Beginners Guide, HELP!!! (Please Read And Post)

[DirectorTsaarx]

Also don't forget that colony modules can be placed on other hulls; transport hulls can be a good choice for this, as you can put on lots of extra cargo (and, for the bigger transports, a number of supply storage components).

My first big tip for newbies: watch that happiness score. Research troops early, design a small troop with just a troop cockpit & build troops on any planet that's getting unhappy. The next step is researching the various happiness centers (standard traits, I think you research political science & maybe something else to get the appropriate facility; temporal tech gets the "Temporal Vacation Service"; I believe organic and religious also have facilities that will raise a population's happiness). The second (sometimes first) facility I build in a new system is a happiness facility. Makes life much easier.

My second big tip: if you start with multiple homeworlds in the same system, the game will still put a spaceport and resupply depot on each homeworld. So scrap the extra spaceports & resupply depots (remember to leave at least one of each in each system) & build something more useful in their place (like one of the happiness facilities mentioned above).

One Last tip: be careful when retrofitting ships at planets that don't have a resupply depot. If you retrofit the engines at a planet that does NOT have a resupply depot (and your design does NOT include a quantum reactor), the ship will have 0 supplies after the retrofit.

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L++ GdY $ Fr>Fr++ C++ SdS T-- Sf Tcp? A%% M- Mp! RTH!P Pw Fq-->Fq+ Nd>Nd+++++ Rp++ G+

[mac5732]

CAP, tks for clearing up#5, you said what I meant to say, sometimes my mind races way ahead of my typing and it doesn't always come out the way I meant, tks

just some ideas mac

[capnq]

quote:

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Also note that if the colony ship runs out of supplies before reaching the target, it can't plant the colony when it arrives;

Since when? I recall purchasing an out-of-supply EEE colony ship for a captured Battleship as it approached a nice planet in my system.

Certainly under V1.49, and I planted perfectly fine.

It does take one extra turn, since you need 1 MP to land once you've arrived at the planet.

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I distinctly remember a colony ship parking over an empty planet and doing nothing until I noticed the red barrel and sent it back for resupply, but I haven't let the situation occur again; I'll start up a test game and see if I can reproduce it.

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Cap'n Q
My first mod! Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 31 October 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Is it possible that an enemy ship appeared and caused the colony ship to stop? And were the ship's orders cleared?

It could be a difference between simultaneous and sequential.
Perhaps modding a solar supply generation of 1 point into the colony module would help.
Then colony ships would always have two MP when they're "out" of supplies, and always have 1 supply at the beginning of a turn to land with.

[capnq]

quote:

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Is it possible that an enemy ship appeared and caused the colony ship to stop? And were the ship's orders cleared?

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I don't think there was an enemy around, but it was so long ago that I don't recall. I think the orders did clear, because ISTR that I only noticed it was out of supplies while I was trying to figure out why giving it another Colonize order wouldn't "take".

I've started a game to test this, but it hasn't progressed far enough to get any results yet.


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Cap'n Q
My first mod! Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[MikeRMcCartney]

Completely new player here. I'm glad you started this post. Thanks! BTW, sorry if I make comments or suggestions that have already been made. I started playing SE4 one week ago (after downloading the demo about a month ago), and have been rather disappointed in the documentation. I like the idea of an HTML based doc, but the one supplied is not very helpful IMHO. A couple of things I would like to see are: 1) a tech tree, 2)what facilities to build or not to build in the beginning (and why), 3) what to expect from a new race (both friendly and not). Does anyone have a program that lays out the tech levels/facilities/units/ships/etc in a usable manner. I've started an Access database for this, but it will take a while to finish. Thanks for your time, and this is a great forum.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Early game defense: research war/mineheads III, construction and then small mines. Just build the small mines with 2 warhead IIIs, they are deadly enough for the first ships. In the build queue use the "one turn production" instead of 5/10/15... pieces, and hit repeat building. This automatically gives you the number of mines that can be produced in one turn, and you can react on different situations every turn, w/o loosing material. Later on when the AI builds minesweepers: create cheap mines in addition (small hull, one warhead I), these can be produced in a larger amount and they do for a better minesweep to destroy relation. Build transporters with about 5 to 10 minelayers, the rest cargo, they can be used to move population and to mine the WPs at the beginning.

Best weapon against fighters: religious talisman + phased polaron beam V, bLasts 5 to 10 fighters per shot, the fighters shields are bypassed by PPBs.