Some general noob question. yes ive read the manual

from Stardock Forums
ok ive played about 3 games and lost em all in the end..some more badly then others. I dont yet have a good grasp of all the mechanics in the game even after reading the manual a few times.

so here is whats troubling me

1. how come i ALWAYS fall behind on technology? even after i choose Technologists and I am researching non stop im still the last person in tech. is there a way to speed up the research time?

2. is there a place I can get more detailed descriptions of technologies? Like some technologies are pretty vauge like "makes our ships go faster" by how much? is speed = to moves? etc. im in need of a techtree

3. lets say my weapons do 3 dmg. a 10% increase to weapons = 0 since its only whole numbers. can someone clarify the use for 10% increases on numbers under 10?

4.I got a ship from the Acreans once ( corvette or warship i think ) and I was able to take on litteraly 10+ enemy warships of equal class. What gives?

5. I had a ship orbiting a planet and it took out about atleast 15 enemy ships that came its way. When I put a 2nd ship in orbit it got killed in 1 turn by the enemy yet my previous ship stayed alive for another 5-10 ship attacks before finally getting killed. Whats the deal? btw my 2nd ship i put in orbit was a higher class then the 1st one. 1st one was a corvette i think.

6. My morale was good for a time. Then more ppl kept coming and lowering my morale due to a large amount of ppl sharing social resources. then i built more social resources which made even more people come. How do I get out of this vicious cycle and get a stead pop with a good morale?

7. wtf is up with influence? I had 2 planets and a starbase in a sector and a neighbouring civ had 1 planet and they showed as being in control of the sector

8. how do i get ppl to vote for my party?

9. what does fiddling with the resource sliders (military, research and manufacturing ) do? the resources allocated to each...you know which one i mean

10. how the hell do my enemies seem to have a nearly endless supply of ships. like I was playing a game and after about an hour the Torians were in 1st place. I was in 4th. I had about 3 ships and they had litterally 40+. How can the differnce be that drastic

im gonna finish it off at 10 since its a nice round number. thanks in advance
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
1. Your spending balance and spending amount sliders are tilted towards Tech and full, respectively? This isn't a problem I've seen...I usually stay ahead in the tech race fairly handily.

2. The actual tech picklist (i.e. the research tab) has detailed effects listed. After you've achieved the tech, the "archive" button on the same tab will display it.

3. Only that when you get 25% more, you'll actually see an effect. Pet peeve of mine, too. In the mid-late game, it makes a difference, but it'll take awhile.

4. Ship combat is resolved one at a time right now--stacking doesn't do anything special. Furthermore, if you're in orbit, you get a defense bonus (+3, I believe). Finally, if you're the one being attacked, and your defense is higher than your attack, half your defense is temporarily given to your attack for that encounter. The sum total of that is that you will see situations where ships defend like mad.

5. Just luck, barring some as-yet undiscovered bug.

6. Keep in mind that "good" is around 55 or 60%, not 80%. That said, the general solution now is to ship people off planet when morale dips and you have all possible improvements and propaganda maxed. You can either colonize another planet, or you can just ship them off in transports and keep them in deep freeze waiting for a war. :)

7. Obviously, there was something else going on that you didn't see.

8. By keeping approval rating (morale) up. Morale and voting are pretty much interrelated.

9. Sliders control how much of your planet's total production is used for each category. If your sliders are 20% M, 30% S, and 50% R, a planet with 100 total production will put 20 into Military, 30 into Social, and 50 into Research. You didn't ask, but Spend Rate controls how much of the total production's actually used. Same example at 50% spend rate would be 10, 15, and 25 used respectively. Use the spend rate to balance your budget, and the MSR sliders to prioritize your budget.

10. They borrow money (i.e. take the leasing options under purchasing) like a mofo, and count on making it up in trade routes and tributes later.

Have fun. :)

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
1. Trade more ;) The AI does, thats why they might get ahead.
2. JavaScouts Website is perfect. Has all techs/wonders/trade good listed and explained.
3. It Remembers the upgrade, The %'s stack up until you can rise a point. That said only the starfighter has such poor attack :)
4. ? no idea, maybe it was a Precursor ship? or maybe you had military bonuses in effect? or maybe it had good attack but low defense, or maybe it was his initial survey ship..tell me some stats of the ship and maybe i can help
5. Ships get "Experience" and level up, increasing its stats. What *was* the original ship? what defence did it have?
6. Lower Taxes. Click the detail button on the Planet screen and Set Propoganda to max. If your losing money your people become unhappy, as they do in war time depending on the Govt style.
7. They prolly made Influence/Culture buildings? Did you have any? Maybe put some culture upgrades on your Starbase :)
8. Lower Taxes..generally, if the Federal guys outvote you, it means your econ is too poor, if the war guys outvote you, it means your military losing or weak, if the populists outvote you, your people are unhappy etc.
9. The main slider allocates your totaly funds taken from your income. The 3 below it split it between Reseach, Mil production and social production. So moving the main slider up, means more money is allocated amongst the 3. Say you are at war, and *NEED* more dreadnaughts, you set your military slider to 100%, and you pump out them much faster, but your can make no buildings or do any research as you are spending it all on your ships.
10. Too complicated to answer now, plsu im about to sleep..dont worry, read around here and you will soon be able to outproduce the AI easily on the easyier levels :)

~SDC~
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Opps beaten to it..wish i took up that speed typing course now..

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
1. Build labs, increase tech funding, trade techs, capture the tech (purple) and economy (green) resources.

2. The tech screen has a large portion dedicated to describing what the tech gives you. If it says speed +10 or range +10, those values go up one for each ship.

3. The 10% increases from tech, and 1% increases add up, so a 3 attack become 4 attack when your weapons stat is 33%. You can see the total under Foreign Policy-> Stats.

4. Remember, the stats add up and provide the bonus to all ships in your empires (for combat, the relevent stats are weapons, defense, and hit points). If your ship was attacked, and its defence is higher than its attack, half of its defense is added to the attack for its attack phase. Also, as ships win combat, they increase in experience, increasing their base stats. Sometimes, winning combat comes down to pure dumb luck.

5. The first ship had more experience. The second ship is considered higher on the stack, and so it defends first. And there is some defense increase (so I've heard) for ships in a system. Best thing to do is build a starbase in the sector and give it lots of military and defense upgrades. The defenders get a power boost, and if the enemy goes after the base, non-capitol ships die easily to the base.

6. Population will always increase until moral hits 50%. You can't do anything about it. As the manual says, leaders rarely get approval ratings above 55%. The morale buildings just get you more people and help prevent the planet from joining the I-League.

7. The Encyclopedia has a good explanation of influence. Simply put, influence is based on the quality of planets, the population, and modifying buildings of each system, as well as how spread out your empire is. The more sectors you control, the less of the base influence each sector gets, but the more sectors you control around a given sector, the higher your influence in that sector.

8. Approval rating (average morale). But the distribution of the seats of other parties can give you ideas on where to improve. For example, a large number of mercantiles (which you aren't) can indicate that you need more trade routes.

9. These adjust the amount of money your government spends in each of the relevent categories.

10. Either they're leasing the ships, have very good manufacturing, built up a large amount before hand, or trading for ships from another empire.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
'sok. We all had subtly different responses. I'm sure he'll get something from all of us. :)

~SDC~