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Information on the wares stations may produce and the building materials needed to make them are nicely presented here.
Build locations
Stations can only be built at predefined locations, which only have visible icons when you have a CV in your player ship's squad. Building can only be initiated if there is an Architect already on the Construction Vessel (see below). There are usually 2-3 build locations per regular zone, or 7 in "empty space" (which you can rename after a station is built there). Having said that, due to the size of stations, less than 7 stations per empty space zone can be expected in practice. The following info is mostly from from DocAce and can be useful to be aware of.
- A zone is a box with an edge length of 100 km. A sector is a box with an edge length of 1000 km.
- A new zone in empty space has 7 build spots. In practice you may not be able to build 7 stations in each zone, as build locations that are within a safety distance are disabled, so that fully extended stations can't overlap. Station orientation isn't possible, and doesn't matter for this purpose - the distance checks assume a spherical shape.
- New zones in empty space will not be centred on a station you may build inside one. They are centred on whatever made the zone (e.g. player or passing ship). Therefore the placement of a station within one should take this into consideration if it is of importance to the player.
- Mass traffic will contect every station within a zone and will not connect between zones. Even if a station's model is partially is in another zone, the build location defines which zone it belongs to.
Station construction
Stations are built and repaired by Construction Vessels (CVs), which are sold by XL Ship Dealers and can only build the variants of stations from the CV's originating system. The CV needs an Architect NPC (and optionally an Engineer for CV repairs and a Defence Officer for CV weapons control). , in addition to the normal crew options (Captain, Engineer and Defence Officer). Remember to equip CVs with cURVs & at least 1 cargo drone before assignment, otherwise you'll be waiting a /long/ time for the station to finish!
Once construction of a station is begun; you can technically cancel construction, but it's better to make sure you build it in the correct place first rather than risk the possibility of something bugging out with the CV and/or Architect.Stations can only be built at predefined build locations, of which there are usually 2-3 per regular zone, or 7 in "empty space" (which you can rename after a station is built there). The build locations are only visible when you have a CV in your player ship's squad, and building can only be ordered if there is an Architect already on the CV. If If the CV is destroyed at any time after construction begins, you can replace it by being in the same zone as the location and the new CV (in your squad) and talking to the Architect. This does not need the same <faction> CV; any CV will do provided it has an Architect on board*
*Remember to equip replacement CVs with cURVs & at least 1 cargo drone before assignment, otherwise you'll be waiting a /long/ time for the station to finish!
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All stations are built from a very similar collection of wares (fewer types than ships). These station components are not typically needed in huge volumes for individual station build stages and are often only available in small quantities which get quickly traded away due to high demand. Therefore you may find multiple faster L TRADE ships are more useful when building stations than a few slow XL TRADE ships. It is also not required that the exact amounts of materials for a build stage be present in the CV for it to progress, only that at least that amount is present for the build stage to complete. This means you can transfer-in excess materials for later build stages in advance so construction on subsequent build stages can begin immediately upon completion of the current stage.
Station construction components differ in Omicron Lyrae to other systems, and are listed in the following table.
| Material role | Albion/DeVries/Home of Light | Omicron Lyrae | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Station components | Reinforced Metal Plating | Container | Rare during plot games | |
| Fusion Reactors | Container | Rare generally | ||
| Bio-Optic Wiring | Plasma Pumps | Container | Steady, moderate supply | |
| Station components and/or construction | Food Rations | Bofu | Container | Plentiful |
| Energy Cells | Energy | |||
| Standard defences | HIT/MA & Plasma/MA Turrets, V Launchers, Force Field Projectors and HIVI turrets on Targon Tracers | Container | Optional | |
| Occasional defences | Plasma/JET Turrets and Astrobee Launchers | Container | ||
If the station is damaged by combat it will need to be repaired by its maintaining CV's Architect. Repairing is done on a module basis and costs building materials related to the hull percentage lost and construction cost of the damaged module. For this reason it may be useful to leave excess construction materials on CVs to allow for light repairs to be made. Keeping a station repaired is very important because any damage done to manufacturing modules decreases their production efficiency, which in turn increases the product cost. Most NPC stations use an assigned Engineer to repair with similar mechanics as L and XL ships, meaning they repair slowly over time for free. This is slightly unfair to the <player> as his stations cannot assign Engineers and can only be repaired in a costly way.
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Station management
Once constructed, several NPCs are needed for crew in order for the station to run smoothly and safely. Upkeep missions are generated to help guide the acquisition of crew and drones, and to provide reminders about module upgrades.
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