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[Tres_Huevos]

I'm considering buying the expansions while they're on sale, but I bought the base game back before Matrix switched to using Plimus as their store and downloads. As such, I'd need to go through support to download it again. Do I need the base game installed to use the expansions, or do I just need the serial key?

[Astral]

Pretty sure you'd need to download and install the base game first; it's a hefty ~700 MB as opposed to the 100-200 of each expansion.

[motorbitch]

ok. finally gave this one a try.
however, im having MAJOR issues with the game.
it just seems to refuse many of my orders.
like, i dont know how often i ordered construction ships to build research bases at my home world. they show the order, they move around like headless chickens, they never actually buld thie fuckin station.

same with some ships here i want to retire. told them a bazzilion times to do so. some did, others just sit at the bloody planet, idle.

research: everytime colonisation hits 50%, it gets a setback and is reduced to 33%. 3 times now.

explorers, they all do the same. i dont need them all to explore my home systems star - again? no realy. better do what i told you? like... explore unexplored systems? now they all move toward the edge of the universe. i guess thats an improvement... of sorts. tho im at the outer rim AND THER ISNT ANYTHING TO EXPLRE SUTPID FUCK!


yeah. so i guess im doing it wrong here... still, the way the game handles it, first faking compliance to my orders, then just not doing the stuff they are told, is very frustrating. dont know if i can stand it for much longer.

[Xardalas]

Do you have Automation turned on? It sounds like their orders might be getting overriden by the AI. Bottom right corner of the ship screen, DO you have a blue little refresh icon there? If you do, Your ships were automated.

[motorbitch]

i dont think its automation. they pretend to do it after all... they do have the order, they start flying there, they just dont build the station.
maby there is a limit? can a planet have more then one station?

[Zangi]

I'm considering buying the expansions while they're on sale, but I bought the base game back before Matrix switched to using Plimus as their store and downloads. As such, I'd need to go through support to download it again. Do I need the base game installed to use the expansions, or do I just need the serial key?

You need the base game.

ok. finally gave this one a try.
however, im having MAJOR issues with the game.
it just seems to refuse many of my orders.
like, i dont know how often i ordered construction ships to build research bases at my home world. they show the order, they move around like headless chickens, they never actually buld thie fuckin station.

same with some ships here i want to retire. told them a bazzilion times to do so. some did, others just sit at the bloody planet, idle.

research: everytime colonisation hits 50%, it gets a setback and is reduced to 33%. 3 times now.

explorers, they all do the same. i dont need them all to explore my home systems star - again? no realy. better do what i told you? like... explore unexplored systems? now they all move toward the edge of the universe. i guess thats an improvement... of sorts. tho im at the outer rim AND THER ISNT ANYTHING TO EXPLRE SUTPID FUCK!


yeah. so i guess im doing it wrong here... still, the way the game handles it, first faking compliance to my orders, then just not doing the stuff they are told, is very frustrating. dont know if i can stand it for much longer.

1. Construction ships should go back to the spackedock at home world to pick up materials before going to build the station.  Are you playing in shadows age? Construction ships are generally slow and will have trouble catching up to the planet/destination if it is orbiting something and the ship is out of gas when you have such low tech.
2. I'm not sure what is wrong here, is the spacedock at your home world at full construction capacity?  You are trying to scrap em for materials right?  Or to simply delete em?
3. Just extremely poor luck.
4. I don't know about this... do they have the uhhh... engines to fast travel?  There may have been some unexplored rocks in your home system.  I've never seen any problems with the AI when it comes to exploration.  I've always let the AI automate it.

When you give direct commands to a ship, their automation should be automatically turned off.  They'll stop doing anything after they are done with the given command. But... if I remember right, they may still automatically refuel when it gets low.

i dont think its automation. they pretend to do it after all... they do have the order, they start flying there, they just dont build the station.
maby there is a limit? can a planet have more then one station?

Yes, 1 station per planet.

[Biowraith]

One possibility (albeit somewhat unlikely) if a station's not being built is if you're missing a key resource required for its construction.

There might also be an issue with them trying to build it at a certain point relative to the planet, but the planet is constantly moving so they keep adjusting the position and never actually start building (I can't remember if I've seen that happen or not - I vaguely remember it happening ages ago, before one or more expansion pack).


One possibly workaround if you can't figure out what's going wrong: design a 'Starbase' class base, load it up with the desired research labs, and set the planet itself to build it the same way you would a space port.  That's what I usually do when it's not a planet with a specific research bonus.

(as far as I know there's no limit to how many stations a planet can have in general - I've definitely had more than one of the aforementioned research Starbase stations on my home planet before - but there might be one for the specifically typed research stations)

[motorbitch]

rocks in system: confirmed. ftl engines are present.

one station per planet would explain it. this stupid idiotic moron of an advisor, advising me to build a second one, will be exterminated in a painfull way.

so, that explains most then.

however, restarting that map, i ran into a different probem.
as it seems i cant realy build research bases, i decided to redesign my initial space port to have more labs. i also designed exploration ships that have one of each labs, but hardly any engine. they just float around in space researching.

well. that at last was the plan, as it doesnt work. within the reseearch -> research stations screen, it shows me 260k research of all 3 areas for the space port, and 20k for each of my 10 research vessels.
total research capacity is 3x 460k.
however, my actuall outpup (including boni) is 235k.
now, im not that good if it comes to mathematics. but shouldnt 460k + 25% from government +10% from race result in slightly more then 235k?

[Biowraith]

There's a limit on how much research your empire can actually produce.  I'm hazy on the details but I think it's to do with population size.

edit: basically, you don't have enough scientists to fill all the labs you've built.

[motorbitch]

makes sense.
but, why is my output even decreasing? its down to 190k now, but it says my population is growing by 4%, not shrinking?

[jocan2003]

i dont think its automation. they pretend to do it after all... they do have the order, they start flying there, they just dont build the station.
maby there is a limit? can a planet have more then one station?

Your constructor might be trying to fetch all the goods required to build the said station if he has enough cargo space to hold it all. If it doesnt or cant hold everything it will still try to fetch everything it can hold and place buy order for the civilian fleet to fill out. It also boost the civilian sector when building a lot.

[jocan2003]

makes sense.
but, why is my output even decreasing? its down to 190k now, but it says my population is growing by 4%, not shrinking?

Maybe some of your research scientist are leaving and being replaced? Or it could also be that some bonus fades out with time if i remember right? I could be wrong on that one tho.

Also System being blockaded does reduce research output too, but again im not quite sure on that one, been too long i havent played.

[Biowraith]

I read a discussion on another forum that suggested the strength of your economy also affected it (something which seems to fluctuate a fair bit in the short term / early game, at least if my income reports are anything to go by) in addition to population, but they didn't go into any details and it could have just been guessing and/or nonsense on their part.

In short, no idea - I never really paid attention to it beyond building enough stations to surpass my empire's max potential output.

[motorbitch]

thanks for the help

another issue here:

do i realy have to pick each ship individually to retrofit it? once i have more then one selected, it wont show me the option to do so.

i realy hope i missed something here. if not, this would be the most retarded forced click fest  *ever*

[Xardalas]

I've been able to order entire fleets to retrofit at once. I'm pretty sure you just have to only select the same ship type to do it.