Provisional How-to guide

[Karsten75]

I'll try to maintain the top post with those things I find in various forum posts. If you find one, please post it in here and I'll add it to the top post.

Quotes are for attribution, spelling and grammar may be cleaned up.

Move an Exchange map that started in the Simulacrum back into the Simulacrum for adjustment

When you download an exchange map that started life as a sim map, the file actually contains the sim 'code'. 
For instance, download say map #17 then find this file:
c:\Users\YOUR_USER\Documents\My Games\particlefleet\exchange\maps\0\17.pf1

It will be 79 bytes large and contain the serialized settings for the simulacrum.  To use it, you will have to base64 encode it.  On windows, Total Commander can help with that. On linux I think there's a base64 command you can use.

Taking map 17 as an example, this is what the base64 encoded data looks like:
AACh00VpeHv/IemRUCOAAdgAIsoAAAAfAIcARgMHAwgEAxEKBBICCAYEAQgDAxsCAQMJAwESAgEB
Ag4ODgMDDwUHCAoLCQkGBgYGAAAAAA==

Copy that to the clipboard, go into the sim, and at the top is a "Paste from Clipboard" button.

Emitter settings in map editor

I've been wondering about the way targeting by particles works. Turns out that:
1. % that target = what part of the particles from that emitter will target sources, as default, but
2. if you set "Ships|Emitters%" to specific values, it divides the targeting particles into 2 additional groups, the new ones targeting respectively ships and emitters.
So. As an example:
- if I have % that target at 50
- and I have ships at 50%, emitters at 25%
then I have 4 groups of particles from that emitter:
1. 50% don't target;
2. 25% target ships (50% of 50%);
3. 12,5% target emitters (25% of 50%);
4. 12,5% target sources ( (100%-50% of ships-25% of emitters) of 50% ).

Thoughts on energy supply limits

Tankers won't supply anything in range of a mine, unless it is really starved.  That really only happens after the bridge is built, since bridge construction takes place at a regulated rate.
Tankers (ports) also have a limit of 30 packets per second.  If you need more, you have to get creative with additional tankers and possibly fleet arrangement.

The reason tankers don't supply ships in mine range is because it creates a situation where you are building a tanker and it won't fill up because it is trying to supply other ships nearby that you are building.  So it is 'reluctant' to supply ships in the range of a mine with energy.

For PF each command module is allowed to request up to 1 packet per frame.  They do that so the requests can all be sorted based on a whole slew of criteria.  That's where the 30 pps limit comes from.

I could have gone back for another sweep across "packets requesters", but decided the performance hit from that wouldn't be worth encouraging even larger ships.  So I left the natural constraint which encourages tighter ships.  In terms of lore, we might say that a single ship can only process energy so fast, hence the limitation and the resulting problem some large ships can have.

Change how particles are rendered
Go to settings and look at the graphics tab.


Where to find saved maps or in-game maps
Particle Fleet Log and Save Directories

Exchange maps are stored in particlefleet/exchange/maps. Note the particlefleet directory is not in the same place as the old creeperworld3 directory. The default location is displayed in advanced settings.
Currently, story and inception maps are resources deep in the game somewhere. Load up the map and create a savegame, and it will show up in particlefleet/missionsaves/TheAreaSavedFrom/TheMapUID

How to use Amp Gems

Two uses:
Tech: Button on lower-right of UI, similar to Forge. This button comes later in the game, once Techs are available.
Ship: Select, bottom of menu has "Mount Amp Gem" button.

Also, you have to collect it with lathe...

How to adjust ships in the build list/ship stack

There is small check box on top of your ship list, that allows you to drag your ship icons around.

Energy production

The amount of energy produced by land is a setting per map.  The settings basically says how much energy to produce at 100% mire coverage.  The player gets less than than based on the percent they actually mire.  The default for this setting is 30 energy per second.

The upgrades basically double production for mines  and increase by 50% for mire.  Typically on the story maps mine production might be in the 10-20 range (if you have all mines).  Mire production is the default of 30 (if you have all the land). 

So the upgrade you should place an amp gem on depends on, when, what energy sources you get, what land you can get, what your energy demands are (short and long term).

That said, since the mire energy and the energy source energy are all things that can vary, any map could be made where the choice becomes highly skewed one way or the other.  If there is a single tiny island of land and it is in your starting base, that tiny island is worth 30eps.  Take it and then you can get another 15eps easily with the mire energy upgrade.  On the other hand, if most of the land is in enemy hands, your mire production might top out at 5eps for example (it all depends on what the map's production value is).  At 5eps the mire production upgrade only nets another 2.5eps.

Amp Gems and Shields

Whenever a section of hull takes damage from something, a shield will reduce that damage by some amount.

D = Damage from a particle, emergent, etc. (D=1 for a soft particle, 3 for a hard particle, and much more, like 20, for a large emergent)
E = Damage after the shield reduction

E = D / (1+Shield_Count + 0.2*Amp_Gem_Count)

So for example:
E = D when there are no shields and no amp gems
E = D/2 when there is a shield and no amp gem
E = D/3 when there are two shields and no amp gem
E = D/2.2 when there is a shield and an amp gem
And...
E = D/1.2 when there is no shield but there is an amp gem.

That last one may come as a surprise... an amp gem makes a ship a bit tougher, even without a shield present.

[Karsten75]

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[Karsten75]

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[Karsten75]

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[TheWife]

I've been wondering about the way targetting by particles works. Turns out that:
1. % that target = what part of the particles from that emitter will target sources, as default, but
2. if you set "Ships|Emitters%" to specific values, it divides the targetting particles into 2 additional groups, the new ones targetting respectively ships and emitters.
So. As an example:
- if I have % that target at 50
- and I have ships at 50%, emitters at 25%
then I have 4 groups of particles from that emitter:
1. 50% don't target;
2. 25% target ships (50% of 50%);
3. 12,5% target emitters (25% of 50%);
4. 12,5% target sources ( (100%-50% of ships-25% of emitters) of 50% ).