Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Niaru

Keeping to the good work of asking questions...

1. How do I get a planet above 100% development? I control all three super luxuries and play the Securan.

Nothing more you can do. Your development will go up as the special luxuries get distributed to them. It might take a while - subject to the vagaries of the freighter system.

ORIGINAL: Niaru
2. Any idea why I can't build some facilities on certain planets? In said example, I researched the elite troop training facility, but could build it only on utopia some 5 years later.

Check for existing facilities of the same type. If there is an existing facility of that general "type", then you can't build another one. You might have robo-factories or clone troop factories (proper names?) already on those planets.

ORIGINAL: Niaru
3. How do ion weapons and defenses work? Do the defenses stack?

Ion defences only defend against ion weapons. Shields and armour defend against any normal (ie: non-ion) weapon. Armour is your ONLY defence against creatures. I'm not sure that answers your question.

Normally I don't bother with ion weapons, though - simpler to blow the bleeders up, than incapacitate them. They're pretty, but I can't see them being worth the trade-off for reduced firepower.

ORIGINAL: Niaru
4. Do fleet offense/defense systems and individual ship systems stack?

iirc, yes - individual ship weapon and one fleet system can be counted. I'm not certain which fleet system is applied, though - closest, fleet lead, or highest bonus. Perhaps someone else can address this.

ORIGINAL: Niaru
5. Are the storylines of the original game and the expansion compatible? Would it make sense to activate them both?

Yes. They are mutually independent. You can run either or neither. Without the traditional story line, however, you won't have any debris fields - which can make the Shak rather a greater threat when they show up.
ref: tm.asp?m=2347203&mpage=5

ORIGINAL: Kayoz

ORIGINAL: Niaru
4. Do fleet offense/defense systems and individual ship systems stack?

iirc, yes - individual ship weapon and one fleet system can be counted. I'm not certain which fleet system is applied, though - closest, fleet lead, or highest bonus. Perhaps someone else can address this.

Fleet system with highest bonus in the fleet the ship is in will apply. So, if you have, for example, salvaged derelict ship with a fleet targeting system that gives bonus of 20%, that applies over any lower fleet targeting system bonuses. So 20% targeting to whole fleet + targeting system bonus on invidual ships.

Thank you a lot!

ORIGINAL: Niaru


2.
Is there any possibility to force the civilian part to retrofit their ships? Say, I managed to "get" better propulsion and storage tech from my loving neighbors, and I already made new designs for the civilian ships, is there any way to retrofit the already present ones so they can haul more cargo faster through the empire? In the fleet window, if I klick, say, all my large freighter designs, and choose the retrofit option (which apparently costs a hell lot of money), nothing happens. After more than a year, no ships have been retrofitted, no money spent. I can individually differentiate between the old freighters and the newly built ones in lower zoom factors just by the speed they move around.

ORIGINAL: Data
2. No, you can't. The only way is to delete them via the editor and allow the AI to request the newer designs. Btw, you can also differentiate between older and newer ones on the design screen; it will tell you how many ships of that particular design you have

Ha you newbs, see that you still don't know this game entirely?
Just a few days ago I decided to play some DW again and found out that you can in fact upgrade and disband the civilian fleet from the ships&stations screen. Just select the ship in question and select upgrade and you'll get options, or scrap/retire and you'll get options and the ship WILL execute the orders. You can also put civvies in a fleet and command them into battle or just tell them to move wherever[8|][8|][8|][8|]. I will post the appropriate pictures when I can access my main gaming comp.

Until then: play some more you obviously don't know the game at all. And I'm talking about vanilla DW here!!!! you have the equivalent of entire libraries to learn about this game.[:D][:D][:D][:D]

Cheers

Returning to my thread after a while.

Don't mean to be too negative, but I gave up on this one, and returned to another game which at least I understand. From a newb POV, I just couldn't get what was going on and what I was supposed to do. I couldn't find the vital screen mentioned by "J HG T" anywhere, despite much clicking around. Yes I did the tutorials.

Maybe I'll have another go sometime. I just got frustrated.

when and if you're up for it again follow this -> tm.asp?m=2453216
I always find it to be the best tutorial.

I'll post this question here after doing a search and seeing several similar threads.  In my current game I have 5 colonies in dire need of steel.  That is partly my fault as I only have one source at the moment.  However I also have two colonies with lots of steel in storage, more than what the other 5 colonies need, and very little of it is currently reserved.  So the question is, will my freighters ever move that excess steel to where it's needed or is my only option to expand steel mining and hope it gets shipped to where it's needed and not to where it's already in overabundance?

Edit - I should probably point out that the steel is needed at the 5 colonies to build small space ports. Not sure if that would influence why they are not getting any steel or not?

it doesn't influence it and getting more sources is the surest way to go. A couple of tests you can do aside from this:

1) scrap any steel needing construction and try to build a chain of space ports starting from the two colonies that have them going to the five that don't. This should improve freighter traffic for this.

2) at the two colonies that have it build ships with designs that consume tons of steel...than scrap those ships at the colonies that need it [;)]

Thanks for the tips Data.  Would not have thought of number 2.  In reading between the lines of your answer it sounds like freighters will not reliably move excess stuff from one colony to another where it's needed, but there are workarounds.

I have managed to play the game just fine without using specially designed ships as ad hoc freighters.

Things will eventually get built. If there is a long way to well supplied colonies, it will take some time. But the game got a fast speed setting that makes time flow when nothing happens. And if lots of things do happen, who cares about some remote spaceport taking forever to be constructed.

In general I miss some easy to obtain info on resource situations. Where do I lack a resource, and where do I have a surplus? Where are actually my steel resources? For instance I may somehow obtain control of a former enemy capital. A good spot for a large space port to use as ship building hub in the area. But do I have all the necessary strategic resources reasonably close? It is not easy to figure out. It should not be hard to display this info within the galaxy map and/or expansion planner.

Yap, elmo, Binge is correct....there are extreme cases where you have very remote colonies and than the problem can persist but in the end it will get solved. As always, the best solution is to make sure ahead of time that you have resources; my advices were for those extreme cases when you'd like to get more involved with micromanagement.

Prime example of eternity is for you to grab some remote pirate station and your explorer or whatever decides to go there to repair. The ship will never again see the dark of space until your empire has caught up.