Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

Just got the game yesterday after being let down by Civ3 (sorry to those of you who are enjoying Civ3). Anyway, I've read the manual --such as it is-- and have already downloaded a bunch of ship sets 'cause they seem quite cool.

The Question:

Please don't boo at me, but for the life of me I can't figure out why I can't colonize on planets in a newly explored area? I mean, the planet gets colonized but there is suddenly no pop there to do any work. These are on rock planets (which is o.k. for my race) with domes ... so I can't figure this out, and the manual is no help.

What am I missing? Thanks. And don't be surprised if I come back to this thread with more stupid questions, though I will always look through the forum first to see if the question is already answered.

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

Hi,

Welcome to the game and one of the nicest forums around. Don't be afraid to ask questions, though I will say that if you had performed a search, you probably could have found the answer to this question, as it has certainly been asked before.

The answer is, there is indeed a colony on the planet, but population does not appear there automatically, as in Civ or SMAC. You need to either move some population there, or load some on the colony ship before leaving your homeworld and it will then populate the new colony.

You probably used the move button to navigate the ship to where you wanted to go, then used the colonize button to actually order the colonization.

In the future, use the colonize button while still in orbit around your homeworld, and the population will automatically board the ship before it leaves orbit. Or manually load population, and then use the move button.

I hope this makes sense. Try it in a game, and if you still have questions, let us know...

Bill

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

Welcome, and don't worry about the Civ3 folks, I too got socked for 50 bucks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

This was one of the first questions I had to ask when I first came here over a year ago. The answer is as described by Tatbill.

The game has a very good HTML manual in the game folder. Also, the tutorials with the game cover a lot of the basics such as colonization.

But hey, you have already colonized those planets, now its time to put some people on them. You can build a transport, and upload population onto it and then move it to the colony world and transfer as many as you wish to that world. Sometimes, I build too many colony ships at one world, and send them all out at once. This depletes my population and several colonizers go out empty. I fix this by building transports, and filling them with population then go around dropping 5 million on each of my worlds.

After I done that, I turn the transports over to the MISINSTER, (The head in the icon bar on the Right.) and select and activate the TRANSPORT Minister from the MINISTER control window found in the CROWN icon on the Left. Open the CROWN, and click the minister button then find and check the Transports button. This and Intelligance is the only items I use ministers for.

Again, welcome to the game, and enjoy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

hmmm.... one would get the idea from all this grumbling that civ3 didn't live up to all the propaganda... er, I mean, advertising about how wonderful it is....

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

First, I would like to thank you guys for the very nice and helpful replies. Wow. I haven't seen too many forums like this. I was expecting to be crushed at first sight! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>You probably used the move button to navigate the ship to where you wanted to go, then used the colonize button to actually order the colonization.<hr></blockquote>

In fact, that is EXACTLY what I did! LOL. Many thanks. Duh.

Taterbill and Atrocities:

Any mods you guys would recommend? I came here only yesterday and couldn't figure out why I couldn't access the attachments! Seems you just upgraded the forums. Cool. I'll wait until that's ready and go for some mods you recommend. Thanks again. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

As for Civ3: I think it will really depend on the patching. Wait for the Gold Edition before giving it a go unless you are really desperate for some Civ games.

[ 25 November 2001: Message edited by: Yin ]</p>

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Someone here is always glad to help.

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

Just wanted to say that with your help, I've been absolutely stuffing myself with SE4. I actually later found the answer to my question (and others) on the official FAQ.

I also wanted to say (and I hope the message gets seen by the developers): The support and obvious care given to this game and its players is nothing short of outstanding. I have been beating my head against a wall for the past two years with another *nameless* company only to see them release a game that is nowhere near as customizable nor (well, this is a safe guess) as reflective of fans' desires for patches as this one!

And in case you haven't heard, the publisher of the *nameless* game has also just sued one of the game's fans for translating the English text to German! Yes, they slapped him with a 'Cease and Desist' order even though he immediately took down his site upon being warned! Not only that, they are charging him $500 for the lawyers' fees and are now trying to get him to sign an 'I'm Guilty' thing holding him for any money lost!!!

My God. That sickens me. O.K., that publisher's name is Infogrames. I honestly am boycotting them now (I know, people say stuff like that all the time, but I'm serious on this one).

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Any mods you guys would recommend?<hr></blockquote>Pirates & Nomads! Links in sig.
It changes some of the basic properties of SE4, such as propulsion and defense. Some changes to weapons, too. Tons of Racial Trait stuff, and uncountable little things.

I reccommend getting used to standard SE4 first, so you can figure out what to use based on the component stats & abilities.

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

You can also use the Load/Unload button when your colony ship is first built, fill it with population, then send it on its way. You might want to check the "Move One/Five/Ten/All" button to play with how much population to load on the ship.

Also, try placing a cargo bay on your colony ship to bring more people to the planet.

Re: Stupid Newbie Question(s): Yes, I\'m the one doing the asking. =)
 

suicide_junkie:

I'll definitely check that out! Thanks. I'll also do as you suggest and play through a couple standard games first so I can appreciate the differences.

Lynx:

I noticed when you design a pop transport, %50 of the space has to be for storage anyway, which means once you've loaded other required components, you can move 300M people *BUT* you can only load one engine! What am I doing wrong there? Do I need to research better ship design?

By the way, where is that load button you mention? It seems the full pop number is loaded automatically. It would be nice to fine tune that if I could. Thanks in advance.

--Yin