New Rule Changes

[PhaseDragon]

I was wondering about a few rule clarifications. First, the changes to the classification of fuel shuttles and barges makes it possible to carry them in cargo bays. What about ship designs already with them in their design? Also, are survey landers included in this new rule change?

 

Next question: If I scrap or transfer all ships from a fleet at location X and later want to transfer ships to that fleet either from a shipyard or other fleet does it matter where it was emptied. Does the "Fleet" just hang around invisible at the previous location? The reason I ask is because if you have some standing orders attached to that empty fleet, it would be advantageous to transfer ships to that fleet to save issuing new standing orders for a new fleet. Since it is empty it shouldn't matter where the fleet is located.

 

Also, another question as to action points. If I transfer some ship into one fleet say for the purpose of surveying a warp point then transfer them back out to their respective fleets, does each ship still retain the action points that it had prior to the fleet combining? Does the survey operation cost an action point for every ship in the fleet which is lost even after transfer back to old fleet, or is every ship then reset to the lowest action points of the combined fleet even after transfer?

 

One more question: Do you have to "Train" colonists with the CTRN order before they can be loaded onto a ship? If so, what if you landed on a planet with 11 Colonists and built the 10 Science buildings and 1 Astronomical Observatory, did a warp survey (Or several) and then dismantled the buildings and reloaded everything back onto the fleet. If I have to CTRN them back to colonists then I have to build a Colonial Training Center (which uses 1 pop unit) to train the remaining 10 pop units so I can load them back on the fleet. This means that I lose 1 pop unit every time I do this. Is there another way to transfer pop to a fleet that I don't know about? Of course the fleet has 11 berthing unit spaces empty before the transfer.

 

I am sure that I am not the only one who is unclear about these points. Please help!

[Eldred]

As I understand it...

 

1) Empty fleets do just hang around and will try and execute any standing orders assigned to them each turn. Yes, you can transfer new ships to them in order to use the standing orders.

 

2) I believe I read somewhere that action points are "held" at ship level, so I think all ships in a fleet will be checked for sufficient action points when executing an order.

 

3) You don't need a colonial training center to train colonists, just do CTRN!

 

Hope this helps

 

[PhaseDragon]

This helps quite a bit. Still wondering if you can assign ships to a fleet that is at another location and empty. Would the fleet location be changed or would the order fail?

[Phoenix Arisen]

1) The order would fail. The fleet remains where it was last located.

 

2) Any ship that participates in an action point action has lost the point no matter which fleet they are re-organized into.

 

3) No change to the manner in which ships are built with fuel shuttles. No impact on designs. They are still built into the ship structure. Now, however, if they are discovered on an EXPL order, they are loaded into cargo, not fighter bays.

 

4) You must convert POP into colonists in order to load them onto a fleet. CTRN does this, without a Colonist Training Center Required.

[DWillard]

.........here's just a little more clarification:

 

1. For the order not to fail, the empty fleet would have to be in the same ordbit where the Pop Center is that issued the SHIP order. Aslo, do to a bug that has since been fixed, you used to be able to move empty fleets around just as if they had a ship in them. I'm pretty sure now, with the fix, that a fleet must have a ship in it before you can move that fleet.

 

 

2. All ships in a fleet have to have enough AP to execute a particualar order. If you RN a ship that has used all its AP into a fleet that has 100 ships, each with 10 AP, that fleet would not be able to execute any more orders that require AP. On a similar subject, if you have a fleet containing ships with mixed AP (one ship with 2 AP and ten ships with 4AP) that fleet will only be able to use 2 AP (as long as the 2 AP ship remains in the fleet). At least I understand this is the way it is supposed to work. If there are or have been bugs that let you get around this, I am unaware of them.

 

3. If you want to do SKIM orders with a ship, make sure the Fuel Shuttles are in the ship design. Merely having Fuel Shuttles in cargo bays will not allow a ship to SKIM.

 

4. The Colonial Training Center is an installation that you can build on colony worlds to help reduce attrition by a small amt. You need one per 100 pop for maximum benefit. As far as I know they are a waste to build on your homeworld because you do not suffer attrition on the homeworld. Colonial Training Centers have absolutely nothing to do with the CTRN order.

[PhaseDragon]

Suppose that you have 3 fleets all with 1 Pathfinder. One fleet is already at a warp point and the other 2 fleets move to that warp point and RN into that fleet. They do a survey together. Then I move 2 Pathfinders out of that fleet into the other 2 fleets. How do I know which fleet sitll has an action point left? (This assumes the default design with 2 AP's).

[AKO]

I think you do not know.

Hence give all three fleets an order and 1 will be executed.

But I wouldn't know any other thing to do.

Kind regards,

[hobknob]

There is no way to know which ship has the reduced AP if all ships are of the same design name. This is a real bugger if you do much mid turn fleet RN. Remember it doesn't take any AP to warp so you could be sure of a fleet being able to warp following your example. The key is do all of the combined activities at the beginning or end of the turn so it won't matter which ship is which.

 

[PhaseDragon]

There is another way although I am sure Pete and Russ would disapprove. That would be to design each ship individually with unique names even if the design is exactly like another design type. Then only build one of each type. That would eliminate this problem but you would have 5 pages of ship designs. Lots of data to keep track of.

[RTGPete]

The change to make Fuel Shuttles a "cargo" item instead of being a "fighter" class (carried in Cargo Bays instead of Fighter Bays) was done to make it easier to pick them up as a result of EXPL results. It has no effect on anything else because when you design new ships, the Fuel Shuttles are part of the ship and not carried as cargo.

[DWillard]

There is another way although I am sure Pete and Russ would disapprove. That would be to design each ship individually with unique names even if the design is exactly like another design type. Then only build one of each type. That would eliminate this problem but you would have 5 pages of ship designs. Lots of data to keep track of.

On the contrary....I think RTG would love it

Pages and pages of ship designs on your turn results = pages and pages of NUDs.

 

Pages and pages of NUDs = lots o' money in RTG's pockets

[octagon999]

Not really. You could name each individual ship. You have a "class" which is where the NUD comes in, and then each would be a 1-up serialization from that NUD.

 

Something like currently the US Navy has a DD01, DD02, etc. It could be similar, but tracking every single ship would probably be a database nightmare.