Updated the FAQ

[douglas]

Another kind of stellar manipulation where ship ID can matter: star destruction/nebula creation/black hole creation. A ship moving on the same day as the scheduled mass destruction order has two possible options if it has a lower ID than the stellar manipulation ship. First, if it is on a warp point, it can warp to safety an instant before the superweapon goes off. Second, if it is one sector away from the stellar manipulation ship, it can move there and prevent the ship from doing anything, provided that you do not have a non-aggression or higher treaty with the owner of the stellar manipulation ship. If it has a higher ID than the stellar manip ship, it can't do anything but wait to die.

All orders that do not spend movement points happen just before the ship's next move action. This means that if a ship runs out of movement with a stellar manipulation or load/drop or similar order at the top of the queue, that order will not be executed until its first movement of the next turn.

Now for a list of restrictions on stellar manipulation operations:

Note: "enemy presence" refers to any object that you can detect controlled by a player you do not have at least a non-aggression treaty with. Cloaked enemy ships will only prevent stellar manipulation if you have a good enough sensor in the system to detect them.

Create Planet: Can be issued anywhere, will apply to whatever asteroid field the ship happens to be in when it's executed. Cannot be done when there is an enemy presence in the sector.

Destroy Planet: Can only be issued when over a planet. Stores the target planet, even if there's only one there and it doesn't specifically ask, and will not work on any other planet. This is the only stellar manipulation order that can be done in the presence of an enemy.

Create Star: Can be issued anywhere, even in systems that already have a star. Will create a star wherever the ship happens to be when the order is executed. Will fail if there is another star in the system at the time of execution. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Destroy Star: Can only be issued when at a star. Stores the target star and will not work on any other star. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Open Warp Point:
Can be issued anywhere. Will open the warp point wherever the ship happens to be when the order is executed. Restrictions such as only one warp between the same two systems allowed and the maximum of ten warp points in a system are checked at time of execution. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Close Warp Point:
Can only be issued when at a warp point. Stores the target warp point, even if there's only one there and it doesn't specifically ask, and will not work on any other warp point, not even the other side of the same warp point. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Create Storm:
Can be issued anywhere. Will create the storm wherever the ship happens to be at the time of execution. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy. Will give an erroneous log message about lack of supplies when attempted in the presence of an enemy.

Destroy Storm:
Can only be issued at a storm. Stores the target storm and will not work on any other storm. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Create Nebula:
Can only be issued at a star. Does not store the target star, but does require that a star be present in the sector when executing the order. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Destroy Nebula:
Can be issued anywhere. Will apply to whatever nebula the ship happens to be in when the order is executed. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Create Black Hole:
Can only be issued at a star, but no star is necessary when the order is carried out. The star the order was issued at will be deleted even if it is not in the same system as the new black hole. This deletion will not affect anything else in the system - the star just disappears. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

Destroy Black Hole:
Can be issued anywhere. Will apply to whatever black hole the ship happens to be in the same system with when the order is executed. Cannot be done in the presence of an enemy.

I have not tested ringworld/sphereworld construction in the presence of an enemy.

[Fyron]

Does the ID number exploiting really need to be in the FAQ? It really doesn't matter, and it greatly detracts from the "game" aspect of SE4... There is a point when over-analyzing the minute details of the game takes any possibility for fun out of it. Of course, whether this point has been reached or not is a matter of personal opinion...

Perhaps this should be moved to a new thread if it is going to spark lengthy discussions...

[Slick]

*sigh*



No lengthy discussions, please. Fyron, the instant you feel like you are reading something that is over-analyzing and taking the fun away for you, just stop reading.

[Slick]

Great research, douglas. I'm sure that took some time to test.

[Fyron]

I was talking about the ship ID number stuff, to make it clear...

Slick:
You can delete posts now. Just hit the "Delete this post" button when editing the post you wish to delete.

[douglas]

Same sector, and that option was disabled. Also, I got a log message each time enemy presence prevented the operation specifically stating that it couldn't be done because an enemy was there - except for the create storm trial, where it told me I didn't have enough supplies, even though the ship had 6 engines and a quantum reactor. Moving one sector away to an unoccupied spot fixed that problem, so I'm quite certain that error message was giving me the wrong text.

[Fyron]

In the interests of keeping the hyperlink version of the FAQ up to date, I plan to write a little program to auto-insert all of the necessary HTML formatting. Would you be interested in this for the official post on Shrapnel Slick?

[Slick]

possibly if it isn't too much extra work. as of now I have many new sections and am in the process of filling out some of the areas that are sparse. I am also in the middle of cutting/pasting from numerous threads on the forum (with credit to the authors).

the part that may make an auto formatter fail is that I am also putting in many cross references. i.e. ".... see also section xx.xx.xx". which would be great for links, but probably require manual editing. if i have to manually edit all of those, it just won't be worth it.

[Fyron]

I am sure I can figure out something. New line requirements are handy.

[Caduceus]

I may not be a great player, but I am a good spell-checker and grammar-checker. If you need a second set of eyes on this sucker let me know.