Qs on harvesters, renaming, story mode & skirmishes.

[Harry]

I've returned to the game after a long break, and I've bought all the expansions.  Lots of fun new toys!  After losing a Defender game, I started a regular game with settings that are probably too easy for me: 4/5 AIs, Vanilla and Tank.  Some questions:

1. It seems harvesters auto-build now when you take a system.  Is that right?

2. I've figured out to rename my worlds using the "notes" feature, which is great.  Is there any way to build a world with custom names from scratch?  E.g., give the game a list of 80 names when it creates the map?

3. I gather one of the expansions has a story mode.  I might like to try that.  I'd like to try new content before I read "spoilers" about it all.  Anyway, how would I set up a game with story mode, or whatever it's called?

4. Is there a way to set up skirmishes, one unit vs one unit, just to see how stuff behaves?  Maybe that would take some of the fun out of discovery in-game.  Although in-game, I tend to get lazy and just send my huge wad of forces all at once.

Thanks for your patience with what may be obvious questions!

[Oralordos]

I've returned to the game after a long break, and I've bought all the expansions.

Welcome back!

1. It seems harvesters auto-build now when you take a system.  Is that right?

They will auto build whenever there are no enemies in the system and you own said system.

2. I've figured out to rename my worlds using the "notes" feature, which is great.  Is there any way to build a world with custom names from scratch?  E.g., give the game a list of 80 names when it creates the map?

Yep there actually is. If you look in the AI War/RuntimeData folder, there is a file called altplanetnames.txt. Fill that up with your names.

3. I gather one of the expansions has a story mode.  I might like to try that.  I'd like to try new content before I read "spoilers" about it all.  Anyway, how would I set up a game with story mode, or whatever it's called?

The story mode style game is called Fallen Spire. It is in the minor faction list. Just turn it on before you start a game.

4. Is there a way to set up skirmishes, one unit vs one unit, just to see how stuff behaves?  Maybe that would take some of the fun out of discovery in-game.  Although in-game, I tend to get lazy and just send my huge wad of forces all at once.

No but you can do comparisons between units for that kind of information in the reference area. I don't know how to get to that off the top of my head though.

[@B0FH]

ADDITIONAL: Running as a Champion (or Normal + Champion) player will also add some flavour text, though the Fallen Spire arc is more linear and "story" like

[Harry]

Thanks for the replies!  Very helpful. 

I should've started on 7/7.  Then again, I haven't won this map yet. 

[Aeson]

No but you can do comparisons between units for that kind of information in the reference area. I don't know how to get to that off the top of my head though.

While playing on a campaign map, click on the 'Stats' button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, then select the 'Reference' tab of the window that opens up. That is where you can see comparisons between various ship types, either on a one-to-one or on a cap-vs-cap basis. Just as a warning, it can be a little difficult to read.

[Harry]

Ah, thanks.  I've been trying to use the hotkeys for comparison, plus the F1 ship-list.  That works okay, but it's also kind of hard to read.  And it's hard to find enemy ships in that huge menu of ships.  I'll try your "stats" menu suggestion.

[KDR_11k]

Also note that 1v1 comparisons are rather useless, units are balanced around full caps so unless you've got units that usually only come alone that's not very helpful. As a rule of thumb, if it has multipliers against the target it's usually a good choice.