Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I'm in the process of playing my first simultaneous game, so as to get used to it for multi-play. I've met 2 neutral empires so far and there is only 1 system between their 2 systems. I had a small skirmish between one of the Neutrals at an unexplored warp point. I destroyed his ship and got through the warp point with severe damage.

To my surprise the other Neutral which I had met earlier had ships in this empty system of asteroids. I thought what a coinky dink, that ship moving anomaly must have just moved them to the next system over. Many turns passed, the ships dissappeared, I thought they blew up.

A few turns later the ships show up again. Not only that but ships from the Neutral empire I had attacked were also now in the system.

Here's my dilema, Why are they popping out of their systems? And, when they pop out why don't they move around (They stay in the same spot for many turns).

Has anyone seen this before? Is it a bug?

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

NOT A BUG!
Neutrals are the same as every other empire except they can not colonise outside their system. They will attack outside the system.
They will also not colonise different planets that are not their type eg rock to ice.
they also have very limited tech levels.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I saw this happen before in the past. The neutrals used to be quite active and often would send ships exploring all over the map. I complained about it many times and I thought it was fixed. It hasn't happened in any game I have played in months. You ought to send a savegame to MM with an explanation of what is going on. Maybe they can find something in your settings that explains it.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

Neutrals also are blowing up neighboring planets in other systems too. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

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"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"

[This message has been edited by dominion (edited 06 June 2001).]

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

What's wrong with neutrals leaving their systems? They're just curious, that's all. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I thought the official line on neutral empires were that they were just normal races who were unaware of warp points.

Thus if they left their system this would seem rather confusing.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I seem to remember something about them staying in their own system UNTIL they make First Contact - then they'll go outside their system.

Is my memory still OK????

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

Not a bug: every once and a while a neutral's ship's orders get changed via a third party intell operation. At least, every time I've seen this I've jumped into the neutral AI and seen an 'orders changed' message.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

What happens if you give a neutral a planet in another system? Will they then colonize the planets in it?

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ZeroAdunn:
I thought the official line on neutral empires were that they were just normal races who were unaware of warp points.

Thus if they left their system this would seem rather confusing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, that's the point. They are unable or unwilling to use warp points for one reason or another. The Description of the "Bobroba States" actually says they have a superstitious fear that nothing exists beyond their own system. So, they should not go wandering around the galaxy!

It would be nice to have different 'sorts' of neutrals, though. Why not a neutral race that is vastly superior in technology but just "introverted" and doesn't want to explore the galaxy? It's not difficult to imagine a 'mystically' inclined race of this sort. But all races have to start at the same tech levels. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif sigh... maybe later on when other issues are addressed.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Thus if they left their system this would seem rather confusing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>You wanna talk confusing? I had one game where one of those "anomalies" scooped up a mothballed ship and dumped it in a system that I had no warp connections to! It was stuck sitting there in the middle of nowhere until the Cryslonites came along and blew it up.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I'd like to see some races like in B5 that wander the galaxy. They'd have to have a tech level that is unreachable for the standard set since at max level, they wouldn't seem so threatening then.
I think it would be pretty cool with a 25000kt ship cruising the galaxy (sometimes hidden) that dosn't even care about us. Like ants to us. It wouldn't work very good as a race i dont think, not in the same way you interact with the other players and AI.
The good thing about SE is that it will have a Version 5, 6, ,7...
With new shiny toys that we'll all want.
Steve

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I got to thinking, and I thought it would be kind of cool if you could form treaties like in BOAF with the neutral players, and gain their special racial tech or whatever. Also, a definate must, keep their ship designs. I think it should be based on the majority of the type of people on a planet.
Also keep their racial modifiers for those new ships built by them for you.
?
Steve

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

If you distroy all their planets but not all their ships, they will move off to their allies system. I have not tryed giving them a planet outside their system yet.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I tried giving neutrals planets outside their system and they always send out ships to defend their newly received planets. Weird?

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"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by capnq:
You wanna talk confusing? I had one game where one of those "anomalies" scooped up a mothballed ship and dumped it in a system that I had no warp connections to! It was stuck sitting there in the middle of nowhere until the Cryslonites came along and blew it up.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Man, and they told me being a janitor was the safest job in the navy! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon10.gif

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by capnq:
...I had one game where one of those "anomalies" scooped up a mothballed ship and dumped it in a system that I had no warp connections to...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I once had a killer StarBase at a strategic WP (I don't use mines aginst the AI) go 'Bye-Bye' across the map and into a black hole system. At least it mercifully ended 3 turns later....

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

I had a game where one of those anomolies took one of my construction base and sent it across the galaxy. Wouldn't be that big of a deal except that this construction base was almost finished building a baseship that took almost two years to build! Thats annoying.

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Captain, I found your pants.

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

ummmm wuldn't that be good? the next thing the bsy should build is a colony ship or 2. After all, it just finished building that Baseship that can help defend the new colonies....

[This message has been edited by dumbluck (edited 09 June 2001).]

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

And exactly where would I get population from?

Re: Neutral ships leaving their system
 

Why, steal some from the neighbors, of coarse! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif