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[forsaken1111]

Okay, so since I can't find this anywhere else, how do I ship minerals from one place to another? I keep hearing about waypoints and whatnot, but what exactly do I need to do? (If I need to set up mass drivers, that's okay, too, but I kind of wanted to avoid that.)

Mass drivers are one way. The other would be to make a ship with cargo holds go to the location, load the minerals, and then go to the destination and unload.

If you want to ship them between star systems, you're going to have to do it manually. In system, though, you can use mass drivers.

Its been a while but you should be able to do it automatically with cargo ships on repeat orders. (load x minerals here, jump to there, unload x minerals there, jump back, repeat

Herein lies the problem: Every time I try to manually load minerals someplace, the game has an issue with loading minerals and cans the rest of my orders. Wat do?

As others have said, if you attempt to load and either the hold is full already or none of that material is present to load, it will abort. Ensure there is always something to load. Personally I establish a shipping depot on some useless rock or moon near the jump point and ship everything extra there by mass driver and use the load all minerals order to scoop it up and truck it home. I also usually have something delivering fuel there so they can refuel at the depot too.

[lavenders2]

1. Make sure the ship has holds to store the minerals in
2. Make sure there are actually minerals on the planet or body you are trying to collect minerals from
3. Make sure your ship has adequate supplies (fuel) and proper life support
4. Im not too sure about this, but is it possible that your ship can't access your minerals somehow? I don't think that is possible, but once I tried to jump through a jump point and realized that it didn't have a jump gate on it so every ship kept cancelling the order and refusing to do it.

Just a few suggestions, but I don't think that 4th one would be the case in this scenario

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, basically if there aren't minerals for it to pick up, it'll whine at you.

Also, think of inserting a "refuel from colony" order somewhere in your order loop.

Shouldn't be necessary if you always add the 'if fuel < 30% then refuel at colony within 4 jumps' order to the ship or TG.

[Sirus]

Yeah, basically if there aren't minerals for it to pick up, it'll whine at you.

Also, think of inserting a "refuel from colony" order somewhere in your order loop.

Shouldn't be necessary if you always add the 'if fuel < 30% then refuel at colony within 4 jumps' order to the ship or TG.

But if that event is triggered, the other orders are erased and you have to set the TG up again, which can be a pain for freighters on repeating orders. If I have a freighter that is gonna be running back and forth for a long time, I always manually insert at least one refueling order.

[Repulsion]

How do all the star classifications work?

[Girlinhat]

If the ship undertakes a conditional <30% refuel, then it scraps all orders and goes to refuel, so you have to re-order it.  I do mine with a reload on the route.

Mass drivers are the way to handle in-system transport.  For out-system transport I usually do some heavy lifting, either one massive cargo ship or a horde of light ones.  Just wait for some backlog and then order them to load whatever they can and make a move.  Cycle orders are possible but fiddly.

Also of note: Alpha Centauri is about 7 LY away.  That O-class planet is nearly as far from its sun as we are from the nearest sun.  Do you have a geo report on it?  If not, or if it's poor, I'd consider SM Mode and "Homeworld Minerals" on it just for the pure RP value.

[Sirus]

How do all the star classifications work?

Bam. Long-ass read ahoy.

[lavenders2]

How do all the star classifications work?

Bam. Long-ass read ahoy.

Oh. My. Gawd. I think I gave up at around the third heading.

In other news, I decided to start another game where I have a better idea of what the heck I am doing. I just have one question:
What the heck am I doing?

[Sirus]

How do all the star classifications work?

Bam. Long-ass read ahoy.

Oh. My. Gawd. I think I gave up at around the third heading.

In other news, I decided to start another game where I have a better idea of what the heck I am doing. I just have one question:
What the heck am I doing?

You must be specific.

Have you assigned projects to your scientists?
Do you know how to design and build ships?
Are you having difficulty with combat?

[Flying Dice]

If the ship undertakes a conditional <30% refuel, then it scraps all orders and goes to refuel, so you have to re-order it.  I do mine with a reload on the route.

I guess I'm just not used to this being an issue, as my freighters usually have a minimum of 250b km range, and I refuel them between jobs. 

[Girlinhat]

I admit yes, that the more efficient commercial engines get some incredible fuel efficiency.  Stacked 1:1 of Fuel:Engines, nuclear pulse gets like a thousand days at full power - nearly 3 years.  Research more efficient techniques and your lifespan goes to incredible numbers.  But if you're setting up a permanent courier, like shuffling resources from Alpha Centauri to Sol, which may need to remain functional indefinitely as this is the doorway to the rest of the galaxy, then you probably want a refuel order on that cycle.

[Jacob/Lee]

Huzzah, timed missile fire was actually useful. There was this nasty Precursor ship with godly (by my standards) PD, it would always blow my volleys of 4 out of the sky. I set half my task group (2 ships) to fire their volleys (3 missiles each) then 5 seconds later I told the other half to do the same. The missiles reached the target, the first wave was blown out of existence, but while their PD was reloading the other wave cracked their hull and brought them down with just 2 of the 6.

[lavenders2]

How do all the star classifications work?

Bam. Long-ass read ahoy.

Oh. My. Gawd. I think I gave up at around the third heading.

In other news, I decided to start another game where I have a better idea of what the heck I am doing. I just have one question:
What the heck am I doing?

You must be specific.

Have you assigned projects to your scientists?
Do you know how to design and build ships?
Are you having difficulty with combat?

It wasn't meant to be specific.

Probably my problem ATM is designing a standard warship because the project research
menu and the design menu seem big and daunting. The last game I played was with the tutorial, and this time I'm not using the tutorial so I can get a bit more creative with ship design, but the process of designing one feels like it takes years in game just to get a survey ship ready. What are some good tips to building a successful design? Also, does everyone here use the fast creation thing (the one where you spend build points to get ships instantly) and the instant research, or is that cheating in everyone's eyes?

[Flying Dice]

You'll see a counter in the research and fast OB windows that show you how much you are 'allowed' to SM before it becomes cheating. As for ingame, I SM instant my module projects, because I don't have time to research a dozen FCs to find the correct one, etc.


For survey ships you should basically have two designs following the same pattern:

-Engine x1 (Best military available, preferably with boosted power output)
-Engineering Spaces Small x2
-Crew Quarters Small x2
-Geo/Gravsurvey Sensor x1 (best available, type dependent on which type of survey ship it is)
-Fuel Storage (however much it takes to get a range of 250b km+; I use 2x normal, 2x small, 1x tiny for a total of 125,000 litres)
-Military Jump Drive, with max tonnage as close to 1,000 as you can get it without going below.
-If there is room left, throw in a minimum sized thermal sensor

This ship will be 1,000 tons (hence no bridge required), jump-capable, long-ranged, and have a long time before it needs repairs. If you play with maint. off, even better. Remember to upgrade the design to a new model when you research improved engines or geo/grav sensors. If you don't have all the small modules available right off the bat, either hold off on the ship until you research them, SM them in, or do the best you can without them.

Spoiler: Here is an example from my current game (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Discovery III class Geological Survey Vessel    1,000 tons     95 Crew     279.8 BP      TCS 20  TH 115  EM 0
5750 km/s    JR 1-50     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 11/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 9.42 Years     MSP 175    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 4    5YR 53    Max Repair 150 MSP

J1200(1-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 1200 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 1
Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E6.5 (1)    Power 115    Fuel Use 65%    Signature 115    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 125,000 Litres    Range 346.2 billion km   (696 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km
Improved Geological Sensors (1)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Think about the logic behind this and apply it to other designs you make. The most important thing is to have a strong understanding of the role you want the ship to fill; building a design 'just because' is a waste of resources, especially early on. When designing a class, think about how you can trim the fat. Set a rough tonnage you want the class to be, and once you've got most of the components in, set a hard limit and stay under it. Click the checkbox to show the class size in tonnage rather than HS, as this will let you know how many small fuel tanks and engineering spaces you can cram into a finished design, which is very helpful.

Well, not exactly a full tutorial, but it makes more sense if you figure some stuff out on your own. 

[Duuvian]

I tend to prioritize research rate and turtle. I think my next game I'll actually get in combat past 'scout ship destroyed, begin cloak research for fifty years, never cause any problems until the day the cloak ship has that one last tech that's almost done while my 30 day turns are several minutes realtime each, then some dick NPRs I haven't met yet force me into 5 sec increments that take a good 10 seconds realtime to resolve.

One day, Aurora, I will spend money so my (currently very bad) processor will be able to defeat you.

I should add that turning down the NPR chance a lot and also doubling the time where actions happen (the 5 day wait thing) speeds it up quite a bit.