New Player with a few questions

[Mickey Blue (OP)]

Hello all, first wanted to say this is am amazing game.   I'm a Dwarf Fortress player and noticed this in an older thread on their website (which is several hundred posts long) and I am loving Aurora so far.   I had a few basic questions that I haven't been able to find searching the website or on the wiki.   I suspect some, if not all, of these are reposts and I apologize for that (lord knows I've answered many re-posts on the DF boards .

So, in no particular order:

1) Is there a way to continually advance time? Like if I am waiting for many months for something to be ready to avoid having to click the 'end turn' button again and again?

2) How do 'tug' ships work? I had an asteroid harvesting ship run out of fuel just outside of Mars' orbit and I had a tug vessel move in to drag it home but when I linked them and tried to move it I was told that the tug was out of fuel and could not complete its mission even though its fuel tanks were full.

3) The option to set the chance of NPR race generation, does that create any kind of civilization (low tech, all powerful, in between, etc) or does it create full fledged NPR empires each time?

4) When I try to settle a new world, even one that is fairly close in line to the idea human environment, I almost immediately get the message that people are upset because of overcrowding, is there something I'm doing wrong?

Thanks, that's all that comes to mind.   I've been learning new and better ways to play every time I try the game out.

[Erik L]

1. There's a checkbox on the System Map (F3), Automated Turns. Check that.

2.

3. Creates one comparable to your tech.

4. Did you ship infrastructure to the colony?

[Thiosk]

4)  yeah that colony cost means that its not quite suitable for people.  If there isn't enough infrastructure on the planet-- domes, tubes, air processing equipment, nail salons-- the people are all crammed in whats available.  And that makes them sad pandas.

I don't know whats up with 2).  Are you sure they are linked?  If the tug is at the same spot as the harvester, you could try transferring fuel between tug and ship.   Put em in the same task group and click the equalize fuel button on the bottom of the task force command window.

[Mickey Blue (OP)]

Thanks for the quick replies, I'll have to use more infrastructure to make the planets a bit more habitable for my transfers.

As to the tugs, ultimately that is what I ended up doing to get my ships back but since I could do that with any ship it seemed to make the whole 'tug' thing superfluous.   I"ll have to run more tests.

[danw13335]

An easier (and more controllable) way to transfer fuel is to hit F6, then select either ship, go to the "Miscellaneous" tab, select the other ship under the "Manual Fuel Transfer" section, enter your amount to transfer, then click either "Transfer From" or "Transfer To" depending on which ship you have selected.

Well, maybe it's not easier, but it's definitely more controllable and you don't have to reorganize your task groups to do it.

[Erik L]

If you check the F2 Economic window, the Summary tab; it should show how much population is supported with the infrastructure present.

[Mickey Blue (OP)]

Thanks again guys, again you have all been very helpful.    I just succeeded in exploring my first new system which, odd as it seems, was pretty cool.    I can say outside of maybe Dwarf Fortress I've never played a game as interesting as this. 

One more question, is it possible to change your theme (US, UK, etc) mid-game? Or do you have to restart?

[Ziusudra]

You can change the theme in the Races window (View Race Details Ctrl+F2). Any new entities will use the new theme, but existing entities will not change.

[Mickey Blue (OP)]

Excellent, thanks.   Still having issues with towing ships.   I connect them with the tractor link but when I try to move the tug ship it tells me the tractored ship does not have enough fuel to complete the orders (of course it doesn't, that is why its being towed!).   I was able to tow around engineless 'terraformer' ships earlier so not sure what is different here (this one is a jump gate constructor that ran out of fuel).

[Thiosk]

Ah i had an idea!  Theres a way to set a ship's speed-- I can't remember exactly where to do it, i think you double click it in the TG window or something.  You can also set the TG speed there.  If the ship has a move order, and has a speed set, and no fuel, it will throw errors.  Usually people tug engineless or disabled ships-- you're tugging out of gas ships.  Most people woudl send a tanker or a relief vessel, rather than a tug, in that case. 

This is probably where the error is cropping up-- the ship may be tugged, but its still trying to carry out its fly order.  Since you tugged terraformers with no problem, set the speed to 0 manually and try it again.

[Libelnon]

I think tugs are mainly used to tow about space stations and other engineless spacecraft, as opposed to tugging those without fuel.

[Mickey Blue (OP)]

Gottcha, ended up transfering fuel to get it back, its a shame you cannot tow ships with engines but no fuel, not that its a big deal to transfer fuel just wish the option was there.

[Peter Rhodan]

Tugs are also useful for towing captured FACs that have not maintenance section

[sloanjh]

Gottcha, ended up transfering fuel to get it back, its a shame you cannot tow ships with engines but no fuel, not that its a big deal to transfer fuel just wish the option was there.

The idea is that the tow is still using its engine power to increase the total speed.  This might be worth a suggestion in the official suggestions thread - a flag that lets you shut down the tow's engines, or at least the ability to handle tows with no fuel (using only the tug's engines).

John

[jseah]

Cross-posting from suggestions thread. 

Gottcha, ended up transfering fuel to get it back, its a shame you cannot tow ships with engines but no fuel, not that its a big deal to transfer fuel just wish the option was there.

Ships that are being tractored should have the option of turning their engines off. 

Allows attachment of commercial engine tugs to military/gunboat engined ships to save fuel. 

Allowing engines of tugged objects to turn off allows more than just tugging no-fuel stuff.  It gives a commercial engine consumption to fuel inefficient ships during peace time provided you build the swarms of tugs you will need to do this.