Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies

[capnq]

2.4.2. Fleets are asssigned Formations and Strategies with the Change Formation/Strategy (H) order. Fleet strategy takes precedence over ship's strategy, unless/until the ship breaks formation. (capnq) [Replaced the reference to the "chess piece icon"]

[Ruatha]

The Thread Begins again

[ October 07, 2003, 07:41: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[eorg]

2.4.1. 'engine only' weapons hit not only movement but the weapons too - engines are destroyed with supplies which, with current patch, makes weapons to not fire at all (of course if you don't have supply component)

[kalthalior]

Should probably put in something about researching Psychology and Political Science (Urban Pacification Center) after you conquer a planet so the natives don't get restless.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by kalthalior:
Should probably put in something about researching Psychology and Political Science (Urban Pacification Center) after you conquer a planet so the natives don't get restless.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Please make an entry and I'll add it, somethingabout what it does and how and why or whatever, I'm a newbie, I don't know http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

I just add entries from this thread and occasionally Posts from other threads that I think I understand.

All input is Welcome

[ 10 May 2002, 15:59: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[kalthalior]

FAQ SE4
------
This is for us newbies, all feel free to add to this faq, correct errors, spellcheck and bump.
Change the order if it needs to, long live chaos.
Elite players share your knowledge, newbies, add the answers to your questions here when you receive an answer.
First, read:Malfador Q&A Section
and: Un-Official Space empires IV Strategy and Tactics Page

-------------------------------------------------
CIVILIZATION BUILDING
*********************
COLONIZING
==========
1.1.1. Put people on your colony ships. The colony module gives the ships some cargo space, use transfer cargo to put people on the ship so that your colony gets some population, otherwise the new colony won't build anything (Saying "Never" on construction time). (Suicide Junkie)

1.1.2. If the colony ship is currently at a planet with population, it will automatically load pop for you if you use the Colonize (C) order, or the Send Colony Ship button under Planets (F4). The latter button will not always work if the colony ship has moved. (capnq)

1.1.3. Colonies with 0 population have the "dome" symbol even if it is a planet with a breathable atmospere, the symbol disappears when you populate the colony. (Rdouglass, Suicide Junkie)

CONSTRUCTION
============
1.2.1. Units can be only be put in the construction queue as multiples such as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, up to 200 at a time. (TerranC)

1.2.2. Exception: "One turn's worth" will put however many can be built at the current construction rate; if the unit can't be built in one turn, this still adds 1 to the queue. (capnq)

SHIPS
============
1.3.1 Upgrading engines. Taking engine tech to level 2 (or three) just makes the engines cheaper. One level after that, you'll get an engine that gives a bonus movement point. Then two more levels of cheaper, another faster engine, etc. Upgrading engines that doesn't improve performance makes you loose some money overall, but if you keep that ship like that for a while the maintance savings add up. (Phoenix-D)

1.3.2. Giving a ship orders to move to place X, then before ship reaches X, giving it orders to move to place Y will NOT cancel move to place X. Instead you will now move to place X and then move to place Y! (Taz-in-Space)

WAR
***
INVASION
========
2.1.1. To build troops that can invade enemy colonies explore "Construction" and "Troops"; the troops needs some weapons also, explore "Small Weapons" and/or "Troop Weapons". (capnq)

2.1.2. Then construct troops as you construct ships, build them and load them on ships.
You can now invade other colonies.
Even if you do not have "Ice colony" capabilities you can invade such colonies. (Gandalph, Cynapse)

2.1.3. Few planets have shields. The Massive Planetary Shield does not stop troop invasion and doesn't have to be "taken down" before troop landing. (Sinapus)

2.1.4. If you invade a colony you gain all that has not been destroyed in the battle, facilities and population. The population will be of the race that colonized the planet, if for example you are oxygen breathers and the colony race are methane breathers, you can move the new race to your colonies with methane. This will increase the possible amount of facilities if the new population is the only race on the planet, ie all breathe the same atmosphere. (Gandalph)

2.1.5 If the planet has weapon platforms and you successfully invades it, the platforms remains but comes under your control. (TerranC)

2.1.6 After (or hopefully, before invading) research Psychology, then Political Science. This allows you to build Urban Pacification Centers on conquered worlds that improve the captive population's happiness so that they do not riot. (kalthalior)

2.1.7 After conquering a world or race that breathes a different atmosphere that your own, build colony ships so that you can take advantage of worlds with that atmosphere (i.e., if you conquer methane worlds/races, use the population to colonize other methane worlds so that you can build more facilities on those worlds than you could using your own population). (kalthalior)

2.1.8 Transfer population from other atmosphere breathing conquered worlds/races to worlds you have already colonized that have that atmosphere, and pull your own population off to get the same effect as 2.1.7 above with regards to increasing facility slots on worlds.

WEAPON PLATFORMS
================
2.2.1. Weapons Platforms must be stored on one of your colonized planets to be able to fire. (Phoenix-D, Jmenschenfresser)

SHIP CAPTURE
============
2.3.1. To capture enemy ships you must first research "Military Science" and "Ship capture".
Add component "Boarding Parties" to your ship design. In battle take down enemy shield then board. Watch out for self destruct mechanisms, they may take out your ship too. (Captain Kwok)

2.3.2. Or use a level 2 intelligence project called "Crew Insurrection" where you plant a spy on the enemy ship and attempt to convince the crew to join your cause. If successful, the ship is yours to do with as you please. (Gandalph)

2.3.3. If you start with the Psychic Trait, you can research an "Allegiance Subverter" which is a weapon that when fired will convert the crew (and thereby the ship) to your side. (Gandalph)

2.3.4. Once you've captured an enemy ship, you can take it to a space yard and analyze it. You may be able to get new tech like Rock Colony etc, but racial techs like organic and temporal will be a mystery unless you've got those traits. (Captain Kwok)

WEAPONS
=======
2.4.1. Engines are the storage for supplies on the ship, therefore "Engine Only" weapons not only hits movement but the weapons too - No engines -&gt; No Suplies -&gt; Weapons can't fire at all, unless you have undamaged "Supply Component" (Georgig)

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)

STRATEGIES
==========
2.5.1. Ships and units can be assigned default strategies in Designs (F3) under the Stats/Strategy toggle.
These Strategies can (and really should) be customized under Empire Status/Strategies (F11).

2.5.2. Fleets are asssigned Formations and Strategies with the Change Formation/Strategy (H) order. Fleet strategy takes precedence over ship's strategy, unless/until the ship breaks formation. (capnq)

TECHNOLOGY
**********
3.37. RELIGOUS STUDIES
======================
3.37.1.4.1. TALISMAN
The Talisman allows every hit to score.
SE IV treat stack of units (weapon platform on planet, stack of satelites, stack of fighters) as one "ship". This is why you need only one RT to get the benefit for all units in stack.
You may notice that the absolute maximum to-hit that you can get from experience is 99%
The talisman gives you 100%. That tells you these two effects are quite separate, since the experience is applied before the total is capped at 99%, and the talisman applies afterwards. (Jim, Suicide Junkie, Oleg

[kalthalior]

FAQ SE4
------
This is for us newbies, all feel free to add to this faq, correct errors, spellcheck and bump.
Change the order if it needs to, long live chaos.
Elite players share your knowledge, newbies, add the answers to your questions here when you receive an answer.
First, read:Malfador Q&A Section
and: Un-Official Space empires IV Strategy and Tactics Page

-------------------------------------------------
CIVILIZATION BUILDING
*********************
COLONIZING
==========
1.1.1. Put people on your colony ships. The colony module gives the ships some cargo space, use transfer cargo to put people on the ship so that your colony gets some population, otherwise the new colony won't build anything (Saying "Never" on construction time). (Suicide Junkie)

1.1.2. If the colony ship is currently at a planet with population, it will automatically load pop for you if you use the Colonize (C) order, or the Send Colony Ship button under Planets (F4). The latter button will not always work if the colony ship has moved. (capnq)

1.1.3. Colonies with 0 population have the "dome" symbol even if it is a planet with a breathable atmospere, the symbol disappears when you populate the colony. (Rdouglass, Suicide Junkie)

CONSTRUCTION
============
1.2.1. Units can be only be put in the construction queue as multiples such as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, up to 200 at a time. (TerranC)

1.2.2. Exception: "One turn's worth" will put however many can be built at the current construction rate; if the unit can't be built in one turn, this still adds 1 to the queue. (capnq)

SHIPS
============
1.3.1 Upgrading engines. Taking engine tech to level 2 (or three) just makes the engines cheaper. One level after that, you'll get an engine that gives a bonus movement point. Then two more levels of cheaper, another faster engine, etc. Upgrading engines that doesn't improve performance makes you loose some money overall, but if you keep that ship like that for a while the maintance savings add up. (Phoenix-D)

1.3.2. Giving a ship orders to move to place X, then before ship reaches X, giving it orders to move to place Y will NOT cancel move to place X. Instead you will now move to place X and then move to place Y! (Taz-in-Space)

WAR
***
INVASION
========
2.1.1. To build troops that can invade enemy colonies explore "Construction" and "Troops"; the troops needs some weapons also, explore "Small Weapons" and/or "Troop Weapons". (capnq)

2.1.2. Then construct troops as you construct ships, build them and load them on ships.
You can now invade other colonies.
Even if you do not have "Ice colony" capabilities you can invade such colonies. (Gandalph, Cynapse)

2.1.3. Few planets have shields. The Massive Planetary Shield does not stop troop invasion and doesn't have to be "taken down" before troop landing. (Sinapus)

2.1.4. If you invade a colony you gain all that has not been destroyed in the battle, facilities and population. The population will be of the race that colonized the planet, if for example you are oxygen breathers and the colony race are methane breathers, you can move the new race to your colonies with methane. This will increase the possible amount of facilities if the new population is the only race on the planet, ie all breathe the same atmosphere. (Gandalph)

2.1.5 If the planet has weapon platforms and you successfully invades it, the platforms remains but comes under your control. (TerranC)

2.1.6 After (or hopefully, before invading) research Psychology, then Political Science. This allows you to build Urban Pacification Centers on conquered worlds that improve the captive population's happiness so that they do not riot. (kalthalior)

2.1.7 After conquering a world or race that breathes a different atmosphere that your own, build colony ships so that you can take advantage of worlds with that atmosphere (i.e., if you conquer methane worlds/races, use the population to colonize other methane worlds so that you can build more facilities on those worlds than you could using your own population). (kalthalior)

2.1.8 Transfer population from other atmosphere breathing conquered worlds/races to worlds you have already colonized that have that atmosphere, and pull your own population off to get the same effect as 2.1.7 above with regards to increasing facility slots on worlds. (kalthalior)

WEAPON PLATFORMS
================
2.2.1. Weapons Platforms must be stored on one of your colonized planets to be able to fire. (Phoenix-D, Jmenschenfresser)

SHIP CAPTURE
============
2.3.1. To capture enemy ships you must first research "Military Science" and "Ship capture".
Add component "Boarding Parties" to your ship design. In battle take down enemy shield then board. Watch out for self destruct mechanisms, they may take out your ship too. (Captain Kwok)

2.3.2. Or use a level 2 intelligence project called "Crew Insurrection" where you plant a spy on the enemy ship and attempt to convince the crew to join your cause. If successful, the ship is yours to do with as you please. (Gandalph)

2.3.3. If you start with the Psychic Trait, you can research an "Allegiance Subverter" which is a weapon that when fired will convert the crew (and thereby the ship) to your side. (Gandalph)

2.3.4. Once you've captured an enemy ship, you can take it to a space yard and analyze it. You may be able to get new tech like Rock Colony etc, but racial techs like organic and temporal will be a mystery unless you've got those traits. (Captain Kwok)

WEAPONS
=======
2.4.1. Engines are the storage for supplies on the ship, therefore "Engine Only" weapons not only hits movement but the weapons too - No engines -&gt; No Suplies -&gt; Weapons can't fire at all, unless you have undamaged "Supply Component" (Georgig)

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)

STRATEGIES
==========
2.5.1. Ships and units can be assigned default strategies in Designs (F3) under the Stats/Strategy toggle.
These Strategies can (and really should) be customized under Empire Status/Strategies (F11).

2.5.2. Fleets are asssigned Formations and Strategies with the Change Formation/Strategy (H) order. Fleet strategy takes precedence over ship's strategy, unless/until the ship breaks formation. (capnq)

TECHNOLOGY
**********
3.37. RELIGOUS STUDIES
======================
3.37.1.4.1. TALISMAN
The Talisman allows every hit to score.
SE IV treat stack of units (weapon platform on planet, stack of satelites, stack of fighters) as one "ship". This is why you need only one RT to get the benefit for all units in stack.
You may notice that the absolute maximum to-hit that you can get from experience is 99%
The talisman gives you 100%. That tells you these two effects are quite separate, since the experience is applied before the total is capped at 99%, and the talisman applies afterwards. (Jim, Suicide Junkie, Oleg

[Taz-in-Space]

Perhaps we should include instructions for building Ringworlds and Sphere worlds.

To Build a Ring worlds (or Sphere worlds) you need to:
1.) build on a star.
2.) create a Spaceyard ship (a ship that contains a shipyard component)
3.) take the spaceyard ship to the star you want to build your world on.
4.) start building STARBASES containing the components you need for the Ring/Sphere world.
5.) once you have all necessary components, build go to the component activation icon to activate the construct - all the built starbases and components will disappear and you will have a ring/sphere world there instead.

NOTE: to speed construction (it takes awhile) you can construct bases housing more shipyards.

[capnq]

1.3.3 To change a ship's current orders, use Clear Orders (hotkey Delete) first.

Repairs and Retrofitting
========================

1.4.1 A damaged ship will be repaired if it is in the same sector as a planet with a Space Yard facility, or a ship or base with a Repair Bay or Space Yard component.

1.4.2 The order in which repairs are performed is set with (F11) Empire Status/Repair Priorities. Clearing the priorities list will leave only the component types that you have the technology to build; more entries become available when you research the corresponding techs.

1.4.3 Ships and bases can be retrofitted to another design at a spaceyard. The Retrofit option appears under Scrap/Analyze/Mothball (hotkey G). The new design must have the same hull size as the old one, and have a combined total cost in resources of no more than 150% of the old design. Designs more than 150% apart can be retrofitted by designing one or more intermediate Versions.

1.4.4 Units cannot be retrofitted. (capnq)

Remote Mining
=============
(Somebody who uses this more than I do should write an entry for it.)

[Gandalph]

Remote Mining
=============

1.5.1 To use Remote Mining you must first design a ship, base, or satellite with remote mining components.

1.5.2 Remote mining uses supplies and maintenance, for this reason it is best to use bases as they have infinite supplies and reduced maintenance costs. If you use bases, you must build it with a Space Yard ship at the desired location.

1.5.3 Only one vehicle per location will actually mine the location. If you put one robo-minerals satellite and one robo-radioactives satellite at the same location, only the first one placed will actually generate resources. However, if you build a base with different mining components (ie 6 robo-minerals, 4 robo-radiactives, 2 robo-organics for example) all mining components on the station will produce, (but only 1 base per location).

1.5.4 Remote mining depletes the available resources at the location. It does not happen quickly, but you will see the value of the location drop over time.

1.5.5 It is possible to remotely mine any asteroid or UNCOLONIZED planet. As long as the location has a resource value, it can be mined. Once you place a colony on a planet it can no longer be remotely mined.

[ May 14, 2002, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

[eorg]

Remote Mining
=============
(Somebody who uses this more than I do should write an entry for it.)

99.12.03. just don't use it :-)

[Gandalph]

Originally posted by georgig:
&lt;snip&gt;just don't use it :-)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">georgig,

Remote mining can be very profitable(IMHO). If you have an asteroid belt within your territory, you can reap large Caches of resources without having to devote planetary facilities to them, thereby freeing up the planet for things like ship or fleet training.

[eorg]

in all multiplayer games i've played i didn't see one remote miner
more profitable is to build a fleet and take two systems from your weakest neighbour
other thing: you must research much to make remote mining profitable - in this point of research you can convert asteroids to planets and mine it without lowering planets value

it's your turn :-)

[Gandalph]

I submit that I don't use stellar manip. as it seems too costly, to research, build, and maintain. The remote mining bases I build you have the technology for at the begining of the game in a mid tech start. 2 turns to build a space yard ship, 2-3 turns to get it to the location, 8 turns to build=14kt minerals per turn.

PS - We really shouldn't be discussing this here though.

[ May 14, 2002, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

[Krsqk]

Repairs and Retrofitting
========================

1.4.5--A faster, but more expensive, method to build ships is to use a retroseries. First, build a basic Version of the ship, usually taking a single turn. Then retrofit through a series of designs which gradually add components to the ship. Remember, though, that there can only be a 50% difference in cost for each resource. This means that if you don't have any components which require organics/radioactives in the first design (i.e., Life Support/Engines), you will not be able to add them later.

[Fyron]

Umm... where did that come from? It is wrong. When retrofitting a ship, the total cost is used when determining if the ship can be upgraded or not, not the cost of each individual resource.

[Krsqk]

My bad. I guess I should have tried a few more designs during my empty-shell-to-huge-planet-destroyer retroseries. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif The only connection I could find was the lack of rads. The total cost of the added engines must have been the problem. The corrected entry is as follows:

Repairs and Retrofitting
========================

1.4.5 A faster, but more expensive, method to build ships is to use a retroseries. First, build a basic Version of the ship, usually taking a single turn. Then retrofit through a series of designs which gradually add components to the ship. Remember, though, that there can only be a 50% difference in total cost. If you are building a stellar manipulation ship (which has a single very expensive component), you can use any combination of components to get the total cost close enough to the amount needed to add the stellar manip. component, at which point the other components can be removed. (Thanks to Imperator Fyron for clearing up my confusion on this issue.)

[edits--typos/clarification]

[ May 15, 2002, 12:04 AM: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by georgig:
in all multiplayer games i've played i didn't see one remote miner
more profitable is to build a fleet and take two systems from your weakest neighbour
other thing: you must research much to make remote mining profitable - in this point of research you can convert asteroids to planets and mine it without lowering planets value

it's your turn :-)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I rarely used remote mining myself until the current Version of SEIV Gold, which increased asteroid values. Now you can find asteroids with resource values as high as 300% http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif Which makes remote mining much more profitable. Especially when invading your neighbours isn't really a good option...

[Klebdog]

System Defense 101 - Once you have developed Cruiser technology build a space yard ship and locate Choke Point Warp Points. On the friendly side of the Hole build a Battle Station or whatever size you prefer. If you build it on the enemy side it eventually will be attacked by a strong enough force to destroy it. Reinforce this with some mines and repair modules (x2) on board and you have a gatekeeper for your systems. If you locate several of these type of systems you can close your borders to all unfriendly ships without fear. It only takes a few stations to do this and if they get to expensive you can always mothball them. This strategy works great against the AI and is still a hard nut to crack against PBW opponents. It also acts as a remote resupply depot for ships and fleets.

[Dogberry]

1.5.5 ... remote mining. My experience IS that a colonised planet can be mined, insolong as you don't already have a extraction ( minerals ) facility already there. Observed this quite by accident.

Dog

[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.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">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.
&lt;snip&gt;
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">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)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">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)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">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)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">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 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif 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.

[javaslinger]

What exactly is this thread??

I remember there already being a VERY extensive FAQ Last year?

Is this one just for gold or something? I would this a great many things could be culled from the previous FAQ.

[Baron Munchausen]

No, it's just a duplication. This is not a 'unified' community, you know. We're just a mob of fans who clump and unclump in our own ways. When one 'clique' gets an idea they go ahead and carry it out even if someone else has already done it. Notice the over-lapping mods, 'Star Trek,' 'SciFi Crossover' with lots of Trek stuff included, TDM modpack with lots of Trek and B5 and other races, B5 specific mod, etc...

"No boundaries" could be the SE IV official motto.

[javaslinger]

Too bad. That always frustrates me.

Unity is the key...

[Suicide Junkie]

We are unified in our diversity.

[Ruatha]

Can someone post a link to the previus faq then, maybe I can merge them.
The Faqs in the sticky section doesn't quite seem to be aiemd at newbies starting a game.

[capnq]

Can someone post a link to the previus faq <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">These are the two longest threads that a search turned up:

FAQ...First 50 turns (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=000570)
Armor, Shields, and Damage (FAQ) (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=001307)

There's also:
Dubious' Strategy Guide (10 April 01) [old archives] (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000019-2.html)

[Ruatha]

Ok, that seems like a more strategic guide, this thread aims to answer questions as " Why don't my colonies build anything?" - "move population there!".

[Gandalph]

After all my play time, I just discovered something new.

Cloaked ships will not gain experience while at a planet with a ship and/or fleet training facility. You MUST decloak the ship to benefit from the training.

You can add this in where ever it fits.

[capnq]

1.2.6. On a construction queue, you can use the Fill Queue button to save Groups of construction orders for repeated use. Put the items you want in the queue, Fill Queue, Add Queue; name the set. Once a set of orders is saved, it can be selected with Fill Queue to add the set to the construction queue. If an item in saved set becomes obsolete, Fill Queue will produce an error message when you select that set, so you have to define a new set whenever you upgrade a design.

[sachmo]

I found this thread incredibly helpful...when I found it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif How about a sticky?

[capnq]

4.2.6.1. Heavier mounts increase the range and damage of weapons. To use a heavier mount on a design, press the Weap Mounts button on the design screen. The Weapons Report screen also has a Mount button.

[Stone Mill]

Please check me on this...

Repairs and Retrofitting
1.4.6 Only one ship may use a spaceyard for retrofitting at any given time. However, next turn, a different ship may retrofit while the other ship(s) use the space yard to repair the newly retrofit components.

1.4.7 Engines that are retrofit to a different engine type lose all supplies. Ensure you retrofit engines over a resupply depot.

1.4.8 You cannot retrofit (captured, insurrected, or gifted) ships with special racial technology components that your race does not possess.

1.4.9 A space yard ship with a repair bay is an excellent way to refit ships in forward positions.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
Please check me on this...

Repairs and Retrofitting
1.4.6 Only one ship may use a spaceyard for retrofitting at any given time. However, next turn, a different ship may retrofit while the other ship(s) use the space yard to repair the newly retrofit components.

1.4.7 Engines that are retrofit to a different engine type lose all supplies. Ensure you retrofit engines over a resupply depot.

1.4.8 You cannot retrofit (captured, insurrected, or gifted) ships with special racial technology components that your race does not possess.

1.4.9 A space yard ship with a repair bay is an excellent way to refit ships in forward positions.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think simultaneous games have issues with retrofitting more than one TYPE of ship per sector per turn, but you should at least be able to select multiple ships (of the same type) and retrofit all of them at once - as long as you want to retrofit all of them to the same type. Non-simultaneous games allow you to do multiple retrofits per turn; you could even retrofit the same ship multiple times (the infamous "retro-series"). Repair bays and shipyards repair a certain number of components per sector per turn, and those components can be scattered across multiple ships.

You're right about a ship losing supply when the engines are retrofitted (unless, of course, you have supply storage components that are NOT being retrofitted; otherwise, you have the same problem - i.e., you don't get free supplies by retrofitting/repairing a supply storage component).

I'm not certain about the special racial tech thing; you can't ANALYZE the racial tech unless you have the corresponding racial trait, but you can certainly scrap the ship and you should be able to retrofit the ship to one of your own designs (which, obviously, would destroy all the other race's special components).

Also note that you can put multiple repair bays on a single ship and they will ALL work together; they will even "combine" with a space yard component (and/or a space yard facility).

Hope that all made sense...

[Suicide Junkie]

1.4.8 You cannot retrofit (captured, insurrected, or gifted) ships with special racial technology components that your race does not possess. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can do whatever you like with alien racial tech ships.
The only difference is that the status lines will indicate that the analyse value of the ship is medium to high, but you will fail to get those techs if you analyse.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
Thanks guys,

I guess I still need to do some testing/tinkering. I'm looking for definitive guidance on retrofitting over space yards. Indeed, as the good Director stated, (Simultaneous games), If multiple ships can be retrofit, is the limitation that they must be of the same class, and must they retrofit to the same type?
In the past, I used to get a prohibitive message when I tried multiple retrofits, so I gave up on it.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't generally play simultaneous, so I can't answer this question definitively; one of the PBW veterans could probably give a detailed answer.

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
As far as refitting, what I was trying to state is that if you capture/insurrect or are gifted a ship with special tech, (let's say the talisman), you can't refit the ship with new components, or you will lose the special tech. You will have to create a new design to retrofit the ship to-
and because you don't own the talisman, you can't create a design with it.
Therefore, if you try to retrofit a ship with special tech you don't own, you will not be able to select the special components when creating the new design, so you will lose them.
True, you can do what you want with the ship, but if you decide to refit it, you will not be able to keep the special tech components.
Am I incorrect?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's exactly right; your original post didn't convey that to me, but maybe I just read it wrong.

[capnq]

I've been wondering whether it would be worthwhile to compile a FAQ about the things that are different in simultaneous games.

[Stone Mill]

Thanks guys,

I guess I still need to do some testing/tinkering. I'm looking for definitive guidance on retrofitting over space yards. Indeed, as the good Director stated, (Simultaneous games), If multiple ships can be retrofit, is the limitation that they must be of the same class, and must they retrofit to the same type?
In the past, I used to get a prohibitive message when I tried multiple retrofits, so I gave up on it.

As far as refitting, what I was trying to state is that if you capture/insurrect or are gifted a ship with special tech, (let's say the talisman), you can't refit the ship with new components, or you will lose the special tech. You will have to create a new design to retrofit the ship to-
and because you don't own the talisman, you can't create a design with it.
Therefore, if you try to retrofit a ship with special tech you don't own, you will not be able to select the special components when creating the new design, so you will lose them.
True, you can do what you want with the ship, but if you decide to refit it, you will not be able to keep the special tech components.
Am I incorrect?

[Quikngruvn]

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
...I'm looking for definitive guidance on retrofitting over space yards. Indeed, as the good Director stated, (Simultaneous games), If multiple ships can be retrofit, is the limitation that they must be of the same class, and must they retrofit to the same type?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The only limitation I've seen with retrofitting in simultaneous is that you have enough resources to cover the retrofit. Number of space yards doesn't seem to matter. Example: in one PBW game, a couple of turns ago, I retrofit a dozen ships over a planet with just a spaceyard facility and a base space yard. Several different types at once as well. But, I had to select each different class of ship to retrofit separately. I've also heard anecdotes of players retrofitting their entire fleet at once (sometimes at a very inopportune time!). Also...

1.4.9 Ships can't be retrofit while in a fleet (it caused problems in 1.49, and is not even possible in Gold).

More while I'm thinking about it (all are new unless otherwise noted)....

1.1.4.0 Research Stellar Manipulation to level 5 for Ringworlds (level 8 for Sphereworlds) and Base Construction to level 3.

1.3.6 [change] Umm... I believe a ship will resupply fully no matter how long it stays over a resupply depot, even for touch-and-go. The ship only looks 'nearly-resupplied' since it spent supplies between the depot and its Last position.

For example, consider a speed 7 ship with six engines is five sectors away from a resupply depot. If the ship is ordered to move straight for the depot and then move as far as it can beyond that, at the end of the month, it will have full supplies minus the supplies it spent to go the two sectors beyond the depot. In this case, it would be (2 sectors x 6 engines x 10 supply per engine per sector) = 120 supply points below full when it stops moving.

1.4.2.1 The game chooses a ship in a sector to repair based on which ship has the highest-priority component broken, and then this ship will be repaired as much as it can. Example: say your repair priority list starts Vehicle Control (top priority), Engines, and Weapons. Say you also have two ships damaged in one sector. The first ship has only its bridge, a shield, and a piece of armor broken. The second ship has everything damaged EXCEPT its bridge, crew quarters, and life support (and does not have an Aux Con). Since the first ship has the a top priority Vehicle Control component damaged (the bridge), while the second ship has no Vehicle Control components damages, the first ship will be repaired as much as possible. Each turn the game re-determines which ship will be repaired (so that a ship that is repaired one turn may not be repaired the next turn).

1.4.2.2 If a ship is fully repaired, any excess repair ability in a sector will be carried over to other damaged ships in the sector. In this case, the game will pick the next-highest priority ship as above, then repair it as much as it can. This process repeats till either all ships are repaired or the repair facilities/components have repaired as much as they can in a turn.

1.4.2.3 Multiple repair bays will work on a single ship or base. Three repair bays fit perfectly on a Space Station. If they are Repair Bays 3, that's 24 components repaired per turn right there (with very low maintenance), which can make for speedy retrofits. Multiple repair bays on dedicated repair ships can greatly increase the lifespan of fleets at the front lines.

1.4.6 [change] Engines that are retrofit to a different engine type lose all supplies, unless they also have Supply Storage components. Ensure you retrofit engines over a resupply depot.

2.4.2 [change] In the post-1.67 patch, Ionic Dispersers, which destroy engines, will not skip shields.

That's as much as I can concentrate on now. Take it or leave it.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

The grammar police strike again....
[2d edit] And English is my first language.... [/2d edit]

Quikngruvn

[ August 02, 2002, 05:26: Message edited by: Quikngruvn ]

[DirectorTsaarx]

First, Quikngruvn, good work on most of your inputs. I only disagree on one point:

Originally posted by Quikngruvn:
1.3.6 [change] Umm... I believe a ship will resupply fully no matter how long it stays over a resupply depot, even for touch-and-go. The ship only looks 'nearly-resupplied' since it spent supplies between the depot and its Last position.

For example, consider a speed 7 ship with six engines is five sectors away from a resupply depot. If the ship is ordered to move straight for the depot and then move as far as it can beyond that, at the end of the month, it will have full supplies minus the supplies it spent to go the two sectors beyond the depot. In this case, it would be (2 sectors x 6 engines x 10 supply per engine per sector) = 120 supply points below full when it stops moving.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If your ship ends its movement over a planet with a resupply depot, the display will show you have full supplies MINUS one sector's worth of movement. I haven't tried moving one sector beyond the resupply depot, so I don't know if "touch and go" provides a workaround...

[Ruatha]

Does this mean any change to 1.3.6?

[Stone Mill]

CONSTRUCTION

1.2.7 Happiness effects construction rates; the happier, the better rate:
Mood Riot Modifier := 0
Mood Angry Modifier := 80
Mood Unhappy Modifier := 90
Mood Indifferent Modifier := 100
Mood Happy Modifier := 110
Mood Jubilant Modifier := 120

1.2.7.1 Rioting Planets do not construct anything, as the construction queue will display "Never." To resolve Rioting:
a. Station a fleet in that system. Better yet, park it over a specific planet that you want to improve.
b. Build troops in the system. Building troops on a planet also increases happiness for that particular planet. Tip: Amount of troops count, not quality, so you can design cheap troops with minimal components.
c. System happiness facilities, such as the Urban Pacification Center (I, II, II) or special tech facilities/shrines increase hapiness. The effects of these facilities seem to be very gradual, requiring several turns.
d. Winning battles improves population confidence and improves happinness, especially in the system in which the battle occurs.

1.2.8 Population effects construction rates; the higher population, the better bonus to production.

1.2.9 Space Yards improve production. You are allowed only one space yard per planet. Invest research in better Space Yard Technology (I,II,III) to increase construction rate. Note: (Special Tech) Temporal Space Yards have better rates. Unfortunately, you must first scrap your standard Space Yard in order to build them.

[Suicide Junkie]

TIPS
****
SETTING UP A GAME
==================
4.1.2.
Choosing an uncommon atmosphere type such as Methane or Carbon Dioxide is a good idea, since you will face less competition for breathable planets.

4.2.7.
Friget should be spelled Frigate.

[ August 06, 2002, 18:33: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Suicide Junkie]

1.5.3 Only one vehicle per location will actually mine the location. If you put one robo-minerals satellite and one robo-radioactives satellite at the same location, only the first one placed will actually generate resources. However, if you build a base with different mining components (ie 6 robo-minerals, 4 robo-radiactives, 2 robo-organics for example) all mining components on the station will produce, (but only 1 base per location).(Gandalph)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The satellite facts are wrong.

1.5.3.1 Only one Ship or Base can mine a location at once. Whichever is placed first will mine.
All mining components on a ship or base will produce, and the value of the planet or asteroids will drop exactly 1% per turn no matter how many mining components you have.

1.5.3.2 In a stack of satellites, up to three satellites can mine, provided they all have robo-miners working on different resources.
Three mineral miner sats will produce the same amount of minerals as one mineral miner sat. A mineral miner sat plus a radioactives miner sat can both work on the same location at the same time, producing the full amount of both resources.

1.5.4.2 In order to make your mining operations Last longer, use only one type of robo miner per base. If all of your robo miners are Mineral miners, the organics and radioactives value of the planet or asteroids will not decrease. When the minerals are gone, you can retrofit the base to an organics or radioactives miner, and continue production for many years to come.

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
[QUOTE]1.5.4.2 In order to make your mining operations Last longer, use only one type of robo miner per base. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm... I think this is might be wrong. A robominer will cause reduction in all resource types. I haven't checked recently, but that used to be the case. Has it changed?

[Suicide Junkie]

Actually, it has been that way since at least v1.49.

PS: 1.5.4.2 was meant to come after 1.5.4

[capnq]

Not sure where to put this, maybe Technology? BTW, why does Religious Studies have such an odd case number?

SYSTEM FACILITIES

3.1 - Production bonuses from system facilities do not appear on the listings of individual planets' output, but the extra production is included in the totals on the (F11) Empire Status page.

3.2 - System facility effects stack with planetary facility effects.

[ August 11, 2002, 19:56: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Ruatha]

Will incorporate later this week, as to the Talisman number, there is a logical explanation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[Binford]

Didn't see this in the FAQ.

Is there any way to make Satellites automatically deploy when built every turn? Sure gets annoying to have to go launch 'em every turn when I may have a number of planets building them.

Bin

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Binford:
Didn't see this in the FAQ.

Is there any way to make Satellites automatically deploy when built every turn? Sure gets annoying to have to go launch 'em every turn when I may have a number of planets building them.

Bin<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Please ask this question as a new thread, when you get an answer post in this thread and I'll incorporate it into the faq.

[dumbluck]

Yes, just give the planet the "launch remotely/satellites" command, then hit repeat orders. Then each turn, the planet will try to launch satellites, even if there aren't any stored in cargo.

I think. Actually, I'm about 97% sure this is correct. Well, make that 96%.

[Stone Mill]

Help me out here, fellas...

WEAPONS
2.4.4 Weapon Types / Classes
2.4.4.1 Seeking. Example: (Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo). Once launched, have a %100 hit probably unless intercepted by point defense, fighters, or some direct fire weapons.
2.4.4.2 Direct Fire. Example: (Anti Proton Beams, Normal Torpedoes). Must be fired within range determined by weapon type and mount. Offensive Bonus and Defensive Bonus variables affect the actual chance to hit.
2.4.4.3 Point Defense. Example: (Point defense I-V). Automatically fire at seekers or fighters when in weapon range.
2.4.4.4 Armor and Shield Skipping. Example: (Null Space, Engine Destroyers, Weapon Destroyers). Successful hits ignore enemy armor and shield components. Engine/Weapon Destroyers do damage to those components only.
2.4.4.5 Armor Skipping Example: (Boarding Parties, Security Stations, Crystalline Shard Cannons).
2.4.4.6 Shield Skipping. Example (Phased Polaron Beams). Successful hits ignore normal shield components. Phased Shields absorb Phased Polaron hits (Shields 6+ technology).

2.4.5 Targeting. In order for a weapon to fire at a particular target (satellites, ships, etc.), that target must be included in the Weapon Details "Targets" list.

[ August 15, 2002, 16:04: Message edited by: Stone Mill ]

[kalthalior]

2.4.4.4 Armor and Shield Skipping -- I think the patch was supposed to change the Engine Destroyers so that they did not skip shields, not sure if Weapon Destroyers were included in this change or not.
Haven't had a chance to play with the new patch yet to verify this took effect, Last night was bowling night -- my only obsession other than SE. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[capnq]

Help me out here, fellas... <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Corrections:

2.4.4.1 Seeking. Example: (Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo). Once launched, have a 100% hit probability unless intercepted by point defense, or the target moves beyond the seekers' range.

[In the unmodded game, Point-Defense Cannons are the only weapon that targets seekers.]

2.4.4.3 Point Defense. Example: (Point-Defense Cannons I-V). Automatically fire at seekers, fighters, satellites, and drones when in weapon range.

[minipol]

it might be interesting to add a section on the most know mods and what they are focusing on. a lot of questions of that kind have come up. i can't help you much with this since i'm a newbie myself when it comes to mods. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Elowan]

This may have been suggested before but I don't see it here.

Add a cargo pod to the Colony Ship design used to colonize your race's breathable planets. Then when you hit the "Colonize" button to send a ship off to a planet (whether you do it from the planets screen or main screen) extra pop will be loaded to give that colony a kick-start.

I use 3 colony ship designs:

CS-LR - long range (has a supply pod on it)
CS-SR - short range with cargo pod for breathable (green + planets)
CS-SR-nbr - short range, no cargo pod for non-breathable atmosphere planets (red + -- cheaper to build). I use these for storage planets so pop doesn't matter as much.

[Mylon]

Newbie question: What does racial experience mean? Does this somehow give the race an edge, does it carry over across different games (importing a pre-made race), or is it just an indication of how much a particular race is played?

[Taz-in-Space]

From what I heard on previous discussions, the racial experience has no effect on the game. Theory is that it is a feature that was never implemented. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Quikngruvn]

Originally posted by DirectorTsaarx:
First, Quikngruvn, good work on most of your inputs. I only disagree on one point:

If your ship ends its movement over a planet with a resupply depot, the display will show you have full supplies MINUS one sector's worth of movement. I haven't tried moving one sector beyond the resupply depot, so I don't know if "touch and go" provides a workaround...<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks, Tsaarx. Are you doing your resupply with simultaneous or sequential turns? All I ever play is simultaneous, so there may be a difference.

Also, addendum to 2.4.2.02:
Well, I was about to list all the variables that could affect the chance to hit a direct-fire weapon, but that would make for a huge entry, so....

2.4.3 Chance to hit with direct-fire weapons
The chance that a direct-fire weapon will hit its target depends on the following factors:
2.4.3.1 Range: longer range is less chance to hit (-10% per square on the tactical map).
2.4.3.2 Racial bonuses: aggressiveness for the attacker, defensiveness for the target.
2.4.3.3 Cultural bonuses: the Space Combat bonus of both attacker (added) and target (subtracted).
2.4.3.4 Ship and fleet experience: experience of the attacker is added to the chance, experience of the defender is subtracted. Ship and fleet experience are cumulative (if the ship is in a fleet).
2.4.3.5 Inherent weapon to-hit bonuses: for example, the Wave-Motion Gun has a built-in +30% chance to hit.
2.4.3.6 Size of the target: smaller ships (light cruiser and smaller) are harder to hit.
2.4.3.7 Components: Combat sensors on the attacker increase the chance to hit; ECM, stealth armor, and scattering armor on the defender all decrease the chance.
2.4.3.8 Weapon mount: some mounts, such as weapon platform mounts, increase the chance to hit.
2.4.3.9 Caveats
2.4.3.9.1 If the attacking ship has a talisman, every direct-fire shot will hit, if in range.
2.4.3.9.2 Without a talisman, the highest adjusted chance to hit you can have is 99%.
2.4.3.9.3 The lowest adjusted chance to hit you can have is 1%.

I think that the base chance to hit is 100% before modifiers come into play, but someone should confirm this. I hope I remembered all the to-hit variables....

Quikngruvn

[Suicide Junkie]

The base to-hit is 100%, and is moddable in settings.txt.

However, the closest two ships can get without ramming each other is range 1, so that might make it effectively 90%

[tbontob]

This is getting huge http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Thanx guys

Lots of "stuff" to think about. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Slick]

Hello, I have been keeping “good to know” notes when I find out something that is not [or not well] documented]. Some of these have “bit” me in a game so I wrote them down so that I didn’t have to remember them all. I have gotten a wealth of info from the “dubious strategy guide” and this forum. You guys are always willing to help newbies and are very mature, which is why I like reading this forum. Please don’t be offended if you see something below which you posted; sometimes I just cut and paste into my notes file for future reference. Most of these have been originally written by the community and I found interesting. Please use any/all in the newbie guide and give credit to the community. Also, please look for mistakes and redundancies. Some of these may seem very simplistic to the veterans here but each one was not obvious to me at the time I copied it so I think they may be useful in a newbie guide.

- bases and sats have unlimited supplies.

- sats or other orbiters will attack a newly captured planet. need to eliminate them before capture. Weapon Platforms will not attack troops and don’t participate in ground combat.

- ships with a spaceyard can’t build while cloaked but can repair while cloaked. [icon changes from “spaceyard” to “repair” while cloaked.

- Cloaking: cloaked sats with sensors work well for recon. cloaking devices uses supplies, not sure about stealth armor. cloaked ships can get into combat if they encounter ship with right sensors. you can launch/recover fighters/mines[not recover]/satellites, transfer cargo, resource mine while cloaked
cannot colonize while cloaked. cloaked ships can’t be retrofitted

- all components on sats/fighters/mines/drones are inactive when unlaunched.

- ships lose fleet experience when they leave fleet.

- ships must leave fleet to be refit or do specialized functions [use emergency supply, build ships, etc.]

-ships will decloak when out of supplies

- atmosphere converters can be scrapped after the atmosphere is converted.

- each crew quarter counts as 16 defense against Boarding Parties

- there is a limit of 10 warp points per system

- need to add weapons to a ship in the order you want them to fire in combat

- specialty weapons [eg. weapon damaging] leave no “excess” damage. If it doesn’t destroy weapon, it does nothing.

- mounts on tractors don’t improve tractor

- tractors are not able to pull in larger ships

- 1] you can't design a ship unless it has the requested number of LS/CQ, or a MC. 2] ships lose movement if they have ZERO lifesupports or crewquarters remaining. 3] ships lose movement if they have no intact bridge or aux con. 4] any ship with an intact MC is exempt from rules 2 & 3. One each of B/LS/CQ is enough to fly the ship normally, but you can't save that design unless you have an MC [or are designing a ship < 450KT in size].

- you can self destruct mines

- Organic armor will regenerate only in battle, not in strategic mode. If got 1 left, engage immobile target and just sit there to regenerate.

- domed worlds are 1/5 facilities of non-domed. domed sphere worlds are 1/2. not sure about ring worlds.

- emergency supply & propulsion pods need a spaceyard [not repair bay] to repair.

- rock/none gives moons a whole new meaning.

- no use in training missile ships or using combat sensors - missiles either hit or miss based on range & pd.

- don’t forget to set the strategy of a new ship design

- if all ships in a fleet break formation, they go to their individual ship orders. this may be what you want.

- victory conditions are “and” not “or”

- good ratio - minerals:organics:radioactives = 5-10:1:2-3. increase organics if you are organic racial, endgame increase radioactives

- mothballing a ship resets its crew experience to 0%

- retrofitting a ship does not affect its crew experience.

- you can shift cargo between anything in the same sector with cargo components, even a planet and its moons. built units will be placed in the cargo components of the building unit. if none/full, they will be placed in any other cargo components in the sector [ships, planets, moons]. if all full, you get log message saying unavailable storage.

- don’t mothball your Last spaceyard ship in a fleet - you need an active spaceyard to unmothball.

- System facility effects stack with planetary facility effects.

- it costs 50% [of the cost of the new facility] to upgrade a facility

- how much does retrofitting cost? 120%, 30% for component removal

- what does experience do? 20% Experience [whether gained from training or combat] would give your ships a 20% less-likely-to-be-hit modifier and a 20% more-likely-to-hit-with-direct-fire-weapons modifier.

- solar generators have increased benefits if more stars are present

- pdc’s get a 70% to-hit bonus. incinerator beams get a 10% to hit bonus. wmg’s get a 30% to hit bonus
high energy magnifiers get a 30% to hit bonus. tachyon canons get a 10% to hit bonus. mental singularity generators get at 20% to hit bonus

- units in same sector stack and count as 1 unit. any component on any in the stack applies to all, except shields [until that unit is killed]. ie. 1 multiplex tracking component on 1 sat in a group makes the whole group able to multiplex track until that component is destroyed.

- when a stack of units takes damage, all structure is added up and when enough accumulate to destroy 1 unit, it is killed. no partials.

- do pdc’s need multiplex tracking? no.

- captured population [by any means] loses all of its racial attributes and is identical to yours except they retain their atmosphere breathing so can be used to populate your colonies appropriately AND they slowly get unhappy over time so you need to account for that so they don’t riot [riot police, upc, etc.].

- pdc’s won’t fire automatically unless you or the target moves and is in range; but they can be fired manually.

- you can get ripped off in the “build 1 turn’s worth” since extra build capacity is lost- check out the build times for 1,5,10,etc if you were going to build that many anyway - could be shorter since additional build points are lost, but you won’t get any of your units until the entire build time is complete.

- ships do retain original strategies after being retrofitted or captured - you can overcome this by making a 1-ship fleet and giving it new fleet orders.

- Income is better than a savings account with no interest. quote I saw regarding whether to build a facility on a poorly valued planet.

- Facilities undergoing upgrade still produce. Do not scrap to upgrade!

- Shields are not active against mines.

- having more population increases production rate [see settings.txt]

- happiness affects resource production [see settings.txt]

- there is no way in unmodded game to detect mines without running into them.

- repairs cost no resources.

[javaslinger]

there is an enormous guide compiled of Posts from this forum in the archives. I don't think it's been updated since gold, but the vast majority of it is very much still useful.

It's called the Dubious strategy guide and you can find it in the must visit sites sticky... A lot of what is being compiled in here is already in there.

I mean this guide is HUGE.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Quikngruvn:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by DirectorTsaarx:
First, Quikngruvn, good work on most of your inputs. I only disagree on one point:

If your ship ends its movement over a planet with a resupply depot, the display will show you have full supplies MINUS one sector's worth of movement. I haven't tried moving one sector beyond the resupply depot, so I don't know if "touch and go" provides a workaround...<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks, Tsaarx. Are you doing your resupply with simultaneous or sequential turns? All I ever play is simultaneous, so there may be a difference.
<snip>
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, my info is based on sequential. It may very well be different in simultaneous (like so many other things that are different between the two styles)...

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Slick:
Hello, I have been keeping “good to know” notes when I find out something that is not [or not well] documented]. <snip>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I agree with most of the notes you posted; I have just a couple minor comments...

Originally posted by Slick:
- ships must leave fleet to be refit or do specialized functions [use emergency supply, build ships, etc.]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, you don't have to leave a fleet to build a ship; you just can't access the build screen directly from the fleet. (i.e., when you have the fleet selected on the main screen, the "build queue" icon won't light up). HOWEVER, if you go to the Construction Queues screen, you should be able to find the appropriate spaceyard ship/base in the list and you can add items to the queue from there. I do this for building ringworlds/sphereworlds - not only is it easier on the eyes to have all those ships in a single fleet, if you access the queues from the construction queues screen you can do use multi-add for setting up builds on the plating or cables...

Originally posted by Slick:
- if all ships in a fleet break formation, they go to their individual ship orders. this may be what you want.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think some ships retain the fleet orders even when they break formation, but I could be wrong about this. There's been a lot of discussion about ship orders vs. fleet orders and what each strategy really means...

[Ruatha]

That was alot!
I'm a newbie myself, haven't finished a single game yet but have two in progress, one PBW.
So I can't verify anything.
I have two kids and a full time work so to incorporate I usually just use your method, slick; I cut and paste.

To incorporate Slicks big post to the appropriate places will take time and as nothing is numbered I'll be glad if I have it done this year.

I really like when people add numbers,and I'd be happy if people copied the entire faq and incorporated new things themself http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

All this said I'm glad Slick posted that big post as it contains alot of usefull newbie info!

Javaslinger > Yes, I know most information can be found in different threads, but there isn't so much compiled into any easy to orientate order.
This FAQ isn't well organized either, it's grown out of the originial proportions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
When you are a newbie as me it's not easy to search for all the info you need, it's easier if it's compiled into something with a newbie friendly topic title as FAQ for newbies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Now I gotta go and put my oldest (5 years) to bed.

[ September 09, 2002, 19:03: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Slick]

Sorry about the “no numbers” but I wasn’t sure what if anything you wanted to include. I am married with children too.

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
FAQ SE4
------
This is for us newbies, all feel free to add to this faq, correct errors, spellcheck and bump.
Change the order if it needs to, long live chaos.
Elite players share your knowledge, newbies, add the answers to your questions here when you receive an answer.
First, read:Malfador Q&A Section (http://malfador.com/se4qna.html)
and: Un-Official Space empires IV Strategy and Tactics Page (http://home.earthlink.net/~petemmer/)
-------------------------------------------------
CIVILIZATION BUILDING
*********************
COLONIZING
==========
1.1.1. Put people on your colony ships. The <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">0.0.0.0 Forum Navigation
Forums Posts appear latest post first, so you can easily check up on the newest responce to a long thread

0.0.0.1 To see the begining of a forum thread, click the "Printer-friendly view of this topic" icon at the bottom of the page(thanks Gryphin!)

[Stone Mill]

Great content, Slick.

Don't sweat the numbering. I'm sure Ruatha can make it fit. He's done a great job already.

I agree; it is the organization of this post that makes it a handy reference!

[Shyrka]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
2.7.01. To launch satellites from a planet use "launch remotely/satellites" command, then hit repeat orders. Then each turn, the planet will try to launch satellites, even if there aren't any stored in cargo. (dumbluck)
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">¿This is really possible? I'm trying to do it and when i hit "launch remotely/satellites" the planet launches all its satellites and then the order is deleted. I can't hit the "repeat orders" since there is no orders to repeat. Am I doing something wrong?

[zaphod-42]

Originally posted by Shyrka:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Ruatha:
2.7.01. To launch satellites from a planet use "launch remotely/satellites" command, then hit repeat orders. Then each turn, the planet will try to launch satellites, even if there aren't any stored in cargo. (dumbluck)
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">¿This is really possible? I'm trying to do it and when i hit "launch remotely/satellites" the planet launches all its satellites and then the order is deleted. I can't hit the "repeat orders" since there is no orders to repeat. Am I doing something wrong?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"repeat orders" for launching satellites from a planet is only possible in simultaneous movement games AFAIK

[raynfala]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
FAQ SE4
2.4.2.03. Point Defense. Example: (Point-Defense Cannons I-V). Automatically fire at seekers, fighters, satellites, and drones when in weapon range.(Stone Mill,Capnq)
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">PDC's do NOT fire automatically at drones, nor do they automatically fire at satellites. I do know that they can be manually fired on satellite Groups. I don't remember if they can target drones, though. Somebody will have to check.

When firing PDC's manually from a ship that is armed with other weapon types, the order in which you attack your targets does matter. On ships not equipped with Multiplexing components, firing the PDC's at the satellite group prevents you from firing your direct fire/missile weapons at a different target on the same turn. However, if you fire your direct fire/missile weapons at the other target first, you may still fire the PDC's at the satellite group afterwards.

--raynfala

[LazarusLong42]

Is there some reason this thread isn't stickied?? I think it's a prime candidate.

[Elowan]

Here's a tip:

Before colonizing a 'ruin planet' make sure that your research queue is filled. If it is - there's a good chance that you might get some of the queue finished for you from the discovered ruins.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by raynfala:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Ruatha:
FAQ SE4
2.4.2.03. Point Defense. Example: (Point-Defense Cannons I-V). Automatically fire at seekers, fighters, satellites, and drones when in weapon range.(Stone Mill,Capnq)
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">PDC's do NOT fire automatically at drones, nor do they automatically fire at satellites. I do know that they can be manually fired on satellite Groups. I don't remember if they can target drones, though. Somebody will have to check.
<snip>--raynfala</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">PDC's firing at drones is supposed to have been fixed in Patch 2:

Version 1.75:
<snip>
8. Fixed - Point-Defense will now fire automatically on moving drones.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As for PDC's firing at satellites, ISTR my PDC's automatically firing at satellites when my ships moved, but not when sitting still. And seekers/fighters/drones are a higher targetting priority for PDCs anyway...

[ September 11, 2002, 18:53: Message edited by: DirectorTsaarx ]

[Slick]

Again, more of my notes. Credit to the great community.

- defensive bonuses from stealth + scattering armor do stack - a powerful combination.

- cloaking devices use supplies; stealth armor does not.

- does long range scanning (from long range scanners) happen automatically or do you have to click on enemy ships? must manually click on the enemy ship and the design does not show up in your enemy designs list until you actually get into combat with it. I reported this to MM as a bug.

- is there a comprehensive buglist posted anywhere? no.

- do asteroids affect sight? no.

- in the default AI .txt files, there is absolutely no difference between a tribute and a gift regarding chances for accepting/refusing nor happiness modifiers. There may be differences for individual races.

- wormhole defense: on the “receiving” end, all units clumped together at start of combat. build defenses on short range/overwhelming attacks.

- you can get ripped off on upgrading ships. Check that you are not upgrading engines of the same type from I to II or III - no benefit, but additional cost. Master computers, almost the same thing, slight decrease in size is the only benefit, usually not worth the cost. Check every component to see if there is enough of a benefit to make it worth the cost.

- if you know or suspect an enemy psychic race, begin transitioning to Master Computers before war breaks out - makes Allegiance Subverters useless.

- for strategic combat, I have found that ships that have multiple weapon types and are very flexible are not handled well by the AI. The AI seems to be better at handling single purpose ships. The opposite seems true for tactical combat because, obviously, a human is in control.

- It almost always makes good sense to use the largest mount you can. Check out the specialty weapons to see if you really need the benefit.

- Monolith facilities are very expensive and will take many turns to break even - use wisely. You can do a calculation of the break even (and even factor in the use of a Resource Converter) to see what makes better sense.

- On ships, Spaceyard III and Repair Bay III both repair 8 per turn; all planet Spaceyard facilities only repair 5 per turn. Moral: better to repair in space.

- Spaceyard ships can repair & retrofit while moving, assuming the ship it is repairing/retrofitting can move. Spaceyard ships cannot build while moving.

- Be sure you really need high levels of Multiplex tracking before you research it - do you really expect your ships to engage 5 enemies every turn?

- Be careful you don’t run out of supplies on your CSM ships - each CSM V uses 20 supplies.

- Since shields must be lowered to use Boarding Parties (and they don’t come back up unless you have shield regenerators), armor is a better choice on BP ships. Also consider use of shield depleting weapons on BP Ships.

- Mine Sweeper level-X, sweeps X mines of ANY size per component; keep this in mind when making Medium & Large mines.

- you can get ripped off when analyzing an enemy ship. Although the analyzer might show “minor” or “moderate”, etc., if the enemy ship has racial techs which you do not possess, you will not get them.

- even though PDC’s don’t require multiplex tracking, if you fire them before normal weapons in tactical combat, you lose 1 multiplex “slot” for that turn. I reported this to MM as a bug.

- mounts that add range will add as follows: example: say your normal mount weapon does 60 50 40 30 20 10. using the massive weapon platform mount (adds 6 range, 5x damage), the weapon now does 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 250 200 150 100 50 (!) i.e. it takes the range 1 damage, multiplies by 5, then adds this in before the rest of the damage string. this makes those range 8 weapons able to reach out and touch someone at range 14! at 5x damage!! People, that is a 55-gallon drum of industrial strength WHOOPASS!

- If you retrofit a damaged ship, you don’t pay as much - it had to be repaired anyway. also if a ship will take several turns to retrofit/repair, mothballing it will allow you to save on the maintenance costs. Don’t forget that mothballing will reset crew experience to 0%.

- computer virus attacks skip armor and shields, destroy MC's (which reduces movement to 1), but do no other damage, and does NOT take over control of the ship.

- In addition to moving the target ship, as far as damage goes, Tractor, Repulsor, & Wormhole beams will damage shields equal to their damage rating, but nothing else will be damaged, even if shields are down. Mounts will increase the damage to shields.

- If they hit, Energy Dampeners disrupt all target's weapons for the number of turns equal to the "damage". Mounts will increase the "damage" so larger mounts will increase number of turns disrupted. Multiple hits from ED's will add together - example: 2 hits from a normal mount ED-III (damage = 3) on the same turn will disrupt all target's weapons for the next 6 combat turns.

- Self destruct devices will automatically destruct a ship if it has been taken over by boarding, and can be used manually if the ship is under your control. It will not self destruct a ship taken over by other means (crew insurrection, subVersion, etc.)

- 1 Resource Converter can service your whole empire, or federation, or collective... you get the picture. Build it in a secure location.

- Emergency Supply Pods, Emergency Propulsion Pods, Self Destruct Devices, Stellar Manipulation components, Repair Bays, and Space Yards cannot be used in combat.

- Anything in the cargo storage of your colonizer will be deposited in the cargo of the planet when it is colonized i.e. Weapon Platforms, etc. Any colonists or cargo beyond the capacity of the planet will be lost, however.

Slick

[raynfala]

Originally posted by DirectorTsaarx:
PDC's firing at drones is supposed to have been fixed in Patch 2:<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS!

*blush*

Patch before you leap, I guess. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

I like how fighters have been appropriately nerfed. I was using them almost exclusively in my turn-based single-player campaigns. It was easy to take out an entire system in one turn with a modest squadron of fighters on a single carrier.

I was starting to rely on them too heavily. Now I'll be forced to figure out new methods of dishing it out... not a bad thing.

Trying my first campaign where all players start out with max tech. I haven't met any other empires just yet, but I'm imagining the blood's really gonna spill when I do.

--Raynfala

[Slick]

after your next update, I will submit any future addtions with appropriate numbers to make it easier in the future.

[Slick]

Maybe this is the best place for these questions:

- If I launch fighters and combine them with a fleet in strategic mode before a battle, do the fighters get the fleet experience bonuses?

- If I send an empty colonizer on a suicide mission in hostile territory simply to try to get the ruins, do I get the ruins tech or do I need to sacrifice population also?

- Are there any ground combat offensive/defensive modifiers?

- is there a chance that intel projects can fail/succeed independent of the amount of counter-intel? It seems that the only modifier is counter-intel.

- What are the exact percentages of the “AI bonus”? What is it applied to? only resource generation? What about research and intelligence? What about combat bonuses?

Thanks,
Slick

[Suicide Junkie]

- you can get ripped off on upgrading ships. Check that you are not upgrading engines of the same type from I to II or III - no benefit, but additional cost. Master computers, almost the same thing, slight decrease in size is the only benefit, usually not worth the cost. Check every component to see if there is enough of a benefit to make it worth the cost.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The level II and III engines are cheaper than the level I.
You will save money on maintenance in the long run.

1) fighters get fleet experience bonuses.
2) population is not required to get ruins tech.
3) There are small combat sensors and small ecm, I believe.
4) Only puppet political parties has a chance to fail independent of counter intel, IIRC.
5) something like 2x, 3x, and 5x. Applies to research, intel, resources.

[ArchAngel7]

Can somebody put these Posts in one big file that can be downloaded. It would really help us Newbies out!

[DavidG]

Originally posted by ArchAngel7:
Can somebody put these Posts in one big file that can be downloaded. It would really help us Newbies out!<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Check Ruatha's post one page back. It is, I think the latest compilation of all these tips.

[Shyrka]

A little question http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif
How Ships/Bases get experience? By number of ships destroyed? Or tonnage? Or battles winned? Planets count as experience? And units?

Sorry if this was answered before.

Edit: A little idea for DavidG

What about adding resolution select for the modder? I like to play in 800 X 600 but my work resolution is 1280 X 1024. It's a pain changing resolution from control panel every time I play SEIV. Thanks.

[ September 24, 2002, 23:25: Message edited by: Shyrka ]

[Captain Kwok]

Originally posted by Shyrka:
What about adding resolution select for the modder? I like to play in 800 X 600 but my work resolution is 1280 X 1024. It's a pain changing resolution from control panel every time I play SEIV. Thanks.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I used to like 800x600, then I found out that 1024x768 actually gives you extra information on certain screens like tatical combat! Plus, you don't have to scroll through all the buttons!

[Captain Kwok]

Ships and bases can get experience from training facilities and from battle I believe it is done by tonnage...but I'm not super sure...

[zaphod-42]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Shyrka:
What about adding resolution select for the modder? I like to play in 800 X 600 but my work resolution is 1280 X 1024. It's a pain changing resolution from control panel every time I play SEIV. Thanks.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I used to like 800x600, then I found out that 1024x768 actually gives you extra information on certain screens like tatical combat! Plus, you don't have to scroll through all the buttons!</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you play SE4 while your resolution is 1280 x 1024 the game run's at 1024x768.
But the scroll-lists like ships/units, colonies and planets use the extra space!
Less scrolling - more information on the screen.
Try it and you won't switch back http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
(i'm running xp)

[ September 25, 2002, 07:38: Message edited by: zaphod-42 ]

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Shyrka:
A little question http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif
How Ships/Bases get experience? By number of ships destroyed? Or tonnage? Or battles winned? Planets count as experience? And units?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Every time one of your ships destroys an enemy ship, yout ship earns 1% experience. I am not entirely sure how fleet experience is earned. The easiest way to get experience is to build training facilities. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[dumbluck]

IF: I know for a fact that that is incorrect. I don't know how it does work, but I know that's how it doesn't work. Time and time again I've found myself wondering, "how many #@&** ships does that frigate have to kill in order to gain any experience?!?!?!???". Apperantly, it is a lot.

However, fighters/seekers count, too. So in the early game (before training complexes), your PDC cruisers will gain experience much faster than your front line warships. And experience carries over when you retrofit a ship. So.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Slick]

Are you using missiles? I don't believe missiles give you experience.

[Shyrka]

Originally posted by Slick:
Are you using missiles? I don't believe missiles give you experience.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Really? Then, I think this is a bug http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

And for the experience, if every time that a ship kills an enemy it gains 1% experience no matter of tonnage, then you can build a large number of empty hulls and then gift it to the enemy. Then you come with your ships and annihilates that fleet, exchanging resources for experience. I will try it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Shyrka:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Slick:
Are you using missiles? I don't believe missiles give you experience.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Really? Then, I think this is a bug http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It was always that way. It was rationalized as the guy who poked the fire button didn't really learn anything new, the missile tracked the ship.

The missile might have picked up some good tactics but ...

Ensign Jane: "Lieutenant ... I uh..."
Lt. Liu: "Speak up ensign"
Ensign Jane: "I got a strange telemetry reading from that Last missile the struck the Ammonkre destroyer"
Lt. Liu "Well what was it"
Ensign Jane: "It said: "I know everything"
Lt. Liu "Pay no attention to that, the robotic core usually releases some such foo ... it's a side effect of the advanced AI tracking heuristics"
Ensign Jane: "But what if ..."
Lt. Liu "Ensign... if you can't handle combat, maybe you need see the med lab...NOW..."

"Admiral Jones, the frigate Firestar had lost it's entire munitions supply, apparently some shell shocked ensign jettisoned the entire magazine yelling "You're free ... you're free ... experience the universe ..."

[ September 25, 2002, 22:48: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Gryphin]

Posted by Fyron:
Every time one of your ships destroys an enemy ship, yout ship earns 1% experience. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Just wondering:
If two ships contribute to the damage who gets credit?

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
Posted by Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Every time one of your ships destroys an enemy ship, yout ship earns 1% experience. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Just wondering:
If two ships contribute to the damage who gets credit?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The one who fires the death blow. In tactical, I used to try to make sure it was the same one, so it's experience would become obscene. I wanted to see how high experience got and what it was called.

[Shyrka]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
... the guy who poked the fire button didn't really learn anything new, the missile tracked the ship.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So if a missile-only ship kills 100 enemy DN with its missiles during a 2 year campaign... it does not learn anything new?

And what about the planets? They count as experience?

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Gryphin:
Posted by Fyron:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Every time one of your ships destroys an enemy ship, yout ship earns 1% experience. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Just wondering:
If two ships contribute to the damage who gets credit?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The one who fires the death blow. In tactical, I used to try to make sure it was the same one, so it's experience would become obscene. I wanted to see how high experience got and what it was called.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">And what were the results==> the experience and the lable?

[Hotfoot]

Originally posted by tbontob:
And what were the results==> the experience and the lable?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">+50% Legendary, I believe. That's just using my own experience with a previous Version of the game (1.35 I believe).

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Hotfoot:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by tbontob:
And what were the results==> the experience and the lable?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">+50% Legendary, I believe. That's just using my own experience with a previous Version of the game (1.35 I believe).</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I never saw higher than legendary. I don't recall the bonus, but +50% seems right. I can't be sure it doesn't go higher 'tho.

But that ship and it's fleet was just ripping through the AI's fleets. It was practically unhittable, never showed component damage, and hit ships as if it had a talisman.

[capnq]

0.02. To see the beginning of a forum thread, click the "Printer-friendly view of this topic" icon at the bottom of the page.(Arcon, Gryphin) <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'd reword this: "To read a thread in first-to-Last order, click...". 2.05.09. If you retrofit (captured, insurrected, or gifted) ships with special racial technology components that your race does not possess, you will loose those components <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Annoyingly common typo: "lose", not "loose".

[ new ] 3.01.02.3 In Tactical Combat, weapons that are not reloading have a lit background. If you don't want to fire all of the weapons at once (for example, to divide fire from a ship with Multiplex Tracking), left-clicking on each weapon toggles it off or on again. 3.02.09.3. wmg’s (?) get a 30% to hit bonus. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">wmg = Wave-Motion Gun

[Slick]

With Ruatha’s permission, I took the opportunity to do some layout changes to the FAQ. I felt that laying out an overall structure would make it easier for people to provide input for new sections. It also showed many areas that could use some help from veterans - just look for the empty sections and start writing. I also put in some of my personal notes, but this has been a great embarrassment to me. For a long time, I have been keeping “good-to-know” notes in a big text file on this game from any source I have read. Since I never dreamed that anyone else would be reading them, I never copied the author’s names, and in the previous Version of the FAQ, I was falsely given credit for other people’s input. As such, I have removed my name from any input and I urge people give proper credit for information contained here if you recognize your or other’s writing. For this I apologize, but I felt that it was better for newbies like myself to include the valuable information even if the author was unknown. I thank the whole community for their great support of this game.

Lastly, I found that good information usually is hard to place in the FAQ because it could go into more than one section. I tried to really keep redundancy to a minimum and put information in the most proper location, but possibly some cross-referencing can be done in a future revision.

Slick

************************************************** *******

Table of Contents
===============================
0.0 Introduction
0.1 Other Reading

1.0 Game Startup & Empire Creation
1.1 Racial Traits
1.2 Characteristics & Cultural Modifiers
1.3 Choice of Planet Type and Atmosphere
1.4 AI Difficulty and Bonus
1.5 Game Mechanics

2.0 Designing Ships
2.1 Misc. Components
2.2 Mounts
2.3 Weapons
2.4 Shields
2.5 Armor
2.6 Engines
2.7 Vehicle Control
2.8 Combat Systems
2.9 The Colonizer
2.10 Strategies
2.11 Upgrading
2.12 The Simulator

3.0 Research
3.1 Unique Technology

4.0 Planet Development
4.1 Exploring
4.2 Colonizing
4.3 Facilities
4.4 Construction
4.5 Resource Production
4.6 Remote Mining
4.7 Population
4.8 Planet Defense
4.9 Ring Worlds & Sphere Worlds

5.0 Ships & Bases
5.1 Attack & Defense Ships
5.2 Support Ships
5.3 Ship Management
5.4 Supply and Resupply
5.5 Repairs and Retrofitting
5.6 Fleets
5.7 Training & Experience
5.8 Orders
5.9 Cloaking
5.10 Movement
5.11 Cargo Handling and Launching
5.12 Bases

6.0 Space Combat
6.1 Tactics
6.2 Formations
6.3 Attacking Ships
6.4 Capturing Ships
6.5 Analyzing Ships
6.6 Attacking Planets
6.7 Capturing Plane
6.8 Tactical Combat Specifics
6.9 Simultaneous Combat Specifics

7.0 Ground Combat

8.0 Units
8.1 General
8.2 Fighters
8.3 Troops
8.4 Mines
8.5 Drones
8.6 Weapon Platforms
8.7 Statellites

9.0 Systems & Sectors
9.1 Sight
9.2 Spaceports
9.3 System Facilities
9.4 System Defense
9.5 Stellar Manipulation

10.0 Diplomacy
10.1 Intelligence
10.2 Trade
10.3 Communications
10.4 Anger
10.5 Contact
10.6 Treaties

11.0 Empire Management
11.1 Keeping Track of Things
11.2 Ministers
11.3 Waypoints
11.4 Game Interface

12.0 Happiness
12.1 Riots & Riot Control

13.0 The AI
14.0 Turn Sequencing
15.0 Multiplayer
15.1 PBEM
15.2 PBW
16.0 Mods & Modding

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0.0 Introduction
The Intel Forum can be found at http://www.shrapnelgames.com
Thanks to the community for the great input to this FAQ and especially Ruatha for taking the initiative in starting this. Let’s try to keep the FAQ current with the latest Version of the game - V1.78 as of now. There is much information here from many people, and although it is probably very accurate, there are probably some small errors in the FAQ. Please look for any inaccuracies and especially things to add.
0.01. Forum Navigation
Forums Posts appear latest post first, so you can easily check up on the newest response to a long thread.(Arcon)
0.02. To read a thread in first-to-Last order, click the "Printer-friendly view of this topic" icon at the bottom of the page.(Arcon, Gryphin, Capnq)

0.1 Other Reading
0.1.1 This is for us newbies, all feel free to add to this FAQ, correct errors, spell check and bump. Change the order if it needs to, long live chaos. Elite players share your knowledge, newbies, add the answers to your questions here when you receive an answer. First, read:Malfador Q&A Section and: Un-Official Space empires IV Strategy and Tactics Page To get info on tech, components, facilities etc use the SE4 Mod utility 1.53 To find anything specific on this page use your browsers search utility (Menu option "Edit" - "Find on this page"). Another GREAT guide can be found here:http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Dubious/SE4DubiousStrategyGuide.zip

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1.0 Game Startup & Empire Creation

1.1 Racial Traits
1.1.1 Organic
1.1.2 Crystal
1.1.3 Deeply Religious
1.1.3.1 The Talisman allows every hit to score. SE IV treats stack of units (weapon platform on planet, stack of satellites, stack of fighters) as one "ship". This is why you need only one RT to get the benefit for all units in stack. You may notice that the absolute maximum to-hit that you can get from experience is 99%. The talisman gives you 100%. That tells you these two effects are quite separate, since the experience is applied before the total is capped at 99%, and the talisman applies afterwards. (Jim, Suicide Junkie, Oleg)
1.1.4 Psychic
1.1.5 Temporal

1.2 Characteristics & Cultural Modifiers

1.3 Choice of Planet Type and Atmosphere
1.3.1 Choosing home planet. Chose 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. (Wardad)
1.3.2 Choosing an uncommon atmosphere type such as Methane or Carbon Dioxide is a good idea, since you will face less competition for breathable planets.(Suicide Junkie)

1.4 AI Difficulty and Bonus
1.4.1 AI bonuses applies to intelligence, research and resources, exist in 2x, 3x and 5x. (Suicide Junkie)

1.5 Game Mechanics
1.5.1 Victory conditions are “and” not “or”.

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2.0 Designing Ships

2.1 Misc. Components
2.1.1 Cloaking devices use supplies; stealth armor does not.
2.1.2 Spaceyard components and supply storage components have less “structure” than “space”. This means they are comparatively easier to destroy per kt than normal components. (components.txt)

2.2 Mounts
2.2.1 In the unmodded game, no ship mount will add range to the weapons.
2.2.2 Mounts that add range will add as follows: example: say your normal mount weapon does 60 50 40 30 20 10. using the massive weapon platform mount (adds 6 range, 5x damage), the weapon now does 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 250 200 150 100 50 (!) i.e. it takes the range 1 damage, multiplies by 5, then adds this in before the rest of the damage string. this makes those range 8 weapons able to reach out and touch someone at range 14! at 5x damage!!
2.2.3 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 missiles and drones. Missiles 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.
2.2.4 Heavier mounts increase the range and damage of weapons. To use a heavier mount on a design, press the weapon Mounts button on the design screen. The Weapons Report screen also has a Mount button. (Capnq)
2.2.5 Light carriers can use the (H)eavy mount.

2.3 Weapons
2.3.1 You need to add weapons to a ship in the order you want them to fire in combat.
2.3.2 Null space guns are useful against heavily shielded and armored ships.
2.3.3 Warp guns can give your ship extended life in "Dogfights" especially with gunships.
2.3.4 Special Weapons
2.3.4.1 Engine destroying weapons disable ship movement and supply storage. Approach the ships with caution if they have Quantum reactors. (TerranC)
2.3.4.2 Specialty weapons should be used rarely, but is useful.
2.3.4.3 Weapon destroying weapons are useful if you want to disable the ships then destroy them.
2.3.4.4 Computer virus attacks skip armor and shields, destroy Master Computers but do no other damage. CV’s are direct fire weapons. CV 1,2,3 does 20,40,60 damage respectively, MC 1,2,3 has 40/40, 30/30, 20/20 space/structure respectively, therefore it is actually harder to destroy a mc1 than an mc2 or mc3. Since it is a “special” weapon, CV’s don’t do partial damage - it’s all or nothing. therefore a normal mount CV cannot damage a mc1 or mc2; if the CV is on a larger mount which increases its damage > the mc, only then will it work.
2.3.4.5 If a Master Computer is destroyed (and it does not have normal bridge, etc.), the ship CAN then be subverted.
2.3.4.6 Quote from the forums, sorry, did not copy the author: “Level I and II Ionic Dispersers only do 15 damage if not in an upgraded mount. It takes 20 damage to destroy an engine. The damage doesn't seem to accumulate, so if you put level I or II Ionic Dispersers on a destroyer or smaller, they are essentially useless and just taking up space.
Ok, here is the complete scoop on Ionic Dispersers, at least as run from the simulator. There is no carryover of damage from shot to shot, even in the same volley. I set up a group of 5 sats armed only with a single Ionic Disperser II each. Brought a target ship up close and let fly. No matter how many hits, there was no damage done. I switched to Ionic Disperser IVs which do 30 points of damage per hit. In the first volley, there were three hits. That should have caused 90 damage, enough to destroy 4 engines. However, only three engines were destroyed, one per hit. I then switched to Ionic Disperser Vs which do 40 per hit. As expected, each hit destroyed two engines. conclusion: any extra damage not equaling the 20 points to kill the next engine is totally lost, even on the same volley.”

2.4 Shields
2.4.1 Shields are not active against mines.
2.4.2 Don't mix phased and non-phased generating components. If you do, you get non-phased shields. That is, until all the non-phased shield generating components are destroyed; then suddenly, in the middle of battle, your shields will become phased.

2.5 Armor
2.5.1 Defensive bonuses from stealth + scattering armor do stack - a powerful combination.

2.6 Engines
2.6.1 What happens when you mix engine types on the same ship? They all act as if they are the lowest of the installed engines.

2.7 Vehicle Control
2.7.1 You can't design a ship unless it has the requested number of Life Support/Crew Quarters, or a Master Computer.
2.7.2 Ships lose movement if they have ZERO lifesupports or crewquarters remaining.
2.7.3 Ships lose movement if they have no intact bridge or aux con.
2.7.4 Any ship with an intact Master Computer is exempt from rules 2 & 3. One each of B/LS/CQ is enough to fly the ship normally, but you can't save that design unless you have an MC (or are designing a ship larger then 450KT in size).
2.7.5 If you know of or suspect an enemy psychic race, begin transitioning to Master Computers before war breaks out - makes Allegiance Subverters useless.

2.8 Combat Systems
2.8.1 Weapon Types / Classes
2.8.1.1 Seeking. Example: (Missiles, Crystalline Torpedo). Once launched, have a 100% hit probability unless intercepted by point defense, or the target moves beyond the seekers' range.(Stone Mill,Capnq)
2.8.1.2 Direct Fire. Example: (Anti Proton Beams, Normal Torpedoes). Must be fired within range determined by weapon type and mount. Offensive Bonus and Defensive Bonus variables affect the actual chance to hit.(Stone Mill)
2.8.1.3 Point Defense. Example: (Point-Defense Cannons I-V). Automatically fire at seekers, fighters, satellites, and drones when in weapon range.(Stone Mill,Capnq)
2.8.1.4 Armor and Shield Skipping. Example: (Null Space, Weapon Destroyers). Successful hits ignore enemy armor and shield components. Engine/Weapon Destroyers do damage to those components only.(Stone Mill, Kalthior)
2.8.1.5 Armor Skipping Example: (Boarding Parties, Security Stations, Crystalline Shard Cannons).(Stone Mill)
2.8.1.6 Shield Skipping. Example (Phased Polaron Beams). Successful hits ignore normal shield components. Phased Shields absorb Phased Polaron hits (Shields 6+ technology). (Stone Mill)
2.8.3 Point Defense Cannons (PDC)’s get a 70% to-hit bonus. (components.txt)
2.8.4 Incinerator beams get a 10% to hit bonus. (components.txt)
2.8.5 Wave-motion Guns get a 30% to hit bonus. (components.txt)
2.8.6 High energy magnifiers get a 30% to hit bonus. (components.txt)
2.8.7 Tachyon canons get a 10% to hit bonus. (components.txt)
2.8.8 Mental singularity generators get at 20% to hit bonus. (components.txt)
2.8.9 PDC’s don’t need multiplex tracking.

2.9 The Colonizer
2.9.1 Since the Colonizer is so integral to the game, it deserves a special section.
2.9.2 Add a cargo pod to the Colony Ship design used to colonize your race's breathable planets. Then when you hit the "Colonize" button to send a ship off to a planet (whether you do it from the planets screen or main screen) extra pop will be loaded to give that colony a kick-start.
2.9.3 I use 3 colony ship designs: CS-LR - long range (has a supply pod on it), CS-SR - short range with cargo pod for breathable (green + planets), CS-SR-nbr - short range, no cargo pod for non-breathable atmosphere planets (red + -- cheaper to build). I use these for storage planets so pop doesn't matter as much.(Elowan)
2.9.4 You can use a non-colonizer hull for a colonizer to make a better colonizer: extra cargo, weapons, speed, etc.

2.10 Strategies
2.10.1 This section is about the setting of ship strategies, not overall game strategies.
2.10.2 Ships do retain original strategies after being retrofitted or captured - you can overcome this by making a 1-ship fleet and giving it new fleet orders.
2.10.3 Ships and units can be assigned default strategies in Designs (F3) under the Stats/Strategy toggle.
These Strategies can (and really should) be customized under Empire Status/Strategies (F11).
2.10.4 If you set a strategy for a ship at the "designs" stage, that strategy is used in strategic combat and if you let the computer control your ships in tactical combat. (Silent Sorrow, Derek)
2.10.5 Fleets are assigned Formations and Strategies with the Change Formation/Strategy (H) order. Fleet strategy takes precedence over ship's strategy, unless/until the ship breaks formation. (capnq)

2.11 Upgrading
2.11.1 Upgrading engines. Taking engine tech to level 2 (or three) just makes the engines cheaper. One level after that, you'll get an engine that gives a bonus movement point. Then two more levels of cheaper, another faster engine, etc. Upgrading engines that doesn't improve performance makes you loose some money overall, but if you keep that ship like that for a while the maintenance savings add up. (Phoenix-D)
2.11.2 Designs that you have marked obsolete will be deleted from your list of ships when all of the following are true:
- There are no surviving ships of that class. This includes ships that have been captured or gifted to an alien race.
- You are not building more of those ships.
- The year is xxxx.9
- You have just pressed the end turn button to take you to year xxxx.0 (Suicide Junkie)

2.12 The Simulator
2.12.1 The Simulator is supposedly equivalent to actual combat with some exceptions. You can’t simulate crew or fleet experience in the combat simulator. You can only simulate planets, storms, etc if they are in your home system.

===============================

3.0 Research
3.0.1 Early research. Opinions differ but most would suggest: More than one project in queue, rotate projects and do not spread points evenly. Larger ships (frigate 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 in between destroyer and LC. As you have to study Military Science before PD opens up. (Wardad)
3.0.2 Be sure you really need high levels of Multiplex tracking before you research it - do you really expect your ships to engage 5 enemies every turn?
3.0.3 AI researches Construction, Intelligence, Chemistry and Industry pretty early, you should research other things and trade for those.

3.1 Unique Technology

===============================

4.0 Planet Development

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

4.2 Colonizing
4.2.1 Set up race to build a colonizer on Home world 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. (Wardad)
4.2.2 Colonize your system fast. The extra research, resource, and shipyards early on are an advantage. Green star planets are your atmosphere type . Red star have different atmosphere and are domed, so the build space is limited.(Wardad)
4.2.3 Put people on your colony ships. The colony module gives the ships some cargo space, use transfer cargo to put people on the ship so that your colony gets some population, otherwise the new colony won't build anything (Saying "Never" on construction time). (Suicide Junkie)
4.2.4 If the colony ship is currently at a planet with population, it will automatically load pop for you if you use the Colonize (C) order, or the Send Colony Ship button under Planets (F4). The latter button will not always work if the colony ship has moved. (capnq)
4.2.5 Colonies with 0 population have the "dome" symbol even if it is a planet with a breathable atmosphere, the symbol disappears when you populate the colony. (Rdouglass, Suicide Junkie)
4.2.6. Domed worlds are 1/5 facilities of non-domed. Domed sphere worlds are 1/2, domed ring worlds are 1/5.
4.2.7 Colony Type. If you manage the colony itself, it makes no difference on what type of colony you choose ( i.e. mining, refining, research etc)(except to remind you) but if a minister manages it, it will build facilities according to what type of colony it is. ( Silent Sorrow, Derek)
4.2.8 Anything in the cargo storage of your colonizer will be deposited in the cargo of the planet when it is colonized i.e. Weapon Platforms, etc. Any colonists or cargo beyond the capacity of the planet will be lost, however.
4.2.9 When colonizing ruin planets you do not need population to get the tech bonus. (Suicide Junkie)
4.2.10 Before colonizing a 'ruin planet' make sure that your research queue is filled. If it is - there's a good chance that you might get some of the queue finished for you from the discovered ruins.(Elowan)

4.3 Facilities
4.3.1 Atmosphere converters can be scrapped after the atmosphere is converted.
4.3.2 It costs 50% (of the cost of the new facility) to upgrade a facility.
4.3.3 Facilities undergoing upgrade still produce. Do not scrap to upgrade!
4.3.4 Solar generators have increased benefits if more stars are present, x1 per star. (Ruatha)
4.3.5 You can’t convert a Gas Giant planet to a “none” atmosphere.

4.4 Construction
4.4.1 Units can be only be put in the construction queue as multiples such as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, up to 200 at a time. (TerranC)
4.4.2 Exception: "One turn's worth" will put however many can be built at the current construction rate; if the unit can't be built in one turn, this still adds 1 to the queue. (capnq)
4.4.3 Emergency Build will increase the rate of your space yard by 1.5 of your normal rate but is then followed by 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.
(TerranC, DirectorTsaarx)
4.4.3.1 Once you turn off “emergency build”, or if you reach the 10 turn limit, the spaceyard will go into slow mode for the number of turns it was in emergency build. It will stay in slow mode until complete and during this time it cannot be shifted back to emergency build.

4.4.4 If you put on an obsolete building queue on a planet construction queue, and click upgrade facilities, the construction queues will be changed to the latest model. Will not work for ships and Units. (TerranC)
4.4.5 Unused construction queue points do not "spill over" to the next item when the current queue item is constructed. 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. The unused 1300 of unused mineral building is not used on the next queue item (You do not loose 1300 minerals, but the yard stands idle a fraction of a month).
The only exception to this is if you are building units more than one at a time (i.e., you select something other than "1" or "one turn's worth" when it asks you how many you want to build. (Binford, Dogscoff)
4.4.6 On a construction queue, you can use the Fill Queue button to save Groups of construction orders for repeated use. Put the items you want in the queue, Fill Queue, Add Queue; name the set. Once a set of orders is saved, it can be selected with Fill Queue to add the set to the construction queue. If an item in saved set becomes obsolete, Fill Queue will produce an error message when you select that set, so you have to define a new set whenever you upgrade a design. (Capnq)
4.4.7 Happiness effects construction rates; the happier, the better rate:
Mood Riot Modifier := 0
Mood Angry Modifier := 80
Mood Unhappy Modifier := 90
Mood Indifferent Modifier := 100
Mood Happy Modifier := 110
Mood Jubilant Modifier := 120 (Stone Mill)
4.4.8 Rioting Planets do not construct anything, as the construction queue will display "Never." To resolve Rioting:
4.4.9 Station a fleet in that system. Better yet, park it over a specific planet that you want to improve.
4.4.10 Build troops in the system. Building troops on a planet also increases happiness for that particular planet. Tip: Amount of troops count, not quality, so you can design cheap troops with minimal components.
4.4.11 System happiness facilities, such as the Urban Pacification Center (I, II, II) or special tech facilities/shrines increase happiness. The effects of these facilities seem to be very gradual, requiring several turns.
4.4.12 Winning battles improves population confidence and improves happiness, especially in the system in which the battle occurs.(Stone Mill)
4.4.13 Population effects construction rates; the higher population, the better bonus to production.(Stone Mill)
4.4.14 Space Yards improve production. You are allowed only one space yard per planet. Invest research in better Space Yard Technology (I,II,III) to increase construction rate. Note: (Special Tech) Temporal Space Yards have better rates. Unfortunately, you must first scrap your standard Space Yard in order to build them. (Stone Mill)
4.4.15 You can get ripped off in the “build 1 turn’s worth” since extra build capacity is lost- check out the build times for 1,5,10,etc if you were going to build that many anyway - could be shorter since additional build points are lost, but you won’t get any of your units until the entire build time is complete.
4.4.16 Monolith facilities are very expensive and will take many turns to break even - use wisely. You can do a calculation of the break even (and even factor in the use of a Resource Converter) to see what makes better sense.
4.4.17 One Resource Converter can service your whole empire, or federation, or collective... you get the picture. Build it in a secure location.

4.5 Resource Production
4.5.1 Production bonuses from system facilities do not appear on the listings of individual planets' output, but the extra production is included in the totals on the (F11) Empire Status page.(Capnq)
4.5.2 Good ratio = minerals:organics:radioactives = 5-10:1:2-3. increase organics if you are organic racial, endgame increase radioactives.
4.5.3 Empires will make make 200 minerals, organcis, and radioactives per turn even if there are no production facilities. (settings.txt)

4.6 Remote Mining
4.6.1 To use Remote Mining you must first design a ship, base, or satellite with remote mining components.(Gandalph)
4.6.2 Remote mining uses supplies and maintenance, for this reason it is best to use bases as they have infinite supplies and reduced maintenance costs. If you use bases, you must build it with a Space Yard ship at the desired location.(Gandalph)
4.6.3 Only one Ship or Base can mine a location at once. Whichever is placed first will mine.
All mining components on a ship or base will produce, and the value of the planet or asteroids will drop exactly 1% per turn no matter how many mining components you have.(Suicide Junkie)
4.6.4 In a stack of satellites, up to three satellites can mine, provided they all have robo-miners working on different resources. Three mineral miner sats will produce the same amount of minerals as one mineral miner sat. A mineral miner sat plus a radioactives miner sat can both work on the same location at the same time, producing the full amount of both resources.(Suicide Junkie)
4.6.5 Remote mining depletes the available resources at the location. It does not happen quickly, but you will see the value of the location drop over time.(Gandalph)
4.6.6 In order to make your mining operations Last longer, use only one type of robo miner per base. If all of your robo miners are Mineral miners, the organics and radioactives value of the planet or asteroids will not decrease. When the minerals are gone, you can retrofit the base to an organics or radioactives miner, and continue production for many years to come.(Suicide Junkie)
4.6.7 It is possible to remotely mine any asteroid or UNCOLONIZED planet. As long as the location has a resource value, it can be mined. Once you place a colony on a planet it can no longer be remotely mined. (Gandalph)

4.7 Population
4.7.1 Population will reproduce based on their reproduction rate (per year) and this rate is affected by their happiness, their environmental resistance and the planet conditions.
4.7.2 Having more population increases a planet’s construction (building) and production (resource generation) rate (see settings.txt). Construction rates of ships & bases is not affected by population.

4.8 Planet Defense
4.8.1 Defense Bases and Satellites always show up on the wrong side of the planet during combat.

4.9 Ring Worlds & Sphere Worlds
4.9.1 To Build a Ring worlds (or Sphere worlds) you need to:
4.9.1.1 Research Stellar Manipulation to level 5 for Ringworlds (level 8 for Sphereworlds) and Base Construction to level 3. (Quikngruvn)
4.9.1.2. build on a star.
4.9.1.3. create a Space yard ship (a ship that contains a shipyard component)
4.9.1.4. take the space yard ship to the star you want to build your world on.
4.9.1.5 start building STARBASES containing the components you need for the Ring/Sphere world.
4.9.1.6 once you have all necessary components, build go to the component activation icon to activate the construct - all the built star bases and components will disappear and you will have a ring/sphere world there instead.
4.9.2 NOTE: to speed construction (it takes awhile) you can construct bases housing more shipyards. (Taz-in-Space)
4.9.3 Ring- and sphereworlds count as both a star, and not a star. They count as not-a-star for purposes of planet building, solar panels, and star destroyers. They count as a star for purposes of building new stars (i.e.: you can't). (Suicide Junkie)
4.9.4 Ringworlds and sphereworlds are made using your default planet type and atmosphere. they are simply extra huge planets and must be colonized before you can use them.

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5.0 Ships & Bases

5.1 Attack & Defense Ships

5.2 Support Ships

5.3 Ship Management
5.3.1 Mothballing is free and stops the ship from needing maintenance costs. Mothballing a ship will reset its experience to 0%. Unothballing costs 20%. (settings.txt)

5.4 Supply and Resupply
5.4.1 To Resupply a ship, pass a planet that has a resupply depot. If you make a full stop to the next turn you get a full resupply, if you just touch and go you will get an almost full resupply (the ship uses supplies during the voyage away from the depot). (Silent Sorrow, Derek, Gandalph, Quikngruvn )
5.4.2 Bases and satellites have unlimited supplies.
5.4.3 Cloaking devices uses supplies. (settings.txt)
5.4.4 Bonus engine movement and the solar sail does cause supplies to be used. To calculate supply usage for ship movement, it's (Total_Movement) * (Total_Engine_Supplies_Used).

5.5 Repairs and Retrofitting
5.5.1 A damaged ship will be repaired if it is in the same sector as a planet with a Space Yard facility, or a ship or base with a Repair Bay or Space Yard component.(capnq)
5.5.2 The order in which repairs are performed is set with (F11) Empire Status/Repair Priorities. Clearing the priorities list will leave only the component types that you have the technology to build; more entries become available when you research the corresponding techs.(capnq)
5.5.3 The game chooses a ship in a sector to repair based on which ship has the highest-priority component broken, and then this ship will be repaired as much as it can. Example: say your repair priority list starts Vehicle Control (top priority), Engines, and Weapons. Say you also have two ships damaged in one sector. The first ship has only its bridge, a shield, and a piece of armor broken. The second ship has everything damaged EXCEPT its bridge, crew quarters, and life support (and does not have an Aux Con). Since the first ship has the a top priority Vehicle Control component damaged (the bridge), while the second ship has no Vehicle Control components damages, the first ship will be repaired as much as possible. Each turn the game re-determines which ship will be repaired (so that a ship that is repaired one turn may not be repaired the next turn). (Quikngruvn)
5.5.4 If a ship is fully repaired, any excess repair ability in a sector will be carried over to other damaged ships in the sector. In this case, the game will pick the next-highest priority ship as above, then repair it as much as it can. This process repeats till either all ships are repaired or the repair facilities/components have repaired as much as they can in a turn.(Quikngruvn)
5.5.5 Multiple repair bays will work on a single ship or base. Three repair bays fit perfectly on a Space Station. If they are Repair Bays 3, that's 24 components repaired per turn right there (with very low maintenance), which can make for speedy retrofits. Multiple repair bays on dedicated repair ships can greatly increase the lifespan of fleets at the front lines.(Quikngruvn)
5.5.6 Ships and bases can be retrofitted to another design at a spaceyard. The Retrofit option appears under Scrap/Analyze/Mothball (hotkey G). The new design must have the same hull size as the old one, and have a combined total cost in resources of no more than 150% of the old design. Designs more than 150% apart can be retrofitted by designing one or more intermediate Versions.(capnq)
5.5.7 Units cannot be retrofitted. (capnq)
5.5.8 A faster, but more expensive, method to build ships is to use a retroseries. First, build a basic Version of the ship, usually taking a single turn. Then retrofit through a series of designs which gradually add components to the ship. Remember, though, that there can only be a 50% difference in total cost. If you are building a stellar manipulation ship (which has a single very expensive component), you can use any combination of components to get the total cost close enough to the amount needed to add the stellar manip. component, at which point the other components can be removed. (Krsqk, Imperator Fyron)
5.5.9 Engines that are retrofit to a different engine type lose all supplies, unless they also have Supply Storage components. Ensure you retrofit engines over a resupply depot.(DirectorTsaarx, Quikngruvn)
5.5.10 If you retrofit (captured, insurrected, or gifted) ships with special racial technology components that your race does not possess, you will lose those components.(DirectorTsaarx)
5.5.11 A space yard ship with a repair bay is an excellent way to refit ships in forward positions.(DirectorTsaarx)
5.5.12 Ships can't be retrofit while in a fleet (it caused problems in 1.49, and is not even possible in Gold). (Quikngruvn)
5.5.13 Ships with a space yard can’t build while cloaked but can repair while cloaked. (icon changes from “space yard” to “repair” while cloaked.
5.5.14 Cloaked ships can’t be retrofitted.
5.5.15 Emergency supply & propulsion pods need a space yard (not repair bay) to repair.
5.5.16 Retrofitting a ship does not affect its crew experience.
5.5.17 Retrofitting cost 120%, 30% for component removal. (settings.txt)
5.5.18 Repairs cost no resources.
5.5.19 Space yard III and Repair Bay III both repair 8 per turn; all planet Space yard facilities only repair 5 per turn. Moral: better to repair in space.
5.5.20 Space yard ships can repair & retrofit while moving, assuming the ship it is repairing/retrofitting can move. Space yard ships cannot build while moving.
5.5.21 You can get ripped off on upgrading ships. Check that you are not upgrading engines of the same type from I to II or III - no benefit except lower maintenance cost, but additional retrofit cost. Master computers, almost the same thing, slight decrease in size is the only benefit, usually not worth the cost. Check every component to see if there is enough of a benefit to make it worth the cost.
5.5.22 If you retrofit a damaged ship, you don’t pay as much - it had to be repaired anyway. also if a ship will take several turns to retrofit/repair, mothballing it will allow you to save on the maintenance costs. Don’t forget that mothballing will reset crew experience to 0%.
5.5.23 You cannot repair technology that you don’t possess (i.e. beyond your current research, special, racial, etc.) from stolen/gifted ships.
5.5.24 You cannot retrofit a ship which is carrying cargo even if the cargo components are not being changed.

5.6 Fleets
5.6.1 Fleet supplies are shared (evenly, regardless of ship size) at the end of each turn. 1 quantum reactor will top off the fleet. ships can still have supply problems in combat if they don’t have QR’s.

5.7 Training & Experience
5.7.1 Cloaked ships will not gain experience while at a planet with a ship and/or fleet training facility. You MUST decloak the ship to benefit from the training. (Gandalph) [ED: from the latest gold patch: Changed - A ship will gain benefits from a training center even if it is cloaked.]
5.7.2 Ships lose fleet experience when they leave fleet.
5.7.3 Experience. 20% Experience (whether gained from training or combat) would give your ships a 20% less-likely-to-be-hit modifier and a 20% more-likely-to-hit-with-direct-fire-weapons modifier.
5.7.4 Every time one of your ships destroys an enemy ship, your ship earns 1% experience. Tonnage doesn’t matter. The easiest way to get experience is to build training facilities. (shyrka, Imperator Fyron, Dumbluck, Arcon).
5.7.5 If two ships contribute to a kill, the one who deals the killing blow gets the experience. (Grypin, Arcon).
5.7.6 No use in training missile ships or using combat sensors - missiles either hit or miss based on range & pd.
5.7.7 Fighters gain fleet experience bonuses (Suicide Junkie)
5.7.8 Racial experience has no meaning, a theory has it that it's a feature that isn't implemented.(Mylon, Taz-in-Space)
5.7.9 Using missiles does not give experience.

5.8 Orders
5.8.1 To change a ship's current orders, use Clear Orders (hotkey Delete) first.(capnq)
5.8.2 Ships must leave fleet to be refit or do specialized functions (use emergency supply, etc.) Actually, you don't have to leave a fleet to build a ship; you just can't access the build screen directly from the fleet. (i.e., when you have the fleet selected on the main screen, the "build queue" icon won't light up). HOWEVER, if you go to the Construction Queues screen, you should be able to find the appropriate spaceyard ship/base in the list and you can add items to the queue from there. I do this for building ringworlds/sphereworlds - not only is it easier on the eyes to have all those ships in a single fleet, if you access the queues from the construction queues screen you can do use multi-add for setting up builds on the plating or cables.(DirectorTsaarx)
5.8.3 Long range scanning. You must manually click on the enemy ship to scan and the design does not show up in your enemy designs list until you actually get into combat with it. I reported this to MM as a bug.
5.8.4 Mothballing a ship resets its crew experience to 0%
5.8.5 Don’t mothball your Last space yard ship in a fleet - you need an active space yard to unmothball.
5.8.6 Scrapped units, ships, and facilities return 30% of resources - this is without any modifiers like a recycling plant. (settings.txt)

5.9 Cloaking
5.9.1 You can launch/recover fighters/mines(not recover)/satellites, transfer cargo, resource mine while cloaked.
5.9.2 You cannot colonize while cloaked.
5.9.3 Ships will decloak when out of supplies
5.9.4 Cloaked ships can get into combat if they encounter ships with right sensors.
5.9.5 You need to have > 0 supplies to cloak, even if using stealth armor which uses no supplies.
5.9.6 Cloaked ships can’t be retrofitted
5.9.7 To see a cloaked (level X) ship, you only need 1 kind of sensor (hyper optic, tachyon, gravitic, temporal, psychic) level X in the system. This sensor can be on any of your ships or sat’s, your ally’s ship’s or sat’s (even the ship/sat that is cloaked!!!). This does not take into account storm/nebula effects.

5.10 Movement
5.10.1 Giving a ship orders to move to place X, then before ship reaches X, giving it orders to move to place Y will NOT cancel move to place X. Instead you will now move to place X and then move to place Y! (Taz-in-Space)
5.10.2 Ships will NOT jump to a forbidden system, nor move through it. You have to make it move manually. (TerranC)
5.10.3 If you play a simultaneous game and you have the option "Clear orders when ship enters a system with enemy presence" in "Empire Options" (Found in the Empire Screen which is under the crown symbol) the ships will stop at the wormhole they entered the system in if there is enemies there. You may loose several move points this way. (Ruatha)

5.11 Cargo Handling and Launching
5.11.1 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. (CapnQ)
5.11.2 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).(CapnQ)
5.11.3 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.(CapnQ)
5.11.4 Drones and mines cannot be recovered once launched.(CapnQ)
5.11.5 You can shift cargo between anything in the same sector with cargo components, even a planet and its moons. Built units will be placed in the cargo components of the building unit. if none/full, they will be placed in any other cargo components in the sector (ships, planets, moons). If all full, you get log message saying unavailable storage.

5.12 Bases
5.12.1 Space Yard Bases
5.12.1.1 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. (Wardad)
5.12.2 Defense Bases

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6.0 Space Combat
6.1 Tactics
6.1.1 You cannot retreat from combat, combat ends after 30 combat turns.( Silent Sorrow, Derek)
6.1.2 Be careful you don’t run out of supplies on your Capital Ship Missile ships - each CSM V uses 20 supplies.
6.1.3 Emergency Supply Pods, Emergency Propulsion Pods, Self Destruct Devices, Stellar Manipulation components, Repair Bays, and Space Yards cannot be used in combat.
6.1.4 Tractors are not able to pull in larger ships.
6.1.5 Point Defense Cannons (PDC’s) won’t fire automatically unless you or the target moves and is in range; but they can be fired manually.
6.1.6 Even though PDC’s don’t require multiplex tracking, if you fire them before normal weapons in tactical combat, you lose 1 multiplex “slot” for that turn.
6.1.7 Computer virus attacks skip armor and shields, destroy MC's (which reduces movement to 1), but do no other damage, and does NOT take over control of the ship.
6.1.8 In addition to moving the target ship, as far as damage goes, Tractor, Repulsor, & Wormhole beams will damage shields equal to their damage rating, but nothing else will be damaged, even if shields are down. Mounts will increase the damage to shields.
6.1.9 Energy Dampeners, if they hit, disrupt all target's weapons for the number of turns equal to the "damage". Mounts will increase the "damage" so larger mounts will increase number of turns disrupted. Multiple hits from ED's will add together - example: 2 hits from a normal mount ED-III (damage = 3) on the same turn will disrupt all target's weapons for the next 6 combat turns.
6.1.10 Organic armor will regenerate only in battle, not in strategic mode. If got 1 left, engage immobile target and just sit there to regenerate.
6.1.11 Seekers get a defense modifier of 40% (settings.txt)
6.1.12 Ramming a drone before it rams you will destroy the drone without making the warhead go off.
6.1.13 High probability, but not guaranteed: Bigger internals & smaller armors get hit first.

6.2 Formations
6.2.1 If all ships in a fleet break formation, they go to their individual ship orders. This may be what you want.
6.2.2 You may want to change the default fleet formation to something other than arrowhead since this one is not very good. Wall is much better under most circumstances.

6.3 Attacking Ships
6.3.1 Targeting. In order for a weapon to fire at a particular target (satellites, ships, etc.), that target must be included in the Weapon Details "Targets" list.(Stone Mill)
6.3.2 Engines are the storage for supplies on the ship, therefore "Engine Only" weapons not only hits movement but the weapons too - No engines - No Supplies - Weapons can't fire at all, unless you have undamaged "Supply Component" (Georgig)
6.3.3 Shields Skipping. As is well documented the "Weapon Only" damage type 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. !! In the post-1.67 patch, Ionic Dispersers, which destroy engines, will not skip shields. (geoschmo, Suicide Junkie, Quikngruvn)
6.3.4 Chance to hit with direct-fire weapons. The chance that a direct-fire weapon will hit its target depends on the following factors:
6.3.4.1 Range: longer range is less chance to hit (-10% per square on the tactical map).
6.3.4.2 Racial bonuses: aggressiveness for the attacker, defensiveness for the target.
6.3.4.3 Cultural bonuses: the Space Combat bonus of both attacker (added) and target (subtracted).
6.3.4.4 Ship and fleet experience: experience of the attacker is added to the chance, experience of the defender is subtracted. Ship and fleet experience are cumulative (if the ship is in a fleet).
6.3.4.5 Inherent weapon to-hit bonuses: for example, the Wave-Motion Gun has a built-in +30% chance to hit.
6.3.4.6 Size of the target: smaller ships (light cruiser and smaller) are harder to hit.
6.3.4.7 Components: Combat sensors on the attacker increase the chance to hit; ECM, stealth armor, and scattering armor on the defender all decrease the chance.
6.3.4.8 Weapon mount: some mounts, such as weapon platform mounts, increase the chance to hit.(Quikngruvn)
6.3.4.9 Caveats
6.3.4.9.1 If the attacking ship has a talisman, every direct-fire shot will hit, if in range.
6.3.4.9.2 Without a talisman, the highest adjusted chance to hit you can have is 99%.
6.3.4.9.3 The lowest adjusted chance to hit you can have is 1%.(Quikngruvn)
6.3.4.9.4 The base to-hit is 100%, and is moddable in settings.txt. However, the closest two ships can get without ramming each other is range 1, so that might make it effectively 90% (Suicide Junkie)
6.3.5 Specialty weapons (eg. weapon damaging) leave no “excess” damage. If it doesn’t destroy weapon, it does nothing.

6.4 Capturing Ships
6.4.1 To capture enemy ships you must first research "Military Science" and "Ship capture".
Add component "Boarding Parties" to your ship design. In battle take down enemy shield then board. Watch out for self destruct mechanisms, they may take out your ship too. (Captain Kwok)
6.4.2 Or use a level 2 intelligence project called "Crew Insurrection" where you plant a spy on the enemy ship and attempt to convince the crew to join your cause. If successful, the ship is yours to do with as you please. (Gandalph)
6.4.3 If you start with the Psychic Trait, you can research an "Allegiance Subverter" which is a weapon that when fired will convert the crew (and thereby the ship) to your side. (Gandalph)
6.4.4 Allegiance converter is nullified by a ship computer, however that can be combated by a computer virus. (Ruatha)
6.4.5 Each crew quarters component counts as 16 defense against Boarding Parties.
6.4.6 Each boarding party is worth 25% guys if used as a defender.
6.4.7 Since shields must be lowered to use Boarding Parties (and they don’t come back up unless you have shield regenerators), armor is a better choice on BP ships. Also consider use of shield depleting weapons on BP Ships.
6.4.8 Self destruct devices will automatically destruct a ship if it has been taken over by boarding, and can be used manually if the ship is under your control. It will not self destruct a ship taken over by other means (crew insurrection, subVersion, etc.)
6.4.9 Boarding Party 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 = 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 guys respectively. Security Station 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 = 60, 100, 140, 180, 220 turrets respectively. Any BP or SS takes up 20kt space.
6.4.10 Make sure boarding ships are the “Boarding Ship” class not attack ship.
6.4.11 A captured ship will have its weapons disrupted for 10 combat turns before they can fire. (settings.txt)

6.5 Analyzing Ships
6.5.1 Once you've captured an enemy ship, you can take it to a space yard and analyze it. You may be able to get new tech like Rock Colony etc, but racial techs like organic and temporal will be a mystery unless you've got those traits. (Captain Kwok)
6.5.2 You can get ripped off when analyzing an enemy ship. Although the analyzer might show “minor” or “moderate”, etc., if the enemy ship has racial techs which you do not possess, you will not get them.

6.6 Attacking Planets
6.6.1 You only need to hit a planet once with a Plague Bomb to give it a plague.
6.6.2 Planets get a offense modifier of 30% and a defense modifier of -200%. (settings.txt)

6.7 Capturing Planets
6.7.1 To build troops that can invade enemy colonies explore "Construction" and "Troops"; the troops needs some weapons also, explore "Small Weapons" and/or "Troop Weapons". (capnq)
6.7.2 Then construct troops as you construct ships, build them and load them on ships. You can now invade other colonies. Even if you do not have "Ice colony" capabilities you can invade such colonies. (Gandalph, Cynapse)
6.7.3 Few planets have shields. The Massive Planetary Shield does not stop troop invasion and doesn't have to be "taken down" before troop landing. (Sinapus)
6.7.4 If the planet has weapon platforms and you successfully invades it, the platforms remains but comes under your control. (TerranC)
6.7.5 If you invade a colony you gain all that has not been destroyed in the battle, facilities and population. The population will be of the race that colonized the planet, if for example you are oxygen breathers and the colony race are methane breathers, you can move the new race to your colonies with methane. This will increase the possible amount of facilities if the new population is the only race on the planet, i.e. all breathe the same atmosphere. (Gandalph)
6.7.6 After conquering a world or race that breathes a different atmosphere that your own, build colony ships so that you can take advantage of worlds with that atmosphere (i.e., if you conquer methane worlds/races, use the population to colonize other methane worlds so that you can build more facilities on those worlds than you could using your own population). (kalthalior)
6.7.7 Transfer population from other atmosphere breathing conquered worlds/races to worlds you have already colonized that have that atmosphere, and pull your own population off to get the same effect as 6.7.6 above with regards to increasing facility slots on worlds. (kalthalior)
6.7.7 After (or hopefully, before invading) research Psychology, then Political Science. This allows you to build Urban Pacification Centers on conquered worlds that improve the captive population's happiness so that they do not riot. (kalthalior)
6.7.8 Satellites or other orbiters will attack a newly captured planet. You need to eliminate them before capture. Weapon Platforms will not attack troops and don’t participate in ground combat.
6.7.9 Captured population (by any means) loses all of its racial attributes and is identical to yours except they retain their atmosphere breathing so can be used to populate your colonies appropriately AND they slowly get unhappy over time so you need to account for that so they don’t riot (riot police, upc, etc.).
6.7.10 A planet will defend itself from troop invasion with militia. The number of militia is a percentage of the population. Militia statistics can be found in settings.txt.
6.7.11 Militia will regroup after a ground combat battle.
6.7.12 Ground combat Lasts 10 turns and is completely automated.
6.7.13 If the ground combat is not completely resolved in 10 turns, it will continue during the next turn and the militia will not regroup.
6.7.14 Regarding ground combat troops in a transport: first in = first out, and first out = front line.
6.7.15 During Ground Combat: defenders get to fire first. defenders get 30% defense bonus above any component modifiers. (settings.txt)
6.7.16 Since troops are CARGO they get destroyed during ship bombardment. So you hardly ever get troops vs. troops combat. It's always troops vs. militia. improvement reported to MM.
6.8.17 Once the troops are down, an unarmed, contested planet is no longer considered hostile. This means that your ships should stop attacking it so they won’t kill your own troops.

6.8 Tactical Combat Specifics
6.8.1 In the weapon picture window there are fire rate indicators (little red bars), these indicate the fire rate of the weapon, i.e.: If the weapon has a fire rate of two, then there will be two bars after the weapon is fired and the weapon itself will be darked out. The next combat turn there will be one bar, the next turn the weapon will be ready to fire again.( Silent Sorrow, Derek, Gandalph)
6.8.2 The topmost bar in combat is a rough gauge of how many of your ship's hitpoints remain.
More red = more hitpoints. 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
(Silent Sorrow, Phoenix-D, Suicide Junkie)
6.8.3 In combat you can click on your ship, then right-click on a weapon to see its damage at different ranges, one square on the combat arena is one distance. If you are in range you always have at least 1% chance to hit. (Silent Sorrow, Derek, Phoenix-D).

6.9 Simultaneous Combat Specifics
6.9.1 For strategic combat, I have found that ships that have multiple weapon types and are very flexible are not handled well by the AI. The AI seems to be better at handling single purpose ships. The opposite seems true for tactical combat because, obviously, a human is in control.
6.9.2 Satellite launchers do not work in strategic combat, only during tactical combat and normal movement.

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7.0 Ground Combat
7.1 Weapon Platforms will not attack troops and don’t participate in ground combat.
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8.0 Units
8.1 General
8.1.1 All components on satellites/fighters/mines/drones are inactive when unlaunched.
8.1.2 Units in same sector stack and count as 1 unit. Any component on any in the stack applies to all, except shields (until that unit is killed). i.e. 1 multiplex tracking component on 1 sat in a group makes the whole group able to multiplex track until that component is destroyed.
8.1.3 When a stack of units takes damage, all structure is added up and when enough accumulate to destroy 1 unit, it is killed. no partials.
8.1.4 Units cannot store cargo, not even by modding.

8.2 Fighters
8.2.1 It is reported that fighters will get 1 movement point without engines.
8.2.2 Fighters can move on their own in a system but cannot warp through warp points. Fighters can join fleets, but do not share supplies in fleets. Unlike ships, fighters use 5 supplies per turn when sitting still (settings.txt).

8.3 Troops

8.4 Mines
8.4.1 You can self destruct mines.
8.4.2 There is no way in unmodded game to detect mines without running into them.
8.4.3 Mine Sweeper level-X, sweeps X mines of ANY size per component; keep this in mind when making Medium & Large mines.
8.4.4 Mine damage is applied pseudo-randomly to a fleet.
8.4.5 Do cloaked minesweepers automatically decloak to sweep mines?
8.4.6 If you want to increase the NUMBER of mines to overwhelm enemies (and sweepers), make small mines, with 1 small warhead to quickly build lots. If you want to increase the DAMAGE of mines, use larger mines with more and larger warheads - you will build these slower and use more resources.
8.4.7 If a sector contains your mines and your ship(s), any enemy that moves into the sector engages the mines before your ship(s).
8.4.8 A ship/fleet will not move through a known minefield, even if it has minesweepers, or a restricted system unless it is specifically ordered to do so. this may cause a ship to stop during a long range “move to” order.

8.5 Drones
8.5.1 Small, med, large drones get bonus movement of 1,2,3 respectively. all drones get a 50% defensive bonus for small size.
8.5.2 Anti-planet drones will attack ships, and vice versa, but if the incorrect warhead is on a drone for a given target, there will be no warhead damage. The mass of the warhead is counted when doing ramming damage, though.

8.6 Weapon Platforms
8.6.1 Weapons Platforms must be stored on one of your colonized planets to be able to fire. (Phoenix-D, Jmenschenfresser)
8.6.2 Weapon platforms. Better some than none, don't be a easy target. Try mixing missiles with direct fire weapons, and use the largest weapon mount you can. (Wardad)

8.7 Statellites
8.7.1 To launch satellites from a planet use "launch remotely/satellites" command, then hit repeat orders. Then each turn, the planet will try to launch satellites, even if there aren't any stored in cargo. (dumbluck)
8.7.2 "Repeat orders" for launching satellites from a planet is only possible in simultaneous movement games. (Shyrka,Zaphod-42)
8.7.3 Cloaked satellites with sensors work well for recon.
8.7.4 You can self destruct satellites.

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9.0 Systems & Sectors
9.0.1 “Unstable stars” have no in-game effect other than showing the text when the star is highlighted.
9.0.2 Star type/age/luminosity has no effect on the system.

9.1 Sight
9.1.1 Asteroids do not affect sight.
9.1.2 Local sector storms, system wide storms, & nebulae can reduce your sight. Use them to hide and beware of the enemy within.

9.2 Spaceports

9.3 System Facilities
4.01.01.2. System facility effects stack with planetary facility effects.(Capnq)

9.4 System Defense
9.4.1 Ships are fragile early on. A few satellites for Worm Hole defense can kill or cause them to limp home. It's better than letting them concentrate forces. (Wardad)
9.4.2 Wormhole defense: on the “receiving” end, all units are clumped together at start of combat, therefore build defenses for short range/overwhelming attacks.

9.5 Stellar Manipulation
9.5.1 Creating Planets
9.5.2 Destroying Planets
9.5.3 Creating Stars
9.5.4 Destroying Stars
9.5.5 Creating & Destroying storms, Nebulae, etc.
9.5.6 Opening & Closing Warp Points
9.5.6.1 There is a limit of 10 warp points per system.

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10.0 Diplomacy
10.0.1 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.

10.1 Intelligence
10.1.2 Of all intelligence projects only puppet political parties has a chance to fail independent of counter intel. Only puppet political parties has a chance to fail independent of counter intel
10.1.3 Stolen tech reports (via intel ops) don’t show up under the race:tech tab. Only what is seen in combat shows under race:tech. Since you don’t officially “know” about stuff until it is listed in race:tech, this makes it impossible to target intelligence ops to get them until after combat. bug reported to MM.
10.1.4 Defensive intelligence gets a 120% bonus. i.e. 100 points of counter intelligence cancels 120 points of intel. (settings.txt)

10.2 Trade
10.2.1 Bonuses: Trade for ships and analyze them, its great for gaining expensive colonizing tech. Just might get some population in the bargain. 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.

10.3 Communications
10.3.1 In the default AI .txt files, there is absolutely no difference between a tribute and a gift regarding chances for accepting/refusing nor happiness modifiers. There may be differences for individual races.

10.4 Anger

10.5 Contact
10.5.1 You need a path between any of your planets and any of another empire’s planets to make contact.
10.5.2 You won’t make “first contact” with a race if encounter them while in your cloaked ship and the other race can’t detect you.
10.5.3 If contact is ever lost with an AI race, when it gets re-established, they won’t remember anything about you.

10.6 Treaties

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11.0 Empire Management
11.1 Keeping Track of Things
11.1.1 You can keep track of system notes (right click galaxy screen, left click on system) to get away from the “clipboard” tracking system, but this may not be detailed enough for large and complex games.
11.1.3 During each turn, you should carefully go through the events log to keep informed of and take action on any new events that occurred during the turn.
11.2 I keep at least 1 mothballed destroyer “ambulance” always retrofitted to be the fastest and longest range with the latest medical bay. If you wait to build one after you get a plague, it takes too long. I build this ship at an early convenient central SY even if I don’t have medical tech yet, and retrofit later.
11.3 You can automate some of your empire by using ministers, having ships repeat their orders, using patrols, and using repeat build commands. Beware that you should periodically check in on these because the AI is not very good at doing things.

11.2 Ministers
11.2.1 Most ministers do a terrible job at managing. One that is not too bad is the population transport minister, although, once you have captured some alien colonists that breathe a different atmosphere, the minister is not smart enough to put them on the correct planets.
11.2.2 Later in the game, the colonization minister is not too bad either, but in the early game colonization is too important to leave to minister control.

11.3 Waypoints
11.3.1 You can set up waypoints to have ships built at spaceyards automatically go to a given location. Define the waypoint under Empire Status, and select the given waypoint at a space yard by “set move to” button.
11.3.2 There is a limit of 10 waypoints.
11.3.4 You cannot chain waypoints together and ships will not automatically resupply along the way to a waypoint

11.4 Game Interface

===============================

12.0 Happiness
12.0.1 Don’t confuse Happiness and Anger. Happiness is a measure of your population’s happiness on planets and it affects resource production and spaceyard construction - if it gets too low it can cause rioting. anger affects an entire empire’s outlook on each other empire and is seen under the “mood” on the diplomacy screen - you only can see how other empires feel towards you. You can only see your anger towards another race if you take control of the other race.
12.0.2 Happiness affects resource production, construction rate, and reproduction (see settings.txt)
12.0.3 Happiness will naturally increase over time, but this effect can be overcome by other negative events.

12.1 Riots & Riot Control
12.2 The following things can increase happiness on a planet: ships in the system, ships in the sector, urban pacification centers, troops on the planet, winning a battle, colonizing a planet, capturing an enemy planet, (sometimes) new treaties, building ships or facilities.
13.3 Since the number of troops matters for happiness, not the strength, someone suggested making small troops with just a cockpit to use for use as “riot police.”

===============================

13.0 The AI

===============================

14.0 Turn Sequencing
14.1 This section is used to describe the order in which thing happen during simultaneous and sequential game turns.
14.2 Stellar manipulation happens before ship movement in simu

[Suicide Junkie]

Fighters, mines, drones, and sats are not involved in ground combat. Platforms could be related to shooting down transports, but other than that, they have no effect.

[tbontob]

Slick, you are to be congratulated on the work and effort you expended in creating the new layout. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

It will make it a lot easier for us newbies to find things and for the experts to add or modify it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Thanx again

tbontob

[Gryphin]

Yes, it is superb.
I must eat crow. When it was first discussed I did not think it could be done.
I am wrong on a regular basis, this one takes the cake.
:: Performs 3 Kow Tows ::

[Arkcon]

I gotta say it too, it's a well done FAQ. I thought any faq would eventually become too big and sink under it's own weight. And I was getting worried about this one as well. But it is really consise and helpful.

P.S. Minor nitpik ... Please change my name ... it's Arkcon not arcon ... Thanks

[Ruatha]

Great work Slick.
I'm impressed.
I too was thinking that the FAQ was becoming heavyweight. I tried to reorganize it but never came close to this kind of structural organizing.

Keep up the good job, let's continue to keep in touch as before http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Shyrka]

What is the difference between the "Move" and "Attack" orders? Both seems to do the same. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif Also for the "Sweep mines" and "Move" orders.

[Slick]

I think these questions are addressed in the "Dubious Stragetegy Guide", but basically the "attack" command is pretty much identical to to "move" in sequential games and is only really used in simultaneous games. In simultaneous games, all ships move at once, so the "attack" order is used to have your ship or fleet SEEK the enemy ship or fleet, not just move to a location.

"Sweep Mines" is of lesser use, but can be used if you are in a sector and just had a battle with the enemy and he dropped mines during combat. Using this command would sweep the mines in the sector without having you move to another sector then move back.

Hope this helps.

Slick

[Shyrka]

Yes Slick, it helps http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Thank you very much.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Slick:
I think these questions are addressed in the "Dubious Stragetegy Guide", but basically the "attack" command is pretty much identical to to "move" in sequential games and is only really used in simultaneous games. In simultaneous games, all ships move at once, so the "attack" order is used to have your ship or fleet SEEK the enemy ship or fleet, not just move to a location.

"Sweep Mines" is of lesser use, but can be used if you are in a sector and just had a battle with the enemy and he dropped mines during combat. Using this command would sweep the mines in the sector without having you move to another sector then move back.

Hope this helps.

Slick<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">To put it another way (in simultaneous combat): http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

"Move" means your ship is to move to a particular location. If an enemy ship happens to be at that location, you have combat.
"Attack" means your ship is to "close" with the enemy for a battle. So, when the enemy moves, your ship adjusts its course to close the distance between the two ships and have combat.

[Slick]

2.6.2 You can put an Emergency Propulsion Pod on a base since it can be put on "ships/bases". You can later "Use" it, but there is no way to actually get the base to move using an EPP, so don't bother.

8.2.3 Fighters cannot be used to "fire on" other ships, even if the fighters have weapons.

8.2.4 Fighters cannot be used to blockade a planet.

Based on another thread, 1.5.1 is wrong (typo). Victory conditions are "or" not "and", except for the option to have them take effect after a given number of turns - that is an "and".

[Stone Mill]

1.2.1 Empire Setup - Hapiness Types.
1.2.1.1 Peaceful - Hapiness is increased by constructing ships (especially in system), peace treaties, winning battles (especially in system), troops, colonizing. Decreased by losing ships (especially in system) enemy presence in system, losing planets, population killed, wars, amount of time at war. (Peaceful is regarded as the best type to play).
1.2.1.2 Bloodthirsty - Similar to peaceful, but happiness is increased by wars, and decreased by establishing peace treaties.
1.2.1.3 Neutral - Dislike treaties of any kind; except non-intercourse (regarded as the absolute worst type to play).

1.6. Game Setup Options

1.6.1.3 Technology Cost. The technology progression formula used varies for each of the three levels (Low, Medium, and High). Where (LC = Level Cost) and (L = Level);

Low tech cost - LC*L
Mid tech cost - LC*(L²/2)
High tech cost - LC*(L²)

(Andres Lescano)

1.6.1.3.1 The Technology Progression Formula is useful when trying to calculate the value of tech trades in multi-player games.

1.6.1.4 Player Settings, Racial Points. In the Game Setup --> Player Settings screen, the Racial Points for New Players setting must match (or exceed) the amount of racial points used to create a player empire file. For example, if you created a empire race using 5000 racial points, you can only use them in a game which has 5000 point setting enabled.

1.6.1.5 Players. Use the "Add Existing" option to select existing AI or player races for your game. Remember to select Edit and select "Controlled by Computer" for AI races, and "Controlled by Player" for player races!

[Slick]

Based on another thread giving the expected fixes in the next patch:

8.2.3 Fighters cannot be used to "fire on" other ships, even if the fighters have weapons. This is expected to be fixed in the next patch.

2.3.4.5 If a Master Computer is destroyed (and it does not have normal bridge, etc.), the ship CAN then be subverted. This is expected to be fixed in the next patch.

6.1.10 Organic armor will regenerate only in battle, not in strategic mode. If got 1 left, engage immobile target and just sit there to regenerate. This is expected to be fixed in the next patch.

[Suicide Junkie]

1.1 Racial Traits
1.1.1 Organic
1.1.1.1 Organic Components
1.1.1.1.1 Organic Armor:
Self Repairing armor. Once one of the armor components is destroyed, all surviving Armor components will add their regeneration ability each turn until the total collected points are higher than the damaged component's hitpoints. At that point the damaged armor will be repaired, and the process will repeat itself for any other armor damaged in the meantime.
Note: in Versions earlier than 1.80, the ability points begin collecting before the ship takes damage, with no upper limit.
1.1.1.1.2 Organic Facilities:
Organic technology research will give you facilities that prevent plagues, increase production system-wide, and even add a fixed number of people to all planets in the system, regardless of population size and conditions
1.1.2 Crystal
1.1.2.1 Crystalline Armor
1.1.2.1.1: General
Crystalline armor requires an operational shield generator on the ship in order to work. Every hit that does non-armor-skipping damage to the hull will cause the shields to be recharged! Only hull damage counts towards this recharge, up to a maximum of the total crystalline armor ability points on your ship.
The end result is a damaged ship, with extra shields to protect against the next attack.
1.1.2.1.2: Effect vs damage amount.
If the total CA ability amount is roughly equal to or greater than HALF the damage of a single weapon hit, then the Crystalline Effect will reduce damage by 50%.
If the total CA ability amount is less than half the damage from a single weapon impact, then it will act very similar to Emissive Armor, and reduce damage by its ability amount.
If the CA ability is greater than the weapon damage, AND the weapon damage is less than half the hitpoints of a CA component, the damage will be completely negated.

1.1.4 Psychic
1.1.4.1 Allegiance Subverter
This weapon causes a ship to be automatically captured without further damage, and is immediately combat ready.
1.1.4.1.1
The damage amount is the percentage chance that a hit will cause the crew of your target to be subverted. 20 damage = 20% chance. Values above 100%, typically seen when using mounts, are rounded down to 100%.
If the shot misses, there is zero chance of subVersion.
Self Destruct Devices, boarding parties and security stations have no effect.
Ship experience only affects the chance of the shot missing its target.
1.1.4.1.2
Ships with a master computer can NOT be captured.
In Versions earlier than 1.80, ships with a destroyed master computer CAN be captured.
A computer virus is the most effective method of destroying the computer and allowing a capture.
1.1.5 Temporal
1.1.5.1 Time Distortion Burst
This weapon is moderately weak against armor and internals, doing roughly half the damage of an AntiProton Beam. However, it also does Quadruple damage to shields.
Since most ships are heavily shielded, this weapon is very effective.

[Skulky]

1.1 Racial Traits
1.1.3 Deeply Religious
1.1.1.1.2 Deeply Religious Facilities:
Religious technology research will give you facilities that give system wide combat bonuses, system wide damage bonuses, increase resource production system-wide, increase value and conditions system wide, and system wide reduce bad events, sabotage activites and increase happiness. Each of these 5 facilites has 3 levels.

[ October 14, 2002, 03:42: Message edited by: Skulky ]

[Quikngruvn]

Picking up where SJ left off...

1.1.3.2 While researching the talisman, the religious race will discover five different shrines with all sorts of nifty systemwide abilities, including to-hit bonuses, damage bonuses, production bonuses, planetary improvements, decreased chance of bad events, and increased population happiness.

Skulky beat me to it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

1.1.4.2 Psychic Ship and Fleet Training Facilities provide training to all ships/fleets in the system, at the same rate and maximum experience as normal training facilities. Thus, you do not have to park your fleet over a particular planet to get training (but could, for example, be trained while defending a warp point).

1.1.5.2 Temporal Space Yards produce much more quickly than normal spaceyards. But, you cannot upgrade a normal Space Yard to a Temporal Space Yard-- you have to scrap your Space Yard first.
1.1.5.3 The Temporal Vacation Service makes the population in its system happier, and is twice as effective as the Urban Pacification Center.

5.9.8 Cloaked ships cannot perform stellar manipulation.

I would suggest that 6.7 Capturing Planets be moved under 7.0 Ground Combat, since they are practically the same thing.

15.2 PBW -- seiv.pbw.cc (http://seiv.pbw.cc) [This is a link, so be sure to include the UBB code for the link.]

I must say to all who are maintaining this FAQ: Excellent job! A daunting task that I for one would not be up to.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Quikngruvn

[ October 14, 2002, 04:02: Message edited by: Quikngruvn ]

[dbillett1]

I am having problem with starting colonies outside of my home system. They always start with a population of 0. Why is that? I am using the colony ship from the tutorial.

[Sandstig]

dbillett1, you need colonists onboard your colony ship to populate a planet. If your colony ship is over a populated colony and you decide you want to colonize another planet, either hit "C" or the "Colonize" button, then the planet you want to colonize, and it will load colonists onto your ship automatically.

The manual method is to take your colony ship back to a populated planet and transfer colonists from the planet onto your colony ship.

[Ruatha]

dbilett1 see 4.2 Colonizing

[Sandstig]

8.4.5 Do cloaked minesweepers automatically decloak to sweep mines?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They don't decloak.

[capnq]

4.8.1 Defence Bases and Satellites always show up on the wrong side of the planet during combat. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It only seems that way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

4.8.1 Bases and Satellite Groups are placed around the planet randomly. This means that there's only about a 3 in 8 chance that they will be closer to the attackers than the planet itself.

15.2.1 The Play By Vire Service is free of charge. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Play By Web", not Wire.

[Shyrka]

The ship experience gives a % bonus in both attack and defense, isn't it?

But, what does the fleet experience do?

[Slick]

Originally posted by Shyrka:
The ship experience gives a % bonus in both attack and defense, isn't it?

But, what does the fleet experience do?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Fleet experience adds to the individual ship's experience while the ship is in the fleet. The total experience from crew and fleet percentages adds to "less likely to be hit" and "more likely to hit with direct fire weapons" chances.

Slick

[Shyrka]

Thanks Slick, but I have one new question http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

If I understand correctly, fleet experience is an attribute of the fleets, not of the ships.

If you have a fleet with 3 ships (Ships A,B and C) with 20% fleet experience and B and C leaves fleet, the result is a 1 ship fleet with 20% experience?

What if that ships rejoin the fleet? There will be still 20% fleet experiuence?

[Phoenix-D]

"If you have a fleet with 3 ships (Ships A,B and C) with 20% fleet experience and B and C leaves fleet, the result is a 1 ship fleet with 20% experience?

What if that ships rejoin the fleet? There will be still 20% fleet experiuence?"

Yes and yes. As long as the fleet always has at least one ship in it, the experience remains.

Phoenix-D

[Slick]

Yes, the fleet experience resides in the fleet, not with individual ships. Ship's retain their crew experience but lose the fleet experience when they leave a fleet. The ship will regain the fleet experience if it rejoins the fleet. The fleet exists as long as there is at least 1 ship in the fleet. You can add and remove ships all you want, even the one(s) you started the fleet with. Only while ships are in the fleet do they benefit from the fleet experience. They are also continuously earing crew experience as well each time they kill a ship. So it is common that there is a distribution of different crew experience among the ships in the fleet; and the fleet experience adds to each ship's crew experience. Once you get a fleet's experience >0%, you should make every effort to keep at least 1 ship in that fleet at all times because once you remove the Last ship (or it gets killed), the fleet is disbanded and its fleet experience goes to heaven, never to be seen again.

Slick

[Priest of Discord]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but expierence for a ship/fleet only affects direct fire weapons? Does this mean religious tailsmans on a ship(s) pretty much makes that stat pointless?

[Phoenix-D]

It only affects direct-fire weapons, but even with the Talisman on your ship it's still useful for the defense boosts. Same with seekers.

Of course, if the *enemy* is using either of those two, then it is useless.

[Suicide Junkie]

1.4.2 AI Difficulty:
Setting the AI difficulty to Medium or Low causes some of the ministers to be disabled for that empire.
High Difficulty makes the AI use all of its ministers.
Setting this below "high" is not reccommended.

2.2.3 There are none in the unmodded game, but mounts that affect accuracy will do so as follows.
The mount modifier adds (or subtracts) from your accuracy after all other modifiers.
That includes the Talisman, so a mount with an accuracy penalty can cause your talisman-armed ships to miss!

2.5.2 Which armor is best?
2.5.2.1 Choosing Organic, Crystalline, emissive, stealth, scattering, and standard armor.
2.5.2.1.1 Stealth armor
2.5.2.1.1.1 Stealth armor's biggest advantage is its bonus to defense. Its biggest weakness is its reduced strength relative to shields.
2.5.2.1.1.2 At max tech, Stealth Armor is worth using in place of some shield generators or standard armors if:
15% of the total firepower an enemy must use to kill your ship is greater than 165 points of damage. This includes misses!
2.5.2.1.1.3
EG: if enemy ships are attacking with an accuracy of 30%, and your ship has 600 shield points, the enemy must fire on average 600/0.30 = 2000 damage worth of ordnance at you in order to kill your ships. 15% of 2000 is 300, which is greater than 165.
Therefore, by removing some shield generation and adding stealth armor, you will increase your ship's survival time.

2.5.2.1.2 Scattering armor
2.5.2.1.2.1 The situation with scattering armor is very similar to that of Stealth armor. The difference is that the scattering armor is less efficient. If given the choice of ONLY Stealth or Scattering armor, go for the stealth armor first.
2.5.2.1.2.2 At max tech, the value of scattering armor can be calculated similarily to that of stealth armor.
The only difference in this case is that you should use 290 in place of 165.
Using the example given for stealth armor, you can see that scattering armor would only barely be worthwhile.

2.5.2.1.3 Standard Armor
2.5.2.1.3.1 To understand the relative usefulness of standard armor, the best comparison values are Hitpoints per KT space. This calculation also applies to shields, since they are simple hitpoint generators.
2.5.2.1.3.2 Example:
Standard armor with 40 hitpoints, and size 10kt has a value of 4 hitpoints per kt.
Shield generator I's have 75 hitpoints and are size 30kt, for a value of 2.5 hitpoints per kt.
Thus, it is much better to add the standard armor than a shield generator I.
As tech improves, the shields rapidly outpace the armor in strength, rising to almost 9 hitpoints per kt for a Phased Shield Generator V.

2.5.2.2 Determining the value of modded armors.

[ October 20, 2002, 19:25: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Slick]

Good info from another thread:


Imperator Fyron Posts:

Ctrl + R will allow you to manually remove a minefield indicator.
Ctrl + T will allow you to manually add a minefield indicator.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Recommend adding this to the FAQ as paragraph 8.4.9

Slick

[mlmbd]

Do you people actually ever welcome a Newbie, whether his a jerk(like me or not)? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

[Suicide Junkie]

Not really. We just race to answer the questions...

Jumping on new people to poke them or run them through some other sort of initiation is simply impolite.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by mlmbd:
Do you people actually ever welcome a Newbie, whether his a jerk(like me or not)? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That depends, if we are jerks or not?

(welcome anyway)

[Desdinova]

how does the game calculate distance between star systems? i am trying to create an excel spreadsheet but my formulas are not matching what the game shows.

[Ruatha]

>Enter this link:
Encyclopedia Malfador (or something like that) (http://www.invirtuo.cc/phpwiki/) at
http://www.invirtuo.cc/phpwiki/

DONE!

[ October 29, 2002, 18:14: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by ronald stanphill:
how does the game calculate distance between star systems? i am trying to create an excel spreadsheet but my formulas are not matching what the game shows.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Usually this isn't the best thread for questions as the "know how"s already know most thats written in the faq and don't check this thread regularly.
Try asking a question as a new thread and when you get an answer return here and enter the answer to the faq, that way the next newbie doesn't have to ask!

(I don't know the answer to your question, I'm a newbie)

[ October 29, 2002, 18:18: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Suicide Junkie]

how does the game calculate distance between star systems? I am trying to create an excel spreadsheet but my formulas are not matching what the game shows. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Pythagorean Theorem!

3 squares across plus 4 squares up equals 5 squares diagonally.

[capnq]

And one square on the Galaxy Window is 10 light-years.

[Desdinova]

thanks. it was the distance each square covered that was throwing me off, now the spreadsheet matches. next time i will use a new thread for questions like this.

[metro637]

What I want to do is set up a game with only human races. If the human race colonized the galaxy the had some sort of collapse and several civilizations started to recolonize. I propose using the Colonials, Earth Alliance, and etc. how do I do this?

[kalthalior]

You would choose the races you want to play in the game setup as if you were playing them yourself and switching them to the "computer player" option and "use race style". Beyond the Colonials, B5 EA and stock game Terrans, you could use the 2 Star Wars and 4 or 5 Star Trek Federation shipsets as well.

[Arkcon]

Topics like this come up often ... thought I'd put this thread back on track. I don't know really where this stuff should go, but anyway ...

5.5 Repairs and Retrofitting

5.5.## If you fleet a space yard ship, you can't select the ship for building, but it continues to build what it was building. You can access the ship from the constrution queue (button with the wrench on it) to alter the queue.

5.5.## Attempting to move a space yard ship that is building something results in an error message and no movement, building continues.

5.5.## Cloaking a space yard ship is possible, but it instantly clears the ship's build queue, with no warning. The space yard ship switches to repair mode, and the icons change. No building is possible, the cloaked ship does not appear in constrution queue.

[ October 31, 2002, 04:01: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[metro637]

Can someone tell me how to integrate these mods to my program?

[Suicide Junkie]

You should probably start a new thread for that.
Pretty much everything in this thread is all part of the unmodded game, and its hints and tips, not a mod.
You install the items listed in this thread into your brain http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PS: You need to be more patient with the submit button! You're double and triple posting, and I get to clean up after you.

[Albion Swamprat]

Geetings all from a (one week) newbie.

Having read the Boards at length I have to say excellent stuff for the newbie FAQ http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I read an early post from Zanthis (Feb 01) which was magnificent in its scope on armour, but was for SE4 and it mentioned potential future patches/fixes. Does anyone know if the figures are still accurate in SE4G (1.78)?

Swamprat

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Albion Swamprat:
Geetings all from a (one week) newbie.

Having read the Boards at length I have to say excellent stuff for the newbie FAQ http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I read an early post from Zanthis (Feb 01) which was magnificent in its scope on armour, but was for SE4 and it mentioned potential future patches/fixes. Does anyone know if the figures are still accurate in SE4G (1.78)?

Swamprat<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hi.
Don't really know as I'm a newbie myself.
But if I remember correctly the latest patch altered armour some so I'd guess: No.

[Ruatha]

Ohh, It's stickified, I'm honoured http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[mlmbd]

Ruatha,

I've just got to know. Why on earth would you post the entire Table of Contents?? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

mlmbd http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

[Quikngruvn]

Inspiration strikes again.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

1.1.2.2 Crystalline Facilities
1.1.2.2.1 The Crystalline Restructuring Plant reduces maintenance of all your ships in that system.
1.1.2.2.2 The Energy Transmission Lens increases the shield strength of all your ships in the system.

1.3.3 Choose atmosphere of None can be very tempting, since then all those moons out there become breathable. The trade-off is that there are fewer regular planets with no atmosphere, and no gas giant will ever be breathable (since gas giants cannot have no atmosphere, even with an Atmosphere Converter).

4.3.1 [addition] Multiple Atmosphere Converters on the planet will speed up the process.

4.3.6 Climate Control Facilities can be scrapped once the colony's conditions are Optimal. Multiple CCF's will speed the process.

4.3.7 Value Improvement Plants can be scrapped once all resources are at the maximum level, which is 250%. Multiple VIP's will speed the process. You will only see improvements on turns that end in xxxx.0.

4.4.3.1 [addition] ...will go into slow mode (25% of normal construction rate)....
4.4.3.2 If a colony that is in Emergency Build mode starts rioting (meaning no production at all), those turns still count toward the recovery time in slow-build mode. Example: a colony has been emergency building for four turns. It then falls into rioting for two turns with no production, then stops rioting and emergency builds for two more turns before emergency build is turned off. The colony will be in slow-build mode for eight turns.

[formatting change] 4.4.9 through 4.4.12 should become 4.4.8.1 through 4.4.8.4.

4.8.2 In combat, a planet will launch any fighters and drones it has in storage when attacked. Fighters will be recovered, but drones will not. A planet will not launch satellites or mines while in combat.

5.5.26 You cannot retrofit a ship to include a Colony Module or a Space Yard if one was not present on the ship already.

5.7.6 [disagreement] Training a missile ship will not make its missiles more likely to hit, but it will still be more likely to be missed by enemy direct-fire weapons.

5.11.4 [addition] Mines can be ordered to self-destruct.

5.11.6 There is a limit of 100 mines per sector and 100 satellites per sector.

6.4.4 [change] In the post-1.78 patch, even if the Master Computer is destroyed, by Computer Virus or otherwise, the ship is still immune to the Allegiance Subverter.

6.9.5 A blockaded planet can still construct stuff, as long as the colony is not rioting due to the enemy ships in orbit.

7.2.10 [addition] The default setting is 1 militia per 20M population.

8.2.5 If a planet or carrier launches fighters during combat, any surviving fighters are automatically picked up once combat ends.

8.3.1 Range does not matter for troop weapons. All troop weapons are assumed to be fired at range 1.
8.3.2 Troops are deployed in the order they are loaded onto the transport ship. A devious tactic is to design two Versions of troops, one that has only shields and one that had only weapons. If you load the shielded troops before the weapon troops, the shielded troops will be attacked first by the enemy militia. This should give your gunners all the protection they need to wipe out the planet's militia.

9.5.1.1 The Matter Gravity Sphere will create a planet that is the same size as the asteroid field that is used, i.e. huge asteroid fields make huge planets.
9.5.1.2 Be careful when using less than the highest level of the MGS. An MGS 1 used on a hugh asteroid field will ony create a medium planet.
9.5.1.3 A created planet will have the same resource percentages as the asteroid field used. So be careful with remote miners if you plan on creating planets later.

10.0.2 The AI tends to get ticked off if you and it claim the same system(s). Relinquishing claims on contested systems (under Empires--> Borders) might make the AI less snippy.

10.1.2 [clear redundancy]

10.1.5 Counterintelligence (CI) points are drawn from points stored in CI projects. If a CI project is allowed to complete, all the accumulated CI points in that project disappear.

16.1 Popular mods [Note: these are my impressions of these mods. Anyone more familiar with them, please add/edit as you see fit!]
16.1.1 TDM-Modpack: greatly improves the stock AI and adds several new races and fleet formations, but does not change anything else in the game (components, techs, etc.). Created and maintained by Tampa_Gamer, Daynarr, and [K126]Mephisto.
16.1.2 Pirates and Nomads: introduces Quasi-Newtonian Propulsion (bigger ships need more engines to move), Pirate and Nomad racial traits (they do not need colonies to survive), and a whole slew of other gizmos and racial traits. Created and maintained by Suicide_Junkie.
16.1.3 Proportions: an attempt at a more 'realistic' game by dramatically slowing colony development. Reproduction is dropped to 10% of normal and production on lightly-inhabited worlds is significantly dropped, while homeworld production is boosted significantly. Also introduces many new components and facilities, and balances costs for racial characteristics. Created and maintained by PvK.
16.1.4 Devnullmod: Introduces new components and techs, a tweaked combat system, and AI's to use the changes effectively. Also includes the infamous Space Monsters. Created by Devnull, maintained by Rollo.
16.1.5 Fyron's Quadrant Mod: Introduces many new quadrant and system types, including several that are AI-friendly. Also includes nearly 40,000 (!) system names. Created and maintained by Imperator Fyron.
16.1.6 There are a whole bunch of other mods out there, such as the Babylon 5 mod, the Star Trek: The Next Generation mod, and Derek's Mod, that I am just not familiar enough with to comment on. There are many more that I have forgotten about as well. If I missed your favorite mod, please don't flay me, as I am just a scatterbrain (and I've written too much tonight as it is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ).
16.2 Managing Mods
16.2.1 Each mod is placed into its own directory in the Space Empires IV folder.
16.2.2 There are several ways to make SEIV use a mod instead of the stock files:
16.2.2.1 Use Matryx' Mod Launcher. Instructions are available with the program.
16.2.2.2 Edit the file path.txt. Instructions are in that file.
16.2.2.3 Launch SEIV using command line options. Instructions are in history.txt, under 'Version 1.39.'

Jeez, that was not intended to be as long-winded as it is. I guess I just got on a roll.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Quikngruvn

[ November 10, 2002, 05:40: Message edited by: Quikngruvn ]

[Fyron]

16.1.1 TDM-Modpack: greatly improves the stock AI and adds several new races, but does not change anything else in the game (components, techs, etc.). Created and maintained by Tampa_Gamer, Daynarr, and [K126]Mephisto.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually... it changes the Formations.txt file, and quite drastically, too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

16.1.5 Fryon's Quadrant Mod<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It is "Fyron," not "Fryon."

[ November 10, 2002, 04:48: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Quikngruvn]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
It is "Fyron," not "Fryon."<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif I can't believe I did that, Fyron. I apologize for that.

Original message edited for easier cut-and-pasting, and to conceal the evidence. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Quikngruvn

[ November 10, 2002, 05:41: Message edited by: Quikngruvn ]

[Fyron]

No problem. I am used to Tesco calling me Fryon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I just thought it would be better in the newbie guide it the proper spelling was used, in case someone wanted to do a search for FQM or something. Fryon might not turn up too many results. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by mlmbd:
Ruatha,

I've just got to know. Why on earth would you post the entire Table of Contents?? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

mlmbd http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hi.
Why shouldn't I?
I don't really get what you are meaning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

Anyway. Will incorporate the new stuff later this week.

[Arkcon]

Ahhh ... lots of updates and a sticky. Feels good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif The waters fine, I'll jump in... I hope people will correct what I;m writing if its totaly wrong. But this question does come up once and a while.

16.# Combining MODs

16.#.1 Always put each mod in its individual subdirectory. If the mod changes a file, the subdirectory will contain a new file. If the mod subdirectory doesn't contain a certain file, SE4 uses the file from the default directory.

16.#.2 Once you've the MODs in their own subdirectory, you can see two MODs side by side.

16.#.3 If they don't modify the same file, it's easy to put them together. Just copy files over. Or create a new mod folder for your merged MOD.

16.#.4 If they do modify the same file, now you have some work to do. The data files are all text. You can cut and paste, but you have to be careful.

16.#.4.1 Definitely create a new folder for your new mod.

16.#.4.2 You have to check if there are redundant items, or incompatible items in the text files for your merged mod, and make some decisions about what to include.

16.#.4.3 Putting extra blank lines between text blocks and at the end of a text file has been known to confuse SE4 and cause it to not load the file.

16.#.4.4 Altering the order of some components has been know to affect the AI's ability to use a component. This is especially true with the colonization techs.

[ November 10, 2002, 13:15: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Quikngruvn]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
No problem. I am used to Tesco calling me Fryon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't feel so bad now... but thanks for clueing me in, for the sake of accuracy and so that maybe I won't look like a moron again.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Quikngruvn

[capnq]

Why on earth would you post the entire Table of Contents?? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Because this is a FAQ. A good FAQ lists the questions first, then the questions and answers.

If someone has a specific question, they can just read the ToC, then search the page for the number of the appropriate section, rather than skim the whole thing looking for the answer.

[Ruatha]

Only added the first Quikngruvn entry, will fix "fixes" and Arkcon later this week

[Shyrka]

If two system-wide facilities are built in the same system, its effects do not stack. But then what facility is doing the work? For example:

1 System Mineral Scanner I (+10% mineral prod.)
1 System Robotoid Factory III (+30% all resources prod.)

Which of them is working? The best (SRF)? The first built? (Sorry if it was answered before)

Edit: Correct "Mineral Scanner" to "System Mineral Scanner"

[ November 12, 2002, 00:06: Message edited by: Shyrka ]

[Fyron]

The highest-rated facility is the one that works.

[Rexxx]

1.4 AI bonus:

(I think)
AI bonus and construction rate:
Low x1.5, medium x2, high x3.

[Slick]

Originally posted by Rexxx:
1.4 AI bonus:

(I think)
AI bonus and construction rate:
Low x1.5, medium x2, high x3.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">How did you come to this conclusion?

Paragraph 1.4 already says that the bonuses are 2, 3 and 5 respectively.

[Rexxx]

Originally posted by Slick:
How did you come to this conclusion?

Paragraph 1.4 already says that the bonuses are 2, 3 and 5 respectively.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Switch an empire under computer control to human player, check the construction queue window. Switch it back to computer control, check again.

[capnq]

It does effect construction rate, but only for planets, not yards on ships.

[ November 25, 2002, 23:16: Message edited by: [K126]Mephisto ]

[Rexxx]

Originally posted by capnq:
They only boost resources, research, and intel production.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is an Escort design from the Terran Confederation. It costs 3250 kt Minerals, 100 kt Organics and 300 kt Rads. In a game with low AI bonus this ship is built by the AI (empire under computer control) during the first turn, it is fully operational at the beginning of 2400.1.
The homeworld of the Terran Federation (under human control) has a construction rate of 3000 kt per turn, switch the empire to computer control and the number change to 4500 (low AI bonus).

EDIT: Terran Confederation is part of the TDM-Modpack.

Edit 2: Thanks for bringing an end to this "discussion", Mephisto.

[ November 26, 2002, 06:38: Message edited by: Rexxx ]

[Shyrka]

5.7.2.1 Ships lose fleet experience when they leave fleet.

Is this properly defined? Fleet experience is an attribute of the fleets, not of the sips.

BTW, How Fleet exp. is gained? I'm making experiments and i can't figure out how it works. It seems that the higher the individual ships experience, the faster the fleet gets experience. Is this correct? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

[Kamog]

Whenever one of the ships in the fleet destroys an enemy ship, the ship gains 1% experience and the fleet also gains 1%.

[capnq]

I think the experience is a function of total hull tonnage destroyed, but I don't know the exact formulas.

[Shyrka]

Originally posted by Kamog:
Whenever one of the ships in the fleet destroys an enemy ship, the ship gains 1% experience and the fleet also gains 1%.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sorry Kamog, but in my tests this is not correct.

I have a 1 ship fleet with both experiences to zero. Then I send it to attack an unarmed escort. After that, the ship in the fleet has 1% experience, but the fleet experience still is zero.

After several victorious battles, the fleet experience raises to 1%. But it seems to depend of the individual ship experience, and maybe of the number of ships in the fleet. I can't understand it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

BTW I'm playing with 1.78 gold.

Edit: This is my post number 100! Wow! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ November 30, 2002, 12:09: Message edited by: Shyrka ]

[Sniper]

Hi guys
I recently had to restart my system and lost my old Version of SEIV. I reinstalled but now none of my downloaded empires work! The TDM mod is now for gold only and whilst I want SEIV Gold, Living in the UK makes it way too expensive to buy the same game twice!
How can I get new empires onto an old Version of SEIV? Can anyone help me?
Cheers all http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

[capnq]

How can I get new empires onto an old Version of SEIV? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There's a section of the Mod Archives for "Classic mods (pre-Gold)" {link} (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=50;t=000037). It has the Last pre-Gold Version of TDM (v2.00), plus the pre-Gold Version of my HypermazeLite mod. You should also check out the Old Scenario Archives {link} (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/scenariosold.htm) while they're still there.

You can also "reverse-engineer" Gold shipsets by using the conVersion instructions in my sig, but cutting the listed lines instead of copy & pasting them. You may also need to cut any entries for Drones in the AI's research & construction files; I've never tried converting backwards.

[ December 08, 2002, 04:23: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Slick]

1.5.2 In Simultaneous games, you can't launch units in increments; it is all or nothing.

1.5.3 In Simultaneous games, you will lose your remaining movement points when moving into an
unexplored system. Your ship will also stop and lose movement when encountering an enemy, but this can be changed under Empire Options.

2.3.1 (add) This is most applicable to Strategic Combat. You can manually select weapons to fire in
Tactical Combat.

2.4.1 (add) However, armor is effective against mines.

2.8.9 (add) However, if you fire PDC's before your other weapons, you can lose 1 multiplex tracking "slot". If you have no multiplex tracking component, you may then be unable to fire your main weapons at
another target. This bug does not apply if you fire your PDC's Last.

2.9.5 You don't have to put population on a colonizer in order to colonize a planet. Colonization will still take place, but you won't be able to build anything on the new planet without population. This is useful in sending a colony ship on a suicide mission to get a "ruin" planet in hostile territory. Since the colony won't survive long anyway, you can colonize the planet, get the ruin and not waste any population.

2.11.3 The latest history.txt file regarding the upcoming patch indicates that the relationship of fleet vs. ship strategies has been modified. Reserve this paragraph for future updates on this item.

2.13 Maintenance

2.13.1 Maintenance on your ships is 25% (settings.txt). You can decrease maintenance by increasing the Maintenance Aptitude characteristic or choosing a Cultural modifier that reduces maintenance. There is a hard coded minimum maintenance of 5%.

2.13.2 If unable to pay the maintenance, first any construction queues will not be accomplished. If the deficit is high enough, ships will automatically be scrapped to pay for the shortage. The AI will probably NOT choose wisely in scrapping your ships.

2.13.3 Things to do when maintenance is too high: place construction queues on hold, mothball ships, increase production (more facilities, increase happiness, remote mine, etc), scrap ships as a Last resort.

4.1.2 Play styles differ on how to explore early on. Find what works best for you. Some people use unarmed escorts with an extra supply storage component to maximize range. Others use colonizers and put them on a 1-way trip; colonize or die. Still others send out armed escorts which can quickly kill off a neighboring empire who has not yet set up any defenses.

4.2.11 Opinions differ on the value of colonizing moons. They can add to the overall strength of a sector. Cargo can be transferred readily between a planet and its moons. Colonizing moons keeps the AI or any other empire from colonizing them (a nasty habit). But it does cost you a colonizer, so you should not do it until you have colonized all the major planets in the area unless you have special circumstances.

4.4.3.3 Bug: If you give/trade a planet that has been operating on Emergency Build mode to another empire, its Emergency Build mode is turned off and its time in Emergency Build is cleared. It is considered cheating to use this exploit in multiplayer games.

4.4.8.5 A planet on Emergency Build, while rioting, still accumulates time in Emergency Build mode.

4.8.2 (add) The latest history.txt indicates that auto-launching of anti-planet drones will no longer occur after the next patch. Reserve this paragraph to for future discussion of this item.

5.2.1 Mine Layers

5.2.2 Mine Sweepers

5.2.3 Satellite Layers

5.2.4 Supply ships

5.2.5 Spaceyard & Repair Ships

5.2.6 Transports (Cargo, Troop, etc.)

5.2.6.1 I like to make a few "Dump Trucks" which are large transports with almost all cargo. Sometimes I put some Satellite or Mine layers on them to make them a little more flexible. Keeping one of these with your fleet allows you to carry enormous amounts of junk that you might want to carry around with you like extra population, troops, weapon platforms, replacement fighters, etc. If you have a spaceyard ship with your fleet and your fleet is stationary for at least 1 turn, you can "build 1 turn's worth" of something and the items will be placed in your Dump Truck for future use.

5.2.7 Exploration and Reconnaissance Ships

5.2.8 Stellar Manipulation Ships

5.6.2 If you have a Fleet Training Facility, it is a good idea to generate a few 1-ship fleets at that planet. After the fleet experience is maxxed out, you will have these fleets in stand-by waiting to be filled with ships and off you go.

5.10.5 Under "Empire Options" you can designate "Systems to Avoid". No ship will enter one of these systems unless you order it to go there directly. This means that ships on minister control or if given an order to move multiple systems away, will not go through that system.

6.1.14 A ship can do considerable damage (usually destroying it) to a fighter group by ramming it. Bug?

6.2.3 If the formation leader gets stuck by being surrounded by ships/objects and cannot move, the fleet will break formation.

7.2.9 (add) The positive happiness effect of 10 troops of any type will exactly cancel out the negative happiness of having alien population on a planet.

8.6.3 Weapon platform mounts increase range significantly, as well as the damage and accuracy.

8.7.5 Satellites do not use supplies.

8.7.6 Satellites in a sector will always be clumped together in 1 stack, frequently not positioned well for defense. Exception: at warp points, all friendly & enemy ships/units start combat close together.

9.2.1 Spaceports are required to allow resource (minerals, organics, radioactives, research and intelligence) points to contribute to your empire. Only 1 spaceport per system is required, but you can make more if interested in redundancy so that an attack on the spaceport planet won't necessarily cut off the whole system. The exception to this is the Natural Merchant ability which allows you to not need any spaceports.

9.3.3 With v1.78, you can turn on indicators for many system wide facilities under Empire Options. These show up as letters around a planet. These indicators will NOT show up if the system wide facility is on a moon.

10.0.3 Regarding where the AI will colonize, the AI automatically claims any system it has colonized, as well as every system right next to it. If the AI colonizes a disputed system, then that opens up a host of new disputed systems in your territory, and their expansion is not slowed at all.

10.0.4 There is a penalty associated with responding with a refusal to any offer made by the AI - the other empire increases its anger toward you. There does NOT appear to be any penalty for just not responding at all. Bug?

10.1.5 (add) So it is in your best interest to never let a CI project complete since all the points invested in it get lost.

10.2.2 It is sometimes difficult to find out what another empire has so that you can ask for it in a trade. Look at any enemy designs you have seen in combat to look for ship technologies. Use long range scanners on recon ships to check designs you haven't yet met in combat (these won't be added to the enemy ship design list until you meet it in combat). Use the intelligence projects for Ship Blueprints, Tech Levels and Planet Info to find other techs.

10.3.2 General communications with the AI are useless and in some cases (like Xenophobes) it actually makes them angry.

10.6.1 Some AI have a limit on the highest treaty to which they will agree. Nothing you can do will change this.

10.6.2 All treaties have cumulative effects which include the attributes of lower ones.

10.6.3 All treaties of Trade and higher are considered peace treaties for purposes of the victory condition "Peace for X years".

10.6.4 All treaties of Non-Aggression or higher prevent combat engagements.

10.6.5 Since the Military Alliance allows the ally to use your Resupply Depots, this can have some negative effects. The ally can now move throughout your empire and see what you have and if he is into colonizing in your systems, he can reach further.

10.6.6 Regarding Protectorate and Subjugation, the offering empire will be the dominant empire. So a small, weak empire can dominate a larger one if agreed to. In order to beg for mercy to become the submissive empire, you have to send a request and ask for a treaty of Protectorate/Subjugation in the "Give" section.

11.3.5 Be careful with the "Set Move To" option at a spaceyard when you build colonizers. Usually you don't want to automatically move colonizers.

[ December 19, 2002, 18:56: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Ruatha]

Hi, great to see ya again Slick.
Good work as always.
Will incorporate in the future (Going away on christmas)

[Stone Mill]

Nice work Slick! You da man! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[Atrocities]

QUESTION

Is there a way to Save a Que and then Load it for another Planet?

ANSWER

1. Open either the Planet Que (Recommended) or the Construction Que.
2. If you opened the Construction Que, then select the desired Planet.
3. Fill the Planets Que with whatever you desire.
4. Then Click on the FILL QUE button fourth up from the bottom of the menu to the right.
5. Click ADD
6. Name your new Que and save it. (Good idea to include Facility number, ie 18 Storage, Or 20 Blattle Ship, etc)
7. Click Cancle to exit.
8. Next time you open the Planet Que of a new planet, Click on FILL QUE and choose the Que (you named them) that you desire.
9. Presto Your Planet Que is full.

[Slick]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
QUESTION

Is there a way to Save a Que and then Load it for another Planet?

ANSWER

1. Open either the Planet Que (Recommended) or the Construction Que.
2. If you opened the Construction Que, then select the desired Planet.
3. Fill the Planets Que with whatever you desire.
4. Then Click on the FILL QUE button fourth up from the bottom of the menu to the right.
5. Click ADD
6. Name your new Que and save it. (Good idea to include Facility number, ie 18 Storage, Or 20 Blattle Ship, etc)
7. Click Cancle to exit.
8. Next time you open the Planet Que of a new planet, Click on FILL QUE and choose the Que (you named them) that you desire.
9. Presto Your Planet Que is full.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Great info. I keep telling myself that I need to start doing this. A Few follow ups:

- Is the list saved globally to be able to be used in any/all games or is it just for the current game?

- Is the list static or dynamic regarding upgrades? i.e. Do I have to make another list when I research another facility upgrade or is the queue updated automatically?

- Can I add ships or is it limited to facilities? If possible, what happens if an obsolete ship is called?

- Is there error checking if I try to build too many facilities?

[Slick]

Originally posted by Quikngruvn:
Since I wasn't sure how the game handled fractions either, I decided to find out when the game moved each speed. In a simultaneous game, I took Propulsion Expert, then created a ship of each speed from 2 to 13, lined them up, moved them as far as each could go in one month, and then watched the movement log. Here are my results. (The 'movement day' is the day that the ship ends up in a new sector.)

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Spd Movement Days
02: 15, 30
03: 10, 20, 30
04: 7, 15, 22, 30
05: 6, 12, 18, 24, 30
06: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30
07: 4, 8, 12, 17, 21, 25, 30
08: 3, 7, 11, 14, 18, 22, 26, 29,
09: 3, 6, 10, 13, 16, 20, 23, 26, 30
10: 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29,
11: 2, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27, 30
12: 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29
13: 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29</pre><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or, for the visually-inclined amongst us:

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Mvmt --Speed--1111
Day 1234567890123
01 .............
02 .........XXXX
03 .......XX....
04 ......X....XX
05 .....X...XX..
06 ....X...X...X
07 ...X...X...X.
08 ......X..XX..
09 ...........XX
10 ..X..X..X.X..
11 .......X.X..X
12 ....X.X....X.
13 ........X.X.X
14 .......X.X.X.
15 .X.X.X.......
16 ........X.X.X
17 ......X..X.X.
18 ....X..X....X
19 ..........XX.
20 ..X..X..XX..X
21 ......X...X..
22 ...X...X...X.
23 ........XX..X
24 ....X.....XX.
25 .....XX.....X
26 .......XXX...
27 ..........XXX
28 .............
29 .......X.X.XX
30 XXXXXXX.X.X..</pre><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Realize that I whipped this up from just one test on Gold, so your results may vary. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Quikngruvn<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">From another thread. Needs to be formatted for the FAQ and added as paragraph 6.8.3

[ December 20, 2002, 15:35: Message edited by: Slick ]

[capnq]

Is there a way to Save a Que and then Load it for another Planet? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is already in the FAQ, under Construction (section 4.4.6). It's spelled queue. Is the list saved globally to be able to be used in any/all games or is it just for the current game? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Current game only. [Edit] Correction: Geo reports that (F2) Game Menu/Save Empire saves the queues as well. Is the list static or dynamic regarding upgrades? i.e. Do I have to make another list when I research another facility upgrade or is the queue updated automatically? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Static, at least for ships and units; I'm not sure about facilities. Upgraded ships/units need a new saved queue. Can I add ships or is it limited to facilities? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you can build it, it can go in a saved queue. If possible, what happens if an obsolete ship is called? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If the ship or unit is still shown on (F3) Designs when you turn off "Hide Obsolete", it will be inserted normally; if the obsolete design has already been purged, you get an error message: "We don't have the design for &ltitemName&gt." Is there error checking if I try to build too many facilities? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes.

[ December 21, 2002, 20:54: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Quikngruvn]

Thanks, Slick! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Quikngruvn

[Slick]

...Income generated from remote mining is not shared with your trade partners. So if you were a race that got a lot of it's income from remote mining your allies would be potentially getting less benefit from the treaty than you, even though if you both had equal economies...

...Confirmed, racial characteristics have no effect on remote mining...
Geoschmo<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Reformat and add as paragraph 4.6.8

[capnq]

1.1.1.1.2 Organic Weapons
Organic weapons cost organics and fewer minerals, which effectively makes them cheaper to build and maintain. Seeking Parasites are seekers with a reload of only 2. Small Electric Discharge is one of the best fighter weapons.

1.1.2.2. Crystalline Weapons
Crystalline weapons cost radioactives. Crystalline Torpedos (Seeker; Reload 2) and Shard Cannons ignore armor.

5.1 Attack & Defense Ships
These designations only matter to the AI. Defense ships will stay in the AIs claimed territory. Attack ships will go anywhere.

5.2 Support ships
Some useful types of support ships are: "tankers" with lots of supply storage and supply generation compononets, "tenders" with Repair Bays or Space Yard components, and "point-defense ships" with lots of Point - Defense Cannons and at least one other weapon. "Hospital ships" with Medical Bays are used to stop plagues.

9.2 Spaceports

9.2.1 [Add:] Planets in a system without a spaceport are marked with a red spaceport icon, and on (F5) Colonies/Production, their output is shown in parentheses.
[Add to Natural Merchants:] Your homeworlds will have an extra Mineral Miner Facility or Research Center in that slot.

[ December 21, 2002, 21:43: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Fyron]

Organic weapons cost organics and fewer minerals, which effectively makes them cheaper to build and maintain.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not exactly. They can be actually more expensive (costing more total resources), especially when you get to BBs and larger, which can cost more organics than minerals. You should say they cost fewer minerals, and can be built in fewer turns. They require fewer minerals for maintenance, but cost more organics.

[capnq]

10.6 The possible treaty states, starting from the "lowest" are: War, Non-Intercourse, None, Non-Aggression, Subjugation, Protectorate, Trade Alliance, Trade & Research, Military Alliance, Partnership. 10.6.1 Some AI have a limit on the highest treaty to which they will agree. Nothing you can do will change this. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm not sure this is correct; I think that limit is on what they'll offer, not what they'll accept.

Someone needs to verify how Subjugation and Protectorate work; I can't remember who has to offer the treaty. The game does not automatically check which side is "stronger" when the offer is made.

[Slick]

Originally posted by capnq:
10.6 The possible treaty states, starting from the "lowest" are: War, Non-Intercourse, None, Non-Aggression, Subjugation, Protectorate, Trade Alliance, Trade & Research, Military Alliance, Partnership. </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 10.6.1 Some AI have a limit on the highest treaty to which they will agree. Nothing you can do will change this. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm not sure this is correct; I think that limit is on what they'll offer, not what they'll accept.

Someone needs to verify how Subjugation and Protectorate work; I can't remember who has to offer the treaty. The game does not automatically check which side is "stronger" when the offer is made.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">From Default_AI_Politics.txt:

Highest Allowed Treaty := Partnership

Therefore I am sure this is correct. Different AI's use race-specific politics files and can and do have settings below Partnership.

I also have verified (prior to posting the info) that the offering empire is the dominant empire in a Protectorate and Subjugation Treaty.

Thank you,
Slick

[capnq]

Highest Allowed Treaty := Partnership
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">OK, I was remembering an old bug in that, which History.txt says was fixed in v1.59.

[ December 24, 2002, 00:13: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Slick]

I just learned this one the hard way. (Thanks, Geo!)

8.4.10 The default limit for mines in a sector is 100 per empire. This means that every empire can potentially have 100 mines in the same sector. It is customary to make fleets that can sweep 100 mines to be able to clear a given minefield, but this won't protect you from 2 or more allies who heavily mine the same sector. Note that your fleet will not be engaged by mines of an empire that you have a peace treaty with.

[Slick]

4.2.12 You can colonize the moons by clicking on the main planet. If the main planet has moons, another window will pop up showing all planets & moons in the sector and you can select the one you want.

[Fyron]

I don't know if this is in the FAQ already, but it should be:

When a facility has "only one per system/planet effective", it refers to the ability of the facility, not to that specific facility. Eg: A System Robotoid Factory III and a System Mineral Scanner III do not stack, because they use the same ability (to affect minerals production).

[Atrocities]

Question
How do I build Space / Repair yard ships?

I have the medium transport chassis available but it seems when I choose the "Space Yard ship" vechicle type it demands I use 50% of my tonnage in cargo holds.

This leaves no component slots or available tonnage for a repair bay or a space yard component.

What am I missing?

Answer

1. You would need to use a cruiser or larger hull size. the combat vehicles do not require the cargo minimum that transport ships have.

1 a. You cannot use the transport ships for anything but hauling cargo or colonization. i would use the transport to make a multi habitat type colony ship instead.

2. In the default rules, space yard and repair bay components don't have the "Cargo Storage" ability. To fit them onto a transport hull like that you'll have to go into the components.txt and add the "Cargo Storage" ability (recommend using 0 for the amount) to each space yard and repair bay component. Otherwise, you'll have to use a standard hull big enough to hold them.

3. ...keyword in hull type being 'transport'. In the stock hull type, anything with 'transport' (small, med, large) has the 50% cargo requirement. The easy way 'round it is what Sinapus recommends: add the cargo ability to the component.

The stock game wants you to use 'em as transports and not support vessels 'cause of the tonnage available at the lower tech levels (vs. standard hulls).

[Atrocities]

FOLLOW UP

Great info. I keep telling myself that I need to start doing this. A Few follow ups:

Question 1 - Is the list saved globally to be able to be used in any/all games or is it just for the current game?

Answer
For the game you use it in unless you save the empire your playing.

Question 2 - Is the list static or dynamic regarding upgrades? i.e. Do I have to make another list when I research another facility upgrade or is the queue updated automatically?

Answwer
I am not sure, but I think you have to manual update it. Good question. I will have to check.

Question 3 - Can I add ships or is it limited to facilities? If possible, what happens if an obsolete ship is called?

Answer
Yes you can add ships. As far as obsolete ships go, I believe it will add them any ways.

Question 4 - Is there error checking if I try to build too many facilities?

Answer
Yes, you will be given an error that your que has exceeded the amount of availible space. You just have to click OK a bunch of times to remove items.

[ December 27, 2002, 10:30: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Hank]

Here is a planet capture tip that I dont see in the FAQ but found through a search. For section 7.2.18 or so...

From this thread (even says it should be in the FAQ): Picking up troops after ground combat (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=006382)

Summarized:
7.2.18 To pickup troops after combat and capture multiple planets in one simultaneous turn, order your planet capture fleet to ATTACK (instead of MOVE) then, load troops, attack other planet, load troops, etc.

[Atrocities]

Can I generate a game where I generate who the computer players are? And if so how?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes.

After starting SEIV,
1. Select NEW GAME
2. Click on the PLAYER SETTINGS tab.
3. At the bottom of this page choose the Racial Points for New Players. (2000, 3000, or 5000)
*I like to play with 5000 Racial Points.*
4. Click on the PLAYERS tab
(In this section you can either choose ADD EXSISTING or ADD NEW. The Exsisting Players are AI opponents that have already been set up and saved for use with new games. Add Player will allow you to set up a race the way you want.)

NOTE: Most new Ship sets come with Emp.Files that you can copy from the race directory to the Empires Folder. This will give you access to that race without having to manually set it up.

5. Click on the ADD NEW tab
Under GENERAL DETAILS tab you can choose the race you want. Additionally, you can give it an empire name, empire type, Emperor title, Emperor Name, choose a design name file, (For use with ship design names)

NOTE: If your new player is going to be computer controlled, then you will want to select both the Computer Controlled, and Use Race Minister Style option at the bottom of the General Details page.

6. Under the ENVIRONMENT tab you can select the atomsphere for the race, and the home planet type.

7. Under the CULTURE tab you can select the culture for the race.
(At the bottom of the page is a button for COMPARE CULTURE MODIFIERS. Click that to compare the advantages and disadvantages for each culture.)

8. Under the CHARACTERISTICS tab you can either increase or decrease values for the player.

9. Under the ADVANCED TRAITS tab you can select advanced traits for the player. (I often choose my advanced traits first then do the Characteristic. Remeber, for each of these you use, you will use up Racial Points. You can gain more racial points by decreaseing the Characterstics below a 100%, but not a good idea for playing the AI. Good idea for PBW games if its your race.)

10. Under the DESCRIPTION tab you can fill in the information about your race, and select Demeour, and Happyness Type.

11. After you have set up the race, click the CREATE EMPIRE button at the bottom of the page.

12. Select the empire you just created from the Players in Game window, and then click Save to File.

13. Click no for save with designs

14. Click NEW EMPIRE, name it, and then click OK.

You will have just saved that empire to the Empire Folder and it can now be accessed whenever you want to use it for a game.

After you have added your new races, start playing the game.

Befor you do though, make sure all of your game settings are to your liking. Have fun, and I hope this has helped.

[Atrocities]

QUESTION
Now for my next question. I'm confused about weapons platforms. Are they a facility for the planets? Can you transport them like to a wormhole and drop them off there?

How and where do I deploy them?

ANSWER

1. Weapon Platforms are defensive units for your planets.
You can add them to a transport, but they have no effect, until you drop them off at another Planet.

2. Weapons platforms are not a planet facility, but are listed in the cargo for the planet. So, particularly on small planets or ones with a different atmosphere than the race colonizing it, be careful of how many you put there.

In addition, weapons platform are listed by the number of a particular type. This can be a problem if you wish to replace older platforms or just make some space. You would have to dump all of one type. So if you want to keep some on the planet (of one weapons platform design), have a cargo ship or space station in orbit which can hold them!

NOTE: You can now just jettison a single WP even if you have multiples of that type on the planet. I think this was a Version 1.78 fix.

QUESTION

My next question:When you gut first start a game do you expand like mad or concentrate on your own system and then expand?

ANSWER

1. Expand like mad. Try to move population from your home system to other breathable planets to speed up the rate of expansion. Remember, the faster you expand, the less space for your enemies, and less space for your enemies, the faster you can exterminate them.

[ December 30, 2002, 07:16: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Atrocities]

QUESTION

nt to know what all the weapons and componets are in this game, their range, and type. Is there any way to find this out?

ANSWER

Weapons Report (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380342.txt)

Components Report (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380380.txt)

Weapon Families (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380411.txt)

Component Familes (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380440.txt)

[Slick]

Ruatha: let me know if you need/want help formatting and placing the Q&A entries below.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Slick:
Ruatha: let me know if you need/want help formatting and placing the Q&A entries below.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok, will try to put them in later tonight,m will send you a PM later so taht you can "rearrange" it to a better way, you do have an organisatory skill!

[Ruatha]

Updated

[ March 03, 2003, 22:12: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

SLICK> Can you organize this?
I think you'll do a far better job than I would!

Originally posted by capnq:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> How can I get new empires onto an old Version of SEIV? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There's a section of the Mod Archives for "Classic mods (pre-Gold)" {link} (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=50;t=000037). It has the Last pre-Gold Version of TDM (v2.00), plus the pre-Gold Version of my HypermazeLite mod. You should also check out the Old Scenario Archives {link} (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/scenariosold.htm) while they're still there.

You can also "reverse-engineer" Gold shipsets by using the conVersion instructions in my sig, but cutting the listed lines instead of copy & pasting them. You may also need to cut any entries for Drones in the AI's research & construction files; I've never tried converting backwards.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Atrocities:
QUESTION

Is there a way to Save a Que and then Load it for another Planet?

ANSWER

1. Open either the Planet Que (Recommended) or the Construction Que.
2. If you opened the Construction Que, then select the desired Planet.
3. Fill the Planets Que with whatever you desire.
4. Then Click on the FILL QUE button fourth up from the bottom of the menu to the right.
5. Click ADD
6. Name your new Que and save it. (Good idea to include Facility number, ie 18 Storage, Or 20 Blattle Ship, etc)
7. Click Cancle to exit.
8. Next time you open the Planet Que of a new planet, Click on FILL QUE and choose the Que (you named them) that you desire.
9. Presto Your Planet Que is full.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Originally posted by capnq:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Is there a way to Save a Que and then Load it for another Planet? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is already in the FAQ, under Construction (section 4.4.6). It's spelled queue. Is the list saved globally to be able to be used in any/all games or is it just for the current game? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Current game only. [Edit] Correction: Geo reports that (F2) Game Menu/Save Empire saves the queues as well. Is the list static or dynamic regarding upgrades? i.e. Do I have to make another list when I research another facility upgrade or is the queue updated automatically? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Static, at least for ships and units; I'm not sure about facilities. Upgraded ships/units need a new saved queue. Can I add ships or is it limited to facilities? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you can build it, it can go in a saved queue. If possible, what happens if an obsolete ship is called? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If the ship or unit is still shown on (F3) Designs when you turn off "Hide Obsolete", it will be inserted normally; if the obsolete design has already been purged, you get an error message: "We don't have the design for &ltitemName&gt." Is there error checking if I try to build too many facilities? <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I don't know if this is in the FAQ already, but it should be:

When a facility has "only one per system/planet effective", it refers to the ability of the facility, not to that specific facility. Eg: A System Robotoid Factory III and a System Mineral Scanner III do not stack, because they use the same ability (to affect minerals production).<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Originally posted by Atrocities:
Question
How do I build Space / Repair yard ships?

I have the medium transport chassis available but it seems when I choose the "Space Yard ship" vechicle type it demands I use 50% of my tonnage in cargo holds.

This leaves no component slots or available tonnage for a repair bay or a space yard component.

What am I missing?

Answer

1. You would need to use a cruiser or larger hull size. the combat vehicles do not require the cargo minimum that transport ships have.

1 a. You cannot use the transport ships for anything but hauling cargo or colonization. i would use the transport to make a multi habitat type colony ship instead.

2. In the default rules, space yard and repair bay components don't have the "Cargo Storage" ability. To fit them onto a transport hull like that you'll have to go into the components.txt and add the "Cargo Storage" ability (recommend using 0 for the amount) to each space yard and repair bay component. Otherwise, you'll have to use a standard hull big enough to hold them.

3. ...keyword in hull type being 'transport'. In the stock hull type, anything with 'transport' (small, med, large) has the 50% cargo requirement. The easy way 'round it is what Sinapus recommends: add the cargo ability to the component.

The stock game wants you to use 'em as transports and not support vessels 'cause of the tonnage available at the lower tech levels (vs. standard hulls).<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Originally posted by Atrocities:
FOLLOW UP

Great info. I keep telling myself that I need to start doing this. A Few follow ups:

Question 1 - Is the list saved globally to be able to be used in any/all games or is it just for the current game?

Answer
For the game you use it in unless you save the empire your playing.

Question 2 - Is the list static or dynamic regarding upgrades? i.e. Do I have to make another list when I research another facility upgrade or is the queue updated automatically?

Answwer
I am not sure, but I think you have to manual update it. Good question. I will have to check.

Question 3 - Can I add ships or is it limited to facilities? If possible, what happens if an obsolete ship is called?

Answer
Yes you can add ships. As far as obsolete ships go, I believe it will add them any ways.

Question 4 - Is there error checking if I try to build too many facilities?

Answer
Yes, you will be given an error that your que has exceeded the amount of availible space. You just have to click OK a bunch of times to remove items.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Originally posted by Atrocities:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Can I generate a game where I generate who the computer players are? And if so how?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes.

After starting SEIV,
1. Select NEW GAME
2. Click on the PLAYER SETTINGS tab.
3. At the bottom of this page choose the Racial Points for New Players. (2000, 3000, or 5000)
*I like to play with 5000 Racial Points.*
4. Click on the PLAYERS tab
(In this section you can either choose ADD EXSISTING or ADD NEW. The Exsisting Players are AI opponents that have already been set up and saved for use with new games. Add Player will allow you to set up a race the way you want.)

NOTE: Most new Ship sets come with Emp.Files that you can copy from the race directory to the Empires Folder. This will give you access to that race without having to manually set it up.

5. Click on the ADD NEW tab
Under GENERAL DETAILS tab you can choose the race you want. Additionally, you can give it an empire name, empire type, Emperor title, Emperor Name, choose a design name file, (For use with ship design names)

NOTE: If your new player is going to be computer controlled, then you will want to select both the Computer Controlled, and Use Race Minister Style option at the bottom of the General Details page.

6. Under the ENVIRONMENT tab you can select the atomsphere for the race, and the home planet type.

7. Under the CULTURE tab you can select the culture for the race.
(At the bottom of the page is a button for COMPARE CULTURE MODIFIERS. Click that to compare the advantages and disadvantages for each culture.)

8. Under the CHARACTERISTICS tab you can either increase or decrease values for the player.

9. Under the ADVANCED TRAITS tab you can select advanced traits for the player. (I often choose my advanced traits first then do the Characteristic. Remeber, for each of these you use, you will use up Racial Points. You can gain more racial points by decreaseing the Characterstics below a 100%, but not a good idea for playing the AI. Good idea for PBW games if its your race.)

10. Under the DESCRIPTION tab you can fill in the information about your race, and select Demeour, and Happyness Type.

11. After you have set up the race, click the CREATE EMPIRE button at the bottom of the page.

12. Select the empire you just created from the Players in Game window, and then click Save to File.

13. Click no for save with designs

14. Click NEW EMPIRE, name it, and then click OK.

You will have just saved that empire to the Empire Folder and it can now be accessed whenever you want to use it for a game.

After you have added your new races, start playing the game.

Befor you do though, make sure all of your game settings are to your liking. Have fun, and I hope this has helped.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Atrocities:
QUESTION
Now for my next question. I'm confused about weapons platforms. Are they a facility for the planets? Can you transport them like to a wormhole and drop them off there?

How and where do I deploy them?

ANSWER

1. Weapon Platforms are defensive units for your planets.
You can add them to a transport, but they have no effect, until you drop them off at another Planet.

2. Weapons platforms are not a planet facility, but are listed in the cargo for the planet. So, particularly on small planets or ones with a different atmosphere than the race colonizing it, be careful of how many you put there.

In addition, weapons platform are listed by the number of a particular type. This can be a problem if you wish to replace older platforms or just make some space. You would have to dump all of one type. So if you want to keep some on the planet (of one weapons platform design), have a cargo ship or space station in orbit which can hold them!

NOTE: You can now just jettison a single WP even if you have multiples of that type on the planet. I think this was a Version 1.78 fix.

QUESTION

My next question:When you gut first start a game do you expand like mad or concentrate on your own system and then expand?

ANSWER

1. Expand like mad. Try to move population from your home system to other breathable planets to speed up the rate of expansion. Remember, the faster you expand, the less space for your enemies, and less space for your enemies, the faster you can exterminate them.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Originally posted by Atrocities:
QUESTION

nt to know what all the weapons and componets are in this game, their range, and type. Is there any way to find this out?

ANSWER

Weapons Report (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380342.txt)

Components Report (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380380.txt)

Weapon Families (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380411.txt)

Component Familes (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1041380440.txt)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[Quikngruvn]

Addendum to 6.8.3: A graphical representation of this table can be found here in this thread. (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007660#000003)

Ruatha, you may also want to add an empty line before the table headings, just so the table there is clearer.

(BTW, continued awesome work, guys!)

Quikngruvn

[Slick]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
SLICK> Can you organize this? ...
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Working on it.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Slick:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Ruatha:
SLICK> Can you organize this? ...
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Working on it.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Good!

[Slick]

General question: For links, should the FAQ stand alone with the information imported so that the whole thing can be saved off as a simple text file (and thus be much larger)

OR,

Should the FAQ have hypertext links that make the file html and subject to broken links in the future?

I tend to favor importing the data so that the entire file is in simple, self containted text format and easily viewable and editable. Opinions?

Slick.

[Fyron]

Make 2 Versions of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Ruatha]

That depends. All informational text should be in the faq, but if it is a link to some extensive source as a strategy faq or another site, it should ofcourse be linked.
For example the movement info, I think it's a good balance to have it as text in the faq with a hyperlink to the graphic presentation.

To self (or Slick): remeber to incorporate: firing order. (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007852)

[ January 10, 2003, 20:07: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Slick]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Make 2 Versions of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't think that is worth the effort.

[Atrocities]

You have to edit them, and turn on the Controlled by AI button.


QUESTION

When you set up a new game, how can you engineer it so that YOU select your opponents you are playing with? When I keep adding existing races...they end up being human controlled!

ANSWER
You have to edit them, and turn on the Controlled by AI button.

[Slick]

Ruatha: I will summarize the following and add new item in the next update I am working on. Little busy right now, but should have next update in a week or so.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007915

[Ruatha]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Slick:
Ruatha: I will summarize the following and add new item in the next update I am working on. Little busy right now, but should have next update in a week or so.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007915[/QUO TE]

Great.

[DavidG]

1.2.2 Maintenance Aptitude
Unlike other characteristics Maintenance aptitude gives a benifit differnt that what appears at first. Increasing Maintenacne Aptitude from 100% to 110% give significantly more than a 10% advantage from normal. This will in fact decrease the base maintance paid on ships from the default of 25% of it's cost by 10% to 15%.

(PS there are a few other characteristics that I'm told work in a similar fashion. like happiness, reporduction and resistance but I'm not sure what they are)

[DavidG]

1.2.3 Reproduction Value
The reproduction value works in a similar way to the Maintenance Aptitude. Every percentage point you increase your reproduction increase the planets reporduction by one percentage point. So if you choose 110% reproduction a typical planet could increase its reproduction from 10% to 20%. Thus what seems like a 10% improvement (100% to 110%) is actually a 100% imptovement.

[DavidG]

5.9.9
Cloaked ships cannot sweep mines.

(found that one out the hard way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif )

[Rexxx]

8.7.3
Never use cloaking devices or stealth armor on armed warp point defending satellites. If you do it the passing enemy will not be engaged in battle.

To quote a post from Baron Munchausen (September 2002) which I unfortunately found after I learned about this fact the hard way:

"If even ONE satellite in a stack has stealth armor or other cloaking ability then the whole stack gets treated as cloaked when enemy units come through the warp point -- regardless of whether it is actually cloaked or not. So the whole purpose of the satellite stack on your WP is defeated. I've complained many times to MM about it. He can't seem to find what causes it. If you have sats with cloaking ability sitting on a WP you'd better have something ELSE there to trigger combat when the enemy comes through the WP. A base, ships, something."

The problem still exists in v 1.78.

[Slick]

Originally posted by DavidG:
5.9.9
Cloaked ships cannot sweep mines.

(found that one out the hard way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif )<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can confirm that problem with unknown minefields. Rumor has it (and there are references that hint at it in history.txt) that a cloaked minesweeper will uncloak to sweep a KNOWN minefield. I still haven't tested this one yet. May or may not work the same way. Has anyone tested a cloaked minesweeper on a known minefield?

Slick

[ January 19, 2003, 17:46: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Fyron]

That change might have been made for AIs...

If it works for humans, just go add a minefield marker everywhere there might be mines. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Slick]

I just learned this one the hard way.

4.3.8 Beware: If you have a planet on "Repeat Orders" and it has a Resource Converter, and you are playing a simulaneous game, when you give the order to convert resources, it will go into the "Repeat" queue and will be executed every turn until the order is cancelled.

[couslee]

Originally posted by Slick:
General question: For links, should the FAQ stand alone with the information imported so that the whole thing can be saved off as a simple text file.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Maybe I am mis-understanding this and being a complete computer N00bie, but wouldn't you get that .txt using the printer friendly Version of the thread? Just sent the print order to your HD instead of your printer. you could then edit out the irrelevant Posts leaving the FAQ in tact.

[couslee]

4.6.3 ...and the value of the planet or asteroids will drop exactly 1% per turn no matter how many mining components you have.

this is not true, perhaps it was fixed in the latest patch with the counter intel fix.

Possible worthy of note...
6.9.3.2 the effect the blockading enemy ships will have on the blockaded planet's happiness.

If your happiness settings includes some factor for a draw (defualt: Battle in Sector - Stalemate := 10), establishing a blockade may have a one turn negative impact on your empire as well.

[ January 21, 2003, 09:30: Message edited by: couslee ]

[Slick]

Originally posted by couslee:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Slick:
General question: For links, should the FAQ stand alone with the information imported so that the whole thing can be saved off as a simple text file.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Maybe I am mis-understanding this and being a complete computer N00bie, but wouldn't you get that .txt using the printer friendly Version of the thread? Just sent the print order to your HD instead of your printer. you could then edit out the irrelevant Posts leaving the FAQ in tact.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes you are misunderstanding. I am talking about hypertext links. I have decided to leave them as links instead of importing the data.

Slick.

[Ruatha]

Slick > When you update, please say up to wich post you've included. There's been some more Posts since we Last spoke.

[Stone Mill]

6.8.4 (or wherever you see fit)

Attacking with Cloaked ships/fleets. You must first give the order to Decloak before an attack.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Quikngruvn]

This looks useful: Planet Recon (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=007993).

Quikngruvn

[Slick]

Note to self of Ruatha for next rev.

From Arkcon:
only entering a storm triggers the damage. Ships built there, parked there, there before the storm is generated aren't damaged.

You don't have to get lucky, you can create as many storms in a sector as you want. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[Slick]

Request to all:

I am in the middle of creating a rather large update to the FAQ and it it kind of a moving target with new info coming in via this thread as well as by scanning other threads. I feel like the guy spinning the plates at the circus with lots of stuff going on at work and home right now, but I intend to get the rev out as soon as I can. I have 3 requests for the short term.

1) I would like to "lock in" the current info so that I can issue the revision with no more additions for now. Please save up your good info for now and not post it here so that we can get the next rev out. After it is posted, please feel free to again add and maybe we can put out another quick rev for the new stuff saved up in the interim.

2) Please, please, please... take a couple of minutes to format your additions, make your spelling and grammar right (I have been making edits as necessary for this so that you all look good) and look for the most applicable place to put in and then provide a suggested paragraph number. This makes updates much easier. Also please don't go postal with the subparagraphing; it should be VERY rare that you need more than 4 levels i.e. N.N.N.N and I would prefer it be kept to 3 levels where possible.

3) Last, there will be a new section at the end of the FAQ for Appendices, Figures, Tables, etc. Additions for the Appendices will be as follows. Large, complex, or graphical additions should be made in the form of a link. I have a few entries already. I guess we should use the upload section here, but out of courtesy, file number and size should be minimized. If at all possible, keep info in a text-only format so that it can be included directly.

[Edit: One more thing, please make entries factual, and based on some testing you have accomplished to minimize heresay and potentially inaccurate info.]

Thanks,
Slick.

[ January 26, 2003, 01:59: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Fyron]

You should put a link to the Modding 101 Tutorial (linked in my sig) in the Modding section of the FAQ. It will give lots of newbie answers about the data files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Slick]

updated.

[ April 01, 2003, 15:31: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Fyron]

6.8.4.1 In Gold, the defender goes first in combat. If there are multiple defenders or attackers, then the order that they go is randomly determined. ed: If A attacks both B and C in a sector, then the movement order could be B, C, A or it could be C, B, A. (Imperator Fyron)<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That should be eg: , not ed: .

Also, no link to the Modding 101 Tutorial?

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
[QUOTE]
Also, no link to the Modding 101 Tutorial?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You posted ~40 minutes before that major update....
We are after all only humans, but as too you, that has still to be determined.
Therefore: You cannot expect us to perform according to your standards!

[Slick]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
[QUOTE]
Also, no link to the Modding 101 Tutorial?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's 2 requests within 12 hrs of me posting the update. Remarkable.

By the way you post around here, you hardly need more advertising.

But if it will make you stop trying to push the FAQ to the second page here, it will go into the next revision. Thank you for your input.

Slick.

[ January 26, 2003, 16:12: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Fyron]

I only posted the second time because it looked like another revision had been made, and you missed my post. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

And besides... that post was pointing out a little typo anyways. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[ January 26, 2003, 20:49: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[couslee]

16.2.2.1 Use Matryx' Mod Launcher. Instructions are available with the program.

can you add the link for that. not only here, but in the modding sticky. i can't find it. thx.

Edit in: thank you thank you thank you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ January 30, 2003, 21:36: Message edited by: couslee ]

[Ruatha]

We can add a link here.

If you want it another place. please post it there yourself. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif v 2.26 (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1039630481.zip)

Will incorporate later

[ January 30, 2003, 18:32: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Binford]

16.1.4 DevNull Mod - Add: see differences from standard game at http://www.jeffleggett.com/DevNullMod.htm

Binford

[Atrocities]

QUESTION
How do I install the mods, and ship sets?
And will adding a mod alter the game other than adding a new race, will they eliminate other races, etc.?

ANSWER
Ship Set Installation:

1. Unzip all files into your \Space Empires IV\Pictures\Races folder. 
2. Copy the EMP files to the Empires Folder in your main SEIV Gold Directory.
3. Copy the Design Names, example "TrekNames".Txt file to the DesignNames Folder in your main SEIV Gold Directory.
4. Start a game, and select EXISTING RACE from the Players Tab.
5. You can edit the race if you want. Just be sure to save your work. 

Mod Installation:
1. Unzip all files into your \Space Empires IV folder. (Where the Data - Savegame - AI etc folders are)
2. Start a game by altering the Path.txt to say the name of the folder (Mod) instead of NONE, or use the ModLauncher program. (Its on the Gold CD in the Extra Folder)

A mod will use all information from SEIV that it does not contain. That is to say if the mod does not use its own ship sets, then it will use the sets from the unmodded game.
If it does use its own ships, then you can copy any ship set you want into the MODName/Pictures/Race folder and the Mod will use it.

Mods should not erase or replace any information say for the PATH.TXT

If the PATH.TXT is altered, you can change it back to normal by opening it in note pad and changing the MODname to None. Then save and close.

It is recommended by all that you use the ModLauncher Program.

[Asmala]

1.2.4 Happiness: Every five percentage points you increase your happiness makes 0,1% people happier every turn. For example if you increase happiness 10% it's the same effect if you have one troop on your every planet.

[stecal]

2.4.3 Shields: Shields have several abilities not confered by armor besides a higher space:protection factor. These are, as long as the shields are not destroyed, they will 1) Deny the usage of Boarding Parties vs. this ship 2) Absorb Ionic Disperser attacks vs engines 3) thru the use of shield regenerators shields can be restored after being reduced to 0.

[ February 19, 2003, 21:39: Message edited by: stecal ]

[Asmala]

12.1.3 A homeworld will never riot.

[Slick]

for the complete Version:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Well, I emailed MM about this, and here is the response:

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">A homeworld will never riot. Their anger will go up but it maxes out at 80% (where 100% is required to riot). We had to impose this during beta testing because a newly started empire would have its one homeworld riot and that player's game would effectively be over.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">A planet designated as your HW cannot ever riot. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif But, if the HW is glassed, then recolonized, it can then be capable of rioting, as it is no longer a HW.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[Asmala]

12.0.4 Every new colony, including the homeworld, has 25% angry people at the beginning so the mood is Happy.

12.0.5 At every turn positive and negative events (happiness.txt, see also 1.2.4) are added up, the result is rounded down (the decimal part is wiped off) and then it is added to the percentage of angry people.

[Merry Jolkar]

If I give orders to close a warp point this turn and my opponent gives orders to pass through that warp point from the other side, will his ships be able to get through and destroy me before I close the warp point? The newbie faq below says nothing about this, i.e.,:

9.5.6 Opening & Closing Warp Points

is blank.

Thank yous in advance!
Merry

[Slick]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
If I give orders to close a warp point this turn and my opponent gives orders to pass through that warp point from the other side, will his ships be able to get through and destroy me before I close the warp point? The newbie faq below says nothing about this, i.e.,:

9.5.6 Opening & Closing Warp Points

is blank.

Thank yous in advance!
Merry<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I haven't tested this, but I would assume that it depends on turn based games or simultaneous games. I bet that in turn based games, whoever gets the order executed first wins, and in simultaneous games, I think that the player with the lower player number might win, although I believe that Stellar Manipulation is done before movement, so if that's true, the closer might always win regardless of player number.

Tell you what, this looks like a nice little research project that you could do and post the results here for incorporation to the next revision. You could contribute to the knowledge base of the community. You would get full credit and everything!

Slick.

[ February 27, 2003, 15:42: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Slick]

Deleted double post.

[ February 27, 2003, 15:41: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Ruatha]

I think it's time for a inclusion round and update to the faq.

Will you do it Slick or should I?

(I can do it next week, have plenty of time, working night then. But you do it better (actually the truth!))

[Slick]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
I think it's time for a inclusion round and update to the faq.

Will you do it Slick or should I?

(I can do it next week, have plenty of time, working night then. But you do it better (actually the truth!))<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I know I have been posting a lot but right now, but I am actually in a real busy period. If you could do it, that would be great. Also, you do just fine with the updates. I was using MS Word, but for some reason the hypertext links were not copying properly and I had to edit them in this UBB editor after the fact.

* looks over notes *

I haven't had time to write up some of the recent discussions for inclusion, but one topic that must go in is the great idea of using minefield markers (CTRL-M) to alter the pathing of your ships in simultaneous movement. i.e. forcing ships to go over planets with resupply facilities, etc. If you could summarize that thread and find a good spot for that one, it would be great.

To all: Last call for inputs for next revision. See Ruatha for cut-off date, but get 'em in ASAFP http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[edit: Oh, yea, one more thing, I was trying to find a standard format for questions and answers, as you can see in the file. I was using the format:

x.xx.x Q: question blah blah blah
A(name_of_the_guy_who_posted_the_answer): answer blah blah blah.

But if you come up with a better format, change it.]

Thanks!
Slick.

[ February 27, 2003, 16:28: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Merry Jolkar]

I'd be happy to test this. What is the best way to do it? Has anyone made a testbed galaxy, saved at a point where the tech tree is fully explored, which I could download? Or, is there a way to run an A.I. vs. A.I. game for several hundred turns and then take over for the A.I.?