A newbie writes:

[Jon Brave]

Newbie, who has been playing one game of SEIV (Version 1.19) for a while, has a sundry selection of things he does not understand (in no particular order) and would be obliged for any clarifications. If I get any answers I may post some further questions here.

1. I don't really understand climate control. I presume it's just improving "Conditions" (e.g. does not alter atmosphere)? What effect does this have --- increased happiness/max. population/growth rate/build rate/facility spaces? What difference does happiness make, other than not rioting? And if I've built a climate control, can I destruct it after whatever has increased, or would that put me back to start? Does anything increase facility spaces, or is that just a function of planet size?

2. If a planet is storing mines, I know once it launches them, rather than transferring them to a mine layer, they cannot be recovered from space. If I do not want to put them on a ship, is there any point in not launching them as soon as they are built? If they are stored, could I wait and launch them in combat? But would that do anything, and wouldn't the enemy ships thereby have avoided being exploded when they first entered the planet's square?

3. I send a ship to a remote system, via several of my systems which have squares with yards. If I was moving it manually I would have it visit these planets to resupply on the way. I don't think the computer's movement does that for me? Do I really have to do it manually or plot waypoints if I need this?

4. I don't really understand weapon mounts --- haven't used them. How do you cause/know a weapon to have other than normal mount? Is this why some opponents' weapons have an "L" (for Large mount) written on them?

5. I have discovered some new technology. I have figured to create a new design using this (if I use "Upgrade" I have to change the design name to append a "2" or whatever, unless it's only a prototype, in which case I can "Edit" instead, right? A bit annoying, but I guess existing ships have a "pointer" to the original design?). Am I right in thinking all my existing ships *and* units (e.g. mines) stay in their old design whatever I do? I have just discovered ReCycle|RetroFit --- is this how I upgrade existing ships to the new design?

6. My race likes Rock + Oxygen. Colonizable planets which fit this have green "+" (or red if wrong atmosphere). But there are planets in some systems which show up as fitting this and are uninhabited but don't have any "+". Why not? Are they still colonizable?

That'll do for now.

[Jubala]

1. Planetary conditions affect population growth rate. Once it's up to optimal you can scrap the facility.

2. Mines are no use to you in combat. Launch them once they are built unless you want to launch them someplace else, like a warp point.

3. Yes, you have to manually tell it to visit the resuply depots.

4. When designing ships there's a button labeled weapon mounts to the right. There you choose your mount based on the size of the ship your designing. I suggest using this because if you don't you'll get your head handed to you by those who do.

5. Upgrading a design creates a new design on which all components that can be replaced with newer components are replaced with newer components. Already existing ships of the old design are not affected. To upgrade exisitng ships to the new design get them to a shipyard and retrofit them. Units can not be upgraded.

6. Not sure what you mean, but if you have no scan in a system with a oxygen/rock planet and that planet is colonized by someone else you will not see the little star.

[Jon Brave]

Wow! What a fast and usefull response. I had been intending to ask questions a while ago but didn't think it would be worth it!

4. *Think* I get it. Had been thinking more in MOO2 terms, whete weapon mount was per individual weapon; you're saying whole ship.

6. Possible. But I think the planet shows up on list of colonizable/breathable/empty. Yet no "+" when look in system. Don't quite understand whether I don't know what's going on in system? Can see some systems without having anything there, some not?

quote:

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Originally posted by Jubala:
4. When designing ships there's a button labeled weapon mounts to the right. There you choose your mount based on the size of the ship your designing. I suggest using this because if you don't you'll get your head handed to you by those who do.

6. Not sure what you mean, but if you have no scan in a system with a oxygen/rock planet and that planet is colonized by someone else you will not see the little star.

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[Jubala]

Always glad to please.

4. I haven't played MOO2 so I don't know how it works there, but in SE4 the mounts go for all direct fire weapons, ie beams and torps. Missiles and point defense are not affected by mounts. You can have weapons of different mountsize on the same ship if you want to, just change the mount before you put them on. Useful sometimes when you can't get anymore of the biggest mounts to fit but a smaller one will.

6. That's probably because of the fact the colonizable/breathable/empty routine still thinks the planet is empty but because of a small oversight by the programmers (or a minor bug) the little star dissapear when the planet is occupied even though you technically don't know it's occupied. I hope that makes sense. As for seeing stuff in systems you don't have a presence, that's probably because someone you have a partnership with has a presence. You see all they see and vice versa.

[Tomgs]

4) You can cycle on or off the weapons mounts for individual weapons if you like just select the appropriate mount before you add the weapon to the ship design. Normal mount is the same as not selecting a mount at the beginning. Larger weapons mounts are almost always desirable though because they normally do more damage per KT of space taken up with larger mounts. Bases are even better the weapons mounts increase range as well as the Damage per KT increase.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 27 January 2001).]

[Blue Lord]

I just responded in SE4C forums to this, but I guess I can post it here to if it's any help

1)It only increases Planet conditions, and thus raising the reproduction rate, and maybe happiness. I havn't been using them to much. You can scrap them when it's done. Infact, you'll get a message in you're log that you cannot improve planet conditions anymore.

2)Depends on what you want the mines to do. If you want them to stop ships from entering the system you just load up on a ship with minelayer components and move it to a warphole. If you want them to act as planetary defense, but 'em in orbit before combat, since PDC will easily take them out if you launch them in combat.

3)If you give the ship orders to move to "Resupply Planet I" in the "Test Sytem" and on the same turn, before it moves there, you can order it to go to the planet "The tester" in system "Elinga" the orders will stack in a queue and will b completed in the order they where given.

4)By increasing size, the direct fire weapons can also increase firepower. But you can't select certain mounts if the ship is too small.

5)Any unit (mines, fighters, satellites, troops) can't be retrofitted at all. Ships however can as long as they are in a sector with a spaceyard. Now, old destroyer class with shields lvl II. I wnat to upgrade the destroyer to have lvl III. I click upgrade and name it something like "Destroyer Mk II" (Mk, stand for Mark, meaning something like Version 2)Then I retrofit my destroyers to this new design.
Note: You cannot make the destroyers to be cruisers, you are only allowed to retrofit beetween designs, not hull sizes.

6)If you see a system that you have no ships in (For example if you start with the trait "Ancient Race") and an enemy already has colonized the planet, but you can't see his colony because you have no precense in there.