acts of war, war declaration and other topics (my first message!)

[Elowan]

Keep in mind that there is a restriction on refits. Namely - the refit cannot cost more than 50% of the vessels original cost. In that event - do incremental (step-wise) or gradual refits until you get the value to a point where the restriction no longer applies. Also - sometimes it's cheaper in the long run just to build a ship rather than refit it.

Use the upgrade button, make your changes and save the design as previously suggested.

Refits cost 50% more than a build-out.

[Slick]

Upgrading a facility costs 50%. This does not apply to retrofitting a ship. From settings.txt:

Retrofit Cost Percent For Comps := 120
Retrofit Cost Percent For Comp Removal := 30

Slick.

[Q]

Originally posted by trooper:

2- I've cause some battles by moving a ship on an ennemy ship. Sometimes the computer warn me that, doing that, there would be a battle, sometimes not (erspecially on warp points, I think). Why ?

4- What is the best way to declare a non aggression pact ? I made very ressources gift to an alien race, but they keep on refusing my treatie requests...

Bonjour mon ami et bienvenue au forum SE IV!

Neither English nor French is my native language, but I think I will continue in English as French is more difficult to write (at least for me).

2.) Usually you get a warning in turn based game before entering into a sector where a combat will start. The exception is as you already realized when you warp to the other side of a warp point. Then you just drop in the middle of the sector and the combat begins.

4.) Gifts are a good way to improve the mood of AI races in order to get a treaty. But there are some AI races that are very xenophobic and will almost never accept a treaty.

[Suicide Junkie]

Ramming does not always take out both ships, depends on what you have on it, like SJ said, armor, shields etc. the ;more you have the less likely chance the ship will be destroyed.

Actually, I didn't mention how to survive rammings, that was Arkcon

Shields will only protect the defender during a ram. The ship doing the ramming does not use its shields.
Armor, and other hitpoints from internal components (engines, crew quarters, etc) will both protect you and deliver more damage to the enemy when you ram.

[minipol]

i never used ramming before. time to start using it!

[trooper]

Hi Hi.

I'm a newbie in SE IV, and I've got some questions (surprising, isn't it ?)

1- war state : I had a few battle with an alien race, but there is no state of war between our empires. I think that the war declaration must be official to have a state of war. What's the use of declaring an official war ?

2- I've cause some battles by moving a ship on an ennemy ship. Sometimes the computer warn me that, doing that, there would be a battle, sometimes not (erspecially on warp points, I think). Why ?

3- I'm not an english native speaker (i thing you should already know...) and i wold like to know if an attitude "cool" for alien races is more friendly that an attitude "warm".

4- What is the best way to declare a non aggression pact ? I made very ressources gift to an alien race, but they keep on refusing my treatie requests...

5- What's the use of warheads designed to be used by ramming into another ship ? I tryied it on my fregate, and i bumped into an escort : result : two ships destroyed ! I thought that kamikase area was over 'til 1945...

6- Do two research centers an the same planet provide two times more research points ?

7- Last but not least. Is it possible to refit an existing ship ? (updating missiles, cannons, engines and so on...). Is it possible to change the design of a ship without creating a new design name (which would not obliged me to have an escort I, escort II, escort III design vessels in the design list)

That's all for now.
Oh, I forgot : That game looks really great...

[ June 20, 2003, 12:19: Message edited by: trooper ]

[tbontob]

Hi trooper

I am a newbie my self... So I'll answer the ones I know something about.

1 State of war or lack of it puzzles me somewhat too. I do know I can still trade where there is no declaration of war. Whether that exists in a war state, I couldn't say without testing it.

3 Warm is friendlier than cool

5 Never tried warheads and raming. But I believe the idea is to take out larger ships. More difficult in strategic play I would imagine.

6 Yes, 2 research facilities will double your research points.

7 Yes you can refit. Press "upgrade". You need an entirely new name unless it has never been used, (such as in a construction queue or actually built) in which case press "edit"

Never tried this, but I would imagine you can make a design obsolete (make sure there are no ships with that name), the program should remove the name from the design queue and then you can reuse it.

Oh, I forgot : That game looks really great...

Yes, I like it too

[ September 17, 2002, 12:45: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[oleg]

I still remember my first encounter with Rage when I just installed TDM: I merely warped to a new system and emerged next to unknown colony ship. Being a benevolent and humane ruler I forbid my scout ship fire on aliens. Next thing my ship was smitterd to pieces...

In later game stages, ramming is a valuable option to organic ships with lots and lots of organic armour.

[Grandpa Kim]

1- war state : I had a few battle with an alien race, but there is no state of war between our empires. I think that the war declaration must be official to have a state of war. What's the use of declaring an official war ?

You can battle with any empire you have "war", "none", or "non-intercourse". The differences are subtle but here is the way I see it. AI's at "war" are very unlikely to accept any treaty from you. With "none", you stand a very good chance of arranging a treaty with them. "Non-intercourse" is used mostly by human players playing a neutral empire (as opposed to peaceful or bloodthirsty). This is about the only treaty such an empire's people will accept without becoming unhappy.

In PBW, many games require that no wars exist before victory can be claimed, so it serves a purpose there too.

2- I've cause some battles by moving a ship on an ennemy ship. Sometimes the computer warn me that, doing that, there would be a battle, sometimes not (erspecially on warp points, I think). Why ?

I must admit, I have never seen this warning.

3- I'm not an english native speaker (i thing you should already know...) and i wold like to know if an attitude "cool" for alien races is more friendly that an attitude "warm".

As tbontob said, warm is friendlier than cool. But don't rely on these to tell you anything important. In one game I have, an empire is murderous towards me but keeps asking for a Trade Alliance.

4- What is the best way to declare a non aggression pact ? I made very ressources gift to an alien race, but they keep on refusing my treatie requests...

The best way is to simply ask for the treaty with no gifts. The problem is, some aliens simply don't want treaties, others only want them when they are at war with someone else. The variations are endless.

5- What's the use of warheads designed to be used by ramming into another ship ? I tryied it on my fregate, and i bumped into an escort : result : two ships destroyed ! I thought that kamikase area was over 'til 1945...

The "ram" ships and "ram" orders do not work very well... at least in my opinion.

6- Do two research centers an the same planet provide two times more research points ?

Yes!!! Put on as many as you like. If the planet has low resource numbers, you can fill it with research centres exclusively.

7- Last but not least. Is it possible to refit an existing ship ? (updating missiles, cannons, engines and so on...). Is it possible to change the design of a ship without creating a new design name (which would not obliged me to have an escort I, escort II, escort III design vessels in the design list)

No, you cannot change a design without giving it a new name. One exception: If it is a new design that has not been built, you can edit it ("Edit" button in the design window), but you then lose the original design. This is good, since you don't want two different designs with the same name.

Yes, you can re-fit an existing ship. We call it retro-fitting. The icon is a triangle with a green arrow circling the border, or use the hotkey as I do-- the letter "G". From here you can retrofit, mothball, scrap or fire on the selected ship.

Hope this helps, Trooper.

Kim

Edit: Holy crap! 15 Posts while I was typing this!

[ September 18, 2002, 03:06: Message edited by: Grandpa Kim ]

[mac5732]

One of the things I would like to see tweaked in SE4 is the fact that you can be at war with another AI player without either side declaring war. Now in the other Versions, the AI would not go to war footing (increased war production etc) unless there was an actual state of war declared. This gives the human player an advantage. I would like to see something like if you bLast, capture another (AI) players, ships, or glaze or capture a planet, that after say the 3rd incident, the AI would declare war or at least break any treaties they have with you and make it harder to obtain another, or something on this order. I don't know if this is still true in 1.78, if it is, IMHO it should be tweaked.

my opinion only

just some ideas mac