Re: A newbie writes:
 

Actually, I thought navel was a kind of orange. Which would mean the artisan races should spend lots of time contemplating their navels - and then creating still-life paintings of them... http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon10.gif

The thing you unscrew to make your butt fall off. What an ancient joke. Oh, and in case someone didn't get it, a navel is a bellybutton. Which, according to the ancient joke referenced previously, is there to keep your butt attached. (By the way, anyone see the Simpsons episode where Homer ate so much at a carnival that his bellybutton changed from an "innie" to an "outie"?)

All right, we now return you to your regularly scheduled topic. Sorry for the almost-funny interruption.

Re: A newbie writes:
 

Uuh, I'm getting to used to speak english, it took some time before I got what navel is. (I was about to write that Last in Swedish! I need a brake...)

Re: A newbie writes:
 

OK, back to topic.

What about these 3 points from a previous post I'd still like answered, please?

Seems to me then that if a planet has reached max. pop. there's no longer any point in improving conditions as this only leads to more growth, not more production? (Unless of course you're intending to ship people off in future).

Why should I bother with biological weapons or climate harmers? By the time I've managed to get my bombers close enough to a planet without getting shredded, I just bomb (napalm?) them out of existence. Am I missing a useful feature here?

It has been said that happiness depends on your initial race's "orientation". My colonies seem to vary from Indifferent to Jubiliant [sic]. I haven't done any conquering (just originally empty planets); no special events. So why the difference? And is there anything I can build that would improve this? For example, is an Urban Pac. Centre only for really miserable planets or planets you have conquered or have mixed pops? If I want all my plebs to be really happy with me what do I have to do?

Re: A newbie writes:
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jon Brave:
OK, back to topic.

Why should I bother with biological weapons or climate harmers? By the time I've managed to get my bombers close enough to a planet without getting shredded, I just bomb (napalm?) them out of existence. Am I missing a useful feature here?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yeah, if you kill the people off with biological weapons, you get to keep the facilities. aint war hell?

Re: A newbie writes:
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jon Brave:
What about these 3 points from a previous post I'd still like answered, please?

Seems to me then that if a planet has reached max. pop. there's no longer any point in improving conditions as this only leads to more growth, not more production? (Unless of course you're intending to ship people off in future).

Why should I bother with biological weapons or climate harmers? By the time I've managed to get my bombers close enough to a planet without getting shredded, I just bomb (napalm?) them out of existence. Am I missing a useful feature here?

It has been said that happiness depends on your initial race's "orientation". My colonies seem to vary from Indifferent to Jubiliant [sic]. I haven't done any conquering (just originally empty planets); no special events. So why the difference? And is there anything I can build that would improve this? For example, is an Urban Pac. Centre only for really miserable planets or planets you have conquered or have mixed pops? If I want all my plebs to be really happy with me what do I have to do?

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

1) Moving population is one of the keys to production bonuses. Hopefully the patch will help the AI do this better. This is a very important micromanagement way to outproduce your enemies.

2) Try invading or even (horrors) asking them to surrender (if this doesn't make the game too easy for you). That way you get all the production and the population to micromanage as in step 1 above.

3) Many of the happiness adding and subtracting events are system or sector dependant so even if your population as a whole has the same happiness type the same events haven't happened to all of them. Urban pacification centers are great for all your systems. There is one racial facility that is better the temporal vacation center.
If you plan on capturing alien planets a facility that increases happiness is a must.

Re: A newbie writes:
 

I never use climate harmers. I'm either going to bomb the planet into the stone age or invade it. I don't see much sense in harming a planet you might invade or *just* harming the climate of a planet instead of destroying it.

When invading a planet, I find it much easier to use conventional weapons to destroy its WEP's only and then invade it. ...I move population around quite a bit.

I *guess* biological weapons are fast enough attacking tiny and small worlds. But they kill so few millions of colonists each combat round that I can't imagine using them to attack, for example, a huge colony with a full 2000 M colonists. I thought that my best bio bomber was only killing maybe 40 M each turn at the most?

Re: A newbie writes:
 

Another thing to note is that all new colonies start off as "Jubiliant". So an event that makes your old, established colony turn "Indifferent" may not be enough to make your brand-new colony leave the "Jubiliant" status.

IMO, it's still too easy for populations to get unhappy. I've taken to building a Temporal Vacation Service in every system. I find that if I don't, the populations become Indifferent over the course of a couple years (10-20 turns). Of course, part of the problem is that I have the "Peaceful" demeanor, but I'm at war with three races now. (And before someone suggests it, I LIKE making treaties, so choosing "Bloodthirsty" demeanor would cause similar problems when I'm NOT at war).