TomChick

Okay, a couple more questions: 1) On the empire tree and info card for each of my planets, there's a green bar. I presume that's either health or population. Above that is a light blue bar. What is that for? 2) Is there any way to check my game's settings? For instance, if I want to see what the speed settings are, whether teams are locked, the resource setting, and so on? 3) Has anyone found the Vasari salvage techs to be useful? They seem to be borderline usel

Thanks for the answers, guys. I didn't realize star systems had their own jump distance, and I haven't seen a wormhole yet. I eventually figured out the artifact icon. I've also been just shift-queuing a couple of waypoints to set up facing, which is an old trick for us RTS diehards from before the days when Creative Assembly spoiled everyone with their formations. :) Now that you mention it, Blair, I'm pretty sure the trade route stuff was explained somewhere (tutorial or manual) an

So I have a mess of questions based on a recent build -- which includes the manual, so don't give me any of that RTFM guff! -- and I figured maybe some of you beta testers or even someone from Ironclad could help a fella out. 1) I'm a bit confused about how Trade Ports and Refineries work. Do they simply spawn cargo and refinery ships, which flit about earning me money and resources? Or does it matter where and how many I build? For instance, if I've got a juicy ice planet with four