how in the nine hells

[Emperor Fritsch the Dense]

ok forget populations then, just to have the sat/mine layers pick up and deploy units on WPs would be good enough for me to start learning this skill
Emp Fritsch

[Atrocities]

Click Upload Population
From where
Click Donwload Population
To where
Click repeat orders

This is what I do. I then have one or two transports under the control of the Transport minister in every system.

The transport with the orders will continue to follow its orders until changed or destroyed.

You can set them to take population for the HW to any other planet you want. Use more than one, or leap frog them out into your empire.

Good luck.

[Arkcon]

Emperor Fritsch the Dense said:
ok forget populations then, just to have the sat/mine layers pick up and deploy units on WPs would be good enough for me to start learning this skill
Emp Fritsch

OK. Build cargo ships: you can use transport hulls or other hulls, just give them some cargo space, and the correct launch component. For sats, I don't think they need to be given the ship class "cargo transport" or "transport", but I may be wrong. Mile layers do need the correct ship class. Also build units nearby. Turn on the sat/mine minister and turn on the minister for the cargo ship.

The ship will pick up cargo, and deploy it at warp points. But you can't be absolutely sure where. Could be the closest one, could be one you just discovered 3 systems away. It will retrieve units in planetary cargo as well, but you can't be sure from which planet. Resupply is also an issue if it flys anywhere.

The population minister works similarly, the transport needs the "population transport" class. Its just that it gets hung up on tiny worlds that can't take the population, or depletes worlds where you'd like a large population to get a production bonus. It will also mix species up and cause domed worlds.

If you want to try this, don't acquire other races, and build frigates with lots of supply but only 1 or 2 cargo. Build lots, and let them zip around, just moving a few people at a time. At the very least, its faster than reproduction.

[Emperor Fritsch the Dense]

cool beans, thanks guys

[Arkcon]

Now if you build said transports, and pick the planet to load cargo (population or units) from and a place to specific place to drop the cargo, you can just hit the repeat orders button, and have the orders repeated again and again.

That's the non-minister way. It's still micromanagement, but there's less mouse clicking. Working out a sopisticated chain of planets, so you can control a vast empire, can be fun.

[Randallw]

What I find amusing is that obviously I am not the only one to swear in D&D terms....by the seven heavens .