Re: New player struggling
 

The waypoints can be set by hotkeys directly in the systems view.

To set one, hit Alt+Number of waypoint, e.g. Alt-1 and then click the sector.
To move a ship to a waypoint, select the ship and hit Ctrl-1 (through 0).

Edit: You can find the (other) Hotkeys under the "?" - window, "hotkeys".

[ 20 March 2002: Message edited by: PsychoTechFreak ]</p>

Re: New player struggling
 

Since no one really answered your questions, I will try, you asked quite a few in somewhat a huge post so bear with me.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Andy Watkins:


I am VERY early in the game so don't appear to have any fighters or any ground troops at all.

You have to research constrution and then fighters/troops before you get them.


I can build up to Destroyer sized ships, or small satellites or space stations or weapons platforms that's about it.

Once again, you have to research each upgrade.
ships ---- ship construction
sats ----there is a sat research tree
same thing for platforms, drones, and space stations.


I recently noticed an ally of mine has been planting satellites on all his warp points. Ah that's a good idea I thought I'll copy them. Built some satellites, loaded them onto a transport, went to warp point and could not dump the cargo. Looks like I need to be able to "Launch" the satellites, how do I do that?

First make sure you are loading them into a ship that contains sat launchers (not cargo holders)
Then there is a button on the top that shows a ship with and arrow going out, that is the remote launch button. you can preset the orders by clicking the ship, the button and the wp, it will ask what you want to launch, pick sats.

I wanted to mine asteroids, only ship that seemed to be able to do so was an attack destroyer with no guns and a pair of mining add on's. Took ship to asteroids and it started mining straight away.
Yippee I got something right.....
Then it ran out of fuel and I had to send it back to a planet to reful in the next system and then all the way back again. BORING! How can I stop this??

for mining ships you can add panels once you research them.
Or you can build large sats and launch them to do the mining, Once again you need to research them.


If I want to move a ship a couple of systems I appear to have to go WARP to the nearest point. Then go to the next system and put WARP to the next point etc etc. Can I get a ship across several systems with just one command?

Yes, if the first system has been explored, then all you do is click the ship, click the system and click the far wp, you want to use.
You can go across as many systems as you want as long as all the systems you are crossing, can be viewed by you.


What do waypoints do and how do you use them?

Waypoints can be used for a number of things. I use them to create central locations for all my newly built ships to move to before I send them out on missions. some people use them to create move chains for moving fleets or ships to the front lines. They are very useful.

Not very clear about combat. if you have ion cannons they seem to fire straight at whatever you target. I had a mk I capital missile and think I fired it, very difficult to tell, I think it was reponsible for a purple splat on my ship, I never seemed to get a purple splat on my target so don't know if it ever hit, or was the purple splat their missiles hitting me??

I don't quite understand this question. I think you are asking if you fired a missle or if you were being hit? well, if you fire a missle, it appears in the same spot as your ship and then moves out toward the target. if you are being hit, then the missle moves into you ship spot and you see an explosion.


PS are there any "Difficulty" setting in the game?


yes, when you first set up a new game, there are settings to pick if you want neutral races, if you want low, medium, or high number of reg races, if they should be easy, medium or hard, if they should recieve, a low, medium or high bonus.

There are other settings that make the gamje harder or easy, such as how many starting planets you start with, what type of events you want, and an number of other settings, too many for me to remeber without pulling up the game.
Don't play hard settings until you fully understand the game, or you will be taken out to early to enjoy it.

PPS My favourite sci fi series of all time is Babylon 5, do I get the impression I can "Mod" the game in some way to reflect B5?? I don't understand anything at all about modding.

you can in a way and there are mods that add B5 sets to the game.
It is best not to try modding, until you understand the game a little more, then come post your modding questions and we will try and help you. Never mod the orginal game itself, create a mod folder and do all modding there or set up a second game load on your system and mod it.


<hr></blockquote>

Re: New player struggling
 

Dracus,

Thanks for the reply, I've made a few observations, will make more when I have the chance to try them out.


&lt;&lt;You have to research constrution and then fighters/troops before you get them.&gt;&gt;

I will research construction next

&lt;&lt;First make sure you are loading them into a ship that contains sat launchers (not cargo holders)&gt;&gt;

Thanks you are the second person to say this, hadn't realised what Sat launchers were, will give it a try


&lt;&lt;for mining ships you can add panels once you research them.
Or you can build large sats and launch them to do the mining, Once again you need to research them.&gt;&gt;

Would a satelite with panels ever run out of supplies, if not this would seem ideal???


&lt;&lt;Yes, if the first system has been explored, then all you do is click the ship, click the system and click the far wp, you want to use.
You can go across as many systems as you want as long as all the systems you are crossing, can be viewed by you.&gt;&gt;

I think this is the mistake I made, tried that right at the beginning and it didn't work, probably because I hadn't been to the systems before, so I gave up never thought to try again, silly me!

&lt;&lt;you can in a way and there are mods that add B5 sets to the game.
It is best not to try modding, until you understand the game a little more, &gt;&gt;

Agreed I'll figure out the basic game before buggering around with it!


Andy
PS Thanks to everyone who is helping
PPS What was the relationship between this post and Audi cars?

Re: New player struggling
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>&lt;&lt;for mining ships you can add panels once you research them.
Or you can build large sats and launch them to do the mining, Once again you need to research them.&gt;&gt;

Would a satelite with panels ever run out of supplies, if not this would seem ideal???<hr></blockquote>

Two things:
- Sats have infinite supplies and/or do not use or keep track of supplies. You never have to worry about ammo on a sat.
- Running out of supplies does not affect the minig capability of your ship. Let it sit there forever.
- Ships cost maintenace! be sure that you are still getting more resources OUT of the planet than you are putting into the ship!

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>&lt;&lt;you can in a way and there are mods that add B5 sets to the game.
It is best not to try modding, until you understand the game a little more, &gt;&gt;

Agreed I'll figure out the basic game before buggering around with it!<hr></blockquote>Feel free to download and play with the B5 Mod that is being written!

Re: New player struggling
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dracus:
Since no one really answered your questions, I will try, you asked quite a few in somewhat a huge post so bear with me.
<hr></blockquote>

cheeky swine, I did try and answer Andy's questions, I just dont know how to split up the quotes in bold and normal text as neatly as you do!

PS I once got into an accident with an Audi A4 - my 7 year old clio lost quite badly but it was almost worth it to see a grown man burst out crying at the state of the audi http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: New player struggling
 

Ah, That is why I did not see your answers.

Re: New player struggling
 

Tigga and all,

Thankyou for your support, you have inspired me to have another go.

Space empires IV is very difficult to get in the UK so I guess most of you are from the good old US of A. I will of course try and remember to spell things incorrectly :-)

I thought the manual with Gold was supposed to be great, (it isn't) so didn't look on the disk, have now read the real manual and much more makes sense, though I still have a feeling there are lots of gaps in my knowledge.

I am VERY early in the game so don't appear to have any fighters or any ground troops at all.

I can build up to Destroyer sized ships, or small satellites or space stations or weapons platforms that's about it.

I recently noticed an ally of mine has been planting satellites on all his warp points. Ah that's a good idea I thought I'll copy them. Built some satellites, loaded them onto a transport, went to warp point and could not dump the cargo. Looks like I need to be able to "Launch" the satellites, how do I do that?

I wanted to mine asteroids, only ship that seemed to be able to do so was an attack destroyer with no guns and a pair of mining add on's. Took ship to asteroids and it started mining straight away.
Yippee I got something right.....
Then it ran out of fuel and I had to send it back to a planet to reful in the next system and then all the way back again. BORING! How can I stop this??

If I want to move a ship a couple of systems I appear to have to go WARP to the nearest point. Then go to the next system and put WARP to the next point etc etc. Can I get a ship across several systems with just one command?

What do waypoints do and how do you use them?

Not very clear about combat. if you have ion cannons they seem to fire straight at whatever you target. I had a mk I capital missile and think I fired it, very difficult to tell, I think it was reponsible for a purple splat on my ship, I never seemed to get a purple splat on my target so don't know if it ever hit, or was the purple splat their missiles hitting me??

I have a big list of other questions but only a small brain to store them in so I have forgotten them all!

Any assistance you can provide on any of the above would be hugely appreciated,

Andy
PS are there any "Difficulty" setting in the game?

PPS My favourite sci fi series of all time is Babylon 5, do I get the impression I can "Mod" the game in some way to reflect B5?? I don't understand anything at all about modding.


[quote]Originally posted by Growltigga the Great:
[QB]Andy, welcome to the forum and I am glad that yet another Brit has joined the forum to add a bit of class to all these north americans http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: New player struggling
 

Thanks all, I am starting to do better.

Didn't realise if a ship ran out of fuel I could just leave it mining, I presumed the crew would all die or something. Assuming you can put mining panels on a satellite this would be better and more efficient??

I built some light cruisers and went off to clobber the only neighbour I wasn't allied with. Had a couple of great fights, kicked his arse. I went to one of his colony planets did a strategic battle, won easily and the colony was gone.....

I didn't get given the option to invade, take over the colony or anything??

Admittedly I haven't yet researched ground troops, but if I had would I have been given an option to take over, or in strategic battle do you always blow up the colony?

Mining ships running out of fuel, I have found the resupply at nearest button, this is nice but they don't come back!

What does the set patrol button do, will they patrol, go back and resupply and then come back again??

Presumably if you were building a big fleet you could put a big freighter with lots of supply in the fleet and then the fleet could Last much longer??

Andy

Re: New player struggling
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Andy Watkins:
Thanks all, I am starting to do better.

Didn't realise if a ship ran out of fuel I could just leave it mining, I presumed the crew would all die or something. Assuming you can put mining panels on a satellite this would be better and more efficient??

I built some light cruisers and went off to clobber the only neighbour I wasn't allied with. Had a couple of great fights, kicked his arse. I went to one of his colony planets did a strategic battle, won easily and the colony was gone.....

I didn't get given the option to invade, take over the colony or anything??

Admittedly I haven't yet researched ground troops, but if I had would I have been given an option to take over, or in strategic battle do you always blow up the colony?

Mining ships running out of fuel, I have found the resupply at nearest button, this is nice but they don't come back!

What does the set patrol button do, will they patrol, go back and resupply and then come back again??

Presumably if you were building a big fleet you could put a big freighter with lots of supply in the fleet and then the fleet could Last much longer??

Andy<hr></blockquote>

1)Problem is, you can just put one part on a sat, but this sat would not have to pay maintenance. Try to build a space station, they are 50% maintenance compared with ships, but you can put more miners into it compared with sats.

2)You need a troop transport with ground troops, and the fleet has to be set up with "capture planet" strategy. You could observe how this problem is solved with several AI races, e.g. Space Vikings, just sit tight and watch them invading planets.

3)This button just orders the ship to the nearest resupply facility, nothing else. If you have a military alliance with someone, this could be even a resupply by allies planet.

4)Set patrol for a fleet or a ship lets them patrol between several sectors that you want them to guard. It is a neat function in simultaneous games.

5)Yes, the supplies are always divided brotherly at the end of a turn. Another good part for such a kind of resupply ship is always a resupply unit, repair unit or a quantum reactor.

"PS I once got into an accident with an Audi A4 - my 7 year old clio lost quite badly but it was almost worth it to see a grown man burst out crying at the state of the audi "


I can feel with him, buying an Audi is more like a kinda marriage, although it does not exist a sufficient term in any of the known Languages. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ 21 March 2002: Message edited by: PsychoTechFreak ]</p>

Re: New player struggling
 

Hi Andy,

You'll be surprised (as I was) at how many UK players we have here on the forum. We're probably the third or fourth most common nationality here after the US, Canadians and Germans. I think we also have more than one Argentinian, a few ozzies, and I'm pretty sure there's someone round here currently residing in Africa - and that doesn't even take into account the lurkers.

Actually, it'd be interesting to do a comprehensive head-count. Or maybe Shrapnel could give us an indication based on where they have shipped copies of the game..?

*(Dogscoff ducks to avoid stale bread products thrown by people whose country he failed to mention)

[ 21 March 2002: Message edited by: dogscoff ]</p>