This is a gameplay FAQ for Light of Altair.
Controls:
Q. How do I delete a building?Q. I am stuck in the solar system view, How do zoom in on a planet?Q. How can I colonise a new planet?Colonies:
Q. Why hasn't my colony upgraded to the next level?Q. How do I make colonists happier when they aren't big enough to build colonial structures?Q. How do I stop my colonists from revolting?Q. Why can't I use minerals/mines/synths on a conquered planet?Money:
Q. What triggers a bailout when I am in debt?Q. How does the ore=>goods=>profit chain actually work?Q. How do I trade. Is it automatic?Combat:
Q. How can I build combat ships?Q. Which ships are best to put in my Fleet?Q. What effect does experience have on ships?Q. How can I resupply my fleet when a ship is destroyed?Q. How can I build a Space Station?Q. How can I change all my mines into fuel synths?Q. Is the travel time between planets dependent on the current distance?Q. How long does it take to capture a planet?Misc:
Q. Can I make the game run faster on an old PC?Q. How do I delete a building?A. Click on the building with the middle mouse button. You can also put the mouse over the building and press SPACE or DELETE.
Q. I am stuck in the solar system view, How do zoom in on a planet?A. Use the mouse wheel or press 'Z' and 'X' to change zoom levels from close in to a planet all the way out to a galaxy level view.
Q. Why hasn't my colony upgraded to the next level?A. For colony upgrades you can hover the mouse over the colony HQ and a little tooltip will tell you if you are lacking something. Otherwise it is just a matter of time and you can use the time buttons in the top right to advance quickly until it upgrades.
Q. How do I make colonists happier when they aren't big enough to build colonial structures?A. Happiness of the capital colony (the one with starport) filters through to the other colonies. So if you make the capital 100% small colonies will get a boost even though they don't have their own colonial buildings.
Q. How can I colonise a new planet?A. You can colonise other planets as follows:
1) Build a shipyard.
2) Then mousewheel to zoom out to the system view.
3) Click on the 3D planet or the planet list to bottom left to select a planet to move to (Unpopulated planets appear as a hollow ring)
4) Zoom in to the planet.
5) Choose ColonyHQ and click on the planet’s surface to build.
NB: You need enough fuel and research available to bring the planet in range of your colony ships, so you might need to build more Fuel Synths or build a shipyard on a planet closer to the destination.
Q. How do I stop my colonists from revolting?A. Debt and large colonies are the main causes of unhappiness. Big colonies can build colonial quarters, and staying out of debt will make them much happier.
Q. Why can't I use minerals/mines/synths on a conquered planet?A. You need a Research building on the planet in order to detect minerals and operate mining/fuel synths.
Q. What triggers a bailout when I am in debt?A. The relationship between debt and bailouts is not direct, it is really down to colony happiness.
Each day you are in debt makes your colonists a little unhappier. If the debt is proportional to your income - eg: Debt 10,000 income 10,000 then the CREDIT number will be orange and the unhappiness will grow slowly. If the debt is large compared to your income the colonists will get unhappy quickly and the CREDIT number will flash bright red.
Each day you have positive credit will improve the mood of your colonists.
The first bailout (in missions where they are given) comes if you hit the end of the month in any amount of debt.
Then... if you are in large amounts of debt for a short time, or a small amount of debt for a very long time, your colonists will get miserable - triggering your boss to send you a bailout payment (or tell you you've failed the mission!).
The bailout payments are a safety net for the earlier missions - you should be able to win without triggering them, and sometimes there are secret bonuses/objectives if you get by without needing them.
Q. How does the ore=>goods=>profit chain actually work?A. Ore builds up and can be stockpiled, and goods trade builds up gradually - so these numbers are accurate for when the stocks have leveled out over time.
1 ore makes 1 good which sells for $100. A factory can turn up to 10 ore to goods each month.
Tier 3 colonies use up 1 good each.
eg: ($/m = $/month)
1 mine + 1 factory = 1 good/m = $100/m
10 mines + 1 factory = 10 goods/m = $1000/m
11 mines + 1 factory = 10 goods/m + 1 surplus ore/m = $1000/m
11 mines + 2 factories = 11 goods/m = $1100/m
10 mines + 1 factory + 3 Tier 3 Colonies = 7 goods/m = $700/m
How do I trade. Is it automatic?A. Trading goods is automatic once you have built a starport.
Trading food is automatic so long as you have a landing pad or starport in both colonies.
Food is always traded to the capital colony on a planet, and goods are transported to the capital for trade through the Starport.
Q. How can I build combat ships?A. You must follow these steps:
1) Research a combat ship using the research facility.
2) Design your ship by clicking on the shipyard and filling the ship with weapons and armor.
3) Prototype your new design by clicking on the big button in the design screen.
4) Zoom out to an orbital view by scrolling the mouse wheel.
5) Click on a fleet icon - circle at bottom of screen.
6) Click the little '+' buttons to assign ships to the selected fleet.
Q. Which ships are best to put in my Fleet?A. Experimenting with different fleet designs is such a big part of the gameplay I think I'll have to leave you to try things out some more. Suffice to say you will meet a large variety of enemy fleets between the different factions and there is no 'best' answer to fleet design that will work in all situations.
AI fleets and defenses can usually be knocked down by capturing their smaller planets before going for the homeworlds. Double attacking a planet doesn't often work because they can usually find reinforcements - but adding a couple of units of fuel or trying out a new fleet design can often win.
Also some missions are meant to be tough - so you can sometimes 'win' a level by surviving long enough, you don't always have to annihilate everyone (though you might win some extra objective points if you manage it!).
Q. What effect does experience have on ships?Fleets gain a variety of new abilities and new research topics open up as they advance ranks. Your Operations Advisor will send you a message describing skills and ability improvements, and new weapons and technologies will be added to your research list.
Q. How can I resupply my fleet when a ship is destroyed?A. The ships are allocated fuel whether or not they are built yet/have been destroyed.
Resupply happens automatically to get the number of ships back to what you have set (over a planet with shipyard)
When you are a ship down the fleet icon will say for example '4/5' and a little pie-chart will show a chunk missing which will shrink as the ship is built - then turn green when the fleet is at full strength.
Q. How can I build a Space Station?Once you have built a City class colony, you can use the design panel to add weapons and armour to your Space Station design, and then add it as part of the planets defence fleet.
Q. How can I change all my mines into fuel synths?A. Right click on the mine icon in the building panel to zoom to the next mine on the planet. Then select the fuel synth and click on the mine to replace it. Press 'F' to find the next mine, and click to replace. This way you can quickly convert a whole planet.
Q. Is the travel time between planets dependent on the current distance?A. Travel time depends on the planet's orbit radius, but not its position round the orbit. Once you have a colony on a planet - further new colonies take longer and longer to place.
Q. How long does it take to capture a planet?A. Planets with one or two colonies can be captured in a matter of days, while heavily colonised planets with large colonies or cities may take months to years, plenty of time for the enemy to attempt to repapture it.
Q. Can I make the game run faster on an old PC?A. In the main menu, open the Options and turn off Shaders (Check box at the bottom). This will speed up framerates for less powerful PCs.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
