List of questions

[Nikolaj (OP)]

Yeah, that's good to know, considering the time it would take to get them to 150. 120 seems quite a bit more manageable.

[UnLimiTeD]

Well, every time they discover something, the skill of each member goes up by 1, and the better they are, the faster they find something, so it's more of an exponential raise.

[Nikolaj (OP)]

I have a couple of more questions now:

1) I bumped into an alien race one jump from Sol. They have a planet there, and that's how I found them. I don't know if they've seen me yet. Ideally, I'd like peaceful relations, but I don't know anything about them, or even if they know about me. I've already put a diplomatic team to work, but I haven't contacted them yet. I read in another thread that I should turn on the transponder on the ship that found them, to alert them to my presence. However, I don't know how to do that, and I'm not sure it's a good idea. Any advice would be welcome.

2) I've decided to colonize Titan, considering all the minerals it has. the cost is somewhat high (about 8-9), but I have some terraformers to spare, and I'm not in a hurry. The moon has no hydrosphere, however, and I'd assume that one of those would be necessary to sustain human life. Does that matter in the game (apart from the fact that the albedo won't change), or can I go ahead an colonize it?

3) I'm still looking for advice regarding mining ships, although my immediate need for minerals isn't as high as it used to be. Basically, I'm interested in whether it's actually worth the bother to use them. Also, assuming that people think it is, how many modules should I put on a ship? Should I build one really big one, or several smaller ones?

Thanks again for all the tips and clarifications, it's helping me out a lot.

[Judicator]

3) I'm still looking for advice regarding mining ships, although my immediate need for minerals isn't as high as it used to be. Basically, I'm interested in whether it's actually worth the bother to use them. Also, assuming that people think it is, how many modules should I put on a ship? Should I build one really big one, or several smaller ones?

Thanks again for all the tips and clarifications, it's helping me out a lot.

It's all a matter of perspective. You may or you may not want to mine them, it really depends how much minerals the asteroids have that make it worthwhile or not.

On the matter of big vs. small asteroid miners, since you claim you don't have an urgent need for materials, I would say make a few big ones, as you can afford the wait of construction so you can have the luxury of fast and large mining, and you can simply plop an automine or two on there to transport the materials back to your planet, or if the asteroids are in another system you'll have to use a freighter, but that shouldn't be too bad.

Likewise, if you DID have a need for quick minerals... small, cost-effective miners would be the way to go until you could manage a big yield miner or two. So go with the big one.

[Nikolaj (OP)]

Thanks. I've designed a large mining ship (~125,000 tons) and will be putting a few of them into production shortly.

The situation with the aliens resolved itself, since they suddenly decided to grant me trade access, although I hadn't even established communications yet. After that I made contact, and I'm now on friendly terms with them.

[sloanjh]

I read in another thread that I should turn on the transponder on the ship that found them, to alert them to my presence. However, I don't know how to do that, and I'm not sure it's a good idea. Any advice would be welcome.

My recollection is that it was a fairly new user that posted the bit about transponders.  As far as I know, there's no diplomatic benefit from turning on your transponders.  The one thing you might want to do is let them get a sensor hit on you (e.g. turn on your actives until you're sure that they've detected them, then turn them off).  This will let them assign a diplomatic team to you, which will make your attitude towards them start rising earlier, which means you'll be able to grant them trade access earlier, which means that their attitude towards you will start going up faster (from the trade access) earlier.

The moon has no hydrosphere, however, and I'd assume that one of those would be necessary to sustain human life. Does that matter in the game (apart from the fact that the albedo won't change), or can I go ahead an colonize it?

I thought that planets with no water were supposed to have minimum cost 1.0, but the last time I terraformed one it came out at 0.0.  So I don't think it matters.

3) I'm still looking for advice regarding mining ships, although my immediate need for minerals isn't as high as it used to be. Basically, I'm interested in whether it's actually worth the bother to use them. Also, assuming that people think it is, how many modules should I put on a ship? Should I build one really big one, or several smaller ones?

I never bother with them (mining ships).

John

[Nikolaj (OP)]

Thanks for the answers. It certainly would make sense if planets and moons without water had a minimum colony cost. Maybe that will be changed at some point.

I've run into a new problem. A ship of mine was hit by about 20 missiles within 15 seconds. It was surveying WX Ursae Majoris-B II for minerals at the time, but I'd forgotten to put any sensors on it besides geo and grav sensors, so I didn't spot the missiles untill just before they hit, and I don't know who fired them. The ship somehow survived, but is totally cripled. I never found out who attacked me, and why they stopped firing. Is there some way that I can send another ship to repair the first one? If so, what component does it need to do that?

Edit: Oh, well, the ship exploded a month later. I'd still be interested to know if there's a repair module of some kind. I know there's a maintenance component, but I suspect that it can only be used to repair the ship it's installed on.

[Beersatron]

Thanks for the answers. It certainly would make sense if planets and moons without water had a minimum colony cost. Maybe that will be changed at some point.

I've run into a new problem. A ship of mine was hit by about 20 missiles within 15 seconds. It was surveying WX Ursae Majoris-B II for minerals at the time, but I'd forgotten to put any sensors on it besides geo and grav sensors, so I didn't spot the missiles untill just before they hit, and I don't know who fired them. The ship somehow survived, but is totally cripled. I never found out who attacked me, and why they stopped firing. Is there some way that I can send another ship to repair the first one? If so, what component does it need to do that?

Edit: Oh, well, the ship exploded a month later. I'd still be interested to know if there's a repair module of some kind. I know there's a maintenance component, but I suspect that it can only be used to repair the ship it's installed on.

[spoiler:26dbui4w]You were more than likely hit by a Precursor Minefield when you entered orbit for the Geosurvey[/spoiler:26dbui4w]

Did you go into the ship screen and initiate the combat repairs? I can not remember the short-cut and exact name of the tab, but from the screen you can set up repairs that will use on-board maintenance. The ship probably blew up because you had ran out of maintenance units and too many components had fallen out of repair.

Personally, as a general rule, I put about 5 times the amount of maintenance units in a ship design as the 'maximum repair cost'.

If your survey ship is say 4000 tonnes then you can build a ship with hangar capacity of 4000 and designate it as a Repair Vessel. You can then have the survey vessel land and repair it that way. Think it costs less this way (it may even be automatic?).

[UnLimiTeD]

Hangars are indeed the way to go, but keep in mind Carrier ships will be of enormous size if you intend to use them to repair your main ships.
They won't repair armor as far as I know.
You could also build a Tug (Fast ship with a tractor beam) and tow your damaged ship back to the next ship yard.

[Nikolaj (OP)]

Thanks guys. Both solutions (carrier ship and tractor beam) sound pretty good, and will certainly be useful in the future. Luckily the scout vessel was a very basic and cheap model, so repairing it wasn't a huge priority. It's nice to know how I could go about it, though.

I didn't look at the combat repair tab. Since this was my first engagement, I still don't know how combat works. The ship did have about 3 times the needed supplies, though, but it had lost most of its systems, including all engines, the jump drive and the bridge, so I guess it was pretty much done for in any case. Too bad for the newly appointed captain, whose predecessor died during combat when the bridge exploded. He arrived just in time to blow up along with his ship.