[Derek]

Originally posted by Silent Sorrow:

1. What exactly constitutes a sector in terms of resupplying ships? Do I have to actually stop at the planet or is just "moving through the sector" enough? (Of course, for the latter I need to know what geographically or spatially constitutes a "sector.")

Stop at the planet. Or, more exactly, pass through the exact space the planet occupies. You don't actually have to stop.

2. How do you retreat once in battle? Doesn't seem to be any way to do that.

Correct; there is no retreat from combat, which is one of the things that bother some people (me included

3. How do you see how far your ship can move in combat? I tried turning on "show grid" but that didn't do anything.

Well, if you see the grid, you can count the number of spaces that your ship will move, based on its movement. Also, if you put the cursor over an enemy ship, you can see how far it is from your ship.

4. How do you see the range of your weapons in combat? I want to be able to stay at the edge of range for my weapons or the enemy's weapons.

Click on your ship, then right click on the specific weapon in its components. It will show the damage at ranges.

5. In combat what do those red pips by each weapon mean? What about the top-most bar of red pips?

Once fired, the red pips are the number of combat turns before the weapon can reload again.

6. I'm aware the manual for the full game is sparse but just how many pages is it?

There is an HTML manual, and a .doc (Word document) that is quite long. I don't have it handy, as I am letting someone borrow my CD to try it out before he buys it, but it is a real manual, not a worthless on like the one that shipped with original SEIV

7. When you select a colony type when you form a colony, does it make any difference what you choose (i.e. mining vs. research v. imperial centre, etc.)? Malfador's FAQ, question 78, suggests it doesn't do anything but it's not very clear.

If you manage the colony itself, it makes no difference on what type of colony (except to remind you) but if a minister manages it, it will build facilities according to what type of colony it is.

8. If you set a strategy for a ship at the "designs" stage, does it actually affect play in combat? Or only if you're using auto/strategic combat?

Only if you let the computer control your ships. If you manually control it, then the strategy doesn't matter.

10. In #90 on the Malfador FAQ, it says that combat is automatically ended after 30 turns? How can this be? Surely many battles must take much longer than 30 turns to complete!

Thats the way MM designed it. Not sure if I like it or not.

Derek