Gameplay tips & tricks

Alienboy · #1 September 23rd, 2005, 06:10 AM

Thanks for that, ya learn something new everyday. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]

Hmmm, wonder what happened to my big explosion???

Anyway, here it is, let me know what you think?

narf poit chez BOOM · #2 September 23rd, 2005, 12:33 PM

Pretty and good.

Alienboy · #3 November 10th, 2005, 07:08 AM

Does anyone know a little bit about Ship upgrades? On some turns I have done a lot of ship upgrades, sometimes more than 50 ships per turn. I have a problem keeping track of how much resources I need to complete all upgrades successfully. I have a resource converter facility and plenty of resources to work with. I usually find that I need more mineral resources. The problem is I can�t seem to figure out exactly how much of the other resources I need to convert to cover all my upgrades. I always seem to find that some of my upgrades didn�t go through because I have a lack of resources. Is there a way to calculate how much resources I need for bulk ship upgrades without having to write down the cost of every single individual upgrade?? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]

Wolfman77 · #4 November 10th, 2005, 12:31 PM

Multiplication is the best method I've found. if you select 10 ships that cost 5kT of minerals each, you need 50kT to compleate the upgrade. If I'm not mistaken, all ship need to be from the same class. After selecting them and clicking "retrofit" it should list the costs of each shipto the right of the class name. It would be nice, though, if it totaled them up for you.

Alienboy · #5 November 15th, 2005, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Wolfman77 said:
Multiplication is the best method I've found. if you select 10 ships that cost 5kT of minerals each, you need 50kT to compleate the upgrade. If I'm not mistaken, all ship need to be from the same class. After selecting them and clicking "retrofit" it should list the costs of each shipto the right of the class name. It would be nice, though, if it totaled them up for you.

Yeah, I agree,.. a total is necessary. I have just upgraded 70 odd ships, mostly different classes. I have tried to calculate things but I am missing something somewhere. I think that you only have the resources you have left from your last turn to work with. You might have 500000 minerals coming in on your current turn but I think that it is not accounted for with your current upgrades?? not sure really.

You also have to account for any resources you gift to other races.

Wolfman77 · #6 November 15th, 2005, 06:14 PM

Yes you can only use resources you have in storage. None from production mining or trade are counted. I don't gift too much, but then I only play the AI, most of the time I've already ticked them off enough that I can't change their mood much. When your empire really starts to grow retrofit costs can kill you if you havent kept up on storage. Several mods have added storage to the production facilities. This helps alot, but I've found tiny planets full of starage facilities to be useful as well, since you cant get as good production and build bonuses from them.

douglas · #7 December 7th, 2005, 02:24 AM

The bug is that resources from scrapped facilities, despite showing up immediately when you're playing the turn, vanish without a trace in turn processing.

Resources from scrapped ships come in when the ship is scrapped, which happens when it executes its orders for the turn. When that happens relative to any retrofit orders depends on the speeds of the ships involved and on their ship ID's. Resources from a ship with speed 5 will never be available on the same turn to retrofit a ship with speed 6. If they both move on the same day (eg, same speed or speed 10-13), it depends on ship ID, which I most recently explained in this thread

Note that bases and ships with no engines "move" on day 0, so resources from scrapped bases will always be available to spend on retrofitting mobile ships, while scrapping mobile ships can never pay for retrofitting bases.

Also, there actually is one way to get resources from scrapped facilities in simultaneous play - abandon the planet and answer the prompt about scrapping the facilities with "yes". When the abandon/scrap order is executed (on day 0), you will get the correct amount of resources for scrapping every facility on the colony. Of course, this does completely destroy the colony, so you probably don't want to do it very often.

Parasite · #8 December 4th, 2005, 03:43 AM

I would check the planet with the RCF again. I have had one on on repeat orders to launch sat, mines, or fighters, then when I convert resources, it gets moved up into the repeat as well. Check all the RCF planets, then check them again. If you are getting Out of Resource messages, that is almost certainly it.

A minor possibility is you are getting hit by intellegence attacks to steal or destroy them. Could this be happening? If you have any counterintel up, you should get at least notification of attacks.

The game does not say which one is out, but you mentioned that you keep track of all three. Even Organics can be a problem if you are doing SM ships or Master Computers. Check all the messages, if some high cost ones fail first, later cheaper ones may still convert.

CaptainAL · #9 December 7th, 2005, 02:04 AM

Thanks. You guys know this game inside & out so this answers my question - it isn't a bug. I read something about a scrap resource bug (maybe this thread, I forget) and that may be doing it. I am going to be very careful when cutting it close & not count on any scrap resource gains. There's a lot of good stuff in this thread that has helped me out - thanks to all contributors.

Alienboy · #10 December 8th, 2005, 02:25 AM

Hi CaptainAl,... Have just been catching up on this subject. I have read your posts and I thought I'd add my ten cents worth. (with the exchange rate and tax that comes out at about half a cent!)

From what I have read you are talking about a problem which you have encountered on a perticular turn. I am not sure if repeat orders would be the cause of what you discribe. If I'm not mistaken you have added up the cost of your total upgrades for a turn. You have taken into account your availible resources and converted resources to make up a mineral shortage, making sure you have left enough Organics and Radioactive resources for your upgrades. On the next turn you say that none of your upgrade actually worked.

I have always had a problem doing large amounts of upgrades but I have never encountered a turn where none were upgraded at all. What I am about to say is only based on my own theory as I don't know how the turns are processed. I am taking this opertunity to table my theory now.

Firstly, and probably quite simply,... are we forgetting the actual costs of ship repair??? In the situation where you have a number of ships that are damaged from W.H.Y and they are being repaired that turn. Have those costs been accounted for in your available resources total? I don't think so. Remember that each space yard can only repair at a certain rate. Sometimes a ship that has 50% damage may still have 20% damage to repair for the following turn. It is because of this that I believe that the cost to repair damaged components must be taken out at the beginning of the following turn BEFORE the cost of any upgrades are accounted for, and then it is dependant on how many components have been repaired from the previous turn. Did that make any sense at all??? I hope you catch my drift. It is also my understanding that if you are too low on resources no repairs will be completed regardless. If the above is correct then that could explain why you didn't have enough resources to upgrade you ships,... repairs must come first!?? .... anybody????

Another thing you might want to check is exactly how much resources did actually get converted,.. eg,..is it posible that you accidently converted 100000 Organics into Minerals when you only intended to convert 10000???

Another thing I have wondered about relates to the cost of an upgrade. As we all know you can only upgrade to 50% the original cost of that ship. If you are like me you may do several upgrades to get to the end result. eg,.. you start with a basic hull. Lets say you require four upgrades to get the ship you want. If you start with the first upgrade and accidently try to upgrade it to the fourth upgrade then you would receive a message telling you that you can not upgrade a ship more than 50% the original cost. That is well known,... but if you do not have enough resources to do that upgrade,... you will get the "you do not have enough resources to complete this upgrade" message before the "50% upgrade message" I believe the game considers the cost of an upgrade before the ability to upgrade. So,.. this may be another posible explaination for what you have discribed, and you would have no way of telling which upgrade you were trying for. Maybe this might also be useful in the new version. ie,.. if an upgrade order is not completed it would be great to know what you were trying to upgrade too, and if you were short of resources, how much and which resources would also be handy????

Sheeesh,.. maybe thats just a little too hard. We should just like it or lump it I reakon! lol..... and what about riots,... haven't even gone there! lol

Merry christmas to you all from Alienboy. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]