transport questions

[Ragic]

i dont have any experience with the MOO series and as such am at a bit of a loss about what a 'transport pool' is or how to use them at all really. dont see any guides or posts that go over the basics. i see the little button on planets that say add transport to pool but it doesnt seem to do anything when i click it. i get starvation notices that seem to go away if i build a new transport but really im getting no intuitive sense of how this mechanic works.

would someone be willing to post an overview or noobie guide about this?

[Arioch]

We don't currently have much in the way of tutorials in the game; these will be among the last things we add before release.

Transports can be assigned to the Trade Pool, from which they will automatically a) transport food between colonies when needed, b) transport population from one colony to another when instructed to, or c) generate income from trade routes. You can hover your mouse pointer over the Trade Pool icon at the top of the screen (yellow rocket icon) to view a summary of your Trade Pool's activities. Wherever you see this yellow rocket icon, there is a function linked to the Trade Pool.

You can send transports to the Trade Pool by clicking on the "Start Trading" rollover icon on the ship in the fleet pane, or by enabling the "Assign New Transports to Trade" option in the Options screen to automatically send newly constructed transports directly to the Trade Pool. Transports take 3 turns after they are sent to the pool before they are ready to start trading or transporting food or colonists. You can view the transports in the pool by clicking in the Trade Pool icon at the top of the main screen. From this screen, you can recall transports from the pool by selecting the transports you want to remove from the pool, clicking "Recall to Star", and selecting a destination.

Surplus Food will automatically be transported to colonies that need it at a rate of 1 Food per Cargo space. Transports start with 5 Cargo spaces each, and this is increased through technologies. Cargo space that is not being used to transport Food or colonists will be used to generate income through trading. The amount of income generated will depend on the number and type of trade routes available, which improves with technologies and certain diplomatic agreements (like Sign Trade Charter).

Transports in the pool can be used to move population, if they are not already transporting food. If you left-click on the "Move Population" mouseover icon on a planet in the bottom pane, or shift-left-click on a planet or on a population icon in almost any screen (including the Planetary Report), this will activate the population move UI (select a destination star and planet, and if there are available transports in the pool, they will stop trading and perform the population transfer). If there is more than one type of colonist on the planet, you will be shown a dialog in which you can choose how many of what type of colonist you want to move. After completing the transfer the transports will automatically return to the trade pool (after a short delay). The transport will not generate income or be available for more population moves until it has returned to the pool.

[Ragic]

i have to say as far as dev response goes you are all over this game. i almost hate to ask questions cuz i know youd rather be gettting the programing done. thanks again.

[Arioch]

No problem. It's helpful to know what mechanisms are not obvious to players, so that we can better construct tooltips and in-game docs.

[unkn0wnx]

I ran into a problem. I have one Assault Cruiser and 3 transports in orbit. I am trying to load one Assault marine into the cruiser. The only way to do that is to click on the planet and then click up arrow on the marine. The problem is that you can't choose which ship to load it. One of my civilian transport always get the marine. I tried to click on embark colonist on the cruiser, but I get a civilian instead of marine. Maybe make it prioritize the assault cruiser? At the end I send the 3 transports away, good think I have warp gates. Fix needed.

[Arioch]

Originally posted by unkn0wnx:

I ran into a problem. I have one Assault Cruiser and 3 transports in orbit. I am trying to load one Assault marine into the cruiser. The only way to do that is to click on the planet and then click up arrow on the marine. The problem is that you can't choose which ship to load it. One of my civilian transport always get the marine. I tried to click on embark colonist on the cruiser, but I get a civilian instead of marine. Maybe make it prioritize the assault cruiser? At the end I send the 3 transports away, good think I have warp gates. Fix needed.

Okay, I've made a note of it. You should be able to do this via the embark dialog, but I think it's not working as intended.