Am I missing something or is this a bug

[Some Donkus]

So I bought AI War when it came with the Royal Indie Bundle. I'm trying to learn how to play the game so I'm going through the tutorial. In the Basic Tutorial 2, I just got through the training to send my science vessels to another solar system and now it's telling me to build a Harvester Exo-Shield. However I can't do this as the option is not enabled. And I have absolutely no idea how to enable it (It's not in the tutorial text).

So am I missing something or is this a bug that it's not enabled?

[LaughingThesaurus]

You should be able to research it from your science ships. Did the tutorial not say anything about that?

[Some Donkus]

No it did not. The step-by-step instructions just said to left click on the "Sub" tab and create the exo-shield. And that was just after explaining what each of the upgrades to the tabs does. Not how to upgrade them, unfortunately. I kept reading and re-reading the text to see if I missed something but got nothing.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Yeah, you research everything directly from science stations. That information should definitely be in the tutorial.
Well, surely Keith will see this thread and put that on the list of things to fix. The developers are really responsive to this sort of issue in most cases.

[keith.lamothe]

I'm happy to correct an error if one's there, but upon checking I don't see the problem.  Here's the text of Tutorial 2 Step 11:

There are many technologies to unlock.
     - The Mark I-III category gives you more advanced versions of your fleet ships.
     - The STAR category gives you more advanced starships (powerful offensive ships).
     - The ECON category gives you higher-level command stations and more economic options.
     - The SUP category gives you more advanced support ship capabilities.
     - The TUR category gives you more advanced turrets.
Let's unlock the Harvester Exo-Shield.
     1. Switch to the SUP category.
     2. Left-click the button labeled Harvester Exo-Shield.

And here's the text of Tutorial 2 Step 12:

Excellent!  Now you can build little force fields to cloak and protect your harvesters.
TIP:  If you ever build a unit that you later don't want, you can select it and hit the Delete key to scrap it.
Build a Harvester Exo-Shield.
     1. Go back to your Command Station and switch to the SUP category.
     2. Build the Harvester Exo-Shield right next to (or on) one of your Metal or Crystal Harvesters.

[Some Donkus]

Well, I may have missed it. But there's nothing (that I saw) that tells you how to upgrade it so that you can actually make the Harvester Exo-Shield. Or that upgrades are done via the science vessels.

Let's unlock the Harvester Exo-Shield.
     1. Switch to the SUP category.
     2. Left-click the button labeled Harvester Exo-Shield.

I was basically stuck between steps one and two because I couldn't make the exo-shield (The button was not enabled) and didn't know how to upgrade it so that I could make the exo-shield.

Again this could have been my stupidity and I'm hoping to get home from work and test upgrading via the science vessels. Hopefully that works.

[relmz32]

Well, I may have missed it. But there's nothing (that I saw) that tells you how to upgrade it so that you can actually make the Harvester Exo-Shield. Or that upgrades are done via the science vessels.

Let's unlock the Harvester Exo-Shield.
     1. Switch to the SUP category.
     2. Left-click the button labeled Harvester Exo-Shield.

I was basically stuck between steps one and two because I couldn't make the exo-shield (The button was not enabled) and didn't know how to upgrade it so that I could make the exo-shield.

Again this could have been my stupidity and I'm hoping to get home from work and test upgrading via the science vessels. Hopefully that works.

if you have the normal hotkeys, clicking 's' on any world where you have  a sci lab will bring up the science menu. If you have more problems, feel free to ask! Hope you have fun!

[keith.lamothe]

Just tested in game in my steam copy of 7.0 and step 11 came up as normal.  It also didn't look like it would let me get past that text to step 12 without doing the research (which is what the code indicates to me as well).

Anyway, I'm really not sure what happened here as I can't find evidence of a bug, though I'd certainly like to find out.

A few questions:
1) What version are you running?
2) Can you reproduce the problem from the start of the tutorial or some savegame from it?  If so, please tell me how (and provide the save, if there is one).

Thanks

And welcome to the game and the forums!  Sorry you ran into this hiccup.


Edit: just saw your most recent reply.  The text you quoted is telling you to unlock it, not build it.  I guess it could be a little clearer that it means the SUP tab of the science vessel instead of the command station, but since you were just working with science labs I guess it didn't occur to us in all these years

Anyway, I just put in a change for 7.001 (which will probably be out in a few days, we're still doing the launch of 7.0/VotM right now) :

* Added a clarification to the tutorial text in step 11 of tutorial 2 that you're supposed to unlock the harvester exo-shield from the SUP tab of the Science Lab, not of the Command Station.

[Some Donkus]

I just tried the basic tutorial once more and was able to get past this after I chose the science vessels 

Thank you, everyone, for all your help!

[keith.lamothe]

Glad we could help   Hopefully the text-change will make this clearer in the future, but glad you got past it either way.

Let us know if there's anything else we can help with: you're in the process of diving into a very, very deep pool

[relmz32]

...
Let us know if there's anything else we can help with: you're in the process of diving into a very, very deep pool

Bring some scuba gear.

And dive deep.