Opening Warp holes

[Fyron]

Smolf said:
I like the stellar manipulation best, because it's like playing som manic god. "I created a world, I didn't like the result, I destroyed it again muhahahaha.... (evil laughter)"

That's one of the best features of the Space Empires series. Don't like the galaxy? Rebuild it! The only thing you can not do is move systems around to spell out your name... Or move planets around for the same purpose.

[Smolf]

douglas said:
I'd say do both. You should always try to have a military about as large as you can support, and it would be a waste to not use it. Meanwhile, planet creators and destroyers don't cost all that much to maintain compared to a few good warships, and their long-term benefits are extremely good. Ringworlds cost a bit more to make, but if you can spare the resources from your war effort, they can be worth it in the long run.

One related question about the planet destroyers. The description says that the component is destroyed when used. Is it possible to repair it or do I have to retrofit my ship? It seems too easy/simple if I can just repair it.

[AMF]

The weird thing about creating planets to me (aside from the WHOLE darn concept) is that the resulting planet has the same min/org/rad percentages as the asteroid. I would think it should be random or worse, until you get to a pretty high level of stellar manip so you can have stellar manip that makes sure, somehow, that it moves the juicy bits to the surface of the newly made planet.

[Fyron]

Destroyed components can indeed be repaired. "Destroyed" is the same as "damaged" as far as a component goes.

[Zaamon]

Yes, you can repair that when used. And use again, and again, and...

[Smolf]

Hmm... so if I build a repair ship and base it in an asteroide field then I could create/destroy planets with the appropriate technology until I'm satisfied with planet type etc?

[douglas]

Just stick a repair bay on the planet creator/destroyer, and you're good to go forever. With a repair bay, the destroyed-on-use aspect of the stellar manipulation component merely restricts you to using it once per turn. Of course, you might still have to worry about supplies, but I imagine if you've got fairly advanced stellar manipulation tech you've probably got the quantum reactor too.

[AMF]

Smolf said:
Hmm... so if I build a repair ship and base it in an asteroide field then I could create/destroy planets with the appropriate technology until I'm satisfied with planet type etc?

Hey, that sounds like a neat trick. I'm usually trying to colonize new planets as fast as I can, hadn't thought about demolishing and rebuilding until I found the one I liked best...I bet you could even do it in one turn, so long as you gave the demolish order before the build order...

[Fyron]

You might want to have the planet creation ship move a sector away, then back before creating the planet.

Unfortunately, I do not think simultaneous movement games let you issue the create planet order unless your ship is orbiting an asteroid. If there are two asteroids in the system, have the planet creator always end its turn on a nearby asteroid. Have the planet destroyer orbiting the world you are trying to optimize. Order it to destroy planet. Order the planet creator to move to that sector, create planet, then move back to the asteroid it started on. Works best if you have quantum reactors or a lot of solar sails, since you will be using a ton of supplies...

[douglas]

Doing the demolish/rebuild in one turn requires either both components on the same ship, or the planet creator moving away and back before doing its thing. You could try doing it with two ships without moving first, but then the create order might be executed first and fail because there's no asteroid field there.

Edit: Planet destruction orders require that the ship already be in orbit of the planet it's going to destroy. Planet creation orders can be issued at any time and will apply to whatever asteroid field the ship happens to be in when the order reaches the top of the queue. I don't know how it chooses which asteroid field if there happen to be multiples present (if, for example, you destroyed both a planet and its moon).