Random Newbie Questions

[Zathura]

First of all, I just got this game after watching a couple people (Quill18, and GetDaved) show it off.

I've played maybe a total of 6 or 7 games now, and I'm at the point at which I can confidently turn off almost all the automation (just leaving colony taxes and population policies on).

Now that I've got Shadows, a couple more issues have cropped up that never seemed important outside of a Pre-Warp start. (In fact I never noticed them before).

But now that every single ship and every action matters, at least for a while, I'm getting frustrated.

First of all. Why do my construction ships automatically decide where and when to build research stations? As far as I know, I have all building and facility options set to manual control, and yet they still do this. It's very frustrating to look at my bases screen and 3 or 4 random stations have appeared.

Second, and this just happened in context...but I sent a recovered Frigate I'd found to attack and destroy a pirate mining base they had set up on one of my planets.

The frigate got there, and just before he got into weapons range, turned right around. I checked his mission and it said "refuel at such&such base".

I said NO! and right-clicked on the mining base again. The ship turned around, took a few baby steps towards the mining base, then started heading back to refuel again.

I finally destroyed the base, but only after click-click-clicking constantly, and sometimes having to move the frigate closer manually. It would take a couple potshots and turn around.

I actually started cursing at it because it was being so frustrating. I wanted to open a comm to the pilot and yell at him "I don't CARE if you run out of fuel! Destroy that mining base or I'll scrap your ship in DEEP SPACE! With everyone on it!".

So, anyone know where the options are to fix these things?

Also, is it common to be attacked by pirates within the first 30 seconds of gameplay? I hadn't even completed my first construction ship yet and I got a message that I was about to be attacked. They wanted nearly 1500c per month for protection, which was almost half of my current income. I mean, I hadn't even properly started yet.

Combined with radical shortages in supplies that I never had to worry about before, I'm starting to wonder if buying Shadows was a waste of money. The couple additions to the UI are nice, but not worth the $20-$25.

I know I could turn pirates off, and make the game easier in other ways via options, but I'm trying to refrain, not only to make myself a better player, but because easy games get really boring in the late game, which is why I quit a number of games because I had everyone else beat in economy and military strength by leaps and bounds.

Sorry for such a long post. I really am enjoying the game, there are just a few niggling little things that are having a detrimental effect on my ability to play it smoothly.

[CyclopsSlayer]

First- re: Research Bases, I HATE THAT... They are payed for and ordered by your Private sector economy, but your scientists will often end up out in the middle of nowhere at some base you've never heard of. My solution so far is to delete the R&D base designs and loads up the Labs on my home planets Star Port. Sure you miss the bonuses from the location, but your bases are not going to be captured and destroyed all the time either.

Second - re: refueling, I HATE THAT... (hmmm seems to be a theme here...) Even if the ship could complete its mission with the fuel aboard, once it hits the refuel point, set on the design screen, it will turn and head back, even if most of the flight is at a sublight crawl.

Third - re: Pirates, consider setting their starting distance from Near to Distant, maybe reduce their strength as well. Secondly be sure to build Star Port, Medium works well, as soon as possible, ie. Before you start time [:)]
Accept protection ONLY until the Port is complete if you must, then speak to them in the Diplomacy screen and cancel the protection.

[Zathura]

Thanks. I'll try doing that with the R&D bases. I'm assuming I could make a design, order a base, then as soon as the mission's approved, check the obsolete button? Would that assure that only (1) base would be built according to my wishes?

You mentioned a refueling point in the design? How do you determine that? Is it like, 50% of available fuel, or something? Whatever it is, it seems inconsistent, as I've had full fleets in other games that, when I was ready to attack, found that I had to put off my plans because half the ships were running on fumes and never bothered to re-stock, neccessitating either A) removing the empty ships from the fleet so I could still act while I sent them to refuel, or put everything on hold while the whole fleet went to a gas mining station, at which point they act completely retarded, and save the empty ships for last (or so it seems).

I even had an incident where I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for one...single...ship to refuel, out of a 20 or so ship fleet. I thought maybe the station was waiting for a freighter to bring it more fuel, but when I zoomed in I discovered that the poor little ship simply couldn't CATCH the mining station. *facepalm*

I don't understand why, if Research Stations are private facilities, you can order them built just like anything else. Same with Gas and Reg. Mining Stations.

It seems that if the developers are going to let you have -ANY- control over these, they should also give you the option of -TOTAL- control over these. Very annoying.

Also, is it just me that can't seem to get the auto-update to work? It just fails every time, even when I disabled my active anti-virus software. (Oh-ho-ho...that's another story. Kingsoft kept singling out Shadows as a Trojan virus. That was a fun hour-and-a-half.)

[Bingeling]

You got total control of base building if you turn off automation of your constructors.