Various game questions

[Silent Sorrow]

1. To attack enemy ships in space with multiple friendly ships at the same time, do the friendlies have to be organized into a single fleet? The other day I noticed that when I shift-click individual ships and give them an attack order, they arrive one at a time and are of course picked off.

1(a). If I select two friendly fleets and give them an attack order will only one fleet attack at one time? (I seem to recall this is what happened to me a couple of days ago.) Thus, is the only way to attack with all my ships at one time is to put them all in a single fleet?

2. If I colonize a tiny planet and it allows only one facility, will I still reap the benefits of a research center if I put one there without a space port?

2(a). Is the same true if I put a system computer, etc., on a one-facility planet?

3. What exactly is the relationship between size of planetary population and other things such as production? In MOO2 I could easily see the relationship but here it's unclear. Does getting it up to a particular level vastly decrease production time of new units, etc.?

4. Do mines I lay in space affect my own ships (haven't had a chance to test this yet but I'm curious)?

5. Why does the AI attack me so early in the game? I'm playing with medium settings and I've noticed in the few games I've played that even if I've given another empire a gift when I first meet them, they haul off and declare war a few turns later, no matter what. Often they claim I've been doing this and that, even though I've been having no contact with them and haven't even researched any kind of intelligence apparatus, much less built anything. What gives?

[Phoenix-D]

"1. To attack enemy ships in space with multiple friendly ships at the same time, do the friendlies have to be organized into a single fleet? The other day I noticed that when I shift-click individual ships and give them an attack order, they arrive one at a time and are of course picked off."

Yes, they need to be in a fleet, otherwise you get the trickle-of-death syndrome.

"1(a). If I select two friendly fleets and give them an attack order will only one fleet attack at one time? (I seem to recall this is what happened to me a couple of days ago.) Thus, is the only way to attack with all my ships at one time is to put them all in a single fleet?"

Sometimes you'll get lucky and they will, most of the time it needs to be a single fleet. HOWEVER, if the first fleet fights to a draw, the second fleet will renforce the first and they'll both fight in the second combat.

"2. If I colonize a tiny planet and it allows only one facility, will I still reap the benefits of a research center if I put one there without a space port?"

No. You need to have one space port per system before you'll get *any* points from any facilities in that system.

"2(a). Is the same true if I put a system computer, etc., on a one-facility planet?"

If you put a SYSTEM computer on, you'll get the benifits.. on all the other planets. If you put a regular computer on, you'll gain exactly nil.

"3. What exactly is the relationship between size of planetary population and other things such as production? In MOO2 I could easily see the relationship but here it's unclear. Does getting it up to a particular level vastly decrease production time of new units, etc.?"

More poplulation = more production. There are several plateu levels that I don't remember offhand. Happyness does the same thing, only it's easier to measure- a jublient pop produces more than a happy one, which produces more than indifferent, etc.

"4. Do mines I lay in space affect my own ships (haven't had a chance to test this yet but I'm curious)?"

No.

"5. Why does the AI attack me so early in the game? I'm playing with medium settings and I've noticed in the few games I've played that even if I've given another empire a gift when I first meet them, they haul off and declare war a few turns later, no matter what. Often they claim I've been doing this and that, even though I've been having no contact with them and haven't even researched any kind of intelligence apparatus, much less built anything. What gives?"

Some of them are just xenophobic.

Phoenix-D

[Fyron]

1. I don't know.

2. No. You have to have a spaceport to get any resources/research/intel from a system (unless you have Natural Merchants).

2(a). A system computer only gives you more resources/research/intel if you are making them on a planet in the system. So, building one in a system with no resource/research/intel facilities does nothing. If you have no spaceport, the computer can't do anything, since you are making 0 resource/research/intel.

3. Yes. From Settings.txt in the Data subfolder:
Number Of Population Modifiers := 12
Pop Modifier 1 Population Amount := 99
Pop Modifier 1 Production Modifier Percent := 100
Pop Modifier 1 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 100
Pop Modifier 2 Population Amount := 499
Pop Modifier 2 Production Modifier Percent := 105
Pop Modifier 2 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 105
Pop Modifier 3 Population Amount := 999
Pop Modifier 3 Production Modifier Percent := 110
Pop Modifier 3 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 110
Pop Modifier 4 Population Amount := 1999
Pop Modifier 4 Production Modifier Percent := 120
Pop Modifier 4 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 120
Pop Modifier 5 Population Amount := 2999
Pop Modifier 5 Production Modifier Percent := 130
Pop Modifier 5 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 130
Pop Modifier 6 Population Amount := 3999
Pop Modifier 6 Production Modifier Percent := 140
Pop Modifier 6 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 140
Pop Modifier 7 Population Amount := 4999
Pop Modifier 7 Production Modifier Percent := 150
Pop Modifier 7 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 150
Pop Modifier 8 Population Amount := 5999
Pop Modifier 8 Production Modifier Percent := 160
Pop Modifier 8 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 160
Pop Modifier 9 Population Amount := 6999
Pop Modifier 9 Production Modifier Percent := 170
Pop Modifier 9 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 170
Pop Modifier 10 Population Amount := 7999
Pop Modifier 10 Production Modifier Percent := 180
Pop Modifier 10 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 180
Pop Modifier 11 Population Amount := 9999
Pop Modifier 11 Production Modifier Percent := 190
Pop Modifier 11 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 190
Pop Modifier 12 Population Amount := 2000000
Pop Modifier 12 Production Modifier Percent := 200
Pop Modifier 12 SY Rate Modifier Percent := 200

4. No, and they won't affect the ships of other empires that you have a Non-Aggression or higher treaty with either. They only affect those that you are at war with or have no treaty with.

5. The AI is mean and highly unpredicatble. It tends to not remember what happened even 1 turn ago. I suggest playing human opponents via http://seiv.pbw.cc if at all possible.

[Silent Sorrow]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Sometimes you'll get lucky and they will, most of the time it needs to be a single fleet.

So this is a bug when it happens?

No. You need to have one space port per system before you'll get *any* points from any facilities in that system.

So tiny planets (1 facility space) are pretty much useless to me unless and until I can expand the number of facilities to at least two, correct? (And excepting the system-wide facilities like system computer.)

[Phoenix-D]

"So tiny planets (1 facility space) are pretty much useless to me unless and until I can expand the number of facilities to at least two, correct?"

No. If you have a spaceport *elsewhere* in the system, the planet can have a mineral miner or other resource facility and still produce.

Even without a spaceport, it's still useful for putting a space yard or reupply depot on.

Phoenix-D

[Silent Sorrow]

Really? I checked the manual and it specifically states that for the production of a planet to accrue to your empire, it must have a spaceport built on it. Which one is it? Because if you're right then I've been wasting my effort all this time in building a space port on each planet in every system. This news would certainly change things.

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"So tiny planets (1 facility space) are pretty much useless to me unless and until I can expand the number of facilities to at least two, correct?"

No. If you have a spaceport *elsewhere* in the system, the planet can have a mineral miner or other resource facility and still produce.

Even without a spaceport, it's still useful for putting a space yard or reupply depot on.

Phoenix-D

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Silent Sorrow:
1. To attack enemy ships in space with multiple friendly ships at the same time, do the friendlies have to be organized into a single fleet? The other day I noticed that when I shift-click individual ships and give them an attack order, they arrive one at a time and are of course picked off.

1(a). If I select two friendly fleets and give them an attack order will only one fleet attack at one time? (I seem to recall this is what happened to me a couple of days ago.) Thus, is the only way to attack with all my ships at one time is to put them all in a single fleet?

2. If I colonize a tiny planet and it allows only one facility, will I still reap the benefits of a research center if I put one there without a space port?

2(a). Is the same true if I put a system computer, etc., on a one-facility planet?

3. What exactly is the relationship between size of planetary population and other things such as production? In MOO2 I could easily see the relationship but here it's unclear. Does getting it up to a particular level vastly decrease production time of new units, etc.?

4. Do mines I lay in space affect my own ships (haven't had a chance to test this yet but I'm curious)?

5. Why does the AI attack me so early in the game? I'm playing with medium settings and I've noticed in the few games I've played that even if I've given another empire a gift when I first meet them, they haul off and declare war a few turns later, no matter what. Often they claim I've been doing this and that, even though I've been having no contact with them and haven't even researched any kind of intelligence apparatus, much less built anything. What gives?

1) In a turn-based game they will arrive together IF you shift-click them all with one turn's movement of the location. If they move more than one turn to attack then yes, they will all move independently on the next turn and arrive one at a time. In a simultaneous move game, each will move at its own speed if they are not fleeted together. If they have different speeds then yes they will arrive seperately. Fleets are good. Especially if you have fleet training facilities.

1a) No. All shift-clicked items, ship or fleet, will get the attack order. They just might move at different speeds. If the fleets/ships all have the same speed they should arrive together even in asimultaneous move game.

2) No. You need a space port to get any resources (including research or intelligence) from a system unless you have the 'Natural Merchants' ability. You could still put a resupply depot or a cargo storage facility on it. When you research atmosphere converters you can get more facilities out of it, after the ages-long wait for the facility to get built and convert the atmosphere.

2a) Same deal. You need the Space Port first, then something else to produce resources for the computer to increase. Computers can only enhance what is on the same planet or in the same system with them. There are no 'empire wide' facilities yet except the Resource Converter.

3) This is controlled in SETTINGS.TXT as illustrated by Fyron. You can change it if you like.

4) No, your mines do not affect your ships or your allies' ships.

5) Did you choose 'team mode' when you started the game? That tells the AI to automatically gang up on any human players in the game. Otherwise, it's up to the AI code in SE to decide, and some of the AI settings in the text files. Since we don't have the code we can't really say. Yes, sometimes an AI will just immediately decide it hates you.

Also, there is an intelligence operation that will send a false message of war. You might have had that used against you if the game has run for a few hundred turns and there has been time to research it.

[ July 01, 2002, 00:30: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Silent Sorrow:
Really? I checked the manual and it specifically states that for the production of a planet to accrue to your empire, it must have a spaceport built on it. Which one is it? Because if you're right then I've been wasting my effort all this time in building a space port on each planet in every system. This news would certainly change things.

Are you referring to page 11 where it says:

"In fact whenever you colonize a planet in a new system you must first build a spaceport on that planet to allow your empire to share the goods made in the nascent system with your other systems."

This is not well phrased. You must have ONE spaceport in a system to get the resources delivered to your empire. It doesn't hurt to have a spare on another planet in case of accidents and attacks, but you do NOT need one per planet. He should have said it differently. Maybe "The first order of business in a newly colonized system should be to build a spaceport somewhere so that resources generated in this system will be available to your empire."

[ July 01, 2002, 00:39: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Grandpa Kim]

In addition, tiny domed planets have many good uses. Since they will never get much of a population bonus, they are a great place to put anything that doesn't produce resources, research or intel. That means you could use a single facility planet for:

space yard
resupply depot
space port
urban pacification centre
resource storage
system wide computer/robotoid/databank
resource converter
atmosphere plant
fleet or ship training facility (should be a moon in this case)

and probably others that just won't come to the front of my disorganized mind.

Despite their small capacity, they are good for building units. While your big planets are churning out production facilities for years on end, they may be the only places you can build units immediately. If the the tiny planet is a moon, any excess units over its own storage will automatically be stored on the main planet! If you are producing fighters or satellites, you can simply launch them into space and the appropriate ship can come by and recover them at its leisure.

Don't discount the tinies, they can be very useful.

Kim

[gregebowman]

I'm fairly new to this game, just having discovered it while reading a review of it in PC Gamer. After playing the demo, I had to get the game so that I could get the manual. Well, to say the least, the manual was a disappointment. It didn't cover nearly as much info as I thought it should have. So I've got several questions.

1. How do you effectively use the robot miners? Do you just put them on a ship and just park it in an asteroid field?

2. What is the best way to create ringworlds or sphere worlds? since the components are so much, the only way I've been able to do it is to create a ship with a shipyard in it and create the largest space stations with one component each. that takes a lot of stations before you can build something. Isn't there a more economical way of doing this?

3. Also, I'm trying to get a hang on all of these mods. I've downloaded some races, but when I try to do a quick game, not all of the races show up. How do I get them all to appear?