Auto Survey

from Stardock Forums
Survey ship "Auto Survey" command.

Problem:
The way it is now - it sux because for the good 40% of the game (or longer) you really have to keep a close eye on your USS Hero. If you don't it will eventually hit a wormhole and end up on the other end of the map unable to do anything but engage autopilot and travel to your space for 50 turns or longer thus depriving you of much needed bonuses from anomaly exploration (every little bit helps, especially in the beginning of the game).

Solution:
Add option to make survey ships PROMPT the player each time Auto Survey brings them to a wormhole (whether they should enter the wormhole or not).
245 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I always leave my survey ship on auto-survey because it means less micro-management. When it goes through a wormhole, it still seems to keep exploring space junk even on the other side of the galaxy. It does go from visible space junk to visible space junk even if it crosses the galaxy. It seems options right now are:

1. Ignore it, you have enough to do already
2. Manually move the Hero
3. Try to get Eyes of the Universe so you can see a lot more space junk and have the Hero gobble it up. It is more effecient if you know where the prizes are.
4. Add speed as a choice in the game setup so the Hero is faster and gobbles up more space junk by beating the slower survey ships to the space junk.

Hope this helps. Any other thoughts on this? Thanks. :)

Rick
[Message Edited]
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
In what I suggest there would be no micromanagement. It would autosurvey at all times, except it would not enter wromholes indiscriminately.

All your suggestions don't solve the problem, which is that once your Hero is out of range it stops surveying and geos home on autopilot, and you are right: to prevent it from entering a wormhole you have to manually move the Hero. This sux. THIS is unnecessary micromanagement.
[Message Edited]
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I personally would like the ability to tell it not to survey spiney looking debris that turns into space sharks. :)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I like the idea of the prompt when you are about to enter a wormhole. I don't think that anything else should be changed. I like the idea of the wormhole prompt because you could gather you fleet with the Hero vessel and send them together thru the wormhole to another location.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
It would autosurvey at all times
End of quote


Bad Idea. I don't always want my Hero scavengering. And by the time I am ready to set my survey ships on auto, I don't care where they land.

Unless your playing large or giantic maps, range for them is not an issue anyway. And if you are playing those larger maps, you really should have more than one survey ship scouting around. Esp if your concerned about losing a 1% bump to whatever.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
All your suggestions don't solve the problem, which is that once your Hero is out of range it stops surveying and geos home on autopilot,
End of quote


Except that it doesn't. The survey ship will still detour to anomalies on it's way back home. Ships on aoutpilot can occasionally leave your normal range too, as long as the end destination is within your proper range.

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
The survey ship will still detour to anomalies on it's way back home
End of quote


Are you talking aobut a "huge map" ? I will pay closer attention but as far as I recall I never saw Hero find any anomalies on Auto from an out of range position.

Unless your playing large or giantic maps, range for them is not an issue anyway. And if you are playing those larger maps, you really should have more than one survey ship scouting around. Esp if your concerned about losing a 1% bump to whatever.
End of quote


1. It is impossible to have more than 1 survey ship in the first 200 or so turns because they take 66 turns to build while you have like 3-4 star systems at that point and you really need to build as many colony ships as possible...

2. AI, by game designer's own admissnion cheats: it always knows where stuff is while you need to explore and find galactic resourses to mine, in particular. Finding these resources early is important because it tells you in which direction you should colonize star systems since you want your bases to be defendable. You cannot find or build star bases quick enough or defend them well enough in the early game if your USS Hero is God knows where. This forces you to buy scouts and manually direct them since they have no "Auto Explore" command.
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]