Changes to Maintenance



At the moment, maintenance for ships is based on minerals. When in orbit of maintenance facilities the maintenance clock doesn't move and the annual cost is is equal to 5% of all mineral used to build the ship. So if ship required 200 Duranium, 100 Neutronium, 100 Uridium and 200 Gallicite to build, the annual maintenance cost is 10 Duranium, 5 Neutronium, 5 Uridium and 10 Gallicite. While a ship is being overhauled, the annual cost is equal 20% of build cost, so in this case 40 Duranium, 20 Neutronium, 20 Uridium and 40 Gallicite.



This can require micromanagement to ensure all the correct minerals are in the same place as the ships. It can also be annoying when maintenance fails due to the lack of a single mineral.



Therefore I am revising maintenance for 7.2. Ships in orbit of maintenance facilities or undergoing overhauls will now consume maintenance supply points from the colony (the same type as used on ships for repairs & fixing breakdowns). As maintenance modules are non-military in v7.2 this allows tankers to deliver both fuel and maintenance supplies.



The number of maintenance supplies required will be equal to 25% of the build cost for ships in orbit and 100% for ships undergoing overhaul. This is not as severe as it sounds because 1 MSP requires 0.25 tons of minerals and costs 0.25 wealth, so the actual costs for maintenance are 6.25% and 25% of ship cost respectively (a slight increase on current). There are no longer any direct wealth costs for maintenance as this is covered by the cost of building the maintenance supply points.



If a colony has maintenance facilities but no maintenance supplies, ships in orbit will draw maintenance supplies from any designated supply ship in the same location. Supply ships can be flagged using the existing 'Supply Ship' flag in the Class window. If no supply ships are available, ships will draw on their own maintenance supplies.



These mechanics not only make maintenance cleaner, it will also make is easier for the next stage, which is implementing deep space maintenance facilities.



To reflect their extended use, I am changing the mineral requirements for building supply points to be more varied, as below:



Maintenance Supply Point

Duranium 0.05

Neutronium 0.025

Tritanium 0.025

Boronide 0.025

Mercassium 0.025

Uridium 0.025

Corundium 0.025

Gallicite 0.05

Total 0.25