New player struggling

[Andy Watkins]

Growltigga,

Thanks for feedback, this retrofit thing is new to me, I'll have to give it a try in my next game, sounds good.

Your approach of building fighters in one system and carriers somewhere else and meeting up, that's kind of what I am doing just not very efficiently.

Recently I found the "Cargo" sub button on the Colonies screen, this is very useful for scanning through for satellites, troops and fighters you've built somewhere and forgotten to pick up.

I'm winning heavily at the moment, and ALL the other players have gone from firm allies to war overnight. I shall need to build up my forces, secure my frontiers and kick everybodies arse.

I tend to view Research very heavily, I have about 3 times more research points than any AI player.

One of the problems with research is I never really know which one to research to get what I want. There are some obvious ones like "Missiles" but some are less obvious.

If I built 4 base stations above my home planet and set them all building for example fighters, are the fighters stored in cargo on the base station or the planet below?

I am guessing on the base station and you need a shuttle transport to store stuff down on the planet, OR put lots of cargo on the base station.

Presumably all you bother with is a spaceyard module and cargo, not worth trying to arm them??

Andy

[Growltigga]

Andy, the cargo button is very useful indeed!

As all the AI have declared war on you, it sounds like you have gained 'Mega Evil Empire' status. This is a default option which makes every AI irrevocably declare war on you at the same time. It is triggered IIRC when your points get a certain percentage above the points score of the 2nd placed player.

IIRC, you can turn it off by going into the settings.txt file and where it says Mega Evil Empire typing False instead of True - I may be wrong so dont try this uunless one of the modder gurus have confirmed this

Heavy research IMO is a human thing and as to what to research, that is the fun of trial and error

Retrofitting is CRUCIAL - try it out and get the hang of it - you will get whomped without it

Re spaceyards, any units built by a spaceyard will be AUTOMATICALLY stored on the planet, no shuttle transport is needed - a spaceyard built say at a warp point will need internal cargo bays to hold the stuff unless it is launched

Re components on a spaceyard, I just do bridge, life support and crews quarters and 1 spaceyard module, if I am under attack or at war, I may upgrade them to include 1 missile or a couple of point defence cannon - depends what is going on and how I feel - to quote the TV show, the choice is up to you

[oleg]

quote:

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Originally posted by Growltigga:


Zumbar or Revolution, Tampopo or any dodgy boozer faraway from Canal Street and you are on - clutch your copy of SEIV gold!!

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Zumbar is fine. Tomorow (9.04.02) at 5:30 ?

Cheers.

[Growltigga]

Can't do tomorrow, should be ok for wednesday 10.04 at 5.30-5.45

SEIV gold manual clutched at the ready??

[oleg]

Splendid !

[capnq]

quote:

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Re spaceyards, any units built by a spaceyard will be AUTOMATICALLY stored on the planet, no shuttle transport is needed

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This works in the other direction, too; if the planet doesn't have enough cargo space left, but a ship or moon orbiting the planet does, the excess cargo automatically goes wherever it will fit.

[ 08 April 2002: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Growltigga]

Andy, thinking about it, the only tip I can suggest about empire management (and is only a reflection of what I do rather than any right or wrong answer) is to centralise my building programme in each system.

What I mean by this for example is that if I have 3 habitable planets with shipyards in one system, I may use them to build carrier vessels whilst say in another system, the shipyards there will build fighters. A transport will carry the fighters by way of a shuttle run to a central fleet base. The carriers will be instructed to go to that fleet base when built and then you should be able to marry up carrier Groups to their respective carriers.

This is probably inefficient, but it is the only way I keep track of everythig going on round me.

Good luck!

[Andy Watkins]

Capnq & Growltigga,

Thanks as ever. I am very keen on the spaceyards idea, and the cargo transfer sounds really helpful.

Still not tried the retrofitting thing. Will do so shortly.

What about satellites and weapons platforms, can you upgrade them at all or do you just build new ones. I've tried to upgrade a weapons platform and can't find any way of doing it.

Andy

[Growltigga]

Andy,
AFAIK you cannot upgrade satellites, weapons platforms, fighters, troops or any unit (havn't tried drones yet) - you have to scrap and build anew.

I tend not to scrap units unless my player unit limit has been reached. I replace older designs with newer designs and transport the older designs
away from the frontier

Do try retrofitting, it is crucial

[Gryphin]

The other use for opsolette mines and sats (in tactical combat mode only):
Load them on an appropriate carrier deploy them in front on the on comming enemy. Ships and fighters will stop to go after the mines. This gives you you "free" shots at the fighters and ships. If you have missles you can stand off and trash the AI.

[ 09 April 2002: Message edited by: Gryphin ]