Your typical newbie questions... And some more :)

[Poryg]

Hi,
First of all, I have to thank you for this game! It brings me back to the times of MOO and Galactic civilizations I wonder though, I have read that the AI gets only resources bonus on higher levels... Is it still true? (for example in galactic civilizations they received OP production and research bonuses which made it really sadistic on higher difficulties) Although it would be interesting if there was a difficulty with good AI, but no real bonuses
I wonder, how do I get minor races to join me? I have no problem with getting them on devoted relations, but they don't want to join me even for 2000 titanium :'( while AI doesn't seem to have any problems with it.
How is maneuverability compared to brute force? I have never really needed maneuverable ships as the Omega Alliance, but for example as the traders, I will probably have not too much of a choice... So far I have never been outmanoeuvred in the battle though, the brute force always won in the auto battles (after all, android doesn't offer a manual battle yet)
What does GNP mean in the overall rating?

And now several feedback things.
When you are buying class equipment, it always says if you want to buy equipment one class higher than you are buying. So if you are buying class 1 mass replicators, it asks "Do you want to buy class 2 mass replicators? It will cost 1501 credits." For example.
What does the No maintenance special tech do? When I researched it, I imagined that my upkeep costs would be 0. But apparently it decreases only maintenance costs for the structures... which was kinda unclear though.
What does the ship speed +1 special tech do? From what I have thought, it would boost any ships... But the speed of both current and newly built ships was unchanged.
I wonder, how would you win if you disabled all ways to win? You wouldn't even have total victory, so you would have had a game that is impossible to win? What happens if you have a total victory disabled (you still have other ways to win), but you conquer everyone? Does the game end?

And I kind of wonder, would it be possible (or at least optional) to add to the events that for example colony ship has no orders?
In terms of micro management, in the computer it's not that difficult, because with mouse etc. everything is faster. But with the Android device I really have issues to keep track of this, that and relocation of my ships.

[blotunga]

Hi,
First of all, I have to thank you for this game! It brings me back to the times of MOO and Galactic civilizations I wonder though, I have read that the AI gets only resources bonus on higher levels... Is it still true? (for example in galactic civilizations they received OP production and research bonuses which made it really sadistic on higher difficulties) Although it would be interesting if there was a difficulty with good AI, but no real bonuses

The AI on normal gets the same amount of resources/credits as the human player. The AI doesn't gets any bonus on research. However some other things are also controlled by difficulty, like the chance for a Majorjoining event to happen if it's enabled.

I wonder, how do I get minor races to join me? I have no problem with getting them on devoted relations, but they don't want to join me even for 2000 titanium :'( while AI doesn't seem to have any problems with it.

Titanium isn't that valued by minors. A gift of 2000 titanium isn't that much, it's the equivalent of 400 credits or maybe even less if they have a lot of it already.

How is maneuverability compared to brute force? I have never really needed maneuverable ships as the Omega Alliance, but for example as the traders, I will probably have not too much of a choice... So far I have never been outmanoeuvred in the battle though, the brute force always won in the auto battles (after all, android doesn't offer a manual battle yet)

It is factored in into the combat, but you can't really see its effect. It influences how fast the ships can accelerate. It would be nice to have a working combat simulator. I might need to work on it when I have time.

What does GNP mean in the overall rating?

Gross national product. It's an index based on how much industrial strength your race has (basically how fast you can build things compared to others.

And now several feedback things.
When you are buying class equipment, it always says if you want to buy equipment one class higher than you are buying. So if you are buying class 1 mass replicators, it asks "Do you want to buy class 2 mass replicators? It will cost 1501 credits." For example.

Uff, there is a bug there, I wonder how nobody noticed it before. I'll fix it in the next release. It's only a display bug, so it doesn't affect gameplay. Still it's confusing.

What does the No maintenance special tech do? When I researched it, I imagined that my upkeep costs would be 0. But apparently it decreases only maintenance costs for the structures... which was kinda unclear though.

It's the Peaceful ship technology's branch, it affects the upkeep of colony and transport ships only.

What does the ship speed +1 special tech do? From what I have thought, it would boost any ships... But the speed of both current and newly built ships was unchanged.

That one I think is described poorly. What it does is that it raises the speed of ships which have the speed of 1 to 2. The range variant extends the range of short ranged ships (green range line) to middle (yellow range line).
However I think there might be a bug from the older version of the game which doesn't applies this research correctly to the already built ships (or any other ship related special research for that matter). This is apparently an age-old bug (much before I took over), but I haven't noticed until now.

I wonder, how would you win if you disabled all ways to win? You wouldn't even have total victory, so you would have had a game that is impossible to win? What happens if you have a total victory disabled (you still have other ways to win), but you conquer everyone? Does the game end?

No, the game shouldn't end even if you conquered everyone. You just keep playing in sandbox mode (in theory as I've never actually tested this).

And I kind of wonder, would it be possible (or at least optional) to add to the events that for example colony ship has no orders?
In terms of micro management, in the computer it's not that difficult, because with mouse etc. everything is faster. But with the Android device I really have issues to keep track of this, that and relocation of my ships.

Double tap under the end turn button, this takes you to your next inactive ship. I also use the Empire->Military overview. If you sort the ships according to status then according to target, the ones that aren't station and have Nothing for both, those need orders.

[blotunga]

Just a heads-up, a new version is out which fixes the above bugs

[Poryg]

I hate you, you fixed it sooner than I came home
Just kidding, it's great to see that the game development is still alive
I know about the circling through inactive ships and about the ship list. It would be unplayable without it after all but you know, I have waged a war where so much movement occured every turn that it was impossible to keep track of colony ships, because all the fiddling with my warfare took all my energy.
But even in other cases... I can keep track of my scout ships, because I look around a lot. I can keep track of my battleships, because I have to in a war. But I can't pay enough attention to colony ships, because I just move them, then leave them alone, because they are terraforming,... When they finish, colonize and move on... And then I realize that in order to speed up the game, I passed turns quickly, which made me forget about the colony ships.
It's not up to me to decide, but I think that having colony ship alerts would speed up the gameplay, because you won't need to keep track of your colony ships. Or there is the second case, I will have to learn to keep track of them.

[Poryg]

I wonder, how can I steal a minor race from someone? It doesn't look like bribing is that good, especially with the upgrade giving bribe resistance 4000... Do I just try it again and again until it falls?
And which races can I attempt to bribe? Those that are in an alliance with my opponent and better? Because somehow it really surprised me when someone tried to bribe a minor race.. . Well, the only real effect it had was that the minor race was less keen to join my ranks and I had to bribe it back to my side... It effectively wasted 5000 of my credits though
Also, I kind of wonder about the non-aggression pact. This pact made half of my ships temporarily unusable, because they were locked in the enemy territory for whole 80 turns. Well, not that I needed them, the AI is never interested in star systems that have max pop of 15000 and less.
I wonder, are there wars in greater difficulties? In games like MOO and Galactic civilizations there were wars and unstable diplomatic thingies. But here on normal difficulty somehow even when the military differences between other races are big, they somehow live not only in peace, but also very friendly. I always have to spend lots of money to be on good terms with others though :'( but well, I have 12 alliances and better, 14 to go... Which is impossible, because almost all minor races are members...
I have learned to manage my colony ships better... A small focus and it wasn't that hard... Just a couple of stolen star systems (stupid alliances), but no more damage, on normal difficulty I still dominate by a huge margin.

[Darkness]

You can steal Minors only if they are not invaded and you need a lot of money, especially in the later game it can be so much that it doesn't make sense to try. (But you van steal them from everyone)
Should be depend on the Type of race, on the Major (cause communication Networks give different resistance Depending on major) how long the Minor is part of the major and Maybe some more points I can't remember.

If your galaxy is peaceful raise the difficulty. At some point AI will have much better militair and Start a war against you.

[Wo he hiv]

Ich schreibe mal meine Frage hier hinein.
Ich habe eben etwas in der Wiki nachgelesen und bin hierbei über das Thema Regenerative Schilde gestolpert. Dort steht hierzu folgendes:

Hat der Angreifer schilddurchdringende Beams und das feindliche Schiff regenerative Schilde, so kann es diese auf die Waffen des Angreifers einstellen....(das kennt man von den Borg im ST-Universum - "Multiphasenschilde")

Heisst das, dass diese Schilde nicht gegen Schilddurchdringende Torpedos helfen ? Wenn ja sind diese Schilde einiges weniger nützlich als gedacht und die Omegaallianz kann mit ihren Tricobalt-Torpedos fast alle Schiffe in null Komma nichts zerschiessen.

[blotunga]

Regenerative Schilde verteidigen gegen Schilddurchdringende Torpedoes. Aber es gibt Torpedoes die alle Schilde ignorieren. Dann helfen diese nicht.

[Wo he hiv]

Danke. Ich weiss die Torpedos mit der Eigenschaft IgnoreAllShields durchdringen auch regenerative Schilde, aber ausser den Brane hat die niemand.

[Darkness]

Das sind auch Spezialwaffen und aus dem ursprünglichen StarTrek Kontext heraus gibt es einen Grund, dass nur ein Minor die besitzt. ;]

[Wo he hiv]

Schon klar, dass die nicht viele besitzen dürfen. (Die wären viel zu mächtig.) Ich wollte damit nur sagen, dass sie um den Wert von Regenerativen Schilden einzuschätzen, nicht sonderlich wichtig sind.

[Darkness]

Das ist korrekt...außer du spielst gegen einen Menschen der zufällig den minor vermitgliedert hat...dann bist du am Arsch.

[Wo he hiv]

Ja, aber erstens sind die Reg. Schilde so meistens nützlich und zweitens kann man in der Androidversion ja eh keine Multiplayerpartien spielen (bisher). Und auch da gibt es eine Gegentaktik, selbst die Brane zur Mitgliedschaft überreden.

[Anonymissimus]

Das sind auch Spezialwaffen und aus dem ursprünglichen StarTrek Kontext heraus gibt es einen Grund, dass nur ein Minor die besitzt. ;]

Welcher Grund wäre das denn ? Sollen die Brane Q symbolisieren ?

[Darkness]

Na ich hätt jetzt gesagt, sie stellen die Breen(Name wär sehr dicht dran ^^) aus dem späteren Dominionkonflikt dar, welche als geheimer Alliierte des Dominon ganze Flotten der Föderation, Romulaner und Klingonen mit Hilfe ihrer Energiedämpfungswaffe außer Gefecht gesetzt haben.
Ist zwar nicht exakt die selbe Technologie aber effektiv hat dir Waffe Schilde praktisch ignoriert. ;]

Edit: Das war mehr eine namentliche Herleitung. Gibt genug andere Rassen die Schild ignorierende Torpedos verwendet haben. Soweit ich mich entsinne gab's bei Voyager mehrere Umbauten der Torpedos die sowas bewerkstelligen. Sowohl Chronitontorpedos als auch Transphasentorpedos sollten dazu in der Lage sein und aus der Next Generation Zeit könnte man auch problemlos aus der Phasenverschiebungstechnologie der Pegasus einen Torpedo konzipieren der erst am Einschlagsort wieder so weit in unseren Raum phast dass er Schilde ohne Kontakt passieren und danach im inneren explodieren kann. Hat aber keiner der Serienschreiber gemacht weil unaufhaltsame Super Waffen auf Seite der "Guten" immer einen unschönen Beigeschmack haben und den Werten der Serie zuwiederläuft. :]