Basic UI Questions

[Bud Backer]

Now that the beta is over and Destroyer of Worlds is released, I bought the latest expansion and am back to playing the game. I love the new (to me) hacking system; it's so much more intuitive than the early beta system for it. I know when to stop and avoid getting a very cranky AI.

Yet, I'm basically a total newb!

I don't recall reading in the manual anywhere some basic things that elude me.

1) When I select multiple units of any given type, I will see a tooltip that says, for instance

Scout II (96%/53%)

What does this mean? My guess was the average health of the units was 96% and the weakest is 52%. Am I right?

2) Nearby AI planets sometimes have the number of units on the galaxy map showing as 432(145).  What are each of those two numbers? Most times it displays one number and that's the known Number of units there, but when there are two I'm not sure of the significance. Is the second number the number of Free units?

[Lord Of Nothing]

1) Yes, to the best of my knowledge.
2) The number in brackets is the number of units in transport, such as carriers, barracks, ect.

[Bud Backer]

Ah, never considered units in transport of some kind. Thank you.

[Bud Backer]

I'm on an AI controlled planet and it says in the upper right corner:

2 enemy ships on this planet (I get that)
1 (Wave) 2 (Reinforce) Enemy Warp Gates at this Planet

Now I've destroyed all buildings on this planet except the Warp Gate and Command Station. I even destroyed the Tachyon Sentries. Only the Wormhole Guard Posts are left.

The planet has two wormholes - one leading to my controlled (and with a Command Jammed Station) and the other wormhole leads to the next AI controlled planet.

So what does that text mean?

[Hearteater]

Warp Gates can do two things: 1) send waves at any adjacent human controlled system, 2) reinforce all the guardposts and the Command Station of the AI in that system. So that text is indicating how many of each two of Warp Gate are present in the system. Note that there is a Full Warp Gate which is a single structure which does BOTH. The AI Command Station is a Warp Gate Reinforcement so as a result you can't get rid of reinforcements without taking out the CS and so you can generally ignore the Warp Gate Reinforcement count since it is obvious if a system can get reinforcements (if it has a CS it can, otherwise it almost never can).

But the Warp count is very useful, especially for catching oddities (like Warp Gate Guardians).

[Bud Backer]

Warp Gates can do two things: 1) send waves at any adjacent human controlled system, 2) reinforce all the guardposts and the Command Station of the AI in that system. So that text is indicating how many of each two of Warp Gate are present in the system. Note that there is a Full Warp Gate which is a single structure which does BOTH. The AI Command Station is a Warp Gate Reinforcement so as a result you can't get rid of reinforcements without taking out the CS and so you can generally ignore the Warp Gate Reinforcement count since it is obvious if a system can get reinforcements (if it has a CS it can, otherwise it almost never can).

But the Warp count is very useful, especially for catching oddities (like Warp Gate Guardians).

So if I follow you correctly,

The CS constitutes 1 of the reinforce warp gates,

The Warp Gate itself constitutes the other reinforce warp gate and also the wave warp gate?

In other words, any AI held planet would show at least 1 wave and 2 reinforce in the upper corner text, right?

[TechSY730]

Yes, unless you popped the warp gate before taking out the AI command station (an entirely valid technique, and can be quite useful, but that topic is expansive enough to deserve its own forum thread)

[Bud Backer]

Yes, unless you popped the warp gate before taking out the AI command station (an entirely valid technique, and can be quite useful, but that topic is expansive enough to deserve its own forum thread)

You're right, I forgot in my example above that I could leave only the CS.

Thanks!

[Hearteater]

Eyes are Full Warp Gates if I recall correctly, so be careful of them, especially when gate raiding (gate raiding = killing the Warp Gate structure and leaving the Command Station with the goal being that the planet cannot send waves against its neighbors anymore).

[Bud Backer]

When I look at the galaxy map I can set various filters. One of them is My Strength. What is Strength, compared to say, Units?

[Lord Of Nothing]

Strength is a measure of the combined firepower, health, etc of the units at the planet- so high health, high firepower units have a lot of strength, low firepower, low health- like fighters or swarmers- have very little. It's a pretty good measure of deadliness, although I'm not sure off hand how it handles bonuses like munitions boosting, etc...

[Aklyon]

Strength is also used for a number of things on the AI's side, I think?

[Bud Backer]

Thanks for the replies, guys. So strength is a quick and dirty way to see who has the more powerful force without bothering to do a detailed look at exact units and trying to get a mental picture.

[keith.lamothe]

Thanks for the replies, guys. So strength is a quick and dirty way to see who has the more powerful force without bothering to do a detailed look at exact units and trying to get a mental picture.

Correct.  The AI uses it a lot.