Newbie Questions - latest edition

[WhiteHojo]

Hello everyone, and let me just start out by saying even though I have seen this comment posted several times in various Posts on this forum I feel it cannot be repeated enough - this is one of the most polite, responsible and friendly gaming forums I have ever run across.

So w/that butterin up out of the way, on to the questions.

A little background on my situation first. I only have the downloaded Version but have ordered the full Version - however, I am not sure if it will come in b/f Xmas or not. So if any of my questions are fixed in the full Version feel free to state that. I have been lurking in the shadows of this forum for about a week or so and have been reading and searching voraciously - all of which has answered several other questions I had. The below is a short list of some I can't find an answer to.

1) When moving ships over long distances to a similar location, I use Fleet groupings. However, about 1/2 the time, after groupin the ships, movin em and then comin back to em on the next turn, the prior fleet designation is no longer assigned (ie - the ships are all individuals w/o a fleet moniker). Is this a glich or am I doin something wrong?

2) Is there some way in the ship/unit screen to filter out all ships that are in a "Fleet" and view those on a seperate screen? Goin down a list of 50+ ships to make sure I have orders given to all is annoying when say, 15 are in a fleet that I have sittin in a system waiting to attack next turn. (hope that isn't too confusing)

3) On the planet screen, when designating planets to send a colony ship to, how does the cmptr know to send oxy breathers to oxy planets and methane, etc. breathers to their respective planets? When I click on "breathable colonies" or whatever it's called it only shows oxy type (my races default) even though I've conquered a Methane breather. Am I missin something?

4) what exactly are waypoints and how should they be used?

5) If I send a ship to a specific destination far away from it's origin, turn on it's indiv minister and set resupply in my empire minister options on, why doesn't the ship look for a resupply base when it is runnin low on supplies instead of ending up moving 1 space/turn after running out? What does the resupply option do?

6) How do you mothball/scrap/upgrade a weapon platform or satelite (or fighter for that matter - never tried that.)

7) a suggestion - How about access to some form of the map when requesting/demanding/giving systems/planets to other races? I get confused and severly lost when trying to remember what systems/planets are what.

8) What is the priority order given projects when resources are limited? say, 15 planets each set to produce somethin but not enough resources to do all at once. Is it a first in que first made type thing or what?

9) How can I set my ships to attack ships/bases/weapon platforms/satelites that have weapons b/f deciding to bLast a helpless planet (all the while the wp & sat's sit there and bLast away at my little ships) this was in Tact combat w/resolve on. got VERRRRRRY mad.

10) Any way to stop the autoresolve of Tact combat once you select it? (ie - in MOO II I believe you can click cancel to regain control- wld be very helpful)

Got some more but I'll wait to see what kind of feedback I get on these first.

Thanks in advance

[Noble713]

1. Hmmm, are you doing the following to create a fleet:

a) Click on Fleet Transfer Button
b) Click Create Fleet and name it
c) Move the ships you want in the fleet from the left side of the window to the right by clicking on them. If you have more than 1 fleet in a sector, make sure the one you want is selected by clicking on it.
d) All done!

If you're doing this and your fleets are still being disbanded (and you don't have the fleet minister on), it could be a bug.

2. In the ships screen, click on Fleet. Along the display will be the headings Pic, Name, Experience, Fleet. Click on Fleet to sort your ships by what fleet they are in. Ships with no fleet will be at the bottom.

4. You can assign waypoints to your space yards so ships that they build will automatically move there. To do this:

a) Click on the Empire Status button, and then Waypoints.
b) Click Set.
c) You can now pick any sector you want in any (explored) system for a waypoint.
d) Go to a planet/space yard/etc. and bring up its construction queue.
e) Click on Set Move To and select a waypoint.

I think there are other ways to use waypoints, but I don't know what they are.

6. You can't upgrade or alter any units in any way, only jettison them. This is one of the disadvantages of not paying any maintenance on them.

7. Yeah, I'd like this too.

9. Click Empire Status and then Strategies. Select the strategy that you want and click Firing. Here you can change the target priorities as well as select items that shouldn't be fired on at all.

10. None that I know of.

[Hydraa]

For 10 you can set the combat mode to auto and end each phase separately. You can then let the ships close for 10 phases or so and then take control back.

[Psitticine]

1. Are you, by chance, shift-clicking to select more than one ship? That only Groups them temporarily. It can be useful in many situations but it doesn't form a real "fleet" in game terms.

2. In addition to what Noble713 pointed out, there are also some buttons on the bottom right of the Ships window that say Ships, Fleet, and Units. By turning them off and on, you can filter out whole categories. If you place even solo ships in their own personal fleets and then turn off Ships and Units, you'll be able to track the groupings a bit easier.

3. You're not doing anything wrong. The filter doesn't recognize "added" breathing capacity. I hope that, and the Transport Minister's confusion around the same issue, will be addressed sooner or later.

5. Dunno! I've never looked into that . . .

6. FWIW, you can also select a fleet of satellites and select Self-Destruct from the menu brought up with the same button you normally use to scrap/mothball/etc. ships. I've done it to clear out some useless sats given over when an empire surrenders but I've never checked to see if fighter fleets offer the same opportunity.

7. I'd like it too. Shouldn't be too hard to add either.

8. I don't know for sure. I wish there was a Building Priority queue like the Repair Queue!

9. The full Version AI seems much better than the demo when it comes to going after armed targets first. It'll still pLaster a defenseless planet you could have conquered instead unless you takes steps to prevent this, such as turning off Planets as a target and/or manually controlling plantary assualts when you don't want the place levelled, but it does take care to take out anything that could fight back first.