Newbie question--autolaunch?

LeTharg · #1 February 14th, 2001, 01:01 AM

I'm a newbie to SE4 and 4X games in general and am playing my first real game (high difficulty no bonuses). I've been using fighters and satelites to protect my planets while I build a good base (at about turn 80). It is working OK so far, my neighbor seems to dislike me and sends small fleets every few turns which crash and burn against the satelites and fighters.

Since I have lots of resources being wasted I would like for each idle planet to build units all the time. The problem is it is a management pain. I can't build more than will fit in cargo and then I have to hand launch them.

Questions:
1. Can I have units auto-launched so I don't have to?
2. Is there a general way to automate repetative actions (scripting language or somesuch)?
3. Would ministers take care of this appropriately (haven't used them because I wanted to understand how things worked and there were too many ministers anyway)?
4. Have I missed some basic point and wandered down the wrong path?

Thank you

Aussie Gamer · #2 February 14th, 2001, 04:02 AM

You can set planets to "repeat build".

I don't know if this helps. But I hope that it helps.

As far as I know there is no auto launch, but I have not played around with way points yet. So maybe there is!!

Tomgs · #3 February 14th, 2001, 04:06 AM

Well having more units is good but build a few resource storage facilities also if you have a surplus. You will need it to allow you to keep building ships later.

LeTharg · #4 February 14th, 2001, 04:53 AM

Repeat Build sounds useful. I'll give it a try.

I've got about 500,000 minerals in storage and am wasting about 100,000 per turn. Less for farming and refining. Is that sufficient or should I store more (trade off producing for storage)?

Tomgs · #5 February 14th, 2001, 09:12 AM

Thats enough for normal use only up it from there if you are going to do a lot of expensive refitting all at once or if you want to build a lot of stellar manipulation ships or Ring/Sphereworlds. I usually have more storage than that but it rarely gets used I just hate to let produced minerals evaporate

.

Atrocities · #6 February 14th, 2001, 09:35 AM

quote:
my neighbor seems to dislike me and sends small fleets every few turns which crash and burn against the satelites and fighters.

Oh your going to fit in nicely here.

I love how your phrased that.

Just a thought, to stock up on the wasted resources, would it be possible to build storage facilites and begin stock piling them> I don't know if thats the answer your looking for, but the alternative is to set to repeat build, and after a few turns mothball them to save on expendatures as these, if left unchecked, will begin to drain your reserves, and send you into the negative, and you'll lose more than you gain.

Just a rambling thought. Best of luck, and again, I loved how you phrased your commment.

------------------
"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Patric Stewart as Captain Picard
UCP/TCO Ship Yards

jimbob55 · #7 February 14th, 2001, 12:49 PM

If you want to be sure that the sats and fighters are launched rather than staying in cargo....Build a freighter with launch bays for the number of sats / fighters you expect to be built per turn.

Load at least 1 sat + fighters into it and send it away from the planet and then (once it is too far from the planet to reach it in the present turn) tell it to load sats / fighters from the planet and remote launch over the planet. Click repeat orders (red circular arrow button) and it SHOULD load and launch everything on the planet.
Sometimes this doesn't work when you are loading from another freighter..so beware.
Having the freighter parked in orbit all the time means any excess cargo is loaded onto it anyway, so you could just build large cargo freighters to take the excess.

If you want to store resources that would otherwise be wasted, make 1 planet your storage location. It builds a shipyard base, when that is built the base builds another shipyard base. You keep using the newly built shipyard bases to build more shipyards until you start going into resource deficit. At that point mothball the bases produced... Put the shipyards into a fleet and the mothballed bases into another fleet to cut down on clutter. As your tech improves, you can build larger shipyard bases with additional expensive components to store more minerals.
Best to research resource manipulation and build a recycling facility at this planet at some point before you cash in your bases....

[This message has been edited by jimbob55 (edited 14 February 2001).]

LeTharg · #8 February 14th, 2001, 04:28 PM

Thanks Jimbob55. Useful answers that provide insight into how to use the myriad of capabilities in the game to best advantage. I'll give them a try.

Suicide Junkie · #9 February 15th, 2001, 11:16 PM

If you're producing way more than you spend, BUILD MORE STUFF. with 100,000 minerals a turn, you could be taking over the galaxy. Make a fleet and go attack somebody who hates you.

Commander G · #10 February 16th, 2001, 08:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
If you're producing way more than you spend, BUILD MORE STUFF. with 100,000 minerals a turn, you could be taking over the galaxy. Make a fleet and go attack somebody who hates you.

I like this guy. He doesn't just sit and play the economic game like some passive players. I agree anyone who has a resource excess ought to be building warships and conquering.