Space Empires III Game Notes

1. My design shows that I get 6 movement but my ship says 7/7. Why?

You must have selected the racial advantage "Fast Ships". This RA will give each of your ships +1 movement.

2. Are ships supposed to miraculously jump clear across the galaxy? I was playing large universe with low warp point and not all points connected. I had omnipresent mode on, and one of my oppositions' ships jumped from HIS cluster of solar systems to ANOTHER completely separate cluster of solar systems, where he proceeded to go say hello to the resident computer player.

Yes, this does sometimes happen. There is a random event called "Temporal Vortex" or "Wormhole" which will transport a ship to another location in the galaxy against its will.

3. When I have several cloaked and uncloaked ships on one spot and they are under attack I can only fight with my uncloaked ships. Why can't I use my cloaked ships as well?

A cloaked ship uses all of its power to generate the field which surrounds it and makes it invisible. Even once the ship drops its cloak, it takes a few hours until full power is restored again. A ship which drops its cloak is in no condition to engage in combat. (The real reason is that cloaks are so powerful that they needed to have some weaknesses such as this, and that cloaked ships can't be repaired or resupplied).

4. You cannot enter a sector where there are two empires who are enemies with each other (or x empires with any 2 of the empires being enemies).

5. If you enter a sector where there is a friend and an enemy, and those two empires are friends with each other, you will be the attacker, and the two empires will be the defenders (even though one of them is your friend, he can't be friends to you both in combat).

6. Ships can decloak in sectors with other ships. No combat will begin.

7. When giving ships orders to resupply at nearest the following rules apply:
a. Make a list of all planets that the player owns.
b. Add in any planets that his military allies have (that this player has seen).
c. Select the closest planet to the ship that has a Resupply Depot and does not have an enemy in the same sector.

8. Is there a way to have a fleet of ships with different movement points stay together (i.e., move at the speed of the slowest ship in the fleet)?

Designate all of the ships in the group to belong to the same fleet. Once you do this, all of the ships will move until the slowest ship runs out of movement. Just be sure that all of the ships are in the same sector when they begin moving.

9. Is there a way to have a fleet of ships automatically sit on a wormhole until they need to resupply, then have them resuppply and go back ot the wormhole (without my intervention)?

In version 1.03, there is now a Sentry command. This will allow you to tell ships to sentry at a location (which means they won't show up when you hit Next/Previous Ship). Once the ships need to resupply, they will clear their Sentry orders. However, at this point you will need to go and tell them to resupply at nearest. Then when they finish that, to move back to the WP and Sentry once again. Too many factors come up which a user might want to intervene in to have this be an automated task.

10. Just checking with the rules about life support/quarters. According to the documentation, there should be 1 of each per 30 spaces. So why does a ship with 60 need 3 of each? or one with 90 need 4 of each??

Every ship must have at least 1 crew quarters and 1 life support. After that, for every additional 30 spaces, another crew quarters and life support is required.

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Game Notes - Designs

1. I get the message "name already in use" when I create a ship design with the same name as an opponent. Why?

Every design name in the game is unique. This helps players to be able to recognize the designs of other players. Even if you could use the same design name as another player, it would get mighty confusing when you captured one of his designs of that type. Would it be your design, or his design?

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Game Notes - Fighters

1. I purchased fighters but I can't find them. I also can't figure out how to get them on my carrier.

When you purchase a fighter, it becomes an order in your Construct/Repair Queue to build that fighter. Each unit only takes one turn to construct. On the turn after you purchase the fighter, it will show in your repair queue for a space yard in that sector. On the next turn, if the fighter is at the front of the queue, it will be constructed and placed in that sector. First the computer will attempt to place it on a planet, then a base, then a ship. If it can't find any of these, or they are full, the fighter will not be constructed and you will get a log message. Once the fighter is on a planet or a ship, you can transfer it to another location be using the Transfer Window. You can get to the Transfer Window by right clicking on your ship in the Ship List Window and selecting Transfer. For more details on all of this, see the Fighters or Mines topics in the Help File.

2. How do you launch fighters from a space station?

In Strategic combat they will launch automatically. If you are in Tactical Combat, then you need to use the Next Ship/Previous Ship until the space station is the currently selected item. You then press the launch fighters button at the top of the window. Be sure that your space station actually has fighters on it, not just fighter bays. You cannot launch fighters unless you are in combat.

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Game Notes - Troops

1. When landing troops on a planet for ground combat, you can have more troops on the planet than it can support. However, the population will grow angry rapidly if this situation remains.

2. Troops can land on a planet regardless of if it has shields.

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Game Notes - Mines

1. Mines only effect ships which move into the sector they are sitting in. Since combat takes place at the edge of the sector, combat occurs BEFORE mines have a chance to hit enemy ships. For example, if you put mines in the same sector with your planet, then if enemy ships attack, they will go into combat first. In this way they will destroy the planet, then get hit by the mines when they completely move into the sector. Its is highly advisable to not try to defend in sectors with mines. You should put mines on the outer warp points to your systems, where they can hit the enemy BEFORE he gets into your system.

2. If I lay mines, will they affect empires I have treaties and/or agreements with (if so, what is the lowest level treaty/agreement)?

It is assumed that all of your mines have a secret passcode that allows your ships to get by them unharmed. It is also assumed that you give this passcode to your allies so they can move freely as well. As long as you have a treaty of Non-Aggression or better, you consider those empires to be your allies.

3. Are large sweeper fleets and heavy emissive armor the only defense against mines ?

Pretty much.

4. First, I noticed that mines appear in planetary combat. What is the ratio of Mine damage to troop damage? What effect do mines have on troops?

Mines do not effect ground combat in any way. The list merely shows you all of the units on the planet.

5. I noticed that the computer decides to start puting mines on suns. What prompts the computer to do this? How does it know when other races have Sunkillers?

The computer puts mines on its suns to prevent sun killers. It does this when it sees that a player has a sun killer (of course, that's too late), or when it or another player is getting close to that technology. For example, if someone has cloaks, then sun killers aren't too far away.

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Game Notes - Space Yards

1. How much do Ship yards repair? I've looked it up in both the Ship Yard Component, and Ship repair/construction areas, and came up with the fact that only one space yard can work on any ship at any time, and each ship can only be worked on by one space yard at a time, however I couldn't find out how much they repaired.

You can find out how much a particular Space Yard component repairs by looking in the Component Report Window. If you're looking for how much your planet's built in SY repairs, look at the Empire Status Window.

2. I can't seem to scrap ships every time - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Do you need to have movement points left, or be at a home planet or something?

You can only scrap a ship if it is in the same sector as a space yard. It does not matter if the space yard is already busy repairing something.

3. Also, is there somewhere where the number of components repaired per level of Space Yard technology is detailed?

You can see how much your planetary space yards can repair in the Empire Status window under the Planets tab. If you want to see how much a space yard component on a given ship repairs, view the Component Report window.

4. How does it come that my planets BSY build my ships faster than my BSY stations/ships?

If you have the Racial Advantage Ship Builders, then you will be able to repair ships at your planets very fast. Also, the early SY components have very limited capabilities. This is offset by the fact that you can put many of them on a ship or base.

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Game Notes - Planets

1. How do you stop a plague?

You can stop a plague by moving a ship with a medical bay into the sector with the planet and executing the "Render Medical Aid" ship order. As plagues come in different severity levels, so do medical bays. You must have a medical bay which can cure the level of the plague or higher. See the Help Topics on Medical Bays and Render Medical Aid Ship Order.

2. Besides getting a free Space Yard, what good is population? Why would you want more?

The higher your population, the faster you can build facilities on your planet. Each 2000M people on the planet cut the time in half to construct a facility. Also, you recieve 1 Light Infantry in Ground combat for each 100M people who are on the planet. Even without these, your empire is only as strong as the population that drives it. If one planet is bursting with population, use population transports to move them to a planet with very few people. This will help get the planet going faster.

3. Is there anything to stop you skipping building Space Ports and Construction Centers if [for example] you just wanted to build research centres and intelligence centres on a low value planet?

Not at all. You really only need one Spaceport in a system to generate points from that system. And you don't need a Contruction Center on a planet to be able to build other facilities on the planet. The construction points used to construct facilities on the planet come driectly from your empire, not from other Construction Centers on the planet. YOu can build any facilities you like on a planet. A good strategy is to build Construction Centers on the high value planets, and Research & Intelligence Facilities on the low value planets.

4. A plague infested a planet and killed the entire population. Even once the population was dead, the player still owned the planet. Why?

If a planet's population is killed off, but not its facilities, then the planet is still considered to be owned by that player. This is due to the fact that the facilities are still his, he just doesn't have anyone to operate them. He merely has to transport some people to the planet, and it will work normally. However, the same is true for other players as well. If a planet has no population, other players can colonize it for themselves, and get all of the facilities that are already there. Of course, some of the facilities may be automated defenses...

5. For planets in combat:
a. They get shields generated from Shield Generator Facilities.
b. They get 5 capital ship missle launchers for each Missle Base Facility.
c. They get 1 phaser for each Battle Mecha Troop on the planet.
d. They get 2 anti-matter torpedoes (3 for Large) for each Apocalypse Tank.
e. They have -1000% defense.
f. The planet gets the best Combat Sensors the empire has developed.

6. When construction points are being spent on planet constructions at the end of the turn, they go first towards spaceports, then resupply depots, then whatever else.

7. A planet can store more facilities than max if the race who owned it were a tiny race, and then the planet gets taken over by a non-tiny race. There will be more facilities on the planet than it can hold.

8. So it seems to me you get penalized for the rest of the game if you wait and build facilities when you have a >4000M population? Those larger costs per turn take a big bite. I guess the only way to keep the costs per turn down is to build as many facilities as possible before your population grows or to ship population off the planet temporarily, build up, and then put them back?

To have your facilities done sooner is not a penalty. If you can complete 1 construction center every turn, then you make back the 1500 cost in 3 turns. By which time you'll have 3 more construction centers. If these costs are too high, then you can cut down your productions so that only one planet is building at a time. Or just empty out its queues until you can afford the construction. But usually, the faster you can build a facility, the better.

9. Does one need more than 1 spaceport per system? If I have 4 colonized planets in a system, is it a waste to build a spaceport at each planet?

Yes, and no. Technically, yes. You only NEED 1 spaceport per system. However, if this is a system that is anywhere near enemy forces, a backup spaceport might be helpful. It takes so long to build one, that you really can't afford to lose it in a valuable system. This same reasoning goes for Resupply Depots as well.

10. Are the colorful descriptions for planets just that or do they affect the game somehow (i.e, a planet is described as having extensive underground caverns or having cormundun deposits)?

Decoration. No effect whatsoever.

11. The facility Urban Pacification states that it keeps the population of a system Sedate, happy, jubilant. Does that mean I only have to build one per system? or do I have to build 1 for each planet in a system? Also if I have a level 3 which states I keep the system at jubilant does that mean if a set a planet to angry it will always stay jubilant regardless?

You only need one per system. And it does not guarantee that they will be happy just makes it a lot more likely. With one in the system, you can put their Production Output up high and they won't get angry about it.

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Game Notes - Stellar Manipulations

1. How do I use a Open Warp Point component on my ship?

First you need to move your ship to the sector in which you want to open the warp point. This must be on the outer edge of a solar system. Next, you select (highlight) the ship in the Ship List Window. Now you go to the Galaxy Window and right click on the solar system you would like to open a warp point to. You should get a menu option saying Open Warp Point. Be sure that your Open Warp Point component can reach the intended system. See the Open Warp Point Order topic in the Help File for more details.

2. What if I wanted to destroy a planet and remake it as a large planet, but I can't because I've already colonized it?

Your out of luck. If you want to remake a planet you have to destroy it first. If you have a colony there, its going to get destroyed in the process.

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Game Notes - Combat

1. I'm in Tactical Combat and there are purple lines on 3 edges of the combat map. Why isn't there one at the bottom of the map?

The purple lines at the edge of the Tactical combat map represent the edges of the map you can retreat through. If there isn't a purple line, then it means that your ships cannot leave the sector in this direction. The reason for this is that combat is taking place on the edge of the solar system. In the question above, combat was taking place at the bottom of the solar system. There was no purple line at the bottom of the Tactical Combat window because the ships could not leave the solar system.

2. What affect do asteroids have in combat? How about Storms?

In Tactical combat, if your ship is in a square containing asteroids or a storm, then you get a +40% defense modifier. Seekers that move through a square containing asteroids or storms take damage. Ships are not obstructed in any way by storms or asteroids.

3. Do warships with only boarding parties --no weapons per se--count as "armed" in the targetting priorities list? (Since the default seems to be to leave unarmed ships in the "don't fire on" category, this may offer a canny player an edge in strategic combat. "Don't mind us, we're just harmless boatloads of space marines come to watch the fighting!"

The computer AutoTarget and AutoMove do take boarding parties into account. They are considered weapons with a range equal to the enemy's movement distance.

4. I noticed that fighters show up in ground combat. Do fighters have an effect? What effect does fighter level have on troop effectiveness? For instance, if a fighter 10 has a ECM of %30, how does that effect it attacking troops?

Fighters do indeed have an effect on ground combat. Usually fighters are launched into space to help defend against enemy ships. But if for some reason they are still on the ground, they will help defend the planet against enemy troops. For Fighters, their Attack Damage is 3 times the amount of damage that their weapon does. And Fighter's hit points in ground combat are equal to their hit points plus their shields.

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Game Notes - Components

1. What is the difference in Colonization Module Levels I, II, and III?

Each level of colony module gives you a greater starting population. Level I gives you 1M, level II gives you 10M, and level III gives you 20M starting population.

2. Is there a way to tell how powerful an enemy's weapons are when you are in combat with him or when viewing his ship design?

You can only view an enemy's weapon if you yourself have actually discovered it. If you play out a combat in Tactical Mode, then when damage is done, you can see how much and what type displayed at the top of the window.

3. I don't understand how Fighter Bays work. For a Fighter Bay I, in its description it says Fighter Storage: 5 unit spaces. What does this mean? I notice, for example, if I put 4 Fighter Bay I's in a design, I can only put a total of 4 Fighters II on the ship (is this 1 for each fighter bay?) This seems confusing and how does this affect using Fighter Bays II or III, etc. In other words, how can I predict how many fighters I can put on a ship given the different Fighter Bay and Fighter levels?

All of the unit storage components (Mine Storage, Fighter Bays, Troop Quarters) store a number of unit spaces. Each unit type, in turn, occupy a certain number of unit spaces. The amount of units a ship can store is based on the total number of unit spaces it can hold.

For example, a Fighter Bay I can hold 5 unit spaces. It just so happens that Fighters each take up 5 unit spaces. That means that you can store 1 Fighter (all fighters take the same space) for each Fighter Bay I that you have on a ship. A Fighter Bay III can store 15 unit spaces. So you can store 3 fighters for each Fighter Bay III you have on a ship.

4. In the game I am playing, one of my planets has developed Plague level 1. I have sent an Escourt ship to the planet which contains a 'medical bay 1'. Although the ship has been there for many many turns, the plague has not been cured. The help file indicates that as soon as a medical ship enters the sector the doctors should cure the plague. Am I doing something wrong?

Actually, you need to use the Ship Order "Render Medical Aid". This is a selection when you select your ship (which has a working medical bay), and then right click on the target planet (which has a plague). You then select the Render Medical Aid order. Your ship will moveto the planet, and then attempt to cure the plague there.

5. Plague bombs. Does one hit with a bomb set off a plague or is it a percentage?

One hit from a plague bomb will set off a plague. Any hits after that are useless.

6. If a level 5 emissive armor (4 pts absorption) gets hit with a level 1 mine (5pts of damage) will it only take one point of damage? And will the mine field go away?

The emissive armor has to take 4 pts of damage before it will be destroyed. The extra 1 pt of damage will go into your ship. Once the mine has expended its 5 pts of damage, it is gone. This may not be the only mine present however...

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Game Notes - Computer Players

1. Why does the computer player sometimes make 2 different designs that are exactly the same? Is he trying to trick me?

The computer will often make two different designs that are exactly the same. He does this not to trick you, but because he wants a specific design for each ship type that he is using. Typically this occurs for his offensive and defensive ships. Though they look exactly the same, he uses them in very different ways.

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Game Notes - Game Setup

1. How come I can see all of the solar system circles in the Galaxy Window when the game starts? I didn't select any of the options in the "Hidden Systems" section of the game setup window.

No matter what your starting settings, all players can see the locations of all of the solar systems in the galaxy when the game begins. Since simple telescopes can determine the presence of stars at great distances, we thought that most space faring races would at least know of the locations of the solar system merely by viewing their stars. Even though you can see the location of the system when you select it, the System Window will display "Unexplored". This means that you know there's a solar system there, but you have never actually had a ship enter the system.

2. I started a game with multiple planets. When my first turn started, I was able to see more solar systems than just my home solar system. It was like I had sent ships to the nearby solar systems, but I don't even have any ships yet!

When you start a game with multiple planets, its assumed that you have explored your nearby solar systems to a small extent. This is the way that you were able to find the planets to colonize. Though you won't have any ships, or even designs for ships, its assumed that you were able to colonize these additional planets and explore your area in a limited fashion.

3. I've been playing your game alot with my friends, and downloaded a fair amount of ships from Selkiss III shipyards. As you know his ships are based on Star Trek. So I've inputed the various races in the Race text file. But when where playing the game we get the federation turning up in Ferengi ships and Romulans in Borg ships etc. I was wondering if there is a way we can specify what race uses what ship files when the computer races select their names and ships.

What you need to do is to not use the Random Computer Players. You need to actually create each of the empires, set their ship style, design name file, etc., and then choose that they are a computer player. Unfortunately, this means that you will know exactly how many computer players there are, but this shouldn't be a problem.

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Game Notes - Ministers

Minister Personalities

Personality	Description
Normal	Standard personality. About as middle of the road as you can get. Operates as a baseline for all of the other personalities. Will spend 40/40/20 on facilities (% Construction Centers, % Research Centers, % Intelligence Centers).
Defensive	Sets Defense style to Maximum. Will attempt to make alliances with most neighbors. Will never go to war with more than 1 empire at a time.
Conqueror	A very aggressive personality. Has a very low threshold for declaring war. Will go to war with multiple empires at the same time. Loves to have the biggest most impressive ships available. Likes to keep a large standing fleet of attack ships at all times. Will launch unprovoked attacks on helpless planets of allies. Becomes more agressive the more battles they win against you.
Neutral	Attempts to stay out of direct conflict and very rarely declares war. Will attempt to make alliances with most neighbors.
Technologist	Same as Normal personality except that spending on facilities is 20/60/20.
Intelligist	Same as Normal personality except that spending on facilities is 20/20/60.
Marauder	A bit more aggressive than normal. Prefers small fast ships, grouped in small attack fleets. Likes to have a standing fleet of attack ships at all times.
Xenophobe	Dislikes all forms of politics. Very rarely forms alliances except in the cases where they are currently at war with other empires. Gets angry quickly at outside intrusion in its affairs.
Genocidal	A bit more aggressive than normal. Likes to have a standing fleet of attack ships at all times. Has a tendency to attack allies undefended worlds. Prefers planet killing weapons. Loves Planet and Sun Destroyers. Becomes more agressive the more battles they win against you.
Invader	Prefers to use troops to conquer planets. Will never use Planet or Sun Destroyers. Likes to instigate rebellions on enemy's planets.
Peaceful	A very peaceful personality that abhors war unless absolutely necessary. Will never use Mines, Planet Destroyers, or Sun Destroyers. Will make alliances whenever possible and quickly forgets the aggressions of other empires.

1. When the computer tries to move my unarmed, cloaked ships through a sector having enemy ships of an empire that is not even technologically advanced enough to have tachyon sensors there is an attack prompt that does not show me whether or not my ship is an armed ship and I end up losing an important ship, but if I deselect the Ship Cloaking minister and move the ship myself I don't have any problem.

This is the way the computer works. He decloaks his ships when moving through enemy sectors to see if he would actually want to attack that enemy ship. Since a human player is in control, the computer asks you whether you want to attack or not. If you don't, the ships recloak and continue moving. The computer does not assume that you wish to pass by a chance to attack, or at least it cannot make that assumption.

2. Why does my Ship Design minister only design armed ships with beam weapons and point-defense cannons even after I've selected Planet Killer/Plasma for Weapons Mix in the Minister Styles in Empire Options?

It depends on a number of factors. First, if you are using the shareware version, a number of technologies are not available. Secondly, if those techs are not available (such as plasma torpedoes), the computer cannot design ships using them. Other than those, if you have the tech, and have selected the weapons mix, then the computer will design ships utilizing those weapons.

3. Besides the options Normal, Defensive, Neutral, Technologist, Intelligist and Peaceful for Personality in the Minister Styles in Empire Options there doesn't seem to be much of a difference. I wish there were more information on the Personality options.

There are subtle differences between some of the personalities. Normal is sort of a middle of the road personality. Defensive personalities will avoid all out wars, and will purchase large numbers of defensive installations. Technologist will build 20/60/20 (20% construction facilties, 60% research facilities, 20% intelligence facilities). Intelligist will build 20/20/60. Peaceful will ally itself with everyone it can and will only go to war as a last resort.

4. Is it possible to have the Stellar Manipulations minister not open warp points but still perform all of the other kinds of stellar manipulations?

No. If you choose the Stellar Manip minister, he will attempt to perform them all.

5. Why won't the computer build terraforming facilities on my planets?

The computer will, but only in rare circumstances.

6. My Empire Expenses window is incorrect. It will state that I am only able to buy one ship, and then 2 are purchased. I use the Facility construction minister, and suspect him being responsible for this through incorrect book-keeping or perhaps through initiation of constructions after the bookkeeping has been completed. Is this correct?

Your facility minister is building facilities for you. This results in you having more points. On the turn that you sent us, you had 2 ships in your purchase queue. Your Expenses window said that only 1 would be purchased. On the next turn, both ships were purchased. Why? Your Facility Construction Minister constructed about 6 new facilities on your planets. It did these on planets with a high population where the time was only 0.1 years to complete. He built a Phased-Shield Base, and a number of Construction Centers. These new construction centers generate points on the turn that they are created. These new points gave you enough of a boost to be able to afford that second ship.

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Game Notes - Research/Intelligence

1. Can friendly or even hostile empires swap, freely trade, or even sell Tech levels, or combine Research efforts.

Different empires can make tributes to each other. In doing that they can transfer points from one empire to another. As for actually giving technology, you can't do that. We used to allow it during our beta testing, but then players used it to devestating effect. It was a "trick", that always resulted in victroy against teams that didn't use it.

2. Are there specific ways to recover from sabotage (i.e., some empire infects your planet) or from natural disasters?

If your planet is infected with a plague, you can cure the plague with a Medical Bay. If the sabotage is something along the lines of population getting killed, ships being destroyed, etc. , there's really nothing you can do. The damage has already been done. All you can do is to try and prevent it again in the future (by putting intelligence points towards defense).

3. Is there a way to view the info on an item you are about to research so as to make a decision what to research (a one line description is not enough)?

Not more than what is described in the Help File. The Help File contains descriptions for all of the component types (at a general level). The idea behind not giving you all of the details was to add a little mystery to the game. Not many researchers get to know the complete details of what they will discover before they actually do!

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Game Notes - Misc

1. Am I correct in assuming that if I turn on all the ministers for my empire, that it will be exactly the same as a computer, except that I can watch it and get to play out the battles myself?

Yes, for the most part. The only thing that's different is that you still have to make the choices of whether to attack or not. Also, it makes no difference to Team Play. You are still a human player for the purposes of Team Play.

2. If I move into a new system, discover a new alien species (ships or colonies), and move my ships directly into a storm and sit them there, all in the one turn, have the aliens detected me?

The moment you enter a solar system with another race, you will both recieve announcements about the other race. Entering the storm will not prevent him from detecting you, but it will prevent him from seeing your ships on his turn.

3. Shields have no effect on Ship Movement Weapons such as Tractor Beams, Repulser Beams, and Worm Hole Generators.

4. The Add Purchase Window displays the time to complete the selected item at the first SY that will be available. When the item is actually placed in a repair queue, the time may be shorter because a queue with a higher repair rate may be selected, as opposed to the one who could work on the item first.

5. The following are the " Cheat " codes that you can use in the game:
In each of the following windows, hold down the CTRL key and type the text.
Empire Status - "money": All points to 100,000.
Ship Report - "resupply": Ship resupply time set to full.
Ship Report - "movement": Ship movement set to full.
Ship Report - "repair": Ship fully repaired.

6. How can I determine if the other computer players have treaties or agreements with each other?

If you are allied with a player, then you can view what their relations are with all of the other players. This is done in the Politics window by hitting the View Treaties button. If you are not allied to the player, you cannot see what their relations are. But if you see two empires with a lot of ships in the same square, and they're not dying, then they're most likely allies. You can also find out someone's relations through espionage.

7. When does construction occur --at the end of your current turn, or the beginning of the next? Obviously this has an impact on whether empty hulls slated to receive weapons and shields ASAP are able to held defend a planet during the intervening AI turns.

See the Help File under "Processing after your turn". This details exactly what happens when you end your turn. In essence, everything that your empire does occurs immediately after you hit end turn, before any other player gets a chance. So the repair of your ships will occur before any other player gets to attack.

8. Is there a limit to the number of items that appear in the "News" summary? After the upgrade I noticed that some of my events--like tech breakthroughs and manual purchase of ships--weren't appearing, even though computer- controlled events like tech sabotage and the actions of the shipbuilding minister did show up.

There is a limit of 50 log message in your log queue. Most of the time this is not a problem, but sometimes it is. If you get more than 50 messages in a given turn, you will lose the first ones put into the list.

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Program Conflicts

1. Right mouse button menus are not available if XMouse is running. XMouse is a MS product available as part of their powertoys archive which makes Windows-95 windows behave like X windows - window focus changes when the mouse moves into a new window rather than with a mouse click.

2. Space Empires III cannot be run under Win32S on a Windows 3.1 machine.

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Multiplayer

1. Can players using both the shareware and registered versions play a multiplayer game together?

Yes they can, but the shareware players will be at a major disadvantage. Since the shareware players are limited to only a few techs, they will be of no match to the registered players. The registered players will be able to get technology that the shareware players cannot, and will usually win quite easily.

Also note that the computer players will be limited to the tech of the machine they are executed on. The computer players are executed as the last players in the game, so they will be executed by the last human player playing. If that player has only the shareware version, then all of the computer players will be limited to those meager techs as well.

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