[Jon Brave]

Newbie, who has been playing one game of SEIV (Version 1.19) for a while, has a sundry selection of things he does not understand (in no particular order) and would be obliged for any clarifications. If I get any answers I may post some further questions here.

1. I don't really understand climate control. I presume it's just improving "Conditions" (e.g. does not alter atmosphere)? What effect does this have --- increased happiness/max. population/growth rate/build rate/facility spaces? What difference does happiness make, other than not rioting? And if I've built a climate control, can I destruct it after whatever has increased, or would that put me back to start? Does anything increase facility spaces, or is that just a function of planet size?

2. If a planet is storing mines, I know once it launches them, rather than transferring them to a mine layer, they cannot be recovered from space. If I do not want to put them on a ship, is there any point in not launching them as soon as they are built? If they are stored, could I wait and launch them in combat? But would that do anything, and wouldn't the enemy ships thereby have avoided being exploded when they first entered the planet's square?

3. I send a ship to a remote system, via several of my systems which have squares with yards. If I was moving it manually I would have it visit these planets to resupply on the way. I don't think the computer's movement does that for me? Do I really have to do it manually or plot waypoints if I need this?

4. I don't really understand weapon mounts --- haven't used them. How do you cause/know a weapon to have other than normal mount? Is this why some opponents' weapons have an "L" (for Large mount) written on them?

5. I have discovered some new technology. I have figured to create a new design using this (if I use "Upgrade" I have to change the design name to append a "2" or whatever, unless it's only a prototype, in which case I can "Edit" instead, right? A bit annoying, but I guess existing ships have a "pointer" to the original design?). Am I right in thinking all my existing ships *and* units (e.g. mines) stay in their old design whatever I do? I have just discovered ReCycle|RetroFit --- is this how I upgrade existing ships to the new design?

6. My race likes Rock + Oxygen. Colonizable planets which fit this have green "+" (or red if wrong atmosphere). But there are planets in some systems which show up as fitting this and are uninhabited but don't have any "+". Why not? Are they still colonizable?

That'll do for now.