Questions & Answers

General SE4 Questions:

1. What am I not getting in the demo?	The demo has the following limitations: 1. You can only play for 100 turns. 2. Not all of the graphics found in the game are present in the demo. 3. Only 8 of the total 20 race styles are present in the demo. 4. A lot of technology that the full version has such as Stellar Manipulation, Cloaking Devices, etc. 5. Bigger ship sizes such as Battlecruiser, Battleship, Dreadnought, Baseship, Starbase, Larger Fighters, Larger Troops, Larger Mines, etc. 6. You cannot load Scenarios at the beginning of the game. 7. You cannot use Existing Empires in Game Setup. 8. You cannot modify any of the data files.
2. When will the full version be released?	November 1st, 2000.
3. Can I pre-order SE4?
4. Why do the ministers not work like they did in SE3? In SE3, you could have ministers do little things in your empire (fill queues, etc.) but in the SE4 demo, the minister feature doesn't seem to do anything. Is this a limitation in the demo, or have your removed the minister features like SE3?	Ministers do work in SE4. But in SE4, you have global ministers and individual ministers. If you select and individual minister such as "Facility Construction" then you need to turn on the minister icon for each planet that you want to have it control. You can also turn on all of the minister icons by selecting the "Indiv Ministers On" button in the ministers window.
5. What are the cheat codes?	Here are a few of the cheat codes (you need to hold CTRL when typing these): 1. "money" in the Empire Status window - gives you 100,000 of all resources, research, and intelligence. 2. "fast" in the Set Construction Queue window - sets the current item under construction to be done in 1 turn. You may need to do this multiple times for really large items.
6. Could you get rid of some technology in the demo or extend the # of turns? I tried to research everything by playing solo with no computers but I still couldn't research everything until I made it a 2 player human game and started trading tech.	You should just start the game with all technology to see everything. You do this in the Game Setup window under Player Settings. There is a selection for "Technology Level for New Player". Set this to High.
7. When researching, some items say none as the next tech. Do I just keep on researching that, or should it be unclickable because it can't be researched in the demo?	Some tech areas don't necessarily give you something at the next level, but will in the full version.
8. Four panels of 10 command buttons! arrrgh!	If you play in a higher resolution, like 1024x768 or greater, you get all of the buttons available without having to scroll.
9. When I run the game, it is too large for my screen. How do I make it smaller?	The game must be run in a resolution of 800x600 or greater. If the windows are too large for your screen, then you must be running in 640x480 or less.
10. Will MM still release patches as frequently as with SE3 even though this is a full-blown commercial game?	Definitely. We still have a lot of features to add in.
11. It sure is annoying to have to redefine a whole new race every game, you can't even pick a predefined race!	There are two ways to use a predefined race. One is to use the Quick Start option. All of the races here are predefined. Another would be to use the Add Existing selection in the Game Setup window (however you can't, because the demo doesn't allow it).
12. When you do remote mining, do you need a transport to send the resources home?	No. Like planets, the resources are automatically transported to your empire. You don't even need a spaceport in the system!
13. The "Troop Weapons" tech looks useless as the troop weapons are in Small Weapons...	To get Troop weapons, you need tech levels in both areas - Troop Weapons and Small Weapons.
14. Where's the option to let ships keep their orders when they encounter enemies? It's annoying to have to reset their orders all the time...	Empire Status - Options
15. I thought the beta testers were supposed to find bugs! Don't the beta testers notice anything?	Yes they do. Our bug forum has over 1000 messages. Unfortunately, we had to release the demo. We're using the time till the full release to fix the rest of the bugs. If you find any, please let us know!
16. How do I transfer supplies between ships?	Put the ships together into a fleet. All ships in a fleet pool their supplies.
17. Population growth is incomprehensible. 18% Jubilant ... but actual pop growth is tiny turn to turn?	Population growth is per year! (not per turn)
18. Some planets build very slow, why?	Depends on the rate of your space yard. It also depends on how much population is on your planet. The higher the population, the higher the rate.
19. How the ___ do I retrofit a ship?	Use the Scrap \ Analyze \ Mothball order.
20. How do I scrap facilities on a planet?	Use the Scrap Facility order (not the Scrap \ Analyze \ Mothball order).
21. How do you remote mine? We have tried creating ships with them on and sent them to an asteroid, but have not been able to mine. Nor has there been any type of order available to carry out this order.	You just need a ship with a remote mining component on it. You move it to the same coordinates as an asteroid field. Now keep in mind, there is no order you need to give, the mining is automatic. The only way to know that your ships are remotely mining is to look in the Empire Status window and look under the item for Remote Mining. It should show resources being generated from remote mining. Also, you can only have one ship mining an asteroid field at a time.
22. For the full version can we use custom formations for our fleets?	There is a simple text data file in the Data directory called Formations.txt. You can add as many formations to this as you like. And to tell you a secret, you can do it in the demo version!
23. I colonized a planet, but it says that it has zero population. How come?	Colonization has changed a bit from SE3. There are two things you need to colonize a planet, a colonizing component and population. When you build a colonizing ship, it has a colonization module on it. But before you send it off to colonize a planet, you need to load it up with population first. If the colony ship doesn't have any population on it, then you can still colonize the planet, but it will have zero population. When you have a newly built colony ship, the best way to send it off is to give it the Colonize order. This order will automatically load population first, then send the ship to the target planet, then colonize that planet. If you use the MoveTo order on your colony ship, it will move towards its destination, without loading population first.
24. I colonized a planet, but its build time says "Never". How come?	Same reason as number 23.
25. What can you do with Alien and ancient ruins?	When you colonize a planet with ruins, there is a chance that you will discover new technology, or possibly even unique technology.
26. How does starting tech levels work with setting your traits in a new game?	Tech levels don't effect your race creation in any way.
27. Can you turn off mines, fighters and others from the new game menu?	Not at this time.
28. I captured via crew insurection a enemy coloney ship with enemy colonists on it. If I create a coloney will it be mine and if so will it be my racial traits or theirs?	No matter what colony ship you use, if you colonize the planet, its yours. All of your traits will apply.
29. Can you have more then one race on a planet?	Yes. In fact, one of the best reasons to capture enemy planets is that you get to use the population that's on it. Different populations breathe different atmospheres, so an alien race may be better suited to colonizing certain planets then your people are.
30. Can a quantum reactor resupply other ships?	Yes, if you put the ship with the quantum reactor in a fleet with other ships.
31. How do you make fleets with your ally?	You can't at this time.
32. I have not been able to find population quarters to put on transports or colony ships as in se3.	There are no population quarters in SE4. You just use cargo containers to transport population.
33. I have not found a button or command to "load population" . Where is it?	You transfer any kind of cargo (population or units) by using the Cargo Transfer order. You can also use the Load Cargo order, but this is intended for use when you want to give your ships orders that will take place in the future. Cargo Transfer is immediate from where the ship is now. Load\Drop Cargo is used when you want your ship to transfer cargo at a different location in the future.
34. How do I move multiple ships without making them into a fleet?	You can hold the Shift button while left-clicking items in the ship list to select multiple items.
35. How do I change the video resolution the game is being run at?	You can't. The game can currently run in 800x600, or 1024x768. If you're smaller than 800x600, then the window will be larger than your screen. If you run in larger than 1024x768, then there will be a black border around the main window when you play. Some windows will use your full screen size such as some of the list windows and the Tactical Combat window. We're looking into having the program automatically change your windows to a certain resolution if you select that option (and then set it back again when you're done).
36. How do I stack my ships in Tactical Combat?	You can't. In SE4, two ships cannot occupy the same tactical combat square unless they intend to ram each other. Only seekers can occupy the same square as a ship.
37. How come ome of my weapons fired by themselves in Tactical Combat?	In SE4, point-defense will fire automatically when an enemy seeker or fighter moves into range. The same is true if your ship moves into range of a seeker or fighter, the point-defense will automatically fire on them.
38. How do you allocate research points between projects ? Can I manually set the research points percentage allocated to each project as in SE3 ?	You can't. In SE4, you can either split your research points between all of your outstanding projects, or apply the points to each one in turn.
39. Will a CD-Rom be required to play? ie when it is purchased, can one download it and play imediately?	Yes, a CD will be required to play. The full game size is about 35 megs compressed, and we don't want people to have to download that. In addition, there is music that is played directly from the CD.
40. Will there be a data editor release?	In SE4, all of the data files are simple text files. You can just open them up in Notepad and edit them directly. You can create whatever components, facilities, or ship sizes you like. (However, in the demo this feature is disabled). We may eventually release an editor, but it really isn't needed.
41. I've built a space station with two Space Yard II components on board, but for some reason it will only build one ship at a time. Am I doing something wrong, or is there no point in putting multiple build components on one platform in SE4?	This is a bug. There can only be one space yard on a ship. A ship or planet only has one construction queue, so even if you did put multiple space yards on it, you would only be able to build one thing at a time.
42. In SE3 you could build Facilities on a planet at the same time as ships were being built at the space yard. Now it seems that the planetary space yard uses the same queue as facilities construction. Consequently either a ship or a facility can be worked on, but not both simultaneously. Is this a bug, or a fundamental change?	In SE4, there is only one construction queue per ship or planet. So a planet uses the same build queue for both is ship and its facilities under construction.
43. Is there a way to limit the number of planets per system?	You can do this by modifying the data files and adding new Quadrant Types. Look into the data file SystemsTypes.txt in the data directory. There will be more details on these data files in the full version.
44. How do change the Colony Type after the planet has been colonized?	Go into the Colonies Window. The second to last button allows you to change the Colony Type for a colony.
45. Can you still adjust your production on the Jubilant to Angry scale as in se3?	Nope. Production Output has been removed from SE4. You now have to keep your population's happy by your actions, not just by changing the production output.
46. Do combat sensors affect Point Defense Cannons performance?	Point-Defense cannons are effected by Combat Sensors and ECM. However, due to their very specific nature, they get a bonus when tracking and firing on targets. Also, Point-Defense are not restricted to the number of targets rules that use Multiplex Tracking.
47. Is there any way to control when PD cannons fire?	No, all Point-Defense weapons are completely autonomous. They will fire automatically when a figher or seeker moves within range, or when your ship moves within range of a target. Don't worry about them firing at target at long range (as opposed to waiting until they got closer), they have an internal bonus to offset this limitation.
48. What happens if you mix mine layer/satellite layer/fighter bays with normal cargo bays? Will the cargo "shift" to the specialized bay as you launch/deploy? Or will you only be able to launch/deploy a small part of your cargo?	Yes, you can mix cargo bays with fighter bays / mine launchers / satellite bay. Don't think of the cargo as shifting from one bay to general cargo space. All of the space is general cargo space. The bay only dictates how many you can launch per turn. So for example, if you have one fighter bay, and 20 cargo bays, you can store a lot of fighters. But you can only launch 1 fighter per combat turn.
49. In the Game setup - Quadrant, What do Finite resources mean?	Finite resources is a new way to play Space Empires. Normally when you play the game, each planet can generate an infinite amount of resources. Each planet has a value that is expressed as a percentage. But when you play with finite resources, then each planet as a maximum number of resources of each type that can be mined from it. The value of the planet will be displayed as an actual amount in kT of resources. Once these resources have been expended, you cannot generate any more from that planet. This feature adds a bit of viciousness to the game as you must continually expand or die.
50. When a ship is hit in combat, but no component has been destroyed (I know that as comps have different damage resistance, some of them are able to stand several his) how do I know which comp has been hit? Does the component remain "half damaged" forever or it's repaired before next combat?	Damage in SE4 has changed since SE3. Instead of one damage point destroying one component, each component now has a damage resistance. This is the amount of damage it must take before it is destroyed. When you take damage in combat, you may not see a specific component destroyed. But don't be fooled, your ship has taken damage. Once the damage amount to a particular component reaches its damage resistance, then it will be marked as destroyed. A component is fully functional until it is destroyed. Once you leave combat, all "partial" damage is removed.
51. When remote mining in several places at once, how do I know how much point each ship is making?	You can see how much you are mining at a location by looking at the remote mining components you have on your ship. The component will tell you exactly how many resources you will mine each turn. Be sure to check the Empire Status window to see the total amount of resources that you are currently mining. Each ship's report will also list how much that ship is remotely mining.
52. When I give a ship the order "Attack" instead of "Move" why does the game keep asking if I want to attack?	The Attack order is used for two purposes. In a Turn-Based game, it is used to attack ships that are in the same location as your ships. The game always asks if you want to attack to be sure that this wasn't be accident. In Simultaneous games, the attack order is used to have your ship seek after a target and attack it.
53. I started a race for rock planets with no atmosphere yet I couldn't colonize the astroid belts in my system. I had population on the ships, what am I doing wrong?	In SE4, you cannot colonize asteroids. You can only remotely mine them for resources.
54. What is the differnece between ship and fleet expierence? Does a vetran ship get an advantage in a vetran fleet etc.	Ship experience helps with that ship targeting other ships, and making it harder to hit by enemy ships. Fleet experience is that same, except that it applies to all ships in the fleet. So yes, a veteran ship in a veteran fleet will have the maximum possible advantage.
55. How do you construct a ring world or a sphere world? Since the components are larger than any ship that I can find I am uncertain as to how I would construct one of these beasts.	To construct a ringworld or a sphereworld, you will need to build the required components on starbases. How do you get them to the location? This is where a spaceyard ship comes in. First, build a space yard ship and send it to the location (the star) where you want to build your sphere world. Next, have the space yard ship construct the starbases with the required components (you may want to have more than one space yard ship to speed this along). Once the starbases are constructed, select the one with the activating component and select Stellar Manipulation. Choose Stellar Construction on the window. When you do this, all of the starbases with required components will be de-constructed and formed into the sphere world.
56. I constructed a sphere world but it does not show up as one of my colonies. What gives?	A ring world or a sphere world is merely a constructed planet. After you build it, you still need to colonize it. Once you colonize it, it will behave like any of your other colonies. You can then start building facilities on it.
57. I see in the sending messages that you can set the message type & tone & a certain message will appear in the lower message window. I also see that you can retype that message to anything you want to say. What I am asking is does the computer AI player understand anything that you tell him??? Can you type a more detailed message that the computer can understand??? What exactly can the computer understand & react to??? Does the computer player understand & react like a human player would???	No, the AI does not understand the text you type in for a message. It only really understands the message type, the tone of the message, and any parameters that go along with the message (such as a trade or gift). The text portion of the message is really only used for human players.
58. There are several references in the config files and UI screens for a unit type of "drone", but no actual data on them. Would you care to comment on what these were going to be and why they aren't in the game after all?	Drones were originally going to be in the game as a sort of computer controlled missile. They would be launched from a planet like a fighter and then seek towards a designated target completely under computer control (or possibly player control). However, due to a number of difficulties with targeting, pathing, and intent for the drones, we decided to remove them from SE4. The pictures are still present, as are some references in the data files, as it is our intention to eventually patch these into the game when the design issues have been worked out.
59. How do I access the CD manual in HTML. I can't find it while in the game, and I can't find it while looking at the contents on the CD through Windows Explorer. Where is it?	The HTML manual is installed with the game into your SE4 directory. From the Start Menu, select Programs \ Malfador Machinations \ Space Empires IV Manual. We will be adding a shortcut to the manual from the game in the next patch.
60. I need instructions as to how you can create a race in the game from those downloaded from other sites or made by myself. I'm talking about those that have the AI scripts. When I enter the game and I'm creating a new game I'm not able to locate any of the races I've downloaded into their own folders in the Pictures/Races subdirectories.	When you download a custom race style from a web site, you need to create a directory for it in the SE4 \ Pictures \ Races directory. When you start SE4, go to New Game, then create a new empire. In the Empire Setup Window, on the General Details tab, there is a "Race Portrait \ Ship Style" selection. Pick the new race portrait you downloaded. A little farther down on the window, there is an item called "Use Race Minister Style". Set this option on so that it reads "Using style from race". This empire will now use all of the features of this custom race style. If you're wondering how you get the race added to your Quickstart window, you need to open the file "Settings.txt" in the Data directory. In this file there are items titled "Quick Start Style #" which you can set to the name of the directory for the race style. In the first patch, we have extended this to allow as many races as you wish.
61. I just had a question about the Abilities.txt, are thoes hard coded in, or can we add things to it?	No, you cannot add new abilities to the game. The abilities.txt file is not used by the game and is merely informational. Abilities are built directly into the game and cannot be modified or added. Only we can add abilities by releasing a new executable for the game.
62. Is it possible to scrap or upgrade ground bases or troops? It only seems possible to scrap things which can be launched into space.	You cannot upgrade units. You can only jettison them. As for ground bases, do you mean facilities? Facilities can be upgraded through the Set Construction Queue Window.
63. How many troops or bases are needed to garrision a conquored population to keep them from revolting? Or is this not a worry?	It depends on the population. Usually only a few are needed, but it depends on what incidents happen in the system itself. If ships from the race of the population come into the system, the people on the planet will revolt even harder.
64. Does internal arrangement of systems in a ship design matter?	The order of the components in your ship does not matter for damage. All damage is done to shields first, then armor components, then randomly to internal components. However, the order of your components does matter for weapon firing. Weapon firing will occur in the order the components are listed in your ship. So if you want certain weapons to fire first (like Shield Depleters), you should place them before all other weapons.
65. How does the "Resource Converter" work?, I keep trying but nothing seems to happen?	The Resource Converter allows you to convert resources from one type to another. On the planet that has the facility, you will have an order icon appear which says Convert Resources.
66. In SEIII I could save a standard set of ship designs (usually the ones I wanted to start a game with.) I haven't found that feature in SEIV yet. Have I missed it? If not, when will you add it?	You can save your ship designs by saving your empire. This will not only save your designs, but will save all of your empire settings as well.
67. When i create a new race it has the status of newborn and has no experience. Does the status change when i play some games with that race, and do i get experience points to buy new abilities?	Yes, when you play with an empire, they will gain experience. You can then save the empire at the end of your game so that you can use in future games. The experience points determine your race's age and give you minor bonuses in different areas.
68. To resupply ships i have to get them to a planet with a resuply-facility. Is it possible to make a space-station have the effect to resupply ships?	Resupply facilities can only be built on planets. You cannot resupply from another ship. (However, resupply pods and quantum reactors will help with your resupply problems. In addition, fleets share their supplies among all of the ships present).
69. The patch for version 1.11 overwrote all of my custom data files!	First off, you should NEVER modify the original data files. You should create a new data directory under SE4 and call it something else such as "mydata". Copy all of the original data files to that directory. Make all of your data modifications to the files in that directory. Then, you should modify the file called "path.txt" in the SE4 directory so that it now points to your "mydata" directory. This way you can install patches and such without ever modifying your custom data files. You can have as many auxiliary data directories as you want. The path.txt file determines which one the game will use when it is run. It will beup to you to incorporate any changes made in patches into your custom data files.
70. Does ship experience make the ship harder to hit, or only make it hit others more often?	Ship experience improves a ships ability to hit other ships and improves its ability to avoid being hit by other ships.
71. Does a Talisman make training facilities useless?	Yes, as long as you have a religious talisman on every ship.
72. Does fleet experience add directly to every ship?	No. The experience for a ship is separate from the bonus for a fleet. In combat, the fleet bonus is added to a ship's bonus, but that is only during combat. Also, when the ship is removed from the fleet, it only retains its own experience, nothing from the fleet.
73. Does it still apply if I clear group assignments?	Yes, fleet experience still applies even if you clear the group assignments in combat (or rearrange them). When you exit combat, all of the ships (that are still alive) will still be within the same fleet.
74. It's clear that e.g. A second robotoid Factory on a planet does no good, but would a Mineral scanner, Time Shrine, etc. "stack"?	Yes and no. System wide abilities are not cumulative, even if they are coming from different facility types. However, if you have planet wide abilities and system wide abilities overlapping, then they will accumulate. So in this example, yes, the values would "stack".
75. Would building, say, four Value Improvement plants III, result in a visible improvement of at least one point every turn, or a massive improvement all at once?	Yes, the improvement will be seen each turn as a total of all 4 facilities working together.
76. Ground combat and troops design has me confused. Do non-Ground Cannon weapons on troops work? Does range matter? What are the stats of a militia unit?	Troops and their weapons are only used in ground combat. Their weapons do not fire into space or at anything else. The Ground-Cannon weapon can only be used on a troop, and therefore, only in ground combat. Other weapons which can be used on troops, such as the Small Depleted Uranium Cannon, can also be used on fighters. So this weapon can be used in both ground combat and space combat. However, when the DUC is used on a troop, it is only used during ground combat. Range is taken into account using an algorithim which simulates moving troops in ground combat. The values for a militia unit are specified in the Settings.txt file.
77. Is there somewhere an overview of the different galaxys where i can find the differences between Midlife, Ancient, Spiralarm and the others?	Mid-Life - A standard quadrant with regular planets. Systems are layed out randomly. Cluster - Systems are grouped into clusters on the map. Galactic Edge - Systems are spread out as far as possible from each other. Spiral Arm - Systems are arranged spiraling out from a central circle. Grid - Systems are arranged in a grid pattern. Ancient - Systems are arranged randomly. There are many more black holes and nebulae in the quadrant.
78. I've noticed that I am only able to get at the first few colonies when I select the "Redesignate Colony" button - the scroll bar only goes to about the first 25 or so planets. Does the designation actually do anything?	The list window that is displayed when you press Set Colony Type will only show you the colonies which are visible in your list. If you scroll down the colony list, then when you hit the button, the list displayed will show what the colony list is displaying. The Colony type is useful for players to know what they intended the planet for, and for the ministers so they know what the player wants to use the planet for.
With the Counter-Intelligence projects, when it says that you have succeeded in preventing attacks against X empire: 79. What kinds of intelligence activites are you protected from at a given level?	Intelligence Defense projects merely provide points which are used to defend against enemy projects. The higher the level, the more points you can put into the project (cost), and the better they will protect you. The specific type of the offensive intelligence activity does not matter. Defense projects defend against them all.
80. Is this a lasting condition? i.e., will you have to do the same level counter-intelligence project over again in the future to maintain protection?	Defense intelligence projects will have their points depleted (the points you are paying in to complete them) as they defend against attacks. Once a defensive project expires, you will have to start it again to continue your protection. The more projects you have going, the better your protection will be. However, if you have a defensive intelligence project, and you are not spending any points towards it, it will not provide any protection.
81. If it says that you are protected against X empire, are you also protected against Y & Z empire? Also, if you are, what about empires you haven't met yet? Does that protection extend to them?	A defensive project protects against all enemy empires that attack you will intelligence actions. When you choose a defensive project, you do not choose which empire it is directed towards. It is merely general defense against all aggressors. An empire that you haven't met yet cannot perform intelligence yet. An empire must show in your Empires window for them to be able to attack your with intelligence projects.
82. Is there a strategy guide and/or complete technology tree chart available for SE4?	There isn't at the moment (to both). We are going to create a technology tree list in the near future.
83. How much supplies does a ship use for each action (moving, attacking, etc.)?	Movement is based on the "Supplies Used" of the engine (the total). The total supplies used for your engines is how many supplies you will use per move. When a weapon fires, it uses the "Supplies Used" listed for the weapon.
84. What does "supplies used" mean for a ship weapon?	This is the amount of supplies that are used each time the weapon fires.
85. What good are shield-damaging weapons? Don't most weapons damage shields anyway?	Shield Damaging weapons to a LOT of damage, but only to shields. They are an excellent way to strip a ship of its shields before hitting it with your other weapons. Yes, most weapons do shield damage.
86. Can I scrap an Atmosphere Converter facility after the atmosphere is converted?	Yes.
87. Every time I add a Counter - Intelligence Project to the Intelligence Project list everything seems fine, the project is 'working', the time is counting down every round until there is only 0.1 left. And then next round it should create the Defense Counter, but I always get the message (in the log) that the project has lacked or failed. Everytime.	When your counter-intelligence project is in operation, it is preventing attacks. If it completes, then it says that it failed because it did not actually prevent any attacks.
88. How does the setting of difficulty for the computer player work?. What is the distinction between them, is starting resources or better AI? Is lower setting analagous to easier?	AI Difficulty settings: Low - The AI is quite dumb and will not use fleets. They should be pretty easy to engage and destroy. There is more of a chance for peaceful AI races in the galaxy. Medium - The AI is of moderate intelligence. They will use fleets and all of the ministers in the game. High - The AI uses all of its capabilities to destroy you. They also receive some bonuses in resources to help them along. There is a higher chance for aggressive AIs when starting a new game.
89. When you capture an enemy vessel with components based on tech you do not have is it possible to learn something from analyzing the vessel? Or do you only gain insights on tech fields you already know of but are not as advanced as the components you are analyzing. Can you use an intelligence project to steal a tech field you do not have? (ie If you do not have Organic Engineering at all, can you specify to steal it?) Other than the the above two methods is it possible to gain unknown tech fields in a game? (Other than choosing a race trait or colonizing a ancient ruin planet.)	The only way to learn something from a captured vessel is to use the Deconstruct and Analyze order (in the Scrap window). You will gain research for all of the components that you do not currently possess. Yes, you can use intelligence to steal technology from another player. If you select the setting "Any" for the tech area to steal, its possible to steal technology from areas unknown to you. You can also gain technology by capturing enemy planets. Any facilities which you capture give you a bonus towards learning that technology. There is one restriction on all of this. You cannot obtain unique or racial technology from another player (if you don't already have it). For example, if you capture a ship with organic technology, but you do not possess the racial trait of Organic Engineering, they you will not be able to gain any knowledge from organic components. The same goes for stealing technology as well.
90. Combat sometimes seems to end prematurely, often even before a hit is scored. Is this a glitch or are there reasons for combat ending that I am unaware of?	Combat will end if: a. 30 combat turns have expired, or b. There are no longer any enemy players in combat.
91. The range of enemy designs to choose from seems very small. Why is this? It probably has to do with time and my level of familiarity with each empire; but I'd like to know what governs this.	The list of enemy ships to choose from in the combat simulator is given by the ship you have seen in your game (been in combat with). Once you are in combat with more ships in the real game, you will have more to choose from in the combat simulator. Keep in mind that you can also fight your own ships in the combat simultator as well.
92. After expanding quickly into about a third of the galaxy, suddenly all the other computer players break their Partnerships with me and declare war, saying that I'm taking over the whole galaxy. What specific criteria causes this (a certain percentage of planets colonized)?	In the Settings.txt file, there are a few fields which deal with the "MegaEvil" empire. Once your score reaches a certain percentage higher than the 2nd place computer player, then the computer will declare you the "MegaEvil" empire. At this point, the AI will realize that it has to band together to fight you or you will gobble up the entire galaxy.
93. I noticed that building a Space Yard Facility II or III will increase the build rate for both ships AND NON-SHIP ITEMS. Is this a bug or a feature?	This is a feature. Once a spaceyard facility is built on a planet it will be used for all new constructions. It doesn't matter if its a ship in space, or units on the ground.
94. Why is there a "Split Points" button in the Research Window? What's the advantage of working on multiple projects at once?	Some people like to make steady progress on multiple projects at a time, instead of just one after the other.
95. Am I correct in assuming that Satellites, Mines, Fighters, Troops, and Weapons Platforms don't have a maintenance cost, and that Mines, Troops, and Weapons Platforms don't need to be resupplied?	Yes and yes.
96. What does the Explore command do?	The explore command will send your currently selected ship to the nearest unexplored system.
97. What does giving another player a system mean? "Dibs" on colonizing it, or all your colonies in that system?	Giving a player a system is basically like saying that you are giving up part of your territory to the other player. The giving player should then un-mark it as "claimed" in the Borders window. However, this is not guaranteed, because the giving player could always break the deal.
98. I've got one general question. I've subjugated a race in the same game and they have Psychic technology unfortunately it is not being shared with me is this also a feature? I also am unable to select it as a target for technological espionage although I know they have it from tech reports.	Unfortunately, unique and racial technologies cannot be shared with other races. You cannot steal it through intelligence either.

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