Small, One-Shot Questions

[The Shadow (OP)]

The Flag Bridge...

What's it do?

That is all.

[Andrew]

Your fleet commander has to be on a planet or a ship with a flag bridge, so if you want the benefits of your fleet HQ's for your fleets you need to have at least one Flag Bridge with the fleet and load the commander onto it

[The Shadow (OP)]

Thanks!

Is that only relevant if you're using fleet training?

[The Shadow (OP)]

What's the Planetary Market button for?  Is it obsolete?

[sloanjh]

What's the Planetary Market button for?  Is it obsolete?

Trading between empires.  Yes.  IIRC, it should be disabled.

John

[The Shadow (OP)]

What's the Planetary Market button for?  Is it obsolete?

Trading between empires.  Yes.  IIRC, it should be disabled.

It is, yes, but it made me curious.  I assume the screen in question got obviated by the new civilian trading rules...  Though I'd think you should be able to offer trades to a foreign government.

[Beersatron]

What's the Planetary Market button for?  Is it obsolete?

Trading between empires.  Yes.  IIRC, it should be disabled.

It is, yes, but it made me curious.  I assume the screen in question got obviated by the new civilian trading rules...  Though I'd think you should be able to offer trades to a foreign government.

That would be cool, but then you have to think about how could one Empire's Wealth be useful in another Empire's Wealth. The trading of minerals would be practically and easy to RP as would actual research topics but I would imagine trading Racial Tech could get a bit 'far fetched'. In saying that, there is already a mechanism for transferring tech and whole ships through ruins/salvaging and then boarding combat.

Did I just talk myself into a circle?

[The Shadow (OP)]

I agree that directly trading wealth probably doesn't make sense.  But minerals and tech seem to be things all starfaring races would value;  if they don't, they won't stay starfaring for long!

Now, as you say, there might be issues with communicating tech to other races.  Perhaps the more different the race, the lesser fraction of the tech you get?  But we can already disassemble their tech for a chance at an advance.

EDIT:  The really hard part would be deciding on the 'exchange rate' between minerals and tech.  Different techs can be exchanged on the basis of research points, of course.

Probably the different racial traits would affect how hard a bargain a race drives.  You also have to be Neutral to have any chance at all, and more preferably Friendly.  Having a trade pact would definitely be nice, but not necessarily required.

[sloanjh]

EDIT:  The really hard part would be deciding on the 'exchange rate' between minerals and tech.  Different techs can be exchanged on the basis of research points, of course.

Three things:

1)  IIRC, the reason this is turned off is not that Steve doesn't want to do it, rather it's that the old mechanism rotted away and he hasn't yet re-designed it.

2)  My recollection was that this used a bid/offer mechanism.  In other words, the willingness of the empires to buy/sell through the market set the price, rather than having it hard-wired in the game.

3)  I was going to say "there's already a mechanism in place to trade tech" (read the Trans-Newtonian campaign writeup), but when I went to look for it, I couldn't find it.  I found a mechanism to transfer tech in SM mode through the "compare tech" screen (accessed from the SM menu on the main bar), but that's not what I was thinking of.  Perhaps this got lost in one of the screen redesigns.

John

[Andrew]

Thanks!

Is that only relevant if you're using fleet training?

Not entirely the various skill of the commanders staff give bonuses to various activities either the mechanics thread or the FAQ has details of what these are

For example I will often give survey squadrons a command ship with a commander with good survey bonus and a good survey staff officer

[Father Tim]

That would be cool, but then you have to think about how could one Empire's Wealth be useful in another Empire's Wealth. The trading of minerals would be practically and easy to RP as would actual research topics but I would imagine trading Racial Tech could get a bit 'far fetched'. In saying that, there is already a mechanism for transferring tech and whole ships through ruins/salvaging and then boarding combat.

Did I just talk myself into a circle?

Which is exactly how it worked, when it worked.  Two (or more) empires with populations on the same planet/moon/whatever could trade minerals, technology, and eventually ships (for other minerals, technology, or ships) in an bid/offer system (eg 'selling 2000 sorium for 1000 duranium' or 'selling 20cm Plasma Carronade for 20,000 any mineral').  It predates the wealth system, which is why it doesn't take wealth into account, and is one of the reasons why the Planetary Market fell out of use (it didn't ever get update to account for Wealth, and we (the users) argued whether wealth should be transferable between empires).

Any reference in the fiction to trading technology or minerals is referring to the Planetary Market - or possibly to SM mode 'handwaving' for roleplaying purposes.