Silly Question Alert!!

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm obviously a newb, but I want to play this game very badly. A VERY basic question...

How does ship movement work with respect to autopilot and knowing which ships still have movement remaining in a turn. When a click a spot, autopilot shows up. And the ship might move. But when I tab, I don't always go to another ship. And yet when I select another ship manually, it may have movement left. I'm getting very confused by the this seemingly very basic gameplay element. When I end a turn, no ships move. Should they on "autopilot". And when I do select a ship, shouldn't it move if it's on autopilot? I don't know if I've explained my questions very well, but help would be much appreciated if you can figure out what I'm trying to ask.

By the way, hopefully the manual will help when it arrives. But I just downloaded the game Monday and I don't have the box yet.

Thanks.

Griz.
3,770 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There should be a PDF version of the manual in the download.

But anyway, as to your question, the way the software behaves is like this. When you select a ship and right-click a destination, the ship moves as far as it can towards that destination. If it can't reach it in the current turn, then it goes into Auto-Pilot mode, but at that point, since it moved in that turn, it will have zero movement points left. Since it is in Auto-Pilot mode, using the TAB key will never shift focus to that ship.

Now we hit the turn button. The ship does not move, and still says "Auto-Pilot". TAB will still ignore it. If you manually select it, you will see that it has MP left. This is all the correct behavior. If you hit the Turn button again, the ship will proceed on Auto-pilot towards it's planned destination.

To summarize, Auto-pilot moves happen after you finish your manual moves and hit the Turn button. BUT! during the first turn when a ship enters Auto-pilot mode, it does NOT move, because you already moved it manually that turn and it has 0 MP left.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Appreciate the info. Let me clarify with (hopefully) one last question: Are you saying that you have to actually hit the "Turn" button twice for a complete move?
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Griz what i think he was trying to say was that then the ship doesnt reach its destination with in the first turn that u move it, it will go into auto pilot mode. In the next turn you can still manualy click on the ship and move it in that turn, but if you dont move the ship it will not move untill u click the turn button, the ship is not moving once in two turns but just moving automaticaly at the end of your turn.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
if i understand you corretly...

i think the awnser is 'auto-pilot waits till you hit the 'turn' button before moving your ships, in essence giving you a chance to modify the auto pilot for that turn before spending all the avalible points'. but your post seems a bit large and un weildy. i hope this helps
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yea it's like this:

New Turn: 1
Human player does his moves, including changing ship destinations for autopiloted vessels
Human clicks "New Turn"
Autopilot moves autopiloted ships to their destinations
New Turn: 2

Imagine the horror if it were:

New Turn: 1
Autopilot moves autopiloted ships to their destinations
Human player does his moves on remaining ships
Human clicks "New Turn"
New Turn: 2