Ostsol

Looks like your video drivers may be alot of out date. Try updating them.

The problem with Starforce and other such software is that it's not always stable. Granted, the games themselves are not always stable, but I'd personally rather that the game is unstable because of itself and not because of some third-party software. At least that way the developer is not at the mercy of that other company to fix problems.

Starbases as they stand right now are too fragile. Since the attackers always get "First Strike", then a sufficiently powerful attacking force is almost assured to take out a Starbase, no matter how much offensive and defensive capabilities it has. That's why we have sensor and engine techn

Yeah, the problem is that the CPU frequency, which is used in the game's timer, is being misreported to the game. A similar problem also occurs on systems where the CPU clock speed is dynamic, such as in power-saving systems in some laptops. That later case is usually fixed by querying the frequency each frame.

Maybe they were in the danger of having a cultural flip, in that case they would need influence to prevent themselves from being taken over culturally. I'm pretty sure that minors are unaffected by influence. Besides, the minor that did this was on the opposite side of the map from me, yet still decided to put several influence bases around my homew

That works, but so do trade routes and other things. If you're going to attack one of their enemies, for example, tell them first in the diplomacy screen.

Your relations with the civ have to be "close" before you can ask for an alliance.

I think that Windows always reports that virtual memory is too low when usuage goes above your minimum. My suggestion is simply to increase your minimum to at least 1.5 GB. I've found the game peaking at around 1.1 GB, for me.

Once again, the Torians decided that they'd help me in my war -- by giving me starbases. This time one of them was a mining starbase, which is useful, but the others were economy starbases in his territory. Now it's a little silly to be giving me those starbases. Mining bases should simply never be given away, unless the AI is feeling quite intimidated or they otherwise just want to kiss ass. In general situations, however, they should be jealou

Yes, but in terms of shots fired during a single engagement, movement has no effect. I can easily see how a 6vs3 results in a 33:9 shot ratio. Round 1: Fleet 1 attacks: 6 shots Fleet 2 attacks: 3 shots Round 2: Fleet 1 attacks: 6 shots, killing one Fleet 2 attacks: 2 shots Round 3: Fleet 1 attacks: 6 shots Fleet 2 attacks: 2 shots, killing one Round 4: Fleet 1 attacks: 5 shots, killing one Fleet 2 attacks: 1 sho

You can't create a fleet with a starbase. It's generally better to move the fleet out to intercept the enemy, anyway. Troop transports -should- be blocked if you have at least one combat ship in orbit of the planet.

Actually one thing I noticed in a previous game was that an ally didn't seem to mind me influence-flipping his colonies. I built a few influence bases and bought a few others off of another civ. It was really interesting, since my ally was complaining about that other civ's bases, but didn't say a word about my own, even when his capital was rebelling. Are allies supposed to be that abusable?

It is the degree to which another civ's influence is affecting that planet. To put it simply: when it reaches more than 4.0, there's a chance that the planet might rebel. The higher the value and the lower the planet's moral, the more likely a rebellion will occur. When it does occur, the planet abandon's you and joins the other civ. You can do this to other civs, too. A heavily upgraded influence starbase works well, if placed near another civ's

Economy bases are always useful for boosting production and trade. Military bases are great when you're on the defensive. *shrugs* I've always found starbases quite useful. There are actually some who feel that they're too powerful.

Depends on the autopilot being used. If its the exploration or survey autopilot it'll select a new destination as soon as it reaches its current destination. If the autopilot was enabled simply by you setting a destination and it is the autopilot that makes the final move, any extra movement points are lost -- which makes sense, because it doesn't have anything to use those extra points for. EDIT: The manual is actually kinda. . . out of date. Alot of things were changed after it w

Nope, there's no rate of fire. The representation in the combat simulator is actually quite meaningless, but certainly cool to look at. The actual combat system is pretty basic: attacking fleet fires, defending fleet fires, attacking fleet fires, defending fleet fires, etc. . . That's really all there is to it.

Neutral provides with rather. . . well, neutral bonuses. Trade, research, some trade items, tourism. If you're planning on being the economic super-power, then Neutral is probably the best choice. I haven't tried Good or Evil, myself. I'm usually too poor early on to go for Good and am too nice a guy to go for Evil.

May be a weird question, but: what resolution is your desktop running at?

There's an ambient lighting slider in the game's video settings. Try lowering it.

That'll work well for planets that have a high production capacity, but for other worlds. . . not so well.

It's been announced that an upcoming expansion will add more depth to espionage.

Even if they're not instantaneous, they could be very useful as a secure method of traveling. Traders could benefit immensely from them.

They can be above 20, too. I've never seen a planet that was naturally above 18, but after Soil Enhancement, Improved Habitats, and Terraforming a planet can certainly be well above 20. I think the best I got a planet was 24.

Yes, you can only see the ship in your shipyard when you've reached the necessarily level to build it. One thing that I saw suggested was to save empty hulls decorated with all that you wanted to have on it, but not put any functional parts on it. That way you'll at least be able to reuse a previously created aesthetic design without waiting for the technology (except with hulls you have to research, of course). EDIT: Doh, beat me to it. . .

Well, not necessarily for balance reasons, but for playability reasons. It lessens the degree to which one has to micromanage one's economy. For really powerful play one has to do that anyways, but the way things are now eases things for casual players.