Getting some good fights?

[Father Tim]

Not the time advance button you click on the 'Population & Production' (F2) or 'System Map' (F3) screens, but the build increment on the game options screen.  By default this is 430,000 seconds, but many people turn it down to 86,000 seconds, since failing to complete your Sooper Spacecroozer by half an hour and having to wait five more days is mighty annoying.

The point is, due to a quirk (bug?) in the program, more frequent build cycles result in more frequent improvements in Officer abilities and ground unit morale and so on.  Since a new NPR has newly generated officers/ground units/etc. they won't have these monster bonuses - no bonus over 30% and no morale over 100 and so on.

So a slower build cycle means a slower rate at which existing empires pull ahead of newly-created ones.


Though clicking nothing but '30 day' increments means far more opportunity for your fleets to be surprised at point-blank range by your enemies, so i suppose in that way it does make the game harder.  #:-]

[Jacob/Lee]

I've never actually fought any dangerous spoiler enemies, I have met some super strong in an NPR's system beating the hell out of the ~200 ships they had sent to attack them, and several other empires but no spoiler enemies.

I have had one of my systems stalked by a wormhole but nothing ever came out. I must be unlucky.

[voknaar]

I have had one of my systems stalked by a wormhole but nothing ever came out. I must be unlucky.

Yes very very lucky if the wormhole changed systems randomly before it spewed forth doom and gloom upon your humble empire. 

[Thiosk]

Is there any real reason why I would not be able to see enemy contacts on the combat window?  I found some more-primative aliens, and was going to shoot them... but there is nothing to target.  Can shoot their planet, not their ships.  Ship design attached.  Don't think its ECM, i mean, they can only move about 2.5 km/s and have pathetic active sensors
Am I missing something?  Perhaps a safety to prevent shooting at neutrals??

Code: [Select]

Scolesces Defender class Destroyer    5,250 tons     495 Crew     857.4 BP      TCS 105  TH 800  EM 0
7619 km/s     Armour 5-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 20
Maint Life 2.95 Years     MSP 204    AFR 110%    IFR 1.5%    1YR 35    5YR 524    Max Repair 60 MSP
Magazine 125    

ICF Drive (8)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 85.7 billion km   (130 days at full power)

Size 1 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 30
Size 4 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 120
Missile Fire Control AMM (Mark 1) (1)     Range 6.1m km    Resolution 1
Antiship MFC Mark 1 (1)     Range 76.8m km    Resolution 100
CrackerJack (24)  Speed: 30,000 km/s   End: 45.8m    Range: 82.5m km   WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 160 / 96 / 48
Size 1 Anti-missile Missile (29)  Speed: 36,000 km/s   End: 2.8m    Range: 6m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 336 / 201 / 100

Small AMM Scanner (1)     GPS 60     Range 4.8m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Don't make fun of the ship.  It was built because I desperately needed something that could shoot missiles when I was surprised by first contact.

I have set them to hostile and turned off "show hostile contacts only" checkbox.  
Scanner ship has the active contact.

[Mini]

How far away are you and what size are the enemies? If they're small then your MFC may not be picking them up.

[Maltay]

Is there any real reason why I would not be able to see enemy contacts on the combat window?  I found some more-primative aliens, and was going to shoot them... but there is nothing to target.  Can shoot their planet, not their ships.  Ship design attached.  Don't think its ECM, i mean, they can only move about 2.5 km/s and have pathetic active sensors
Am I missing something?  Perhaps a safety to prevent shooting at neutrals??

Code: [Select]

Scolesces Defender class Destroyer    5,250 tons     495 Crew     857.4 BP      TCS 105  TH 800  EM 0
7619 km/s     Armour 5-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 20
Maint Life 2.95 Years     MSP 204    AFR 110%    IFR 1.5%    1YR 35    5YR 524    Max Repair 60 MSP
Magazine 125   

ICF Drive (8)    Power 100    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 85.7 billion km   (130 days at full power)

Size 1 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 30
Size 4 Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 120
Missile Fire Control AMM (Mark 1) (1)     Range 6.1m km    Resolution 1
Antiship MFC Mark 1 (1)     Range 76.8m km    Resolution 100
CrackerJack (24)  Speed: 30,000 km/s   End: 45.8m    Range: 82.5m km   WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 160 / 96 / 48
Size 1 Anti-missile Missile (29)  Speed: 36,000 km/s   End: 2.8m    Range: 6m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 336 / 201 / 100

Small AMM Scanner (1)     GPS 60     Range 4.8m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Don't make fun of the ship.  It was built because I desperately needed something that could shoot missiles when I was surprised by first contact.

I have set them to hostile and turned off "show hostile contacts only" checkbox. 
Scanner ship has the active contact.

Your Active Sensor only has a range of 4.8m km.  The enemy vessels would need to be ridiculously close for you to see them.  This is because your Active Sensor is designed to target very small things, like missiles, at very close ranges.  If you want to target larger things, like vessels, at reasonable ranges, you need to invest in a second Active Sensor of a different design.

Your MFC is largely wasted.  While it has a range of 78.6m km, your Active Sensor is nowhere near this.  I advise designing a second Active Sensor with a range that roughly matches your MFC so that you can take advantage of the range of your MFC.

[Thiosk]

My dedicated scanner vessel puts me well within range.  I see the contacts, they are not populating the target list; I assumed this was because of neutrality.

Well within range-- I had actually closed to range=0 (i can do that because i dominate them in terms of engine technology) and they do not populate the list from point blank range.

[Maltay]

My dedicated scanner vessel puts me well within range.  I see the contacts, they are not populating the target list; I assumed this was because of neutrality.

Well within range-- I had actually closed to range=0 (i can do that because i dominate them in terms of engine technology) and they do not populate the list from point blank range.

My apologies, I forgot about dedicated scanning vessel.  In which case, with your range increments, I do not have an answer.

[voknaar]

My dedicated scanner vessel puts me well within range.  I see the contacts, they are not populating the target list; I assumed this was because of neutrality.

Well within range-- I had actually closed to range=0 (i can do that because i dominate them in terms of engine technology) and they do not populate the list from point blank range.

It might be possible that your firecontrol isn't designed to target the ships at the range you're at.

Check List:

Turn active sensors on

Assign missiles to launchers

Assign launchers to firecontols

Assign firecontrols targets

Be in range to use said weapons



Profit.

[Thiosk]

Check
Check
Check
There is no target on the target list.
Check.

Antimissile missles are firing normally in response to incoming attacks.  Precursors in another system were likewise not populating the list.

I realized just now that I was on 5.41 and have upgraded to 5.42 without starting a new game.  And I would hate to start a new game-- the resource rolls were so good I don't have to worry about duranium crashing ever

ALSO ALSO Note: the neutral alien ship sizes range between 6k and 25k.  I went with a standard 5000 ton resolution MFC and this should be sufficient.

[voknaar]

Is it spitting out any particular warning or error in the events screen?

edit: Paste the ship design so we can see if there's any problems with the design.

[Thiosk]

The ship design is noted above several posts.  No error messages.  I can target the alien population and a waypoint, but the ships are not on the list.

[Thiosk]

I gotta bump this because i'm at a complete standstill.  I'm doing something wrong, or something is wrong, and if I can't get this war started, my glorious infantry cannot burn the alien's homeworld to the ground.  I must first ascertain whether what is happening is a bug or something else.





As you can see, thats the target list for one of the Defender ships-- the MFC has the missiles... the missiles are in the tubes, but the only target is the population.  I'm only 25 m km away.

This continues all the way to range = zero.

Is there some way to declare war that I'm not seeing?  I can make the population vanish by clicking "show hostile contacts only" but nothing else is happening.

[Hawkeye]

Hm, according to your screenshot, you don´t seem to have an active scan.

I see your passives reading the enemy sensor emissions (the "Active Sensor S...." part)
and your passivess reading the enemy ships (the "2877 km/s part).
Don´t know what the 220m means, can´t remember to have seen something like this,
but I sure don´t see a size readings (i.e. 7.600 t, for example) which would indicate your active sensors seeing the enemy ships

As you said you had been at range 0 before without them showing up, I am at a loss here because them being extremely small ships and therefore not showing on the res-100 sensor would have been my only guess.

[Thiosk]

Alrighty.  I pulled into my AMM scanner range, and sure enough, up popped the tonnages.  13,000 kton, 20,500 kton, and 7 kton.  Not tiny.  Took screen refreshes.  That was the trick, I had closed to zero, but didn't refresh the contacts.  Phew.  But what the heck is wrong with my huge active scan array?  

Code: [Select]

Active Sensor Strength: 208   Sensitivity Modifier: 80%
Sensor Size: 13 HS    Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 100    Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 166,400,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 6,656,000 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 416,000 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 208    Crew: 65
I don't see what the problem is.  Are they stealthed?  Makes no sense.