General Noob Questions (Full Version)

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cookie monster -> General Noob Questions (3/12/2011 3:46:51 PM)

Hi guys and gals

My first post in the DW forum.

I have some noob questions.

1.How do you handle revolts on your colonies when your at war with the same race? I have around 10 troops at these locations but it gets expensive as I have a HUGE empire.

2.I made a load of Cruisers and also upgraded all my ships and bases as recommended by the AI. My cashflow became red at -85K, but my cash never dropped below 4 million. What was the problem the cruisers or the mass retrofits?

3.My ships have their shields listing as (reducing) and fluctuating. Are they not getting enough power?

4.Are small space ports required at new colonies at the edge of your empire? I was thinking of fuel storage.

5. How many resupply ships are necessary to refuel 30 destroyers quickly? Should I stealth my Resupply ships?

6. Which research is best to crash? Broad question though. I have a massive empire perhaps economy tech???

Thanks



Bingeling -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/12/2011 4:46:58 PM)

Some more or less sensible answers...

1: Lower their tax, keep them happy with luxuries and medical/recreational facilities on space port (at least at good colonies), have enough troops to squash a rebellion. Small colonies have smaller revolt armies than huge ones.

2: Cashflow is wonky. It should not matter unless maintenance cost changes a lot. It can happen to some degree if you retrofit to a larger design. Extra income from a mature empire keeps your cash flow positive even when cashflow is negative...

3: I don't know what you see. Keeping shields supplied is usually not hard. A good tip for ship design is to have the excess output of your reactors at least the full load of your weapons, the use of the engines at print speed, and a little excess for the shields. The shields are a small load in this context.

4: If you can afford it have very smalls pace ports of the happiness bonuses. For fuel supplies, you need mines more than space ports. Space ports on the edges of your empire is nice to enhance trade opportunities (which gives income).

5: 30 destroyers is a lot... Consider larger, and fewer ships. Not a whole lot though, maybe the large end of a fleet. What matters is. The amount of fuel on the resupply ship (cargo capacity and time to fill up), and the number of docking ports. Of you got 10 ports, each need to fuel 3 ships in turn. If you got 5, it will take twice as long. I don't think stealth is a big thing, the incoming fleets are revealing, as are stolen operations maps and undercover spies. Also the spies disguised as mining ships tend to spot stuff hanging around...

6: I never crash research, I can't answer. Crash whatever you want to have next if you got coin to spare.



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/12/2011 4:51:46 PM)

I may be wrong here but I don't think cookie monster refered by crash research to what this actually means in DW.
If you want to know what tech to rush than it's entirely dependent on your style, some of us (me included) tend to rush the construction techs to gain access to bigger ships and bases....but again, it's highly subjective
Colonization tech is also another avenue that is usually rushed as it gives you more worlds with varied resources.



Wreck -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/12/2011 6:10:27 PM)

Ditto Bing on 1 and 2.

3.: "reducing" is what you'll see for shields when you are some nasty gas clouds.  (You'll see "lightning" in the cloud when zoomed way out.)  Generally, stay out of such clouds.  There are no systems there (or very few), so you usually won't need to go there.

4. No.  Fuel is stored at the planet itself.  Small SBs are good, though, as a platform to put a hospital and rec center overhead, which makes the colonies happy --> reduced chance of revolts, and higher growth rate.

5. generally I don't build resupply ships, since there's usually fuel you can get at from planets, gas mines, or bases.   And I put a fair fuel capacity on my ships. 

As for stealth, it varies inversely with the ship size.  So a resupply ship (being huge) gets very little benefit from stealth.  I do not stealth mine.  Also, resupply ships are only useful in a system, and I think that when ships are in a system they can be seen by any alien which has any ship in that system, regardless of stealth.  (Anyone know different?)

6. I always use crash research only, at least after the very earliest part of the game.  My chosen fields are:
  • colonization tech to grab as much space as possible without conflict (and also more happiness from hospitals and rec, which means more tax income)
  • if starting at low tech, the lower hyperjump techs (up to say Kaldos KH-7)
  • shields
  • some better engines than the lowest tech ones
  • reactors
  • whatever is super-cheap, except labs
All of those are good for getting speedy explorers and colonization ships, and troop carriers (which, along with salvaged ships of CA class and larger, are all you need for defense).  Once I have gotten a good tech lead in the colonization techs, I start to mix in techs to allow myself to build decent battleships: torps, more shields, and of course shipyards.  (Although very frequently if you explore aggressively you will get the large shipyard tech from a relic.)



Bingeling -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/12/2011 7:18:56 PM)

Never resupply ships? Really?

You must learn to kill mining bases of your opponents, it will mess up you as well, but only after war ends.

Resupply ships can be parked at strategic locations. Resupply ships don't feed your civilian sector. Resupply ships can be parked multiples at one planet (or with a mining base). They are fuel where you need it for military purposes.

If you never have fuel issues I wonder what game you play. Maybe too much resources or something, or always keep wars "at home". Or you play at more mature galaxies than I am used to. Once fuel is not an issue, the game loses fun factor...



cookie monster -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/12/2011 7:44:51 PM)

Thanks for the answers guys.

I use resupply ships to be near the enemy and for hunting pirates. At the mo I have dual caslon & Hydrogen using ships which is a pita.

My cashflow problem was cos I created 400 troops. I disband to 100. I may use monitoring stations and fire brigade transports to prevent having to garrison my massive empire.

Just had 3 large space ports in a system I retro'd 2 to small



Wreck -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/13/2011 4:22:53 AM)

Could be a bit of all of the factors you mention. Also that I usually quit once the game is well in hand, which happens before major fleets.

Mostly, I find that I don't need much fuel because I can take any planet using troop transports. Against most planets, no escort is needed; the assault ship uses very little fuel. A handful of warships with big shields to draw fire is necessary to draw fire from larger bases. But these, also, don't need to use much fuel if they withdraw as soon as the assault ships are in. Usually you capture more fuel on a planet than you used to get it.

The weakness of planets to assault is a rather large game-design oversight in DW, if you want my opinion. I think at the very least you should have to kill all orbiting bases before being allowed to drop troops.



Bingeling -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/13/2011 7:03:51 AM)

I also think orbital bases should have to be killed before you drop troops. So I kill orbital bases before I drop troops.

That really helps fuel consumption. Fleets on the move to kill major space ports burn quite a lot of fuel, and usually in areas where you lack major fuel sources.

If you are low tech and want to take down a capital's defenses, you need a lot of fuel. I try to put resupply ships as close as possible, preferably in the system of my target. You probably need that if you are high tech if the defensive base is too. But later in the game it is usually easier to wield superior fire power, no?



cookie monster -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/14/2011 4:24:32 PM)

Another quick question

On the Galaxy map I have a large circle around some of my bases.

Is this the scanning range of my long range sensors?



Bingeling -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/14/2011 4:35:47 PM)

If it is a colored circle of your empire color - yes. It is the area covered by your long range scanner.



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/14/2011 4:45:50 PM)

You can confirm this via the designs for them, the ones that have the LRS and the ones that don't have it



cookie monster -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 3:05:29 AM)

Another general noob question

Can I change the name of my home system?

I have tried via the editor, but cant find anything?

I can change the name of my empire,space ports,ships etc easily



martok -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 4:52:55 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: cookie monster

Another general noob question

Can I change the name of my home system?


To change the name of your homeworld (or any other colony), click the "Colonies" button (F4), and then choose the colony you want to rename. The planet's name is listed about halfway down on the right side of the colony's info screen; just delete the current name and type in whatever name you wish.





Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 8:22:29 AM)

It should be possible to do it from the editor as well. Go to the colony you want on the main map, open the editor and then double click on the colony. This will bring a right side window where you can change lots of things related to that colony.
The left side menus in the editor are for placing objects, not editing them (except the empires section but that's another story).
Have fun.



cookie monster -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 8:28:52 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: martok


quote:

ORIGINAL: cookie monster

Another general noob question

Can I change the name of my home system?


To change the name of your homeworld (or any other colony), click the "Colonies" button (F4), and then choose the colony you want to rename. The planet's name is listed about halfway down on the right side of the colony's info screen; just delete the current name and type in whatever name you wish.





Thanks but I did say SYSTEM..[:D]

I dont want the SYSTEM.. which has a sun and some planets to be called Ubatrixa minor or some rubbish like that

I can change colony names no prob


A system is what the explorer goes to. It may contain planets etc

Its the ringed item a high levels of zoom



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 8:34:43 AM)

Indeed, for that you need to change the name of the star of that system. Not really sure but with the editor open double click on the star, I think you can do it like this.
I think there's also a file with all the star names where you can fiddle with this but this is modder stuff so I'll leave the masters to guide you.
I'll check on this also, if I find it I'll let you know.



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 8:46:38 AM)

Scratch that, the systems.txt file is for customization only and it's not recomended to alter the original one. So only the editor left to do this.



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 9:27:30 AM)

Confirmed from the pedia

"To change the attributes of a star simply double-click it. This will display an editing panel at the right of the screen.

Here you can change the name and alter the size of the star.

You can also alter the amount of radiation emitted by the star in any of the three spectrums: solar, microwave or X-ray.

Note that any changes to the star’s name will not automatically flow through to any planets in the system, i.e. if you change the name of the star, no planet names in the system will change. If you want the planet names to match the new star name you must manually edit each planet name in the system yourself."



cookie monster -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 7:14:57 PM)

Yep Data that did it.

I zoomed right in so the editor didnt give me any intel on Enemy locations.

BTW Data Igniting is mis spelt in your signature



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/16/2011 7:42:34 PM)

Damn, thank you....when I finally got the expansion and saw all the goodies I rushed to change the signature and never checked it
Now it's ok.



cookie monster -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/22/2011 4:15:23 AM)

I was repairing a World Destroyer...

Now my Construction Ship is not there.

When I select another CS I get no repair hammer,although I can repair the frigate next to it.

Does this mean a CS is already allocated and is away grabbing materials for the repair?



Data -> RE: General Noob Questions (3/22/2011 8:24:40 AM)

That would be the most probable explanation, don't remember if for repairing is the same way as for colonization....when you send a colony ship and forget which one is it you can clik on the planet and it will tell you which colony ship comes to colonize there. If the same does not apply to CS than it should, it's a good idea.



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