Trade amount
 

Thanks for the information.

Ihave another question.
If you check trade section of the panel, there is a item called 'trade amount'.
Is this the money that I receive from my partner?
How can I check how much is going out of my treasury to these guys?
thanks

Re: Trade amount
 

Best way to explain is by example:

Empire A mines 100000 minerals per turn.
Empire B mines 80000 minerals per turn.

When they first start their trade alliance, they are at 1%. You can see this percentage on the same screen as the trade amount.

The result is that an extra 100000*1%=1000 minerals is generated from nowhere and given to empire B, and 80000*1%=800 minerals are generated and given to A.

Note that the extra resources don't come out of anyone's treasury, they are generated from nowhere.

Their trade percentage increases by 1% per turn until it gets to 20%
Assuming they have the same production, B would then get an extra 20000 minerals each turn and A would get 16000.

Same principle applies to rads, orgs and (in higher level treaties) research and intel. Note that empire B gets the better deal in this example.

If Empire C had an alliance with empire A, the income empire A gets from empire B is NOT counted when calculating C's gain, so C would get exactly the same income from A as B does.

Income from scrapping ships/ facilities and from gifts/ trades does not count when calculating trade totals either.

[ February 13, 2003, 11:02: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: Trade amount
 

Minor addition: multipy what Dogscoff said by trade modifier percent that the receiver has. I think it is called "Political Savvy" but I am not on a computer that has the game installed right now.

[edit: You can't see actual percentage of Political Savvy in the game, but if you click on the empire you can get a word description of its attribute.]

And to reiterate, you lose nothing by trade. The extra resources are supposed to be generated by unseen trade ships which are far to small and numerous to be included in the game.

Slick.

[ February 13, 2003, 15:17: Message edited by: Slick ]

Re: Trade amount
 

thank you for the help

But I think it is somewhat weird that resources come nowhere....

BTW, I am a casual gamer try to enjoy this game.
I know this site provides wonderful helps (extemely fast) and even created a special web site to help newbie ( I frequently visit there)...But why manual can be more complete so that we can just search the manual......just my opinion. maybe more lengthy manual for SE V?

Re: Trade amount
 

I think that most players don't read manuals in detail, and it's very, very hard to write a complete manual (and even more difficult to find the information in it) for a game as complicated as SE IV.

Sure that this kind of detail would be usefull. But it's so fun trying to discover this information by ourselves, why should we waste our pleasure http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ?

Re: Trade amount
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The trade alliance is greater than the sum of its parts. At least that sounds good.

Slick.

Re: Trade amount
 

I think the trade percentage is explained somewhere in the manual.

The SE3 manual was a lot better though, IMO. It seemed to explain practically everything, and offered lots of cross-links and context-sensitive help. Press F1 while looking at the screen you are confused about, and help on it appears. Then most of the terms mentioned are links to help about those sections.

On the other hand, I don't know how much time MM had to devote to that. I might rather have not-so-well-documented features, but more of them, especially when there is a forum stuffed with fans who are happy to explain things, and who've even created their own web-based encyclopaedia about the game.

As for trade, the generation of resources makes sense in an abstract way. Trade tends to make many things easier and more efficient, particularly with diverse partners who make things you don't make, or not in the same way. The trade percent abstractly represents these sorts of benefits.

PvK

Re: Trade amount
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">True. Users of manuals (and other similar reference documents such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc) tend to seek specific information rather than read comprehensively. It is not very, very hard to write a complete manual for a game like SEIV (or any software application of equivalent complexity). What is hard is writing a complete manual for software that is constantly in development flux and that does not follow rigid design specifications - then meeting the beta test and final release deadlines so the manual and software ship concurrently. Writing a complete manual for released software that will not experience significant changes in functionality…that can be done with time and persistence as a labor of love.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Personally, I agree that the process of discovery is a rare pleasure. However, the lack of quality (good content and good organization) documentation can be a significant barrier to entry for new players – and I want more people to play.

Re: Trade amount
 

Thank you all for your help

NOw I have another question (oh too many of them..)
I am now planning to attack a planet which has sattelite defense (about 8 of them).

What may be the effective way of crushing these sattlite and colonize enemy planet?

Thjank you

[ February 17, 2003, 06:13: Message edited by: bostonrpgmania ]

Re: Trade amount
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Point Defense Cannons were made for taking out small threats and will make quick work of satellites. Also many beam weapons can target them as well. Stay away from seeking weapons because they cannot target satellites. You can check out any weapon to see what it "Can target". Point Defense Cannons should be on most of your attack ships since they have a high to-hit bonus (70% built in but not shown) and they are specifically designed to eliminate fighters, satellites and seeking weapons.

PDC can be researched by first researching Military Science.

Slick.