A complete newbie's questions...

[Ragnarok]

Edit: Oh shoot, I didn't catch that you were using Proportions Mod. Some of my answers may not apply then. If one of the Proportions players wants to correct me in areas feel free.

Originally posted by deccan:
1) Does anyone else think that PD is incredibly powerful? I keep wishing that I could make it my main weapon and hit ships with it.

I do not believe it is too powerful. Just wait until you meet a large (150+) stack of fighters and 100 sats, then you won't mind having powerful PD.

2) Why does everyone seem to think that torpedoes suck? They seem alright to me, stat-wise. (Yes, I know about the reload rate.) Am I missing something else?

Reload rate is the main downside of torps. Some mods make using torps more benificial however.(I don't know which mods but I know some do)

Also, damage to weight ratio is taken into consideration. Take for example the Quantum Torps vs. Phased Polaron Beams. With Large mount the Quantum Torps take up 80kt of space of a ship, do 300 damage to range 6 with a reload of 2. PPB however, take up only 60kt of space, do 150 damage out to range 6 (300 damage in two turns) plus they skip normal shields. Thus making PPBs more efficient. This is just one example.

3) How do I keep my fighters from running out of ammo in mid-battle? If I max them out on engines, they run far, far ahead of my main fleet. I can't add supply storage components to them. Use less weapons and more armor on them?

I don't know about this one. I'm not the best with Fighters.

4) What the heck are meson bLasters for? They seem to suck to me.

They sort of do suck. Not very many people use them except for RP purposes.

5) Is it better to put supply components on every ship that needs to travel to attack the enemy (uses up precious space that could go towards weapons and armor) or is it better to build specialized supply tankers (game's "sharing of supplies evenly among all ships in a fleet" seems very inefficient)?

Either way works. It has been mentioned before that you want at least 1 or 2 supply storage on each warship that you have. But I would suggest having a few supply tankers in your fleets as well to resupply the fleet once the battle is over. Or just go straight for the QR and have unlimited supplies no matter what.

6) What makes "Neutral" dispositioned races happy? I find that if I pick "Peaceful" races, I get keep them on "Happy" and "Jubilant" most of the time. However, if I pick "Neutral", they spend most of their time on "Indifferent".

Never pick Neutral, it is a pain in the arse to keep them happy. Any treaty, war, new alien race, alien ships in your system will make them very unhappy and possibly cause riots ruining your empire. Peaceful is the easiest to keep happy and probably the best happiness type to take at the beginning of a game.

7) I find that once an AI declares war on me, I can't seem to end it, even if they are "Brotherly" to me and no one actually engages in combat for ages and ages.

I believe in the AI_Settings.txt file for that particular AI is a line that makes it not accept any treaties for X amount of turns after the Last battle with you. Just don't fight with them and they will eventually turn around and allie with you once more.

8) How do tech trades work? The AI keeps giving me tech that I have already.

I would explain this one but I'm not very good at explaining tech trades so I'll let someone else handle it.

Sorry, if some of my questions seem silly. I haven't really played all that much yet and I'm nowhere near to completing a game.

NO question is silly, we've all asked them and the only stupid question is one that doesn't get asked. Ask here and we shall answer without hesitation. Check out the FAQ at the top of this forum, that will help you ALOT in your games.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! I hope I have helped you and you enjoy your stay here.

[ June 03, 2003, 00:05: Message edited by: Ragnarok ]