Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[nuclearslurpee]

A Xeno Ground Unit can investigate and determine the Dormant's specifics without any pop present.

I've yet to have my Xeno unit actually determine the type of a dormant construct on their own, even parked on a planet surface for several years. Other forum posts seemed to indicate that the 1m pop was necessary to uncover its type.

[Droll]

A Xeno Ground Unit can investigate and determine the Dormant's specifics without any pop present.

I've yet to have my Xeno unit actually determine the type of a dormant construct on their own, even parked on a planet surface for several years. Other forum posts seemed to indicate that the 1m pop was necessary to uncover its type.

This is the first I've heard of this issue since I've had no trouble identifying constructs without populations. Note that my expedition formations all have XENO, CON and GEO together to help with micro.

[Kylemmie]

A Xeno Ground Unit can investigate and determine the Dormant's specifics without any pop present.

I've yet to have my Xeno unit actually determine the type of a dormant construct on their own, even parked on a planet surface for several years. Other forum posts seemed to indicate that the 1m pop was necessary to uncover its type.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I recall not making a decision on actual colonists until after I've seen the Dormants specialty and %.  I'm pretty sure I remember popping two PP Constructs and deciding to colonize (with real pop) just the better one.

[nuclearslurpee]

This is the first I've heard of this issue since I've had no trouble identifying constructs without populations. Note that my expedition formations all have XENO, CON and GEO together to help with micro.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I recall not making a decision on actual colonists until after I've seen the Dormants specialty and %.  I'm pretty sure I remember popping two PP Constructs and deciding to colonize (with real pop) just the better one.

Either of you happen to have an estimate of how long it took for your xeno teams to work out what type the construct was? I've had a solid 15 kT of xeno vehicles on-site for about 20 months now, and it only took them one month to study the rest of the ruins on that planet.

[db48x]

Either of you happen to have an estimate of how long it took for your xeno teams to work out what type the construct was? I've had a solid 15 kT of xeno vehicles on-site for about 20 months now, and it only took them one month to study the rest of the ruins on that planet.

Yes, as Steve wrote:

The annual chance for a race to successfully translate the alien language and symbology is equal to the xenoarchaeology points on the planet. For example, a Xenoarchaeology Vehicle is created with 2 components, giving it 1 xenoarchaeology point (cost about 9 BP). If a formation has forty such vehicles, the annual chance would be 40%. The chance in any given construction phase is equal to the annual chance * (construction phase length / year).

However, the implications of this are not all that obvious. Assuming that your 15kt formation consists of 47 xenoarchaeology vehicles each providing 1 Xenoarchaeology Point, that your construction phase length is the default 430000 seconds, and that you're clicking the 5–day button, then the chance per construction cycle is p = 47% * 432000/31556952 = 0.6434%. With a little arithmetic, you will find that the percentage chance that you won’t have completed the job after n construction cycles is (1−p)ⁿ.

Thus, after 120 5–day construction cycles the chance that you won’t have completed the job is pretty good: 46.089%.

On the other hand, if you were clicking the 30–days button, then the chance of completion per cycle would be p = 47% * 2592000/31556952 = 3.8604%. After 20 cycles, the chance of not completing the job is 45.503%.

Give it a little more time. Just be aware that it isn’t linear; if you’re really unlucky it could take 10 times this long. You can see a graph of the chance of not completing the job, or if you prefer, a graph of the chance of success.

To guarantee a 90% chance of success, you’ll need to wait up to 357 5–day cycles. 99% chance of success will require waiting up to 714 cycles, and so on.

[Droll]

This is the first I've heard of this issue since I've had no trouble identifying constructs without populations. Note that my expedition formations all have XENO, CON and GEO together to help with micro.

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but I recall not making a decision on actual colonists until after I've seen the Dormants specialty and %.  I'm pretty sure I remember popping two PP Constructs and deciding to colonize (with real pop) just the better one.

Either of you happen to have an estimate of how long it took for your xeno teams to work out what type the construct was? I've had a solid 15 kT of xeno vehicles on-site for about 20 months now, and it only took them one month to study the rest of the ruins on that planet.

Sometimes it happens in a couple years, other times I've had it take close to a decade. It varies wildly because of the random nature. The above post explains the maths behind it quite nicely.

[nuclearslurpee]

Either of you happen to have an estimate of how long it took for your xeno teams to work out what type the construct was? I've had a solid 15 kT of xeno vehicles on-site for about 20 months now, and it only took them one month to study the rest of the ruins on that planet.

Yes, as Steve wrote:

The annual chance for a race to successfully translate the alien language and symbology is equal to the xenoarchaeology points on the planet. For example, a Xenoarchaeology Vehicle is created with 2 components, giving it 1 xenoarchaeology point (cost about 9 BP). If a formation has forty such vehicles, the annual chance would be 40%. The chance in any given construction phase is equal to the annual chance * (construction phase length / year).

However, the implications of this are not all that obvious. Assuming that your 15kt formation consists of 47 xenoarchaeology vehicles each providing 1 Xenoarchaeology Point, that your construction phase length is the default 430000 seconds, and that you're clicking the 5–day button, then the chance per construction cycle is p = 47% * 432000/31556952 = 0.6434%. With a little arithmetic, you will find that the percentage chance that you won’t have completed the job after n construction cycles is (1−p)ⁿ.

Thus, after 120 5–day construction cycles the chance that you won’t have completed the job is pretty good: 46.089%.

On the other hand, if you were clicking the 30–days button, then the chance of completion per cycle would be p = 47% * 2592000/31556952 = 3.8604%. After 20 cycles, the chance of not completing the job is 45.503%.

Give it a little more time. Just be aware that it isn’t linear; if you’re really unlucky it could take 10 times this long. You can see a graph of the chance of not completing the job, or if you prefer, a graph of the chance of success.

To guarantee a 90% chance of success, you’ll need to wait up to 357 5–day cycles. 99% chance of success will require waiting up to 714 cycles, and so on.

While informative, I do want to clarify that my issue is not with deciphering the ruins (I've had pleasantly quick results with this in fact) but rather the dormant construct. If that follows the same logic, then I suppose there's nothing else for it but to wait another couple of years. Would be damn nice if that could be documented somewhere though, as there's no reason to assume that the dormant construct follows the same rule as the ruins.

I do want to note for your edification that my 15 kT formation contains 60 2xXEN vehicles, however, thus I think my odds are a bit brighter than indicated.  The 47 figure would be accurate for 2xCON vehicles. 

[thefinn]

I recently turned off maintenance just to see what the game was like without worrying about it. 

I only got as far as making a couple of cargo ships and a geological scanner, and I realised all my Gallicite (spelling?) was being spent on "maintenance"

After getting rid of a ship I confirmed it was for the ships which were just orbiting Earth.   It ran about -2000/month which emptied everything I had pretty quick and couldn't make more ships. 

Is this is feature or what? I'd like to know where I went wrong here?

[ExChairman]

Is there a chance that a old and extinct civilization (Ruins) have explored more than one star? (I have now a ruin on Mars, Kingdom of Hammer and also the same on Epsilon Eridani, 1 jump away)

[Jorgen_CAB]

I recently turned off maintenance just to see what the game was like without worrying about it. 

I only got as far as making a couple of cargo ships and a geological scanner, and I realised all my Gallicite (spelling?) was being spent on "maintenance"

After getting rid of a ship I confirmed it was for the ships which were just orbiting Earth.   It ran about -2000/month which emptied everything I had pretty quick and couldn't make more ships. 

Is this is feature or what? I'd like to know where I went wrong here?

I'm not sure I understand your question entirely but it is your maintenance facilities that build Supplies which a large part of the cost is Gallicite. Each Supply point have a cost of 0.1 Gallicite, 0.1 Duranium and 0.05 Uridium. If you build more Supply than you need you always can turn of production of it at the industry tab.

You don't spend Gallicite on maintenance you only spend Supply on maintenance but you spend Gallicite building Supply.

[db48x]

While informative, I do want to clarify that my issue is not with deciphering the ruins (I've had pleasantly quick results with this in fact) but rather the dormant construct. If that follows the same logic, then I suppose there's nothing else for it but to wait another couple of years. Would be damn nice if that could be documented somewhere though, as there's no reason to assume that the dormant construct follows the same rule as the ruins.

Yes, ancient constructs follow the same rules as ruins (and I intended to mention this explicitly). It’s documented here: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11306.msg131565#msg131565

They even run concurrently, when both are present.

I do want to note for your edification that my 15 kT formation contains 60 2xXEN vehicles, however, thus I think my odds are a bit brighter than indicated.  The 47 figure would be accurate for 2xCON vehicles. 

Oops. I guess I pulled the wrong mass somehow. Anyway, you can easily use WolframAlpha to rerun the numbers with 60 points instead of 47; it will indeed be a steeper graph.

[Kylemmie]

I recently turned off maintenance just to see what the game was like without worrying about it. 

I only got as far as making a couple of cargo ships and a geological scanner, and I realised all my Gallicite (spelling?) was being spent on "maintenance"

After getting rid of a ship I confirmed it was for the ships which were just orbiting Earth.   It ran about -2000/month which emptied everything I had pretty quick and couldn't make more ships. 

Is this is feature or what? I'd like to know where I went wrong here?

Turn off the maintenance production. Bottom of the industry tab maybe?  Never played that way - but if it is truly no maintenance required for anything, I'd kill any Maintenance Production Facilities to save on worker pop.

[Droll]

but if it is truly no maintenance required for anything, I'd kill any Maintenance Production Facilities to save on worker pop.

It is not "truly no maintenance". Damage control will still use maintenance supplies and by 1.13 it will also be used to repair parasites even in a no maintenance game. So your need for MSP will be massively reduced however it will not be 0.

[Fray]

Do tactical officers affect the chance to hit of missiles, or only beams?

[Droll]

Do tactical officers affect the chance to hit of missiles, or only beams?

I want to believe yes