1. Is it possible to determine in advance how many usable spaces a planet will have if it is colonized? It's hard for me to decide what order to colonize planets in without that information.
You can do rough calculations in your head. First is planet size and second is can you breathe the atmosphere. Of course the larger the planet the more facilities. For nonbreathable however your people have to take up space with massive domes and life support etc, and thus such planets house MUCH less in the way of facilities and cargo space. A Huge planet you can breathe will have 30 facilities(I use advanced storage techniques so these numbers are slightly larger than default) while a Huge Planet with a bad atmosphere will have 6. This is a huge difference. Atmosphere comes first with me. Then size. A tiny planet (or moon) that is breathable will have 6 facilities as well. So Huge domed (unbreathable) = tiny breathable.
Hope that helps some.
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2. Is it possible to change the "role" of a colony (the first question it asks you about when you form the colony)? I know it doesn't affect anything, but if I'm going to use that field I'd like to be able to change it.
Yes. Simply click on Colonies in the Perm Menu and then just above close is Change Colony Type. There you go.
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3. Are there any technologies that increase the number of usable spaces in your colonies? If so, are they implemented in the demo?
Hrmm... there is the advanced Storage spaces racial pick... Other than that all I have seen is the Atmosphere converter which changes unbreathable to breathable over a 2 yr(20 turns) time span. This of course has the effect of greatly increasing the number of facilities you can have.
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4. Has anyone on the Web taken a first stab at making a graphical representation of the SE4 tech tree? If so, what's the URL?
I don't know... if anyone does then let us all know.
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5. How exactly do the three percentages associated with a planet change things? Do they modify the productivity of resource production plants on that planet? If so, when you click on a colony, click over to its facilities, and click on a resource production plant, why doesn't it show the real production of that facility?
The number displayed for a facility is the amount it will produce of that resource assuming 100% of the resource value on that planet. Thus if the value is less than 100% the facilities produce less than stated and greater than 100% is a nice bonus.
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6. How does a planet's population affect things? It doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much effect on the production queue as I would expect.
If you click on a planet and then abilities it will show you what bonus, if any, you get from population numbers and happiness. I seem to get +30% for 2000M(I assume this number applies to all point production whether it be intel/research or resources)
I am not really sure about production qeue... that seems to be more based on the spaceyard you have than population(maybe entirely so).
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7. What's the difference between "no treaty" and "war"? In the game I'm currently playing, I was sneak-attacked by a race, went on the defensive, built a military, flattened his fleets, carpet-bombed a couple of his planets, and got him to surrender--all without either side declaring war.
I don't know. I could make up some nice story of how it could be different but in truth there seems to be little difference. If anyone else has a good REAL difference and not just an amusing story like me then explain away.
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THE END.
[This message has been edited by Cyrien (edited 18 October 2000).]