Unidentified Icons?

Valthira Arkayne · #1 July 30th, 2003, 11:32 PM

I'm deep into a game with several friends and I've noticed a new icon I've never seen before starting to appear all across the enemy's space; "*" and "#". They're in front of the names of planets and only appear on the worlds he's colonized.

Does anyone know what those represent? I've seen no change in the planet's value (such as an increade in atmosphere quality or resource wealth). I need to figure this out before he springs something on me =)

Captain Kwok · #2 July 30th, 2003, 11:35 PM

He may be re-naming the planets using those symbols to identify particular facilities on those planets.

He may not be aware that you can activate a whole bunch of options to show what facilties are present on a planet in empire options...

Valthira Arkayne · #3 July 30th, 2003, 11:47 PM

He's a VERY skilled player and he knows about the facility designations. He's probably played 50 or more games and has been a regular opponent of mine for a year. We're playing a more extended game than usual and I assumed it was some sort of hidden technology I have yet to experience.

However, it's possible he's marking worlds by renaming them for some other internal purpose I have yet to discover.

Pax · #4 July 30th, 2003, 11:55 PM

Does he have any allies? Might he be marking his own SY and RD worlds for his ally's benefit ... ?

Valthira Arkayne · #5 July 31st, 2003, 12:07 AM

He does have allies. They're in a partnership... as am I with my own two allies (it's a 3 on 3 game).

The odd thing is that when I noticed the icons, I opened some past turns and noticed they were being added to worlds slowly, and over the course of 50 turns have now appeared on almost every world he's colonized. But NOT on his allies' worlds.

Fyron · #6 July 31st, 2003, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pax:
Does he have any allies? Might he be marking his own SY and RD worlds for his ally's benefit ... ?

You can see the facility labels on planets of an empire you have a Partnership with. Not sure about Military Alliance though...

The "icons" are definitely characters he has added to the names of planets, as there are no such icons normally in the game (# or *).

[ July 30, 2003, 23:18: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Taera · #7 July 31st, 2003, 12:45 AM

maybe it means MINED or SATTED or SHIELDED or DEFENDED WITH WP's? or something along these lines.
also are you sure you have scanners there with you?

Pax · #8 July 31st, 2003, 12:51 AM

The only other thought I have is, he's designating them for certain infrastructure purposes. You know, like shipbuilding-vs-minebuilding-vs-fighterbuilding, etc.

That way, the sort-by-name in the universal planet build queue window will put all his naval yards together in one block.

Fyron · #9 July 31st, 2003, 12:54 AM

Or, he is just randomly placing them to confuse you and make you worried.

That is what I would have done, anyways.

narf poit chez BOOM · #10 July 31st, 2003, 08:54 AM

hi. welcome to the forums.
do you want some toast?

the 'marking-them-for-strategetic-purposes' seems to make the most sense to me. now all you have to do is see what happens with those worlds. what the build and whatever. or, you could just start marking your worlds. and let him worry about wether or not your markings have a purpose.