Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

I am an experienced 4x player but new to SE IV and am having a difficult time playing the demo. It is extremely under-documented – the tutorial doesn't get you far at all. I understand that the full game has an HTML-style manual on the CD – is it reasonably comprehensive?

I have "The Dubious "Strategy Guide" of Space Empires IV" but it assumes that you know about SE 3 or earlier to some extent, alas. Is there a user guide floating around elsewhere on the net? I am particularly interested in something that would explain what each of the ministers do and the difference between individual and global ones.

At the moment what I really need to know is what some of the icons mean. I noticed on more than one of the planets I colonised I see a little red icon that looks something like a battered red filing cabinet. Ever-hopeful I guessed perhaps it is a ruin so I built a research facility on those but nothing happened. What is the meaning of the icon?

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

The red "trash can" means you don't have a spaceport in the system. If you go to start/programs/shrapnel I think the manual is there, but it has been a long time since I played the demo so I could be wrong.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

And if you want to find ruins -- look up the Planet listing (the button looks like, well, a planet, if memory serves), select Special, and it'll list the known worlds that have ruins on them. It's also mentioned in the statistics panel when viewing the planet (usually a reference to deserted alien cities or something like that).


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

Thanks for the help, guys!

"The red "trash can" means you don't have a spaceport in the system" - well that's intuitive!

And if I colonise a planet with ruins on it do I get the tech free or do I have to put research on it?

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

The tech is free and can be quite valuable, like a new colonization type. Colonize all ruins as soon as possible, even if you can't hold it. The tech goes to the first owner.
Also, under the empire button, crown, are the ministers and the empire options. Use the minister button to enable any specific minister you want to use. Use empire options to set options like showing where spaceports, resupply and shipyards are, remove confirmation dialogs for certain actions etc.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Taqwus:
And if you want to find ruins --
&lt;snip&gt;
It's also mentioned in the statistics panel when viewing the planet (usually a reference to deserted alien cities or something like that).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There's also an icon that kinda looks like Stonehenge on the statistics panel for planets that have ruins.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

Go to the "?" icon it has access to the manual there.

Also if you start a new game with high tech for all players , select all the fields such as organic, temporal etc in the race for youreself you get all the tech's, then allow access to the tech tree in the game setup.

Start the game with your race and just one other player, deselect the option for the computer to put in other AI's.

With the game started, go to the research area (the beaker) and then to the tech tree.

You will get a look at all the buildings and components that go on the ships. You will also get a level readout of the different tech's.

Hope that this helps!

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

The minister names are somewhat self-explanatory.

eg. "resupply" sends your ships home when they're running outta ammo & fuel, etc.

Global ministers will grab any ship that applies to their job, and do stuff with it.
Individual ministers require you to give your ship orders to obey the minister.
(click on a ship and hit 'y' or the face icon, and individual ministers can now play with the ship)

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

The red icon that marks a planet without a spaceport also is used to mark a ship that is out of supplies; a similar yellow icon means the ship is running low on supplies.

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Cap'n Q

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

I am getting a little disillusioned...

Is it true that in combat there is an "edge of space" and there appears not to be a "disengage" command so if there are two ships with the same speed and one of them is unarmed all the armed ship has to do is to chase it around until it runs into a "corner" and kill it.

Also, it seems that if your planet is unarmed that no matter how large it is a scout with a pea-shooter will be able to wipe it out in a single "strategic" game turn.

I read as well that in multi-player (which I haven't tried yet) you can't replay the combats that occur because they are all "strategic" ones so you can't see why the computer thinks you would have lost a battle.

As for what I need from "Help" it is true that one can more or less see the tech tree through "help" and "research" but there doesn't seem to be a way to search it so you can easily see "what should I be researching so I can get fighters?"

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

There is a tutorial but it only tackles the very basic stuff. The trouble with researching at random as you go along is that it can take a looong time. Plus of course the demo doesn't have the whole tech tree - it only shows you a selection.

What is the time limit after which the computer declares the combat over?

[This message has been edited by derb (edited 20 April 2001).]

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

Combat Lasts for 30 turns. You can adjust this though, I think in the Settings file.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

Yep, 30 turns for space borne combat, and 10 turns for ground (troop) combat are the default time limits as set in the settings.txt file.

Also, when I was learning the differences between SE4 and SE3, I would just set up a game with two or three players, all run by me, set to test differing racial techs and play styles. That way, I didn't have to worry about the AI, and I could maneuver things the way I wanted to see what effects where had by what actions.

Granted though, the demo has limited functionality given its limited tech tree and all...

[This message has been edited by GruelThePurple (edited 20 April 2001).]

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

yes the combat length is changeable in the settings... you can also change the amount of damage required to kill 1M population. Increasing this "damage to kill 1 pop." greatly reduces the chance of an escort taking you out in one turn.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

Yes, the battle map is a limited size and if the computer is controlling the battle your unarmed ships will run to a corner and die most of the time, although I have had a few rare instances where my ship was faster than the enemy and ran in circles until combat ended. It has been suggested to make the battle map larger but I don't think it is high on the list.
Basically any ship with a weapon can take out a planet given enough time. It may take 20 turns for an escort to knock out a homeorld but it can be done.
I think there was a file in the mod section that listed all the techs and the requirements to get them. It was in excel but I don't know if it is still there.
Don't know about the replay feature, as I always play tactical combat.
Hope this helps.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

Does SEIV come with a tutorial? That's th bst way to learn. If there isn't one perhaps some of us should put on together for newbies, because that would probably be better than explaining the icons one by one.

Perhaps someone could generate a few "safe" AIs for newbies to practise on. If they never got angry and never started wars then a new player could explore nearly the whole tech tree / galaxy / diplomatic system without having to worry about getting glassed or trying to kp up with the right techs.


As for looking at the tech tree to research specific things... I never bothered. I just lookd at what was available and researched that, and learned th tch tree by trial and error. OK, I got wiped out by AIs once or twice, but what th hll - it's only AIs.

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There is an exception to every rule. Including this one.

Re: Demo user seeks a few pointers
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Perhaps someone could generate a few "safe" AIs for newbies to practise on. If they never got angry and never started wars then a new player could explore nearly the whole tech tree / galaxy / diplomatic system without having to worry about getting glassed or trying to kp up with the right techs.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Another way to do this would be to set up a game with only neutral empires for the computer players. Neutrals are "mostly harmless" [ http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif] no matter how mad they get at you.

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Cap'n Q