Finally a full-Version owner... just a few questions

[CW]

Finally got my full Version game in the mail. Somehow it has taken 13 days for the "Global Piority Mail" package to reach me here in Sydney (that's PIORITY mail?!?). I've a few questions:

1)What's a sphere world? What's a ring world?

2)Some of the stellar manipulation items are 2000kT in size and larger than the largest hull buildable, what do you do with them?

3)If I want to have some backup for the master computer and decide to fit a bridge on a ship, will it work without the life support and crew quarters?

4)Why is the Techyon Sensors III 1000 minerals more expensive than other level 3 sensors?

[This message has been edited by CW (edited 09 July 2001).]

[Phoenix-D]

"1)What's a sphere world? What's a ring world?"

Really really bigass structures you put around a star.

2)Some of the stellar manipulation items are 2000kT in size and larger than the largest hull buildable, what do you do with them?

Starbase. Gotta build em on the spot.

3)If I want to have some backup for the master computer and decide to fit a bridge on a ship, will it work without the life support and crew quarters?

No. Rather, it'll work fine til the MC bites it.. then it will act like the crew quarters and life support have been destroyed.

"4)Why is the Techyon Sensors III more expensive than other level 3 sensors?"

Your guess is as good as mine.

Phoenix-D

[Puke]

wow, how exciting. I rember when everyone was just getting their first copy and these questions were flying around like crazy. let me jump on this before some other giddy old-timer gets to it:

<edit: bah, beaten to it>

1 - sphere world is 10x the size of a huge planet. it is a 'dyson sphere' type thing that fully encloses a star. not only do they provide lots of resources, but they make it impossible for that star to be destroyed (by a bad event, or from stellar manipulation). ring world is the exact same thing, but smaller and cheaper. only 5x the size of a huge planet, and is only a ring around the star. otherwise, same. (i might be wrong on the sizes, they could be 20x and 10x, not sure)

2 - you stick them on a starbase, of course! build a construction ship, fly it to the star that you want to construct a ring or sphere about, and have the construction ship start building starbases with the right components on them. good documentation in this game, eh? i wonder how long it took for the first person to figure that one out.

3 - better than not having one i suppose. I think you will be able to fire, but your movement will be reduced. your ship will act like a ship with bridge that has had its crew and life support systems destroyed. so yes, that will work as a partial backup. you will be at reduced capacity though if your MC is destroyed. for a total backup, its best to have a full crew and life support. your resources are probably better spent on more shields and armor though, unless you are really worried about computer viruses (AI does not use them). in 1.41 you can no longer use an alliegence subverter on a ship with a destroyed master computer to take it over, so that little bit of cheeseyness has been fixed, and you dont have to worry about guarding against that.

<edit: 4 - probably because they are available earlier in the research tree. just like religious time shrines suck compared to system robotoid facilities, but they are available sooner>

hope that helped. heck, i hope it made sense.

------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[This message has been edited by Puke (edited 09 July 2001).]

[PsychoTechFreak]

Tachyon Sensors:

quote:

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Originally posted by Puke:


<edit: 4 - probably because they are available earlier in the research tree. just like religious time shrines suck compared to system robotoid facilities, but they are available sooner>

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But if you compare the amount of research points which you have to invest for Tachyon Sensor III with e.g. Hyper Optics III then you would never research them again.

[Puke]

quote:

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Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
Tachyon Sensors:

But if you compare the amount of research points which you have to invest for Tachyon Sensor III with e.g. Hyper Optics III then you would never research them again.

---

never research which? HO or TS? HO are at the end of the Adv.Mil.Sci. tech tree, which i dont bother to research most of the time anyway. Tach Sensors are at the end of the sensor tech tree, which most people with direct fire weapons will research to get their bonuses. so if you figure the begining of the TS tree most people need anyway, and the begining of the HO tree most people probably dont care about until later in the game. now temporal sensors, they come in early in the temporal tree, while you are getting other things. so while you are getting cool stuff like your events predictor, you can also pickup temporal sensors.

I guess it all sort of depends on what OTHER techs your race needs, and you can get whatever sensors are closest in the tree to things you have to research anyway.



------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[PsychoTechFreak]

No, what I meant is this: even if you don't need Advanced military science then it is cheaper to research through this tree until HO III. This is a part of another thread which I have started a few weeks ago (with medium research costs):

1) Hyper Optics (255 K of RP):
-BTW you get some tech areas: Combat Support, Torpedo Weapons, PDF Weapons, Weapon Overloading Weapons, Ship Capture, Advanced Military Science
-and some Facilities: Ship + Fleet Training Facilities

2) Psychic Receptors (Racial Trait needed, 350 K of RP):
-Facilities: Psychic Ship/Fleet Training Facilities
-leads to Psychic Scanner Facility (any ship within system can be scanned in detail)

3) Temporal Sensors (Racial Trait needed, 350 K of RP):
-Facilities: Events Predictor Fac.(System Combat Bonus), Temp. Vacation Service (Happiness)
-leads to Temp. Spaceyard Fac.

4) Gravitic Sensors (450K of RP):
- Tech Areas: Stellar Manipulation, Tractor/Repulser Weapons, Stellar Harnessing, Gravitational Weapons, Null-Space Weapons

5) Tachyon Sensors (1100 K of RP):
-Tech Areas: Shields, Sensors, Energy Stream Weapons, Energy Pulse Weapons, Combat Sensors (attack bonus)

I think Tachyon Sensors are WAY too expensive to research, ok you need some of the tech areas of the basic research (e.g. shields), but the 750 K of Research Points at the end just to get Tachyon Sensor III is too much.

Edit: The research points in brackets are all accumulated points that you need to get the level 3 sensor, included Basic research like Military Science,...

You need 750K to research Tachyon I to III, this alone are almost 3 times more points than the complete military/advanced military research tree.

[This message has been edited by PsychoTechFreak (edited 09 July 2001).]

[CW]

So are you guys telling me that the Tachyon Sensor, Hyper Optic, Psychic Receptors, Gravitic Sensor and Temproal Sensor do exactly the same thing in practice?

[Puke]

PTF: wow, that is an astoundingly useful breakdown on the costs and benefits of each research path. THANKS!

CW: yep, they all do the SAME THING. the sad thing is, the game is completly capable of using different types of cloaking and different types of sensors, but it has not been implemented in any of the patches yet, and I have not yet seen a mod that adds components for it.

[Baron Munchausen]

So, implement the different effects yourself! I've modded my stuff to make "passive EM scanning" by the Hyper-optics a lesser level of sensors that can defeat the stealth armor but not the cloaking device. All actual "cloaking devices" have level 5 in passive EM and so you must research another kind of sensors when these start to appear. It makes cloaking a much broader area of technology though the AI is not smart enough to know the difference and so this is mainly for human vs human games...

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 09 July 2001).]

[Spanglemaker]

Thanks for the info, I've received my full game now, but am away :-(
In the UK for a few days.
I'm looking forward to trying these out.