warning: newbie inside. beginner's questions

[primitive]

Welcome to the forums. Some fast answers.

1: The AI’s sucks at finite resources. They mine themselves dry in no time, and then they just die off. Better to leave the finite resources setup for games against humans.

2: Build storage facilities, they should be available from the start. Managing resources are tricky, but you will get the hang of it after a while. Build as many shipyards as possible to have some outlet from the spare resources.

3: Press Q (after selecting the planet). There a bunch of hotkeys listed in the Empire (The Crown) window. Very useful

[Taera]

correction - under the help (question mark) menu

And welcome.

[primitive]

Oups

[JLS]

fladiv in your vanilla se4 Finite game, many players may say Resource Storage Facilities are great to save for an expensive upgrade reserve otherwise it it only a stopgap.
Some savvy players live on the edge when it comes to resource reserves

Try building a few Base Shipyards and build many ships and Colonizers this will use much of your starting income.

Yes, as you say scrap un-needed Resource Extraction Facilities is very wise and replace this with Research or Intel Facilities etc, when in need scrap the latter for that resource.

Remember, that Planet Utilization is a key to your success and resource Extraction techs are not a priority early in that style game.

As the Players have mentioned the vanilla se4 AI will suck there planets resources dry.

[ November 03, 2003, 13:18: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Grand Lord Vito]

Originally posted by primitive:
1: The AI’s sucks at finite resources. They mine themselves dry in no time, and then they just die off. Better to leave the finite resources setup for games against humans.

If you want Finite play you want the AI Campaign MOD

In your first AIC 4.00 game do not give the AI any bonuses and take all the top Trait start options. do not take option 4 though

[fladiv]

Thanks everyone for the tips, and now I have got some more questions...

1. I was trying the devnull mod...
It seems that by default the ministers are turned on there, so they have given some orders and filled some queues before I have disabled them, and I hope this won't repeat The worst thing, however, is that somewhat designs the ships and units automatically, which, for me, is inacceptable.
I am used to name designs using certain convention so that ship class name would give the idea of what this ship is usable for.
AI, on the other side, gives designs it adds absolutely irrelevant names, and I can't yet determine what the design is intended for because I am not competent enough with the game yet - I like exploring its featuring one by one, so it is important that I create all the designs myself..
Ok, shortly - how do I disable this feature?
Or maybe it is possible to pre-design something to re-use designs in some later games?

2. What affects the movement rate of ships in combat? Number of engines? Sail? it seems not. So is it fixed for the hull type?

3. is there any tactical ground combat? once somewhy I had only "strategic" option.
In this mode, combat is shown as the changing numerical amount of alive troops...
What is the point of complex troops design then?
Or perhaps I have done something bad that prevented tactical combat?
That time I have unleashed troops from the space tactical combat's troop transport sheep's order, btw...

4. Playing with `emotionless' race, I have conquered some other, non-emotionless species's planet (with 100% population of that species), and its mood was still emotionless for several turns (I don't know would it have ever changed...).
Isn't this a bug? shouldn't mood depend on species the people of those it is?

5. Why do the planets revolt? I thought they do because of poor happiness of the planet's population, but once emotionless planet has revolted...

[Alneyan]

Originally posted by fladiv:
1. I was trying the devnull mod...
It seems that by default the ministers are turned on there, so they have given some orders and filled some queues before I have disabled them, and I hope this won't repeat The worst thing, however, is that somewhat designs the ships and units automatically, which, for me, is inacceptable.
I am used to name designs using certain convention so that ship class name would give the idea of what this ship is usable for.
AI, on the other side, gives designs it adds absolutely irrelevant names, and I can't yet determine what the design is intended for because I am not competent enough with the game yet - I like exploring its featuring one by one, so it is important that I create all the designs myself..
Ok, shortly - how do I disable this feature?
Or maybe it is possible to pre-design something to re-use designs in some later games?

If you disable the AI before the first turn, it won't mess up with your designs or queues. You are advised to do so, as you see the consequences of leaving the AI in charge.
As for the second part of your question, you have the option to save your designs when you save your Empire. (Menu => Save Empire => Type a name => Click Yes when the game prompts you to save your designs) All your other options will be saved as well, including disabling this pesky AI.

2. What affects the movement rate of ships in combat? Number of engines? Sail? it seems not. So is it fixed for the hull type?

The basic combat movement of ships is their strategic ship (engines+sails)/2. A ship with a speed of 6 will go at a speed of 3 in combat. However, there are components that alter the combat speed, like Afterburners for fighters in the vanilla game (+3 combat speed at best) or Base engines, which give bases the ability to move *only* in combat. However, I am not sure if these bonuses are halved or not. (That is to say, if you have a +3 movement bonus with Afterburners of +1,5 point)

3. is there any tactical ground combat? once somewhy I had only "strategic" option.
In this mode, combat is shown as the changing numerical amount of alive troops...
What is the point of complex troops design then?
Or perhaps I have done something bad that prevented tactical combat?
That time I have unleashed troops from the space tactical combat's troop transport sheep's order, btw...

There are no tactical combat, except the window you alluded to. The ground battles are a bit... erh unknown to say the least, so the purpose of advanced troops is hard to see. In the vanilla game, ground combat should never be that much of an issue though, as militias aren't exactly a threat. With several mods, you will face an hard time capturing some of these worlds. (AIC and likely Proportions as well, you don't want to glass the enemy homeworld, do you?)

4. Playing with `emotionless' race, I have conquered some other, non-emotionless species's planet (with 100% population of that species), and its mood was still emotionless for several turns (I don't know would it have ever changed...).
Isn't this a bug? shouldn't mood depend on species the people of those it is?

I am not sure about this one. Conquered species are supposed to have all the characteristics of your Empire, except atmosphere, but I don't know how Emotionless is handled in such a case. I would believe the conquered species don't have any mood as well.

5. Why do the planets revolt? I thought they do because of poor happiness of the planet's population, but once emotionless planet has revolted...

They usually do because of a poor happiness. It might be linked to an event (Planet Riot) or an intelligence project. (Anarchy Groups)