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Author Topic: Just starting, issues with supplies  (Read 502 times)

CAPGuy

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Just starting, issues with supplies
« on: July 10, 2020, 09:28:58 PM »

Hi guys,

New player here.  I love the game but I'm losing my mind over this supplies thing.  Near the beginning mission, you are told to go recover some derelict ships to help you in your upcoming battle with the now-pirate station.  I went to go do that, recovered all the ships except for the shuttles (scrapped those), and it reduced my supplies to near zero (I had brought nearly 300+).  I rushed back to Ancyra and I was only able to afford maybe 40 additional supplies.  I noticed that I was still losing ~4 per day so I hurriedly looked up what to do here.  I mothballed them and boom, suddenly my supply consumption rate was 18 per day, and I lost all of my supplies in seconds.  I have no idea what to do here.  How am I supposed to handle this combat mission with nothing left (no supplies, no credits)?  I don't even have weapons on my combat ships!

EDIT: I just found this guide and I'm reading through it now: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=16846.0

Thanks!

-CAP
« Last Edit: July 10, 2020, 09:41:37 PM by CAPGuy »
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Hiruma Kai

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Re: Just starting, issues with supplies
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2020, 09:54:54 PM »

The only way your supply consumption can go up by mothballing ships is if you're over cargo, crew, or fuel capacity.  There's no hard cap on how much you can store, but if you're over how much your ships can carry normally, your supply consumption goes up drastically.

In the bottom left of the user interface, you'll see a white bar representing cargo space used, like 50/80.  The first number is how much cargo you have, the second is how much you can carry without penalty.  If you see red past the white, then you're carrying too much.  This also goes for crew and fuel.  I don't recommend throwing stuff away, but unmothballing stuff to get capacity up.

You can also hover your mouse over your supply consumption in the lower left and hit F1, to tell you what the sources of your supply consumption are.  Something like extra cargo capacity will likely show up with a number next to it.

Note, if you mothball ships that currently have non-zero CR, their CR will drop to zero, and you'll have to use supplies later to bring their CR back up, so that can also potentially cost you more credits in the long term.

If you recovered at least 2 ships, then one of the administrators on the planet (same one you talked to previously), should have added a storage area for free, that had supplies and weapons.  In addition, if your ships are not mothballed when you return and talk to him the first time after salvaging 2 ships, he should restore all your ships to 70% CR.  I believe Alex was going to try and fix this (correct me if I'm wrong), but currently, ensure none of your ships are mothballed before talking to the administrator.

So if you go to the planet, hit 3, and hit the storage button on the right, it should bring up an area you can take stuff from for free, and should include 50 supplies and a bunch of weapons.

However, if you're only at that point in the tutorial, and already at 0 supplies and credits, you might want to restart, and don't mothball anything.  I'd recommend buying max crew and maybe 50 supplies or so before heading out to salvage the ships - I think starting credits let you do that.  The extra crew you can hold with the ship they give you at that point is needed so your ships don't have lowered maximum CR.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2020, 10:01:02 PM by Hiruma Kai »
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CAPGuy

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Re: Just starting, issues with supplies
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2020, 11:31:42 PM »

Just wanted to say thanks for writing this up!  After reading the guide I posted in my edit and reading your post, I decided to just restart, but this time only recover the derelict ships and instantly pause their repairs.  I brought them back to Ancyra in their shabby state to think about what to do with them, but it turned out that just by talking with the mission contact again he gives you a.) supplies, b.) free rental space, and c.) weapons.  Which basically takes care of everything.  I guess I shouldn't jump to conclusions this early on: the mission contacts will help you get through the initial refits.

Thanks again Hiruma!
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