Newbie questions at turn ~50 of a PBW game

[MegaTrain]

I've been reading the forums and strategy guides, but there are a couple of issues I'm still not sure about.

1. Racial traits:
Can't be traded to other races? Or are we just not doing it right?

2. Mines:
I got mine-happy right after I researched the tech, and made nearly all my shipyards build a couple of turns worth of mines. I figured, "Hey, they're not doing anything in the cargo hold, let's launch them and I can have a mine layer come by and pick them up later." I just blew it, right? No way to recover a mine once it's launched into space?

3. Building expensive stuff:
Just researched some planet making and warp closing techs, but 2.4 years to build a ship??!! And this is a minimum-loaded engines and technology science frigate. I know I can research ship yards II and III, (jeez, those are expensive), and can load my key planets full to increase the production rate, but any other tips for building expensive stuff? (No I can't have temporal shipyards.) How about a base with a shipyard facility at the same location? Would they share the load on a single building project?

[Rant] And what the heck is it with these descending-sort forums? They're impossible to read a long thread without doing a stutter-step scroll. Pain in the a** [/Rant]

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-MegaTrain-
Athlon 1.3 GHz running at 1.6 GHz on an iWill KK266

[Taqwus]

Welcome aboard.

1. Racial traits.

Hrm. I suppose you're talking about trading the technologies themselves. If you don't have the prerequisite racial trait(s), if any, you won't be able to get the technology itself -- through trade, theft, or analysis.

The best that you can do is build ships and trade those, but if it has tech you don't understand, you still won't be able to "edit" it by refitting.


2. Nope. No mine recovery once launched. You can try to detonate them, if you're up against the unit-in-space limit.


3. I've had ships take 5 years to build, with SY III and no penalties; Stellar Manipulation is expensive, after all. No, you can't use multiple shipyards to speed up construction on one project. You could emergency build the Last 15 turns (=> 10 turns, but then 10 turns of 25% rate).

Population, racial bonuses, culture bonuses, and shipyard type matter. I don't remember whether happiness does, beyond not rioting; it's important enough already for the resource bonuses that I try to keep everybody at Jubilant.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

I'm sure the more experienced folk around here will correct me if I'm wrong but I'll take a stab at answering your questions.

1- If by Racial Traits you mean Racial Technology like Psycjic Weapons, then as far as I know, no one else can use that technology. (You have to be Psychic in order to use a Psychic weapon, you have to be religious in order to use a religious artifact). Can't Give'em, Can't trade'em, can't steal'em.
If this isn't what you mean, then please explain.

2-You are correct. Once launched there is no way to recover. Even if launched by accident, once you move them from the left to the right, you can't put'em back.

3- I don't believe you can split production between yards on the same Item. If the item you are building can be split among ships, but need to be in the same spot to function (ringworld?)then you can build multiple ships at different locations. The ways you mentioned as well as a happy population and a good Racial Engineering trait will all help you build faster. I believe there is a way to check which of your yards builds at the fastest rate but I can't remember what it is!

Hope that Helps,
RhineStone Cowboy

[MegaTrain]

Thanks, guys. Pretty much what I thought. Major, you said that you can't trade the Racial Technology if you don't have the racial trait. I assume you also can't trade the Racial Trait ITSELF, like "Very Religious".

Also: is there a way to change the sort order while reading a thread to show the most recent stuff at the END of the list? I hate doing the stutter-step scroll for long Posts.

[This message has been edited by MegaTrain (edited 02 October 2001).]

[Lisif Deoral]

quote:

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So is there a way to change the sort order while reading a thread to show the most recent stuff at the END of the list?

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No.

[Taqwus]

Er, right. No trading racial traits themselves. Even populations you assimilate from other empires will assume your racial traits; e.g. you cannot use population from a Crystalline race to build Crystalline ships or research Crystalline tech unless you're Crystalline yourself. Note, tho', that facilities don't vanish; for instance, if you receive a colony containing buildings that you can't and won't ever be able to build, you still get full benefits from them. Likewise, if you receive a colony that was packed over-full by somebody with Advanced Storage Techniques, the "extra" facilities don't vanish.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[geoschmo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rhinestone Cowboy:
1- If by Racial Traits you mean Racial Technology like Psycjic Weapons, then as far as I know, no one else can use that technology. (You have to be Psychic in order to use a Psychic weapon, you have to be religious in order to use a religious artifact). Can't Give'em, Can't trade'em, can't steal'em.

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While it is true you can't give, trade or steal the racial technology itself, you can give trade and steal ships with racial tech components on them.

If a psychic race builds a ship with allegiance converters, he can give it to me, or trade it to me, or I can maybe capture it with boarding parties or intel, or get it if he surrenders to me. I can then use it just as he would. But I can't build new ones, and I can't repair the racial components if they get damaged. And I can deconstruct and anylyze it, but it won't do me any good, because I can't understand the technology behind it.

Geoschmo

[Puke]

you CAN trade ships built with your racial technology. this way, when a fleet becomes obsoleet, instead of refitting it or mothballing it, you could concievably trade it to another empire in exchange for something.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[capnq]

quote:

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I just blew it, right? No way to recover a mine once it's launched into space?

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On the bright side, these will make for a nasty surprise the first time an enemy tries to attack that world. This planet defense trick generally only works once against a human opponent.

The reverse order Messages can be frustrating when you first encounter it, but you get used to it surprisingly quickly. It has the advantage that you don't have to scroll all the way down the thread to find the first post you haven't read, especially once the thread goes over one page.

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Cap'n Q
My first mod! Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Puke]

quote:

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Originally posted by capnq:

I just blew it, right? No way to recover a mine once it's launched into space?

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On the bright side, these will make for a nasty surprise the first time an enemy tries to attack that world. This planet defense trick generally only works once against a human opponent.

on the other hand, it forces them to bring minesweepers every time they attack a planet.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)