Oversight system

[janamdo]

There are some hyperdrives
Gerax Hyperdrive HYP ENGY 11 480
Warp Bubble Gen. HYP ENGY 10 480
Equinox Jump Drive HYP ENGY 9 3.840
Kaldos HyperDrive HYP ENGY 9 3.840
VelocityDrive HYP ENGY 8 3.840
Torrent Drive HYP ENGY 9 7.690
---------------------------------------------------
and engines
Directional Thruster ENGY 2 60
Ion Thruster ENGY 6 60
Proton Thruster ENGY 7 480
Thrust Vector ENGY 2 480
Swift Vector ENGY 2 1.920
Acceleros Engine ENGY 8 3.840
Multi Vector ENGY 2 3.840
Quantum Engine ENGY 8 3.840
StarBurner Engine ENGY 7 3.840
TurboThruster ENGY 7 3.840
Vortex Engine ENGY 8 7.690

What ships do need more hyperdrives ? .. answers: all ships who are going outside the homesystem and are all normal engines for insidethe homesystem ?
What max range is possible for hyperdrive or is this not important ( max explorer range is a sector of the galaxy map) ?

[Aeson]

What ships do need more hyperdrives ?

No ship 'needs' multiple hyperdrives, as hyperdrives mostly don't stack with one another. The important things to look at on a hyperdrive are its speed and its energy requirement. Warp Bubble Generators require 132 energy to operate at their full speed of 2000, which makes them incredibly inefficient because it means you need at least three space reactors in order get the full speed, and that speed is very low to start with (just as an example, if you design a ship with a Gerax hyperdrive and give the hyperdrive full power, the ship will have a higher hyperspeed even when out of fuel than a ship with a fully-powered Warp Bubble Generator at full fuel will, and it's faster by a factor of more than two).

As for why I said that hyperdrives 'mostly' don't stack with one another: a design with two different hyperdrive components (i.e. Kaldos + Equinox, not Kaldos + Kaldos) will result in a design which effectively has a single hyperdrive with the following characteristics:
1. The hyperspeed energy requirement will be equal to the maximum energy requirement of any hyperdrive component carried by the ship.
2. The time required to initiate a jump will be equal to the minimum jump initiation time of all the hyperdrive components carried by the ship.
3. The hyperspeed will be equal to the maximum hyperspeed of the hyperdrives carried by the ship.
4. The size requirement of the effective hyperdrive, as you might expect, is equal to the sum of the sizes of the hyperdrive components carried.

Thus, a ship with two hyperdrive components operates as though it has only one hyperdrive component which combines the best hyperjump-related aspects of the drives carried but requires the power of the most power-hungry drive carried. As a result, if you're going to combine any two hyperdrive components, you're better off going with Kaldos + Equinox, if both are available, than with any other pairing, as the Kaldos drive is the drive which sets the energy requirements in that pairing (except at the final upgrade of the two components, when they have equal power requirements) and the Equinox drive is faster than the Calista-Dal. The Gerax and Calista-Dal drives are reasonable candidates if you don't yet have the Equinox drive. Other potential combinations tend to offer too little improvement for the cost (e.g. Equinox + Calista-Dal saves you one second of jump initiation time off of about 12, while Torrent and Velocity drives already combine a similarly high speed to the Equinox drive with a similarly fast jump initiation time to the Kaldos in a single component).

What max range is possible for hyperdrive or is this not important

Maximum theoretical ship range depends on a combination of several things: the speed and energy requirements of your hyperdrives, your design's static energy requirement, the number of fuel cells carried by your design, and your reactor fuel efficiency. However, maximum theoretical range is largely irrelevant using any hyperdrive other than Warp Bubble Generators, as it's trivial to obtain ranges of about 5 sectors and fairly easy to obtain ranges in excess of 10 sectors with just a few Standard Fuel Cells, using Fission Reactors and Gerax Hyperdrives or higher-tech equivalents. Warp Bubble Generators, however, suffer from a combination of issues that make it difficult to create designs with more than perhaps two sectors range.

The first issue is that the Warp Bubble Generator requires lots of energy and has a low maximum speed. This combination of facts means that any jump using a Warp Bubble Generator is very fuel-intensive, as the hyperdrive energy use is in units of energy per second and the speed determines the duration of the trip. If we assume that you want to travel 1 system diameter (about 50,000 range units, if I remember correctly), a fully-powered Warp Bubble Generator will require 25 seconds plus the jump initiation time to make that jump. A Gerax hyperdrive will only require about 4 seconds plus its jump initiation time to make the same jump. The basic Gerax hyperdrive requires 78 energy per second from the reactors when fully powered, whereas the Warp Bubble Generator requires 132. Ignoring the energy cost of the jump initiation, this means that the Gerax hyperdrive will consume 312 units of energy over the course of the jump whereas the Warp Bubble Generator will consume 3300 units of energy. Assuming that you're using the same reactor to power both designs, this means that the Gerax Hyperdrive will use less than one-tenth the fuel that the Warp Bubble Generator will use to make that one jump, and the Gerax hyperdrive will get your ships there more than 6 times more rapidly.

The second issue that the Warp Bubble Generator has is that you likely only have the Basic Space Reactor available to power it. This reactor is the least fuel efficient reactor in the game, consuming 4.11 units of fuel per thousand energy produced, and has a very low output of 46 energy per second. Its only redeeming qualities are that you start the game with it and that it's about average size for a reactor. Just to fully power the Warp Bubble Generator, you need at least three of these things (because you must have an excess reactor output of 132; three Basic Space Reactors have a total output of 138, so it's fairly likely that you'll need a fourth, depending on your design's static energy requirements, if you want to fully power the Warp Bubble Generator), which costs you the 54 size units used by the reactors (note - you can often obtain superior range by NOT fully powering the Warp Bubble Generator than you can by fully powering it, because you can fit three more fuel cells into the space that would have held a reactor, though this makes an already-slow hyperdrive even slower).

The third issue goes hand in hand with the second issue - you're probably only using the Warp Bubble Generator while you're restricted to small ships, which greatly limits the amount of space you have to toss in reactors to power an inefficient hyperdrive. This means that your designs will often not fully power the hyperdrive in order to squeeze whatever else you need on the ship into the limited available space, which makes the ship slower and thus makes the design less fuel efficient (note that the hyperdrive component itself has a fixed fuel requirement for a given jump distance, as if you reduce the supplied power by X% you have also reduced the travel speed by X%, so any hyperdrive requires only a fixed amount of fuel for a jump of any given distance; it's the added cost from the static energy requirements that drive the fuel efficiency down as you reduce the power supplied to the hyperdrive below its requirements).

A further issue is that the fuel cells available at game start are rather lacking in capacity. This means that you might require 5 or 10 fuel cells (30 to 60 size units) just to obtain a 1-sector range on the Warp Bubble Generator, which combines with all the other issues with space requirements to restrict the operating range of an early-game design. Simply replacing the Warp Bubble Generator with a Gerax Hyperdrive and changing nothing else about the design can quite easily improve the theoretical range by a factor of five or more.

and engines

There are two different types of engines in the list you put together - maneuvering engines (directional thruster, thrust vector, swift vector, multi vector), and main thrust engines (ion thruster, proton thruster, acceleros engine, quantum engine, vortex engine, starburner engine, turbothruster). Both of these are used only while the ship is traveling at impulse/cruise/sprint speeds. Maneuvering Engines govern how rapidly the ship turns, in some formula determined by the total thrust of the maneuvering engine components and the total size of the design, though I cannot tell you the exact equation, and increase the static energy requirements of the ship if I recall correctly. Main thrust engines determine the cruise and sprint speeds and the energy requirements for impulse/cruise/sprint speeds; the cruise and sprint speeds are determined by summing up the total thrust at that thrust level (so if I have 5 engines that each give a cruise thrust of 560 and a sprint thrust of 600, I have 2800 cruise thrust and 3000 sprint thrust) and dividing that resultant thrust by the total size of the ship (continuing the example, if I have a size-400 ship, those five engines will give my ship a cruise speed of 7 and a sprint speed of 7.5, which I think rounds to 8), while the power requirements for each speed level are determined by the sum of the energy requirements for each thrust level determined by the drive component. Main thrust engines and maneuvering thrusters DO NOT affect hyperspeed, which is determined only by the hyperdrive and by how much power you can give it. It is advisable to keep the cruise speed above 12 for any design you have, as otherwise your ships will most likely be unable to catch up to a planet if they run out of fuel (all ship movement speeds except, I think, impulse are divided by three when the vessel is out of fuel, though I don't believe turn rate is affected; this is what gives me the ability to say that a fully-powered but out-of-fuel Gerax drive design is still more than twice as fast as a fully-powered fully-fueled Warp Bubble Generator design, as the Gerax drive's 12500 speed becomes 4166 or 4167 when out of fuel, as compared to the Warp Bubble Generator's best possible speed of 2000).

Ships will use standard engines for any purpose that requires them to remain below lightspeed - combat, short-distance travel (if there's a hyperdrive equipped, 'short distance' basically means that if it's further away than the other side of the planet that your ship is at, you're going to take a hyperjump), or movement in a hyperspeed-denied area (a couple story locations, or within range of a ship with an active hyperdeny component) - and hyperdrives for anything else, if they have them. This is because even the slowest hyperdrive is likely to reduce the duration of the journey by a factor of at least 10 (it's very rare to have a design with a cruise speed in excess of 40-50, and you will most likely be able to attain a speed of at least 400 on the Warp Bubble Generator even if you don't change the design to free up some reactor output, as that speed requires only about 27 excess reactor output and if you don't have at least that much, your design probably doesn't have the power to do much of anything worthwhile anyways). Cruise speed is the normal sublight travel speed, impulse speed is used while docking with stations or planets, and sprint speed is used while moving to engage a target and perhaps while attempting to flee, though cruise speed is the speed used for most of an engagement if I'm not mistaken.

[janamdo]

At the moment i try to understand the sector view with the blinking solid yellow circle ..what are the conditions that a sytem get this yellow circle ?

[Aeson]

At the moment i try to understand the sector view with the blinking solid yellow circle ..what are the conditions that a sytem get this yellow circle ?

Is it a solid yellow ring that expands out from a single point (i.e. a system)? If so, that ring indicates the location of the event or object that your cursor is hovering over; the object or the place where the event occurred can be found by going to the center of the yellow ring.

If you're referring to a small dotted ring that expands out from a point on the map, that indicates the location referred to in the message "we've recovered information pointing to something in Sector G7 at coordinates X, Y." Go there, and you may find whatever the message refers to. It's also possible that you won't find anything there because someone else got to it first.

[janamdo]

Thanks, i must try this out in the introductory game ..i did on speed 4, and the yellow rings are popping up on the sector map, but cannot related this with a message
The yellow ring pops up without mouse action, suddenly it appear on the sector view, caused by the automation i think.
The yellow rings standing for exactly?

Also the propulsion chain must be clarified for the ships...comes later

[Aeson]

The yellow ring pops up without mouse action, suddenly it appear on the sector view, caused by the automation i think.

If an event notice just popped up on the right side of the screen above the minimap, then the yellow ring is showing you where the event occurred.

Also the propulsion chain must be clarified for the ships...comes later

There are three engine components available for use in a design: main thrust engines, directional thrusters, and hyperdrives. Main thrust engines and directional thrusters stack with themselves, hyperdrives mostly don't (see above for clarification on how hyperdrives stack).

Ships have four speed levels (impulse, cruise, sprint, and hyperspeed) and a turn rate. The turn rate is governed by the number of directional thrusters you add to your ship, impulse speed is constant across all designs, cruise and sprint speed are governed by the main thrust engines, and hyperspeed is set by the hyperdrive you chose.

Turn speed appears to have a minimum of 6 degrees per second, and is computed by something like the following formula:

Code: Select all

     Turn Rate = [(number of directional thrusters)*(directional thruster thrust rating)*115/(total size of ship)] + 6

which gives the ship's turn rate in degrees per second (round down to the nearest integer). I'm not certain about the exact multiplier for the directional thrust; the 115 comes from empirical testing that lead to this multiplier, which seems to give a good prediction for what the turn rate will be for a variety of ship sizes and directional thrust components. Generally, a turn rate of about 10 is adequate for civilian ships, though higher turn rates will better enable them to flee pirate attacks. A turn rate of about 15 to 20 is adequate for most combat ships, though higher turn rates can be useful.

Main thrust engines have two listed thrust values - cruise thrust and maximum thrust - as well as the energy use associated with each thrust level. Cruise thrust governs a ship's cruise speed, while maximum thrust governs a ship's sprint speed. Regardless of which speed you're looking at, however, the speed that your ship can attain is given by the following formula:

Code: Select all

     Ship Speed = [(number of main thrust components)*(thrust per main thrust component)/(total ship size)]*X
      X = min( 1, (reactor excess output)/[(number of main thrust components)*(thrust level energy use)] )

Cruise speed is computed using the cruise thrust and cruise energy values while sprint speed is computed using the maximum thrust and maximum energy values for the main thrust component in question. The total energy requirements for moving the ship at either speed is equal to the number of components multiplied by the thrust level's energy requirement, capped by the reactor's excess output. Impulse thrust power requirements appear to be set to about one third the cruise power requirements, though impulse speed is fixed at 4 range units per second as long as there is at least one functional main thrust component on the ship.

Hyper speed, unlike cruise and sprint speed, is mostly independent of the size of your ship. Your ship's hyper speed is set by the following formula:

Code: Select all

     Hyper Speed = (hyperdrive's rated hyper speed)*X
      X = min( 1, (reactor excess output)/(hyperdrive's rated energy requirement) )

You only need one hyperdrive on any given ship design. It can occasionally be useful to have multiple hyperdrives, with one serving as a backup drive in case the main drive is destroyed or in order to get the better hyperjump characteristics of each drive at the cost of size and, possibly, power requirements. The jump initiation time appears to be fixed to the rated jump initiation time of the drive, regardless of how much power you're supplying the hyperdrive, though I have never done any kind of testing to see if this is truly the case, as for any hyperdrive other than the Warp Bubble Generator I see no real advantage in not supplying full power to the hyperdrive (well, there's a possibility with the Gerax hyperdrive if ship sizes are still low, as in no more than size 230, and you're still running on Basic Space Reactors, but even with those 78 excess output isn't asking too much).

Hopefully, that helps.

[Airpower]

ORIGINAL: Aeson
1. The hyperspeed energy requirement will be equal to the maximum energy requirement of any hyperdrive component carried by the ship.
2. The time required to initiate a jump will be equal to the minimum jump initiation time of all the hyperdrive components carried by the ship.
3. The hyperspeed will be equal to the maximum hyperspeed of the hyperdrives carried by the ship.
4. The size requirement of the effective hyperdrive, as you might expect, is equal to the sum of the sizes of the hyperdrive components carried.

This is extremely useful information. Thank you.

[janamdo]

X = min( 1, (reactor excess output)/(hyperdrive's rated energy requirement) )

This formalue seems to be strange for me ..cannot relate it to basic math ( x , : , +, - )..it looks like a function
But coming back on the yellow circles: it has to do with a event and there is een message for, but when the time further passes the yellow circle still blinking and afterwards tracking down where it stands for ?( it is difficult to track back )
I did this on max time speed 4.

[Aeson]

This formalue seems to be strange for me ..cannot relate it to basic math ( x , : , +, - )..it looks like a function

That's because it is a function - min(X, Y) is a function with two input arguments (X and Y) which returns whichever input argument is most negative (i.e. whichever number is "smaller"). So min(5, 10) returns 5, min(-5, -10) returns -10, and min(15,0) returns 0. If the two input arguments are equal, then it returns whatever the value of either input argument is. This is the minimum function on a two element scalar set.

In the case of the quoted formula, the X argument is 1, and the Y argument is given by the expression (reactor excess output)/(hyperdrive's rated energy requirement). So if you have a ship design with an excess reactor output of 100 and a hyperdrive energy requirement of 78, the inputs to the min(X, Y) function would be 1 and 100/78 (= 1.28), and would return 1 as the result. If the excess reactor output were 70 instead of 100, the inputs to the minimum function would be 1 and 70/78 (= 0.897), and would return 0.897 as the result.

But coming back on the yellow circles: it has to do with a event and there is een message for, but when the time further passes the yellow circle still blinking and afterwards tracking down where it stands for ?( it is difficult to track back )

If you're lucky, the message will still be in the message log at the top center of the screen. You can place your cursor over each of the messages that show up there and see where the yellow circles show up, and if you find one that produces yellow circles in the correct spot, that's the one. Otherwise, take note of the grid coordinates of the sector that the yellow circle is originating in (the top and bottom of the map have a letter marking each column of sectors, while the right and left sides have a number; the letters go in alphabetical order from left to right, but I don't recall whether the numbers start from the bottom and go up or start from the top and go down). Then open up the message log by clicking on the little envelope symbol next to the message scroll in the top center area of the screen, and start looking through the messages to see which ones say something about something happening in that part of the galaxy.

If it's the little dotted circle that expands out from a point on the map, that's something different. That one shows you where something interesting ought to be, according to information that you've obtained by exploring ruins, buying it from pirates, destroying or capturing pirate ships, or investigating abandoned ships and stations. For the most part, you'll only be able to find the message associated with that by going to the message log and reading the messages to see which ones tell you that there's something interesting in that sector of the galaxy (when the location of interest is within a system, the message will include a system name, its galactic grid coordinates, and the sector that it's in - e.g. 'we have indications that there is an abandoned ship at 808, 150 on the outskirts of the Sol system in sector G7 - but if it's not in a system, you'll only get the galactic coordinates and the sector you can find it in).

[janamdo]

The quantities for Ship Speed and Hyperspeed can be deduced from the formuleas, so perhaps it can be valuable to construct a ship focussed on speed?

[Aeson]

If you want to create a design focused on speed and feel that you have a use for it, there is no reason not to do so. Just remember that getting that high sublight performance is going to come at a cost to something - maybe it means that you had to keep your ship small, or maybe it means that a third or more of the ship's size is tied up in engines. I personally like most of my ships to be in the 20 to 30 cruise speed range, some people like their ships faster, other people might like them slower.

As far as hyperspeed goes, there's really very little reason not to fully power any hyperdrive aside from the Warp Bubble Generator. Most military ships will require at least as much power for the weapons and sublight engines as you'd need to fully power the hyperdrive, so cutting back on the hyperdrive power isn't saving you anything there. It's only with the really early construction sizes and the Basic Space Reactors that you're really looking at a situation where you might need so little excess output for weapons and sublight engines that providing only partial power to the hyperdrive is even worth considering. A requirement for 50 to 125 excess reactor output (depending on which hyperdrive you're using) really isn't that much, especially if you're already budgeting your reactor output to make use of blasters or torpedoes, which can easily result in a design which requires more than 100 excess reactor output for the weapons alone, and when you add the cruise or sprint energy to that to determine your excess reactor output requirement, you should end up with plenty for the hyperdrive to use.

Basic power budgeting says that you should have enough excess reactor output on your design to cover the higher of:
1. Hyperdrive energy requirement
2. Weapons energy per second + cruise (or sprint) energy requirement

You can also add the shield recharge rate into that to ensure that you always have enough power to keep the shields recharging at full rate in combat and while your ship is jumping. Be aware that you probably do not want to use the first criterion to budget reactor output when using a Warp Bubble Generator - at the time you have that hyperdrive, your ships are likely so small that you're basically be choosing between whether your ships moved at full hyperspeed or were useful when they arrived at their destination. Warp Bubble Generators are so fuel and power hungry that between the reactors to fully power them and the fuel cells required to give your designs an adequate range, you often won't have the space for a useful armament or reasonable defenses if you decide to fully power the hyperdrive, and you'll have a huge excess of power for your minimal armament of basic weapons and your sublight engines. When you get to the Gerax Hyperdrive and construction size 230 or 300, and also to some extent when you get the Fission Reactor, it becomes much more feasible to fully power the hyperdrive and you're much more likely to have enough space in the design to make full use of the reactor output that you took to fully power the hyperdrive.

[janamdo]

ORIGINAL: Aeson

But coming back on the yellow circles: it has to do with a event and there is een message for, but when the time further passes the yellow circle still blinking and afterwards tracking down where it stands for ?( it is difficult to track back )

If you're lucky, the message will still be in the message log at the top center of the screen. You can place your cursor over each of the messages that show up there and see where the yellow circles show up, and if you find one that produces yellow circles in the correct spot, that's the one. Otherwise, take note of the grid coordinates of the sector that the yellow circle is originating in (the top and bottom of the map have a letter marking each column of sectors, while the right and left sides have a number; the letters go in alphabetical order from left to right, but I don't recall whether the numbers start from the bottom and go up or start from the top and go down). Then open up the message log by clicking on the little envelope symbol next to the message scroll in the top center area of the screen, and start looking through the messages to see which ones say something about something happening in that part of the galaxy.

If it's the little dotted circle that expands out from a point on the map, that's something different. That one shows you where something interesting ought to be, according to information that you've obtained by exploring ruins, buying it from pirates, destroying or capturing pirate ships, or investigating abandoned ships and stations. For the most part, you'll only be able to find the message associated with that by going to the message log and reading the messages to see which ones tell you that there's something interesting in that sector of the galaxy (when the location of interest is within a system, the message will include a system name, its galactic grid coordinates, and the sector that it's in - e.g. 'we have indications that there is an abandoned ship at 808, 150 on the outskirts of the Sol system in sector G7 - but if it's not in a system, you'll only get the galactic coordinates and the sector you can find it in).

This gonna be troublesome ..reading all messages ..o no please this is too much asked.
No control about the yellow (warning?)circles
Still not a sysytematic idea why those yellow circles are standing for on the sector map ?
I do have now a problem to do the right thing in Distant Worlds Universe

[Aeson]

Why don't you upload a picture somewhere so that we can be sure that we know what the yellow circles you refer to actually are? If it's just fixed rings around a bunch of stars (with the rings not expanding out away from the star), then you most likely have at least one filter turned on in the area down by the galaxy map. If it's a solid yellow ring that expands out from a system, disappears, and comes back again and repeats that over again, that's an indication of where an event occurred or of where something you're hovering your cursor over happens to be. If it's a little dotted circle that expands out from a point in space, it's a place that the game hinted that you should send a ship to because there's something interesting at that location.

Beyond that, I really cannot help you without seeing what the yellow circle you're describing is. There are a lot of things in the game that can produce circles on the map.

[janamdo]

I start for this with the introductory game in the kharinthut homeworld and within some minutes 3 yellow lighting up are added to the sector view
Now i do have 4 yellow light up rings .. differ in size .. homesystem biggest and one smaller than the homesystem en 2 the same size
sector yellow rings
Note: it seems that the sector view is not listed in the galactopedia under game screens ?
You need map key for the sector view for all those rings ?
Strange i do have 2 now yellow circles when i start over the game and without any messages?

then you most likely have at least one filter turned on in the area down by the galaxy map.

...you mean a view filtering?

Somehow the yellow rings are related to my empire ?..there is in the ingame tutorial ( finding you way around) a short explanation about the sector map
Tutorial: colonized systems: Systems that have been colonized by an empire are circled with their empire's color.
The size of the circle indicates the sysytem's relative importance-larger systems are more valuable
Systems that are part of an empire 's territory have a colord background
Colonies project their empire's influence into nearby systems, making them part of their empire's territory
Independent systems : some systems have independent colonies of aliens that do not belong to any empire --> these independent systems are circled with a solid grey line.
Systems with potential colonies: any systems with potential colonies by a dashed grey circle

As example i start with a test game with a game pauzed right awayand with two yellow rings and no messages whatsoever on a explored system ( named)
So yellow ringed systems are all explored?
This second yellow system seems to not visible by the shading. ..i ty to find a explenation why it is yellow circled ?..it is neutron star (Neutron stars may occasionally have a system of one or two planets. They emit intense radio waves that are worthy of close study. For this reason research stations constructed near a Neutron star often receive a research bonus)
Is this bonus the reason of the existence of the yellow ring of this second system what is smaller than the yellow ring on the homeworld.
The bigger yellow ring around the homessytem is standing for ?
The empire homessytem has a colored red circle with a yellow circle around it and it seems that there are no colonized systems yet because the homesytem is the only one colored red.
Are the yellow circles..warning circles ?.. and the size is for the importance of the message ? ..what messages were more import in the homessystem than those in the second explored system?
I let the galaxy run and two yellow circles are added after exploring : a black hole and a super nova
A fith yellow circle is added after exploration and this system is surrounded by a dashed gray circle: a potential colony makes this yellow circled ?

3 yellow circles are added at the same time ..the systems are under explorating and do have ordinairy stars!..so the yellow rings are a probably a indication that a system is under exploration at a certain moment or already complete explored and the size has to do with the importance for your empire ?
There are 7 explored sytems and not colonized yet.

[Tcby]

Those circles exist because one of the filtering buttons on the bottom right corner of screen is selected. Specifically, the "Potential Resort Locations" or "Potential Research Locations" have likely been selected. Or both. Click the buttons in the bottom right corner and observe the change.

Systems can also be circled if you have selected the button in the same area that highlights potential colonies.

Edit: if you look at this screenshot (http://www.spacesector.com/blog/wp-cont ... _large.jpg) you will see a box in the bottom right corner of the screen. In it are several buttons on the top of the box. The lightbulb (third from the right), ringed planet, and earth-like planet are filtering options for research locations, resort locations (scenic locations) and potential colonies. You have selected at least of one these.

[janamdo]

Thanks..this is clear now and indeed all yellow circles are positened by the filter buttons!
Ah yes ..@Aeson mentioned the galaxy map ..button G , but it is the sector view with the filtering
Is this documented ? that is way i must find it out with trial and error ( a bad learning strategy )

[Tcby]

Yes, in the Galactopedia go to Game Screens, then Main Screen. The information is under the subheading Map Overlays. It's near the bottom of the page [:)]

[janamdo]

It is not userfriendly this..better is to have a own sector view menu entrance in the galactopedia for the sector screen and say something about the yellow circles
Littlle bit too much work to find it out on this way, but finally got the answer about these "mysterious yellow circles in the galaxy" [:)]

[Tcby]

You can press F1 at any point in the game and it will bring up a help screen explaining what you're looking at. With that the info is easy to find

[janamdo]

Thanks this can help too !