Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies

[TerranC]

Originally posted by Dogberry:
a colonised planet can be mined, so long as you don't already have a extraction facility already there. Observed this quite by accident.

Just a question: did the planet have a Moon?
If it did, You must have observed the Moon being mined, not the Colonized planet.

[Dogberry]

Didn't think so, but can't remember for sure... but I will watch for it next time.

Dog

[TerranC]

Construction:

Emergency Build will increase the rate of your space yard by double and a quarter of your normal rate but a "slow" Building period that uses only a quarter of your normal rate for every turn Emergency was turned on.

Emergency Build only works for 10 turns, and cannot be put on indefinitely.

If you put on an obsolete building queue on an planet construction queue, and click upgrade facilities, the construction queues will be changed to the latest model. Will not work for ships and Units.

Ships:

To resupply ships, but if there are no planets nearby, go to the nearest space station, battle station, or starbase. After going to the base, go to set fleet window, make a fleet, include all the ships that need resupply in the fleet with the station in the fleet, wait a turn, and then the fleet will have full supplies the next turn.

Ships will NOT jump to a forbidden system, nor move through it. You have to make it move manually.

Strategy:

Use Unit and Ship mounts almost all the time. The Ship mounts increase damage, the Station and weapon platforms increase Damage and Range which give your planet a distinct advantage against ships.

One way to beat mounts are missles and drones. Missles have an EXTREME range that are unmatchable by mounted weapons, but get picked off by point defense cannons. Drones are death-on-engines if used carefully as point-defense cannons cannot easily destroy it.

Specialty weapons should be used rarely, but is useful.

-weapon destroying weapons are useful if you want to disable the ships then destroy them.
-Nullspace guns are useful against heavily sheilded and armoured ships.
-Warp guns can give your ship extended life in "Dogfights" especially with gunships.
-engine destroying weapons disable ship movement and supply storage. Approach the ships with caution if they have Quantum reactors.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by TerranC:
Construction:

Emergency Build will increase the rate of your space yard by double and a quarter of your normal rate but a "slow" Building period that uses only a quarter of your normal rate for every turn Emergency was turned on.
<snip>

I think Emergency Build is only 1.5 (one and a half) times your normal rate. It used to be double, but people discovered that using emergency build, even followed by the "slow" period, was better than running at normal speed all the time. Having Emergency Build only 1.5 times normal rate means it's good for completing a ship (or two) fast, but not necessarily good as a long-term strategy.

[Suicide Junkie]

1.3.7. To resupply ships if there are no planets nearby, go to the nearest space station, battle station, or starbase. After going to the base, go to set fleet window, make a fleet, include all the ships that need resupply in the fleet with the station in the fleet, wait a turn, and then the fleet will have full supplies the next turn. (TerranC)

This exploit will not be possible after the next patch.

2.4.2. Shields Skipping. As is well documented the "Engine Only" and "Weapon Only" damage types skip all shields and armor and get straight to the component.
One might assume that the "Only Boarding Parties" and "Only Security Stations" weapons do the same thing, but they do not. They only skip armor. (geoschmo)

In the next patch, Engine only damage will not skip shields.

2.6.3. The topmost bar in combat is a rough gauge of how much damage your ship has taken. More red = less damage. Same with the other bar, which is shields. (Silent Sorrow, Phoenix-D)

This could be reworded, "is a rough gauge of how many of your ship's hitpoints remain." Then, "more red = more hitpoints"
Also;
Red = armor + internals.
Blue = shields
Each bar / block of color represents 50 hitpoints (rounded up). If the number of hitpoints exceeds 1500, a number will appear on the right-hand edge of the bar, indicating hitpoints in 1000's

[ May 23, 2002, 17:06: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie. ]

[Binford]

I think my question under "Construction Que Usage" is a valid item for the newbie FAQ. It was:

1.2.5 Do constructions queues' build values spill over to the next item in the queue if the curent item doesnt use all of the resources?

For example, say you're building a ship which costs 2000 Min, 500 Org, and 500 Rad and your Space Yard has 3300,3300,3300 build rating. Does the unused 1300 of Minerals "spill over" into the next item or does it go wasted?

ANSWER: It's wasted

The only exception to this is if you are building units more than one at a time (ie, you select something other than "1" or "one turn's worth" when it asks you how many you want to build.

Thanks to Dogscoff for the speedy reply.

[Wardad]

some newbie pointers:

1. Rock planet type (more to colonize). Gas planets fewer but larger and take more skill. Ice bad... Ice cold.... fewer Ice planets. Beginners don't choose None Atmosphere type, choose any other atmosphere type.

2. Set up race to build a colonizer on Homeworld in 2 turns. This may mean stripping out half the engines and the cargo hold (good for a local colony ship). You have to boost your races construction rate by ? (5 %to 10%?) oops.

3. Experienced players build 3 space stations with shipyards first, but I think 2 is easier to manage. When you do run short on resources you can mothball these stations for a while.

4. Colonize your system fast. The extra research, resource, and shipyards early on are an advantage. Green star planets are your atmoshpere type . Red star have different atmosphere and are domed, so the build space is limited.

5. I generally do not waste resources on escorts. I build small transports instead. Arm them with a missle and add 3 SAT launchers, 3 cargo, 1 supply, 5 engines etc... they are good for exploring, transport and SAT laying.

6. Ships are fragile early on. A few SATs for Worm Hole defense can kill or cause them to limp home. It's better than letting them concentrate forces.

7. Weapon platforms. Better some than none, don't be a easy target. Try mixing missles with direct fire weapons, and use the largest weapon mount you can.

8. Early research. Opinions differ but most would suggest: More than one project in que, rotate projects and do not spread points evenly.
Larger ships (friget on first turn, destroyer, light cruiser).
Depleted Uranium Cannon (DUC) to level 3.
Point Defense (PD) at least level 3, I prefer 4
I might start PD inbetween destroyer and LC. As you have to study Military Science before PD opens up.

9. Diplomacy: Avoid early wars, treaties are good bonuses. Hit back if attacked. Some AI races have different attitudes, so be cautious about colonizing their systems.

10. Bonuses:
Trade for ships and analyze them, its great for gaining expensive colonizing tech. Just might get some population in the bargin.
Trade for population that breaths a different atmosphere. Put them on their planet type, remove your pop from it, and that red star will turn green giving many more build spaces.

[capnq]

CARGO HANDLING AND LAUNCHING
============================
There are three different cargo handling commands. Transfer Cargo (hotkey T) gives you complete manual control over what goes where. Load Cargo (L) and Drop Cargo (D) will automatically move all that they can of one type of cargo.

Launchable units (drones, fighters, mines, and satellites) have a parallel set of orders: Launch/Recover Units (U), Launch Units Remotely (I), and Recover Units Remotely (O).

A ship needs a specific launch component to handle each type of unit, which cannot handle the other types. Planets can launch and recover units without needing any special facilities.

Drones and mines cannot be recovered once launched.

[Ruatha]

* Will inocrporate later *
(Been Moving)

[Rexxx]

Thanks for the great idea and for the contributions.