Well, I was looking info about Utopia Planitia and it seems that there are both ground based and orbital facilities.

We have Utopia Planitia Fleet Yard's planetary construction facilities - located on Mars' surface

and
The Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, orbital construction facilities - on synchronous orbit above Utopia Planitia lava plane.


I was thinking that we implement two structures based on this info.

First the ground based facilities - production bonus and then orbital facilities - ship building bonus (with the ground ones as a prerequisite.)

I can draw some concept art for the ground facilities and make the background for it, you would have to build only a few simple models.

That looks good. Do we have the Utopia Planitia as something you build in Supremacy?

Yes, as a Shipyard facility.
I recently proposed making it a Building instead, with bonuses to the Shipyard in the system.
I don't see the point in splitting it into 2 facilities. It's not like you're going to be upgrading farms in UP.

The Federation has shipsyards I, II and III and Fleetyards I and II as station models. So the Uptopia is a structure and not a model?

Well, I made the concept for it. I just have to find a way to scan it to my PC.

I was wondering if we should call fleetyard II for the feds the Utopia Planitia. If it is in as a structure then I guess we can not do it as a station model as well. That is unless Mike could some how link the two places it shows up.

The way we've got it at the moment, Utopia Planitia is a tech 6 Fleetyard, referred to ingame as fed_fleetyard_i with a Homesystem only restriction and a Shipyard II requirement (It isn't buildable until you build a Shipyard and upgrade it to the Shipyard 2). It is a special structure and requires a 3D combat model, but for the purposes of the game files it is explicitly listed as shipyard not a building.

The Feds also have a tech 11 Fleetyard called the Advanced Fleetyard and it's referred to in the files as the fed_fleetyard_ii. It has no restrictions, but it has a Shipyard III requirement. It is also significantly more expensive to build than Utopia, but it has lower power requirements and a bigger bonus. It is a special structure and requires a 3D combat model, but for the purposes of the game files it is explicitly listed as a shipyard not a building.

.Iceman thinks there are too many Fleetyards in the game (At least in the Alpha Quadrant) and i've been discussing this with him for a long while, which is likely why he doesn't see why Utopia should be split into two structures.

One thing that we could discuss with Mike is to have the objects with 3D models (Ships, stations, shipyards, fleetyards...) show up as a rotating 3D model instead of having a static image. The model would be displayed in the same window where the image normally is. It would certainly look cooler, but I don't know whether it is possible to do this.

In order to make the model look like what people expect we should have a set of models appear under the fleetyard I (Utopia Planitia.) In that set of models would be the six bays for ship building in keeping with a fleetyard. It would still be a single station in the game but appear as a set of structures in 3D combat. Maybe a few other 3D station structures without bays would help flesh it out. I want it to look like what people expect for the Utopia P. I will make a note to myself.

But why should Fleetyard II be only buildable in Sol system, why not Vulcan, Proxima? I say make Utopia Planitia Yards sol only special structure without a model and placed on Mars' surface with shipbuilding bonus.

Utopia Planitia is Sol-only; the Fleetyard II (Advanced Fleetyard) can be built anywhere.

From a tactical point of view, the best location for it would be in the Gamma or Delta Quadrant so you don't have to move your ships an enormous distance to conquer the Galaxy. But yes, you could also put it on Vulcan or somewhere too.

I agree with the shipbuilding bonus, but why shouldn't you be able to build fleetyard in your developed colonies? But it's not the question here, have we agreed to have Utopia Planitia seperate from shipyards/fleetyards and Sol-only shipbuilding bonus special structure?

For the same reason there _is_ a fleetyard, different from a shipyard III. It's a special shipyard, limited in number (4 per Empire per dafedz's database), for whatever reason. It's special, we could have it be buildable in special systems - what's more special than homesystems?

I agree, but it's more strategical when you choose where to build them. The best would be at the heart of your territory, be it a colony or someone's home system.

Homesystems would also bring more strategy to the game by having an advange membering a race instead of conquering them or colonizing a system.

What about a vote or something to choose.

Yes, but placing them in the heart of you territory will protect them from raids and sneak attacks, and you won't always have a race to member in wanted sector. Perhaps a combination of homesystems only and max 6 per empire.

If the system has a fleetyard, you'll probably have ships not only building there, but also protecting it. As for raids, border systems are more likely to - again - be defended by both fleets and defenses. That's where the action is happening.
The fleetyard doesn't need to be in a very specific sector obviously, but in a general location.

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Like I said a long time ago, we need to review ships' Range and Fuel values (and scrap one of them ). Maps are rather small (Tiny maps are all but useless), and these values are rather large in comparison. You can pretty much strike anywhere within an opponent's territory even without outposts or starbases (making them even less useful), at higher tech levels. Only Destroyers (FastAttack ships) and Scouts should have large(r) range values.