Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[AlStar]

Is there a major issue in v2.51 that would justify waiting for 2.6?

Nothing I've run into so far, and the 2.5.1 bugs thread seems to be fairly benign at the moment.

Currently the only things on the block for 2.6.0 is removing the colonist cost for spaceports, crew for maintenance storage bays, and the option to limit how far away planets are generated.

We've been told that a major ground forces rework is coming up (changes to make air units unified with the rest of ground forces); but there's no ETA on that, so it's probably not worth waiting on.

[Garfunkel]

Is there a major issue in v2.51 that would justify waiting for 2.6?

No reason to wait, just dive in!

[themousemaster]

So...

There's this NPR.  I havaen't been able to get him to communicate with ME at all, and if I go to any of his systems, he tells me to leave.

However, there's this one ship in a remote system that I was able to park a Diplo ship next to.

I was just informed that they now grant me trade access... despite, technically, my relationship with them being 0.

Now, I know how this works, in that for my relation to build with them, they have to send a diplo ship to me to talk.  I get that part.

What I want to know is, what do I do now?  If my civvie lines decide to send freighters to their space, are they going to get attacked?  Or should I just wait until I get so far as they think of me as an ally, then just reposition my diplo ship in one of their home systems and wait 40 years for them to "catch up" in relationship rating?

[Andrew]

The diplomatic figure you see is your opinion of them. You have now way of knowing their opinion of you until they offer trade access or similar. To the best of my knowledge they do not offer false treaties although their opinion could change later

[Kaiser]

Does the "Military Hulls" information when you select a fleet match with the size of the ship? For example I have a military ship of 2900t, but when I select the fleet it belongs to, the Military Hulls info says 2850 and this is the same for any other military ship or fighter, there's always a mismatch of 30-50t, what does it mean?

[JacenHan]

Probably a rounding issue - looks like it is rounding down to the nearest 50 tons. It should probably either round up and/or round to 1-ton increments, since ship designs round up to the nearest ton.

[Vandermeer]

I am once again fighting against the maintenance costs in Aurora and thought that maybe I could just play a game where I have infinite MSP reserves on my major colonies. Having that would make it so my ships last eternally in harbor, but still degrade in space, which is what I always try to get to.

...However, I can't seem to find the SM edit function that lets me change the MSP reserves. In VB6 all minerals, population and buildings were on one edit button. Now buildings are kind of separate in the Civilian/Flags tab, but mineral and MSP reserve can't be changed? Did I overlook something? Is it perhaps later in the fleet window?(currently no ships; still in game preparation)

[AlStar]

I haven't tried it, but you could probably make a 1,000,000 ton "ship" that's nothing but cargo shuttles and MSP storage. SM'ing the ship into existence should give it full supplies, then you can just have it unload.

[nuclearslurpee]

I haven't tried it, but you could probably make a 1,000,000 ton "ship" that's nothing but cargo shuttles and MSP storage. SM'ing the ship into existence should give it full supplies, then you can just have it unload.

This or a DB edit are your only options, we don't have an SM button for MSP or fuel reserves.

[Vandermeer]

Damn, okay, thank you. I guess I will edit DB then.
Weird that we can now specify star systems to the dot, but this essential tool for things like scenario set up is missing. I just created my non-Sol start by hand, but I can't do this last step only.

[nuclearslurpee]

Damn, okay, thank you. I guess I will edit DB then.
Weird that we can now specify star systems to the dot, but this essential tool for things like scenario set up is missing. I just created my non-Sol start by hand, but I can't do this last step only.

Since you usually need Maintenance Facilities to maintain a fleet anyways, I always covered by dropping the MSP minerals on those colonies - in the early game you usually produce MSP faster than it's used so it works out the same way in practice. I guess that doesn't work as well if you're using absurdly huge orbital bases instead.

[Froggiest1982]

Damn, okay, thank you. I guess I will edit DB then.
Weird that we can now specify star systems to the dot, but this essential tool for things like scenario set up is missing. I just created my non-Sol start by hand, but I can't do this last step only.

If you don't want to Edit the DB, you can always SM a replenishment ship and transfer what you need on the surface. I try to touch the DB as little as possible or if only strictly necessary.

[db48x]

So...

There's this NPR.  I havaen't been able to get him to communicate with ME at all, and if I go to any of his systems, he tells me to leave.

A request to leave can be ignored; your diplomat will probably be able to raise their opinion of you faster than the penalty for being asked to leave, especially if the only ship they can detect is a properly–designed diplomatic ship.

However, there's this one ship in a remote system that I was able to park a Diplo ship next to.

But of course this is even better, since your diplomat can work unimpeded.

I was just informed that they now grant me trade access... despite, technically, my relationship with them being 0.

As Andrew already said, that is only your people’s opinion of them. It only controls what treaties you are allowed to offer them. Your diplomat has already raised their people’s opinion of yours enough that they have offered you a trade treaty. If you keep raising it, they will give you more stuff.

What I want to know is, what do I do now?  If my civvie lines decide to send freighters to their space, are they going to get attacked?

No, because they gave you a trade treaty. In fact, each successful delivery by one of your ships to one of their colonies will raise their opinion of you. This stacks with what your diplomat can accomplish. Of course for that to happen you need to have a continuous path of stabilized jump points to their colonies and back, and the trip cannot be so long that your civilian freighters never choose to make that trip. You may need to found a new colony specifically for the purpose; just don’t put it in a system that they already claim.

Or should I just wait until I get so far as they think of me as an ally, then just reposition my diplo ship in one of their home systems and wait 40 years for them to "catch up" in relationship rating?

That will probably tank their opinion of you; the penalty for leaving a ship in their home system is over 20× worse than in a minor outlying system that they have claimed. A properly constructed diplomatic ship garners the least possible penalty, but it is still pretty bad if you camp out in their capital system. As their opinion of you goes down they’ll withdraw any treaties that they have previously agreed to, and if it gets bad enough they’ll go hostile.

In order for your people’s opinion of them to go up, they need to build a diplomatic ship and send it to your territory. Sometimes the AI manages this, other times it doesn’t, or perhaps it decides not to. (Naturally, the two are indistinguishable to the player.)

[paolot]

Which are the reasons to prefer stabilisation of the JPs, instead of using ships with jump engines, or doing viceversa (apart the cost of the jump engines)?
I never used stabilisation in my previous games, so I decided to use it in the current one.
I am at the beginning of the game (only 2 JP explored), so maybe I still haven't met the limit of the stabilisation.
But it seems easy to me to use it, and I like I can send around not "jump-able" ships.
Please, let me know your ideas about it.
Thanks!

[AlStar]

I mean, the cost and space of jump engines is very much one of the reasons to prefer stabilization.

If you're putting your jump engines on jump stations (instead of on the ships themselves), stabilization also allows you to change the size of your ships without breaking everything. If all the jump stations in your empire can only handle 10,000 ton ships, and you increase the size of your military ships to 11,000 tons, you've got to refit and redeploy all your jump stations before your military can leave the system.

Really, the only arguments against stabilization are that they take a long time to set up and that once they're up, you can't unstabilize them - like, say, if you discover a hostile alien fleet and don't want them to be able to transit all the way back to Sol.