Galaxy 3.1 -- Routes and Upgrades From: sutin@helios.ucsc.edu (Brian Sutin) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1992 22:17:00 +0000 I have just read the manual for Galaxy 3.1, and I found some bothersome questions involving routes and upgrades. First of all, in the upgrade section: ...The group must be at one of your planets, and must remain there during the turn long enough for the upgrade to be performed; this means that it cannot be given a Send or Intercept command that turn, though it may be automatically sent on a route, as this happens later in the turn... However, later in the manual is: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sequence of Events All orders except for renaming and upgrading orders (C, G, N and T) are executed. C, G, N and T orders are executed. Hostile ships fight each other. Ships bomb enemy planets. Cargo is loaded onto ships at the beginning of routes, and the ships are sent into hyperspace. ****** HERE ****** Ships are sent on intercept orders. ****** HERE ****** Ships move through hyperspace. Hostile ships fight each other again (new battles might be possible after ships emerge from hyperspace). Ships bomb enemy planets again. Production takes place. Cargo is unloaded at the end of routes. Identical groups are merged. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note that, contrary to the description in the Upgrade section, routes take place before intercepts. We have a contradiction here. The sequence does not even specify when ships execute a SEND order. Secondly, only being able to upgrade a group if the group is executing a route, but not being sent, seems silly to me. I would think that a route is only a convenience, and should just save the effort of writing three extra orders, but if only routed groups may be upgraded, then there must be some sort of physical reason for such a thing. I, personally, would prefer never to use a route at all, and do everything by hand -- why should I be disadvantaged for it? Routes should load when ships LOAD, send when ships SEND, and unload when ships UNLOAD. For example, say I have a groups which will take two turns to get to planet X if fully loaded, but only one turn at %95. Will the route cleverly load to %95? What if I have two fleets, and only one will make it to X in one turn, while the other will get to both X and Y? Will the computer pick the correct group for each route? I doubt it. Thirdly, There seems to be no incentive to invest in cargo technology. The new cargo formula gives an incentive for larger cargo capacity, which may or may not be incentive enough. Perhaps the cargo tech should be included inside the nonlinear term as well. Galaxy Game 6, "Revolution!" -- formerly "Stigeid" Brian Sutin sutin@lick.ucsc.edu Lick Observatory, UCSC Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Fred: "May I rescue you?" Ginger: "No, thank you. I prefer being in distress." Referenced By Up