1- war state : I had a few battle with an alien race, but there is no state of war between our empires. I think that the war declaration must be official to have a state of war. What's the use of declaring an official war ?
You can battle with any empire you have "war", "none", or "non-intercourse". The differences are subtle but here is the way I see it. AI's at "war" are very unlikely to accept any treaty from you. With "none", you stand a very good chance of arranging a treaty with them. "Non-intercourse" is used mostly by human players playing a neutral empire (as opposed to peaceful or bloodthirsty). This is about the only treaty such an empire's people will accept without becoming unhappy.
In PBW, many games require that no wars exist before victory can be claimed, so it serves a purpose there too.
2- I've cause some battles by moving a ship on an ennemy ship. Sometimes the computer warn me that, doing that, there would be a battle, sometimes not (erspecially on warp points, I think). Why ?
I must admit, I have never seen this warning.
3- I'm not an english native speaker (i thing you should already know...) and i wold like to know if an attitude "cool" for alien races is more friendly that an attitude "warm".
As tbontob said, warm is friendlier than cool. But don't rely on these to tell you anything important. In one game I have, an empire is murderous towards me but keeps asking for a Trade Alliance.
4- What is the best way to declare a non aggression pact ? I made very ressources gift to an alien race, but they keep on refusing my treatie requests...
The best way is to simply ask for the treaty with no gifts. The problem is, some aliens simply don't want treaties, others only want them when they are at war with someone else. The variations are endless.
5- What's the use of warheads designed to be used by ramming into another ship ? I tryied it on my fregate, and i bumped into an escort : result : two ships destroyed ! I thought that kamikase area was over 'til 1945...
The "ram" ships and "ram" orders do not work very well... at least in my opinion.
6- Do two research centers an the same planet provide two times more research points ?
Yes!!! Put on as many as you like. If the planet has low resource numbers, you can fill it with research centres exclusively.
7- Last but not least. Is it possible to refit an existing ship ? (updating missiles, cannons, engines and so on...). Is it possible to change the design of a ship without creating a new design name (which would not obliged me to have an escort I, escort II, escort III design vessels in the design list)
No, you cannot change a design without giving it a new name. One exception: If it is a new design that has not been built, you can edit it ("Edit" button in the design window), but you then lose the original design. This is good, since you don't want two different designs with the same name.
Yes, you can re-fit an existing ship. We call it retro-fitting. The icon is a triangle with a green arrow circling the border, or use the hotkey as I do-- the letter "G". From here you can retrofit, mothball, scrap or fire on the selected ship.
Hope this helps, Trooper.
Kim
Edit: Holy crap! 15 Posts while I was typing this!
[ September 18, 2002, 03:06: Message edited by: Grandpa Kim ]