Newbie question--please answer
 

Hi
I am really trying to learn game
but even after I read manual there are many questions that I have

1. I attacked a planet with satellite but they do not actually start the war even after I choose strategic war

2. I occupied the colony with enemy's vessel as a result and I tried to colonize it. But computer says that the satellite is already occupied. How could I colonize enemy planet?

3. How can I change the atmospere? I sacrificed one colony on a rock colony but atmosphere is not friendly one to my terran force. As a result, even though I colonized it, there is no population.
How can i make the plante popultated?

Your help will be appreciated
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Ah, there is a big difference between a satellite and a MOON http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1) Does your ship have a strategy of "Don't get Hurt", leading it to run away?
Go to the design window, and click the Stats/Strategy toggle button to see.
If you ship has no guns on it, it will also usually run away and hide. (Unless orders are to ram, drop troops, etc)

2) If there is already a colony on the moon, send your colony ship somewhere else and drop Troops (Tanks, jets, etc) on the enemy-held moon. You can get troops by researching Construction, then troops. Build some, load them on a cargo ship, and give it orders to "Capture Planet", then attack.
Alternatively, you can nuke the planet to glass with a warship, and then recolonize the newly-uninhabited world.

3) Atmosphere converters are found in the "Planet Utilization" tech area, at about level 7.
You may need to research "Planetary Engineering" first.
Once that is done, you can build a facility which will change the atmosphere to whatever the population breathes. After 2-3 years of invisible work the facility will be done and the atmosphere will change.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

I'm new too but I try to help. Capital ship missiles can't be targeted to satellites so are your ships equipped with them?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can change the planet atmosphere by Atmosphere converter facility but it needs lots of researching before you get it. You have to load population to your colony ships, did you so?

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

One minute too late http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif But I think my answer to question 3 might help.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This sounds like you've made the rookie mistake every single one of us have made. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif That is you colonized a planet with an empty colony ship. Even if you can't breath the atmosphere you can get some population on it. You can build a transport and transport some population to the planet. in future make sure you load people on your colony ship before it moves.

Damn 2 minutes too late.

[ February 06, 2003, 17:30: Message edited by: DavidG ]

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

1. Couple of possibilities: If you have a treaty with a race, your ships/planets can pass or coexist without starting battle.

Also, if your ship doesn't have weapons, it will just run for the corners. Plus, each weapon is specific to what kind of targets it can hit. Missles, for example, only hit Ships or Planets, not Satellites, Fighters, Mines, or Drones.

Remember that "Tactical" means that YOU control the ships, "Strategic" means that the COMPUTER quickly runs through the battle with default ship strategies to see who wins. The strategy assigned to the ship will determine its behavior.

2. To "colonize" an enemy planet, you need to do one of 3 things: "Glass" the planet (kill every existing colonist) and colonize the now-empty planet, Capture the planet with troops (later in the game when you've reasearched troops), or Steal the planet with intelligence (WAY later in the game when you've reasearched "Puppet Political Parties"--Applied Intelligence Level 4)

3. If you populate a non-breathable planet, you should STILL be able to put population there. The colony will be "domed" (a little white dome icon shows next to the planet), which means you can build a FEW facilities and put SOME supplies there, but not as much as you could if it were breathable.

Most likely, you simply forgot to transfer some population to your colony ship before you sent it out exploring. You'll need to build a transport ship (with some Cargo containers--yes, population is considered Cargo) and move some people to the planet. Then you can build stuff.

You can ultimately change the atmosphere type, but my favorite strategy is to either CONQUER a race that can breathe a different atmosphere, or TRADE a colony ship full of people with another empire. Then take these people and put them on your domed colonies.

In my current game, I have almost 300 populated planets, ALL with native-breathing population. With NO atmospheric converters http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Not too late, just giving additional possibilities. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ February 06, 2003, 17:38: Message edited by: MegaTrain ]

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Thank you so much for many helpful hints.
I will study the game more based on comments that I have from you.

However, one more question. Since for the first three planets, I just built the colony ship and colonize a planet without doing an additional step of loading people to colony ship. Thus I was curious why in the Last case there were no population....Manual talks about building a dome. I am very low on tech development thus reaching 7th level might take some time. How can I build a dome? any prerequisite?

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Read the FAQ in this thread:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=005518

It has tons of good info that is not in the manuals. It is about 5 or 6 Posts down the first page.

Slick.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

I didnt have to worry about population when I colonized planet which is in the same screen as my home planet. Population seems automatically to grow. However the two colonis where i have zero population is a warp point away
Is this the reason?

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

When the colony ship gets an order to colonize and it is empty, it will pick up population automatically.

You moved the ship first, so when the colonize order occured, the ship wasn't in orbit of a planet, and had no population to pick up.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Oh I see
What a delicate game!!
thank you very much!

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Oh I see
What a delicate game!!
thank you very much!
Can I make that colony repopulated without
losing additional colony ship?

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Yes, either use another colony ship or build a dedicated population transport ship with cargo containers.

Use the "transfer cargo" button (two arrows) to move some people from your homeworld to the ship, then send the ship to the planet. Don't use the colonize button (it couldn't anyway--you'd never lose a second colony ship) then use the transfer cargo button again.

You should be able to tell if a ship has people on it. It will have a little person icon when you click on it.

Cool idea: load a colony ship, send it to the planet, drop off just HALF the people, then use the ship to colonize another close-by planet.

And WELCOME TO THE GAME!!

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you use the "colonise pl;anet" button, the colonsier will load population from where it currently is, before moving.

However, if you first "Move" the ship to a new system, and then use the "Colonise" button, it won't load any population unless it is orbiting a world that HAS population on it.

So, let me guess -- you built the colony ships, and the one you used in your starting system, you just hit the "Colonise" button, right?

Then, the other two you moved to the next star system FIRST, and then used the "Colonise" button, right?

From now on, try to use the "Colonise" button only for yoru Colony ships ... if you must do your actual explorign with colony ships, load them with population first.

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

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you use the "colonise pl;anet" button, the colonsier will load population from where it currently is, before moving.

However, if you first "Move" the ship to a new system, and then use the "Colonise" button, it won't load any population unless it is orbiting a world that HAS population on it.

So, let me guess -- you built the colony ships, and the one you used in your starting system, you just hit the "Colonise" button, right?

Then, the other two you moved to the next star system FIRST, and then used the "Colonise" button, right?

From now on, try to use the "Colonise" button only for yoru Colony ships ... if you must do your actual explorign with colony ships, load them with population first.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Minor addition: If you manually load population onto a colonizer to less than full capacity, and then give the colonize order, it won't load any more population. This is useful in not draining a planet of population.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

In answer to your question about domes, (I don't think anyone answered it) the game automatically builds the domes for you. You don't research it, you always have the capibilty to build domes. When you colonize a planet that your people can't breath, IE you colonize a Oxygen planet when your race breathes Hydrogen, the colony will put a dome on the planet so your people can survive. This limits the amount of people you can have on domed planets.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Note that doing this will reduce the resource values of the planet, by 10% in the unmodded game.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Wow!!!!!!!

This is exactly what I have heard.
The game is wonderful but
THE Forum BOARD IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for the kind strategy
Now I am more close to this complicated but wonderful game. Thank you so much everyone!!!

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Now I have new question http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
When a planet have limits in the number of facilities it can have, how I can increase the number?

Is it a good idea to destroy some of the facilities to be replaced by newer ones or just colonize new planet to build new facility?

When new shipdesign or weapons available, how can I upgrad vessels? (both new ones and the ones in the field. For example, in alpha centauri, we can just push a button to upgrade all the vehicles in the field)

Now I am at the very beginning of the game and had couple of space battles. But from the ship menu I see troop transporter. thus it seems ground war is also possible in this game?

I have heard that there is a mod for star wars (not star trek). Could you please tell me where I can find the mod?

Thank you!!!

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

"When a planet have limits in the number of facilities it can have, how I can increase the number?"

If it has a dome, yes. Build an Atmosphere Converter, or take someone else's population that breathes that type of atmosphere and bring them in, replacing the current population.

"Is it a good idea to destroy some of the facilities to be replaced by newer ones or just colonize new planet to build new facility?"

Depends on what you're replacing with what. Use the Upgrade button if you just want to get a higher level of the same thing.

"When new shipdesign or weapons available, how can I upgrad vessels? (both new ones and the ones in the field. For example, in alpha centauri, we can just push a button to upgrade all the vehicles in the field)"

Move the ship to a shipyard, then click on the icon that looks like a recycle symbol. There you can retrofit the ship into any design which is the same size- provided the two designs are similar enough.

"Now I am at the very beginning of the game and had couple of space battles. But from the ship menu I see troop transporter. thus it seems ground war is also possible in this game?"

Yup. Research Construction and you'll be able to research Troops. Then put cargo bays on your ship, set it's strategy to Invade Planets, design and build some troops, load them up and go conquer. Doesn't have to be a transport type either, warship hulls work.

Cargo bays can also be used for moving population, satelites, weapons platforms, and such.

Phoenix-D

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Thanks for the tip Phonex

Air converter can increase the number of limit of the facilities in the planet?
When I tried to build an additional facility it said that I cannot build more.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

One more question

I cannot find which technology allows which type of buildings from the printed manual (mine is gold Version) and manual of pdf Version

I tried to find which technology will allow me to build air converter

Somebody please help

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

To build an atmosphere converter, you need to use one of the existing facility slots. If you've already filled the planet, then that means scrapping one to make room.
(Use the White Tower + Little Green Recycle triange button)

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

"Air converter can increase the number of limit of the facilities in the planet?
When I tried to build an additional facility it said that I cannot build more."

It can, but it needs to be built first, which means you need space. Then it takes about 2 years to work.

IIRC to get it you want to research Planetary Engineering, then Planet Utilization up to level 9 or so.

You can also increase the amount of slots you get by taking the Advanced Storage Techniques racial trait. The slots available and left is displayed at the top of the build window:

Cargo Space: X/X
Facilities: X/X
Rate: X min X org X rad

Also on the Facil button for any planet.

Phoenix-D

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">To make your very own tech tree, start a new game and select "high tech" and "players can view entire tech tree". Then start and go to the research window. From there you can view and/or export the tech tree.

Slick.

Re: Newbie question--please answer *DELETED* *DELETED*
 

Post deleted by Arkcon

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">To find the tech tree, Click Here:Please realize that it takes a long time to research, is expensive to build, and takes a long time to work. You have more important things to do ...

[ February 07, 2003, 03:52: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Thank you for the help
Is there printable Version of top 20 issues of SE IV linked in the previous message?

THank you for the inform of the wonderful site.
I already bookmarked it.

Looking at the tech tree, I truly realize how deep this game is...It looks SMAC simple!

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You're hooked. Cancel your free time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . Welcome to the club.

Slick.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">What do you mean by "issues"? Used in this manner, it normally means "problems". SE4 doesn't really have 20 problems...

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

I don't mean to speak for him but I interpret " issues' to mean the sort of situations he has been running into. I think he has a point.
bostonrpgmania
It was tried. I’m sure you have looked through the “Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies” and been a bit overwhelmed. So am I. SEIV is so complex it is very hard to create a three to five page FAQ with no more than forty basic questions and then resist the temptation to “Add Just One More Thing” or a clarification. Perhaps it could be done.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Hmmm... issues isn't really the word here. I went through the forum for one year and noted what topics were started.

So if someone suggested a new type of cloaking, I counted it as a cloaking question.

If someone saw equivalent ships getting slaughtered by someone with enhanced agressiveness trait, and someone suggested advanced sensors, then I counted them both.

I'm not counting total Posts per thread, just what topics are started. If someone just Posts "Newbie has questions", I opened the thread and read what they were.

Far and away the most common topic is the location of a shipset, a mod, or the development of a new modding idea.

To see a funny little post of mine, goto this LINK:

(view it on printer-friendly to see the links better)

[ February 07, 2003, 21:16: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm.. no, but just click around sometime. When you're away from the computer you installed SE4 to that is.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As you learn things, please feel free to edit the Encyclopedia Malfadorica, it belongs to all of us.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks to Andr�s Lescano for linking to the site with the tech tree ... but my opinion was always that the tech tree really isn't all that complex. There's lots to do, but after a while, it won't be a suprise.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Whoops
When I said top 20 issues, I simply mis copied
"top 20 topics".
I am sorry I did not know that this really makes the difference for the devoted fan here.

When I wrote 'issue', it just meant the difficult situation for newbie..

Top 20 topics web page was really really helpful for me.

I have tried to look at newbie thread but it was very difficult for me to find exact situation I am facing.

When I post questions here I was really impressed by kind explanations from many veterans. I thank you for that.

I am now getting into the game

I usually play rpg and some light turn base game such as civilization

These days I am hooked with space empires IV and
Uncommon valor. Both are superb game!

BTW, I also tried to learn SE IV by looking at the printable manual for SE III since it is very thick and I assumed that SE IV and SE III are not that different. But in that printable manual there are many things missing for the newbie like me...

Again I appreciate all your help and ....
MAY I post another if I have any? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Sincerely
bostonrpgmania

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Not a problem, I just wanted everyone to know, that they weren't all questions. Some were just topics of discussion. You were the first to bring it up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

As you can read from my top 10 thread, we all thought something else would be the big winner. So it was a learning experience for me as well.

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

I am somewhat overwehlmed by this game
Now I am trying to attack my enemy and they positioned satellite at the warp point causing a lot of trouble to my "California" attack ship!
I looked at 20 topics web and it says something about point defense to protect your ship...
Hmm it makes me confused

I also attacked a planet and now my fleet and enemy's are on the planet. But to occupy the planet it seems ground troop is needed. I builed troop transporter but I dont know how to creat my army to make them on board

Please help

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I guess you've figured out by now your "please answer" heading was unnecessary. Around here I think there is almost a contest to see who can answer a post fist. The best way to figure out this game is just play and ask questions. I've been playing for about a year now and I could type a couple pages on what I've learned in the Last month.

P.S. When you have to stare at the computer for 10 minutes to check the spelling of a common word (unnecessary) and then finally open Word and spell check it cause it still looks wrong it's time to go to bed. g'Night...

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

Ha ha

good night

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It has nothing to do with being a fan. It is more of how the english language works. When dealing with computers and computer games, "issues" connotes problems with the game itself, not thread topics, or topics of discussion.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Use your browser's search function (typically ctrl + f) when viewing the thread to look for specific items.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You need to research Construction, and then Troops. Then, you can build some ground troops with which to take the planets over. Planets with lots of population will have lots of militia that the Troops have to defeat, so you may need a lot of Troops.

[ February 08, 2003, 07:09: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Newbie question--please answer
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmmm... the best thing about the Encyclopedia Malfadorica is when you go to "the satelites page" you'll see in big bold letters "point defense" ,among other links.

Click around, you'll get a whole picture eventually.

Unless we missed something important when we wrote the entry, if so, once you figure it out, feel free to edit it.

[EDIT] Did you notice you can click on the header and see what pages inclue it as a link. I can waste loads of time doing that over and over again. Wiki's full text search and fuzzy text search are fun to play with as well.

[ February 08, 2003, 15:24: Message edited by: Arkcon ]