How do normal games go? and other questions1)

[NightFalcon (OP)]

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?

[Caplin]

Hi,
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.

[Caplin]

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.

[NightFalcon (OP)]

Right I was indeed in SM mode. That explains why there was no subsequent slaughter of my ships. ;-)

Thanks for your help on the shipping line. I chucked 1000 wealth their way. We'll see if it encourages them to get cracking. =]

[randal7]

On survey teams:

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.

[randal7]

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).

[Starkiller]

One thing I also suggest. Make freighter and luxury liner designs. When the civilians build, they will use your designs, so try to keep the ship design from being too pricy for them to build. That's what happened to me. I designed a top of the line freighter and a luxury liner of the same quality.......and price. They couldn't afford to build them, and when I clued in as to why no ships were being built, I designed some good, but lower tech and much cheaper, freighter and liner designs, and they started building them almost immediately. Cheapskates. Also, in SM mode, the altered subpulse can happen even when two NPRs  you haven't even met, are fighting each other.

Eric

[Steve Walmsley]

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?

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!

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.

Steve