New to the game - a few simple questions

I just started playing this game. So far I understand most of it but not all. 

 

1. I keep getting occasional popup windows that contain messages from other civilizations. For example, the humans popped up and it says: 

"The technology you know of as [insert tech] will soon be understood by our civilization." 

With the options of "speak to" and "done". 

Why are they telling me this? Does it mean they are going to steal it from me? Or are they just telling me that they're researching it for whatever reason? 

 

2. I don't really understand how planetary governors work. You can create/name them and assign them to planets? For what purpose? 

 

3. I don't know why sometimes when I'm speaking with another race I can give a treaty (e.g. research) but cannot receive one from them, or vice versa. 

 

Thanks

6,955 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top

1. They are trying to be jerks by gloating, that they are researching this new and awesome tech, of which you should be totally impressed. However, it rarely is impressive at all.

Basically, the popups are an attempt to make the AI races seem more "alive".

2. You can easily have several hundred colonies on larger maps. Micro-managing all of them by yourself can be quite a task. Planetary governors can reduce the amount of micro-management needed by building the planetary improvements for you. It's especially useful, if you have a certain set of improvements you always build (either in general, or on specific planets).

However, I've never used the planetary governors myself, because I prefer to handle my colonies myself (even in an empire with 400+ colonies), so I can't say how well they work. However, they are certainly nice to have, and I might give them a try eventually.

3. Each race only has one research and one economy treaty. So, if you give your research treaty to the Drengin, you won't be able to give another one to the Altarians.

Reply #2 Top

Makes sense. Thanks for your help! 

One more question about governors. On the governors tab of the civilization manager (where you can create new ones and name them) you can make a list of buildings, in order on the right. I'm not entirely sure how this works. Does this mean that, when that governor is assigned to a planet, they will build these buildings in order? If you already have some in the queue, will they start this after those are done, and ignore buildings that already exist, or will they add duplicate buildings (like research labs)?

Thanks. 

Reply #3 Top

Quoting okamiyazaki, reply 2
Does this mean that, when that governor is assigned to a planet, they will build these buildings in order?

I think so. However, as I said, I've never used the planetary governors before.

Reply #4 Top

I haven't used planetary governors much, but I do recall doing some tests to try to figure them out. If I recall correctly, the governors do count how many planet improvements of each type you have built. They will not build more than what is listed. If your governor has 5 advanced factories on it's build list, and you planet already has 3, then it will build no more than 2 advanced factories on that world.