Post by: NightFalcon on July 10, 2010, 07:15:26 PM
Is this how you start your own games? It feels like cheating or something. If it isn't how you do your own games, then how do you?
2) Also, I have three cargo vessels transporting auto-mines to Mars. Three just arrived and have already started mining. How do I go about getting those minerals from where they are now (Mars) to where all my production is (Earth?)
3) Can I transport auto-mines to mine an asteroid? If so, how do I get those minerals back to Earth?
4) Jump points, jump gates, what does it all mean? Can someone point me to a good explanation of what all this talk of jump stuff is?
5) Civilians. I'm very hazy on what civilians do for me, and what I need to do. I made a colony on Mars. I am working on adding oxygen. When the air is breathable, will the civilians automatically start colonizing it? I understand from the tutorials that civilians will sometimes build the luxury liners and cargo vessels I have designed. Can I control those ships when they are created? Will I even know about it? What will the civilians do automatically? What should I NOT expect them to do automatically?
Post by: Erik L on July 10, 2010, 07:57:47 PM
2. Drop a mass driver on the colony, and have 1 on your homeworld. Then on the mining tab, set the mass driver destination. Be SURE you have a mass driver at your destination, otherwise you will commence to bombard the colony. Very bad.
3. Yes. See #2.
4. Jump Points are the naturally occuring connections between stellar systems. Jump points require at least one ship to have a Jump Engine. Ships transitting are limited in size to the size of the ship mounting the Jump Engine. A Jump Gate is a man/alien/BEM-constructed artifact to enable non-jump enabled ships to transit. There is no size limit on Jump Gates.
Post by: NightFalcon on July 10, 2010, 08:30:42 PM
To clarify. In order to use a jump point, I must either have a jump gate OR a jump-enabled ship?
And also, can I get this "mass driver" to an asteroid or planet via a cargo vessel?
Thanks again!
Post by: Erik L on July 10, 2010, 09:47:25 PM
Post by: Starkiller on July 10, 2010, 11:12:21 PM
it's research cost is deducted from your total. When your points are gone, then you can reseach normally. OOB is similiar in that you have a number of build point that go down as you OOB ships. From what I understand, this is supposed to represent a two year period of research and contruction before the game actually starts.
Eric
Post by: NightFalcon on July 11, 2010, 09:46:12 AM
Do ships automatically use jump points when they can, or do I have to order them to do so?
Also, I made a colony on Mars. I am working on adding oxygen. When the air is breathable, will the civilians automatically start colonizing it? I understand from the tutorials that civilians will sometimes build the luxury liners and cargo vessels I have designed. Can I control those ships when they are created? Will I even know about it? What will the civilians do automatically? What should I NOT expect them to do automatically?
Thanks again very much!
Post by: Starkiller on July 11, 2010, 11:25:06 AM
I believe the civvies will start sending colonists the moment the first one builds a liner, so you'll need to keep an eye on it once they do.
You'll want to make sure there is enough infrastructure to support the population, but until they build the first liner, it's not something
you need to worry about.....much. :)
Eric
Post by: Starkiller on July 11, 2010, 11:30:01 AM
Eric
Post by: laz on July 11, 2010, 12:12:53 PM
Post by: NightFalcon on July 11, 2010, 12:17:40 PM
One more question I've come to have...
How do upgrades work? Suppose I have an Atlas class ship called Atlas 001. I go to the class design window and change the engines in the Atlas Class. Will Atlas 001 automatically get that new engine? Will it automatically go to a slipyard for upgrading? Or will that only apply to subsequent ships?
Sorry for all these questions! Thanks so much!
Post by: Starkiller on July 11, 2010, 12:43:28 PM
Eric
Post by: Mini on July 11, 2010, 01:00:48 PM
Post by: Caplin on July 11, 2010, 01:07:20 PM
In SM mode, of course, your special powers give you the ability to unlock
already in service designs and edit them. Those changes will take effect
immediately.
Note that at one point after you did this you needed to individually select each
pre-existing ship of the design in the F6 screen in order for it to update. I
don't know if this still holds.
Outside of SM, the refit procedure mentioned above applies.
Best,
Zack.
Post by: Starkiller on July 11, 2010, 01:11:02 PM
Eric
Post by: Starkiller on July 11, 2010, 01:12:49 PM
Eric
Post by: NightFalcon on July 11, 2010, 03:52:58 PM
*What does "A1 Required" mean? Or A0 Required?*
I've tried searching for that one, but the board search ignores the "A1" since it is too short. =[
Edit: never mind. Level 1 Administration required.
Post by: Beersatron on July 11, 2010, 03:53:30 PM
Quote from: "NightFalcon"
Thanks for the clarification on upgrades!
*What does "A1 Required" mean? Or A0 Required?*
I've tried searching for that one, but the board search ignores the "A1" since it is too short. =[
Edit: never mind. Level 1 Administration required.
That is the Grade/Level of rank required for assignment of an officer.
Post by: NightFalcon on July 11, 2010, 04:27:11 PM
Do I need any particular type of construction for a ship to refuel. I have millions of liters of fuel, and yet my two gravity survey ships are sitting right at Earth spawning automatic conditional return for fuel updates every time I take a turn. I have the fuel, they are right there. Why won't they refuel!?
Post by: Soralin on July 11, 2010, 05:51:14 PM
Quote from: "NightFalcon"
Thanks!No, they should just be able to pull fuel off of any planet that has it. Are your ships actually low on fuel? If you just built them they should have a full tank, maybe check and make sure that under the conditional part of the conditional orders that they have one of the "fuel less than x%" choices there, so they only go to get fuel when they're running low.
Do I need any particular type of construction for a ship to refuel. I have millions of liters of fuel, and yet my two gravity survey ships are sitting right at Earth spawning automatic conditional return for fuel updates every time I take a turn. I have the fuel, they are right there. Why won't they refuel!?
Post by: NightFalcon on July 11, 2010, 07:53:16 PM
The ships are definitely low on fuel. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Fuel%20Problem%202.PNG (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Fuel%20Problem%202.PNG)
The conditional order seems to be correct. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Fuel%20Problem%204.PNG (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Fuel%20Problem%204.PNG)
Yet they are just sitting at earth. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Fuel%20Problem%203.PNG (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Fuel%20Problem%203.PNG)
Interestingly, they spawn an event no matter how long I make the turn. Five seconds or five days. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Refuel%20Problems.PNG (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1920393/Refuel%20Problems.PNG)
Strange. Thanks for your help!
Post by: dooots on July 11, 2010, 08:29:15 PM
Post by: NightFalcon on July 11, 2010, 08:37:25 PM
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 05:47:37 PM
Anyway, the suggestion was to make a geo team and start having them train. I made a geo survey team and transported them to Mercury which has absolutely no minerals. Then my best officer in the entire game, who happened to be on the team, was killed in an accident. Lesson learned: don't put important people in dangerous situations.
Anyway, I took that team back to Earth, disbanded it, and made a new team. This one only has a current rating of 75. They need to improve before being useful. So I figure that I will put them on Mercury. They are there now. My question is simply, where is the option to have them start the survey?! Or do they do it automatically?
Post by: Caplin on July 12, 2010, 05:52:24 PM
They will survey automatically once they're where you want them. Leave them
alone for a while and you'll eventually hear from them.
Best,
Zack.
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 05:58:10 PM
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 06:12:52 PM
And, what do I do now? Can I add another member to the team somehow? Or should I just bring them to earth, disband, then make a new team with another member?
Thanks!
Post by: Starkiller on July 12, 2010, 06:54:53 PM
Eric
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 07:05:18 PM
64, not 62. And I'm a math major. =[
Post by: Starkiller on July 12, 2010, 07:10:50 PM
Eric
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 08:36:21 PM
Another potential problem: I'm now in April of my third year, and still not a single civilian ship. I even tried to encourage them to build some freighters by setting up a contract at Earth for supplying 15 auto mines, and a contract on Titan for demanding 15 auto-mines. No freighters, no luxury liners, no colony ships, nothing from the civilians. How can I get them to hurry up??
Thanks!
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 08:47:09 PM
Post by: Caplin on July 12, 2010, 08:55:20 PM
Civillion shipping lines are a tricky lot. They sometimes require some poking to get up and running.
Do you have actual infrastructure and people on that Martian colony of yours? If so, they should start up soon-ish assuming they have enough wealth to buy a ship.
If they don't or if you want to increase the chance they'll get going, look into subsidizing them.
Beyond that, it's a variable thing I'm afraid.
They will eventually start, never fear.
Best,
Zack.
Post by: Caplin on July 12, 2010, 09:05:47 PM
Quote from: "NightFalcon"
Also, I got a cryptic message: Sub-pulse adjusted due to potential fleet interception. The sub-pulse thing I understand. The potential fleet interception I do not. What does that mean?It depends on the context. Were you looking around in SM mode when you got this?
It might imply that you're about to be visited by an NPR.
(I don't know for sure, that particular message might only appear in SM anyway.)
Essentially, fleets are close to detection range of each other. They might be yours, or they might be an NPR half way accross the universe.
If your longer time increments suddenly stop passing completely without obvious interruptions, it's an NPR battle.
They need to play by the same rules we do. I'd suggest checking the Automatic Turns box, hitting an increment of a day or so, and letting it grind for a few
minutes.
If, on the other hand, the problem is something on your end, you'll probably know.
By the way, Steve wrote up a tutorial about this somewhere around here. I suggest reading it if you can find it, the question you ask is fairly common.
Check the Useful Links topic here.
Hope this helps,
Zack.
Post by: NightFalcon on July 12, 2010, 09:21:20 PM
Thanks for your help on the shipping line. I chucked 1000 wealth their way. We'll see if it encourages them to get cracking. =]
Post by: randal7 on July 12, 2010, 09:48:47 PM
As I understand it, survey teams don't "progress" like a research project. Every so often (5 day intervals probably) they have a chance equal to their total skill rating divided by an unknown (but apparently pretty high) number of finding minerals. I base this on anecdotal evidence that teams with high (near or above 200) ratings seem to make discoveries noticably faster than teams with skill around 100. This process is definitely random, however; sometimes you'll get a discovery two months in a row, sometimes you won't hear from them for a year. I also think smaller bodies have a lower chance per time unit of making a discovery, because surveys on them seem to take much longer.
If you discover minerals, the team has another chance equal to their skill (but max 120) divided by 150 of being able to find more minerals on that planet (later). If they can't, they will tell you.
Survey teams will still work with 4 members because I found out a guy died when his team made a discovery and there were only 4 team members in the notification. Survey teams do seem to have a higher chance of death in the line of duty.
Post by: randal7 on July 12, 2010, 09:57:04 PM
Quote from: "NightFalcon"
Another potential problem: I'm now in April of my third year, and still not a single civilian ship. I even tried to encourage them to build some freighters by setting up a contract at Earth for supplying 15 auto mines, and a contract on Titan for demanding 15 auto-mines. No freighters, no luxury liners, no colony ships, nothing from the civilians. How can I get them to hurry up??
Thanks!
If you start a colony on Mars, put some people there, and just enough infrastructure to keep them alive, the civs will recognize the need for more infrastructure and eventually start shipping. There appears to be a random element to this, because most games I've started the civs didn't show up until I had 3mil+ on Mars. The game I'm in now, they started almost as soon as the first colonist hit dirt.
You can also exploit the game mechanics to farm infrastructure and commerce on Mars, if you choose to play that way (I do; I'm a dirty cheater).
Post by: Starkiller on July 12, 2010, 10:21:45 PM
Also, in SM mode, the altered subpulse can happen even when two NPRs you haven't even met, are fighting each other. Eric
Post by: Steve Walmsley on July 16, 2010, 12:57:34 AM
Quote from: "NightFalcon"
Man I'm having bad luck with this survey team. They found 200k Duranium on Mercury. So that's good at least. But now, I moved them to Luna, and one of them had a serious health issue that forced him into retirement. Is geo-surveying really high risk, or is this just bad luck?You can assign a new member on the Commanders window. Change the Assignment Type Filter to teams. Any teams with less than 5 members will show up.
And, what do I do now? Can I add another member to the team somehow? Or should I just bring them to earth, disband, then make a new team with another member?
Thanks!
Steve