Drones and Minesweepers

AsheMorgan · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 17, 2010

I'm fairly new to SEV, only started playing about 2 months ago. I was completely addicted from the first time I ran through the tutorial! I started a couple of games before I started to understand what I was doing, and have been playing the same one for about three weeks. Obviously I've put a lot of work into my game, and I would like to continue it if I can, but I'm running into a couple of problems.

First, I've developed my drones to about level 8, and have loaded them with full ion engines, a computer core, shields, supplies, warheads (I've experimented with various warheads) and sensors. I can move them around the map, and I can initiate combat, but when combat begins the button for "move to" is not highlighted, and when I select the "fire" commands, it will target ships or planets, but the drone just sits in space.
I've also tried changing the strategy from optimal firing range, to kamikazee, to drone attack, but nothing seems to make a difference.

The second problem I recently encountered is I built my first minesweeper unit to clear mines from a few enemy planets. I sent the minesweeper to the fleet that was attacking, joined it up with the fleet, and sent them to attack the planet. As soon as the fleet touched the planet, the game kinda "froze"...not exactly froze, because I could still select a few different options, but the screen wouldnt rotate or scroll to look around a system, and the 'end turn' button would ask to confirm, but not actually end the turn. I could continue to give orders to my ships and planets using the next ship and next colony buttons. I didn't seem to have this problem until the minesweeper was built, and I saved the game right before, and it repeats the problem every time I send them to a planet. (also I tried removing from the fleet and using the sweep mine command, and it told me to target a hex, but then didn't actually do anything when I clicked it.)

I am playing the stock game, as I'm still new enough of a player to not know what needs to be done with various downloads to make the game better, so I'm very open to suggestions at this point. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Spearman · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:32 pm Post subject:

I don't play stock anymore, SO THE ONLY ADVICE I CAN OFFER IS THIS

*hey - get away from the caps lock, baby girl!*

Try out Balance Mod, you'll find stock gets very boring once you get midway into a game - the AI is too weak to offer any challenge. BM is an easy install, and is close to stock in gameplay, although the tech tree is a little different.

RogerN · Space Emperor Joined: Feb 15, 2007

Have you installed the latest patch (v1.79)? Early versions of the game were riddled with bugs.

AsheMorgan · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 17, 2010

Hooray for some answers! Which present me with yet more questions...to download the patch, can I just download the most recent one or do I have to start with the first one and go from there? I'm completely new to pc gaming, so I'm not sure how this all works Smile

Thanks to both of you for helping point me in the right direction!

Astorax · Space Emperor Joined: Jan 14, 2008

No, you can just download and install the latest patch as its all inclusive. I too would point you towards CaptainKwok's excellent mod, Balance Mod. The stock game, even with the latest patch, is way out of whack balance-wise and alot of other things. Balance Mod fixes most of these and doesn't change core gameplay doing it.

After you've been playing awhile and start to *really* get interested in different mods, you'll find that a whole bunch of them start out with Balance Mod (or parts of it) and edit it from there.

Breakthrough · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 11, 2010

Doesn't change core gameplay? BM fighters have so little space that designing them is pointless cause they can only hold one gun anyway. Even if that wasn't so, point defense guns are buffed so hard that fighters are still worthless. Even the ships have so little space that freaking cruisers can barely hold any weapons. This one gun/item per ship thing does help the AI, and the AI does put up a better fight than stock, but I cry every time I look at the design screen and realize there are no meaningful choices.

CaptainKwok · Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:40 am Post subject:

I'd be curious to how you are making your designs so that you only have enough space for a single weapon.

Typically, the AI in the Balance Mod uses 25-30% (or greater as the vehicle size increases) of a vehicle's tonnage, which on a Cruiser is enough space for 4 or 5 mounted weapons plus point-defense.