Some questions after a game or three

[UmberGryphon]

I'm finally getting to the point where I understand SE4 well enough that I don't think any of my remaining questions are too stupid (could be wrong, though--it's been a LONG time since MOO2 for me).

1. Is it possible to determine in advance how many usable spaces a planet will have if it is colonized? It's hard for me to decide what order to colonize planets in without that information.

2. Is it possible to change the "role" of a colony (the first question it asks you about when you form the colony)? I know it doesn't affect anything, but if I'm going to use that field I'd like to be able to change it.

3. Are there any technologies that increase the number of usable spaces in your colonies? If so, are they implemented in the demo?

4. Has anyone on the Web taken a first stab at making a graphical representation of the SE4 tech tree? If so, what's the URL?

5. How exactly do the three percentages associated with a planet change things? Do they modify the productivity of resource production plants on that planet? If so, when you click on a colony, click over to its facilities, and click on a resource production plant, why doesn't it show the real production of that facility?

6. How does a planet's population affect things? It doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much effect on the production queue as I would expect.

7. What's the difference between "no treaty" and "war"? In the game I'm currently playing, I was sneak-attacked by a race, went on the defensive, built a military, flattened his fleets, carpet-bombed a couple of his planets, and got him to surrender--all without either side declaring war.

I've been doing all right, particularly since the AI just does NOT seem to know what to do against a well-executed Kaufman Retrograde--build ships heavy in missile weapons, move towards the enemy, and the second you're in firing range let fly and start moving away from the opponent. The AI never seems to realize that he'll never get in firing range of his beam weapons if I keep moving away, so he keeps coming to get more and more missile volleys. (Yes, he could mess me up by building enough point-defense guns, but he hasn't so far.)

Thank you for any and all information you can provide.

[Cyrien]

1. Is it possible to determine in advance how many usable spaces a planet will have if it is colonized? It's hard for me to decide what order to colonize planets in without that information.


You can do rough calculations in your head. First is planet size and second is can you breathe the atmosphere. Of course the larger the planet the more facilities. For nonbreathable however your people have to take up space with massive domes and life support etc, and thus such planets house MUCH less in the way of facilities and cargo space. A Huge planet you can breathe will have 30 facilities(I use advanced storage techniques so these numbers are slightly larger than default) while a Huge Planet with a bad atmosphere will have 6. This is a huge difference. Atmosphere comes first with me. Then size. A tiny planet (or moon) that is breathable will have 6 facilities as well. So Huge domed (unbreathable) = tiny breathable.

Hope that helps some.
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2. Is it possible to change the "role" of a colony (the first question it asks you about when you form the colony)? I know it doesn't affect anything, but if I'm going to use that field I'd like to be able to change it.

Yes. Simply click on Colonies in the Perm Menu and then just above close is Change Colony Type. There you go.
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3. Are there any technologies that increase the number of usable spaces in your colonies? If so, are they implemented in the demo?

Hrmm... there is the advanced Storage spaces racial pick... Other than that all I have seen is the Atmosphere converter which changes unbreathable to breathable over a 2 yr(20 turns) time span. This of course has the effect of greatly increasing the number of facilities you can have.
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4. Has anyone on the Web taken a first stab at making a graphical representation of the SE4 tech tree? If so, what's the URL?

I don't know... if anyone does then let us all know.
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5. How exactly do the three percentages associated with a planet change things? Do they modify the productivity of resource production plants on that planet? If so, when you click on a colony, click over to its facilities, and click on a resource production plant, why doesn't it show the real production of that facility?

The number displayed for a facility is the amount it will produce of that resource assuming 100% of the resource value on that planet. Thus if the value is less than 100% the facilities produce less than stated and greater than 100% is a nice bonus.
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6. How does a planet's population affect things? It doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much effect on the production queue as I would expect.

If you click on a planet and then abilities it will show you what bonus, if any, you get from population numbers and happiness. I seem to get +30% for 2000M(I assume this number applies to all point production whether it be intel/research or resources)

I am not really sure about production qeue... that seems to be more based on the spaceyard you have than population(maybe entirely so).
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7. What's the difference between "no treaty" and "war"? In the game I'm currently playing, I was sneak-attacked by a race, went on the defensive, built a military, flattened his fleets, carpet-bombed a couple of his planets, and got him to surrender--all without either side declaring war.

I don't know. I could make up some nice story of how it could be different but in truth there seems to be little difference. If anyone else has a good REAL difference and not just an amusing story like me then explain away.
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THE END.

[This message has been edited by Cyrien (edited 18 October 2000).]

[Noble713]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cyrien:
7. What's the difference between "no treaty" and "war"? In the game I'm currently playing, I was sneak-attacked by a race, went on the defensive, built a military, flattened his fleets, carpet-bombed a couple of his planets, and got him to surrender--all without either side declaring war.

I don't know. I could make up some nice story of how it could be different but in truth there seems to be little difference. If anyone else has a good REAL difference and not just an amusing story like me then explain away.

---

My interpretation:

No Treaty: Ships will engage each other if they enter the same squares, but other pretty much go about their business. They don't seek to destroy you.

War: The AI or player is basically saying "I am trying to kill you." Ships will seek out and engage your vessels and attack your planets. If you crush an AI without it declaring war, then it probably had no interest in fighting you. Kinda like the Spanish in the Spanish-American War.

EDIT: Oh wait, you said THEY attacked YOU? Hmmmm, that's different. Did they attack a planet or just bust up some ships?



[This message has been edited by Noble713 (edited 18 October 2000).]

[General Hawkwing]

With NO treaty, in demo 0.99, your ships will go around the other ships when trying to reach a destination. Similiar to avoiding a cosmic storm.

[Taqwus]

On colony size --

the default facility capacity is the following:

Size Breathable Non-breathable
---------------------------------------
Tiny 5 1
Small 10 2
Average 15 3
Large 20 4
Huge 25 5

with something like x1.2 for advanced storage techniques.

To take full advantage of a planet with a different atmosphere, you can...

a) Use Atmospheric Modification Plants, as noted before. IIRC, you need Biology, followed by Applied Planet Utilization, but check the TechArea.txt file. There are three levels of AMPs, if memory serves (at least in the demo), and they all take many turns to work, plus a decent amount of resources to build. So this might not be that good in the 100-turn demo.

b) IIRC, if you have assimilated another race that can breathe the atmosphere, and you use only colonists that can there, you may be able to use the full capacity.

*sigh* Ah, how many RPs would I give for terraforming satellites...

(particularly if they worked on hostile, occupied worlds ;-))

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Baron Munchausen]

quote:

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Originally posted by UmberGryphon:

1. Is it possible to determine in advance how many usable spaces a planet will have if it is colonized? It's hard for me to decide what order to colonize planets in without that information.

2. Is it possible to change the "role" of a colony (the first question it asks you about when you form the colony)? I know it doesn't affect anything, but if I'm going to use that field I'd like to be able to change it.

3. Are there any technologies that increase the number of usable spaces in your colonies? If so, are they implemented in the demo?

4. Has anyone on the Web taken a first stab at making a graphical representation of the SE4 tech tree? If so, what's the URL?

5. How exactly do the three percentages associated with a planet change things? Do they modify the productivity of resource production plants on that planet? If so, when you click on a colony, click over to its facilities, and click on a resource production plant, why doesn't it show the real production of that facility?

6. How does a planet's population affect things? It doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much effect on the production queue as I would expect.

7. What's the difference between "no treaty" and "war"? In the game I'm currently playing, I was sneak-attacked by a race, went on the defensive, built a military, flattened his fleets, carpet-bombed a couple of his planets, and got him to surrender--all without either side declaring war.

I've been doing all right, particularly since the AI just does NOT seem to know what to do against a well-executed Kaufman Retrograde--build ships heavy in missile weapons, move towards the enemy, and the second you're in firing range let fly and start moving away from the opponent. The AI never seems to realize that he'll never get in firing range of his beam weapons if I keep moving away, so he keeps coming to get more and more missile volleys. (Yes, he could mess me up by building enough point-defense guns, but he hasn't so far.)

Thank you for any and all information you can provide.

---

1. Read "PlanetSize.txt" in your data directory. This determines the various capacities of your planets.

2. Yes, there is a "set colony type" button in the colonies window.

3. Currently there is only the cargo storage facility. Some sort of "miniaturization facility" is in the todo list and I suspect this will increase facility spaces. Build one, get X extra spaces I guess. I'd like to see a population enhancer of some sort but there isn't one yet.

4. Unknown. And anyway, you can change it just by editing some text files. A graphical map would only be useful for the standard game out of the box. How many people will NOT tweak things for their own preferences when it is so easy?

5. Yes, the percentage that a planet has in a given resources is used as a multiplier for any facilities that produce that resource. The TOTAL production of each resources, and/or research or intelligence that your planet produces is shown in the planet info screen. You want each facility to have a production report in its info display? Hmm. Not really important to my mind, but you can email MM as easily as anyone else and suggest it.

6. Population bonuses for production and construction are set in Settings.txt in your data directory. Also editable. Like many who've been posting here, I'd much prefer to have multiple shipyards on a planet rather than huge bonuses on one. I hope they can do something on this for the next iteration.

7. Apparently the AI doesn't know the difference between 'no treaty' and 'war' very well yet. It should declare war when it attacks, or when you attack it, but it often doesn't. And at other times it goes on declaring war over and over when you've been at war for years of game time. Sigh... not all the bugs are ironed out yet.

The retrograde maneuver is a tactical combat issue. This requires that the AI not only know what to do, but also that it know how to adjust its ship designs to its opponents. This is quite advanced and will take a few generations of 'patches' I think. As always, it's the human opponent who will be the real challenge.