Emergency Build problem

[Pablo]

Ruatha,
that may probably be true (in 1 system) in case you don't have a space port

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Pablo:
Ruatha,
that may probably be true (in 1 system) in case you don't have a space port

No, lack of space ports have no effect at all on the operation of resource converters. The only effect would be the resources of that system would not be available to the empire. The resource converter draws from the empire whether or not a space port is available. So actually the resource converter in a system with no space port could convert all the resources of the empire except those in the same system. As if that makes any sense.

Geoschmo

[ December 11, 2002, 14:12: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Arkcon]

Now most of you know it's not automatic, you have to select the planet, click the little ore truck on the button bar, and use the dialog to select from what resource to what resource, etc.

But remember, you can only convert from you have in storage into what you can store. Ran into that little problem in my neutral challange game. I only had two systems, every planet was maxed out value with monoliths ... but I couldn't convert into all the minerals I needed -- I didn't surrender enough space on resource storage.

Long story short, look at the empire screen critically and see where everything is going, and what you have, and try to predict what ships you still need to build. Turn your excess organincs and rads into (minerals-30%0). Is that enough minerals? And do you have mineral resource storage to hold that?

[sparhawk]

Ok, I get the picture: so what you are saying Geoschmo: always take 120% in maintance reduction!!! (if in a unmodded game), because it saved you 80% of the maintance.

But is this also true for other race traits, like research, trade, miniral extraction etc.
Because then this will open a totally new window for me: I really thought that upgrading from 100 to 120 % maintance reduction would give you 4/5 maintance instead of 5/5.

But WHY did they do that.
It would be more logical to do it the following way: maintance(25% of value ship) * (100 % / race trait maintance reduction).

Sparhawk

[geoschmo]

True, it probably would make more sense that way. But the maintenance reduction at game startup comes "off the top", subtracted directly from the base maint. The other things in the game that affect maint, components, facilities, maint reduction on hulls, all get multiplied so the reduction is more in line with what you would expect.

120% is quite valuable, but it is is also expensive. Some people prefer using those points in other areas. Depends on your play style I guess.

It used to be you could get your maint down to zero by maxing the characteristic maint redux and taking the engineer trait. Those were the days. One of the patches fixed it so the lowest you can get your maint is 5% now. If you spend the points to get it lower than that they are wasted cause your maint is hardcoded to the minimum.

Geoschmo

[sparhawk]

So having 120% reduction and having the crystalline restructuring plant, doens't lower it below 5% maintance cost???

And what about miniral extraction/research, is that still research/extraction * race trait???

Thanks Sparhawk

[Suicide Junkie]

No, Crystalline multiplies, so you will get 15% off of whatever you pay when the ship is outside the system.
IE 20% redux + 15% crystal = 17%

If you choose engineers or merchants, or one of the other cultures that reduce maintenance in your race setup, it adds/subtracts from the base along with the maintenance redux.