quote:
Originally posted by UmberGryphon:
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.
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.
3. Are there any technologies that increase the number of usable spaces in your colonies? If so, are they implemented in the demo?
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?
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?
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.
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've been doing all right, particularly since the AI just does NOT seem to know what to do against a well-executed Kaufman Retrograde--build ships heavy in missile weapons, move towards the enemy, and the second you're in firing range let fly and start moving away from the opponent. The AI never seems to realize that he'll never get in firing range of his beam weapons if I keep moving away, so he keeps coming to get more and more missile volleys. (Yes, he could mess me up by building enough point-defense guns, but he hasn't so far.)
Thank you for any and all information you can provide.
1. Read "PlanetSize.txt" in your data directory. This determines the various capacities of your planets.
2. Yes, there is a "set colony type" button in the colonies window.
3. Currently there is only the cargo storage facility. Some sort of "miniaturization facility" is in the todo list and I suspect this will increase facility spaces. Build one, get X extra spaces I guess. I'd like to see a population enhancer of some sort but there isn't one yet.
4. Unknown. And anyway, you can change it just by editing some text files. A graphical map would only be useful for the standard game out of the box. How many people will NOT tweak things for their own preferences when it is so easy?
5. Yes, the percentage that a planet has in a given resources is used as a multiplier for any facilities that produce that resource. The TOTAL production of each resources, and/or research or intelligence that your planet produces is shown in the planet info screen. You want each facility to have a production report in its info display? Hmm. Not really important to my mind, but you can email MM as easily as anyone else and suggest it.
6. Population bonuses for production and construction are set in Settings.txt in your data directory. Also editable. Like many who've been posting here, I'd much prefer to have multiple shipyards on a planet rather than huge bonuses on one. I hope they can do something on this for the next iteration.
7. Apparently the AI doesn't know the difference between 'no treaty' and 'war' very well yet. It should declare war when it attacks, or when you attack it, but it often doesn't. And at other times it goes on declaring war over and over when you've been at war for years of game time. Sigh... not all the bugs are ironed out yet.
The retrograde maneuver is a tactical combat issue. This requires that the AI not only know what to do, but also that it know how to adjust its ship designs to its opponents. This is quite advanced and will take a few generations of 'patches' I think. As always, it's the human opponent who will be the real challenge.