Newbee Questions

[Locklyn]

Ur-Lord,

I brought this up with Pete about a year ago since I thought that battles should take APs so as not to experience a "Rolling Thunder" effect with high AP fleets vs Defenders but he argued that Combat would and should never take an AP as otherwise it would be quite an efficent way of bogging down your opponent with lots and lots of small ships at each every WP. Being a friendly defensive minded kind of alien I thought that was a splendid idea as realistically, all combat plays havoc with fleet organisation. Initially a commander would not know if those were all of the defenders and so and so on so it should take some time for him. Anyways Pete did not like the idea then so I don't see him having changed his mind.

 

I also have an idea for a new order:

 

SCE: Scramble (System) (Up to five fleets) (Warp Point) (ROE) (Battleplan)

 

This order would move up to five fleets in a system to a designated warppoint and be assigned new ROE and Battleplan

 

Yes, all of this can be done with existing orders BUT since the turn order works with all 1st orders being run then second orders then third an opposing enemy might be MOVEing into attack while you are still doing your MOVEs and so on for each of the fleets....just something I thought could be handy? Comments? Doable or not?

 

Cheers

/Locklyn

[ShadowKitsune]

Continuing with the hi-jacking of this thread...

 

For simplicities sake, having combat take APs would be bad. What would the AP cost represent? Movement to initiate combat? If so, non-Transwarp vessels could not initiate combat when they exit a Warp Point. If the Defending fleet just moved into position and had no APs left, that would leave two Fleets sitting at the same point in space-time, relatively, but unable to do anything until the following turn. Based on the way the engine works, if the Aggressor is able to "go" first, the Aggressor Fleet can move away from the Warp Point before the Defender can initiate combat, which would be bad.

 

Why should the Defender have to spend APs for combat? The Aggressor has to go through the Defender in most combat scenarios for SN:ROTE (i.e. Warp Point assault and Planetary assault) to achieve any real military objectives. Relatively speaking the Defender just sits there in most cases and literally sits there if you take Surface Fortresses and Orbitals, both of which have 0 APs intrinsically, into account. If you require the Defender to expend an AP to enter into combat, you have just rendered Surface Fortresses and Orbitals detrimental to your defensive forces, which was what they were designed to excel at. Bad mojo.

 

The best that I can tell, you can only have combat at Warp Points and Planetary Orbits with co-located fleets. You have to spend APs to get to either of those location types, which should be sufficient cost to pay for the initiation of combat.

 

As far as the Scramble Order goes, I think it would be hard to implement as a reaction Order. The concept is predicated on your ability to know where your opponent is going to be. Given the current sensor technology, there is no way that a fleet in orbit around a planet can move to intercept a fleet that just warped into the system, because you won't know they're there unless you already had at least one ship at that locale.

 

Now if your goal is to reduce Order count, one order instead of many, that becomes an economics issue between you and RTG.

 

-SK

[Laserwolf]

Huge warfleet at your doorstep? Behold a new use for Pathfinders! Lob one per turn order into the fleet to burn up its AP's.

 

now THERE is a powerful defense!

[Kahless]

Kurassier, and thats fine if you are content with only two explores per turn. I actually prefer the example I received last turn with 1--- 8 ap explore ship. 4 xexpl tech hits, 1 xexpl warp point find, and 2 xexpl finds. All in one turn!!

 

Kahless

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

Orbitals and ground stations automagically have 2 APs, regardless of their lack of engines. I know for a fact, because I have some rather sophisticated exploration satellites doing two XEXPLs every turn.

[ShadowKitsune]

Orbitals and ground stations automagically have 2 APs, regardless of their lack of engines.  I know for a fact, because I have some rather sophisticated exploration satellites doing two XEXPLs every turn.

You're right, in a sense, they have 2 APs for orders like EXPL, but they cannot move (use the MOVE or NM Orders), which was more of my point.

[athonian]

i cant even leave my h system yet... stupid class c and d warps =P

[crossroads]

i cant even leave my h system yet... stupid class c and d warps =P

Surveying warppoints in or out of your home system are given automatic succes. So you can always leave and come back to your home system.

[Clan Elder 'Keen]

And even if you were unaware of that quirk in the rules, the installations you started with or should have build on turn 1 (such as Science labs) would have made it possible to get out of system on turn 2.

[hobknob]

Installations can be used the same turn they are built. Any ship with jump drive should be able to leave the home system.

[ali-t-akua]

i cant even leave my h system yet... stupid class c and d warps =P

 

I had a class E warp leading out of my HW system and I was able to survey it with the Mk I JSS on my initial Pathfinders.

[Hughestrog]

i cant even leave my h system yet... stupid class c and d warps =P

Surveying warppoints in or out of your home system are given automatic succes. So you can always leave and come back to your home system.

Unless it's a one way warp point.....

[Dai]

Thanks for the answers.

 

Hm, it seems that it was my fault, I forgot to add a number for the amount in all of my orders.

 

Thanks also for the link, I will give it a try

 

 

Hm, I did the second turn now and its a little boring.

I made 10 fleets to scout all of my planets and asteroids in my system and one I will send through the warp point now.

 

I tried to build all the mines (taking the formula adviced in rules) the first turn. But I had not enough population for it. So know I need another 5 turns to built the last mines.

 

Is there a possibility to get more unskilled population?

 

Another question is -> I have a religouis leader (raised two times already ) and it is possible to built temples, cathedrals and so on -> but for what? What are they doing? I dont now any god and its written in the rules they are built for a deity. So what can i do with my religous leader?

[crossroads]

Thanks for the answers.

 

Hm, it seems that it was my fault, I forgot to add a number for the amount in all of my orders.

 

Thanks also for the link, I will give it a try

 

 

Hm, I did the second turn now and its a little boring.

I made 10 fleets to scout all of my planets and asteroids in my system and one I will send through the warp point now.

 

I tried to build all the mines (taking the formula adviced in rules) the first turn. But I had not enough population for it. So know I need another 5 turns to built the last mines.

 

Is there a possibility to get more unskilled population?

 

Another question is -> I have a religouis leader (raised two times already  ) and it is possible to built temples, cathedrals and so on -> but for what? What are they doing? I dont now any god and its written in the rules they are built for a deity. So what can i do with my religous leader?

I will take a little time to grow in this game. Many have said before that they thought there was little to do. But you are here for the long run. I have been playing for about a year and i have probably 160 orders for next turn. On average i have 80 or 120.

 

To determine the optimum number of mines (for a beginner with no advanced tech) you must use this formula:

 

5 * (resource rating - 20)

 

You can increase pop growth through research. There is genetic engineering, imperial medical centers and ofcourse the famous cloning center. But this will all take time. Sometimes years.

 

Leave the religious leaders of your homeworld or move them later to big colonies. They increase the production of mines/resource extraction.

To get the maximum effect of installations which increase production you need to build 1 for every 100 pop. They do not effect stripmines and industrial complexes. So many people split their pop in 2 segments. One for resource extraction and one for stripmines , ic's and shipyards.

[Clan Elder 'Keen]

If you do not have enough pop, scrap some industry to get the people for the mines. As long as the potential is 20+ it is more efficient than using industry to convert to resources.

 

Also note that the game can be a little slow for the first 20-30 turns as you slowly build up an industry and explore around you. Once you make contact with neighbors, it can get exciting real quick though.