Newbie Questions

[Litcube]

Hey, cool guys!

Just learning DW + RotS. I'm getting my ass handed to me. I've read the manual, done the tutorials, and read the galactopedia, so I know all the theory, I'm just having a difficult time putting it into practical use. I was hoping some bored veterans could help me out with some basic questions.

1. I've set automation off complete, except to suggest things. I could let the game play itself, but maybe that's boring. When construction ships are built, I set them to automate. I figure they do a decent job.

2. I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around designs. Am I supposed to scrap all the original designs the game comes with and make my own? Is that what you cool guys do? Should I do that and then just save them for future use? Is there any point in creating new freighter, miner, passenger ship designs? What about the base designs?


2b. Should I have one design per class of ship (escort, frigate), or do you dudes make more than one design as specialised roles?

2c. What's the difference between an escort, frigate, destroyer role? I can build the same design with each role, couldn't?

3. I tried building a star port when I colonized a new world and it's taking forever. Is there something I can do to speed it up, or am I building this thing too early, and should wait until the colony develops more?

[Igard]

Welcome to the forums, Litcube.[:)]

1. Always good to automate construction ships at all times. Only use them on manual when you want something built in a specific place. Suggestions aren't a bad idea when you're first starting out, but don't always listen to your advisors. They often ask you to build too much.

2. Sometimes I scrap alot of the original designs, but never all of them. Saving the designs can be a good idea. I don't usually bother though. To begin with, just edit your military ships. Give your escorts a missile or torpedo weapon. Start off slow. There are other things you can do to make your mining ships and passenger ships more effective, or more resilient, but it's not necessary to win the game. I quite often leave all those civilian ships alone.

2b. It's fun to make multiple classes of ship, but again, not necessary when you're just starting out. Get used to the different components and what makes the ship more powerful, or over-powered.

2c. Yip, you could. It really just gives us a different graphic and a slot for a small, medium and large early-game ship. Destroyers have troop compartments as standard, but you can take those off if you like and add more firepower, or shielding.

3. Wait for the colony to develop. Around 50m population is a good figure for a small spaceport. Your freighters will have to transport strategic resources (steel, gold, carbon etc) to the new colony, or the new colony can mine this themselves. Then you can begin construction. If construction is slow, it's because they're waiting for resources to be transported. So make sure your frieghters don't get hijacked by pirates![;)]

Enjoy the game. And ask away if you've got more questions (or if my answers have raised more). Lots of helpful folks around here. [:)]

[Litcube]

Thanks, man.


Why does a defensive base need a docking port?

Edit: Or cargo storage, for that matter.

Edit: Also, what do mining stations need energy collectors for if they have no weapons on them?

[Data]

Hi Litcube and welcome to the community. Some of the designs have mandatory components even if we don't see a need for them. Aside from that a defensive base needs a docking port for supply ships to dock and transfer cargo and crew; cargo storage for the same reason but I think this is not mandatory and you can eliminate it.
Not only weapons consume energy, some of the components have static energy requirements and since the mining stations are stationary and usually inside a star system having collectors does help a lot to preserve fuel.
Have fun.

[Litcube]

Re the bases: Why would a defense base need supplies? What sort of supplies? Are we talking fuel? If a base runs out of fuel, what happens? This game needs another tutorial.

Hm.. I think I'm having trouble with understanding the characteristics of fuel and energy. From what I gather, reactors turn fuel into energy. But I'm not sure how energy is used. Is there a guide for this somewhere?

For example, I designed all of my new ships, and I kept getting Shields: ### (Reducing). I figured out that I wasn't suppying enough energy to the ship to keep the shields going, but in the design, there was nothing obvious to let me know my design was flawed in this manner. Any ideas?

[Data]

Agreed on the tutorial request. Normally, if any base/ship runs out of fuel and energy is not produced than nothing should continue to operate. In practice, some components can still function but this should not be so.

The best guide I can think of for fuel / energy usage is here -> tm.asp?m=2411040. It's a good all around tutorial on ship design in general and should help with the shields question as well.

[Shuul]

Hi! Are you the same Litcube from egosoft forums?

[Litcube]

ORIGINAL: Shuul

Hi! Are you the same Litcube from egosoft forums?

I am. I am that Litcube.

[Litcube]

Alrighty, I read that guide, Data (thank you for that!), and I'm still not entirely sure about energy and the ships requirements.

I did some farting around, and here's what I think is going on:

The hyper drive requires 90. With only one reactor on my ship, my excess energy is 50. This means that my hyper drive will never reach its full potential, right? It will be slow? And this is causing my shields to reduce?

[Shuul]

Thanks for great scripts,using almost all of them(bounce is my favorite, as i like swarm attacks)[:)]. Welcome to DW community, its as good as egosoft forums))

[Litcube]

Thank you, Shuul. And you're most welcome.

[Shuul]

I hope that we will understand how energy works after expansion with bigger possibilities for modding, so we can just check the formula.

Excess energy is that is over your needs, you produce more than you need. But i dont really sure if it counts energy needed for weapons, so the more excess energy you have, the more weapons you can use.

[Data]

ORIGINAL: Litcube

Alrighty, I read that guide, Data (thank you for that!), and I'm still not entirely sure about energy and the ships requirements.

I did some farting around, and here's what I think is going on:

The hyper drive requires 90. With only one reactor on my ship, my excess energy is 50. This means that my hyper drive will never reach its full potential, right? It will be slow? And this is causing my shields to reduce?

You're right, Litcube. Also, when in combat you need enough energy for all the engins and weapons in order to be able to fully use them. As a rule I always use two reactors and energy collectors on my ships to complement each other.

EDIT: You can also check the hyperdrive performance by comparing the stated max for that particular drive with the max speed you get while farting around [:)]. If it's less than that than you're underpowered; having more power will not get it beyond the max though.

[Litcube]

I think I got the energy thing down now. Thanks folks.

When I select a fleet, right click on a neighbouring system, and select move to [system name], the mission shows "moving to [some coordinate]" for a second, and then says "no mission". Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?


Edit: Do private bases get retro-fitted to newer designs?

[Data]

No to the last one, unfortunatelly. It's been requested already.
As for the first one, the fleet is on auto? That may cancel your order.

[Litcube]

Oh, bunk! I'm stuck with outdated mining and research stations? Is it a valid strategy just to scrap them and get the rebuilt?

And as for the fleet thing, its not on auto. Issuing a move command shows up for a second and then the mission goes back to "no mission". Setting a patrol mission works, that's the only way I can get my fleets to move to a new system.

[Data]

Is it a valid strategy just to scrap them and get the rebuilt?

not only valid but pretty much the only one atm

There are some known issues with command stickiness but it should not be that bad. If you do the same for individual ships in the fleet do they behave in the same manner?

[Litcube]

It appears as though I wasn't patient enough. The fleets eventually move, but they indicate "no mission", which is odd. There's other oddities as well, such as patrol mission sometimes getting erased to "no mission". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I think I've formed my opinion on this game now, after putting some time into it. It's a good start, but doesn't cut it just yet. I'll come back when the game's evolved a little bit. I see there's an expansion due out? Is this supposed to be released this year?

[Data]

It's a good start, but doesn't cut it just yet

That's indeed the opinion we all share. Yes, a new expansion was announced "soon" so the general consensus is that we'll see it in less than a year from now on and hopefully by the end of this year.

[Shuul]

Same here, stopped playing it a month ago, waiting for expansion.