Questions and Suggestions

[Gen.d.Pz.Tr.Seb]

I've only played a single multiplayer game so far (turn ~150) with a friend but I've got some suggestions and questions. I really hope the developers read this and act on the suggestions, but I'll settle for people answering my questions.

First the suggestions I really want to see;

1) Play a sound when the pre-battle screen comes up. The same sound as the 'start of round' sound would be fine. In our multiplayer game one of us usually takes longer and the other one alt+tabs out of the game to do something and thus misses the pre-battle screen because no sound is played (start of turn is fine). It isn't so much of a problem in our game as we are connected via voip, but it's still an issue.

2) When alt+tabbing into the game, auto full screen it (like in sots1). Currently if you tab back into the game it's in windowed mode and I have to press alt+enter to maximise it again (which in turn opens that chat that I then have to close).

3) Let me enter the research, design, economy screens and the planet overview on the starmap once I pressed end-turn. I want the same system as in sots1, just let me view the data without changing anything. This would reduce the importance of points 1 and 2 as I would have something to look at. Currently there is absolutly nothing to do once I pressed end-turn, I can't even look at the important statistics of my own planets, thats why I have to tab out to do something that is less boring while I wait.

4) Add the (estimated?) profit for this turn to the economy screen and if possible to the starmap (as a tooltip?). I really have to idea how something like this has been left out. I have all the data in the economy screen (now and estimated), I just need the difference on the starmap to easily find out of I'm going bankrupt or not.

5) Doubleclicking on the event windows should ALWAYS lead me to the location of that event. If a freighter was killed, I want to know where. If a swarm queen flies to the planet of a friend (which I can see on the starmap) I want to know where.


Now we come to the unrealistic suggestions;

6) Make the end-turn processing faster, or at least let it appear in a way that makes me not question if my computer crashed (screen freezes and nothing happens)

7) What happened to all the great statistics of sots1? I really liked the population/trade/income stats (would be even better if I could directly compare it to my teammate (which would be my friend in mp)). Also the 'n of income', or 'n in ships' statistics would be nice.

8) Let me know which ships (or at least which type) was killed in a battle. Currently I find the battle-results screen somewhat useless. It's nice to know how much damage I got (and which type) but it would be far more important for me to know if I just lost the command ship or just another armorer.


Now to the questions which I hope other players will help me with;

9) Is there some way to find out how long a fleet is going to need to arrive on my planet once I can see it? Swarm queens usually have a '1 turn eta' message poping up, but I would like to see that state for every fleet that is flying around the galaxy that I can currently see. Something like the list of incoming fleets like in sots1 would be nice too. Maybe I missing some tech? I can see all their names, types and where they are going + endurance, but don't know how long it will take them.

10) How long do feasibility studies usually take? I would guess something <10 turns, but I can't find that information anywhere.

11) What does the stimulus economy screen do exactly?

12) Is there some easier way to manage the trade that zoom around the galaxy and check every planet manually? Did I miss the trade-screen somewhere?

13) If someone settled a planet in a starsystem, can somebody else settle the other planets? (If so, why didn't it work between me and my teammate?)

14) How much police do I need for a star, and what exactly does it do? I guess it should thwart pirates so I built some, but I have no idea how many I need.

15) What does the 'import' mean in the trade view?

16) What exactly do the 'race' habitats on the trade stations do? How do I see if someone lives there?

17) How the hell do I find swam infestions in my sector in such a way that my defence fleet can take it out? I usually need a few turns in which I just randomly place my fleet and pray that it finds the damn swarm.

 

[silvaril]

9) Is there some way to find out how long a fleet is going to need to arrive on my planet once I can see it? Swarm queens usually have a '1 turn eta' message poping up, but I would like to see that state for every fleet that is flying around the galaxy that I can currently see. Something like the list of incoming fleets like in sots1 would be nice too. Maybe I missing some tech? I can see all their names, types and where they are going + endurance, but don't know how long it will take them.

At present you can select a fleet, then right click their destination to get a distance figure. If you have an idea of how fast a fleet is traveling, this can help you estimate arrival times.

Early game, it is likely that the only fleets you'll see coming from more than one turn out are Hiver.

10) How long do feasibility studies usually take? I would guess something <10 turns, but I can't find that information anywhere.

When they're done, sadly.
There is no set figure for them, but once your economy is up and going I find they only take a turn for the lower techs, scaling with my economy for the higher ones.

11) What does the stimulus economy screen do exactly?

Lets you place a certain amount of money aside for the "Civilians" of your Empire to do the heavy lifting for you with regards to Trade and Mining.

For people just learning the game, I would suggest doing the following:
Place no money in here until you have Trade capability.
Once you have trade, build some Civilian stations et al.
Once you have a Civilian station, move the sub-sliders from 100% Colony to 100% Trade, then place the Stimulus slider at about 10k above the price of a Freighter.
Once you research Mining, you may decide to alter the sub-sliders appropriately.

12) Is there some easier way to manage the trade that zoom around the galaxy and check every planet manually? Did I miss the trade-screen somewhere?

I would suggest that someone just learning the game simply keep their Stimulus slider at just above the price of a single Freighter, then move the sub-slider Trade to 100%.
This way your Civilian economy is building Freighters from the money you are allocating, and even better replacing lost Freighters as well.

13) If someone settled a planet in a starsystem, can somebody else settle the other planets? (If so, why didn't it work between me and my teammate?)

Yes they can, but it requires that the person who has not yet created a colony there petition the existing owner via the Diplomacy interface for a Trade enclave.

Once anyone has a colony in that System, they can move in on every other world in that system, so...

14) How much police do I need for a star, and what exactly does it do? I guess it should thwart pirates so I built some, but I have no idea how many I need.

I place 1 Cutter for every colony in that System.

You could instead choose to alter it such that you add some for Trade routes / Civilian station levels also.

However, each takes up SysDef space, so you will need to balance that also.

Typically, watch for how often you get Raiders, then adjust up as required.

15) What does the 'import' mean in the trade view?

How many other Trade Routes are terminating here.

16) What exactly do the 'race' habitats on the trade stations do? How do I see if someone lives there?

If you build them, they will come. Ergo, once you've built a Habitat, it is in use.

What they do is improve on the value of Trade Routes leading to / from worlds where those races have a sufficient Civilian presence.
Consequently you might want to build Morrigi habitats near a neighbouring Morrigi Empire, rather than on the far side of your Empire from them.

17) How the hell do I find swam infestions in my sector in such a way that my defence fleet can take it out? I usually need a few turns in which I just randomly place my fleet and pray that it finds the damn swarm.

If you switch to Sensors view and zoom out you should see an expanding 'ping' around areas of interest, such as Asteroid Monitor command modules, Swarm nests, worlds still orbited by Protean pods and such...

 

[Gen.d.Pz.Tr.Seb]

Thanks a lot for answering all the questions, you have helped me far more than the manual has .

A question concering the stimulus stuff; If I have the slider at freighter cost + 10k, does this mean that the 'civilians' would be building one missing freighter per turn for me? And would this in turn mean that if I have <freighter cost money available, it would be wasted for that turn? Would stimulus for colonies somehow speed up their population (I already do that with col fleets)?

 

[silvaril]

Heya

Stimulus spending accumulates until the Civ's have enough money to do something with it.
So any money not spent this turn does accrue until it is spent.

I suggested the price of a Freighter +10k because 1 Freighter / turn is quite useful when building new routes, while the extra 10k is there for fluctuations in the slider from things like adding or losing colonies, maintenance costs or other financial changes including you moving the other sliders around manually.

The advantages of using Stimulus to build Freighters is that if you were building your own freighters, you would have to manually build them, track that they still remain intact, pay maintenance every turn, build replacements et al.
With the Stimulus slider, you just set it and forget it.


With regards to using Stimulus for colonies, the first thing to know is that Civ's spending money on Colony stimulus are making their own Independant colonies, not boosting your Imperial colonies.
Sure, they've got your Species citizen's, but they're the Civ's who didn't like your Imperial rule and decided to risk it on their own.
They also tend to be a bit harder to negotiate with to turn them towards Protectorates etc than the randomly distributed independants created at the start of the game.

This is why when learning the game I suggest leaving Stimulus off until you have Trade, then switching it all over to Trade.

The Indy Protectorate route to galactic domination is a harder game to play