Why use Colony Ship?

wickedsick · #1 June 17th, 2005, 05:48 AM

They're both available on turn 1.

narf poit chez BOOM · #2 June 17th, 2005, 05:51 AM

Oh, yeah. It's for the AI, I think people concluded.

Alneyan · #3 June 17th, 2005, 05:56 AM

Can't you just make a design call for a Small Transport with a Colony module? I have been told one wily AI in TDM builds Light Cruisers with Colony modules and weapons, so it should be possible to do just that... then again, I know nothing about AIs (except how to cook 'em: they are quite tasty with a drop of red whine).

Colony Ships are sleek looking though (at least under the few shipsets I use), and it might be easier to find them when you have 758 planets and approximatively two thousand vessels. You should still give your Colony ships clear name though: mixing up those Rock, Ice and Gas colonisers is the perfect recipe for absolutely wonderful headaches.

narf poit chez BOOM · #4 June 17th, 2005, 06:01 AM

There was a story once of a Stars! game where one player named all his ships things like ...----___...

He was quickly eliminated by all the other players.

El_Phil · #5 June 17th, 2005, 06:24 AM

Hail yon fine-new-shaped-type-person! I bid you welcome to these forums and would point your attention to the standing rules about not provoking the zombie-mouse or drinking awful alleged beer products.

Hunpecked · #6 June 17th, 2005, 03:55 PM

Alneyan writes:

"I have been told one wily AI in TDM builds Light Cruisers with Colony modules and weapons..."

I've seen the TDM Pyrochette, Tessellate, and Aquilaeians build armed colony ships from warship hulls. The AI colony ships usually operate alone, so they're easy prey for a true warship of equal size/tech.

Against the AIs I build the cheapest possible unarmed colony ships; the additional cost of weapons and/or supplies can make what should be a one-turn ship into a two-turn build. Also, I don't like sending my expensive weapons on a one-way trip; I'd rather put them on a reusable escort for the colony ship.

geoschmo · #7 June 17th, 2005, 04:31 PM

BASESHIPS?!?!

The largest I've ever put a colony comp on was a battleship. And I only used a BB because I wanted a colony ship that could colonize any planet type. Obviously this was late in the game when I could afford to throw away some resources to lessen the micromanagment a bit.

I did try role playing a hive race once that put colony modules in every ship. Didn't leave a lot of room for weapons though. My early ships were pretty much all set to ram.

Parasite · #8 June 18th, 2005, 10:24 PM

Although getting wide of the thread, I think you have to have a colony for 5 or ten turns before you get pop production bonuses. That will give you time to build a spaceyard, otherwise you are stuck at 2000 (3000 emer) a turn max.

douglas · #9 June 17th, 2005, 05:26 PM

A single large transport can hold almost as much population as a baseship colonizer, moves faster, and doesn't get used up after the first population drop. In one PBW game, I've got a ringworld barely half a dozen turns after colonization, colonized by a light cruiser, that's already over 10 billion population just from a single large transport repeatedly dropping population on it. Using a baseship colonizer would have required more construction time, more time to fill it up with population, and more time to actually get there and colonize, all just to save a single trip by the large transport. Baseship colonizers are in general counterproductive. Meanwhile, I love being able to emergency build monoliths in 1 turn with that +100% population bonus

. Pretty soon I'll start shipping excess population OFF of that ringworld to the rest of my dozen or so ringworlds, including TWO triple mollies

.