Can I Build Bases/DEFSATs/Minefields at Planetary Shipyards?

[virtutis.umbra]

Or with no Shipyard at all? Does constructing using Planetary Shipyards instead of Orbital Shipyards cost 2x the base construction cost?

[Tyrel Lohr]

I actually had to look this up, because I couldn't remember. The answer is that a planet can build ground units, bases, defense satellites, minefields, and flights -- basically anything other than a non-atmospheric starship --- themselves. Planetary shipyards just increase the amount of construction capacity and dock spaces a planet has available to make these purchases with.

Orbital shipyards are used to build starships and flights only, and normally a player is just going to use them to build starships unless they are really hard up for construction capacity to build flights with.

Atmospheric starships are special in that they can be built using planetary construction capacity as if they were flights. Non-atmospheric starships have their costs doubled if they are built at planets. This distinction has only come up a few times in my previous games, and then only when I had a low-tech power that couldn't afford any Orbital Shipyards so had to decide between building an atmospheric ship that was less powerful or a non-atmospheric that cost them twice as much to purchase. Most of the time players have more than enough shipyards available to accommodate their ship building, at least that was my experience.

The construction/shipyards rule ambiguity from 1E is part of the reason that Shipyards is now a colony statistic in 2E, with the hard delineations of non-starship construction being done by Productivity (capacity equal to utilized Productivity times RAW) and starship construction being done by Shipyards (capacity equal to utilized Shipyards times Orbital). Atmospheric starships are still the best of both worlds, being able to be built in either at no penalty.

There will likely also be an allowance for flights and Atmospheric ground units to be built using shipyard capacity in 2E. Again, it probably won't come up very often outside of games where a player is very hard pressed for construction capacity and/or fields a lot of trans-atmospheric mecha.

[virtutis.umbra]

Thanks for the clarification! It does sound like planetary shipyards are a bit of a 'why bother' scenario except for cases where a lot of fighter spam or minefields, or Atmospheric starships are an option for the power. I guess the decreased maintenance cost is something to think about though.

[Tyrel Lohr]

The only empires that really benefit from planetary shipyards are those that have a lot of Atmospheric starship classes, and then only because the shipyards cost less to maintain (as you noted). That is a very situational bonus, and most settings don't have that many powerful Atmospheric warships available for each faction. In a massive crossover game, any Star Wars powers might see a benefit from having planetary shipyards since so many of their ships are atmospheric capable, but in a Star Trek or Babylon 5 game they really wouldn't be worth it outside of very narrow applications. Klingons could build birds of prey or the Minbari could build some police cutters, but that's about it.

[murtalianconfederacy]

I've very rarely, if ever, needed planetary shipyards (unless I was light unit-spamming--maybe attack boats or something). Usually, I only build light patrol units, which the colony can easily do without needing a shipyard.