These questions are commonly asked by beginners either because they skipped the tutorial (It's not very good anyway) or they didn't understand it. It's a shame though because their missing out on a great game because its a little too complex in the beginning. So here are some questions and if you have any more e-mail them to me and I will answer them as well as I can.
How do I move the ships?
You wouldn't believe how many times I had to explain this to my dad when I was teaching him. First if you're like me and when you hear right click and you left click, get 2 Post-Its and write R & L on them and put them on the buttons. Ok now that that's done, make sure the ship is done, highlight it in the ships window, RIGHT CLICK on where you want to move and click on moveto on the pop-up. (My dad is more of a solitare type game player. He just can't remember all the things you need to know. If you're like this, stop playing this, get a game a little less complex, like Space Empires 2 , and work your way up or you will forever avoid a great game.)
How do I design a ship?
Click on the Click on Designs/Ship Designs and the ship designs window will come up. Click on the add button and the design window will come up. Click on the drop down list of ships, i.e. escort, frigate, space station, etc., and choose one. Fill the ship with components and make sure all of the Requirements/Warnings are gone. Click Ok and you have a design. (If you just start a game and you have no tech levels yet choose Escort put a bridge and life support in the inner hull, crew quarters, 5 ion engines I, and a Meson Blaster I in the outer hull. After that check my designs section (If it's there yet) for more or you are on your own.
How do you Colonize a planet?
First design and build a colony ship (Bridge, 2 life support, 2 crew quarters, and 2 engines in the inner hull, 2 engines, a colony component, and ECM[if possible] in the outer hull, and an armor component in the armor section[if there is no ECM]). Then if you remember how to move a ship do the same thing only there will be a Colonize option. Click that and wait for the ship to arrive and colonize. I have recieved a question from Michael Inglis about my design. He says:
Why put in ECM on a ship that disbands itself?
Its too dear. Besides, ECM aint gonna save an unescorted colony ship, anyway.
Well, I guess I should say that this would be a design for areas where enemy ships are close by. And when there's going to be enemy ships, I sent an escort ship with most unarmed ships. After the planet is colonized, the escort guards the planet until a base can be made for protection. But a good point. You don't have to be restricted to THIS design, so change whatever you like.
Why does the computer always declare war on me?
Good question! That is still a mystery to everyone but Malfador, and they only have a vague idea. Well, for starters, it takes time to form any alliance, with a computer or a human. First, certain computer AIs hate peace, and want to conquer everything. Those are pretty much everything except normal, peaceful, nuetral, technologist, and intelligest. You will have an easier time with the ones that I listed than with the ones I didn't. But, It'll take a few game years without provoking them, and constantly offering treaties.
Why do you fill the inner hull of a colony ship,
since components there are just as vulnerable after
one on the outer hull has been destroyed? Why not
place only life support in the inner hull, thus placing all
other components on the outer hull to provide protection?
Life support has to get priority because without this,
the ship is nothing more than a navigation hazard.
I didn't know how to paraphrase this so it would make sense, so I'm just leaving it as I got it. Well, you fill the inner hull because it DOES give protection. The components aren't really as vulnerable as the outer hull components, because it still has some components "covering" it. Yes, it is possible for a shot to get through a hole in the outer hull, and into the inner hull. But a thicker outer hull doesn't change the probability. And also in my experience, when there is a hole in the outer hull, only weapons with 1 damage point get through to the inner(without destroying the outer first). The others(around 4+ damage points) just start at the bottom of the "outer hull"(again, I don't know if this always happens, it's just my experience), and do damage from the bottom up. I hope this answers your question...
P.S. Life support isn't the only thing that needs priority. If you lose the bridge, you lose half your movement, and the same for crew quarters.
I LIKE YUR SHIP STYLES.....THERE PRETTY COOL....how do you work the ship DATAEDITOR for se3....and how do u make yur own ship sets??....(HEY! I'm not exactly a begginer but..OH WELL)
I left this one as is, simply because he likes my shipsets :-). Well, I don't know if you mean tech data editor, or if you think there's a special program to create ship sets. Well, thankfully, there isn't. All you need to make shipsets is a graphics editor(picture drawer, whatever) that supports the .bmp or bitmap format. Perfect example that I know is almost impossible not to have: MSPaint. Yeah, that program where you make all those neat pictures that came with every version of windows since the stone age(ok, I'm exagerating... the pictures weren't that neat :-). There are a few templates floating around out there, so you know what goes where, so get one(I think Vendetian Shipyards has some), and draw to your hearts content. If by some chance you mean the tech editor, you need registered to use the techs, but not to make them, and there is a pretty self explanatory notepad help file that comes with it. And if you mean the ship editor in the game... well, you need to play SEIII more. They have a nice help file on that too...
I build ship yards but I can't buy ships with them! only repair... is natural-population-ship yards the only way to buy new ships?
No, you should be able to purchace new ships with BSY's and SYS's. First check to make sure you have the construction points to build it. Also make sure that the SpaceYards are constructed(can't build stuff with 'em if they aren't there). But the part where you can repair rules out the second possibility. Do you have them in orbit around a planet? Maybe they are there, it's just you see the planet in the purchace window. But if you look to the side under SYs, you might see numbers higher than 1(the natural spaceyards). That's where your spaceyards are, so they technically aren't purchacing the new ships, but they are building them. Now if they aren't in orbit of a planet, and all the above things have been checked, you may have a "bugged" version. In that case go to Malfador Machinations site and download the latest version(v. 1.17). If all of those have been checked, and that still happens, I give up, contact MM.
In tactical combat I must show for my ships their targets. If I CLEAR ALL TARGETS would my ships attack automatically?
No, your ships must have a target to attack. If you have Auto-Target enabled in the Tactical Combat options(it's the little clipboard with the check on it), then the computer will automatically select targets for you and attack.
That's all for now.