New player questions

[Bucket (OP)]

I just found out about Aurora last week and I've been playing pretty heavily since.     
I cheated pretty heavily for my first game so I could learn the interface without worry about being steamrolled by a ruthless NPR, and I'm almost ready to start a real game up.     
However, before I conclude my current game I was hoping to find a colony or home planet of at least one of the two hostile NPRs I've encountered.       So far I've encountered ships but have never seen any colony indication.       I've got maxed tech with insane sensors and a ship dedicated to finding everything in a system:

Bloodhunter class Sensor Array Ship    12,500 tons     1327 Crew     73289.     5 BP      TCS 1.     25  TH 60  EM 0
24000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-47     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 20     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.     1 Years     MSP 73290    AFR 62%    IFR 0.     9%    1YR 6989    5YR 104830    Max Repair 27000 MSP

J12500(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 12500 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Photonic Drive E0.     5 (16)    Power 375    Fuel Use 5%    Signature 3.     75    Armour 0    Exp 1%    Hyper Capable
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 1440.     0 billion km   (694 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR6750-R1 (10%) (1)     GPS 9000     Range 6,750.     0m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR42690-R40 (10%) (1)     GPS 360000     Range 42,690.     7m km    Resolution 40
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 0.     5% of normal

ECM 100

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

I've explored probably around 50 systems at this point.       In some places I've found what I think were geosurvey missiles or buoys on a couple of planets, but I never saw any other contacts on those planets (two were planets with ruins, the others seemed to be vacant).       I've tried to search in areas where I found jump gates, but to no avail.       Is there some better way to find their owned colonies than random search?

Another problem I'm having is that with the above ship, if I send it on many-jump missions, it will often cause an interrupt event saying that its jump drive isn't ready.       However, I've tried setting the ship's speed below the speed of most of my other ships (none of which have this problem) and still have this interrupt.     

Lastly, I'm encountering an error message when I open my Galaxy Map, error 76 apparently because the /Flags directory wasn't found.       I searched for solutions and found that setting my empire's flag usually fixes this (Ctrl-F2 in case there are any others who can't find it).       Unfortunately, setting my flag did not fix this, and I do actually have a Flags directory in my Aurora directory.       It's grating to spam click through the error every time I open or refresh the Galaxy Map and I'm hoping someone can give me some idea of how to fix it. 

edit: What does the acronym GPS stand for in the sensor array information, and what does the number mean?

[Theokrat]

I just found out about Aurora last week and I've been playing pretty heavily since.     
I cheated pretty heavily for my first game so I could learn the interface without worry about being steamrolled by a ruthless NPR, and I'm almost ready to start a real game up.     
However, before I conclude my current game I was hoping to find a colony or home planet of at least one of the two hostile NPRs I've encountered.       So far I've encountered ships but have never seen any colony indication.       I've got maxed tech with insane sensors and a ship dedicated to finding everything in a system:

First of: are you actually sure that the ships you encountered were NPRs and not spoilers? Some spoilers do not have colonies as such, but only ships.

On finding NPRs: All colonies emit thermal signatures and most emit EM signatures, while they do not present a radar cross section. So a colony itself can only be found by passive thermal or EM sensors, not by active search sensors. However you might still find the buzzload of ships and shipyards that are associated with many truly active colonies by the active sensors on your ship. While most NPRs are trans-newtonian, some are not and might not have ships or space installations. You are unlikely to find these with active sensors.

Yet, your active sensor also provides quite a large active EM emission, which might be detected by a colony, e.g. through ground-based tracking stations. In the worst case, the aliens would have ample warning of your approach and be able to evacuate their ships (but not shipyards) before you get in range (and might find nothing left for your sensors to detect).

So my suggestion would be to use a design heavily loaded with passive thermal and EM detectors, instead of the active ones you use. If you use an active sensor, it might as well have a larger resolution, because the easiest thing to find are civilian ships, which masses normally range in the tens of thousands of tons. The same sensor with a resolution of 200 would give you a much larger coverage.

Other methods include following their ships, and negotiating long enough till you have a trade treaty (after which it will be very easy to follow civilian traffic).

edit: What does the acronym GPS stand for in the sensor array information, and what does the number mean?

The GPS stands for the amount of active emissions an array emits (yeah I dont actually know what the acronym stands for). This is detectable by EM sensors when the sensor is switched on.

For instance an EM sensor might read “EM Detection Sensor EM2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km” . So this sensor could detect a 1000 GPS signature at 12m km. Your “Active Search Sensor MR42690-R40 (10%) (1) ” has a GPS of 360,000 so the above mentioned EM sensor could detect it at 360*12=4320m km. I.e. pretty much exactly your range. If the EM sensor was twice as large it would give ample warning.

[Havear]

I think GPS was Grav Pulse Strength, since actives rely on pulses through TN space and listen for the "return" or something like that.

[Bucket (OP)]

Thanks! I was under the impression that active sensors provided both cross section scan and EM detection, which is why I was only using those on that ship.   I thought I'd be able to jump into a system with them turned on and automatically find all contacts (true for ships with the range on those scanners).   

Funny enough, I've used this thing in conjunction with my missile ships.   Its very high speed, low cross section, and very high EM signature draw all sorts of interest while the ship moves away faster than they can close, and the missile ships get to neglect using their actives and are essentially invisible.

[Theokrat]

Thanks! I was under the impression that active sensors provided both cross section scan and EM detection, which is why I was only using those on that ship.   I thought I'd be able to jump into a system with them turned on and automatically find all contacts (true for ships with the range on those scanners).   

Yeah, in most systems 42 b km from most jump points will cover all interesting locations, so you would see all ships but not hte colony themselves, as active senors are not an EM detector in their own right. As a caveat though: As you probably know your ships suffer a sensor delay after jumps, so it might take a while till you actually spot anything. If you jump out earlier that might skew your prupose.

[Bucket (OP)]

Ok, so I realized that SM mode initiating communication revealed what the empire was actually called, and both races I found were spoiler races.   However, I did end up finding a colony of a new NPR (who were, of course, crushed swiftly and brutally  ).   I've reinstalled my game and the /Flags error was fixed.   I have some further questions:
1.  Where can I see my current wealth balance? I was able to find my wealth income but didn't see the balance.
2.  If I form a Geology team on a new colony that has no infrastructure yet, will they die? I really lucked out and got some very highly skilled geologists (all 25+ skill on game start) who now have a team skill of 175, and obviously I don't want them to die when I put them on Mars.
3.  Is there any benefit in team skill >140?  The wiki says that this is the maximum for determining whether the team concludes surveying on a planet, but it's not specified whether or not there's a limit for new finds.
4.  Is there a way to tell if a shipping company is in the process of building any ships? I've subsidized the only company I could and have a freighter design created (do I have to mark this in any special way for companies to build the design or will they automatically figure out what commercial ship they need to build?).

[Zook]

1.  Where can I see my current wealth balance? I was able to find my wealth income but didn't see the balance.
2.  If I form a Geology team on a new colony that has no infrastructure yet, will they die? I really lucked out and got some very highly skilled geologists (all 25+ skill on game start) who now have a team skill of 175, and obviously I don't want them to die when I put them on Mars.
3.  Is there any benefit in team skill >140?  The wiki says that this is the maximum for determining whether the team concludes surveying on a planet, but it's not specified whether or not there's a limit for new finds.
4.  Is there a way to tell if a shipping company is in the process of building any ships? I've subsidized the only company I could and have a freighter design created (do I have to mark this in any special way for companies to build the design or will they automatically figure out what commercial ship they need to build?).

#1: It's the last tab on the right of the economics page.

#2: Don't worry.

#3: I'm too lazy to look it up.

#4: You'll be notified when they build one. No need to designate anything. IIRC the specifics of civilian purchases are in the wiki somewhere. It takes a little patience, though.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

3.  Is there any benefit in team skill >140?  The wiki says that this is the maximum for determining whether the team concludes surveying on a planet, but it's not specified whether or not there's a limit for new finds.

what happens is that they conduct rolls and if the roll is under the team skill than the roll succeeds. So the higher the team skill the more successful rolls they get (and thus the faster surveying). 

[Bucket (OP)]

Thanks for the quick replies.   In the economics page I only see annual wealth.   I did end up finding my current wealth by opening SM Mods, though this seems like it somewhat of a workaround.

[Bgreman]

Your current wealth is in the title bar of the Production and Economics window.  Following that in parentheses is the amount your wealth increased the last time you advanced time.

[Nathan_]

I think GPS might also stand for Grav Pulse Signature is there an official post anywhere?

[Theokrat]

3.  Is there any benefit in team skill >140?  The wiki says that this is the maximum for determining whether the team concludes surveying on a planet, but it's not specified whether or not there's a limit for new finds.
4.  Is there a way to tell if a shipping company is in the process of building any ships? I've subsidized the only company I could and have a freighter design created (do I have to mark this in any special way for companies to build the design or will they automatically figure out what commercial ship they need to build?).

3. There are two things happening: Firstly there is a chance that the team will discover new deposits. The higher the team skill, the better without any cap. Secondly, if they found something another random number check is made to see if this was the end of the discoverable minerals. Again, the higher the team skill the better (as in they will not "close" the body on further surveys), but this one is capped at 140. So overall using a team with a skill of 200 instead of 140 will discover new deposits more quickly, but it wont discover more of them overall.

4. AFAIK, there is no "process" of civilian ship building in the same sense as you build your ships in a shipyard. The shipping line will just spend a big sum of cash at one point and instantly get the new ship. You can check whether this can happen by comparing their wealth to the costs of your designs.

[Bucket (OP)]

Thanks again!