.com.unity Forums - A pirates life for me...

.com.unity Forums (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/index.php)

- Space Empires: IV & V (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20)

- - A pirates life for me... (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=2143)

Re: A pirates life for me...

It depends on what Version you play... in the more recent Versions you need to build a base of some sort and place a solar panel on it (300 kT if memory serves). This of course is a huge component, and will not fit on ships until you've got some really large ships.

Then you need to fleet your ships with this base so that they will share the supplies with one another.

Alternatively, you can persue the stellar manipulation research field and get lots of smaller components. But that'll take some time, and refueling in the early game is dependent upon the presence of those bases.

Re: A pirates life for me...

Only the "PBW" Versions have limited supplies. The non-PBW recent Versions have a normal supply scheme.

Re: A pirates life for me...

IIRC, the only two ways to generate supplies are:
a) Solar panels on ships and/or bases
b) Constructing a brand new ship with supply tanks. (Ships start out with full supplies)
c) ...Capture an alien ship full of supplies...

Solar power plants... Build a base with a reactor or two, and lots of supply tanks.
You'll need enough supply tanks to the maximum capacity of your base is at least twice the maximum capacity of the ships it will be refueling.

Constructing new ships... Expensive, but if you build a ship with bridge, crew quaters, lifesupport, and make the rest one giant fuel tank, you can heave quite a lot of emergency supplies into orbit. (Ships start fully supplied)

Aside from generation, you also have conservation available.
- The supply use reducing racial trait. (Advanced Power Conservation?)
- Research level 3 engines... Each level up in engine technology reduces supply use by 2 points. Gravitic engine tech gets really efficient, too.
- Remove excess engines. The slower your ship, the less supplies you burn to move each sector. Engines which do not increase the ship's speed (due to QNP rounding) can also be removed to save fuel.
- Use energy-based weapons. If you have enough radioactives to pay for them, energy-based weapons are very inexpensive supply-wise. Lasers, HEM, Psychic, and light particle beams.

[ May 23, 2003, 16:20: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: A pirates life for me...

Would it work to retrofit the ship? That is to say, does retrofitting count as "new construction"? If so, you could retrofit new supply bays onto a ship, and they should be full. you'd need to have maybe two levels of supply bay, or maybe switch back and forth between small supply and large supply components (so you'd need to do some research) but it could be do-able!

Re: A pirates life for me...

Quote:

Originally posted by jimbob:
Would it work to retrofit the ship? That is to say, does retrofitting count as "new construction"? If so, you could retrofit new supply bays onto a ship, and they should be full. you'd need to have maybe two levels of supply bay, or maybe switch back and forth between small supply and large supply components (so you'd need to do some research) but it could be do-able!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Retrofitted components start with 0 supplies
I learned it hard way when I retrofitted ship engines
away from a supply depot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A pirates life for me...

Quote:

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Solar power plants... Build a base with a reactor or two, and lots of supply tanks.
You'll need enough supply tanks to the maximum capacity of your base is at least twice the maximum capacity of the ships it will be refueling.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, supply capacity + generation for one turn, should be double the ship's capacity. Remember, it'll have to syat fleet-ed for a turn, to shift supplies.

Quote:

Constructing new ships... Expensive, but if you build a ship with bridge, crew quaters, lifesupport, and make the rest one giant fuel tank, you can heave quite a lot of emergency supplies into orbit. (Ships start fully supplied)

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And in general, supply tankers can help give you a lot more endurance anyway; send a few with any fleets that use supplies in excess of their self-generation.

Heck, a ship with a Solar Generator is very useful for extending range ...

Quote:

Aside from generation, you also have conservation available.
- The supply use reducing racial trait. (Advanced Power Conservation?)
- Research level 3 engines... Each level up in engine technology reduces supply use by 2 points. Gravitic engine tech gets really efficient, too.
- Remove excess engines. The slower your ship, the less supplies you burn to move each sector. Engines which do not increase the ship's speed (due to QNP rounding) can also be removed to save fuel.
- Use energy-based weapons. If you have enough radioactives to pay for them, energy-based weapons are very inexpensive supply-wise. Lasers, HEM, Psychic, and light particle beams.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">- Use Solar Sail engines. No supply usage at all, though, not very fast and a bit on the large side (suitable for nonmilitary uses at least).

Re: A pirates life for me...

I'm pretty sure the generated supplies from solar panels have to go through the ship they're mounted on before they get passed around in the fleet.

If you had a ship with 1000 supply capacity (currently empty) and a base with 1000 capacity + 1000 regen, then on turn 1, you would get:

action-> ship / fuelbase
fleet-> 0/1000
share-> 500/500
recharge-> 500/1000
turn 2
share-> 750/750
recharge->750/1000

etc.

Re: A pirates life for me...

New player to P&N, and I'm wondering if the AI's have been modified to fit the new options. I'd like to combine FQM, TDM and P&N but I just don't think TDM and P&N like each other. Am I going to have to go for FQM+TDM and FQM+P&N? I'm thinking the AI's need to be specially modified to work with P&N.

[ May 25, 2003, 17:10: Message edited by: Antra ]