Search for a planet by name

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> The War Room >> Search for a planet by name

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Search for a planet by name - 12/14/2014 1:43:15 AM

rmse17

Posts: 14
Joined: 12/14/2014
Status: offline

I have a large universe, and I am looking for a particular planet... other than zooming in on every one of the 1000 star systems, is there a faster way to find a planet? Like a search box or something where I can type in the name and it will point to it?

Thanks,
RMSe17

Post #: 1

RE: Search for a planet by name - 12/14/2014 4:42:37 AM

Aeson

Posts: 784
Joined: 8/30/2013
Status: offline

Did you get a message relating to the planet? If so, you can find the message in the message log and the 'zoom to event location' button might take you to the planet. If the zoom button does not take you to the planet, dose the message mention a sector number (e.g. D3)? If so, you can see the letters along the top and bottom edges and the numbers along the left and right edges of the main screen, which can allow you to narrow your search area significantly, probably to no more than 10 or so systems and possibly to as few as one or two systems. The message may also mention galactic coordinates, which might be useful but I can't remember where to see those at the moment. If the message is still in the scrolling message log at the top center of the main screen, you can hover over it and it will cause an expanding yellow circle to flash around the point of origin of the message (the same is true for the large pop-up messages that appear on the side), which you can see in the main screen if the center is sufficiently close to your current focus area.

Is the planet one of your colonies? If so, you can open the colony manager and find it in a sortable list of your colonies. Hit the column header for the colony names to alphabetize the list, locate the planet, select it in the list, and hit one of the buttons that selects the planet or brings the main screen to it. There is also an alphabetized list of your colonies visible in the main screen in one of the tabs on the right edge of the screen.

Do you know what system the planet is in? If so, there is a zoom level where you can see the system names of several systems at once. Scroll around and locate the system, then go from there. Planets (but not moons) are typically named (System Name) (Planet Number), with lower numbers indicating planets closer to the center of the system.

If the world is uncolonized but colonizable, you can find it in the expansion planner under Potential Colonies or in the main screen list of potential colonies which can be opened from one of the tabs on the right side of the screen; both of these lists can be alphabetized, and the list in the expansion planner can be sorted in several other ways. The expansion planner also has a small-scale map that can show you the approximate location after you find it, but you may as well just zoom to it rather than trying to find it using the map. Note that you may need to tell the computer to show low-quality planets in the list if the world you seek is habitable but low quality and lacking other redeeming characteristics (namely a galactic wonder such as the Fortress of Torak or a superluxury resource such as Korrabian Spice).

If the world is not colonizable, then the only options that I know of are the Expansion Planner's 'potential resource target by _ priority' filtered sortable lists and the potential mining/research/resort targets tabs in the main screen (which are alphabetized lists), but be aware that these lists will not show worlds in foreign territory unless you have mining rights and do not necessarily show all the worlds you know about.

If you're using the Expansion Planner to try to find the world, then remember that if you know something about the world, you can attempt to narrow the search down a bit. The expansion planner offers a list of worlds which you currently draw resources from (meaning that you either colonized it or built a mining station over it), which are visible in the Current Empire Resource Locations tab, a list of worlds which you can colonize (Potential Colonies filter), a list of worlds which have resources that the computer thinks you should mine for your own empire (Resource Locations by Empire Priority), and a list of worlds that the computer thinks you should mine for trade purposes (Resource Locations by Galaxy Priority), all of which can be filtered by resources present, so if you happen to know that the planet you're looking for has Carbon Fiber, you can go to an appropriate list in the expansion planner and filter for planets with Carbon Fiber, and then sort the results by one of the column headers. Be aware that not every world will necessarily show up in the expansion planner, especially if the reason you're looking for the world is something like "our source of Osalia on Viridian IV has been exhausted" and Viridian IV only ever had Osalia to begin with, or if the game thinks that your empire or even the galaxy doesn't have any demand for the resources in question.

(in reply to rmse17)

Post #: 2

RE: Search for a planet by name - 12/14/2014 7:00:27 AM

rmse17

Posts: 14
Joined: 12/14/2014
Status: offline

Thanks for the detailed write up Aeson! The world I am looking for happens to be a Pirate planet, and it is listed in the "top colonies" list. I figured I should go ahead and snag it while it is pirate owned, but the list does not seem to show locations. It does list its name and the system name: Indaseun 1; Indaseun system. I actually found an area on the map towards the edge called "Indaseun Region", but there isn't a Indaseun system in the region oddly enough. Unless I am blind. In the expansion planner I was able to find "Indaseun Major" but that is a different system (and also is way on the other side from the "Indaseun Region" which is really confusing...

So for things like that I think it would be nice to have a "Enter planet name" search feature :) Maybe have it be set to not find a planet if the system has not been explored yet, but I think once you have explored a system, it should be searchable.

(in reply to Aeson)

Post #: 3

RE: Search for a planet by name - 12/14/2014 8:17:41 AM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

Knowing that it is a pirate colony makes it easier to find. As long as it is a "proper pirate owned colony" and not just a colony with a pirate base of some sort, in which case it would not be in the top colony list.

They show up on the map with a colored circle around the system, just like any empire colony. But they do not project a sphere of influence. The main issue in finding them is if the area is not explored, in that case you see nothing ;-)

The color of the circle is the color of the pirate group, that helps in searching.

In the below, the is at least a pirate colony in the lower left near the west edge, and one right of the main red blob close to the independent system (harder to see). There is also one in the top red circle, but the circle is almost all obstructed by the pirate flag of the owner.

The key is that you must have explored the area to see anything. You can view your explored systems in the galaxy map (one of the choices). Another key is a thing I notice from the image, and that is that only colony systems have their name shown on the zoom level below. And you know the system name.