Constructor Influence Circle

Try changing your race colours. I had a problem with the Terran colours when I first started playing the game,with it's dark blue, but it was much better when I switched to a light brown colour. Incidentally, Dark Avatar has a perforated cirlce around the edges so it's much easier to see now.

and DA is a great enhancement to the game, which you should consider getting for many other reasons as well.

I'm not sure they fixed the issue in DA or the lateset DL but the constructor circle was about a parsec too small in diameter and it was unclear how "partially" covered squares were treated. I just use the following picture to determine what locations are "covered" by the starbase. In the following the green circle is the SB's area of influence the red polygon are the squares that actually get benefit from the SB. The constructor circle is one parsec smaller in diameter (1/2 parsec smaller radius).

I didn't know that your race color changed the color of the circle. I have been playing Terran with the blue, so will try a color change. Thanks a lot for the input!

can colors be changed mid-game?

No, unfortunately not.

Either did I until I decided to play a custom race. I can uderstand that you'd have trouble with the Terran blue, I did as well. I went with a light brown for my custom race and I had no trouble seeing the circle after that. If you want to continue using blue, try a lighter shade.

i never noticed this circle, is it always around the constuctors or do i need to click on it or something?

It shows when your constructor is the selected ship. Any sector the circle touches will be affected by a starbase built there.

select two constructors in the same square and then you can see the circle!

Hot pink and green show up nicely. I nearly went blind trying to find my trade routes in blue on the map. My colors are gaudy but visible.

Yeah, the Terran colour really isn't very good for seeing it on the map. It just kind of blends in with the black.

I made my colors purple but now i look exactly like the Yor. Oh well guess i gotta just get rid of them...

As if you need an incentive

Mumble,
Since nobody mentioned it...
Yes, the circle for the constructors shows the correct radius in DA.
I believe the perforated circle, on the edge, is always white now, race color still inside. Its very easy to see the influence are for your new starbases in DA.

Cool. Thanks for the update.   

Actually on the color thing, I pretty much go with gold (light brown, whatever). It seems to be distinguishable from all the other racial colors (at least in DL it is) and is readily visible for autopilot trails, etc.

We have a bit more in common than I had anticipated Mumble! I also use the gold variant.

Also, I was unaware planets that did not actually touch the sphere of influence where affected by the starbase. This is really cool and I will make sure to take advantage of this in the future.

The circle of influence of a SB does have to actually touch the square the planet is on for the planet to receive the SB bonus. However, the circle only has to cover the tiniest portion of the square for the planet (or in some cases the square itself, i.e. ships receiving military SB bonus) to receive the bonus.

The picture I made above is still valid and can be used in two ways; one assumes that a SB is at the center and all planets (or squares) covered by the SB's influence are within the red polygon; the other assumes a planet is at the center and all SB's that cover the planet are within the red polygon. Note that if you look carefully you will find that the common misconception that the most SB's you can get concentrated on any one location is 16 is incorrect.

I was having serious issues distingushing between my custom race colors and others. It seems to me that all of the "good" colors are taken. Also, I really didn't want to change any of the default colors.

The color I chose is awful, but visible. I chose a color almost exactly between the Torian and the Arcean. This results in a kind of dilute "radiator fluid" color, but I can tell mine from all the others. It is also a high contrast with the background of space.

I found this out early in my playing days.
20 Starbases if your planet is almost centered.

Nope. Still not enough. You can get 20 if exactly centered in a sector but you can do better than this.

   You certainly can.  

Hehe... hmmmm... My brain hurts...



I can't figure it out, care to explain?   

This is Mumbles Discovery, so I'll let him divulge in full. A hint though : Think about the edges of the sectors.  

I'll poke you in the right direction but I won't just tell you the answer.

There's a limit of 4 starbases per sector. The basic coverage pattern that everyone knows and loves consists of 16 SB's. With 16 SB's and 4 per sector this obviously involves 4 sectors of SB's whose influence area's overlap. When I mentioned that you could do more than this you came up with 20 SB's which must therefore involve 5 sectors of SB's, in this case having the planet (or area of overlapping influence) at the exact center of a sector with 4 SB's in the sector and 4 SB's in each of the four adjacent sectors.

So if I now say you can do better than that it must mean that you can get 6 sector's of SB's (that would be 24) to somehow have thier influence areas overlap. If you play around with the picture showing the SB's area of influence I'm sure you'll be able to come up with the appropriate pattern. Then if you could only figure out what to do with such a thing.