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My newbie questions


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Hello everyone. I've read through the manual several times, read through the appendix and VCF, and read many posts on this board in the last several weeks and have come across a few questions that I can't seem to find the answer to. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1) I notice that in the power area of the logistics computer I am able to vary the power to the engines and the solar reactor by units of 1 (although both seem to default to 5). Does raising these have any effect? Is it at all worthwhile to put both (or either) at 10?

2)While studying the appendix to choose which ship type I would like to command (for now), I noticed that there are different shield and hull values given for each. One carrier may have a shield value of 1500, while another (the Megaron I think) has a value of 3500.

My question is, is this shield strength a proportional increase, or just the base value given Spectrum/A shields? If I were to upgrade two ships of differing starting shield values to Linear Spec IV shields (the same upgrade), would the shield strengths between the ships increase proportionally, linearly, or would they be equal? The appendix states that the shield upgrades offer higher protection, so I assume that the advantage is not solely the consumption of less plutonim (if indeed it they do consume less), but also a higher degree of protection (say from 1500 to 1750 or something).

To illustrate my example, say I start with a Battlecruiser Mk III (1500 shield value) and a Megaron (3500 shield value). If I upgraded them both to Linear Spec IV shields, would the Megaron always have a shield value 2000 higher, or would it be more or less?

Also, what happens if I installed the artifact shield on both ships? The appendix says that it gives 5000 units of protection, so I assume that in this case both the Megaron and Battlecruiser would have equal strength shields, irregardless of what the starting shield values were.

3)I have noticed that when I dock at a starbase (say GalcomHQ) for repairs, sometimes my repairs will be suspended before they are finished. Sometimes, if I reassign engineers they will continue working and fix the system (this happens after they have already used the required parts, so I know it isn't their refusal to pay for spares).

Also, I have noticed that sometimes repairs stop at 99% and will not go any further no matter how many engineers are assigned to the task. Is this normal?

(and as a final last minute add on to this question, I have had systems repaired to 100% that where still colored brown and listed as 'suspended'. Assigning station or my own ship engineers would not alleviate this.)

4) And finally (whew!), I know that I can command my shuttles to jump into another sector (from earth to mars for example). What I can't seem to figure out how to do (or if I can do it at all), is to access the tacops computer for a sector that my AE is not in. For example, I would be interested in seeing if I could launch a shuttle from Earth, order it to jump to the Mars sector, and then order it to deploy a drone on Mars or one of it's moons and return to my command craft, all without my CC (with my AE on board) ever leaving the earth sector.

I apologize ahead of time for being so longwinded, I just wanted to be as descriptive as possible so that people could understand my confusion.

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quote:

1) I notice that in the power area of the logistics computer I am able to vary the power to the engines and the solar reactor by units of 1 (although both seem to default to 5). Does raising these have any effect? Is it at all worthwhile to put both (or either) at 10?

They supposedly use up more radine if at a higher power level. Haven't taken the time to test this, though. Some artifacts like the HSD need the engine at full power. I like to default my engine and solar reactor at 1 when I'm not doing anything rather important, to conserve resources.

quote:

2)While studying the appendix to choose which ship type I would like to command (for now), I noticed that there are different shield and hull values given for each. One carrier may have a shield value of 1500, while another (the Megaron I think) has a value of 3500.

My question is, is this shield strength a proportional increase, or just the base value given Spectrum/A shields? If I were to upgrade two ships of differing starting shield values to Linear Spec IV shields (the same upgrade), would the shield strengths between the ships increase proportionally, linearly, or would they be equal? The appendix states that the shield upgrades offer higher protection, so I assume that the advantage is not solely the consumption of less plutonim (if indeed it they do consume less), but also a higher degree of protection (say from 1500 to 1750 or something).

To illustrate my example, say I start with a Battlecruiser Mk III (1500 shield value) and a Megaron (3500 shield value). If I upgraded them both to Linear Spec IV shields, would the Megaron always have a shield value 2000 higher, or would it be more or less?

Also, what happens if I installed the artifact shield on both ships? The appendix says that it gives 5000 units of protection, so I assume that in this case both the Megaron and Battlecruiser would have equal strength shields, irregardless of what the starting shield values were.

I'm not sure. I'd say the same thing as your first example, but the artifact info seems to throw that all off balance. I think I'll have to test this out later. (Sorry if I'm not helping.... )

quote:

3)I have noticed that when I dock at a starbase (say GalcomHQ) for repairs, sometimes my repairs will be suspended before they are finished. Sometimes, if I reassign engineers they will continue working and fix the system (this happens after they have already used the required parts, so I know it isn't their refusal to pay for spares).

Also, I have noticed that sometimes repairs stop at 99% and will not go any further no matter how many engineers are assigned to the task. Is this normal?

(and as a final last minute add on to this question, I have had systems repaired to 100% that where still colored brown and listed as 'suspended'. Assigning station or my own ship engineers would not alleviate this.)

a: Don't know what you mean.

b: Yes.... I guess.

C: I've had that same problem. Just overlook it.

quote:

4) And finally (whew!), I know that I can command my shuttles to jump into another sector (from earth to mars for example). What I can't seem to figure out how to do (or if I can do it at all), is to access the tacops computer for a sector that my AE is not in. For example, I would be interested in seeing if I could launch a shuttle from Earth, order it to jump to the Mars sector, and then order it to deploy a drone on Mars or one of it's moons and return to my command craft, all without my CC (with my AE on board) ever leaving the earth sector.

You can't. Even if you had a probe there so you could see that region (as said above), it is impossible to observe planets/moons in areas you're not in. It's something that IIRC, SC did in one of the patches.

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quote:

Originally posted by White Castle:

1) I notice that in the power area of the logistics computer I am able to vary the power to the engines and the solar reactor by units of 1 (although both seem to default to 5). Does raising these have any effect? Is it at all worthwhile to put both (or either) at 10?

Negligible impact, find a setting you like and stick with it.

quote:

Originally posted by White Castle:

2)While studying the appendix to choose which ship type I would like to command (for now), I noticed that there are different shield and hull values given for each. One carrier may have a shield value of 1500, while another (the Megaron I think) has a value of 3500.

My question is, is this shield strength a proportional increase, or just the base value given Spectrum/A shields? If I were to upgrade two ships of differing starting shield values to Linear Spec IV shields (the same upgrade), would the shield strengths between the ships increase proportionally, linearly, or would they be equal? The appendix states that the shield upgrades offer higher protection, so I assume that the advantage is not solely the consumption of less plutonim (if indeed it they do consume less), but also a higher degree of protection (say from 1500 to 1750 or something).

Those are base values only. Upgrades increase the value.

quote:

Originally posted by White Castle:

3)I have noticed that when I dock at a starbase (say GalcomHQ) for repairs, sometimes my repairs will be suspended before they are finished. Sometimes, if I reassign engineers they will continue working and fix the system (this happens after they have already used the required parts, so I know it isn't their refusal to pay for spares).

Your SE go off duty in dry dock and the station SEs can then be assigned to continue any repair work on your crafts.

quote:

Originally posted by White Castle:

Also, I have noticed that sometimes repairs stop at 99% and will not go any further no matter how many engineers are assigned to the task. Is this normal?

(and as a final last minute add on to this question, I have had systems repaired to 100% that where still colored brown and listed as 'suspended'. Assigning station or my own ship engineers would not alleviate this.)

Potential bug, if you can reliably reproduce it, raise your hand and holler (include the steps to reproduce).

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Hmm, I don't know if I can reliably reproduce it, but I'm almost positive I have a save game with a system at 99% that will not go up (have tried station and my own engineers), and not due to a lack of parts or anything. I also probably have a save with a fighter system at 100% but still brown (and considered suspended).

One other question that has really got me stuck. Any help would be greatly (and I mean greatly) appreciated!

After mining and trading for a while, I finally saved up enough money for some real upgrades. I purchased the Karanian Mark IV reactor artifact, and the Tachyon Anagram shield artifact to install on my Megaron class carrier (checked assets file and these are both viable upgrades).

After I purchased them, I noticed that they were available as upgrade options (and the appendix does say that upgrade artifacts can be immediatly fitted) so I put 5 system engineers to work upgrading my reactor, and 5 to work upgrading my shields.

My problem is that they stopped before they were finished! They installed the reactor to 67% and it turned brown (and since it is an artifact, I can't 'repair' it to make it go any higher). They did the same with the shield, only they got to 71% on that before it browned out (and they stopped working on it). I'll stress the fact that I did not take any damage while installing either of the upgrades (I was parked on earth).

Is there anything I can do? I can't assign ship or station engineers to repair them, since they are artifacts, but I am unable to tell them to get back to work and finish installing them!

Whew, this has really got me flustered.

Oh, and thanks everyone above for the advice.

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quote:


Originally posted by Tyrn:

Potential bug, if you can reliably reproduce it, raise your hand and holler (include the steps to reproduce).


I doubt it. If there is one part missing and/or a system remains unrepaired, the system will not be repaired to 100%

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

I doubt it. If there is one part missing and/or a system remains unrepaired, the system will not be repaired to 100%

No, I got that problem sometimes also... and I verified that I had all part. Happens randomly thought.. often had the "suspended" 100% repaired system thing too.

And about the shield thing... I think a better shields give to xx% more shield hitpoints, same for armor.

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Ok, thank you. I think I may have figured out my artifact installation problem, although I would have to test more thoroughly to pinpoint it.

My current guess, is that somehow in the middle of the installation of the artifacts, a command was given (not by me, I was away trading in a shuttle at the time) to send the system engineers off-duty. I'm also guessing that once they 'suspended' the installation of the artifacts to go off-duty, they were unable to be reassigned (since you can't fix artifacts).

Anyway, i went back to an earlier save and started installing them again, only this time I took every officer off duty but the Chief Engineer, and I stayed aboard the ship on-station (didn't fly off in a shuttle or anything). They both installed fine that way.

As for the 99% thing, I can assure you that it is not due to a lack of engineers or parts. The list of things I need to repair it all have zeros on them, and station engineers can't get it to a full 100% either. If I assign them, they just suspend it, leaving it at 99%. I've only ever encountered this on my fighter craft systems so far.

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quote:

Originally posted by Panther:

By any chance are your system engineers ff over 50%. I was doing repairs recently and when mine went over 50%, they would not do any repairs, I could assign them but they would just go either off-duty or on-station.

To stop them going off-duty by themselves, take your CE off station. Of course, this will make then sys engs even less efficient, so you can really work them into the ground.

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