I agree, even though its not a particularly big issue for me. yet, if you want to show different construction phases, would you not need at least 2 - 3 in-construction phase models of the same ship type? sure, you can modify them based on the final model, you could even use the same basic template for the very first phase for all ships in a class. still, it sounds like a lot of work for something which is, at least for me, not a primary concern.

for examples, I think conquest: final frontier did a very nice job of phase-wise exterior construction of ships and stations.

So the answer would be to have a closed hanger bay., so you would not need the ships in a building phase ...just a door opens...and ships "move out".

I didn't read anyone's post other than the first so idk if this was said but : The ships need to actually come out instead of just appearing and backing up once they are built....that would be a bit more realistic....

Thanks!!

I wouldn't mind the disembarking from the shipyards part of the idea.  I can see one problem with it though and that's while you're waiting for that ship to turn or just accelerate forward, the next ship can't be built while it's in the way.  I'd assume that's why they pop out in the current game to avoid such headaches.

As for the actual building animation, I like it as it serves its purpose.  I don't think much would be added by spending lots of manhours just so you could see the TEC weld yet another indiscriminate chunk of alloy plating onto one of its flying boxes.  While you could have the closed shipyards like some have suggested, that would also require scrapping the current open factories and personally, I like their designs a lot more than I care about a realistic construction process for ships.

You could, but then you'd have to rework other parts of the code to establish that I'd wager.  Additionally, it'd suffer from rare but possible ships leaving the factory bumping into other objects or getting stuck.