SEIV: Problems and Questions: Not Found in Search

[Wade]

Thankyou. Responses are appreciated.

...more comments to come at a later date...
More problems and questions from others are welcome .

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Using SEIV unmodded version 1.95.

1. I made a defense ship with one movement point and called it a Guardian. So far, these are the only ships that I don't get the "Sentry" option for; or "Repeat Orders" option. Why? This is distressing...

2. I know the advice is not to use "Distribute Points Evenly" for research. Well in other games and in SE5 there are percentage sliders/swithces. Will we want one always at 100%? Anyway, in one situation with SE4 I tried "distribute points evenly" and observed how the times for the projects would play out. Each time I end turn the option is switched off again. "Distribute Points Evenly" is not working. Why?

3. Why can I put Troops and Population in a Satellite Layer? It only has Satellite Bays and not Cargo Bays. There are some other similiar annomilies with Cargo that I'll have to try to recall.

4. I've been letting the ship design minister do it's thing so that I could get ideas with new technologies. This doesn't seem to be helpful. I design a single Transport and keep the Troop Transport(extra supply) and obsolete the Population and Cargo Transports. The AI insists on reversing this each turn.(I guess I'll disable him.) Is there a reason to have both a Population Transport and a Cargo Transport?

-Wade, 6-11-06

[Atrocities]

1. I don't know. Perhaps you need more than one movement.

2. Never has happened to me. Check to see if you have the Research Minister on. If you do, turn him off.

3. Because satellite base are cargo bays just with the ability to launch satellites. They have cargo ability thus population and other can be loaded on them.

4. This is why most skilled players do not let the Ministers design our ships. You can look at the races file in the design creation file and see the designs that they AI will use.

Hope it helps Wade.

[Wade]

Thankyou everyone.

"You can look at the races file in the design creation file and see the designs that they AI will use."

I can't find this. Where after this?: C:\Program Files\Strategy First\Space Empires IV Deluxe

[Xaren Hypr]

Wade said:
Thankyou Atrocities.

"You can look at the races file in the design creation file and see the designs that they AI will use."

I can't find this. Where after this?: C:\Program Files\Strategy First\Space Empires IV Deluxe

<SE4D root>\Pictures\Races\Race\Race_AI_DesignCreation.t xt

that's the default directory.. it'll be in a different directory usually if you are using a mod.

[Wade]

"<SE4D root>\Pictures\Races\Race\Race_AI_DesignCreation.t xt"

OK. Thanks I found this. "\Race\" being a particular race.

So for my "Guardians" to have the sentry option I'll have to retrofit them with two or three or more engines to have more supplys. How does a short range, slow mover fare in combat? The Guardians will be mostly long range and missilles and carriers.

-Wade

[Xaren Hypr]

IIRC, your combat move is half of your normal move (minimum 1, I would suppose). As for how a slow-moving ship would fare, it all depends on what ship designs your opponent is fielding. I personally use small, fast attack ships for planetary defense (with the added bonus that they are relatively quick to make), but ymmv...

[Xaren Hypr]

I think I can help with a couple of these items...

3) The game does not distinguish between cargo types in that way... a component that has the Cargo ability can store any kind of unit or population, up to its maximum capacity. The difference comes into play when deploying the units (i.e. a mine-laying component can hold any cargo, but can only launch mines). In a pinch, I've used out-of-service sat/mine-layers to drop troops and move population..it's all cargo to the game.

4) I personally don't trust the ministers to do things the way that I feel they should be done (then again, i'm the kind of ruler that wants to know exactly what all of my colonies are producing, and to direct the course of all of my fleets ). Occasionally I've tinkered with an AI's designs (to get a feel of how/why the designs were made), and I've noticed that the AI will overwrite whatever changes I might have made to their designs..even if mine might have been more efficient. From what I can tell (and I might be mistaken, there are quite a few people here who are much more knowledgeable about the AI's than I am), you'll either have to design all of your own ships or have to deal with whatever your minister cooks up..it'll tend to use its designs over what you might have made.

edit: pleh.. I took to long to write up my reply, and AT beat me to it

[Suicide Junkie]

1) The sentry order is not available because your ship has the low supply warning. That is one of the conditions which clears the sentry order, among others, such as enemy ships sighted.
1b) The repeat orders button is only available if the ship has orders in its list. Order the ship to do something first, then the order will become available.

2) Eh? I'm not quite sure what you mean, but might the research minister be turning it off for you?

3) Cargo is generic. You can put whatever you want in the hold. The satellite bays let you *launch* satellites, while fighter bays let you *launch* fighters. And so on.
Troops can be dropped in combat without need of a special component, and anything can transferred between the cargo of ships and planets at no cost.

4) The design minister dosen't like people poking their noses into his work. The minister clears out and redesigns things on a regular basis.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I prefer to use fast missile ships in the early game An Escort with max engines and a CSM I is worth its weight in minerals. I have had one single CSM I scout vessel take out over 600kT of enemy scout/combat vessels, 'cause they were armed with short-range DUC's..... I always set my missile scouts to a "Sniper" strategy; Maximum range/Don't get hurt. Works like a charm

Alternatively, if your "Guardians" are meant for WP defence, give them really powerful short-range weaponry (i.e. Ripper Beams), lots of it. Multiplex Tracking is also handy, if you can spare the room; same goed for Combat Sensors. Don't bother with ECM; unless the enemy sends in an overwhelming force large enough for it to be reasonably battle-worthy after the first round, you won't be bothered with (much) return fire. With any luck, if the enemy fleet is small enough, you can cripple or completely destroy them in a single round.

[capnq]

I have never understood the bias against "Divide Points Evenly". I find it very useful for socking away points toward a large project while still getting small projects fairly quickly. It takes a bit of micromanagement to avoid wasting points when a project is about to complete, but it's not much more work than I'd be doing anyway.