Suggestion: Space Station tiers/upgrades

[An Ning]

The idea in short:

 

Rather than a space station costing 40 million and having limitless production capabilities based on materials available, stations cost less to found, but have limited size/production capacity until "upgraded" (basically buying a license for a larger station).

 

ex (numbers are only a representation for this example):
Basic factory cost: 1.5 million
Can produce 1 line of a good with a max production capacity of 500

Tier 2 factory upgrade cost: 2 million
Can produce 2 lines of goods with max production of 1500

Tier 3 factory upgrade cost: 4 million
Can produce 3 lines with max production of 3500

Tier 4 factory upgrade cost: 5 million
Can produce 4 lines with max production of 5000

Tier 5 factory upgrade cost: 10 million (again, just a representation of how the expense increases)
No limit to production lines or production capacity.

 

edit: I think it would be interesting to have tiers, myself, because not only would it allow you to build more stations earlier on (with limited capacity), there could be limits to the size of factories allowed in systems (set by the faction) based on the factories already present, or a faction that doesn't like you may restrict how large a station you can build, etc.

Edited July 10, 2021 by An Ning

[FuryoftheStars]

I thought this already existed (with the exception that the initial founding is still super expensive)? I seem to remember seeing upgrade options already on factories and mines that allowed exactly this?

[An Ning]

I may have missed it, as I have not built many stations, but on the ones I had, all I could do was add more stuff. There was no production cap except for the materials and size of the station I built.

 

I think it would be interesting to have tiers, myself, because there could be limits to the size of factories allowed in systems (set by the faction), or a faction that doesn't like you may restrict how large a station you can build, etc.

 

I don't see anything like that currently.

[FuryoftheStars]

Ok, next time I’m in game, I’ll try to find and screenshot what I see and post that here to see if that’s what you meant or not.

But I know there should be two things about it. The first is a screen where you can control its selling and buying, and this includes upgrading the station to allow it more parallel productions at once.

The second is, I believe, that adding more Production Blocks (or are they called Assembly Blocks?) to the station design will increase its number of goods per parallel production line, up to a cap.

And of course, all of this only applies to factories and mines.

[FuryoftheStars]

Sorry for the delay.

Here's a screenshot from a water factory.  All factories and mines follow this model (I believe).  This screen is accessed from interacting with the station (F) and choosing Trade Goods, or by using the Trade Goods puzzle piece in the upper right when you are in the station.

Edited July 13, 2021 by FuryoftheStars

[Xenomorph-Alpha]

Nice Idea, but i think in would be easier and simpler if stations scaling with the assmebly blocks and upgrading through this.  I do not quite unterstand what you mean with limitless production capabilities. The reduction in cycletime and parallel productionlines is capped.