Re: Questions:
 

[quote]Originally posted by Yef:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Joachim:

Quote:

Originally posted by Joachim: [qb] Edit - learn to spell! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Have mercy! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
English is a second language for me. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">FREX: for example, and the learn to spell was directed at my own writing - hence the 'edit' tag not at you at all - no offence intended!

And yes, there is a long history of debate regarding point defence and fighters, many people lower the bonus in their games to make fighters more of a viable option.

Re: Questions:
 

The Meson BLasters have the same range as the Phased Polaron Beams (range 6), and they deal roughly the same amount of damage per kt at range 6. (A slight advantage for the PPB if memory serves, but it is more expensive as well)

They will hit more often than most other weapons because they take less space, and so you will be able to put more of them on a single ship. For instance, you could have three Meson BLasters for the same space as two PPB, meaning you would have three attacks instead of two. But you will do less damage per hit than with the PPBs.

As for troop transports, they should run away when no planet is present, unless you give them a weapon to keep them with the fleet. Otherwise, if there is indeed a planet and you ordered them to capture this planet, they will drop their troops *unless* there are weapon platforms on the planet and weapons able to take down these platforms in the fleet. So the troop transports will NOT make a run for the planet if there is even a DUC I in the fleet, while they would do so if they are on their own, even against one thousand Massive mounted Wave Motion Guns.

However, I have found that a blockading strategy is tough to set up, since the ships are wont to "run away" towards the planet, runing the purpose of this strategy. Is there any way to order a warship to blockade a given planet, without altering its ship orders?

Lastly, Robotoid Factory III and System Robotoid Factory should stack, although they may not be displayed on the planet information screen. (It is the case for the second one if memory serves right) The "specialized" similar facilities aren't exactly useful because they do not stack, and given the hefty cost to research these system wide facilities, you should remain away from them. (Unless you happen to be playing a full tech game, and have some facility slots to use)

Re: Questions:
 

I think that blockading the planet with the system's spaceport (edit: not shipyard) will cut off that system's production, but I'm not 100% sure.

[ April 29, 2004, 21:39: Message edited by: capnq ]

Re: Questions:
 

Nope, you have to actually destroy it. Blockading the planet with the spaceyard will cut the empire off from the production of the blockaded planet only. Doesn't really make sense I guess, but that's how it works.

Re: Questions:
 

You guys are also confusing the term Space Port with Space Yard.

PvK

Questions:
 

A have a few:

1- I built in the same planet a Robotoid Factory III and a mineral scanner III, both are suppossed to give a 30% bonus on mineral extraction, yet I only noticed the increase when I built the first facility. Does this means that their bonuses don't stack up, or is it just that the bonus for the second facility is not noticeable on the planet's information screen? And what about the system wide Versions of these facilities? Do they stack up?

2- How can I order a fleet to blockade a planet? I haven't found a blockade order in the fleet's row of orders. Whatever I do, they keep getting within range of the planetary defenses.

3- If I place a fleet in every Warp point leading to any given system, will that blockade the entire system, or at least the trade with other empires?

4- I have ships with both Meson bLasters and Phased polaroid beams, but the ones with the MBs seem to hit far more frequently than the ones with the PPBs. The diference I see is that the MBs are 20 kt while the PPBs have a size/weight of 30 kt, which leads me to assume that the lower the size of the gun, the higher the chance to hit. Is this correct?

Thanks.

Re: Questions:
 

Heh ya,

1. Correct they don't stack, and yes that makes scanners pretty much useless

2. Try giving the fleet the order 'Dont get hurt' and make sure ships are set to not break formation. They should hide like scaredy cats.

3. No, there is no way of doing that. Trade is completely abstract. No Battle of the Atlantic in SEIV.

4. No, there should be no difference in chance to hit based on size. Some weapons do have an inherent to hit bonus but not the two you mention. (wave motion gun and mental sing. gen. do as examples.) Look in the Components data file under weapon modifier - that is the bonus to hit, FREX point defence has a 70, meaning +70 to hit (which is why fighters get chewed up)

Edit - learn to spell! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ April 28, 2004, 12:39: Message edited by: Joachim ]

Re: Questions:
 

1: Those don’t stack, but with the new patch the Mineral scanner is 45%. The game should use the value of the best facility but it may believe the Robotoid is 90 % (30 + 30 + 30). Need to test this to know for sure http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

2: Only way I know is to use individual ships with don’t get hurt order (using Don’t get hurt as fleet order don’t work as it will always break formation and ships will follow their own orders). A minesweeper will do fine. I sometimes build a comboship with minesweepers and loads of PDC rto take out fighters for blockading.

3: No

4: No, there are no differences in the bonuses for MB and PPB. IIRC the Meson bLaster has shorter range though so if you use the default “Optimal” strategy, you will be closer when firing (getting 10 % extra to hit for each square).

Re: Questions:
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What about the troop transports? How can I make them keep the formation?


<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What's a FREX?
And is it realistic to have a +70 to hit bonus for a point defense?
I mean, that would take all the bonuses from the fighters' size, and I would wager that, in real life, for every advancement in point defense there will always be an advancement in fighter tech to counter it. Arm races are here to stay.


<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Have mercy! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
English is a second language for me.

Re: Questions:
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nope. Each ability is 100% separate, not connected in any way, shape or form.

Re: Questions:
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Doh. Well, you knew what we meant. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Questions:
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are you saying that the Robotoid Factory and the Mineral Scanner stack up?

Now you got my confused.

Re: Questions:
 

No he's not saying that.
He's saying that the mineral, the rad and the org boost is seperate, they don't count together.

So if you have both robotoid and scanners the scanner is what is counts;
If you have a robotoid factory and a mineral scanner you'll get 45% mineral boost and 30% rad and 30% orgs.

[ April 29, 2004, 14:28: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Questions:
 

Oh, I get it.
Thanks.

Re: Questions:
 

But do system mineral scanners and mineral scanners stack??

Re: Questions:
 

Yep.

Re: Questions:
 

I got a couple more questions:

1- If I place a ship on one of the storms that says "block most sensors", will my ship be like cloacked?
If so, can it be detected using any of the sensors?

2- There is an armor that deflects damage below 10, does it means that if the damage caused is 11 it will not deflect anything from it? Because there are other armors that says they deflect a giving amount of damage per hit, so I suppose these 2 kinds of armor can't be have the same effect, right?

Re: Questions:
 

1) It depends on the storm, as the highest level of cloaking provided by a storm is level 3 if memory serves, which would be equivalent to the second level of any kind of Sensors. Nebulaes tend to have higher cloaking values, and some of them (the red ones) cannot be pierced by *any* Sensors since they give a level 5 cloaking, negating even the best sensors with their level 4 abilities.

2) Only the best value should be used for your ship, but I don't actually know if it is "Removes 30 damage points from any weapon" or "No weapon doing less than 30 damage points can hurt you, but 31 damage points and above are fine enough".

Re: Questions:
 

Lots of information can be found at Newbie FAQ (look at 9.6 Storms & Nebulae)

Re: Questions:
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Emissive armor lowers damage from each shot by its ability amount. Any shot will be lowered, regardless of which component is selected to be damaged. Keep in mind that damage that (explicitly) skips armor (shard cannons, null space projectors, etc.) NEVER trigger this ability and are never reduced by it. I am not sure about specific damage types, such as ionic disperers and shield disruptors.

This was fixed a long time ago from the old broken behavior of "ignore damage below X, do nothing against damage above X".

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">In addition to what Ruatha said, those types of facilities use the exact same abilities (assuming you are talking only about those that affect the planet, OR only those that affect the whole system). Which facility they are on specifically does not matter, except for when a facility is destroyed or scrapped. The Minerals ability of the Robotoid does NOT stack with the Minerals ability of the Mineral Scanner (this applies separately to the planet modifiers and the system modifiers; the best planet modifier and the best system modifier do indeed stack, for each resource type separately).

[ April 30, 2004, 20:51: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Questions:
 

Thanks everyone.


Now I have a couple more http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif (Thanks for your patience!)

1- I designed a new fighter with small shields 1, and when I put it up against my previous design in the simulator, it turns out that the one with shields beats the heck out of the one without shields. The problem with this is that both fighters are armed with small Phased Polaroid Beams level 3, and the only diference between them is in the shields, not counting the engines i removed to make room for the shield component.
Aren't those PPBs supposed to go through regular shields?

2- Missiles. I just noticed that the missiles always explode when they hit a ship, no matter if the ship have shields or not. I thought they were supposed to deplete the shield first, and then hit the ship.
I can't tell for sure that they are bypassing the shields, but at least they are not activating the shield's little graphics when they hit.
Any idea of what's going on?
I hope I didn't break my game or something while tweaking the data.txt files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ May 04, 2004, 19:22: Message edited by: Yef ]

Re: Questions:
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Shields aren't really shields on units but just get added to the hitpoints like any other component. Hence it adds to the hitpoint total reguardless of weapon type; shield or armor skipping etc.

Re: Questions:
 

regarding the missiles, thats just the graphic they use. look at the red and blue lines that indicate hull and shield damage, you should see the shield line drop a bit when the missile hits.

Re: Questions:
 

Thanks! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif