Space Empires 4 Deluxe 1.95

[douglas]

capnq said:You need to research the "Applied Intelligence" tech area first, then build some Intelligence Center facilities.

That won't do anything about it being grayed out. The Intelligence screen will not be available until you have encountered at least one other empire. Once you have, it will be available but you won't be able to accomplish anything with it unless you have intelligence points to spend, and that's what you need Intelligence Center facilities for.

[Skirmisher]

Thanks for all the responses.

I have a few questions about planetary conditions.

As oxygen atmosphere planets seem to be fairly scarce, is it better to have a race that breaths hydrogen, methane, or carbon dioxide?

What effect on moral (or other) is there for establishing colonies on planets with different atmospheres?

Can a planet be terra formed , where the atmosphere is changed over a long period of time?

Is there any way to know how many facilities any given planet has room for before colonizing that planet?

What concerns should I have about a planets conditions?
Sometimes you start out on an unpleasant world for example.

[Fyron]

"What effect on moral (or other) is there for establishing colonies on planets with different atmospheres?"

None. Colonies on all planet types and atmospheres function identically. The only difference is if you use alien population (primarily to undome foreign atmospheres), as they have a natural anger increase (towards average), instead of the natural anger decrease of native pop. This is trivial to overcome with a couple of police troops, though.

"Can a planet be terra formed , where the atmosphere is changed over a long period of time?"

Yes, you need to research Planet Utilization 7 to get the Atmospheric Modification Plant.

"Is there any way to know how many facilities any given planet has room for before colonizing that planet?"

Facility space in stock is always SIZE * 5, where SIZE is 1 for tiny and 5 for huge. If its going to be domed, divide that number by 5. If you have the necessary Advanced Storage Techniques trait, multiply by 1.2 and round.

[capnq]

Skirmisher said: I have a few questions about planetary conditions.

As oxygen atmosphere planets seem to be fairly scarce, is it better to have a race that breaths hydrogen, methane, or carbon dioxide?

The stock game distributes the atmosphere types fairly evenly; not finding a lot of your own is just random chance in the map generation. A race that "breathes" None, though, is a bit more of a challenge, because most of your breathable worlds will be Tiny.

What concerns should I have about a planets conditions?
Sometimes you start out on an unpleasant world for example.

Conditions have a minor effect on population growth. You don't really need to worry about anything that's not Hostile or Deadly; those two can give you zero or even negative growth.

[Fyron]

The only way to actually get less than 0 is to take a big penalty in reproduction racial characteristic, and colonize a deadly world. From what I recall, default stats result in 0 or 2% growth on even 0.0 conditions planets. Have you actually seen population loss, or does it just treat -2% as no growth?

[capnq]

Fyron said: Have you actually seen population loss, or does it just treat -2% as no growth?

To be honest, no. I vaguely remember someone here on the forums saying they'd gotten it, with a race with seriously reduced reproduction and environmental tolerance. I'm not sure I've even seen a Hostile planet in actual play; I've driven worlds down to Deadly using Radiation Bombs in a "scorched earth" strategy.

[Skirmisher]

Is there anyway to exactly set the AI's in a map? I see the low med high selection for AI's and neutral empires.
Can it be set like Me ,3 AI,3 neutral just as an example.

Do ruins appear on worlds other than rock surface?


Thanks again, all your answers have been very helpful.


ps. I was just playing a game, where maybe three turns after I colonized 2 planets in the same system, one of them rebelled against me and declared independance ,lol.

Does that happen alot?

[Suicide Junkie]

Ruins are independent of the planet type.

They are destroyed by stellar manip actions, so I like to be mean and seed asteroids with inaccessible ruins too

[capnq]

Skirmisher said: Is there anyway to exactly set the AI's in a map? I see the low med high selection for AI's and neutral empires.
Can it be set like Me ,3 AI,3 neutral just as an example.

You can edit the ranges in Data\Settings.txt . The relevant lines are: Code:

---

Minimum Computer Player Low Setting                                   := 1

Maximum Computer Player Low Setting                                   := 3

Minimum Computer Player Medium Setting                                := 3

Maximum Computer Player Medium Setting                                := 7

Minimum Computer Player High Setting                                  := 6

Maximum Computer Player High Setting                                  := 10

Minimum Neutral Player Low Setting                                    := 1

Maximum Neutral Player Low Setting                                    := 3

Minimum Neutral Player Medium Setting                                 := 3

Maximum Neutral Player Medium Setting                                 := 7

Minimum Neutral Player High Setting                                   := 6

Maximum Neutral Player High Setting                                   := 10

---

I was just playing a game, where maybe three turns after I colonized 2 planets in the same system, one of them rebelled against me and declared independance ,lol.

Does that happen alot?

That early in the game, that would probably be a random event; you just got unlucky. There's an intel attack that can cause that, but it's at the very top Applied Intelligence research level, very expensive, and unreliable.