A newbie writes:

Jon Brave · #1 January 27th, 2001, 09:22 PM

4. Haven't played MOO2? You jest?! OK, I think I get this one: the next weapon I place is modified by the current/Last selected weapon mount? But I don't get much feedback to know what I Last selected, do I? The only clue is that after I have chosen the weapon it has an "L" for Large (and presumably "M" for Massive or whatever)?

6. Yes, that might be it. You mean: if I was there a while ago and it was empty it still shows up on my list of empties, but if someone has since colonized it the "+" gets removed? So even if the list says there's a colonziable planet for me it might not be empty by the time I get there? That could easily be what is going on.

7. A new question, since you're so helpful. I don't think I can get my mine sweepers to sweep? Am I right in saying that once I have entered a square where enemy mines were that square has a blue square round it with something like an "M" in it? But if I pick a sweeper and the "sweep mines" icon and send it to that square nothing seems to happen: no more mines maybe? If I put a mine sweeper in a fleet will it auto-sweep for me as the fleet enters a square? I'm losing too many valuable ships to mines!

quote:
Originally posted by Jubala:
Always glad to please.

4. I haven't played MOO2 so I don't know how it works there, but in SE4 the mounts go for all direct fire weapons, ie beams and torps. Missiles and point defense are not affected by mounts. You can have weapons of different mountsize on the same ship if you want to, just change the mount before you put them on. Useful sometimes when you can't get anymore of the biggest mounts to fit but a smaller one will.

6. That's probably because of the fact the colonizable/breathable/empty routine still thinks the planet is empty but because of a small oversight by the programmers (or a minor bug) the little star dissapear when the planet is occupied even though you technically don't know it's occupied. I hope that makes sense. As for seeing stuff in systems you don't have a presence, that's probably because someone you have a partnership with has a presence. You see all they see and vice versa.

Tomgs · #2 January 28th, 2001, 02:23 AM

7) The mine sweeping button is misleading. It is used to sweep mines that may have been laid in your sector by enemy ships maybe during a combat while the minelayer was killed. You would rarely ever use it (I never have found a use for it since the Last patch that made mines laid in combat reload after battle) because it for some reason won't move ships into a known mine area with this command (this just seems wrong to me

). Ships will sweep mines if you just send them into that sector no special command is needed. However if there are more mines than your sweepers can sweep then your ships will be damaged or destroyed until all the mines are gone.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 28 January 2001).]

Jubala · #3 January 28th, 2001, 04:40 PM

4. Just above the component window a text appears telling you what mount is currently selected.

6. Excatly.

7. Just fleshing out Tomgs Last sentence a little: If there are more mines then your sweepers can sweep then your ships will be damaged or destroyed until all the mines or all your ships are gone.

Jon Brave · #4 January 30th, 2001, 12:07 AM

OK, since you're being so helpful...

Conditions, Value, Population, Growth, Happiness, and structures which improve them --- what's the precise relationship? What do I get out of building my plebs a Climate Control or a Pacification Center? Is the maximum number of permitted facilities dependent on an unchangeable planet size?

raynor · #5 January 30th, 2001, 01:20 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Jon Brave:
OK, since you're being so helpful...

Conditions, Value, Population, Growth, Happiness, and structures which improve them --- what's the precise relationship? What do I get out of building my plebs a Climate Control or a Pacification Center? Is the maximum number of permitted facilities dependent on an unchangeable planet size?

First, it is important to understand that you get production bonuses based on the population level. For example, I think it is 5% at 100 million on up to 40% (I think?) at 1000 million, etc. So, you want a large population so you can build ships faster.

With that in mind, the conditions on a planet seem to affect the population growth. I have never paid any attention except to note that with deadly conditions my growth is zero. I think some folks have said that deadly conditions can cause your population to drop.

If you research Planet Utilization, you get the Climate Improvement Facility which improves the climate conditions by 1, 2 or 3% per year. (A year is 10 turns) We don't know various percentages on the different descriptions of conditions so I don't know how you would know if the planet's conditions have improved much.

Your race's happiness is determined by the type of race you pick. The types equate to aggressive, neutral and passive. Aggressive races are more happy with wars, neutral are more happy with nothing (made unhappy by change?), and passive more happy with peace treaties. I don't really understand this as well as some of the smart folks who play this game. I largely ignore it.

If your population is happy, you get a production bonus. If they go so unhappy that they riot, you don't get any production at all. Newly conquered planets are more likely to be unhappy with you and move towards rioting. You can fix this by building facilities such as an Urban Pacification Center I, II or III in the system. Or, you can station troops on the planet and/or?? put a fleet in orbit. Once again, in most of my games, this doesn't impact things much, and I don't worry about it.

The maximum number of facilities is based on planet size and the atmosphere type. If your race breathes oxygen, and you build a colony on a world with an oxygen atmosphere, you get the full number of facilities for the planet type. They are:
Tiny - 5
Small - 10
Medium - 15
Large - 20
Huge - 25
If you don't breathe the atmosphere, you are stuck in domes and lose the use of 80% of th e planet. Thus, you would only get: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 for tiny through huge planets respectively.

You can gain the full use of atmosphere types you don't breathe by either conquering a race that breathes that atmosphere. Transport, for example, hydrogen breathers to a hydrogen world and transport them to the planet. Now, transport your oxygen breathers to your transport ship. Voila! The dome is gone, and you get full use of the planet. This is far and away the quickest way to do this.

Alternatively, you can research WAY up the Planet Utilization tech tree to get Atmosphere Modification Plants I, II or III which convert the atmosphere to a breathable type over 3.0, 2.5 or 2.0 years. The facility takes about 5 turns to build, I think I recall.

In an earlier post, you saw planets that didn't have either a green plus or red plus next to them. I think maybe you were seeing oxygen atmosphered worlds that weren't rock worlds. There are three different types of worlds: rock, ice and gas giant. You start the game with only one of the three techs and have to research, trade or steal the other two. There are five atmosphere types:
Oxygen, Hydrogen, Methane, Carbon Dioxide and none.

If you are an oxygen breather and you only have rock colonization tech, you should see the following for these worlds:

Type - Atmosphere - Symbol
Gas - Oxygen - none
Rock - Oxygen - Green Plus
Rock - Methane - Red Plus
Rock - Hydrogen - Red Plus
Ice - Oxygen - none
Ice - Methane - none

Hope that helps. Ask as many questions as you like. Workin' on my Sergeant's stripes, ya know.

P.S. Did you know that you can customize the way ships look? You can make them look like Star Wars, or Babylon Five, or Star Trek, etc... (Not on this thread, but can't fail to mention my favourite feature!)

Tomgs · #6 January 30th, 2001, 02:25 AM

One other note it takes years for climate control facilities to have any effect. On good and mild planets I have seen them turn to Optimal after 6 to 10 years but unpleasatnt worlds in that time haven't even changed to mild. I am using a nature shrine in my current game (It has the same effects as the climate control and the Urban pacification center systemwide) I am 10 years into the game and none of my unpleasant worlds have gotten better at all.
Atmosphere modification facilities on the other hand work pretty fast 2-3 years. So conditions are probably on a 100 point scale since 30 points doesn't even change its state.
I believe conditions go Deadly, Harsh (only asteroids or planets damaged by events or war), Unpleasant (Why would a homeworld be unpleasant and other worlds in the galaxy have better conditions than your homeworld? Maybe pollution?), Mild, Good, and Optimal.

Drake · #7 January 30th, 2001, 04:32 PM

I've never been on a planet that was less than unpleasant. How do they get to deadly? Anyway, you lose 3% growth from optimal to good, and 2% for each level below that, from what I've seen.

I wouldn't be surprised if planets only show unpleasant while having some lower value. If they were capped at unpleasant, you wouldn't see a change in the conditions until they actually made their way internally up to unpleasant, and then to mild. I don't know if this is the case, but it seems possible.

If you want to know the guts of what things do, look in the data directory at the settings. Most of the info is somewhere in there.

The bonus to construction and production is 5% at 100M, 10% at 500M, 20% at 1000M, and an additional 10% for each 1000M beyond that, up to 90% for 8000M. You'll also get +100% for 10B if you stick that many ppl on a ringworld or sphereworld.

-Drake

[This message has been edited by Drake (edited 30 January 2001).]