ONLINE VGA HELP FILES ... Phase 4 Review

[Doc]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

ONLINE VGA HELP FILES ... Phase 4 Review

Brief Comments:
Tim has released the Phase1 HTML documents that the group made comments
on. I am now editing Phase2 & Phase3 comments made by the group for Tim
(Running behind due to events in real life).

PHASE4
Phase4 shall review the following 31 to 40 Help files:
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/hotsheets.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howattack.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howcheat.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfighters.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfind.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howhappy.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howhost.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howmaster.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howmine.htm
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howmoney.htm

Please reference the URL in your reply to indicate which help file you
are referring to.

The Online Help Files can only be improved with your Help.


Mission Statement
Now that Tim is proactively trying to go GOLD with VGA Planets4 and
cutting down on introducing new features and concentrating on just Bug
fix releases, maybe we should do our part as Beta testers to help Tim
in cleaning up the Help files?


There is a total of 166 files in the Online Help and I shall be posting
10 pages every 7 to 14 days (depending on feedback and size of files)
asking the group to review and post back comments with the following in
mind:
1) Grammar: Grammar or Typo Errors found in the Online Help Text
2) Context: The Help file is ambiguous or misleading and the text
should be rewritten. (Posting a paragraph of what the Help file should
say would be very helpful here)
3) Textual Bug: The Help File differs from what happens in V­GA Host.
Be it a textual Bug or an actual Bug, either the game or the
documentation must be changed to compensate before Go Live.
4) Enhancement: With the many new Host changes over the past few years,
many new features may not have been included into the Help File and
maybe should have been. Please state them so that they can be entered.
I shall collect all the comments and post the updated HTML file(s) on
to Tim, who, shall have the final say on what is included into the
Online Help Files. This task is to help Tim concentrate on fixing Bugs.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

For "howattack.htm"

If your ship has weapons that use ord make sure your ship has some ord
loaded or its [weapons] ord using weapons will be useless.

The "weapons" marked [ ] should be deleted.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

For "howcheat.htm"

Unlike planets 3 nothing [ready] happens on the player`s end besides
the giving of orders to build something or move something.

The "ready" marked [ ] should be changed to "really".

"Planets 3 has many command and actions actually took place on the
players side. Ship building and factory building actually took place on
the player side and it was up to the host to double check the order, it
was a pretty simple matter to hack the files and cheat."

Possibly change the whole section to:
"Planets 3 has many commands and actions that actually take place on
the player's side; ship building and factory building, for example. It
was up to the host to double check the order as it was a pretty simple
matter to hack the files and cheat."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4do c/howattack.htm

[Comments in brackets [].]

....

Any ship that you have that has attack orders will attack any enemy
ship that passes as it travels.
[Only if the ship has orders to target soft / hard ?]

Combat takes place during movement.
[ But combat lasts no movement time --> Not clear when you're starting
planets]

A ship can be involved in more than one attack per turn. Groups of
ships can fight together. Combat is triggered when you pass within 5 ly
of the enemy and the ships that trigger the battle can call in friend
ships within 5 ly to help in the attack.
[Combat is triggered when in a square of 5ly or a circle (5ly away
would imply that).
I thought it was a square, so this would be not correct.]

If your ship has weapons that use ord make sure your ship has some ord
loaded or its weapons ord using weapons will be useless.
[drop first 'weapons']

Your ship can attack enemy ground bases [Link to
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/baseoverview.htm (ground bases), would
be nice, but the page doesn't exist] when the ship attack option [Link
to http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/shipattack.htm would be nice, page
is called 'Attack Controls (Ship)', not attack option btw.] "Fire at
ground targets" ["Fire At Ground Targets"] is turned on. If the enemy
base has a base shield your ship will not fire on it [will not attack
it, as we are talking about starting a fight not about the fight
itself] unless your ship has a super weapon [Link to
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/shipsuperw.htm, the page is called
'Super Ship Weapons' not 'Super Weapons']. A Super weapon can take out
any base shield. A standard large [or small] weapon can not damage a
base shield.

Another way of attacking an enemy is by landing colonists, troops,
crew, and high guard from a ship and forming a ground base and then
attack the enemy base using the ground base. A base shield will not
protect an enemy ground base from an attack from [of/by? as there is
from...from] an enemy ground base. Life pods can also be used to land
your guys on a planet. Assault pods can carry ground assault units and
fighters as well as troops[,crew and highguards]. You can land troops
from many ships and many pods all during the same turn. They will form
one giant [may be small too] ground base. The ground base will then
attack the enemy as one unit [The base will not attack in the turn it
was formed and if you unload at least 1 colonist, the ground base will
have its attack mode (link to
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/basemil.htm) set to 'peaceful']
....

[P.S.: This would have been easier in a wiki ]

Jochen

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

For "howhappy.htm"

"Do not let an enemy capture your colonists, if they hold some of your
colonists as prisoners it will cause a massive loss of happiness on all
your bases. If you do have colonists captured, get them back send a
fleet after them, if you can not get them back at least strike back at
the enemy and do as much harm as possible to their ships and colonists,
if you do your colonists will not be as upset then they would be if you
do nothing."

Possibly change the whole section to:
"Do not let an enemy capture your colonists. If they hold some of your
colonists as prisoners, it will cause a massive loss of happiness on
all your bases. If you do have colonists captured, send a fleet after
them and get them back! If you can not get them back, at least strike
back at the enemy and do as much harm as possible to their ships and
colonists. Your colonists will not be as upset as they would be if you
do nothing."

Several instances of:
"happiness drop in the [colonists] under the ship"

Should that be "bases" instead?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

for "howhost.htm"

It is normally done after all the players have [turn] in their TRN
files to the host.

The "turn" marked [ ] should be changed to "turned".

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4do c/howfighters.htm

[Where do you find this page in the docs?]

You build fighters at a fighter plant using the base`s parts order
screen. [You can build only 1000 of each type per turn.The new fighters
will end up in base storage next turn.
[You can build different types of fighters in ships having the
corresponding mobile fighterplant and enough money on board]
The fighters that are stored at the base will be used to defend the
base from enemy ground attacks against the base.
When the base comes under attack the fighters on the base will form
home guard fighter wings that will attack the incoming ships.
[ It is important to know, that only one wing per fightertype is formed
and the max. size of this wing is 1000 (taken fom the newsgroup)]

To transport fighters (and ground assault units) from planet to planet
you can use an Assault Pod launched from a pod pad. The pod will travel
through space using its own boost system or docked to a ship with pod
bays. The landing assault pods will merge with any existing bases that
you own on the target planet. If you do not yet have a base on the
target planet a new base will be formed. Any new base formed by an
assault pod will have its ground attack orders set to KILL KILL KILL.

If you have an air attack base on your base you can form a new fighter
wing. [You can also use a ship with fighter bays set to 'Replenish
Fighters'. The air attack base has the advantage, that you can change
the composition of the fighter wing, whereas the ship takes as much as
it can and the better (?) fighter types first.] A fighter wing can
leave a planet under its own power and travel to other planets just
like a ship. When a wing ends up parked over any base you own or next
to any ship that you own
[a base, ship or pod that you own] it will automatically be refueled
and rearmed. A small freighter parked in deep space could refuel groups
of wings that stop at the ship. The wing and ship must end up at the
same point in space at the end of the movement phases for this
refueling operation to work.

Fighter wings can dock with ships with fighter bays and travel inside
the carrier ship. When a [the] ship gets into [enters] a fight [,] the
fighters will automatically undock and attack the enemy (unless ordered
not to [launch]). If the fighters`s mother ship [carrier] is destroyed
in combat [,] the fighter wings will remain in deep space waiting for
new navigation order or a carrier ship to dock with.
[Fighter wings that are docked to ships are not hit by (exploding)
mines or glory devices]

Jochen

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

for "howmine.htm"

"These mine pure metals ready to be used to build new ships. Mines also
extract metal ore as a byproduct. Metal ore is useless until it is
refined into metal using smelters. Some races can not build smelters,
for them metal ore is completely useless. Mines produce 75% pure ready
to use metal and 25% ore. Mineral mines have a small smelting unit
built in that will convert ore into metals. They work at a maximum rate
of 30 kt per turn per base. To refine more than 30 kt a turn you will
need smelters."

Possibly change to:
"These mine both pure metals, ready to be used to build new ships, and
metal ore. Mines produce 75% pure metal and 25% ore. Metal ore is
useless until it is refined into metal. Mineral mines have a small
smelting unit built in that will convert ore into metals. They work at
a maximum rate of 30 kt per turn per base. To refine more than 30 kt a
turn you will need smelters."

"Having more than 5 ore smelters on a planet can also cause a happiness
drop."
How many smelters does it take to reduce happiness? Isn't it 10 or 12?

"R = ((STRESS / 100 ) * (STRESS / 100)) * 10"

This should be:
"R = ((STRESS / 100 ) * (STRESS / 100)) * DELTA / 2"

"There is a great danger of the planet exploding when the HD Stress
exceeds 1000 H."

Add:
"Every 1 point above 1000 increases the danger by 1%."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4do c/howfind.htm

You build ships, fuel them up and send them into deep space with their
sensors [scanners, link to
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/shipmission.htm] set to long range [but
remember that this makes more noise]. If you have a small cheap ship
that can hyper jump have them jump as far a possible scanning for the
enemy [but remember that the ship does not scan after it has jumped].
Scattering out a few ships with long range scanners in deep space would
[is] also be [] a great help in locating any would be trouble makers
entering your area of space.

It is a good idea to build bases on planets between your homeworld and
where the enemy might be. Build scanners [link to
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/structscanner.htm] on the bases to
watch for enemy ships flying by.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

> ONLINE VGA HELP FILES ... Phase 4 Review

Good to see you back at it Doc.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/hotsheets.htm

Title -- change the title to "Hot Sheets"

3rd paragraph -- Change ""Assault 3" the pod has an ID # 2616." to
""Assault 3". The pod has ID #2616."


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howattack.htm

Title -- Decapitalize "The".

1st paragraph -- Change "main tool bar" into a link to the "Tool Bar"
page.

1st paragraph -- Add a comma after "Ally Commands screen".

2nd paragraph -- Change "of the enemy and the ships that" to "of the
enemy. The ships".

2nd paragraph -- This whole paragraph should mention fighter wings
alongside ships.

3rd paragraph -- Maybe make "ord" into a link.

3rd paragraph -- Change "its weapons ord using weapons" to "its
ord-using weapons".

4th paragraph -- Change "super weapon" to a link.

4th paragraph -- Decapitalize "Super".

4th paragraph -- Change "base shield" to a link.

4th paragraph -- Should again mention wings, especially when talking
about taking down Base Shields.

5th paragraph -- I'd rather see life pod, assualt pod, etc turned into
links here than having them in a seperate section later, to be more
like all the other help files.

Base Military Screen -- Change the name of this link to "Ground
Defense", like the title of the page it is linked to.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howcheat.htm

1st paragraph -- Whenever Planets 3 or 4 is mentioned, capitalize
"Planets".

1st paragraph -- Change "ready" to "really".

2nd paragraph -- Change the first sentence to "In Planets 3 many
commands and actions actually took place on the players side."

2nd paragraph -- Remove the "actually" from the 2nd sentence.

2nd paragraph -- Change "double check" to "double-check".

2nd paragraph -- Change the comma after "check the order" to either a
period or semicolon.

2nd paragraph -- Change "Most the time" to "Most of the time".

2nd paragraph -- Change "no cheat detect is needed" to "no cheat
detection is needed".


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfighters.htm

2nd paragraph -- I believe there is a limit to how many fighters will
join homeguard wings. It should be mentioned here. As in "... up to
xxx fighters will form homeguard ..."


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfind.htm

1st paragraph -- Change "as far a possible" to "as far as possible".

1st paragraph -- Change "would be trouble makers" to "would-be
troublemakers".

2nd paragraph -- The "scanners" link leads nowhere.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howhappy.htm

1st paragraph -- Remove. "Happiness Tips" is what the whole page is
about; it's not needed.

7th paragraph -- Change "If you do have colonists captured, get them
back send a fleet after them, if you can not get them back..." to "If
you do have colonists captured, get them back. If you can not get them
back..."

7th paragraph -- Change "ships and colonists, if you do" to "ships and
colonists. If you do".

7th paragraph -- Change "upset then they" to "upset than they".

11th paragraph -- Remove the stuff about this being a Lizard device.
Presently the UEA also has this device; perhaps more someday. You may
wish to still say that no one but Lizards can use Lizard-designed
Psi-Opps.

12th paragraph -- Remove the Host revision info at the end, and add a
period.

14th paragraph -- Change "( A Draconian Device )" to "(a Draconian
device)".

16th paragraph -- The Mind Crusher actually has a 10ly range.

19th paragraph -- Fed colonists don't prefer Enslavement; no one does.
Some races can handle it better than others, though.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howhost.htm

1st paragraph -- The "master program" link leads nowhere.

3rd paragraph -- Change "have turn in" to "have sent in".

3rd paragraph -- Change "but their is no way" to "but there is no way".

link section -- The last link "How Does The Game System Work?" leads
nowhere. And "The" shouldn't be capitalized.

link section -- It would be nice to add a link to your page of links to
hosting webpages.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howmaster.htm

at the end -- Do the "Also see" part like you did in other files.
"Also see" on one line, followed by a series of links.

at the end -- The "map compiler" link leads nowhere.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howmine.htm

2nd paragraph -- Only have "smelters" be a link in the first usage, not
twice.

5th paragraph -- Capitalize "Laser Mining Drill" and "Particle
Fountain". Change "ship device" to "ship devices". "ship devices"
doesn't need to be a link.

5th paragraph -- Change "The laser mining drill and particle fountain
does not increase the stress of the planet if it fails to drill any
metals from the core." to "Laser Mining Drills and Particle Fountains
do not increase the stress of the planet if they fail to drill any
metal from the core."

Happiness, 1st paragraph -- Change "into problems, more than" to "into
problems. More than".

Happiness, 1st paragraph -- Change "living one the base" to "living on
the base".

Happiness, 1st paragraph -- Change "colonists happiness" to "colonists'
happiness".

New metals from HD Stress in the planet's core, 1st paragraph -- Change
"( HD Stress )" to "(HD stress)".

New metals from HD Stress in the planet's core -- The formula "R =
((STRESS / 100 ) * (STRESS / 100)) * 10" has changed. I believe
instead of "* 10" it's now "* Base Frequency".

New metals from HD Stress in the planet's core -- The sentence about
ship devices and ore is out of place. Remove.


> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howmoney.htm

1st paragraph -- Unless there's some special undocumented rule, the
Feds do not prefer Enslavement. They can handle it better than most,
but still prefer lesser tax amounts.

2nd paragraph -- Make "cities" and "under cities" into links.

table, Food -- Don't you need 100kt of food per hundred-thousand
colonists for max growth? (Under default Host settings.)

table, Population Level -- I'm pretty sure people have verified that
growth rate does NOT slow down when population approached 50,000,000.


Scytale

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

"1st paragraph -- Unless there's some special undocumented rule, the
Feds do not prefer Enslavement. They can handle it better than most,
but still prefer lesser tax amounts."

Nope. They get a much bigger boost in happiness from Enslavement than
they do from Ultra Conservative. 4x as great. UA, Scavs, UEA and
Coalition also get the 40 point happiness boost. Liberal gives them a
20 point boost, but there is no reason to choose it over the
Enslavement.

Light Powers, PC Factor and Law all have effects on whether happiness
gets a penalty, boost or remains uneffected by high taxes. I've got a
grid with the effects tax rate has on happiness for all races and
natives. Hmm... Guess I should submit that to Klingon Kommand too.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

Feeling inspired to contribute, but lack indepth knowledge so please
correct me if I am wrong... this is harder then it looks!
For example, crew can attack an enemy base in an attack & run of KKK
according to the docs, but can they attack on their own without troops or
highguard? Assumed yes.
Not to mention the difficulties of calling combat with space-capable
fighters a ground attack!

http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4do c/howattack.htm

Rewrite of the last section to better define what ground combat is and
isn't.

Another way to attack an enemy is by ground combat between bases. Ground
combat is when combat forces from one base attack the forces of another
base. Combat forces consist of troops supported by fighters, ground assault
units, crew and high guard when available. A base being attacked can also
use Anti Aircraft guns <link
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/structaaa.htm>, Laser Cannons <link
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/structlaser.htm > and colonists to defend
itself.

Ground combat will happen between <i>enemy</i> bases whenever anybody has
the base attack mode <link http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/basemil.htm> set
to something other then peaceful.

In addition to using ships to land troops on planets, you can use life pods
<link http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/podlife.htm> or assault pods <link
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/podassault.htm>. Assault pods are less
visble to the enemy and can carry ground assault units and fighters as well
as troops.

You can land troops from any number of ships and or pods in a single turn.
Together they will form one ground base on the next turn since a race can
never have more then one base on a planet. A base cannot attack another in
the turn it was formed and if there is at least 1 colonist unloaded, the
new base will have its attack mode set to 'peaceful' as default.


Regards,
Malcolm

>Another way of attacking an enemy is by landing colonists, troops,
>crew, and high guard from a ship and forming a ground base and then
>attack the enemy base using the ground base. A base shield will not
>protect an enemy ground base from an attack from [of/by? as there is
>from...from] an enemy ground base. Life pods can also be used to land
>your guys on a planet. Assault pods can carry ground assault units and
>fighters as well as troops[,crew and highguards]. You can land troops
>from many ships and many pods all during the same turn. They will form
>one giant [may be small too] ground base. The ground base will then
>attack the enemy as one unit [The base will not attack in the turn it
>was formed and if you unload at least 1 colonist, the ground base will
>have its attack mode (link to
>http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/basemil.htm) set to 'peaceful']
>...
>
>[P.S.: This would have been easier in a wiki ]
>
>Jochen

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

Should also add to my last post that an assault pod forms a base with the
orders "KKK", which I just read in the How to use Fighters section!?!

Like Scytale saids, some of this is better put the Assault Pod section, but
the style of the "how to" sections is meant to be different, giving a
introduction to important topics.

>Base Military Screen -- Change the name of this link to "Ground
>Defense", like the title of the page it is linked to.
But unlike Scytale, I would rename the page "Ground Defense" to "Ground
Combat" and not the link. A better description of the page I think.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[Mike]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfighters.htm


Add three more paragraphs:

You can also create wings without an air attack base if you have a ship in
orbit with one or more fighter bays. Set the ship to Replenish Fighters.
One wing will be formed in each empty bay as long as there are fighters
available from the base below. Fighters of type 1 are added first, then
type 2, and then type 3.

You can also form larger wings, without an air attack base, by docking one
wing with another wing. You can dock any number of wings as long as they
are dock in order from largest wing id to smallest. (For example say you
have 4 wings with ids 1,2,3,4. Set wing 4 to dock with wing 3, wing 3 to
dock with wing 2, wing 2 to dock with wing 1. All wings will merge into wing
4.)

Larger wings can dock with carriers as long as there are enough empty bays
to hold them. Fighter bays can not be shared between wings. (For example 1
wing of 350 fighters can dock on a ship that has 4 fighter bays of size 100.
But no more fighter wings may dock. Even a wing of size 10.)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

For "howmoney.htm"
I found on some help files references to race specifics, but not on
"howmoney.htm".

There are quite some structures like "marketplace" of cents, " pirates
cove" for privs etc that have an effect here.

What is the procedure? Should everything in or race specific things out
and just into race guides ?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

Mike schrieb:
> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfighters.htm
>
>
> Add three more paragraphs:
>
> You can also create wings without an air attack base if you have a ship in
> orbit with one or more fighter bays. Set the ship to Replenish Fighters.
> One wing will be formed in each empty bay as long as there are fighters
> available from the base below. Fighters of type 1 are added first, then
> type 2, and then type 3.

From my expierence the Fighter are picked the other way. First the "best"
the T3s, if no longer T3s there then the T2s and at last the T1s.

Bye-Bye JoSch.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

>
> Light Powers, PC Factor and Law all have effects on whether happiness
> gets a penalty, boost or remains uneffected by high taxes. I've got a
> grid with the effects tax rate has on happiness for all races and
> natives. Hmm... Guess I should submit that to Klingon Kommand too.
>

Oh please release it.

get you send it via e-mail ?
to lordlancelot @ s y m p a t i c o [dot] c a

if you can send me your last ship device as well.

Thanks

Lord Lancelot

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

I hadn't looked at the happiness data in a while, so I got it slightly
wrong. Instead of a flat 40 point boost, it is a boost of from 1 to
40, randomly generated every turn.

Rebels, Privateers and Cyborg are the only races that actually take a
penalty to happiness with Liberal or Enslavement, the Rebels severly
so. Of course, for the 'Borg, it doesn't matter. Everyone else has no
bonus or penalty for Liberal or Enslavement taxrates.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

Malcolm Snelgrove writes

http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howattack.htm

>Should also add to my last post that an assault pod forms a base with the
>orders "KKK", which I just read in the How to use Fighters section!?!

That may no longer be true. KillKillKill mode is now called "Crush Kill
Destroy" and a new mode, "Capture" which Tim has never really explained
has been added, which may confuse the default settings.
--
Paul Honigmann

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

>http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howfighters.htm

This should mention that

- Wings can run out of fuel if they are free flying.
- They will refuel for free if they end movement at the same spot as a
ship, base or resupply pod of yours with at least 1kT fuel.
- If they run out of fuel in mid space, don't panic, they regenerate 10%
fuel per turn so can creep slowly on.
- If free flying, they travel at the speed of the slowest fighter type
in their makeup.
- Wings are vulnerable to laser mines. This, and their fuel problems,
are why they are normally docked to carriers.
- A few races have long range fighters that can travel hundreds of LY in
a turn without a carrier.
- Wings can destroyed by:
other wings;
certain Point Defense weapons on ships;
Sandcasters (the only Large Weapon to affect them);
Laser mines;
Nemesis Torpedo (a superweapon)
AA guns (a Base structure)
Most of these need Ord to work. AA guns need Personnel in the base
to work, too.

Fighters can be used in Ground Combat, but aren't generally very good at
it.

Special racial fighter powers:
One type of UEA (Enforcer) fighter can do special long range bombing
missions against enemy bases.
Aczanny have an anti fighter technology.
CoM have a device on their Virgos which make their fighters more
effective when nearby.

Fighters cost cash, but not minerals, so gain extra importance in
mineral-poor games.
--
Paul Honigmann

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howattack.htm

The first step in going to war is declaring who your enemies are

Should maybe be 'To attack and defend against another race, you first
need to select them as enemies'.

Any ship that you have that has attack orders will attack any enemy
ship that passes as it travels. Combat takes place during movement. A
ship can be involved in more than one attack per turn. Groups of ships
can fight together. Combat is triggered when you pass within 5 ly of
the enemy and the ships that trigger the battle can call in friend
ships within 5 ly to help in the attack.


Should maybe be, 'Combat is triggered when you pass or arrive at within
5 light years of the enemy. Combat can also occur when a ship, which
has the intercept command on, detects an enemy ship within range and is
capable of initiating combat. Groups of ships can fight together at the
same time as well as pull allied vessals, within a 5 light years
radius, into the fight. A ship can be involved in more then one combat
per turn as combat takes place during movement.'

If your ship has weapons that use ord make sure your ship has some ord
loaded or its weapons ord using weapons will be useless.

Should be, 'If a vessal is using ordance weapons, then make sure the
ship has ordance loaded, as the weapons will not fire otherwise.'

Your ship can attack enemy ground bases when the ship attack option
"Fire at ground targets" is turned on. If the enemy base has a base
shield your ship will not fire on it unless your ship has a super
weapon. A Super weapon can take out any base shield. A standard large
weapon can not damage a base shield.

(Does this now occur with avoid ground base on? I don't think so, will
have to do some sims.)

Another way of attacking an enemy is by landing colonists, troops,
crew, and high guard from a ship and forming a ground base and then
attack the enemy base using the ground base. A base shield will not
protect an enemy ground base from an attack from an enemy ground base.
Life pods can also be used to land your guys on a planet. Assault pods
can carry ground assault units and fighters as well as troops. You can
land troops from many ships and many pods all during the same turn.
They will form one giant ground base. The ground base will then attack
the enemy as one unit.

Should maybe be, 'Another way of attacking a base with a base shield is
by using fighters with ground attack setting on. Fighters can move
through base shields and attack enemy structures and population
randomly. However, another way of attacking an enemy base is to create
a new base on the same planet, whose aim is to ground assualt the enemy
base. Colonists, Crew, troops, high guard in conjunction with assualt
mechs and fighters can all attack an opposing base. It is advisable
however, to change the bases military setting to anything other then
peaceful. To create a new base, one needs to transfer personal from an
orbital ship or pod personal to a planet. There are two types of pods
to use in this instance, which are the life pod and the assualt pod. A
life pod can only carry colonists, crew, troops, and high guard.
Whereas, the assualt pod carries crew, troops, high guard, assualt
mechs, and even fighters.


I know I have been a little picky in parts, but I do think it needs to
be easly read in order to be as clear as possible. There is nothing
worse then to read something and become fixated on how it sounds,
rather then the message it conveys.

If this is acceptable I can do more. I will leave the technical details
to other more experiance players.

Robert.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

"sun_z_eros" <andreaskoehler@gmx.net> wrote:

>For "howmoney.htm"
>I found on some help files references to race specifics, but not on
>"howmoney.htm".
>
>There are quite some structures like "marketplace" of cents, " pirates
>cove" for privs etc that have an effect here.
>
>What is the procedure? Should everything in or race specific things out
>and just into race guides ?
From past dicussions about the help files, the idea was to try and keep the
help files as general as possible, without dicussing all the race
exceptions.

So you could say that the are some races have special base structures (eg
Marketplace) which raise money, and leave it at that.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

> Aczanny have an anti fighter technology.

Do they? This would be completly new to me. Aczanny are yust good at killing
enemy fighters but they do not have a special rule/device/technology for
doing this. The ECM device is not a special anti-fighter-thing.

What they have is a natural immunety against Nemisis Torpedo.

Greetings
Sebastian

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

Look at Tim's "Bug fix history 2" link, and search for "tax". As far
as I know, it hasn't changed since. If I remember right, this was
programmed into ShipCalc.

You're right Amaranthine, a few races do prefer Enslavement. My
confusion.

Scytale

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.vgaplanets4 (More info?)

soxee writes

>> http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4doc/howattack.htm
>
>The first step in going to war is declaring who your enemies are
>
>Should maybe be 'To attack and defend against another race, you first
>need to select them as enemies'.

You're right Soxee, the page as written implies there is a rule against
sneak attacks. Your wording is much clearer.
--
Paul Honigmann