A couple of Component questions...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Me kills Slick for the really bad joke

[Aiken]

Alneyan said:
6) All special damage types (Only XXX) bypass all sorts of shields, including Phased Shields. If you are playing SE4 Gold with one of the Last patches, Ionic Projectors are an exception to this rule, as these are stopped by shielding (normal or phased shields).

Except "Only Security Stations" damage type. Afair, it damages shields first.

edit: not afair, but for sure. just tested it.

[jfp3]

Speaking of Security Stations...I tried Boarding parties on a couple of ships a few games ago...after they boarded and captured...they would not repair themselves at a SY. What is the deal with using them effectively then? You have to "retrofit" just that one slot or something? That would be kind of ugly~~

[Alneyan]

I didn't know about those Aiken (but then, I never actually used them); the same may hold true for Only Boarding Parties, or perhaps Only Planet Destroyers.

I don't really get your question Jfp3. Boarding Parties and Security Stations will be repaired by repair bays or spaceyards. However, you may have trouble to repair the captured ship, as you need to know the technology to use a component before being able to repair it. So, if you have captured a Talisman ship, but you don't have the Religious trait, you will be unable to repair the Talisman (it will work just fine until it is destroyed).

[jfp3]

hmmm ok I must have done something wrong with re-populating my Boarding Parties then....

Ok another couple of questions:

If I'm terraForming a no atmosphere planet (none) with 2 species, does it TF to the atmosphere of the majority? If I swap the population type at level 2 TF to a new species, then upgrade to TF 3, will it convert the atmosphere to the new species type?

How does one get the new ships to show up in listings for a Neo Shipset? Is it all/only in the Settings.txt? Can I change add the Neo Ships to a game-in-progress or till it cause a melt down?

Thanks Gents!

[Alneyan]

- The atmosphere will adapt to the species with the most members, but the planet would be domed then. If you are using Atmosphere Converters, you should have only one species on the planet.

- I think the Atmosphere Converter will convert the atmosphere every turn after the atmosphere delay, so you could change your atmospheres by changing the leading species on the planet. I have only read that however, as I do not see why you would want to do that.

- Neoshipsets are only used by certain mods, such as the Highliner mod, and perhaps Proportions (among others). Mods using Neoshipsets add hulls to the Vehiclesize.txt file, and the images from the Neoshipsets are used. You could use an image from the Neoshipset for a regular hull though, but I am not sure you would like to do that.

You could change a mod in the course of the game, but you would have to put all your additions at the bottom of the appropriate file. Changes to already existing components/facilities... can be done, but they will not necessarily affect already built components/facilities... (A lower construction rate will affect already existing spaceyards, but increasing the cost of spaceyards will not affect the spaceyards you have already built)

[jfp3]

will* it cause a meltdown~~

[jfp3]

Thanks Alneyan...I was thinking if I wanted to have 2 species temporarily just for reproduction rates, while awaiting a large transport arrival with the proper final species from a long distance.

So if a planet has atmosphere "none"...and has 2 species, dominated by Oxygen breathers, it would TForm to Oxygen...and if I dropped Methane breathers on it Last second, before the actual "upgrade", the program would decide on Methane even though the species dominance was many turns less...is that the gist of it? (Hope that makes sense).

Another question: I've noticed a species creating new Planets (!) in his homeworld system. I'm assuming these are created from Asteroids...what tech level/family does this ability come from?

[jfp3]

And EaX...thanks so much for the component/weapon PDF...I can understand it just fine...very nice work and complete with Icon's no less!

I'm thinking about translating it so you can post it with proper honours for us Newbies.

I wonder if perhaps we could add a Last column that mentions a particularly good use or 2 for each (the ones that aren't obvious). I think a bunch of the Forum Groupees would love to throw in their 2 cents....hell there could probably be a forum link added for several facility/component/weapon 'families' on "Best usage" ie. "Don't bother building this past level III, you should have XYZ by then anyway" or "I put this level XYZ on these types of hulls" or "Don't bother putting these XYZ's on ANY ships till you've gotten at least level III", etc...

Any thoughts on this from others reading this thread?

[Alneyan]

You should usually not play much with reproduction, unless you have high numbers of settlers on that particular planet; population itself is only worth it when you reach fairly high numbers (a few hundred millions or one billion or two). You will get as many reproduction checks as there are populations on the planet though.

The dominant species should be determined on every turn the Atmosphere Converter is built, at least according to the newbie guide, regardless of upgrades and construction of the facility. So even if it were 100 turns after the Atmosphere Converter had been built, dropping a domining Methane population should transform that planet to a Methane atmosphere. I have never actually done so myself however, so I am just quoting the Newbie FAQ here (it makes sense given how the game works though).

Planet Shaping requires Stellar Manipulation 2 to 4, which itself requires Astrophysics 1. Stellar Manipulation has many very powerful technologies, including Warp Opening, Warp Closing, Creating and Destroying Storms, and even blowing up whole systems by destroying a star. To create a Planet, you will need asteroids and a star in the system, and a vessel equipped with a Matter Gravity Sphere.