Just bought the game -- brief plea for help

[tinkthank]

OK well despite the modest replies to my demo thread, I splurged and purchased the game and was able to DL the .iso and get it running ok. However....

- Periodically (every 10 minutes or so), the game will minimize itself and dump me out to the desktop. I can still get it back up via Task Manager, but it is annoying, especially if it happens during battles.
I am running version 1.11 in fullscreen mode on a servicable WinXP machine (1 gig RAM, 128MB Radeon Mobility, 1.88 GHz).
This did NOT HAPPEN to me in the demo, ever.
Can anybody help me localize and fix the problem?

- When I get the Aethric Mirror (or whatever that device is called), and use it to jump to inhabited worlds via the command "mirror", I often get the message "you have won a decisive victory" and access that planet's trade emporium without having taken part in a battle. In fact, if I come back to that system later via regular "engagement", I may often find (hostile) creatures. Is this a bug in 1.11?

- This is just a small thing, really, but I notice that while the mission types all seem to be very similar, the military one seems to be easiest simply because the ship has more slots. I do not, however, see the scoring scaled for that -- science seems much harder, but the score is not scaled. Is this intentional?

Thank you very much

[Draxis]

Congrats on your purchase

"- Periodically (every 10 minutes or so), the game will minimize itself and dump me out to the desktop."

Are you hitting any escape key combo's? (ALT+Esc, Windows Key, etc). You sure you have not picked up any spyware / adware in the last few days?

"- When I get the Aethric Mirror (or whatever that device is called), and use it to jump to inhabited worlds via the command "mirror", I often get the message "you have won a decisive victory""

The enemy fleets were guarding the planet, you got to the planets surface because after using the mirror there were no enemies there (because you switched places with the enemy force). Technically its a victory. You should only see hostile creatures at the planet again if you use the mirror from that planet to switch places with another fleet, and then go back to the planet with standard engines.

"- This is just a small thing, really, but I notice that while the mission types all seem to be very similar, the military one seems to be easiest simply because the ship has more slots."

On the military missions, you get points by destroying enemies and getting equipment, its far more dangerous if you dont know when to engage and when to leg it. The science missions you can get a good score even if you never engage enemies. I dont know that one is meant to be harder than the other, they are different approaches to the game, and you happen to be inclined to the military method.

Hope that helps

[tinkthank]

Thank you.

a. No, I am certain I am not hitting any key combo like that. In fact, I made sure, and left the game running and went out to the store and bought some beer, and sure enough, when I came back, it was minimized.
b. Am pretty sure I didnt get any adware/spyware, although it is technically possible that in the brief time it took me to DL the .ISO file, someone hacked me, but veeeery unlikely. Also, it happens when I am completely offline (took my laptop outside to test).

thank you

[Shadowcat]

Re: the different missions.

The scoring *is* scaled, but it's a litle more complex than you were thinking.

As mentioned above, each mission type has different goals. Read the mission briefing, and make sure pay attention to the values of items (as roughly indicated by the number of coins) as you travel the sector. Scientists and Military types do not value things equally! (and those pesky aliens are smart enough to know what to charge the most for regardless of your career choice, it would seem!)