Ship Design Problems

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Ship Design Problems - 8/29/2010 4:05:56 PM

rk0123msp@mindspring

Posts: 81
Joined: 7/23/2010
Status: offline

I'm trying to design ships using my own specs instead of using default desings. I want to add more fuel tanks for one thing. I figured out how to make ships obsolete & how to "save designs" so I can re-load my new designs in future games. I have the folliwng problems though:

1) when I click "all designs" there are at least two designs of every ship. Note this is not my new designs added to computer-generated, these are two designs created by the computer. There are two computer generated SSP-1 for example (small space port). I edited & obsoleted every design other than that which I created from scratch (is there an easier way to do this other manually one-by-one .. i.e. if I want to obsolete all escorts other than my new escort design how can I do this without having to obsolete every version twice, as the computer creates at least two versions of every single ship)? Screenshot shows this duplication, note the SSP-1 ( every single ship design has at least two sub designs, not including my new designs[which make three of some types] ). SSP-1a is my design.

2) After finally accomplishing 1) for 9 ship designs & obsoleting one excess design of the two redundant auto desings (from the other ships in which I did not design myself). I found that my "current designs" screen is curiosly bare. ONly a few designs are showing: a couple I created & a couple from the compter side, many of the designs are not listed. For examply, I have no military ships other than my transport showing, yet the "non-obsolete" shows all designs listed correctly. The game will not let me build military ships now, only the ships in the "current designs" screen are available to build. I have no idea how to move my non-obsolete designs from the "non obsolete" drop down to the "current designs" down (and I have no idea why they aren't showing up in current designs to begin with)? The design part of the galactopedia gives no information about this. I have no idea what's going on here & how to fix it?

.... did this forum recently make a change as to how large files could be downloaded? Forum would not let me download a 523Kb gif file, but I've been able to load files in the range of 600Kb before, after doing a quick check. I had to edit the image using paint.

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< Message edited by rk0123msp@mindspring -- 8/29/2010 4:10:59 PM >

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Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
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Theirs but to do and die:

Post #: 1

RE: Ship Design Problems - 8/29/2010 5:55:22 PM

rk0123msp@mindspring

Posts: 81
Joined: 7/23/2010
Status: offline

It seems like every time I try to "load designs" for example and load a design I previously designed in another game, it's loading dozens of extra designs from that other game. It's not just loading one ship design, like it should be doing, but a whole slew of extra ship designs. I have no idea what's going on? Do I have re-design each ship in each game individually every single new game? Is there a bug here or am I doing something wrong somehow? This is the new version 1.6.0 btw.

< Message edited by rk0123msp@mindspring -- 8/29/2010 5:57:39 PM >

_____________________________

Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:

(in reply to rk0123msp@mindspring)

Post #: 2

RE: Ship Design Problems - 8/29/2010 6:38:13 PM

rk0123msp@mindspring

Posts: 81
Joined: 7/23/2010
Status: offline

I started a new game, as I can't seem to transfer ship designs from "non-obsolete" to "latest designs" of the newest game I started. I took this screenshot of the "all designs" drop down list. Note the exploration ships, there are 4 explorations ships shown, there should only be two: surveyor-1 (my design) and one of the other 3 which is the computer design from the initial designs. Somewhow, two other designs were imported after I clicked "load designs..." button and then selected and opened my "surveyor-1" (.dwg file) which I had saved .. and not just the two EXP ships were imported, but dozens of other duplicates of all other ships. There seems to 4 duplicates of most types. I have no idea what's going on here?

Does anyone know anything about this?

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< Message edited by rk0123msp@mindspring -- 8/29/2010 6:48:52 PM >

_____________________________

Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:

(in reply to rk0123msp@mindspring)

Post #: 3

RE: Ship Design Problems - 8/29/2010 10:24:24 PM

Equendil

Posts: 35
Joined: 7/23/2010
Status: offline

Not sure exactly what happened there however this may help:
- You can make designs obsolete quickly by clicking on the right most column (this will toggle the red star, which indicates the design is obsolete).
- When you save designs, you save designs you created from scratch, default designs, obsolete designs, *everything*, so keep that in mind.
- You can select multiple designs by holding the left mouse button and mousing over several entry, or using the 'ctrl' & 'shift' keys, same as regular windows lists.
- Everytime a design is upgraded, the game makes the design obsolete and creates a new one with the latest components. If you "show all designs", you will see them all. However, the game normally add a "Mk1" "Mk2" suffix to newer designs.
- Loading designs can be messy business. I *think* the game adds all designs in the file to those you have already unless they are indentical. I note the two "SSP-1" spaceports are not identical in your screenshot (different size etc), I expect the reason you ended up with several "SSP-1" ports is that you loaded designs from another session.
- You will run into problems if you load designs that are too advanced to build (too big, components you don't have with your current tech level).

If you want to make your own set of ships for future games, I would suggest to only design ships with the most basic components available (uncheck "only show latest components"), no 'enhanced' nothing. Otherwise the next game you start, you might not actually be able to build them. Bear in mind that even if you start a game with basic tech level and no special tech from your race, you will already have some of the 'enhanced' techs available (I think you get a number of research points assigned randomly at the beginning of each game). If you don't want to see obsolete AI designs, delete them prior to saving (might only be able to delete designs that have no active ships of that type however).

When you start a new game, mark the designs you are not going to use obsolete, and load your owns.

A problem here is that means you cannot make a set of ships with components such as torpedos, shock waves, counter measures, bombarding, or targetting components, as they are not or may not be available at the start. You will have to add them as they become available. I haven't tested that stuff thoroughly mind you, maybe you can "upgrade" your loaded designs, and the game will strip components you can't use and downgrade what's too advanced, I don't know.

Edit: Also a probable reason the "latest design" list was almost empty is that what were the latest designs were made obsolete, slight bug here I assume.

< Message edited by Equendil -- 8/29/2010 10:30:03 PM >

(in reply to rk0123msp@mindspring)

Post #: 4

RE: Ship Design Problems - 9/8/2010 4:41:33 AM

the1sean

Posts: 854
Joined: 5/11/2010
From: Texas, USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Equendil
- You can make designs obsolete quickly by clicking on the right most column (this will toggle the red star, which indicates the design is obsolete).

Thanks, never knew that, lol!

Btw, I started a game with advanced tech, then used old components to design "cookie cutter" ships with the most basic version of all the important components. I also deleted old designs, then saved the remaining ones as a template. Works well.

(in reply to Equendil)

Post #: 5