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-   -   Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=5913)

Slick September 9th, 2002 06:00 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Hello, I have been keeping “good to know” notes when I find out something that is not [or not well] documented]. Some of these have “bit” me in a game so I wrote them down so that I didn’t have to remember them all. I have gotten a wealth of info from the “dubious strategy guide” and this forum. You guys are always willing to help newbies and are very mature, which is why I like reading this forum. Please don’t be offended if you see something below which you posted; sometimes I just cut and paste into my notes file for future reference. Most of these have been originally written by the community and I found interesting. Please use any/all in the newbie guide and give credit to the community. Also, please look for mistakes and redundancies. Some of these may seem very simplistic to the veterans here but each one was not obvious to me at the time I copied it so I think they may be useful in a newbie guide.

- bases and sats have unlimited supplies.

- sats or other orbiters will attack a newly captured planet. need to eliminate them before capture. Weapon Platforms will not attack troops and don’t participate in ground combat.

- ships with a spaceyard can’t build while cloaked but can repair while cloaked. [icon changes from “spaceyard” to “repair” while cloaked.

- Cloaking: cloaked sats with sensors work well for recon. cloaking devices uses supplies, not sure about stealth armor. cloaked ships can get into combat if they encounter ship with right sensors. you can launch/recover fighters/mines[not recover]/satellites, transfer cargo, resource mine while cloaked
cannot colonize while cloaked. cloaked ships can’t be retrofitted

- all components on sats/fighters/mines/drones are inactive when unlaunched.

- ships lose fleet experience when they leave fleet.

- ships must leave fleet to be refit or do specialized functions [use emergency supply, build ships, etc.]

-ships will decloak when out of supplies

- atmosphere converters can be scrapped after the atmosphere is converted.

- each crew quarter counts as 16 defense against Boarding Parties

- there is a limit of 10 warp points per system

- need to add weapons to a ship in the order you want them to fire in combat

- specialty weapons [eg. weapon damaging] leave no “excess” damage. If it doesn’t destroy weapon, it does nothing.

- mounts on tractors don’t improve tractor

- tractors are not able to pull in larger ships

- 1] you can't design a ship unless it has the requested number of LS/CQ, or a MC. 2] ships lose movement if they have ZERO lifesupports or crewquarters remaining. 3] ships lose movement if they have no intact bridge or aux con. 4] any ship with an intact MC is exempt from rules 2 & 3. One each of B/LS/CQ is enough to fly the ship normally, but you can't save that design unless you have an MC [or are designing a ship < 450KT in size].

- you can self destruct mines

- Organic armor will regenerate only in battle, not in strategic mode. If got 1 left, engage immobile target and just sit there to regenerate.

- domed worlds are 1/5 facilities of non-domed. domed sphere worlds are 1/2. not sure about ring worlds.

- emergency supply & propulsion pods need a spaceyard [not repair bay] to repair.

- rock/none gives moons a whole new meaning.

- no use in training missile ships or using combat sensors - missiles either hit or miss based on range & pd.

- don’t forget to set the strategy of a new ship design

- if all ships in a fleet break formation, they go to their individual ship orders. this may be what you want.

- victory conditions are “and” not “or”

- good ratio - minerals:organics:radioactives = 5-10:1:2-3. increase organics if you are organic racial, endgame increase radioactives

- mothballing a ship resets its crew experience to 0%

- retrofitting a ship does not affect its crew experience.

- you can shift cargo between anything in the same sector with cargo components, even a planet and its moons. built units will be placed in the cargo components of the building unit. if none/full, they will be placed in any other cargo components in the sector [ships, planets, moons]. if all full, you get log message saying unavailable storage.

- don’t mothball your Last spaceyard ship in a fleet - you need an active spaceyard to unmothball.

- System facility effects stack with planetary facility effects.

- it costs 50% [of the cost of the new facility] to upgrade a facility

- how much does retrofitting cost? 120%, 30% for component removal

- what does experience do? 20% Experience [whether gained from training or combat] would give your ships a 20% less-likely-to-be-hit modifier and a 20% more-likely-to-hit-with-direct-fire-weapons modifier.

- solar generators have increased benefits if more stars are present

- pdc’s get a 70% to-hit bonus. incinerator beams get a 10% to hit bonus. wmg’s get a 30% to hit bonus
high energy magnifiers get a 30% to hit bonus. tachyon canons get a 10% to hit bonus. mental singularity generators get at 20% to hit bonus

- units in same sector stack and count as 1 unit. any component on any in the stack applies to all, except shields [until that unit is killed]. ie. 1 multiplex tracking component on 1 sat in a group makes the whole group able to multiplex track until that component is destroyed.

- when a stack of units takes damage, all structure is added up and when enough accumulate to destroy 1 unit, it is killed. no partials.

- do pdc’s need multiplex tracking? no.

- captured population [by any means] loses all of its racial attributes and is identical to yours except they retain their atmosphere breathing so can be used to populate your colonies appropriately AND they slowly get unhappy over time so you need to account for that so they don’t riot [riot police, upc, etc.].

- pdc’s won’t fire automatically unless you or the target moves and is in range; but they can be fired manually.

- you can get ripped off in the “build 1 turn’s worth” since extra build capacity is lost- check out the build times for 1,5,10,etc if you were going to build that many anyway - could be shorter since additional build points are lost, but you won’t get any of your units until the entire build time is complete.

- ships do retain original strategies after being retrofitted or captured - you can overcome this by making a 1-ship fleet and giving it new fleet orders.

- Income is better than a savings account with no interest. quote I saw regarding whether to build a facility on a poorly valued planet.

- Facilities undergoing upgrade still produce. Do not scrap to upgrade!

- Shields are not active against mines.

- having more population increases production rate [see settings.txt]

- happiness affects resource production [see settings.txt]

- there is no way in unmodded game to detect mines without running into them.

- repairs cost no resources.

javaslinger September 9th, 2002 06:50 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
there is an enormous guide compiled of Posts from this forum in the archives. I don't think it's been updated since gold, but the vast majority of it is very much still useful.

It's called the Dubious strategy guide and you can find it in the must visit sites sticky... A lot of what is being compiled in here is already in there.

I mean this guide is HUGE.

DirectorTsaarx September 9th, 2002 07:09 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Quote:

Originally posted by Quikngruvn:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by DirectorTsaarx:
First, Quikngruvn, good work on most of your inputs. I only disagree on one point:

If your ship ends its movement over a planet with a resupply depot, the display will show you have full supplies MINUS one sector's worth of movement. I haven't tried moving one sector beyond the resupply depot, so I don't know if "touch and go" provides a workaround...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks, Tsaarx. Are you doing your resupply with simultaneous or sequential turns? All I ever play is simultaneous, so there may be a difference.
<snip>
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, my info is based on sequential. It may very well be different in simultaneous (like so many other things that are different between the two styles)...

DirectorTsaarx September 9th, 2002 07:28 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Quote:

Originally posted by Slick:
Hello, I have been keeping “good to know” notes when I find out something that is not [or not well] documented]. <snip>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I agree with most of the notes you posted; I have just a couple minor comments...

Quote:

Originally posted by Slick:
- ships must leave fleet to be refit or do specialized functions [use emergency supply, build ships, etc.]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, you don't have to leave a fleet to build a ship; you just can't access the build screen directly from the fleet. (i.e., when you have the fleet selected on the main screen, the "build queue" icon won't light up). HOWEVER, if you go to the Construction Queues screen, you should be able to find the appropriate spaceyard ship/base in the list and you can add items to the queue from there. I do this for building ringworlds/sphereworlds - not only is it easier on the eyes to have all those ships in a single fleet, if you access the queues from the construction queues screen you can do use multi-add for setting up builds on the plating or cables...

Quote:

Originally posted by Slick:
- if all ships in a fleet break formation, they go to their individual ship orders. this may be what you want.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think some ships retain the fleet orders even when they break formation, but I could be wrong about this. There's been a lot of discussion about ship orders vs. fleet orders and what each strategy really means...

Ruatha September 9th, 2002 08:02 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
That was alot!
I'm a newbie myself, haven't finished a single game yet but have two in progress, one PBW.
So I can't verify anything.
I have two kids and a full time work so to incorporate I usually just use your method, slick; I cut and paste.

To incorporate Slicks big post to the appropriate places will take time and as nothing is numbered I'll be glad if I have it done this year.

I really like when people add numbers,and I'd be happy if people copied the entire faq and incorporated new things themself http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

All this said I'm glad Slick posted that big post as it contains alot of usefull newbie info!

Javaslinger > Yes, I know most information can be found in different threads, but there isn't so much compiled into any easy to orientate order.
This FAQ isn't well organized either, it's grown out of the originial proportions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
When you are a newbie as me it's not easy to search for all the info you need, it's easier if it's compiled into something with a newbie friendly topic title as FAQ for newbies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Now I gotta go and put my oldest (5 years) to bed.

[ September 09, 2002, 19:03: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Slick September 9th, 2002 10:14 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Sorry about the “no numbers” but I wasn’t sure what if anything you wanted to include. I am married with children too.

Arkcon September 10th, 2002 03:23 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Quote:

Originally posted by Ruatha:
FAQ SE4
------
This is for us newbies, all feel free to add to this faq, correct errors, spellcheck and bump.
Change the order if it needs to, long live chaos.
Elite players share your knowledge, newbies, add the answers to your questions here when you receive an answer.
First, read:Malfador Q&A Section
and: Un-Official Space empires IV Strategy and Tactics Page
-------------------------------------------------
CIVILIZATION BUILDING
*********************
COLONIZING
==========
1.1.1. Put people on your colony ships. The

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">0.0.0.0 Forum Navigation
Forums Posts appear latest post first, so you can easily check up on the newest responce to a long thread

0.0.0.1 To see the begining of a forum thread, click the "Printer-friendly view of this topic" icon at the bottom of the page(thanks Gryphin!)

Stone Mill September 10th, 2002 03:34 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Great content, Slick.

Don't sweat the numbering. I'm sure Ruatha can make it fit. He's done a great job already.

I agree; it is the organization of this post that makes it a handy reference!

Shyrka September 10th, 2002 07:32 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Quote:

Originally posted by Ruatha:
2.7.01. To launch satellites from a planet use "launch remotely/satellites" command, then hit repeat orders. Then each turn, the planet will try to launch satellites, even if there aren't any stored in cargo. (dumbluck)

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">¿This is really possible? I'm trying to do it and when i hit "launch remotely/satellites" the planet launches all its satellites and then the order is deleted. I can't hit the "repeat orders" since there is no orders to repeat. Am I doing something wrong?

zaphod-42 September 10th, 2002 07:56 PM

Re: Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies
 
Quote:

Originally posted by Shyrka:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Ruatha:
2.7.01. To launch satellites from a planet use "launch remotely/satellites" command, then hit repeat orders. Then each turn, the planet will try to launch satellites, even if there aren't any stored in cargo. (dumbluck)

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">¿This is really possible? I'm trying to do it and when i hit "launch remotely/satellites" the planet launches all its satellites and then the order is deleted. I can't hit the "repeat orders" since there is no orders to repeat. Am I doing something wrong?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"repeat orders" for launching satellites from a planet is only possible in simultaneous movement games AFAIK


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