The "what confused me at first" thread

[Billick]

*** NOTE: YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP THIS THREAD IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE ALPHA YET AND EXPECT TO GET IN AT SOME POINT***

Per Chris' suggestion, I'm starting a thread for listing things that are confusing to a new player.  Feel free to add to this:

- How do contracts work?
- What are influence and bargaining power?  How do I get them, and what are they good for?
- Maybe add something to say that a race has to be spacefaring to be able to interact with it normally.
- The time controls on the solar system seem weird to me.  I would expect the rate of time to stay at what I last selected instead of reverting back to normal speed all the time.  Maybe I'm just used to Paradox style RTS games.
- I've only done one tactical battle so far, but I was utterly lost.  Maybe a basic primer of how the combat works the first time is needed.

One thing that gave me pause was starting a new game and selecting which planet I crash on.  What difference does it make?  Maybe a tooltip would help here?

[waylon531]

I am confused about how to start retreat mode. I was able to retreat after I had given spacefaring technology to a race, but I haven't figured out how to do it in combat.

[Hyfrydle]

Clicking retreat creates a blue circle on the map, enter this and you should be able to end the battle.

This confused me too

[x4000]

I am confused about how to start retreat mode. I was able to retreat after I had given spacefaring technology to a race, but I haven't figured out how to do it in combat.

* Previously, if retreating was not possible, then it would not show the retreat button at all.  Now it shows the button but in red in those circumstances.

[Cyborg]

What's up with the inventory screen?

[orzelek]

It's empty and throws warnings around - I assumed that it's a work in progress and shouldn't try to break it yet

[Apathetic]

Where can I find an overview of the race behaviors in the solar system view?

I'm confused on why my flagship can outrun it's escort and kite around enemy ships?

I'm also confused on why controlling my flagship seems like driving a semi rather than a spaceship?  The flagship needs to have some forward velocity prior to allowing it to turn, which makes it much more difficult to specify where the body of the flagship will end up after moving to a selected point.  This made lining up the dumb fire gun virtually impossible in 1 game where I got that special.

[waylon531]

How do I add new squadrons? I bought cargo space, but I still only have 5 squadrons.

[Misery]

How do I add new squadrons? I bought cargo space, but I still only have 5 squadrons.

It should be in the "fleet management" screen that's also found in the black market place.

It was there for me anyway, I was able to simply choose from among the usual lists of ship types for that 6th slot.

[jerith]

How do I add new squadrons? I bought cargo space, but I still only have 5 squadrons.

I reported this as a bug when it happened to me and it was closed with "we're retooling combat, this won't be relevant".

[orzelek]

I'm waiting with my playing for that retooling

[Endless Rain]

How do I form the federation?

[Cyborg]

How do I form the federation?

After you do some missions, it's an option that shows up on the respective races' menus.

[Misery]

How do I form the federation?

That one confused me too.   I wasnt aware I had to form it in the first place.... I had been under the impression that they were joining something that was already there, or that the "join" action would also be the founding act, but no, they're seperate things.... looks like ya gotta create it and then get the rest to join. 

Some of the options available seem to make this not so obvious.