Minister's won't upgrade planetary facilities?

Dr_Whoopass · #1 June 20th, 2005, 11:49 AM

OK, I got this game last week & have been trying to figure out how to play. What I want to know is how do I get the minister to upgrade planetary facilities? For example, I have a planet with a level 1 ship yard. I research level 2 ship yard, but none of my ministers upgrade the shipyards. Am I missing something, or is this one of those items I have to do myself?

Thanks!

Captain Kwok · #2 June 20th, 2005, 12:45 PM

I don't use ministers so I can't tell you if they'll upgrade automatically. But there is a button "Upgrade Facilities" on the construction overview menu (the one that lists all your colonies and what they're making).

Atrocities · #3 June 20th, 2005, 12:56 PM

The game is more hands on than most people are used to. Click on the CRANE icon located on the top row of Icons in the left hand upper corner. That is your Master Construction Que over view as Kwok mentioned.

The UPGRADE button is located on the tab list to the right about half way or so down the page. By clicking this you will tell all your planets, regarless of minister control or not, to upgrade ALL things that can be upgraded. In most cases this will mean that you will upgrade in order, IE shipyard II then Shipyard III even if you already have shipyard III technology. This is a pain, but you can manually remove the shipyard II from the que of each planet effected by such a thing. This applies to all facilities that have multiple upgrades available to them.

The Ministers can only upgrade planets they have control over IIRC. So unless you have minister face showing up next to your planet, they do not have control. You can turn on the planet minister by choosing your planet then clicking the FACE icon (Minister) from the top row / second row? of Icons.

The more you play the game the less you will trust your empire to Ministers. I only use the Transport minister myself, manually turning on the ship minister for each transport I create. Tedious when your producing 100 or so a turn, but well worth the effor IMHO.

Dr_Whoopass · #4 June 20th, 2005, 01:01 PM

"The Ministers can only upgrade planets they have control over IIRC. So unless you have minister face showing up next to your planet, they do not have control. You can turn on the planet minister by choosing your planet then clicking the FACE icon (Minister) from the top row / second row? of Icons."

Yes, I had a minister controlling the planet. I was experimenting with just how smart they were when I figured out they weren't upgrading the facilities.

What does the "Upgrade" button do? Will it tell all your colonies to upgrade whatever facilities have an upgrade available?

Dr_Whoopass · #5 June 20th, 2005, 01:03 PM

"Click [Ministers] > then turn on all the functions you want them to handle for you. Be careful balancing ship-building and facility upgrades; the minister can bankrupt you if you've built a large force in the early game."

Which one turns on facility upgrades?

TurinTurambar · #6 June 20th, 2005, 01:07 PM

What does the "Upgrade" button do? Will it tell all your colonies to upgrade whatever facilities have an upgrade available?

yup.

Which one turns on facility upgrades?

IIRC, the first item in the second list is [Facility Construction]. I believe that covers it. Someone correct me if "IIRIC." lol

Dr_Whoopass · #7 June 20th, 2005, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
The game is more hands on than most people are used to. Click on the CRANE icon located on the top row of Icons in the left hand upper corner. That is your Master Construction Que over view as Kwok mentioned.

The UPGRADE button is located on the tab list to the right about half way or so down the page. By clicking this you will tell all your planets, regarless of minister control or not, to upgrade ALL things that can be upgraded. In most cases this will mean that you will upgrade in order, IE shipyard II then Shipyard III even if you already have shipyard III technology. This is a pain, but you can manually remove the shipyard II from the que of each planet effected by such a thing. This applies to all facilities that have multiple upgrades available to them.

Actually, it's a wrench.

But man, is THAT screen going to make my life much better! I was doing all that through the colonies screen. Thanks!

Norlion · #8 June 20th, 2005, 07:31 PM

Ministers? Ministers? We don't need no stinking ministers!

I don't use them but the upgrade button is great. Be careful it can crash your economy. There's no "issue food stamps button"

TurinTurambar · #9 June 20th, 2005, 12:58 PM

Hey there, Dr.Whoopass. Good to see you back. Glad you got your full version.

Go to [Emipire Options] (the gold crown).

Click [Ministers] > then turn on all the functions you want them to handle for you. Be careful balancing ship-building and facility upgrades; the minister can bankrupt you if you've built a large force in the early game.

Parasite · #10 June 21st, 2005, 12:52 AM

Just to be a picker of nits, the "Upgrade" button does not force stepped upgrades. You will upgrade directly to Shipyard3 if there is a shipyard1 on the planet and you have the tech. One thing that will not happen is if there is an upgrade to shipyard2 in the queue it will stay in the queue and SY3 added behind it. You will manually have to go through and delete all the SY2 upgrades that were already there (maybe from the last turn when you hit the button.)

It also has the neat effect of upgrading something currently being built to the best tech level without loosing materials used in construction. For instance if you are building a SY1 and have one turn left to build on it or put it on hold with one turn left, hitting the Upgrade button will magically change the SY1 into a SY3 with one turn left to build. This is much better than building the SY1, then upgrading 2 or more turns to a SY3.

Sorry, I don't use ministers. The first time they built a mining station on a 0% mineral world they were fired, then shot, then fired again this time out of a gun.