Building factories doesn't seem to speed ship building..

Factories should increase your production of ships and other planetary improvements. The reason you may not see a change is because of the spending slider you have for military production. If its very low, the additional production from a factory may not make a difference. However you state that the build time increased. The only thing i can think right now that might cause that is that you are very early in the game such that your economy is practically nonexistant (this is true for everyone). In this case the added cost of maintenance for the factory may well have been just enough to lower your overall income, this will leave less money to go toward production even if you didnt change the slider. Also note thart if its an extremem world your production is already halfed.

As you have a greater populatuion and more planets, your increase in revenue will outweigh the increase in maintenance costs, if you are careful. This is critical early in the game to not overbuild. Later in the game you will also not see a dcecrease in build time because even if you have less income that turn, it probably wont be enough to change the construct time. There are times where I will build over a factory type building with a stck exchange very late in the ghame and actually see a reduction in build time, I assume that its because of the increase in revenue on a fully populated planet.

Keep playing and see if you have the same thing happen after your empire has settled.

Or he just quick-bought the factory and now he's at -500 or worse bc and thus the time went up drastically.

Ah ok, makes alot more sense now because this happened on maybe my second turn, so very early on. Thanks for the great reply, i'll definately stick at it:) Very cool game. I was always put off by GalCiv's complexity but once you suss a few important basics it all comes together.

Just the act of building the factory will divert production away from shipbuilding until the factory is completed.  Anything in the build queue will do the same, be it a lab or farm or what have you.  Once the improvement is finished, you'll see the extra production for your ships.

Beware of building too many ships at first though.  The maintenance cost can drain your funds, especially in the early game. 

Too many factories, labs or even planets early in the game can also send you into bankruptcy.  There's a balance to be found there.

Great point Motti, if there is nothing in your build queue for planetary improvements you will see the hammer icon dim and arrows point to the shileds. This tell you that if you are not building anything for the planet, you are getting extra production for your ships. This is great near the end of the game when your planets are all built up. 

I think THIS is what caused you to see the increase in build time; you had noting in the build queue for you built that factory.

Keep in mind too that you can focus spending on a planet.