Helping the newplayers to turn off the AI and take control

[caerr]

There is no condition in the game that would prevent a loaded troop transport from invading when ordered to do so. The possible exception might be the invasion setting in the ship design screen.

When you choose a transport (try a single ship if the fleet isn't working) and hover your mouse on enemy planet, a red target cursor should appear. Once you *right* click the planet the invasion should commence. This is not happening?

[Pipewrench]

elanaahova

elanaahova, I will be talking about invasions later on after basics are covered but I will get to your problem. It might be faster if you post your problem in the main forum. Sorry I cannot help you at this time but the thread would go off topic and the storyline I am trying to keep would become cloudy.

Again apologies

[Data]

pipewrench, maybe you can transform this into an opening steps aar (it was done before i think) and move it to the aar section
this will help clarify the scope of your work...i certainly would not want to see it derail, keep it up

[Pipewrench]

Simple walk through to help new players take more control in the game away from the AI.


Part 7


7d


Planning opening moves



Load back the game you saved in 7b

My save was start001


Pause


The following has been done


Destroyer and spaceport has retrofitted Explorer has been given 2 missions,

constructors are working and research is running

we also know where problems and discovery's are as we ran the game before for a short time.

with this map




Deleting old designs



Make sure that the spaceport, destroyer and explorer designs

are the only designs active and not retrofitting.

We now are going to get rid of 3 old designs and also

see how we can have 2 active types of a design running at once.



Open the designs screen,


In the drop down menu at the top select


Show non-obsolete designs


Click the subrole row at the top of the design screen to

put it in alphabetical order


Take a look at the destroyer and notice you have 2 active designs

Look down and select the exploration ship with

0 active units(amount)


Double click on the explorer to pull up the edit design screen

Now you see the name is not shaded so we could edit this design,

but we won’t


At the top click the box to mark as obsolete and save the design

close edit design


Notice it has now disappeared from the active list

Repeat the same process to make the older explorer and

medium space port designs obsolete.



Now we will delete the designs,


pull down the drop down menu at the top and select all designs

You will see red* on the obsolete designs.

Highlight the obsolete destroyer and hit delete key at the bottom

yes to the warning and Repeat for the other designs with the red *.

We now have cleaned up our designs and our construction drop down

will be set to our updates.


It is very important to obsolete designs you do not need

otherwise your menus and builds will become long and confusing.

You will be back here again when we design a 2nd type of active

destroyer but we need tech advances to justify both designs




More buttons





On the left above the selection panel you will see a row of buttons

for quick reference of ships,bases,fleets,colony's etc.

this is the empire navigation tool



and row of action buttons below the selection panel is the quick way

to issue commands to ships or bases in the selection panel.




Color coding  

White active no problems

Orange building, poor planet quality

Yellow warning

Red damaged ,under attack



Lets explore the uses of the empire navigation tool



Fleets


Select the star icon in the middle, and set zoom to sector view

This menu will stay open until you close it (x) or

select another quick reference button


Hovering over the fleet tabs will give you a yellow pulse

telling you the location


Clicking the fleet tab will bring up the fleet in the selection panel


To give the fleet an order all we have to do now is hover over a

location of interest and right click and issue a command


Left click into open space to clear the selection panel


Take note that if you right click in open space while a ship

is in the selection panel the ship will go there and sit.


also notice the lightning with the number

that is the attack strength with information on its mission

also displayed


If it is on auto you will see the blue curved arrow.


hovering over a fleet in the menu and double clicking will

zoom you in to 100% and center the view.



Military ships


Lightning button on the empire navigation tool

at the right of the screen


Same as the fleet but adds the fuel % ,type of ship and

fleet it is attached.



Colonys


Checker flag on the empire navigation tool


Displays any colony or habitable planet with resources ,if scanned

You can send a colony ship by highlighting the colony ship And then

click on the flag below the selection panel, bottom left

If the flag is darkened your out of money



Research


Click the light bulb on the empire navigation tool

This will show location where research bonus are

We will build research bases here



Resort Bases


The planet icon on the empire navigation tool

This shows areas where a % bonus is given to resorts in income earned.



Special locations


Well as the name states it is what it is



all the other buttons on the side above the selection panel

should be self explanatory.



save again


I am using start002

[Pipewrench]

ORIGINAL: Data

pipewrench, maybe you can transform this into an opening steps aar (it was done before i think) and move it to the aar section
this will help clarify the scope of your work...i certainly would not want to see it derail, keep it up

if the community thinks it is an after actions report then I am Ok with it. Never really thought of it as an AAR because I am trying to cover basic operations and techniques that a player will face.

thanks for the input, got to think on this.

[elanaahova]

Of course Pipewrench. I wasn't trying to throw a wrench into your plans.. (smile).. I just asked because you seem friendly and knowledgeable. No apology is necessary. Please proceed as you have planned.. and i look forward to reading your most helpful explanations.

-elana

[Pipewrench]

Simple walk through to help new players take more control in the game away from the AI.


Part 7




7e



Planning opening moves



Load back the game you saved in 7d

My save was start002



Pause the game



The following has been done


Destroyer and spaceport has retrofitted

Explorer has been given 2 missions, constructors are working and

research is running

Old designs have been made obsolete and deleted from the ship

building inventory

2 destroyers are being built and will be assigned to our fleet with the single destroyer.

3 explorers are being built with missions to explore adjacent sectors.




We are going to now price out what we are building , what we have on hand

and order 2 more destroyers and an explorer a different way



Open the build order,

hammer top right.


Pull the drop down menu to try to change the destroyer design

and note that our old design is gone


Under the destroyer use the arrows to build 2 destroyers

and move down to the explorer and build 3 explorers


Do not hit purchase, we are comparison shopping


Notice the cash flow hit and maintenance cost that will affect things

That is what the spaceport is building now.


Now add 2 more destroyers and 1 more explorer to the list,

we are going to build these this turn


Notice the heavy hit to our cash flow when we build these all at once.


Now add 1 escort,1 frigate, 1 destroyer, 2 constructors and finally 1 explorer


This is the total cost of your fleet builds and maintenance cost

to run your ships on the military side when we are finished.


Notice the maintenance cost and compare it to your cash flow

this can be found either on the main screen top right or

in build order screen at the bottom


You should understand that starting a huge shipbuilding program will

bankrupt you in maintenance costs unless taxes and trade can keep up.


My costs are 32,663 and maint is 14,546


There should be a difference with your figures.


That is is because of the price of strategic resources.



Is this an overload? Lol



Wait until upgrades and trade really mess with the numbers.



Close the build order screen and then re-open it again


Add 2 destroyers, 1 explorer and purchase




Galactopedia



For a better understanding of what we just covered you should try the following


Left click the ? –top left

Open the game concepts folder +

Select ship costs


Close when done



Empire summery


Open your empire summary screen, blue flag top center


Look around


Things should start making sense when you look on

the state figures and ships and bases Maintenance cost.


Close the screen



Memory review with a new way



Zoom out to galaxy view


Click the space ports/construction yards in the empire navigation tool

it's above the selection panel


Click on your spaceport in the navigator and you will see it in the selection panel

Double click your port in the navigator and it is zoomed


notice the building icons and how many ships are in waiting for a free shipyard.


Left click on the spaceport in the main view to see all the work

being done and what is planned



Save the game now

as start002



Now proceed as before


Build your 2 destroyers and place them in the fleet with the one destroyer

When the 3 explorers complete send each to a different sector to explore


Take care of any problems as before


when the 1st research project completes which should be proximity sensors.


Save the game with a new name

Mine is start003

have fun

[Pipewrench]

Simple walk through to help new players take more control in the game away from the AI.



8 Reacting to your messages, shortcut keys, research trees, space monsters, pirates colonizing and invading



Load back the game you saved in 7e

My save was start003


Pause the game


The message display is blank but we know we researched something

so let’s bring up a history of our messages

Click the open message history screen –top right, white envelope

We see that research has been completed on proximity sensors


close the history screen



open the research screen, top center-light bulb


Hit the green tab at the top to show the high-tech/industrial tree

Hover over the proximity sensors box and view the information pop-up.

We need a more detailed explanation on the sensor but we cannot

see the ? to bring up the galactopedia


let's hit F1 as a shortcut


Expand components in the galactopedia (+)

scroll the mouse down to proximity arrays and click that selection

This array allows us to track ships or bases at a distance so we

can either pursue or monitor.


Close the galactopedia screen.


side note:

An easier way to get the same information on the next discovery is

to either click the pop up graphic that enters the screen or click

on the message text displayed at the top when the research is completed.

Then when the component guide is displayed, select on the orange help link

displayed on the component guide.




back in the research screen


Notice the red arrow pointing straight up on some components in the tech tree?

These are techs that will change the existing component but do not require a retrofit

Also observe that  % progress made to finish research on a component

is displayed with a green slide bar



select the research station tab now at the top


This is your actual working stations list with total output capacity.

Output capacity is dependent on the research stations you have and

the strategic value of your empire.


To keep game balance a natural limit is set so that increasing bases

will not change the output after a while.




Space creatures



The sand slug and space slug can usually be destroyed with 1 destroyer.

But the ardiluses and the Giant Kaltor will be very hard to kill with

1 destroyer and low tech weapons.


If your military resources are limited and the threat is not on your

actual bases or transports then leave them be for now

otherwise use your 3 destroyer fleet to take them out.


Keep in mind that pulling your main fleet out of position too far could have consequences




Pirates


pirate vessels will copy designs from your empire and others to stay current.


They lurk around independent colonies, their own base and areas of interest


If the pirates are too far away for a destroyer to respond

Open the diplomacy screen

Select the pirate, speak to them and then pay a protection fee.


This fee is temporary and will expire and with it the truce is broken

an offer will be given at the end to form an alliance.

for now, decline the offer and if need be,pay another

protection fee to keep the peace.


If  you accept an alliance with a pirate your reputation will take a hit and

you will pay for the pirates services on a monthly basis...So be aware.





To use the pirates for information




Select buy information



If they have a location of an independent colony and your money

saved and cash flow are in a good position, buy the colony location


If they have discoveries to sell you ,go ahead, but

keep your money at a healthy reserve at the start of the game.

Ex: 15,000.



Understand the risk for both as the colony or discovery could be:


too far away,

taken by the time you arrive

in another empires system,

you were going to find it soon anyway

and lastly in the case of a discovery - a empty location or a trap.





How to dispatch explorers to discoveries


A sector grid will be given with the message


Close the diplomacy screen


Zoom out to galaxy view, line up the grid location and you should see

a pulse telling you that this is an unexplored area of interest.


This is just for reference


Go to the empire navigation tool and select explorers

left, above selection panel


Remember, hovering over the explorers will give the yellow pulse to show its location


We are now searching for an explorer close to the discovery

that has the fuel to go there and return to a refueling point.


Select the explorer in the navigation tool that is closest to the

discovery so it is displayed in the selection panel



Now we look at the total distance it can travel by the dotted circle around the explorer


if it has no dotted circle it is either out of fuel or its fuel range

is farther than you can see.



Judge the distance and if it is within reason move the cursor

in the middle of the pulse and right click


If the area is in deep space you will not get a menu


otherwise select explore the system



Hit the space bar twice to make sure the explorer is now on its way.




To colonize a independent colony



Determine first where it is located


In the empire navigation tool select potential colonies, checker flag

If you need to, scroll down until you find the independent colony and select it


as you hover over the colony in the navigation tool it will again

give a yellow pulse to show you its location.


within 3 sectors of home is good for now


Read the description and find out if colonizing is possible or

are you forced to invade if you want this world


If there is a possibility that the population would accept a colony

select the checker flag below the selection panel

to build a colony ship and send it out to this planet.



If the colony is hostile and you can stand the reputation hit

while keeping in mind not to encroach on another empires territory

then it is time to build a troop ship and troops



make sure the independent colony is selected and centered and now

save the attack destination Ctrl – 1


Open the construction yards screen, top right

Build 1 troop ship and 2 destroyers


In the navigation tool –above selection panel

select colonies and click on your home world


in the selection panel double click the home world name blue


select the troops tab

hit recruit tab 4 times


if a warning appears set troop builds to manual


make 2 mental notes:

new troops start with a low troop strength and slowly get stronger

race is a modifier.



When the troop ship and destroyers are built put them in a new fleet


If it has not already, select the troop ship and hover over

the home planet until you get a troop compartment with an arrow.


Right click to load.



when the troop ship arrives over your home planet the troops will load


Now we are ready to go



Hit  1  to bring us back to the independent colony


Zoom out to system view


Click on fleets in the navigation tool


Select the fleet with troop carrier fleet and move the cursor over

the star with the colony


Right click



We want the fleet to get into the system but we must

make sure that we have a clear path.


When the fleet arrives

Press  1  again to bring up the colony


Click the selection panel to center


Pull up the fleets in the navigation tool


select the fleet with the troops and click on the planet to invade


Press 1 again to view the invasion progress when the troops are dropped.


realize that we could assign different F? keys to the fleet

and our home world to make this invasion even faster.


Just trying not to overload your experience.

have fun

[Pipewrench]

update came for 1.502beta

I am restarting the game and checking to see if anything has changed from what we covered so far
should be good to post on Friday



a little puzzle

what non military ship design at our last save point will never be built due to a yellow warning? hint: it might not be one that we changed.

[Data]

well, the only yellow warning that i know off to prevent building the actual ship is the size one.....by deduction, i'm thinking one of the designs has just increased in size after an upgrade and is not over the max limit

[elanaahova]

re: troops not invading - figured it out: ... the transports (LSTs I call them) were low on fuel, and the planet was moving along in its orbit, away from the transports. The relative movement was virtually identical... so it looked like the LSTs were ignoring the land troop order. What a difference it would make if the LSTs were ahead of the planet in its orbital path.... LOL

[Bandersnatch]

I've been learning the game, and am amazed at the complexity. This forum is where the real learning starts. I started your tutorial on helping new players turn off the AI. Things aren't matching up and I'm thinking I have a different version of the game. Mine is 1.0.6.0. If this is the case, a note might help players to know this. If I am in error, I would certainly appreciate being set straight. Have a good one. Snatch. PS. My game also does not have any option to change the theme; no biggie, but confusing at first.

[elanaahova]

Hey bander, mine has no option to change theme either. And I added the ship set woodman made (excellent!) easier to tell some ships apart ...

I am thinking that a different 'theme' requires certain types of mods to be installed, not sure, though. i would love to replace the music!

[Data]

check the modders section, lots of juicy stuff over there

[Pipewrench]

Simple walk through to help new players take more control in the game away from the AI.

return of the shakturi expansion 1.5.0.2 beta

9


Fuel, resources, ship design and scraping


Load back the game you saved in 7e

My save was start003

Pause the game


My game so far


1 fleet of 3 destroyers on manual control patrolling home system
1 fleet of 1 escort and 1 frigate reacting to problems
2 constructors on auto
2 destroyers on auto
5 explorers. 4 patrolling different sectors and 1 patrolling specific stars 2 at a time

Colonized 1 world with 30 million settlers

1 pirate base found, 1 colonisable planet in pirate system, of course 
Paid protection fee to ward off attack as fleet was too far to respond
Paid for information on whereabouts of independent colony
Independent colony is hostile
Building troopship and built 4 troops to replace invasion force
We have just researched proximity sensors
13,000 in money and 10,000 in cash flow
No resort or research locations found yet.



Understanding collectors and automated freighters


If your escort and frigate fleet are still active bring them up in the selection panel if not load a previous save where they we active.
Notice that the escort has a lower fuel bar then the frigate

Bring up the ship design of the escort by hovering over the design name field in the selection panel and clicking
Notice that it only has 1 fuel cell and a bigger problem is that at the top right corner we can see that it has a static energy usage rate of 6 with no energy collection.
This means it burns fuel while parked.

If you exit out of design screen (cancel)
Hover and click over the fleet name in the selection panel
Click the frigate icon
Hover and click over the design name field in the selection panel
This ship has excess power when parked to not use fuel
Hit cancel



Getting rid of ships and fix a design that is using fuel for no reason,


Let’s retire the escort and frigate now as we have enough ships to deal with problems

You cannot retire a fleet so you must do the retirement of each ship separately

With the frigate still on the selection panel lock the focus
Hover over the ship in the main screen and right click
Select retire at nearest space yard

Now bring up the escort and do the same thing

Remember that you have the previous selection arrows above the selection panel that can help you.


With the collectors fresh on our mind lets now watch the starbase for 10 seconds or so with time at normal


Note the following

If freighters are moving select them to bring them up in the selection panel
Are the carrying casion or going to get some?

If you see nothing check you casion mining bases

Open the expansion planner, top left

Filter casion
Pull down to select empire resource locations

If you do not have a selection displayed you are running on
overworked gas mining ships with colony and star base inventory to fall back on

My freighter was not at my home world or at my 1 casino base but
going to the 1 planet I colonized to pick up casion and bring it back to my capital

I checked my new colony and it has docking bays so freighters can dock without a spaceport

I also note that casion is being reserved for the shipment in the amount of 5000
The freighter has 10 standard cargo bays which hold 500 each so the math matches



Why are we in need of casion so badly?



Building ships is 1 reason but we purposely designed something to draw casion all the time

Pull up your designs screen and select medium space port

Look at the top right and note that energy collection is not keeping up with static energy usage

So the base is drawing fuel just by its existence


Exit out and select copy as new
Add collectors to exceed static energy usage
Add also our new proximity sensors
Make sure you have no warnings

Change the name if you want, save and Close the designs window

Focus and lock on your medium space port and retrofit to our new design



now go thru and check that all your ships and bases are being efficient with fuel



freighters are fuel hogs when parked so we have to fix this


You must follow this to change your civilian transports otherwise they will not build the new design


select a freighter
In the design screen hit copy as new, add the collectors to exceed the static usage
save

Pull down and select all designs
Edit the old design and make it obsolete.(top check mark box)

save


You cannot delete the old design as there are ships still using it


There is a faster way but we need you to understand the controls and work the screens



Now lets retrofit our explorers and our destroyers to add the new sensor tech


1st change the designs,


in th4 designs screen
With the show latest designs active

Copy as new both ships

Add the sensor and delete armour to get rid of the warning

save

close design screen when done



now send the ships back to retrofit



Open your ships and bases screen

select military ships in the drop down menu
Shift right click the last destroyer on the list to select all
Hit retrofit and select the new design

Pull down the exploration ships from the drop down menu
Shift right click the last explorer on the list to select all
Hit retrofit and select the new design


Important points
In a fleet a ship asked to retrofit will break away and retrofit ignoring attack, patrol commands.
After retrofit it will wait for orders

One exception with this is the fleet refueling and the ship in question is too far to reach the star port in which case it will ignore the retrofit.


If you bring up your medium star port and check the cargo area
you will see cargo reserved for the retrofit

keep in mind that if there is no stored resource to build a component on the base,
the ship will not be built. the same holds true for the planets construction yards

You will be in limbo until a transport or mining ship brings the missing resource.

Remember this
As you colonize. building too far away with transports that are limited in range will grind things to a halt

your will probably take a money hit as you will need to import from a closer empire that will charge you



Now will your world fall apart when everything is called back to retrofit?


No, but you’re going to have to buy off a pirate if attacked and you might lose a mining base to creatures but this is just for fun.

Put the explorers back exploring and keep your fleet in the home system


Save your game after the retrofit
rename file start004

Start looking at your resource usage and your expansion planner and try if you can to figure out the freighter traffic and why it does what it does.

[Pipewrench]

data
quote"well, the only yellow warning that i know off to prevent building the actual ship is the size one.....by deduction, i'm thinking one of the designs has just increased in size after an upgrade and is not over the max limit"


edit previous post to say non-military   .........brain fart! [:-]

it is the passenger ship design ....the components exceed the tech to build that size of ship.
edit: also found the resupply ship is way to big for starting tech

finding little holes in the cheese [&:]

elanaahova

no fuel will cut your speed dramatically and poor thrusters and engines combined with low reactor power will hamper any movement.


Bandersnatch

sorry , updated with current version 1.5.0.2 beta

[elanaahova]

Pipe wrote: ...it is the passenger ship design ....the components exceed the tech to build that size of ship.
edit: also found the resupply ship is way to big for starting tech

finding little holes in the cheese [&:]..."

I don't like to wait for larger size hulls... so I have, in my default ship design set up with a slightly smaller passenger ship. (I think I just removed one passenger compartment.) Making this model available right from the start gets some sales of the ships, and passenger traffic going immediately. Supply ships, just have to wait for larger hulls, as anything 'shrunk' to starting hull sizes just isn't a decent supply ship. IMHO

[Pipewrench]

sorry about the wait.....

seems the computer went blue screen on me last week and I think I finally tracked it down to a bad memory and a major vacuum cleaning...could not even stay on line to save or post a new addition, never mind load distant worlds.

[Data]

all is well when it ends well [;)]
no matter how long you have to wait for the good ending [:)]

[Kayoz]

Pipewrench -

I believe it would be well worthwhile for you to compile this into a document format. Do you need any help with it?