Blind Galaxy Unfrequently asked questions 
            (or obscure questions on fine points of the rules)

1) Aren't you concerned about the production tables not taking into
consideration routes? Since routes happen before production, they can
drastically change a planet's production.

  No. Use O forecast if you really want the numbers after taking into
  consideration all your orders.

  A) It is intened as a conservative estimate. Better to produce 1 ship
     in the worst case (and waste some production in all others), than 
     not quite one. In addition, people change routes or divert ships that 
     would have gone to planet X (or the cargo ship gets destroyed in a 
     battle), and don't check their forecast/allow for that occurance.
     I've tried to protect the player from "unsafe" actions by default. 
     Giving them the chance to walk off a cliff is fine, as long as they 
     have to do it on purpose (:-).
  B) I foresee it's primary use for topped off systems (or at least
     those that have static pop/ind levels), rather than growing systems;
     thus making the question moot.
  C) Most players that would tend to find the discrepancy, also use 
     forecasts, and thus can get the numbers they desire.
  D) Coding it to behave that way would be more difficult, slower, and
     buggy.
  E) The documation mentions this feature. (It's a feauture, not a bug (:-))

2) Greetings. I was pondering various means of defense for my planets, and
 went digging into the blind docs. Here are some excerpts:

   Battles will stop after one round of combat if no ship has any targets
   that it is able to destroy, e.g. if a small fighter is up against a
   huge unarmed freighter whose shield it can't possibly break through.

   If an armed ship is left at an enemy race's system after all fighting
   has been done, it will bomb the system and sterilize it, wiping out
   the population and all goods present.  The system is then uninhabited
   and colonists may be landed on it.  This is how you conquer systems
   occupied by another race.

 My question is this: If the above example of the small fighter up against
 a huge freighter occurs on one of my planets, and the freighter is my ship
 and the fighter belongs to some hostile player, does my planet get bombed
 because "an armed ship is left at an enemy race's system after all
 fighting has been done"?

  Answer: Yes. You get bombed.

3) Why don't forecasts include incoming reports?

  Answer: Since alien groups may arrive, be sent, or show up as incoming
  as a result of your colinization attemps, this section would be misleading
  (first example), or give away information that you shouldn't know (other two
  cases). It has been skipped for the forseeable future. Given the complexity 
  of code required at first glance (I haven't actually looked any farther),
  the code would probably be very unstable/buggy, and it is such an infrequent
  problem that it isn't worth fixing for the moment.

4) When does a player disappear from the list shown in the Status section?
  
  Answer: There are several ways that it can happen.
    1) If the GM is not using CARRYOVER, it will happen any turn you do not
       see any of their groups or systems. 
    2) If the GM is using CARRYOVER, but is using BLINDCARRY as well, on
       any turn you do not see a player (groups, battles, or systems)
       they will not be shown, even if they are still alive. BLINDCARRY
       is not presently implemented however.
    3) The turn after their last group and planet is destroyed.
    4) If the GM exercises a bug in the code, is using CARRYOVER, generates
       your report, and then does not save the new datafile the tech 
       information from the current turn will not be saved for reference 
       in future turn's reports.
    5) Some versions of the Blind code allow the GM to manually delete 
       players.