Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

Anyone have some tips for a newbie player? I never have used the govenors/administrators (or whatever they are called in this game (: ) to let the computer handle some of the redundant tasks for me. For me personally, the two most time-consuming tasks that I do is ferry troops from inside my territory out to where the action is, plus also ferry oxygen breathing aliens to oxygen worlds and move the methane breathing aliens to some other habitable world. Are there any suggestions on how to make these tasks easier?

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

The ministers aren't very good at those tasks, IMO.

However, the Waypoints feature and the Repeat Orders feature can save a lot of micromanagement. You can also set shipyards to automatically send newly built ships to a particular waypoint.

PvK

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

You know, you'd think after the amount of time I've been playing this game I'd have known about the option to set queues to send ships automatically to a waypoint...
Thanks!

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

The ministers are a useless bunch, so you ought to do your own managment.

Waypoints are great, put one on every planet with fleet/ship Training, Stagingareas and important Rrefuelingstations. "Ctrl+1" sends the selected fleet/ship to Waypont 1.

Use the Hotkeys and the different Windows to reduce the actual click-work.

This is my personal way to repopulate my planets with alien population, there may be easier ways:
- Go to the Colony Window (F5)
- select "General" and sort by athmosphere
- select "Races"
This gives a great overview of your population and make planning the transfer easy.
I usually keep it sorted like this until most of my planets have the right population.

Then to move the population:
- Select the transport ship
- Hit T (transfer cargo)
- Transfer population (mouse)
- Close Window (Esc or enter)
- Reselect ship
- Hit M (Move)
- Hit F5 (Colony window)
- Select the right planet from the list (mouse)

Hope some of this is usefull http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

for building new colonies, the 'fill queue' feature is great. i only learned about it a couple months ago, but its really nice to be able to pre-define build queues.

waypoints are invaluable. I never fussed with them untill about a year ago, and they save huge amounts of time. used with the automatic move order when spaceyards complete a ship, this is the biggest time saver there is.

the transport minister is useless, but i did just read that the new patch makes it better. it probably still does not know how to handle population of different atmosphere types. for moving population, you have to do it all by hand. sometimes it helps to have a bit of each kind on a huge transport, so you can sort out bits as the transport visits various planets.

for organizing troops, you have to load them by hand. if you are having many planets built troops, i usually have some generic transports with repeating orders moving between them, and dumping all their troops at a central location. then you can have your troop trnasports stopping by that spot (waypoint!) on their way to the front (another waypoint!).

the great thing is, that when the front moves, you can just move the waypoint without giving all your ships and spaceyards new orders.

i sometimes use the colonization minister (but never the transport minister) when I am to the point in the game that I dont care that much about wasting some space or some time, as long as I dont have to click on the buttons.

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

Use Repeat Orders for everything you can. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Use shift-click to select and order several non-fleeted ships (or fleets) at once.

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

Super-Trick with repeat build:
If you are repeat building facilities, and you run out of slots, the repeat facility will be cleared, but the rest of the list will remain.

So, you can give an order to build, say a research facility, and then a Warship. Turn on repeat build at that point, and the planet will be filled with research facilities.
Once the planet is full of facilities, the planet will automatically start building your warships on repeat!

This works on any build queue item in the second slot, not just ships!

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

be careful with that though, you may well have a better ship or unit design once the repeating items finish.

also, its nice that the upgrade facilities button will upgrade facilities in the build queue, that have not yet begun construction.

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">shift A also selects "all". however that includes the planet too. good for interstellar tho

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

something that comes to mind. gonna try it in my next game.

One of the things that I have found frustrating, is only being able to find out a true enemy damage resistance amount. the only way I have found is to use the combat simulator. if there is an easier way, I would like to know what it is. this is important in determining how many defensive mines to launch.

So, I am going to pick a system for data, using the right click notes option and show the true DR for each enemy ship. kinda like a quick refrence. anyone else do this, or something similar or easier? I can make new entries to the list, as I encounter new enemy designs.

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

the easiest way way to reduce the micromanagement with SE4 is........

Don't play it hours/days on end, yall spend too much time on this game. lol

Ducks

Dodges

Runs and hides......

hehehehe

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Why would you? The ship is nothing more than some pencil marks on a piece of paper in some yard manager's in-box until it gets built http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

In SE4, you don't even have to pay maintenance until the ship is completed, and appears as a separate object in the game that can be given orders.

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

Finding hull strength is pretty easy, actually.

Most components have strength = size, so:

- Start with the size. EG: BattleCruisers have 600 hitpoints as a first approximation.
- Add 60 hitpoints for the engines.
- Add (armor hitpoints)-10 for every armor component.

Not much to it in the unmodded game.

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Don't you "Pay" for the ship whille it is in the "Q" ?

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

I have noticed a lot of HP>mass on mounted weapons too. I think a list would be easier
right click on system whatever
open notes
viola! all the info right there. no re-counting components, ect. trying to do all the math with that.
enemy1 ship1(name): 675 DR
enemy1 ship2(name): 850 DR
ect...
ect..

edit in:
If you right click on a system in the galaxy window, you have access to a notes box. there is where I am talking about storing the info.

you could put each race in a different window, for the system they are in. but i think a single refrence box would be easier. not having to ask yourself "now which system did I put the phong info?"

[ January 29, 2003, 17:33: Message edited by: couslee ]

Re: Tricks to reducing micromanagement in SE4
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It might be nitpicking, but this button also upgrades constructions in progress. I often start building a shrine I or II whilst I research for III, upgrade facilities. Sometimes it is necessary to hold the queue for a couple of turns.