NPR capabilities

[Zeebie (OP)]

Now that I'm well into an interstellar war, I'm pondering the details of how NPR empires work.  Some questions:

- Do NPRs need wealth the same way I do? Do they get that wealth from trade?  Will destroying trade ships actually hurt their economy?
- My NPR trading partner has literally hundreds of civilian ships.  Does this actually reflect their economic strength and industrial production, or do they just appear magically?
- On a similar note, do NPRs have to use factories and shipyards to build warships, or do they just get them periodically?
- Do they need actual mineral access?  I have never seen an NPR mining colony, asteroid miner, or mass driver.
- Do NPR establish colonies? I have never seen a colony beyond the homeworld.
- Do NPR warships follow the general rules for ship movement? I have had NPR warships appear in a place where it is almost impossible for them to have been (four FAC in a system where there had been no base or carrier for several years).
- Do NPR ships need fuel, maintenance, ordnance?

- use SM to see their colonies, ship designs

[Sematary]

As of 6.3 the only difference between NPRs and the player is NPRs don't use fuel and start with 3x the RP you start with.

[Steve Walmsley]

As of 6.3 the only difference between NPRs and the player is NPRs don't use fuel and start with 3x the RP you start with.

They start with the same RP as any player race of the same population plus a bonus based on time since game start.

The formula for Players and NPRs is :

Tech Years = Game Years + 20
Research Points = Research Labs x TechYears x 300

[Steve Walmsley]

Now that I'm well into an interstellar war, I'm pondering the details of how NPR empires work.  Some questions:

- Do NPRs need wealth the same way I do? Do they get that wealth from trade?  Will destroying trade ships actually hurt their economy?
- My NPR trading partner has literally hundreds of civilian ships.  Does this actually reflect their economic strength and industrial production, or do they just appear magically?
- On a similar note, do NPRs have to use factories and shipyards to build warships, or do they just get them periodically?
- Do they need actual mineral access?  I have never seen an NPR mining colony, asteroid miner, or mass driver.
- Do NPR establish colonies? I have never seen a colony beyond the homeworld.
- Do NPR warships follow the general rules for ship movement? I have had NPR warships appear in a place where it is almost impossible for them to have been (four FAC in a system where there had been no base or carrier for several years).
- Do NPR ships need fuel, maintenance, ordnance?

- use SM to see their colonies, ship designs

NPRs work the same as your Empire. They need wealth, minerals, etc. and build installation/ships just as you do. They also create both normal colonies and automated mining colonies. There are four exceptions that come to mind.

1) They don't use fuel (which is possibly why the FACs were so far from home)
2) They don't suffer maintenance failures
3) They don't have to retool shipyards.
4) Minerals from their mining colonies get magically transported home (I will fix that to make it more realistic at some point)

[Zeebie (OP)]

NPRs work the same as your Empire. They need wealth, minerals, etc. and build installation/ships just as you do. They also create both normal colonies and automated mining colonies. There are four exceptions that come to mind.

1) They don't use fuel (which is possibly why the FACs were so far from home)
2) They suffer maintenance failures
3) They don't have to retool shipyards.
4) Minerals from their mining colonies get magically transported home (I will fix that to make it more realistic at some point)

Thanks Steve. So NPRs will make mining colonies? Any thoughts on why I haven't seen any in 50 years of game time with two very vigorous NPRs?  There's no way they could have made their gigantic fleet with just the minerals on their homeworld.

[MarcAFK]

Perhaps your sensors aren't quite enough to show the mining colonies?
Or possibly their mines are in another system and their stuff is being magically transported.

[Kaiser]

NPRs work the same as your Empire. They need wealth, minerals, etc. and build installation/ships just as you do. They also create both normal colonies and automated mining colonies. There are four exceptions that come to mind.

1) They don't use fuel (which is possibly why the FACs were so far from home)
2) They suffer maintenance failures
3) They don't have to retool shipyards.
4) Minerals from their mining colonies get magically transported home (I will fix that to make it more realistic at some point)

Do they suffer or do they don't suffer maintenance failures?

[MarcAFK]

Im assuming don't judging by the context.

[Zeebie (OP)]

Perhaps your sensors aren't quite enough to show the mining colonies?
Or possibly their mines are in another system and their stuff is being magically transported.

Well, I went into designer mode to check on this - they had a mining colony with 125 automines in one of my systems.  It was actually on a moon around the Jovian where I had a dozen harvesters.  That means I had ships with active sensors running going right by them about once a month, with no pings! Moral of the story: it's really easy to hide mining colonies!

[kks]

Well, they must have transported the automines there, I think. You could have noticed freighters at such distances with your DSTS. Did you upgrade them
Also I'm not sure if Actives detect anything beside Ground Forces, especially Industrial Sites.

[Zeebie (OP)]

Well, they must have transported the automines there, I think. You could have noticed freighters at such distances with your DSTS. Did you upgrade them
Also I'm not sure if Actives detect anything beside Ground Forces, especially Industrial Sites.

They must have been transported there before I colonized the system, because I've been blockading the jump points since then.  And I actually have both a huge DSTS and a spy ship with big thermal sensors in the system.  Apparently I just underestimated how hard it was to find this sort of thing!

[Steve Walmsley]

Do they suffer or do they don't suffer maintenance failures?

They don't - fixed the original post.

[Mel Vixen]

They must have been transported there before I colonized the system, because I've been blockading the jump points since then.  And I actually have both a huge DSTS and a spy ship with big thermal sensors in the system.  Apparently I just underestimated how hard it was to find this sort of thing!

Actually no. Iirc. NPRs also have the full civilian sector INCLUDING civilian miningcolonies that grow magically much like ours.

[alex_brunius]

Actually no. Iirc. NPRs also have the full civilian sector INCLUDING civilian miningcolonies that grow magically much like ours.

Our mining colonies don't magically grow in systems we have no other colonies in though...

[sublight]

Our mining colonies don't magically grow in systems we have no other colonies in though...

Ah, I was wondering how an NPR colony and garrison managed to sprout on Luna...