Why won't my build que stay locked?

[Slartybartfast]

I have tried several different times to keep my military build que locked, but alas, it will not stay.

What is the proper procedure?

[Gunstar]

Open up the build que and look at the portion of the box in the upper left. You'll notice a little lock symbol. Click it, and the queue is now locked. Click it again to unlock it. On your planets summary tab, you'll notice that the world's production queue is highlighted in blue to denote the fact that it is locked.

[EmperorKosh]

Even though I've had this game for quite a while I find that I can still learn new things. Thanks gunstar for explaining how to lock my military queue.

[Gunstar]

No problem!

[Slartybartfast]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I've locked the que with both one and three items listed in the que and it won't stay locked. I also don't find the highlight in blue.

I'm using v1.25 if that a difference.

[Sara22]

What does locking it do? Does it just prevent the Roy from adding new items once you've built the ones listed? Not very useful, that.

[rhyssan]

Originally posted by Sara22
What does locking it do? Does it just prevent the Roy from adding new items once you've built the ones listed? Not very useful, that.
whenever an item is finished, a new one of the exact same thing is queue'd up at the end. if that can't be (either because it was a unique thing like a building, or because you've obsoleted whatever just got finished), nothing is queue'd.

so it cycles through the items you put in, forever. including if what you put in is 'nothing'.

quite useful, truly! :)
-rhyssan

[triller]

With version 1.2.5 patch, double click your planet.
Pull up the ECONOMICS tab, pull out the MILITARY tab.
The MBQ lock is in the right panel, at the top, to the left of "CURRENT BUILD ORDER".
Rhyssan is correct in that buildings (bases, basic systems module, etc) are one time items.
Also obsoleted ship designs will not be re-queue'd.

As to the blue highlight, click the PLANETS tab.
In the planets window at lower left, is a dropdown menu, "DETAILS".
Select "Build Queue". In the right column will be a list of details:

Population: 9/23
.basic systems module, 14 turns >>
.astro university, 12 turns >>
Shipyard Capacity: Light Cruiser

The second item is your MBQ. If it is locked, it will be in blue; if unlocked, in white.
The third item is your Planet build queue. It's not lockable.
The >> at the right is a hyperlink to the planet screen build queue panels for both MBQ and PBQ.

I tend to check the "Owned Planets" checkbox, and sort by Industry. Another preference is to keep two items in the MBQ at all times unless the planet is not yet well developed (then I lock an empty queue so Roy will concentrate on development). With 2 items in the MBQ, cost overruns at the completion of the first item will roll over to the second, giving you a head start on construction of that item next turn.
In the Sit-Rep you can hyperlink to the Planet/MBQ panel when an item is completed. This is a good way to make sure things are being built as you prefer.

Oh, and 1 more small but important fact. Changes made during any given turn are not complete until the following turn.
That is, if you select a ship and lock your queue on turn 100, play out turn 100 and don't like the results, then reload turn 100, you have to make all of the changes again. It's a pain, but you get used to it (unless you've just made 6 new ship designs, and then its a REAL pain).
Hope this helps.