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Author Topic:   Various Annoyances

Paithan posted 04-01-99 05:19 PM ET
Has anyone else had a lot of trouble with the manual? its 250 pages long, and it contains no help whatsoever relative to playing the game. For instance...what does the lab statistic do? As far as I know, you can only research one thing at a time(which is just stupid, but thats not the point), so how can something add "+100% labs AT THIS BASE," and how can a network node add a "labs bonus"? Of course the manual offers no help, so my best guess is that this refers to researching secret projects. The simplest things are not helped...how do supply crawlers work, when you activate them at a base...what rate do they convoy, is it instantaneous, etc.? Is there a real manual anywhere on the internet? I could go on, but I don't want to bore anyone who has actually read this far.
borghese posted 04-01-99 05:51 PM ET
each tech you try to discover take a certain number of "lab" points. you can find out what things mean by looking at the datalinks(hit
F1). the energy you produce is divided according to your social engineering screen (hit "e" key). if you make 10 energy at a base and your research is set to 50% you add 5 lab points each turn toward the next discovery. building a biolab adds +2(i think) labs per turn. 5+2=7. things that add a percentage bonus are on top of this. 5+2=7 + 50% =10.5 labs per turn. supply crawlers are pretty cool. build one in a city then send it out to a sqare and press the letter "o". depending on the square you get choices as to what you want to transport. i use them alot for rocky areas that i've mined. these squares produce 4 minerals and energy based on how high they are. anyway i get my crawler to transport the minerals. the crawler will stay in the square until you click on it again and will add 4 minerals to the home city each turn. look on the lower right of the city display where supported units are shown. the crawler will appear there with 4 blue diamonds beneath it - your extra minerals. crawlers are good for small cities to produce extra resources while the grow. they can also be used to extract resources from sqares that are beyond the coverage of you cities-there is no range limit on how far away they can be. ps you can also build sea crawlers to get resources from offshore nutrient beds or mineral squares. boy this is getting to be a long reply. hope the info helps!
CrayonX posted 04-01-99 06:11 PM ET
In terms of usefulness, the manual was not very helpful, even as a reference. I learned more from fiddling around with the controls. I'm still surprised that Computer Gaming World and PC Gamer didn't knock the game's manual (the PC Gamer review said something like "for once, a manual I found very helpful"). Strangely, the Official Strategy Guide is 100 times better laid out. Hmmmmmm, looks like another attempt to eke out some $$$ from us naive consumers.
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Author	Topic: Various Annoyances
Paithan	posted 04-01-99 05:19 PM ET Has anyone else had a lot of trouble with the manual? its 250 pages long, and it contains no help whatsoever relative to playing the game. For instance...what does the lab statistic do? As far as I know, you can only research one thing at a time(which is just stupid, but thats not the point), so how can something add "+100% labs AT THIS BASE," and how can a network node add a "labs bonus"? Of course the manual offers no help, so my best guess is that this refers to researching secret projects. The simplest things are not helped...how do supply crawlers work, when you activate them at a base...what rate do they convoy, is it instantaneous, etc.? Is there a real manual anywhere on the internet? I could go on, but I don't want to bore anyone who has actually read this far.
borghese	posted 04-01-99 05:51 PM ET each tech you try to discover take a certain number of "lab" points. you can find out what things mean by looking at the datalinks(hit F1). the energy you produce is divided according to your social engineering screen (hit "e" key). if you make 10 energy at a base and your research is set to 50% you add 5 lab points each turn toward the next discovery. building a biolab adds +2(i think) labs per turn. 5+2=7. things that add a percentage bonus are on top of this. 5+2=7 + 50% =10.5 labs per turn. supply crawlers are pretty cool. build one in a city then send it out to a sqare and press the letter "o". depending on the square you get choices as to what you want to transport. i use them alot for rocky areas that i've mined. these squares produce 4 minerals and energy based on how high they are. anyway i get my crawler to transport the minerals. the crawler will stay in the square until you click on it again and will add 4 minerals to the home city each turn. look on the lower right of the city display where supported units are shown. the crawler will appear there with 4 blue diamonds beneath it - your extra minerals. crawlers are good for small cities to produce extra resources while the grow. they can also be used to extract resources from sqares that are beyond the coverage of you cities-there is no range limit on how far away they can be. ps you can also build sea crawlers to get resources from offshore nutrient beds or mineral squares. boy this is getting to be a long reply. hope the info helps!
CrayonX	posted 04-01-99 06:11 PM ET In terms of usefulness, the manual was not very helpful, even as a reference. I learned more from fiddling around with the controls. I'm still surprised that Computer Gaming World and PC Gamer didn't knock the game's manual (the PC Gamer review said something like "for once, a manual I found very helpful"). Strangely, the Official Strategy Guide is 100 times better laid out. Hmmmmmm, looks like another attempt to eke out some $$$ from us naive consumers.