* Should we have shipyards at all?
No. They were incredibly annoying in MoO3 and they didn't add to the fun at all. But in case someone does decide to put
them in the game, I'll answer the other questions too.
* How do shipyards work?
Shipyards should function to determine the amount of a planet's max industry that can be put towards building ships. If a planet only has 10% of max industry and their shipyard allows for 10%, they should be able to put all of their industry towards building ships.
** Are they a simple "building" that lets a system build any ship, or are their modules and addons that can be built to improve an existing shipyard?
I think that there should be one basic building that allows, say, 10% of a planets max industry to be put towards ship building. Add-ons would come in later in the game that increase it by increments of 10% These add-ons become slightly more expensive as the game wears on.
*** Ship parts or hulls might require a shipyard with a particular module to build or install.
Bad bad bad. MoO3 sucked with shipyards and that's why. It's really no fun at all.
*** Shipyards might have a limited capacity, requiring upgrades to build more ships per turn or increase the Production Points they are allowed to spend per turn
Yes.
* Are shipyards specially equipped to service existing ships?
A special shipyard add on for that might be a good idea....
but I doubt it. I think that refits should be treated the same way as actually building ships as far as the shipyard is concerned.
** Ships could be generally not repairable away from shipyards (excluding special cases), or ships could repair much faster or instantly at shipyards.
Ships should repair slowly away from shipyards (1-2% per turn excluding special cases) and quickly at shipyards (30-40% per turn). This way, ships aren't totally invincible in a multi-turn siege on their own planet.
** Ships could require shipyards to be upgraded to newer versions of their designs.
Isn't that pretty much the same as *** Ship parts or hulls might require a shipyard with a particular module to build or install.?
* Roughly how long should it take to get a shipyard built in a system?
The initial building and each add-on would take about 15 turns for an average empire devoting all of an average planet's industry to it at the time in the game that they acquire the tech. That way, they wouldn't be too difficult to build, but you wouldn't have one on every planet either, so they would be special.
* Should there be other restrictions on where a shipyard can be built?
No restrictions on colonized planets. That's just making it too convoluted and not fun. But maybe you could build them on asteroids like an outpost?
* Do we yet have any reasons to specificy roughly how many shipyards an empire should have (given its size or other factors) or what state of upgrading they should all be at (if applicable)?
No. Each player will have a different number of shipyards at different levels of development depending on what his primary focus for the game is.
Now to put my ideas in context with eleazar's.
* Should we have shipyards at all?
Yes. I think it's a great idea.
I don't
It makes it too complicated. With everything else to deal with, it's just troublesome and I don't think it's very fun anyway.
* How do shipyards work?
** Are they a simple "building" that lets a system build any ship, or are their modules and addons that can be built to improve an existing shipyard?
*** Ship parts or hulls might require a shipyard with a particular module to build or install.
*** Shipyards might have a limited capacity, requiring upgrades to build more ships per turn or increase the Production Points they are allowed to spend per turn
Shipyards are a major component of the game, and so a certain amount of upgradability doesn't seem out of place. Though i lean towards upgrading the whole shipyard to shipyard Mark-2, Mark-3 etc. rather than supporting mix-and-match upgrading. Though depending on how they are related to the host planet, defenses may be desirable add-ons. I think it's best, however to consider it more-or less a feature of it's planet, and allow the space defenses of the planet to also defend the shipyard, though the shipyard could be independently targeting/destroyed, it shouldn't be capture-able separately from the planet.
Why should they be a major component of the game? Of course it would be hard to avoid if they are in, so yes, a certain amount of upgradability does not seem out of place. Hence my suggestion. Although, Mark-2, etc. would probably work just as well. It should definitely be inseparable from the planet on which it is built.
Requiring higher-level shipyards to build larger ships seems pretty reasonable. Requiring higher-level shipyards to build higher-tech level hulls isn't unreasonable. But limiting which component can be produced by shipyards seems annoying.
Requiring higher level shipyads to build larger ships seems just plain annoying to me. Go back and play MoO3 if you need proof. It may be realistic, but it's boring as heck.
I don't like the idea of limiting the amount of production which can be output per shipyard, because it seems to mess up the simplicity of our global production system. You could have situations where your empire's ability to produce far exceeds your shipyard's abilities. Since PP can't be saved, this would tend to waste production, even when the queue is full. But i recognize there are some reasonable gameplay arguments for putting a PP cap on shipyards.
Well, ships aren't going to be the ONLY thing you're producing. If they are, you can just devote all your research to the next shipyard. But really, that's kind of a problem that makes an argument against shipyards altogether.
* Are shipyards specially equipped to service existing ships?
** Ships could be generally not repairable away from shipyards (excluding special cases), or ships could repair much faster or instantly at shipyards.
** Ships could require shipyards to be upgraded to newer versions of their designs.
It seems reasonable to require shipyards for upgrading ships, but requiring them for repairs seems too restrictive. However the answer to these questions may one come out with playtesting.
I think requiring ships for extensive repairs would be great for strategy, adding to the concern of the "geography" of your empire.
* Roughly how long should it take to get a shipyard built in a system?
About the same time that it takes to build a medium-large ship, perhaps.
I guess that's reasonable if we want them to be specialized in the early game.
* Should there be other restrictions on where a shipyard can be built?
IMHO they should be build-able only around colonized planets, and limited to one per system. Though the general uselessness of building more than one per system might not need a rule to enforce it.
I think shipyards should be a planetary thing rather than a system wide thing. It enhances distinction between the planets in one system.
* Do we yet have any reasons to specificy roughly how many shipyards an empire should have (given its size or other factors) or what state of upgrading they should all be at (if applicable)?
Approximately one tenth of the number of systems that the player controls seems right to me. Probably the ratio of shipyards to systems would go a bit higher with very large empires.
It's really going to vary wildly depending on what kind of empire you're running. It's impossible to make a number that decides how many they "should have".