why build second spaceship engine?

[clif9710]

I haven't been able to find any benefit to building the second spaceship engine. The more thrusters you build, the faster you get to your destination, but why spend time on a second engine...reliability?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

On normal speed, a 2nd engine gets you there 2 turns sooner. Not worth it unless you get fusion before the last space tech and have sufficient hammers so that building it delays you 0 or 1 turn. I usually skip it.

 

[Ryuujin]

It's about 6-7 turns on Marathon and I've been able to build both Engines within 2 turns of each other, so your mileage may vary.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Only casings affect reliability.

If you have 2 strong cities that can both build an engine in the same number of turns, it may shave a turn or two off. If you can only spare one city or one is so much better, skip it.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Only casings affect reliability.

If you have 2 strong cities that can both build an engine in the same number of turns without losing turns delaying other parts, it may shave a turn or two off. If you can only spare one city or one is so much better, skip it.

Fixed.

 

[aimlessgun]

7 turns on Marathon. And yeah just depends on your cities. Might be difficult to actually save the full 7.

 

[mariogreymist]

It's 3 turns on epic, and I played a game recently where it shaved 1 turn off my victory date. 9 out of ten times (at least) it's not worth it, as you need two cities with both remarkably high and remarkably similar production, and several other cities with good production to complete the other big-ticket parts as you build the engines. If you don't have all that, it's not worth it at any speed. It's worth doing the math (in a close game) and figuring out exactly how long each part is going to take, and figuring out the earliest possible launch date. If building two engines doesn't delay that significantly, (1t/quick, 2t/normal, 3t/epic, 7t/marathon) then it's worth it. Of course, this only matters if the space race is close, or an enemy is approaching a culture win.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Can you ever fail on the space race unless someone gets there before you?

 

[TheDS]

If someone takes your capital, yeah.

It would seem then that the second engine should shave more turns off, or rather, having only 1 engine should make the ship take considerably longer to get there. Like, maybe twice as long?

 

[mariogreymist]

Can you ever fail on the space race unless someone gets there before you?

Someone can win culture, domination or time while you wait for your ship to get in. (Or conquest, but that seems obvious) The first team to achieve a VC wins, even if your spaceship has been launched.