Newbie questions

[mpenni]

Hello there and thanks for a very informative board. You guys have helped my understanding of this game immensely. I have two questions that I have done my best reading through the various posts to see if they are asked elsewhere. No luck, I apologize if I missed something somewhere.

1. Concerns neutron stars, black holes and nebulas. These appear on the galactic map and while reading the specials.txt file I noticed that they are generated along with other specials when you start a new game. What effect, (if any), do they have on the game? I know that in MoO2 black holes prevented movement and nebulas slowed movement as well as making shields useless. Are there similar effects here? I haven't been able to notice anything.

2. When an outpost grows into a colony, I notice that a Military DEA always appears in one of the regions. I have read somewhere on these boards that one of the effects of using outpost ships over colony ships is that you get a free Military DEA when it grows into a full colony. But when I look under the Economics tab, the Military DEA does not show up in the "B" column. I know that when I manually build one or the Vroy builds one, it appears in the "B" column along with all of the other built DEAs. This happens with every outpost-grown-into-colony. What is happening here?

[zanzibar]

1) Just plain eye candy. They have no effect on gameplay. Ignore them.

2) Probably some bug still in the game that will never be fixed, due to the complete lack of support from atari.

[Lennier]

As to 2,

The "B" column is for DEAs that are in the process of being built; the "free" DEA from the outpost is already built when the outpost becomes a colony. (Note that you don't get the free mil DEA when some of your citizens move to a new planet w/o being shipped via outpost ship and the planet grows into a colony.)

[mpenni]

As to 2,

The "B" column is for DEAs that are in the process of being built; the "free" DEA from the outpost is already built when the outpost becomes a colony. (Note that you don't get the free mil DEA when some of your citizens move to a new planet w/o being shipped via outpost ship and the planet grows into a colony.)

I was under the impression that DEAs that had yet to be built were in the IP column and that those that were completed showed up under the B column. Did I get that wrong?

[Lennier]

Ooops; you're right. Mil DEA should be in the built (B) column, not inprogress (IP) column.

I can't remember the last time I used an outpost ship, so I haven't noticed this bug.