How do I cancel pirate contract? and other ?

[WCG]

I've got several brief questions here, actually:

1. How do I cancel a pirate smuggling contract? When I click on "cancel," nothing seems to happen. I know that they expire eventually, and most of these haven't been accepted by any pirates anyway, though I've had the request up for a long time, but why doesn't the cancel button work?

2. What happens if I don't have any money when a pirate contract (to attack another pirate base) is completed? I was doing OK, until a colossal quake on my home planet put my empire hugely in the red. Now, I'm really overextended. (Fun, huh?)

I haven't tried to cancel this contract, because it's really cheap. (I don't even know if I can cancel it. See #1 above.) And the pirates haven't sent a fleet to do the job, anyway. But if I'm in the red when they finish, will I just go deeper in debt? Or will there be some other result (like pissing off a pirate faction I'm currently paying to leave me alone)?

3. Hmm,... I forget what it's called, exactly - science academy, maybe? It's a facility you can build on a planet that's supposed to increase your chances of getting new scientists. But does it actually do anything?

I've got one of them built on two separate colony worlds, without ever getting a new scientist. And in past games, I'm not sure I've ever gotten a new scientist, either (except for the one you get early on). Admittedly, I haven't played past the early game. (I'm relatively new to the game, and on normal difficulty, I'd feel like I was getting too far ahead, so I increased the difficulty and the aggression in this game. Wow, that made a difference! Heh, heh.).

Anyway, I haven't noticed that the science academy does anything at all - certainly not worth the money. I'm thinking of scrapping them, just to avoid paying maintenance. Yeah, I'm really in a financial hole right now. But do they even work as they're supposed to?


Thanks,

Bill

[johanwanderer]

1. I think you can only cancel smuggling missions, not attack or defense missions. To cancel smuggling (which is paid for by the private sector) open up the pirate missions from the left side of the screen, scroll to it and hit cancel. It'll cancel it oafter a little while (you need to take the game off pause).
 
2. I think you'll just go deeper into the red.
 
3. The chance of getting a scientist / agents / etc. is modified by your race's traits, so it might take a while for one to appear (think 10's of game years). I think they do work, and I try to build them on my bigger worlds when I can afford them.

[WCG]

ORIGINAL: johanwanderer

1. I think you can only cancel smuggling missions, not attack or defense missions. ... It'll cancel it after a little while (you need to take the game off pause).

OK, that was my problem, apparently. Nothing seemed to happen immediately, and I didn't think to take the game off pause and check again later. Thanks!

2. I think you'll just go deeper into the red.

That wouldn't be a problem, then. Yeah, I'm short of money, but the cost isn't much, and I'd still rather have that base attacked. I was worried that I might be unable to pay the pirates what I owed them, which probably wouldn't go down well. [:)]

3. The chance of getting a scientist / agents / etc. is modified by your race's traits, so it might take a while for one to appear (think 10's of game years). I think they do work, and I try to build them on my bigger worlds when I can afford them.

I've been playing as human, but just never getting any scientists at all (past the one I start with and the one I always get early in the game). But maybe my expectations were just too high.

Thanks for the info!

Bill