Newbie question

[Taqwus]

To orbit w/o attacking for real, you can choose 'attack', then tactical, and simply hit 'end turn' 30 times.

You might also be able to set the ship/fleet strategy to 'don't get hurt' and see if that works for strategic, but a) don't forget to change it back (usually to either optimum or maximum firing range) afterwards. I'd try this in the simulator first, 'tho.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[WhiteHojo]

It seems I am the patron saint of reviving old Posts. Here's number 2 for the day.

The topic is appropriate for these questions.

1) What the heck do the repulser/tractor beams do? I know they pull/push stuff but at what rate? Does the number of wpns affect the rate?

2) How is the order of production determined by the computer? Say I have 25 planets all w/prod orders but only 10 projects worth of supplies avail how does the computer pick which are done? Is there a priority list somewhere I could modify? (I hate it when I have my front line worlds set to build WPs on emerergency but nothin gets built cause some older worlds are building toilets or something as worthless, so naturally the frontier world dies shortly after due to no defenses) And don't bring up the "put queue on hold" option - anyone ever tried to put 24 planets on hold just so 1 stinkin planet can be assured of building a WP? It's a pain in the butt... which brings me to...

3) Any way to select a queue to put on hold from the colonie or production screens? Any way to toggle all colonies on hold all at once? I haven't found it if there is.

4) this is to all the mod geniuses out there - Is there any way to alter the strategic combat file (if there is such a thing) to try to keep your ships from approaching an enemy any closer than the max range of your ships weapons? (ex - My ship A attacks enemy ship B. Ship A has wpn w/range of 5 and moves at rate of 3/turn. Ship B has wpn w/range of 4 and moves at rate of 3/turn. In Tact combat you would close rapidly till got w/in range then try to back off each turn taking advantage of your superior range on your wpn. In Strat combat the computer just seems to charge in as close as possible disregarding wpn range altogether. My strategy is set to optimal wpn range (whatever that means)...)

5) Also to MOD guys - in one of the game files the MegaEvil Empire settings are show as follows: "AI Uses Mega Evil Empire
:= True
AI Mega Evil Empire Threshold Score Thousands := 500
AI Human Mega Evil Empire Score Percent
:= 170
AI Computer Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 250"

What does the 3rd and 4th settings do/controll? The score threshold appears to tell the cmptr to consider a human empire M/E when their score reaches 500,000. But what about the Last 2? Is the 170%, when the human score is 170% of the 2nd place AI? If so, what does the 250% do?

Is Mega Evil status a all or nothing type thing or is it an individual empire type thing. (will one AI empire consider you M/E if you score is 170/250% of theirs even though you aren't to that level for other empires?)

Better stop for awhile and see what kind of response I get on these b/f I ask any more.

Thanks in advance

[Noble713]

4. Switch your ships and fleets to Maximum Weapons Range. This didn't work too well before, but I THINK it works in 1.19.

5.
AI Human Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 170

If a human player has a score over 500k, and is in 1st place with its score 170% of the 2nd place race, it will be considered Mega Evil.

AI Computer Mega Evil Empire Score Percent := 250

Same as above, but if the 1stplace player is an AI its score must be 250% of the 2nd-place player's. In other words, the game will declare a leading human player mega evil far more often than it will an AI.

I'm pretty sure you have to be the highest-scoring race in the game to be Mega Evil.

[Puke]

let me add to the tractor question: I think they pull and push at a rate equal to the damage level of the weapon ( never used em, cant say) but what I would like to know is similarly, how does the damage number for boarding parties / aliegance subverters translate into odds? its not always a fixed number, so it must be a percentile (sometimes it takes more attempts to take over the same class of ship than other times)

and as for question 2 about production priorities, i am not sure, but i think it divides them evenly (which may mean that nothing gets done). I work arround this by putting some queues on hold when resources are low. for example, some yards have orders to repeat build mines or fighters. when i am in a crunch and am building lots of planetary facilities or warships, those other queues go on hold to free up the resoruces.

[This message has been edited by Puke (edited 02 January 2001).]

[WhiteHojo]

OK - got some more -

6) Combat sensors & ECM's - what exactly do they modify? They say it adds say, 20% to attack/defense. What does that mean? Is it 20% added to the ToHit %? 20% more damage? What? & the 20% defense bonus - is that -20% to the attackers %? Does it mean your armor/shields will sustain 20% more damage?

7) In the colonization screen, is there any way to sort the planets, say, alphabetically in the screen that pops up after you hit the "send colony ship to planet X" button. It's a pain in late game to have to sort through 50 planets to find the one listing for Zoltar VII when it's buried in the Medium sized planets (it apparently sorts all available planets by size automatically).

Thanks for the info so far.

didn't know that about the Max Wpn range - opps Just got another question...

8) If a ship is set to Max Wpn Range and it has 2 types of wpns - say a 3 range and a 6 range DF type wpn, which range will it use for the Max wpn range - the 3 or the 6? Would this prohibit putting extreme long range wpns on with medium range wpns?

[Tomgs]

If you use maximum range go into your empires menu and click on strategies. You can then change the secondary strategy to don't get hurt. Then the ship will fire weapons at maximum range then move away and fire again when the weapon is usable again. This works well for missle weapons except when fighting against a planet. For planets the maximum range the computer sees and the real maximum range are not always the same and sometimes the missles don't hit the planet. If you have a mix of weapons on your ship the computer will go to the maximum range of the longest range weapon, fire, then go to the maximum range of the next longest, fire, and so on. You might want to set the strategy to primary: maximum range secondary: optimum range to fight against planets.

Be aware that if your ships are in formation some of them will be too close and some to far with these settings because the lead ship is the one that these strategies are used for. I favor a wall formation if I use one but after a few movements the results are about the same as in the arrowhead formation.

Ok on to combat sensors and ECM. Combat sensors add to the to hit percentage and do not affect damage. ECM subtracts from the enemies to hit percentage. So if you have both on your ship you will both be able to hit easier and will be harder to hit.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 02 January 2001).]

[WhiteHojo]

More Newbie Questions -

While reading another thread on stellar manipulation and the computer's use or lack of use of Monoliths I thought of 2 more Ques:

9) Do Monoliths get the same bonuses to production from pop lvl/happiness/planet resource levels that regular resource extracting facilities get?

10) If you did alter the AI research file to sub in Stellar Manipulation in place of Mineral/organic/radioactive extraction (in hopes of letting the computer have access to Monoliths) would the computer actually use the other tech components that are available in Stell Mani (ie- building/destroying planets, stars, storms, nebula, black holes, warp points?)