Matrix Games Forums

Between reading about the game in various places, watching a couple of youtube videos, and playing around a bit (with automation turned off), I think I have a pretty decent grasp of how most things work. But there are a few lingering questions that I haven't been able to find answers to:

1) Is there a way to "search" the galactic map? Meaning, can I type in a specific (previously explored) star system's name and have the camera move there? I haven't been able to find such a feature, but I think that it'd be really handy.

2) How many passenger compartments should one put on ships and bases? I've done a little bit of simple testing, and it seems like using one baseline Massive Passenger Compartment on a passenger ship means that it'll carry 24000k migrants (and I think 20k tourists?) However, if I increase the number of compartments up to 15, they'll only carry double the migrants of a single compartment - 48000k. Is there a cap on the number of usable compartments, regardless of size? A cap on the total number of migrants? Something else? In some of my earlier games it seems as though I've been massively overbuilding my passenger ships, but I'm not sure just how the cap is determined. (The same can be said for bases, too; I had some huge resort bases built around a few black holes, but the tourist count didn't seem to go all that high; I'm still not sure just how many compartments I should be adding).

3) Does anyone know how multi-racial population caps are calculated? For instance: If a pure Human population and a pure Quameno population each occupy separate-but-identical Ocean worlds, then I believe that the Quameno population will cap at a higher number than the Human one will. But what if some Humans immigrate to the Quameno world? Will they end up taking the place of some Quameno, and drag down the total population cap since they're not as well suited to the planet, thus making it a "worse" colony in the end?

I've been trying to keep my Human population (with a Human Empire) from migrating to a few alien colonies that I have, but setting my primary racial group to "Do Not Accept" on Quameno and Shandar worlds doesn't seem to have any effect. As soon as my private sector started building passenger ships, humans began immigrating to those colonies. While I'd like to have those fledgling alien populations grow, as long as the Humans don't weaken the colonies in the long-run, I guess I'm fine with it.

4) If I set my aforementioned Quameno and Shandar worlds to "Do Not Accept" on alien populations, will the natives that are already there (who begin showing up as "Do Not Accept) continue to grow - just without migrants? I'd like to keep the neighboring Sluken off of my worlds if possible, since I don't trust 'em at all (even though their engines are pretty amazing...)

5) How many Ion Defense components do I need? I've seen conflicting info on this, with some mentions of them being like armor components, while others saying you only need a single unit to get the full benefit.

6) Are the benefits of Way of the Ancients/Darkness, and super weapon technology only available for the first empire to find the right ruins? It seems that way to me, but I'd like to know if it's possible to provide the government type to a friendly civilization (it looks like the super weapon techs are tradeable, with a really huge value attached to them). Also, is it possible to steal the technology for super weapons? In one of my previous games the Zenox found Death Rays, and I wasn't able to get them from any ruins that I found. The technology showed up in the list of things I could steal via espionage, and I ran a lot of missions trying to get it. But, since it doesn't show up in the tech screen, I couldn't tell if I was actually making any progress or not.

7) What's up with pirate strength? I've played several games now on the same settings (pirates set to normal numbers and weak strength, with game difficulty on normal), but they're vastly weaker than usual in my current game. In the last 2-3 games I've played, I've seen quite a few pirate factions end up with strength numbers reaching upwards of 4k-6k, even in the relatively early part of the game. In my current playthrough, however, the strongest pirates seem to be at around 1.2k, with most having strength < 1k. All of the AI empires seem to be fairly weak as well (far behind me, actually), so I don't think it's that they're keeping the pirates in check. Did I just get lucky this game, with the pirates not finding many derelict ships?

And speaking of derelict ships, I'll wrap up my long winded post with this - is there any "trick" to locating them? It's really beneficial to find large/advanced ships early on, particularly when it's a colony ship for an alien race that can colonize worlds that your empire isn't normally able to settle (without much later technology, anyway). Once I get the Gerax Hyperdrive and build a decent handful of scouts, I tend to set each one to explore a full sector (sometimes overlapping, if there are a lot of stars), and if I don't bump right into a derelict ship (or ruin that spawns one), they seem to be very easy to miss.

ORIGINAL: Wheem

1) Is there a way to "search" the galactic map? Meaning, can I type in a specific (previously explored) star system's name and have the camera move there? I haven't been able to find such a feature, but I think that it'd be really handy.

No there is no way to search for a system.. yeah a stupid design right? This has pissed me off for years.

2) How many passenger compartments should one put on ships and bases? I've done a little bit of simple testing, and it seems like using one baseline Massive Passenger Compartment on a passenger ship means that it'll carry 24000k migrants

I remember there being some cap .. I dont remember what it was.. but you are correct in testing with the editor and just design a ship with 50 passenger and then 10 passenger compartments and test..



3)

Does anyone know how multi-racial population caps are calculated? For instance: If a pure Human population and a pure Quameno population each occupy separate-but-identical Ocean worlds, then I believe that the Quameno population will cap at a higher number than the Human one will

Oh my.. god only knows how they programmed that..


the resettle and immigration policies aren't exactly what you think, you can't have only humans go here or there.. they programmed it in a (dumb) way that only you can set "my humans and other human-like races" or just plain old "non-human" (the alien bug type race types.. yeah its like that..

so it's kinda like if you have a planet with humans and you want another planet to ONLY have humans on it you can't.. it will accept all humans-like type races.. genius programming right??

4) If I set my aforementioned Quameno and Shandar worlds to "Do Not Accept" on alien populations, will the natives that are already there (who begin showing up as "Do Not Accept) continue to grow - just without migrants? I'd like to keep the neighboring Sluken off of my worlds if possible, since I don't trust 'em at all (even though their engines are pretty amazing...)

If i understand this correctly, Do not accept policy will just not accept more.. so passenger ships may come along and take them away..

5) How many Ion Defense components do I need? I've seen conflicting info on this, with some mentions of them being like armor components, while others saying you only need a single unit to get the full benefit.

darn i just read on that but I think the answer is as many ion defense as you want.. You can test this with the editor.. make a design base with only ion defense version 1 with 10.. version 2 with 1 ion defense.. and then design an attacker ship with 1 ion cannon.. and then another attacker ship with 10 ion cannons.. and see how they do accordingly.. know what i mean?

6)

Are the benefits of Way of the Ancients/Darkness, and super weapon technology only available for the first empire to find the right ruins? It seems that way to me, but I'd like to know if it's possible to provide the government type to a friendly civilization (it looks like the super

yeah dont know that one..

7)

What's up with pirate strength? I've played several games now on the same settings (pirates set to normal numbers and weak strength, with ga...

There are a lot of threads on this subject.. but I assume you aren't using any mods which probably address some of this with pirates..

And speaking of derelict ships, I'll wrap up my long winded post with this - is there any "trick" to locating them? It's really beneficial to find large/advanced ships early on, particularly when it's a colony ship for an alien race that can colonize worlds that your empire isn't

unless someone has a better hint/tip.. I've only seen all the players on youtube videos and etc.. literally watch as they explore the early systems... so...

p.s. i love this game even though there is soooo much that still doesn't make sense even after a ton of patches too haha..

2) IIRC, tourists = 20k per ship cap ; migrants = total capacity of all compartments. So unless you want to absolutely maximise migration, one per ship will usually do. Around ~10 compartments per resort base is enough to last most games from my experience, although my games are all prewarp starts & don't usually go past 200 years.

3) The species segregation controls are really blunt, to put it lightly. It all depends on what your chosen race is, not what the 'planet's natives' are. If you started as Humans, then the first box will be about other humanoid species like Securans & Kiadians. The second box deals with everyone else, which means all bugs, amphibians, reptiles, etc. Can't help with how the max+10% thing is calculated for mixed pops.

Your starting race is exempt from all polices.

5) AFAIK, it's just 1 like how damage control/repair bots or hyperdrives work.

6) Yes, first come first serve. There's no way of sharing government types though.

7) ¯\_(&#12484;)_/¯

-- The last bit is actually three different things.
The 'abandoned ships' event are the ones found in the hyperdeny zones outside of systems or ones spawned from certain story events.
The 'lost ship' event is a result of finding a 'lost ship' ruin.
The 'foreign species colony ship' event (+frigate & destroyer) is a result of finding a 'beacon' ruin.

-- The last bit is actually three different things.
The 'abandoned ships' event are the ones found in the hyperdeny zones outside of systems or ones spawned from certain story events.
The 'lost ship' event is a result of finding a 'lost ship' ruin.
The 'foreign species colony ship' event (+frigate & destroyer) is a result of finding a 'beacon' ruin.

Not entirely. There are a handful of abandoned advanced ships present on the map without a ruin-related event even if you have none of the storylines enabled, and sometimes these can be colony ships. They can also be generated as a result of a pirate faction or perhaps an empire going defunct; one of the possible fates of pirate ships and bases is for the ships and stations to go neutral instead of joining another faction. I usually only see this with 'civilian' pirate ships, however.

And speaking of derelict ships, I'll wrap up my long winded post with this - is there any "trick" to locating them? It's really beneficial to find large/advanced ships early on, particularly when it's a colony ship for an alien race that can colonize worlds that your empire isn't normally able to settle (without much later technology, anyway). Once I get the Gerax Hyperdrive and build a decent handful of scouts, I tend to set each one to explore a full sector (sometimes overlapping, if there are a lot of stars), and if I don't bump right into a derelict ship (or ruin that spawns one), they seem to be very easy to miss.

The easiest way to find derelicts is to develop long-range scanners and install them onto some of your ships or bases, and keep an eye out for light grey ship or station icons on the main map. Those icons are derelict ships or stations. Be aware that long-range scanners are very large components which require a large amount of power, so if you're going to make a mobile scanner you'll probably want to use a dedicated specialist design rather than just tossing it onto your standard escort or something like that. Finding ruins is a similar process; you simply have to keep an eye out for the icon that indicates the presence of ruins and send something to investigate if you don't know what's there.

5) How many Ion Defense components do I need? I've seen conflicting info on this, with some mentions of them being like armor components, while others saying you only need a single unit to get the full benefit.

I haven't done any rigorous testing of this, but the last time I checked it seemed as though one ion defense component performed about as well as five when the ship bearing the ion defense component was attacked by 5 ships each carrying 5 ion cannons, and the performance didn't seem any better or worse than against 1 ship carrying 1 ion cannon. Having more than one is useful to prevent your ship from losing its ion defense to component damage, but aside from that it doesn't appear to do much.

My guess as to how these work would be that ion cannons can disable components as long as (ion cannon shot strength) - (distance penalty) - (greatest ion defense value of any component on the target) > 0.

6) Are the benefits of Way of the Ancients/Darkness, and super weapon technology only available for the first empire to find the right ruins? It seems that way to me, but I'd like to know if it's possible to provide the government type to a friendly civilization (it looks like the super weapon techs are tradeable, with a really huge value attached to them). Also, is it possible to steal the technology for super weapons? In one of my previous games the Zenox found Death Rays, and I wasn't able to get them from any ruins that I found. The technology showed up in the list of things I could steal via espionage, and I ran a lot of missions trying to get it. But, since it doesn't show up in the tech screen, I couldn't tell if I was actually making any progress or not.

The only way I know of to share secret governments involves using the editor, so yes, they're effectively only available to the first empire to find the site. I have, however, occasionally seen multiple computer empires which all have Way of Darkness (not counting the "refugees"), so it might be possible for multiple secret government ruins to be present on the same map, or there might be a chance for revolutions to select Way of Darkness (and possibly Way of the Ancients) as a government type when you get a government overthrow event.

As far as stealing superweapons goes, yes, it's possible. It is however a pain, even if you have an exceptional intelligence agent. Just keep running the missions until you run out of agents or it eventually completes the tech; superweapons are possibly the most expensive techs in the game, and even early techs can take several attempts to acquire enough information to develop if you don't have a decent agent, midgame techs are almost not worth bothering with if you lack a good agent, and late game techs are very trying on your patience if you lack a great agent. You're better off kissing up to the guys who have the superweapons so you can buy the techs; I think they'll trade them at 30+ relations, though I'm not sure about that number. I'd suggest paying at least part of the price with disputed bases or colonies, if you have any; those tend to be worth quite a bit, though not usually as much as the superweapons.

7) What's up with pirate strength? I've played several games now on the same settings (pirates set to normal numbers and weak strength, with game difficulty on normal), but they're vastly weaker than usual in my current game. In the last 2-3 games I've played, I've seen quite a few pirate factions end up with strength numbers reaching upwards of 4k-6k, even in the relatively early part of the game. In my current playthrough, however, the strongest pirates seem to be at around 1.2k, with most having strength < 1k. All of the AI empires seem to be fairly weak as well (far behind me, actually), so I don't think it's that they're keeping the pirates in check. Did I just get lucky this game, with the pirates not finding many derelict ships?

Pirates not finding derelict ships helps, though I really don't think that's a big part of it; I've seen very successful pirate factions which didn't have any advanced ships of which I was aware, and I've seen very unsuccessful pirate factions with two or three advanced ships. More important, I think, is the number and proximity of nearby independent colonies, and how much nearby empires have been paying the pirates to stay away, supply their worlds with resources, etc, and that's going to vary quite a bit from one game to the next. Also, as weak empires generally cannot afford to pay much, and pirates are somewhat reliant on protection agreements to get off the ground in the early game (unless they're lucky with getting good-paying missions early or find several independent worlds to control), weak empires will not necessarily translate to strong pirates.

Never seen an abandoned non-military state ship that existed at time of map creation. They've always resulted from an event or spawned 'during the game' from my experience.

ORIGINAL: Wheem

1) Is there a way to "search" the galactic map? Meaning, can I type in a specific (previously explored) star system's name and have the camera move there? I haven't been able to find such a feature, but I think that it'd be really handy.

Two things that at some times can work, is to:

- Sort the ship list by system. If a ship happens to be there, you got a shortct.

- In expansion planner, show potential resource location by galaxy priority and sort by name. If you are lucky the system shows up.

In both cases you can find the system by zooming to ship/resource location.

So I experimented a bit more, and it appears that I was wrong about passenger ship compartments: it's 2400k, NOT 24000k, per Massive Passenger Compartment (baseline version, not improved), and there isn't an arbitrary hard cap on migrants as far as I can tell (ships with 30 compartments would transport up to 72000k migrants, as they should). Tourists seem to be transported 20k at a time, no matter how I design the ships.

And as some of you guys point out, the immigration policy certainly has room for improvement...I had an event from a beacon ruin that provided me with a Shandar colony ship, which I used to grab a low quality volcanic world that had one of the special ruins on it. Everything was fine at first, with a small and slowly growing Shandar population living alone at the "western" edge of my empire. Then the neighboring Kiadians (who had ~4 billion inhabitants on their homeworld, and no where to expand) decided that they'd love to live on a very low quality volcanic world, and started to migrate there. Since the maximum population on the planet was so low, the Kiadians completely overflowed the planetary cap with only 3 passenger ships worth of migrants (and if my napkin-math is correct, 2 ships would have overflowed it as well). This means that +/- 20 million Shandar (along with quite a few Kiadians) just went poof, and disappeared into thin, ash-choked air. I reloaded earlier save(s) and changed the migration policies in order to try and preserve the lives of the poor Shandar at my colony, but it appears as though in-transit passenger ships ignore changes to the policy (even when they're empty, and heading to a particular planet to pick up the migrants in the first place).

Then there's also the problem with keeping "enemy" races, but not others, from migrating to your worlds; I can't keep out the exceedingly hostile Boskara without also shunning my Atuuk buddies. Being able to set polices on a per-race basis would be great, but would trade sanctions sorta-kinda serve the same purpose, or will passenger ships still travel between empires that sanction one another?

ORIGINAL: HerpInYourDerp
Your starting race is exempt from all polices.

Yea, I didn't realize that at first, so my aforementioned Shandar-only world would probably be "doomed" even if the Kiadians hadn't flooded it.

ORIGINAL: HerpInYourDerp
Never seen an abandoned non-military state ship that existed at time of map creation. They've always resulted from an event or spawned 'during the game' from my experience.

Aeson is right, I've even had two games where my starting system had a derelict colony ship available from day-1.