Fuel depots; vectors; other newb Qs

[Grotius]

I've had DW since release, but I put it aside for a while to await some of the patches. I started playing again today, and I have some newbie questions.

1. How do I tell how much fuel I have where? When I click on a mining station on the main map, I can't figure out how to get to its "details" screen to tell me (1) what cargo is stored there, (2) whether there are docking facilities there, etc. I just see a general summary of the station in the lower-left-hand-corner of the screen.

2. Likewise, how do I tell which fuel type a ship needs? When I click on a ship on the main map, I see general info in that same lower-left-corner box -- but not fuel type. I suppose I get this by clicking on the design of the ship and looking there? Sure would be nice to see it at a glance. I like the idea of having to refuel, and of different fuel types -- I'm used to fueling logistics from WITP -- but the info seems very hard to find here.

3. Is there a way to show the vector/destination of one or more ships? If so, is there a hotkey to toggle this on/off? I don't see such a hotkey in the list of hotkeys in the manual.

4. When I first bought this game, I was frustrated that I couldn't tell which resource was missing when construction was paused. I still can't tell. Is the only way to figure this out to compare the construction requirements with what's in the base's cargo? Does the cargo "reserved" column serve this purpose? If so, it's not easy to use. Is there no screen that shows (amt required) and (amt on hand) in two columns, side by side, for each ship? Seems like essential info.

Thanks in advance.

[Igard]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

1. How do I tell how much fuel I have where? When I click on a mining station on the main map, I can't figure out how to get to its "details" screen to tell me (1) what cargo is stored there, (2) whether there are docking facilities there, etc. I just see a general summary of the station in the lower-left-hand-corner of the screen.

If you double click on the display panel for the mining station (the window in the lower left of the screen) you should get a window pop-up with a number of tabs. One of these tabs is 'Cargo' you can view all the cargo quantities here. There is also a tab for 'components' which will tell how many docking ports the station has among other things.

2. Likewise, how do I tell which fuel type a ship needs? When I click on a ship on the main map, I see general info in that same lower-left-corner box -- but not fuel type. I suppose I get this by clicking on the design of the ship and looking there? Sure would be nice to see it at a glance. I like the idea of having to refuel, and of different fuel types -- I'm used to fueling logistics from WITP -- but the info seems very hard to find here.

The reactor is also listed in the components, you need to find out what type of reactor uses what fuel. I always keep a mental note of which fuel type my ships are using. I don't know if this works for everyone, but you can also check the design screen or the galactopeidia for the details.

3. Is there a way to show the vector/destination of one or more ships? If so, is there a hotkey to toggle this on/off? I don't see such a hotkey in the list of hotkeys in the manual.

Unfortunately, no. Would be nice wouldn't it?

4. When I first bought this game, I was frustrated that I couldn't tell which resource was missing when construction was paused. I still can't tell. Is the only way to figure this out to compare the construction requirements with what's in the base's cargo? Does the cargo "reserved" column serve this purpose? If so, it's not easy to use. Is there no screen that shows (amt required) and (amt on hand) in two columns, side by side, for each ship? Seems like essential info.

AFAIK, the reserved column is simply the amount the base should have depending on it's size, strategic importance, population of colony, at least that what I interpret it as. Others will have differing ideas. I use as a rule of thumb, that if construction is halted, then I am probably building too fast. You are correct that you have to compare resource quantities to determine whether or not you can build, but I always make sure that I only build if there is a good supply to the base.

Hope that helps a little.[:)]

[Grotius]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, that helps a lot!

On fuel, I guess my druthers would be a toggle that would simply display the amount of fuel at each spot on the map, perhaps color-coded by fuel type. If that's too onerous to code, then maybe a new filter on the galactic-view screen, with dots showing the availability of different types of fuel at each spot. Or, failing that, a mouseover to tell me at a glance what system has what kind of fuel. As it stands, it sounds like I can find that info, but not as quickly or as comprehensively as I would like. Maybe I'm too fussy.

Also, I have gotten tired of fending off pirates every fifteen seconds. I read about a mod to disable the annoying klaxon; maybe I'll install that. Or maybe I'll just play with fewer pirates; I dunno. Or maybe I need to be more careful about assigning escorts or patrols everywhere, but it's a big empire, and that would require lots of costly ships. Or, I gather, I can design freighters with sturdier defenses. Job 1, though, is to disable that klaxon sound -- it's driving me bonkers.

[Igard]

If you zoom out and click on  a star, it will display all the resources in the bottom left window, but not the amount of that resource (if indeed it's being mined). You can select any colony or mining station from this window without zooming all the way in and searching.

I like the idea of a mouse over to find out how much fuel an item has. That would work very well.

On the subject of Pirates, they are an early game hinderance and should be dealt with as soon as you discover their base. If you're really struggling against pirates, you can always pay the protection fee, although this should only be early game and only if you don't have enough escorts and frigates to protect your shipping lines. Once you reach about mid-game, the introduction of long range sensors makes it much easier to find pirate bases. Also, I always play on the 'few' setting for pirates as I think this is the most realistic option.

I've never had too much trouble with pirates. I actually like them as  a challenge early on. The only thing I hate about them is their use of 'stolen' ships. They shouldn't really be able to steal ship designs that are barely out of the shipyards.

[the1sean]

ORIGINAL: Grotius
Also, I have gotten tired of fending off pirates every fifteen seconds. I read about a mod to disable the annoying klaxon; maybe I'll install that. Or maybe I'll just play with fewer pirates; I dunno. Or maybe I need to be more careful about assigning escorts or patrols everywhere, but it's a big empire, and that would require lots of costly ships. Or, I gather, I can design freighters with sturdier defenses. Job 1, though, is to disable that klaxon sound -- it's driving me bonkers.

Yeah, use the klaxon mod. I like pirates, but you do need to provide plenty of escorts. If you provide enough and leave them on auto it usually does the job, but make sure that you are scouting out and annihilating their bases whenever possible. Personally I usually play with max pirates on maps with extra hostile enemies, so it can be done and still be quite fun

[Grotius]

Thanks for your replies, guys. A few more newbish questions -- thanks in advance for any help.

1. I keep reading that pirates don't steal cruiser designs, but soon after I acquired a cruiser (recovered from some ruins), a pirate cruiser showed up. Just coincidence, I suppose? Anyway, I haven't researched the larger construction yards yet, so I'm not sure how I will counter this new pirate-cruiser threat. Is it true that pirates only copy escort/frigate/destroyer designs?

2. Speaking of research, I've read the threads about building a giant lab at a black hole, but I'm still a bit confused. Does the black hole's research bonus let me exceed my research "cap"? E.g., at game start, my cap is around 100K research, which I already perform. Would setting up a lab at a 600% black hole increase my total output to 600K?

3. If the answer is yes, how exactly do I go about building at a black hole? When I right-click on it, I don't see an option to build a research lab there. Maybe I need to build a construction ship and order it to move to the black hole and build the lab there?

4. Also, if I want one mega-lab, I assume I have to design a new, er, ship to serve this purpose? Is a lab a ship?

5. Finally, I've read that I can only design one of each class of ship -- any new design will obsolete the older ones. Is that right? I'd really like to be able to make two types of escort, for example.

[Equendil]

Pirates, I feel, should be more like barbarians in Civ IV. A hinderance in the early game, that you *have* to deal with, keeps you on your toes from day 1, but as the game progresses and much of the galaxy is explored and settled, they should become extinct. Would be nice if empires had spheres of influence based on colonies development and inside which pirates couldn't spawn.

[torrenal]

Suppose a few in-place tips can't hurt...

• Does my ship use Hydrogen or Caslon?  What color is it's engine exhaust?  While I've not extensively tested this, the two do seem to be related...
• Killing pirate bases causes the game to spawn a base with more pirates.  Killing pirates, but leaving the base intact, does not.
• Construction at a black hole -- the bonus there is to total research capacity of the station.  It does nto increase your cap, it just cuts down on the cost of research, by allowing you to use a fraction of the bases.
• Labs can be placed on ships, but that slows them down.  Labs can be placed in research stations, and they can be made to any size with any combination of lab modules, so long as you have at least one lab of the required type.
• Reserved goods fit into 2 categories:  Reserved for use in construction.  Reserved for pickup by a ship already on the way.  Reserved amounts do not appear to include fuel for ships that intend to refuel.  The reserved system appears to be how orders are managed -- if quantity is reserved that is not available, a ship soon follows with the needed goods.

//Torrenal

[Grotius]

Edit: Edited because I hadn't seen the reply from torrenal yet.

@Equendil: Yeah, I'm starting to think I'll just disable pirates for my next game. I'm getting tired of playing whack-a-mole against them. On the other hand, the game can be a little *too* quiet without them, or at least that was my experience the one time I tried a pirate-less game (when DW first released).

@torrenal: Thanks for those tips. So since I'm already at my research cap, there'd be no immediate benefit from conducting research at the black hole.

[Equendil]

1. I keep reading that pirates don't steal cruiser designs, but soon after I acquired a cruiser (recovered from some ruins), a pirate cruiser showed up. Just coincidence, I suppose? Anyway, I haven't researched the larger construction yards yet, so I'm not sure how I will counter this new pirate-cruiser threat. Is it true that pirates only copy escort/frigate/destroyer designs?

Never noticed pirates stealing my designs myself, only that they keep up in techs one way or another. Note that you can design a small cruiser (or a heavy destroyer) that can be built with basic ship yards.

I deal with pirates the following way:
- I don't build escorts. At all. Too much maintenance for very little firepower. You can't really fend off pirates with the weakest ships available (I could, of course, build bigger escorts, but that's basically a "frigate").
- I redesign mining stations with more shields and a few weapons (typically, three shields, two beams, one torpedo). They can deal with pirate escorts and frigates on their own.
- The first abandonned cruisers/capital ships I find are assigned to pirate hunting duty. They can take care of pirate bases.

2. Speaking of research, I've read the threads about building a giant lab at a black hole, but I'm still a bit confused. Does the black hole's research bonus let me exceed my research "cap"? E.g., at game start, my cap is around 100K research, which I already perform. Would setting up a lab at a 600% black hole increase my total output to 600K?

As I understand it, the research cap is a hard "cap" and building more labs won't help (though building more of a type will shift research to that type). Because of that I strip labs off my space ports. Could be wrong.

3. If the answer is yes, how exactly do I go about building at a black hole? When I right-click on it, I don't see an option to build a research lab there. Maybe I need to build a construction ship and order it to move to the black hole and build the lab there?

That's what I do, though I order it to move to a point away from the black hole (two or three times the apparent diameter of the black hole), and build there, or they get sucked down the hole (also not a good idea to build something too close to a neutron star, it'll get slowly damaged and crushed).

4. Also, if I want one mega-lab, I assume I have to design a new, er, ship to serve this purpose? Is a lab a ship?

You can put labs on just anything I believe, so it's your choice really. You can make a "starbase" or use any of the four station templates for a new design ("copy as new") and load them with lots of labs. Your constructors will have the option to build those. I think a big ship with labs would work too, if you want a research center you can move around.

5. Finally, I've read that I can only design one of each class of ship -- any new design will obsolete the older ones. Is that right? I'd really like to be able to make two types of escort, for example.

You can have as many designs of one type as you wish. Designs only go obsolete if 1) you check the obsolete box or 2) you use the auto update feature (which basically creates a new design with the latest components and marks the former design as obsolete). Make sure you use "show all non obsolete designs" in the design panel and not "show latest designs only". Note that the AI picks the latest design (whichever was saved last) if you automate building.

For instance, say you want a long range super explorer to cross the galaxy at the start of the game, you could "copy as new" the existing design, add lots of fuel cells, maybe a long range scanner (and additional engines and another reactor, scanners are heavy). Save it, and you from that point on you can chose to build two different types of explorers at a spaceport.

Ultimately, ship types only really matter insofar as you let the AI control them. If not automated, there isn't really a difference between an escort, an explorer, or a capital ship (that I can tell at least). Having said that, some ship types do matter: a resupply ship has to be a resupply ship to deploy, freigthers, mining ships, passenger ships are only for the private sector, it's generally best to stick to appropriate ship types.

[WoodMan]

Try the pirates on the lowest setting except from off.  Thats the way I have my game setup (and the same with Space Monsters) and the pirates are certainly still evident and quite numerous, but they don't steal all your attention away from the rest of the game.  You often get by without paying protection *and* not having to fight them, because they don't attack that much, especially if you kill their first wave.

[Grotius]

Thank you both for those very helpful replies. Equendil, thanks especially for your detailed reply to my questions. You answered every one!

OK, time to dive back in. I have to admit, there is something compelling about this game. The galaxy seems alive.