Xenocides fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Feb 16, 2015

nweismuller fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Jan 29, 2015

fade5 fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jan 30, 2015

Cartheon fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jan 30, 2015

Okay, basic information. On the left we have our credit total and how much we are making each turn. It is clearly not enough for the Ferengi. We also have our dilithium availability. Not all systems provide dilithium but all home systems do. You can see a crystal near our sun. You can only be building as many ships as you have systems with dilithium though you do not have to build the ship in a system with dilithium. There is also a notation of how many events took place. This often pops up at the beginning of the turn but I always check it if not. Below that are the four other empires. These symbols change based on our diplomatic status.

One thing that can throw people off is that each empire has its own interface. They are functionally the same but the color scheme and appearance of the buttons change. For example the Federation is bluish and crips, the Romulans are green, the Ferengi tend towards a reddish-orange slightly more chaotic layout.

In the bottom you see the Ferenginar system. The green letters mean the planet is habitable, blue means it is unusable (mostly gas giants) and most planets will be red meaning they cannot be used until they are terraformed. The symbols above the planets provide bonuses. The green plants are food bonuses and the red suns are energy bonuses. All buildings are influenced by all bonuses in the system. Each system is its own entity. You do not build objects for individual planets.

Here is how you manage a system:



There are five kinds of primary buildings. Their names vary by empire:

Grower's Market (food production, each system must feed its own population, you cannot transfer food)
Machining Guild (makes the planet build things like ships and other buildings faster)
Power Exchanges (you use the energy to power buildings including defenses and special buildings)
Data Brokerages (produce intelligence which you can use to defend yourself or spy on and/or sabotage other empires)
Research Labs (produce research points which gives you better ships and buildings.

All these buildings can eventually be upgraded and each upgrade level produces more of whatever the building does.

To work each building must have population assigned to it and you can shift population around as needed. We have 312 food and 160 population (bottom left) so we can take people out of food and move them to other jobs. We will definitely want to put one unit of population to fill the last research lab. We do not need intelligence. You cannot use it until you meet another major empire. Intelligence does not work on minor empires.

The energy screen:



Right now we have a surplus of 79 energy. Both our buildings are turned on. One is the dilithium refinery (without which we would have no dilithium) and the other is the shipyard which is needed to build ships. It also serves as a supply point. To explain that I need to go back to the map:



You see the green, yellow, and red outlines? Those are the range ships can travel. Most ships can only travel the yellow distance away from a supply point. A few ships like our Explorer can travel throughout the red. There are a few ships that can only travel in the green (mostly big warships). Technology increases will increase range some and as we build shipyards on other planets and/or outpost space stations we expand that range. If we were to power down the shipyard none of our ships would be able to move. We have an energy surplus but nowhere to put the extra population. We need more buildings.



Here is our build list. Right now we can only build the basic structures and the Festival of Fun. The Festival of Fun is a morale booster. You generally only use it when morale is low and you really need help. Each empire has its own. The Romulans hold tribunals, the Federation imposes martial law (not sure how that is supposed to help to be honest) and I do not remember the other two. If you build nothing you build trade goods which provide credits.

Shipbuilding:



Right now we only have three options. The Colony ship is unarmed and terraforms planets and establishes new colonies. The Explorer is lightly armed and explores and has long range. The Troop Transport is unarmed and is used for planetary invasions but can also be used to build outposts and (when we have the technology) starbases. We do not have any real warships yet.

And the full map:



We are near the southern edge of the galaxy. In the top right whenever you run the mouse over a sector it gives the scan strength. The higher this is the more likely you are to detect ships. Cloaking makes ships much harder to detect. You get a small basic level in systems you control and where your ships are. Later we can develop more advanced detection equipment.

We switch to economic view:



and find that Ferenginar only has enough population for one trade route. We should get another shortly. The Bolians are small in population and cannot provide much in terms of trade. The number refers to population, the higher the better. Every other Empire has to establish at least a Friendship treaty before they can form trade routes. The Ferengi do not have to bother with red tape.

Xenocides fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jan 30, 2015