More newbie questions ;)

[Battalion]

Heya guys, yep I'm another newbie trying the game out ... about 4 or 5 days now.

I think i got the hang of basic navigation through the game (thanks to some of the other forum posts). So here are some of the remaining questions that I have:

1. What is the purpose of increasing expedition tech?
2. Do increases in energy tech improve energy efficiency in any way at the bases? (base produce more or buildings use less?)
3. Do shields get depleted during a battle?
Or are the shields static and the attack power must exceed shields to score hits?

4. What is a typical low to mid-level defense? (i have small shield, and am poking at gauss... or do i put a bunch of lasers, or aim for another type)

5. Is there a place where i can see my totals for the empire? i.e. how many of each ship in total?
In the Empire link, its a good comparison but it only shows ships available. I have about 6 fleet slots now, and ships in flight - those do not show in the Empire report.

6. What number of fields should I consider discarding a colony at typically? (my latest is 332 fields, but i have another at 376 and 431)
7. When i dismantled a colony, it left a "destroyed planet" behind. Can that slot be re-colonised?

8. How often do you guys get into wars? I find myself enjoying those kinds of group actions more than just solo hitting.
I guess I'll look for an alliance to join soon


Oh... and here are some comments, from a newcomer perspective.
a. The fusion reactor table does not show the differences - need fixing

b. Just my opinion, but the interface color of combo box/ drop-down boxes is too dark. When i started a couple days ago, I was clicking around trying to figure out how to make things work and only after a day or so did i even realise there was a drop-down box there. The color of the arrow was dark against a dark background - i just didn't even see it, only a random click clued-me in.
This is not an issue once you find out, but I can say that for new players joining - after a couple minutes of any frustration they will move on and this game will not grow as fast as it could. A couple little tweaks in those areas might help - just color contrast on interface buttons.

c. Another comment... in most places the word "probe" is used, but there is no mention in the tech tree of "probes". Its just that again for new players trying to see a planet data may not figure out that "espionage ship" is the "probe". That one had me a bit frustrated too. If it were called "espionage probe" or something, its enough to make the link between the two. Just another possible source of sour experience for a brand new visitor.

[Despot]

1) Expedition tech increases the maximum duration of expeditions, and the length of time each fleet can explore for. The longer you explore, the higher the chance of an event, either good or bad.

2) No. In similar games energy tech would increase the energy produced by Fusion Plants, however this feature is not yet implemented. There is no point taking it further than the level 12 required for terraforming.

3) Nope. Shields don't deplete, they recharge in full every round.

4) There really is no such thing as "typical" in this game. You need to base your attack and defense strategy on your environment. Different areas of the Universe have different players, and thus different levels of threat for you. If there are a number of players close by that are capable of attacking you, you will want heavier defence than if you are the big fish in your pond. When starting out, I would tend to use all my resources before I log off, putting any remainder into as many defences as I can to be built while I am away.

5) There is no total for your empire. You're going to have to do this the old fashioned way, by adding things up.

6) You've done well with your colonies. Anything over 250 is reasonable. I try to aim for 300 plus where possible. Anything under 200 other than the homeworld, I tend to delete immediately and try again.

7) Yes. The "destroyed planet" status will clear within a day or two, allowing a new colony to be placed there. This will generate a new planet in the slot randomly, so it will probably be a different size to the one you deleted.

8) There have not really been that many full fledged wars. Siva only tend to declare wars when another alliance insults us. On those occassions one or two of our members handle the issue personally, rather than trouble the alliance as a whole. To date we have not required our members to fully co-ordinate against any foe.

[Battalion]

Thanks Despot!

I have some follow-ups:

9. The techs "combustion engine" and "impulse engine" increase speed - do both increase speeds for all ships, or do they each affect only their related ships (given by the ship pre-requisites)?

10. Also, when i got to impulse level 5, i did not find my small cargo ship speed double (supposed to go from 5000 to 10000?) - does it indeed double or am i interpreting the text incorrectly?

11. I noticed on the top-right of the "fleet" screen it shows 0/1 expeditions. Would the number of available expeditions also go up with expedition tech?

[Killerbuck]

9. yes the combustion engine increases it by 10% and impulse engine increases by 20%

10. Sorry i am not sure what you are talking about so idk

11. Yeah when you first start you can only have one then two and so one

[Battalion]

Thanks,

I also found the answers to 9 - don't know how I missed it before: those techs only increase speed of their respective ships
Combustion Drive : small and large cargo ships, light fighters, recyclers, and espionage probes are increased by 10%
Impulse Drive : bombers, cruisers, heavy fighters, and colony ships are increased by 20%


Here's another question:

12. Does the number of espionage ships you have on a base influence the success of someone probing you?
(i.e. would having more probes help to block some of the espionage report?)

[RavinPagan]

no thats espionage tech makes you harder to probe.you can send more probes to get more info if your reports come back incomplee last time i got probed they were sending 99 ships at a time repeatedly lol

[KingWill]

hahaha. . . probed.

they really need to change that word

[Despot]

Actually it is rather apt.

[Battalion]

Apt indeed

Here is another question... thanks for the responses guys, I'm getting there.

13. How do you secure a debris field?
I haven't created any particularly decent ones yet, but since the attack fleet returns immediately after fighting isn't there a time gap where the debris is sitting there before your recyclers can get to it?

[Despot]

Recylers sent with the attacking fleet do not pick up debris. They are on an attack mission, recycle missions are another matter.

You need to either send your recyclers out as soon as you have your combat report, or you could take a small risk and work out for yourself how many recyclers will be needed to recover the whole DF, and send them out slightly before your attack, so they arrive slightly after the battle before anyone else can grab it.

There will always be a time gap. The trick is to keep it as small as possible. That's where a little planning comes in, and why I suggested you centralise yours. Take the field in one trip. As your fleet grows and you can consider crashing larger fleets, keep your rec's growing in number proportionally.