A few questions...

[El Shaitan]

Hi guys, a few questions:

1. I keep getting messages (usually every turn or two!) that protests of some technology type have delayed its implementation for several turns (typically 6-8). What causes this? Is it because of unrest (seems unlikely because I have very low unrest)? Enemy spying (again seems unlikely, because I had this happening before I had even countered any other races).

2. How high should you set taxes? I’ve noticed that my unrest is 0-3 on basically all of my planets. Does this mean I’m not taxing people enough? Are their any costs to higher taxes other than more unrest? (ie, do my people do anything with their money other than consume it on frivolous luxuries?).

3. How come aliens who I have a non-aggression pact with (I think? Might have only been trade & research treaty) end up blockading my planets in systems where we both have colonies? Is there anything I can do about this other than intercepting and obliterating their fleet (and so risking war)?

4. I’ve seen everyone complaining about how weak humans are especially relative to Evon – but aren’t they supposed to have a senate advantage hard-wired? I haven’t played them yet, but doesn’t this mean they get extra votes in the senate – which is way powerful given that the senate is the easiest way to win? I thought I read this somewhere, but maybe I’m wrong.

5. Are minerals and food basically freighted free to any non-blockaded planets? So there are an infinite number of freighters, which take no time to transport stuff to anywhere in your empire? Are there any limits on this – eg if you have a planet whose only access via jump route is through an enemy controlled planet, can you still freight resources to it?

6. Is there any advantage from producing excess minerals and food (eg does it get sold for money)? Because currently I’m producing about 50% more minerals than I can use (ok, I’m playing Tachidi, with Hive govt and Superior Mining and only improved Manufacturing).

7. How do I get my transports to only drop some of my troops? I had 2 transport task forces (I think – I could be wrong and maybe only had one task force, though with multiple ships in it – in which case drop would dump the entire task force I presume?). Is there any way to pick troops back up off planets once I’ve dumped them? Or do they stay there forever?

8. Why are there so many ground troops weapons techs, when it seems like there is no way to choose what equipment your ground troops have?

Cheers all,

El Shaitan

[Eric S]

1) I don't know. It could be related to creativity, it could be a random event. I don't think it's unrest-related, because I got tons of them even when my unrest on every planet was zero.

2) I haven't heard of any reason not to set your taxes as high as you can get away with.

3) I've heard that setting your rules of engagement for that race to "quiet front" eliminates that problem, but I haven't had the chance to try it, I've been on a holy war against the whole galaxy since just a little bit before I heard that.

4) I haven't played as Human yet, so I can't say. That would have to be the only advantage to the Humans, if true.

5) Yes, as near as I can tell, and I don't think a path needs to be traced.

6) Yes. the tax revenue of a planet is based on what it produces, not how much of what it produces it consumes. Later on in the game, techs allow food to be converted into either industry or production points (I can't remember which).

7) You have to manually control the starship combat phase so that you can manually control the bombardment phase. Once you're at the bombardment control screen, there are buttons to drop troops or drop all troops. Drop troops will drop 1/4 of your TFs (at least one). I've heard that there's a way to remove them from the planet they're dropped on, I think you go to the forces tab on the system view to get to it. You can only send them back to the reserves that way.

8) Supposedly, the reserves auto-upgrade, though that doesn't always seem to be the case.

I'm far from the most knowledgeable person, so take everything said with a grain of salt.

[Gateway103]

1) It is more of a semi-random event, more akin to project overrun, and it is not unrest related. You can consider it as a simplied Technology Shock concept originally proposed for MOO3's tech enging.

2) In principle, you can set taxes as high as you want, and the only trouble is increaing unrest. However, as you increase taxes and unrest increases, you'll find that you are allocating more grants to put down unrest (where the grants come from tax, ironically).

3) Aliens to whom you have Non-Aggression treaty should not blockade your planet, unless it is a rare bug that occur only on your system. Most likely you probably have Trade treaties.

4) Having not played Evon or Human, I cannot comment on this.

5) Freighters are free, and as long as your colonies aren't blocked, the stuff gets through.

6) Excess food and minerals each turn are sold locally on each planet, in turn generates revenues in AUs. In addition, food and minerals consumed by population and industry also generates revenues in AUs, with population consumption generates on average twice as much as industry consumption, and four times as much as local sale, assuming the quantity consumed are equal.

For example, say you have X quanitity of food or mineral,
- if sold as excess generates say Y AUs,
- if consumed by industry generates 2Y AUs
- and 4Y AUs if consumed by population)

Furthermore, when doing bioharvesting and mining, rare byproducts will be generated, the amount of which depends on Terrain, Fertility/Mineral Abundance, and Race Picks. These rare byproducts are sold for a high price, and can be a very significant source of income on your planets, should the right condition exists (i.e. right fertility/mineral abundance and terrain). These byproducts are independent of whether you are running an excess or not.

7) You can drop only some of your troops by taking manual control, and choose "Drop Troops" rather than "Droop All Troops". Each "Drop Troops" clicking unloads 25% of your forces. Note that since your troops will fight as a single unit, however, you cannot drop a fraction of a Corp/Division/Army. You must drop the entire Corp/Division/Army, not part of it, so the 25% is for general guidance only.

As for "picking up" your Ground Troops from planets, that is not possible. However, after you conquered the world, you can go into the Planetary View (i.e. where you can adjust local tax, change DEAs, as well as productions on that planet), then click on the "Military Info Panel", then the "Grounds" tab, and manually disband present Ground Troops. After a few turns, these units will be available again in your reserve.

8) Your troops always use the best available technology. You can see this when you take manual control of Ground Combat, and see the stats of your units. You will notice they always use the best weapon, armour, and shields that you currently have available.

-Gateway103