agroberts

Join Date 08/2008

A Few Oddities

Love the game so far, but I have experienced random crashes. I will download the Smart Exception and post logs here if it continues.

To my questions:

1. Ship upgrade. Here's the scenario. I have built a custom class of heavy cruiser called "Ajax". I have 32 of these ships spread across the galaxy. I want to upgrade, and it appears that there are at least 2 ways to do this. 1 is to do it through the Shipyard function. When I do this, select the Ajax class, click upgrade, I get a blank hull. Not what I am looking for - ie, not a complete rebuild, I might have just wanted to upgrade weapons and engines. How can I achieve a true "upgrade" as opposed to a complete rebuild ?

So, I tried it the other way. Click on an Ajax unit on the map and select upgrade as opposed to accessing upgrade through the SHIPYARD screen. What are the differences between these 2 ways to upgrade, BTW?

When I do it this way, the screen is totally confusing. I am given mabye 3 ship types to upgrade 2, all three of which are actually DOWNGRADES, ie, a destroyer, a constructor ship, or something equally ridiculous.

So, I thought, a bit later in the game, that I would try to upgrade it to an already built CORE unit. I chose the Dreadnaught. This still would not work, as it gave me a Dreadnaught which was basically just a hull. I still tried to have a go, noticing that the standard dreadnaught unit had 36 beam attack, I tried to load my new unit up with lasers but could only reach 12 on beam attack?? What gives here ? I tried maxing beam focus, and could still only manage 12 beam attack max. How the heck can the CORE unit achieve 36 on beam when its impossible to load this hull with more than 12 lasers ?

IMO, this entire section of the game is counter intuitive and not very well designed.

A little help here please for someone new to the game.

Thanks

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The upgrade function in the shipyard is for designing new models. Whether the guns, engines, etc that you had before stay on or not when you do this depends on the 'keep functional components on upgrade' option in the settings.

The upgrade on the ships themselves is the one that actually applies it to the ships, overhauling them into the model that you choose. Any model of the same hull size is available here, not just ones that are necessarily "better".

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MottiKhan

Join Date 04/2007

+152

There are seperate issues here. Let's look at each one on its own.

1. Custom Ship Builds and Class Upgrades - This is done through the Ships (Shipyard) screen. You can make custom ships and upgrade previously built ships. This is just a ship desiger.

By default, all of the functional components are removed for you to make it easier to build from the base hull. You can change this in the Options menu (top left button on the main screen). Uncheck the "Remove Functional Components When Upgrading" box. (I don't remember which tab it's in, but it won't take too long to find it if you give it a whirl).

2. Individual Ship Upgrades - This can be done through the Upgrade button when a single ship is selected or by double clicking a ship/fleet. What you're doing here is upgrading a previously built ship to another previously designed one of the same hull size. When you use this option, the selected ship (or class of ships) will be upgraded or downgraded to the newly chosen design. This will cost money either way.

3. The core ships are previously designed ships. If a Dreadnought was built by a different race with better beam weapons, it would acount for the disparity in abilities you mentioned. Otherwise, it might just be a difference in type of beam weapon that is being specified. More specifics would be needed to answer this issue.

Edit - Now this is strange. The edit button is on my previous reply and I can quote my later reply. Without a flux capacitor even.

Quoting MottiKhan,

reply 3

No edit button. You beat me to it, Kryo.

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MottiKhan

Join Date 04/2007

+152

No edit button. You beat me to it, Kryo.

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Without a flux capacitor even.

I'm so old i get the joke.

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Thanks,

I found that menu item on the Options page.

Regarding crashes, I have tried Smart Exception but when I try to generate the zip file I get an error having something to do with the directory Smart Exception\ZippedExceptions not found. I created such a directory, don't get that error anymore but I am not getting a zip file of the error log either....Is Smart Exception only for XP? I am using Vista and noticed that SE indicated that I was using XP SP1....

I've played 3 games so far, none of them to conclusion. I've noticed that in each game (I was playing Terran) I would be in first or second place for quite a while, then all of a sudden the Thalans would in a matter of 1 turn or 2, jump into first and start overwhelming the galaxy. Is this typical of them ?

Is there any point in putting a couple ships in the same parsec as a starbase for defensive purposes, ie, would be attacker would have to liquidate the ships before the SB ?

Would overlapping starbases bonuses be additive ? I'm trying to out-influence the Thalans in a few systems and have built 2 or 3 influence bases with overlapping spheres. Is this a waste ?

In the upgrade menu, what is the "Favorite" button located under the "Place" button used for ?

Are there any hotkeys? I'd really like to be able to use one to cycle between ships for example.

Thanks again for the prompt replies..

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MottiKhan

Join Date 04/2007

+152

I think you're right as far as Smart Exception not working in Vista. I seem to recall reading that somewhere.

The game generally will jump on you when you get comfortable, so the Thalans going berserk sounds about right. It could be any race though. You'll need to constantly adapt to the changing galaxy if you want to survive.

Stacking a defender or two with a starbase is a good tactic. The enemy will have to get through your ships before it can destroy your starbase.

Starbase areas of influence are additive as you suspected. They can be very effective when concentrated like that.

I'm not familiar with the "Favorite" button, but the "Place" button will put the selected component somewhere on the ship without regard to ergonomics. I use it a lot.

Hotkeys can be found here.

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I think I might know the source of my frequent crashes... I updated to 1.96 and continued to play a saved game from the previous version. It works ok MOST of the time but whenever there is a major occurence (ie, I build 20 DN class and gift them to the only race left fighting the Thalan except for me) the game will crash...Is this potentially or even probably the cause ?

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