43 replies to this topic

[Locklyn]

Pete,

What is the final word on installations found on neutral worlds when they join your empire?

1) Can you INST them if you have a science installation there?
2) Can you repair or DISM them or are they just windowdressing?


Cheers
/Locklyn

[Kurassier]

The answer is No, and No, as of 2 turns ago. You can't INST the installation because you can't build it. He said he was working on a way to repair the installation, but I believe he indicated that that was not a high priority.

[Locklyn]

Ah...windowdressing then

/Locklyn

[ShadowKitsune]

Think of them more like Heechee* "prayer" fans. Right now, they're pretty, but not very useful. Later on, when you find out they're actually data storage devices all kinds of new possibilities open up. :lol:

Or you can think of them like the venerable ORB order. Up until recently, unless your PMAP showed an NPC civilization being present on a planet, there was no real use for the ORB order. And since the odds of finding an NPC empire or imperial fragment seems to be pretty low (overall), the ORB order wasn't getting a whole lot of use. Now that you can use it to "check" the EXPL potential of a planet (moon/asteroid field), the ORB order has been given new life.


*From the novels by Frederick Pohl

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

Where was this change to ORB announced? *starts rewriting this turn's orders again*

[woolfe99]

ShadowKitsune, on Nov 24 2003, 07:40 AM, said:

*From the novels by Frederick Pohl

Great series, at least for the first two books.

[ShadowKitsune]

Krelnett_of_Kraan, on Nov 24 2003, 01:48 PM, said:

Where was this change to ORB announced? *starts rewriting this turn's orders again*

It wasn't announced, per se, but it was mentioned in the GM Notes on your Turn Report.

[RTGPete]

Krelnett_of_Kraan, on Nov 24 2003, 05:48 PM, said:

Where was this change to ORB announced?  *starts rewriting this turn's orders again*

Announced it with the turns that were just sent out. ORB is suddenly more useful

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

Well that'll teach me to skim my results, huh?

[octagon999]

RTGPete, on Nov 24 2003, 11:08 PM, said:

Krelnett_of_Kraan, on Nov 24 2003, 05:48 PM, said:

Where was this change to ORB announced?  *starts rewriting this turn's orders again*

Announced it the turns that were just sent out. ORB is suddenly more useful

Pete,

I am somewhat confused...

Does the ORB give you the EXPL potential of a planet, and how much that percentage has been depleted, or does it just tell you what has been depleted of what you have discovered so far?

Reason I ask is...

Lets say on turn 1, I discover an alien cloning center. I start delving away. On turn 4, I discover a hidden vault, and start exploiting that as well. If I do an ORB, does it just report on what I have exploited so far, or does it also let me know that the damaged Imperial Spaceport (as yet uncovered) is untouched. Or is this not how it works at all, and the facilities are all window dressing, and once the planet has been plundered, no more new facilities will be discovered?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

[RTGPete]

octagon999, on Nov 25 2003, 01:30 AM, said:

Does the ORB give you the EXPL potential of a planet, and how much that percentage has been depleted, or does it just tell you what has been depleted of what you have discovered so far?

The ORB results will give you an indication of how "plundered" the world is so far. That might be from your explorations or alien ones. Your teams check out the points of interest and report back their findings regarding their condition.

Here's how EXPL missions work: on a world with no special finds discovered so far, your teams have the best chance of finding something like an alien lab or crashed starship or a myriad of other things. As you perform more and more EXPL missions there, your teams will eventually discover more and more special finds. They try to unearth items of interest as well, so it is possible to both discover something new like an alien Antimatter Power Complex and to dig up some Advanced Processed Radioactives from it, all in the same EXPL mission.

Over time, as your explorers find more and more things of note, that world becomes more and more depleted of interesting items. This takes a long time, and in any event they can always find something there...the odds are just reduced. ORB missions give you an idea of this depletion factor. If aliens have explored at that world, the ORB results take this into account (so if you ORB a world you've never seen before and it's been heavily explored, you'll know it).

In your example, if the damaged Imperial Spaceport has not been discovered yet, it won't show up on the ORB results at all.

[ShadowKitsune]

RTGPete, on Nov 25 2003, 11:17 AM, said:

Here's how EXPL missions work:  on a world with no special finds discovered so far, your teams have the best chance of finding something like an alien lab or crashed starship or a myriad of other things.  As you perform more and more EXPL missions there, your teams will eventually discover more and more special finds.  They try to unearth items of interest as well, so it is possible to both discover something new like an alien Antimatter Power Complex and to dig up some Advanced Processed Radioactives from it, all in the same EXPL mission.

Over time, as your explorers find more and more things of note, that world becomes more and more depleted of interesting items.  This takes a long time, and in any event they can always find something there...the odds are just reduced.  ORB missions give you an idea of this depletion factor.  If aliens have explored at that world, the ORB results take this into account (so if you ORB a world you've never seen before and it's been heavily explored, you'll know it).

Is there a chance you'll put out a Guide to Exploration like you did for Warp Surveying? Where we can find out what the base success chance is, what characters can help (and by how much) and what racial traits, if any, give bonuses or penalties to (X)EXPL Orders.

[Pig Skin]

Do different characters help at different types of sites?

-Pig Skin

[MadMartinB]

yes. Imperial Admin centers help the administrators perform etc..

[Pig Skin]

MadMartinB, on Mar 12 2004, 01:22 PM, said:

yes. Imperial Admin centers help the administrators perform etc..

I must have missed it, is there a chart in a download that says this?

Thanks,
Pig Skin