Docked manufacturing?

[KiloZulu]

I've always wanted to be able to do manufacturing on a ship. The idea being that I could produce spare parts, or replace lost fighters, without having to return to a base. I wanted to have a ship that could wander the universe and not be tied to a specific point in space; examples might include the Enterprise or BSG.

I just came up with a work-around that kind of accomplishes the goal, but I've never tried it before and am wondering if anyone here knows if it would work. The idea is to dock a platform to a station, build a small factory on the platform, and then re-dock it to my ship of choice. Whenever I wanted to use the factory, I would place a rail on the nearest planet, and dock the platform to the planet. Once I had met my production needs, I'd launch again and reattach to the ship.

Is that possible, or would I get stopped at trying to put factories on a docked entity? Thanks.

 

[Tydeth]

The docked platform = a ship, so it will stop you from placing factories on it.

 

[NaStral]

Best approach within current limitations would be to design a minimal cost industrial platform, just bare minimum needed to get the job done and keep several filled blueprints. Drop, do what's needed and either leave it or recycle it and move on.

 

[DrTarDIS]

I tried to side-step this by making mobile asteroid bases,which works but is both slow and difficult to maneuver. Feel free to develop the technology yourself now that you know it's possible...

I agree shop/factory/shipyard/warpgate ships would be cool. I think we'll get them with the capitol ship update.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Whenever the game gives you a limitation, it's time to build around that limitation. With that having been said, you (currently) can't add station specific blocks to a detachable platform. However, you can dock a large craft to a small station and get a similar effect...

I call the concept "anchor stations" They are essentially small, cheap, borderline disposable manufacturing systems. This is what allows me to use my Mobile Command System as a faction home base, complete with factories and respawn while keeping it (mostly) mobile.

In this example, the yellow frame work is a low mass station that sits inside the main docking area of the MCS. It has factories, storage, a shipyard and a respawn point. The combined assembly is basically a large ship, posing as a station with an actual station inside of it, posing as decoration.


Another example would be an Imperial Star Destroyer that docks to a small station that fits inside its fighter bay. There are many ways to pull this off; limited only by your imagination. The only negative is that you currently cannot use station specific blocks while mobile. You must stay docked to your anchor station to use its features and undock from it when you're ready to move your ship again.

 

[Scypio]

Well, you can technically dock a station to a ship. Then move the ship, the station will move with your ship.

But it only work if it is enabled in the configs and i'm pretty sure you see why almost every server doesn't do such thing.