive? You'd either need to pay the hire fee for another NPC builder or employ one of your own (for the proposal that you could use more than one builder at the same time). There's no reason why it ought to be arbitrarily more expensive and I can't see any sense in allowing players a way to build stations faster than now and yet be penalized for it.

[Blaze1st]

Personally as someone who generally makes mega-stations rather than smaller specialised ones, it would be more useful to have an easier way to change the construction order on the fly.

I can't remember the number of times I keep forgetting to place storage and base resource processing first.

My mega-shipyards take probably a full day of playtime to build and they are just bricks until the very end because I put all the refineries and solar panels at the very end of the build sequence... doh!

They are set to not allow AI trades of course. I can give them a bunch of money to buy base resources before completing construction but at 300m a piece needed just for the trades on top of a similar figure for the build costs it gets pricey very quickly if I'm building several at a time.

[Pesanur]

Well, there's a gotcha. Your builder can lose drones while building (usually in a crossfire if there's fight nearby), and it cannot replenish drones until it finishes building. Because you can't unassign a builder from an active project. So those extra drones give you a safety buffer. But the builder isn't using them otherwise.

Never tried it, but, you cannot transfer new drones from another ship to your builders if they are currently building?

[BitByte]

Never tried it, but, you cannot transfer new drones from another ship to your builders if they are currently building?

Not possible as ship is "busy" and you cannot change tasks order during the construction job.

[vvvvvvvv]

Well, there's a gotcha. Your builder can lose drones while building (usually in a crossfire if there's fight nearby), and it cannot replenish drones until it finishes building. Because you can't unassign a builder from an active project. So those extra drones give you a safety buffer. But the builder isn't using them otherwise.

Never tried it, but, you cannot transfer new drones from another ship to your builders if they are currently building?

Only builders and aux can have build drones, and to transfer drones both ships need to "dock". Building station is a critical task that can' be interrupted, so the builder will be busy and will be unable to move until building is finished. The somewhat positive thing is that it is apparently impossible to lose ALL drones (never saw this happen, at least), but with only one drone remaining build times will be 45 minutes even on simple modules.

Would be better if there was more flexible way of drone transfer.

[BitByte]

Only builders and aux can have build drones, and to transfer drones both ships need to "dock". Building station is a critical task that can' be interrupted, so the builder will be busy and will be unable to move until building is finished.

You can transfer construction drones to any M-size ship which can carry drones (e.g. Osprey or Cobra) from another Builder or Aux. But it does not remove the main stopper that you cannot change task orders while building operation is ongoing.
Solution to this would be internal and external task lists which could work simultaniously. Internal tasks would be the ones what ship does with others whom are docked to it (e.g. ware exchange between Carrier and docked S/M size ships) and external tasks are the ones what ship does in the galaxy (e.g. travel, build, dock, trade and so on). With that solution builder would be able to build station (external task) and at the same time transfer construction drones with M-size ship (internal task for builder but external task for M-size ship).

[jlehtone]

... you can't unassign a builder from an active project.

Wouldn't even plenty of Asgard's main beam through the Builder detach it from the Station?
(Builders are cheaper than time, I presume.)

[G315t]

I also am for a way to increase station building time.

My suggestion also would be to allow _player owned_ building ships to use more drones to speed up the process. This would also make owning our own builder ships more interesting. Right now, there is not much benefit to own a builder, if we consider the costs of those things and how cheap it is to hire one from the NPC for the job. (Sure, you can level up crew with it, but that's not its main purpose)