[Gandalph]

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.")

A sector is one square on the system map and you have to stop to resupply. For an unknown reason, if you just stop and go, you will not get a full tank(close, but not quite).

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

If you are using strategic combat, you have no control other then the strategies you assign to the ships and/or the fleets. If you use tactical combat, your only retreat is to run from the attacking ships inside the combat grid for 30 turns.

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.

If you click on your ship the info window on the right (or if you right click on any ship, a pop up window) will show you the movement of the ship in the 6/6 format.

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.

Right click on the enemy ship to get all details. Click on your ship, then right click on the weapon to get distance and damage.

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

I assume you mean the fire rate indicators (little reb bars in the weapon picture window), these indicate the fire rate of the weapon (ie: If the weapon has a fire rate of two, then there will be two bars after the weapon is fired and the weapon itself will be darked out. The next combat turn there will be one bar, the next turn the weapon will be ready to fire again).

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

Manual?
What Manual?
Thees aint no Manual?
I don't need no steenkin Manual!

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.

It only makes a difference if you allow the computer to construct the facilities. If you construct the facilities yourself, then it does not matter.

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?

Strategies set in the design window determine an individual ship's strategy (how it will react in combat) but if you do tactical combat and control the movement yourself, it means nothing.

9. Is the multiple ship yards bug (#41, Malfador FAQ) fixed in the full game? (The bug is where having multiple yards on a planet doesn't allow you to build several ships at once.)

Only one shipyard is allowed per planet and one spaceyard per ship. They do not stack.

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!

You would initially think so, but I have frequently wished that combat was over already. If you have two very powerful fleets meeting in close combat, it does not take too long to figure out a victor (or a stalemate for that matter).[/QB]

Hope this helps and welcome to the game.

EDIT: Damn Phoenix, ya beat me!

[ May 14, 2002, 10:13 PM: Message edited by: Gandalph ]