Planets Screen newbie question

Poddu · #1 December 20th, 2000, 06:00 PM

Hi all,

I have the demo and am waiting for the retail Version. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if this is already fixed in the retail Version.

Early in the game, when sending out colony ships, I cannot tell if a previously explored planet is inhabited or not by another culture unless I have a ship stationed in the system. With a ship in the other cultures system, when I go to my Planets screen it shows that planet as an inhabited alien colony. However, once my "explorer" ship has left the other culture's system, the Planets screen shows said planet as a colonizable, seemingly uninhabited planet again. It does not matter if I have a trade and research treaty or no treaty at all. It seems to me that my empire should be able to "remember" which planets my explorations have revealed alien cultures to be on.

Is this a "feature" or a bug, or am I just not understanding something basic? Sorry if this has been addressed before, I looked through a lot of Posts and could find no mention of it (which makes me suspect that I'm doing something wrong). Thanks in advance!

-Poddu

rdouglass · #2 December 20th, 2000, 07:16 PM

No, you're doing it right. You're not supposed to see a system's CURRENT status unless you're there. Of course in full Version games with cloaking, sats, etc., all bets are off. (The full Version has many more cool features than the demo - well worth the money IMO).

I believe the philosophy is that if you've visited a system, you see all the planet stats. However, once you leave the system, you really don't know if the colony is still there, if there are additional colonies, or even if the planets are still there (planet manipulation in full game also).

Personally, I think it is close to the real world. If you don't have a presence (or spy-type equipment / personell) in any region / country / city, you're really not sure what's going on. In the game, it leads to some interesting strategies that are well discussed in other threads. One of the popular ones is "Cloaked Spy Sattelites". You should check the other threads for those things.

Hydraa · #3 December 20th, 2000, 07:26 PM

However, I would like a option to see what my latest known information for the system was.

That way I could determine how many planets the other race had in that system 7 days ago and only 2 turns have elapsed (PBEM game) or did that race have sats on that warppoint Last time I was there.

It would need to be annotated some way if the information was current or how many years old. Just because I was there a tenth of a year ago and not there now doesn't mean I throw away my map of what was in the system.

A suggestion might be to make it part of the galaxy map screen when it is expanded so as not to confuse current information with old information.

[This message has been edited by Hydraa (edited 20 December 2000).]

rdouglass · #4 December 20th, 2000, 07:52 PM

Yes, that would be a good addition.

Seawolf · #5 December 20th, 2000, 08:38 PM

Whoa! I think that is asking alot!! You would have to in effect have 2 Versions of the game going. 1 to keep track of the current game and another to keep a record of what you saw Last. Then multiply it by the number of players playing, that is a huge aount of data. I just use a pen or pencil. Also I believe you can write notes on the galaxy map, that me be a helpful solution.

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Seawolf on the prowl

Tomgs · #6 December 20th, 2000, 09:11 PM

In a way some of this information is there. Many times I have gone into a system and have seen enemy colonies. Later after my ship left I could see the planet and there was no asterick on it indicating it could be colonized even though I did have the technology to colonize it. So at least that much information is there even after you have left the system. This is in the full Version I don't remember if this happened in the demo or not.

Poddu · #7 December 20th, 2000, 09:43 PM

Yes, Tomgs, you are right, and the info (or lack of it) is present in the demo as well. Thank you for this observation. However, in the Planets screen the information is not present.

This does seem to indicate that the game is keeping track of all that you've seen, but choosing to present it to you in a somewhat subtle manner. It seems to me that this would be better represented by a shaded-out empire icon. So that when you're in the system, the empire icon is bright and when you leave, it dims to the shaded icon. In times of much conquest, the information would be of dubious value, but at the early stages of the game it would be somewhat reliable. After all, unlike fleets, homeworlds and colonies don't move around all that much, and are rarely abandoned for trivial reasons.

It is also not a question of the planetary status being out-of-date. You may lose information in the middle of your turn if you use the next ship button to check through your ships. This would happen if you moved a ship through (or out of) the target system before you moved your colony ship. "Oh!" you say to yourself, "If only I had moved the colony ship first. I had a ship in that system and I don't remember if that particular planet was colonized."

[This message has been edited by Poddu (edited 20 December 2000).]

Noble713 · #8 December 20th, 2000, 11:27 PM

You can always right-click on the mini-map, click on a system, and type in some notes. I use this to keep track of suspected enemy homeworlds when I'm exploring.