Steve-Law
Okay, so why does a GP consisting entirely of lifeforms need cargo space? I have a "troop carrier" (freighter with entirely lifesupport space, no cargo) that brought in troops, created a GP and delivered the rest of the troops to it.

At that point the GP was actually moved outside of the ship (but no message to say so, so I didn't even notice) so that when the ship landed, it left the GP in orbit! As if that is not enough I took off again to embark the position and got this:

>TU 22: Embark Position {654321} {}
Error - Insufficient cargo space to embark position
Total TU cost for this action is 10

I've been trying to get this GP in place for over a week - everything that can go wrong has gone wrong (not enough engines to land, no cargo to install spare engines from another ship, etc, etc.)

Then this. It's just the last straw I'm so fed up with GPs!

I seem to remember something about GP not needing life support? But when it's made entirely of lifeforms, with no equipment whatsoever, doesn't it start looking a bit daft that the troops that couldn't have travelled in a cargo ship without enough lifesupport now can't travel in a life ship without enough cargo space?

Does joining a Ground Party convert you into some kind of living dead?

(Not to mention how you can get around needing troop carriers altogether by forming the GPs first and carrying all your lifeforms in standard cargo!)

[Edit: The GP was moved outside of the ship after the create GP order (not the delivery as it reads above) I delivered the troops to it after that, but was blissfully unaware that they were in space - as they weren't, for example, dead wink.gif ]
CNF Jon Tenor
You can put a GP in orbit or in an unbreathable atmosphere, right? So they must have self-contained life support; therefore, it's not life support they need but cargo space. Makes sense to me.
Steve-Law
QUOTE (CNF Jon Tenor @ Dec 17 2004, 04:59 PM)
You can put a GP in orbit or in an unbreathable atmosphere, right? So they must have self-contained life support; therefore, it's not life support they need but cargo space. Makes sense to me.

O...kay...

Self-contained Life Support? Where did that come from then? They didn't have it before. The ship has no factories. They weren't allowed to use this life-support when they were not in a GP... There is no difference between 2000 troops in a GP and 200 troops not in a GP so why are they handled differently?

(Yes I know that's how they work (now) and I'll know how to handle them in future, but it still strikes me as very odd and rather dumb the way they are actually handled. Personally I'd rather have to build and assign actual "life-support units" to GPs. Ship crew/troops need life support on the ship (why can't they have these life-support units as well?) so why shouldn't GP troops need it too?)




Dan Reed
The reason for NOT having life support units and so on was the "players shouldn't need to be accountants" one. But you're right that life-only GP's should be embarkable on lifeform carriers.....

Dan
ptb
It also makes life transport ships kinda pointless, for a mear 1000 stellars, once, and 100 a week you basicly double your life cargo capacity.

Personally i try not to do this but there have been cases where i needed to ship a lot of employees fast or run at low efficency for a week so.....

I think groundparties need a seperate embarking size for life and cargo parts, of course your then ignoring the fact they can breath in space in other situations but i think this can be excepted as you'd expect all intellegent lifeforms to have some kind of survial gear in space and just assume it's recharged at ships, domes or breathable planets so we can ignore it. (maybe orbital cattle/pengiuns/pets etc should die though tongue.gif or turn into food as they sufforcate)