How do you know when you are a newbie?

[Narrew]

how did the planet get zero pop in the first place? I mean can you colonize with no people on the colony ship?

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Narrew:
how did the planet get zero pop in the first place? I mean can you colonize with no people on the colony ship?

No you cannot. You have to load population onto the colony ship first. I bet what you did is ordered the ship to "move to" the planet and then colonize. If the ship is in orbit of the planet you built it at and you select the "Colonize" button instead of the move to order, then it will automatically load the population. But if you select "Move to" first and then do the colonize button, you have to manually load the population onto the ship. We've all made this mistake many times.

[Krsqk]

Even "oldies" can make this mistake when they use their colony ships as scouts. Select the ship; click "Warp"; select the destination; ship moves on it merry way without a single soul on board except the captain, who's screaming at Central Command to get some bodies up here...

It's almost as much fun as designing mine sweepers with mine laying components.

[teal]

Originally posted by Gryphin:

quote:

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6- When you discover that transports have only half maintenance cost and then send a troop transport loaded with fighters to raid an enemy system.

Is this true? Is it true for Colony ships? If is does not apply to Colony ships then you could exploit a “feature” and build your colony ships in Transports.

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I usually put my colony ships in transport hulls for two reasons. 1) I usually like the transport picture better on the shipsets I like. and 2) If you change the name of your colony ship class often then it keeps your opponent guessing as to whether any particular ship is a colony ship or a mine laying transport... The colony ship and transport hulls cost identical amounts.

[Gryphin]

teal,
Reason 1) Ok, I'll go with that.
Reason 2) I could be wrong but I expect that most folks don't think about what is on board that Transport. They will treat it the same no matter what since it could be a juicey pop transport, a mildly dangerous mine layer, or a lone suicide troop ship out looking for a new colony for easy pickings. Keep in mind that Destroyers can be a colony ship. Once I have Light Cruiser that is the only hull I use for my colony ships.

[Loser]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
Once I have Light Cruiser that is the only hull I use for my colony ships.

Is there any reason, any advantage to continue using Colony Ship hulls?

[teal]

Originally posted by Loser:
Is there any reason, any advantage to continue using Colony Ship hulls?

Keeping in mind that I totally suck at empire design...

In my latest game I found that only my homeworld could build a LC colony ship in 2 turns, all the rest of my worlds required 3 turns. But they could build a colony ship hull colony ship in 2 turns. But I don't think I bump up my construction rate as much as I should.

[ May 22, 2003, 13:33: Message edited by: teal ]