Questions (yes, I've read the FAQs)

[Silent Sorrow]

I've read some bits I've seen on the first page of the board here and the FAQ at Malfador. But I have questions yet (all based on playing the demo):

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.")

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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.)

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!

thanks

[Derek]

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.")

Stop at the planet. Or, more exactly, pass through the exact space the planet occupies. You don't actually have to stop.

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

Correct; there is no retreat from combat, which is one of the things that bother some people (me included

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.

Well, if you see the grid, you can count the number of spaces that your ship will move, based on its movement. Also, if you put the cursor over an enemy ship, you can see how far it is from your ship.

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.

Click on your ship, then right click on the specific weapon in its components. It will show the damage at ranges.

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

Once fired, the red pips are the number of combat turns before the weapon can reload again.

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

There is an HTML manual, and a .doc (Word document) that is quite long. I don't have it handy, as I am letting someone borrow my CD to try it out before he buys it, but it is a real manual, not a worthless on like the one that shipped with original SEIV

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.

If you manage the colony itself, it makes no difference on what type of colony (except to remind you) but if a minister manages it, it will build facilities according to what type of colony it is.

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?

Only if you let the computer control your ships. If you manually control it, then the strategy doesn't matter.

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!

Thats the way MM designed it. Not sure if I like it or not.

Derek

[Phoenix-D]

"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.")"

Just moving into it works. A sector is one of the squares on the 12x12 system map.

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

You don't. Last it out the entire 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."

Show grid just shows you the squares. Your ships movement gauge is IIRC on the right, off the main play area.

"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 the weapon icons for stats, then count squares. Also, turn on shot percentages- if you're in range, you ALWAYS have at least a 1% chance to hit.

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

That's the reload time. When there are none left, the weapon can fire again. The topmost is a rough gauge of how much damage your ship has taken. More red = less damage. Same with the other bar, which is shields.

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

~100 IIRC.

"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."

Description only UNLESS you turn on the AI Minsters, which use that description to tell em what to build on the colony.

"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?"

Only in strategic.

"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.)"

Not a bug, and you're not *supposed* to be able to build more than one ship yard. That's the bug. One yard per planet or ship.

"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!"

Yes, and no, it doesn't. Not unless you have to chase down stragglers or are in a massive fleet battle. The battles represent a fixed time period.

Phoenix-D

[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 ]

[Derek]

Originally posted by Gandalph:

EDIT: Damn Phoenix, ya beat me!

But not me...

On the other hand, you didn't damn me, which I suppose is good...

Derek

[PvK]

You can change the number of turns per combat easily in Settings.txt.

Planets only have one build queue on the planet itself, but you can build as many orbital shipyards as you want, which each have their own queue.

PvK