Gameplay tips & tricks

[Alienboy]

douglas said:

Read section "10.1 Intelligence" in the FAQ for the rundown on how intelligence works in general.

PPP is a special exception to the all-or-nothing rule of counterintel. It has a chance to do nothing, a chance to make the target planet form its own empire, and a chance to make the target planet switch sides to join you. If there are already 20 empires in the game, including any that may have alread been wiped out, the possibility of forming a new empire disappears. I don't know what effect this has on the probability of success. A new empire formed by a rebelling planet inherits all aspects of the empire design of its parent empire except name, population picture, and planet and atmosphere types. Somehow, all the population on the planet will spontaneously mutate to breathe the atmosphere of that planet, which can be quite useful for undoming planets without waiting for atmospheric modification plants. The new empire will also inherit all of the parent empire's technology, which may make it an attractive target for technological espionage, since it will only have the resources of that one planet and will not have any counterintel built up.

As you have pointed out, a planet that has rebelled is an easy target for PPP and other projects. The other information is going to be useful so thanks for your comments.

Another issue I wondered about was to do with counter Intel. Lets say you have 4 slots of Counter Intel and you loss them all in one turn to multiple Intel Sabotage attacks. So you add another 4 slots of Counter Intel. I have done the above but suffered loses the next turn, such as resource procurement and crew insurections, which previously were kept at bay by the original 4 slots of Counter Intel? So it is my observation that any new counter Intel projects take one turn to actually start working. Would this be correct?,... Gee, maybe I should take a look at that FAQ thread you mentioned,... before asking these sorts of questions,...lol [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Fish.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_Checkered.gif[/img]

[Alienboy]

Crikey! I just had a look at the FAQ thread,..... OMG! I should have paid more attention in my speed reading class,.. Its huge! This game is hell!

Section 10.1.6 covers my last question,... I think. Don't really follow it fully but I have a rough idea.

[Alienboy]

I just wanted to know more about them. They generate 5000 shield points for the planet. Are weapons platforms also protected by them or does the 5000 shield points apply to the planets only? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]

[douglas]

Alienboy said:
I just wanted to know more about them. They generate 5000 shield points for the planet. Are weapons platforms also protected by them or does the 5000 shield points apply to the planets only? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Flag_NewZeland.gif[/img]

I assume you're asking about Massive Planetary Shield Facilities. The 5000 shield points protect everything on the planet, including weapon platforms, but it's non-phased shields so Phased Polaron Beams ignore them.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Pretty much the only special ruins tech that most everybody thinks doesn't suck is neural networks.

[Slick]

I haven't done formal testing, but through game experience, I think that fighters over a planet just might help happiness. My general way to overcome a rioting system (such as when another empire surrenders) is to gang up all available ships to a single planet, get it to stop rioting and then build an Urban Pacification Center on it (maybe after some troops).

There have been a few cases where I only had fighters available to do this and I was able to overcome riots. The happiness effect may have been due to other things such as battles won elsewhere, etc. That being said, it appears to me that fighters do positively affect happiness.

[Alneyan]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Pretty much the only special ruins tech that most everybody thinks doesn't suck is neural networks.

Actually, it sucks big time, as it is said not to work. At all. Douglas tested it under the latest patch, and found out it was about less useful than 30kt of cheese

[douglas]

No, I think cheese would have less structure, it's too soft. A Neural Combat Net is exactly as useful as an empty fighter bay, but it costs more.

[Renegade 13]

Good to know!

[Alienboy]

Slick said:
I haven't done formal testing, but through game experience, I think that fighters over a planet just might help happiness. My general way to overcome a rioting system (such as when another empire surrenders) is to gang up all available ships to a single planet, get it to stop rioting and then build an Urban Pacification Center on it (maybe after some troops).

There have been a few cases where I only had fighters available to do this and I was able to overcome riots. The happiness effect may have been due to other things such as battles won elsewhere, etc. That being said, it appears to me that fighters do positively affect happiness.

Hey, thanks Slick, I had a hunch they (Fighters) would affect the happiness thing, just wasn't sure. Will try what you have mentioned and see if I get similar results. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cheese.gif[/img]