quick questions

[cousLee]

1st, I am not even gonna attempt to search for "colony ships", lol. Just the thought of all the hits scares me.

1> Is there a way to see what population type is in a colony ship after the TF is created?

2> Is there a way to scrap obsolete troops? I really don't have any more use for the needle gun infantry (or do troops get upgraded while in reserves, unlike ships)

3> I have not had it happen to me yet, but if the AI invades one of your planets, how do you get troops there to help defend it? Are they pulled from the reserves, and how does it determine how many to put in the battle?
OR
You have to have an army present on the planet (like when you drop troops and have one+ there), and if so, how do you drop armies on planets you already own?

Thx in advance.

[The Big Joke]

1> Is there a way to see what population type is in a colony ship after the TF is created?
-Yes, its suposed to say that somewhere when you click on it, that is, if you have the patched game.

2> Is there a way to scrap obsolete troops? I really don't have any more use for the needle gun infantry (or do troops get upgraded while in reserves, unlike ships)

They get upgraded.

[The Wagster]

I haven't got the latest latest patch so this might not be correct for your version:

1. You can see what race in in a colony ship before you create the TF but not afterwards. During TF creation name the TF after the race in the colony ships, eg instead of the auto name of "14 Col Det" or whatever name it "Bulrathi".

3. You can deploy troops onto a planet you own by going to the planet screen and clicking on the Military tab that's near the bottom of the screen, below the planet classification (core/mineral rich etc) to the left of the habitation ring diagram. There's then a button to create ground troops and they will form a garrison on that planet. That screen is also where you can disband armies after you've conquered a planet if you so desire. Sorry the directions to the screen aren't exactly clear but I've forgotten the names of the buttons.

1. I don't think so. As far as I can tell you can only tell the race inside a colony ship before you form a task force. So the only way to really control multirace colonization is to not mark planets for colonization. This means you manually form the task force and send it to the system where you want to colonize. When it gets there click on the colony ship and the planet (in the forces tab of the system view) and you can choose to colonize the planet.

2. I'm pretty sure the ground forces don't even need to go back to the reserves to be upgraded.

3. You can deploy troops, but each planet will also have militia to help defend it. So even if you don't have any deployed troops, you can defend (not very well) against enemy ground assaults.

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by cousLee
2> Is there a way to scrap obsolete troops? I really don't have any more use for the needle gun infantry (or do troops get upgraded while in reserves, unlike ships)

Ground troops aren't upgraded - however, their equipment is. (Subtle difference that explains a bit, if you think about it).

Also, I'd like to point out that all those marines / infantry you have actually do have a purpose - they have very high stats for defense (I think its initiative) and can make life a lot easier when you defend a planet.

[cousLee]

Changing the name of the TF (self-made) is what I usually do. I tried to use the "send colony" tag, and the game sent many more than one ship to the same planet. I understand why it did that, but is not what I wanted it to do (I use one colony or outpost ship, and let migration finish the job). I had more planets tagged for colonization than I had colony ships in reserve, and was hoping it would create and send the most appropriate colony ship to each planet, without duplicating orders. Seeing the game did not act as i wanted it to, I canceled the orders of the half dozen or so ships that had been sent (and removed the tag so it would not happen again). Since the game automatically made the TF, Ihad no way of knowing what was on board. i could not find anything, hence the question. Perhaps this missing (important) info can be adressed in the next patch. (yeah, right).

The other related question, is there a way to determine which race is best suited for a specific planet? For now, I drill down to the regions and find the same race, and see if it is IE: green 2 for them, but red for my starting race. So I send those to a red planet. This, for obvious reasons, is not that good. just because it's red for me, does not mean that it is something other for them. (could be a red planet for both races). And considering I have about 6 races in my empire right now, it would be very usefull to know where to send the various colony ships. (didn't get any random tech specials, but 4 different magnates within two systems of my homeworld. mwhahahaaa)

Indeed, a troops weapons, ect.. is what I was talking about. I don't expect infantry to become marine

[The Wagster]

The other related question, is there a way to determine which race is best suited for a specific planet?

Click the Planets button at the bottom of the screen to get a list of all known planets in the Galaxy and a coloured bar showing how suitable it is for your race. Near the bottom left is a drop down menu called "View by" or something like that and will currently be set to "Dominant". You can select which species you want and the coloured bar will then show how suitable the planets are for that race. You can also click a tag near the bottom right to show only planets that are green or better for that selected race.

The planets screen is very useful for a lot of things like managing military build ques so have a good play around with it as it will save a lot of hassle for you.

Oh yeah, the view by menu lists the race rather than specific species, ie Evon are under Humanoid and Silicoid under Geodic. Check the encyclopedia if you don't know what your magnates will be listed as.

[cousLee]

Check the encyclopedia if you don't know what your magnates will be listed as.

that reminds me, I need to get the enc mod installed. (too much missing in the stock enc)

Thx for info.

EDIT:
it's not a double post if done several hours apart, but chose to edit instead anyway.

I have read on the board that most use either military or recreation DEAs (not both), based on what is best for their paticular race. How do you know which will be better?

side note.......planetary specials aside. If there is a strat ring, then the choice is obvious (or is it?)

I just want to reiterate:

If you have patched your game (which you should do, for many reasons) you will be able to click on the TF and see what race is listed from the galaxy screen.

Zhaneel

[cousLee]

Yes, I am running the patched version, started under the patched.
Clicking on the TF from the galaxy screen will show the empire that controls it, but not which race is onboard the colony ship (if you are using the default TF names). Wish it did though. Would be nice.

[pedxing]

wow. i was sure that the colony ships race showed up, when viewed from the galaxy map... completely sure. but i just opened my current game before shooting my mouth off... and, no. it isn't there.

grrrrr. yer darn tootin' it would be nice! how did that get missed?