Ifandbut Ifandbut

Trade ships not crossing interstellar distances?

▼

Trade ships not crossing interstellar distances?

from Sins Forums
I'm just about to finish my first multi-system game. For most of the game I have had one system all to my self while the AIs were fighting among their selfs. After they sent a few scouts into my system they started offering me cease fires and trade agreements (probably because they saw my armada of capital ships). I thought "ok, sweet. I can earn more money while they fight each other to the death." But after a while I noticed that *none* if my trade ships would cross the interstellar distances even though I had both the empire tech and the artifact tech researched that lets me jump to other systems?

Is this working as intended?

-Ifandbut
9,885 views 28 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top
A trade ship during wartime is useless unless it large enough to carry a number of goods, yet small enough to be maneuverable and quick. A large bulky ship would have too much inertia to accelerate quickly and would be easy prey for other ships. Therefore, trade ships, especially those of the TEC whose main income comes from trade, would have to be medium sized and quick. Like the ones they currently have implemented.



this is true.

but what is also true is that the further a trader has to traval the more he wants to take with him. thus a ship would need to be bigger to carry more stuff. in order to carry more stuff it needs more fuel, and a bigger crew. all of this translates into a bigger ship.

and again the tec capital ships, according to the story line are only traders that have been redesigned to warships.
Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top
except in space antimatter apparently magically regenerates so there goes the need for fuel. Antimatter can also (depending on who you ask) make food and computers do all the navigation so there goes the need for more fuel.

When you redesign a ship like that, it normally gets bigger, what with the guns and all, so therefore so does the ship. EVERYTHING that the TEC has comes from tradeships...
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top
and again the tec capital ships, according to the story line are only traders that have been redesigned to warships.


True, but the fact is in wartime, those large ships are just very large bulls-eyes. They may have been effective in peace time as bulk carriers for stuff like ores and textiles (big size, little cost, doesn't "perish"), but in war all they have is a great big target on them which counteracts the advantage of having a (presumably) lower cost-per-size to run.

In short, smaller ships have become "locked" because they can -- probably -- escape the enemy, while the larger ones can't.

Edit: And my original "don't be silly" was more related to UI issues -- it suddenly becomes confusing for the player which ships are important and which aren't.