New player struggling

[Alpha Kodiak]

PsychoTechFreak:

Please don't tell me we have to show the Brits who's boss, AGAIN!

[pathfinder]

Andy: Don't feel alone. I been playing SEIV since September 2000 and have won only one game out of hundreds.....and they say the AI ain't so great! HA! and now it is even harder with the improved AI in gold....oh well...back to my daily whuppin'

[PsychoTechFreak]

quote:

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Originally posted by Alpha Kodiak:
PsychoTechFreak:

Please don't tell me we have to show the Brits who's boss, AGAIN!

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Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated.
Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. You must comply. A neural transceiver is required for maximum communication,
we will work as one mind. We are the Brits. Resistance as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. You will become one with the Brits.
Why do you resist? We only wish to raise quality of life for all species. Brit Locutus.

[MikeRMcCartney]

BTW Psycho, on point #9, as an Audi A4 owner, I agree.

[pathfinder]

Psycho: Sevens? BAH! full sides and scrum down!

[Instar]

American football is awesome dude. Rugby is for insane people. I remember this pic where the guy was reaching for the ball, grabbed this guys head, thinking it was the ball, and poked this guy in the eye, drawing a fair sized squirt of blood. Both players continued playing. Goodness, at least we keep them alive in american football.
Edit: I must duly note that rugby is a really fun game though. But its nuts

[ 20 March 2002: Message edited by: Instar ]

[Growltigga]

quote:

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Originally posted by Andy Watkins:
Tigga and all,

[Andy, I will do my damnedest to answer all these, the nice thing about this forum is that if my answer is incomplete, you can safely bet a spice girl that some north american or german will give you chapter and verse]

Thankyou for your support, you have inspired me to have another go.

[don't give up, it is actually really worth it]

Space empires IV is very difficult to get in the UK so I guess most of you are from the good old US of A. I will of course try and remember to spell things incorrectly :-)

[I am a true blue Brit]

I thought the manual with Gold was supposed to be great, (it isn't) so didn't look on the disk, have now read the real manual and much more makes sense, though I still have a feeling there are lots of gaps in my knowledge.

I am VERY early in the game so don't appear to have any fighters or any ground troops at all.

[to get fighters and troops, you need to research 'Construction' which will open up these areas - I personally like fighters - see my Posts in the 'ship designs for stock game' thread]

I can build up to Destroyer sized ships, or small satellites or space stations or weapons platforms that's about it.

[that is about right for the early part of the game - to increase the size of your weapons platforms, satellites or space stations, you need to research the next tech level in weapon platforms, satellites and base constructiuon respectively - if you research 'ship construction', your next level should give you light cruiser and IIRC medium transport although that may only be with the cruiser hull]

I recently noticed an ally of mine has been planting satellites on all his warp points. Ah that's a good idea I thought I'll copy them. Built some satellites, loaded them onto a transport, went to warp point and could not dump the cargo. Looks like I need to be able to "Launch" the satellites, how do I do that?

[right, first you need to build a ship that has "satellite layer" component on it. You get this free at the start of the game. Also make sure you build some cargo pods on your satellite layer ship. This will allow you to deploy and pick satellites. When you get to the place you want to deploy, hit the 'I' button on your keyboard (I can tremeber what the symbol looks like on the order bar), this will allow you to lauch your sats. This also works for launching fighters, mines whatever]

I wanted to mine asteroids, only ship that seemed to be able to do so was an attack destroyer with no guns and a pair of mining add on's. Took ship to asteroids and it started mining straight away.
Yippee I got something right.....
Then it ran out of fuel and I had to send it back to a planet to reful in the next system and then all the way back again. BORING! How can I stop this??

[you cant stop running out of fuel, various techs will allow you to enhance your ships' range, eg supply storage pods, solar collectors etc, but you just need to scope this into the game]

If I want to move a ship a couple of systems I appear to have to go WARP to the nearest point. Then go to the next system and put WARP to the next point etc etc. Can I get a ship across several systems with just one command?

[yes, just press the move order ('m' key on keyboardand click on where you want the ship to go, it will authomatically warp as required on route]

What do waypoints do and how do you use them?

[dont know, anyone?]

Not very clear about combat. if you have ion cannons they seem to fire straight at whatever you target. I had a mk I capital missile and think I fired it, very difficult to tell, I think it was reponsible for a purple splat on my ship, I never seemed to get a purple splat on my target so don't know if it ever hit, or was the purple splat their missiles hitting me??

[hard to know what your purple splat is, missiles should be easy as if you fire them, a missile appears and on following turns will track after the target - most beam weapons are represented by a direct firing icon, the purple splat could just be shields?]

I have a big list of other questions but only a small brain to store them in so I have forgotten them all!

[join the club - everybody on this forum has a big list and a small brain]

Any assistance you can provide on any of the above would be hugely appreciated,

Andy
PS are there any "Difficulty" setting in the game?

[there is to the extent that on the playter setup screen, you can set the AI to hard setting, with lots of bonus points]

PPS My favourite sci fi series of all time is Babylon 5, do I get the impression I can "Mod" the game in some way to reflect B5?? I don't understand anything at all about modding.

[see modding and the 'Babylon 5 mod' thread]
[quote]Originally posted by Growltigga the Great:
[QB]Andy, welcome to the forum and I am glad that yet another Brit has joined the forum to add a bit of class to all these north americans

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[PsychoTechFreak]

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeRMcCartney:
BTW Psycho, on point #9, as an Audi A4 owner, I agree.

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Meown an Audi A4 too, it rocks !

[PsychoTechFreak]

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeRMcCartney:
BTW Psycho, on point #9, as an Audi A4 owner, I agree.

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Hey, meown one also, Audi A4 kicks ***. What a coincidence ? I do not think so.

[adder_inf]

The waypoints can be set in the empire screen(I think). Then you can use them to move ships to them without clicking on the system. I find them useful on resupply bases so you can send ships along a warp chain.