Just got the demo...a few questions
 

1. What are the best technologies to get early on? I usually get ship construction I first, but I'm not sure what to get after that. Weapons? Propulsion? What do you reccomend? And when should I research ice/gas giant colonies?

2. Can you do mods in the demo? If so, which ones are the best?

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Personally, when I still had the demo, I researched ship construction, propulsion, and for your weapons, depeleted uranium cannons (i think....its been a while). Also go for Point Defense Cannons, to defend you from the missiles the AI likes to fire at you. They also can target fighters. Also, shields are a very good thing to go for. In the demo, because of the 100 turn limit, ice/gas colonies generally aren't a good choice, because they simply take too long to research.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If I remember correctly, no, you can't do mods in the demo. But someone who actually knows might want to clarify that for you.

[ May 09, 2004, 22:21: Message edited by: Renegade 13 ]

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

For stock, you will want to research projectile weapons early. Level 5 DUCs will be good enough for quite a while, and you can put off researching the more advanced weapons for quite some time.

Using missiles on your ships is good for your first scouts, since the enemy won't have point defense cannons. The missiles won't be effective for very long, so you should switch to DUC warships fairly quickly.

Shields and ship construction are the other two critical stock war techs.
Bigger ships and more hitpoints. You may need to research some physics before the shield tech area becomes available.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Mines are great for early tech. (Construction --> Mines). ECM makes your ships harder to hit (Military Science -- Combat Support). And it is always nice to have a good weapon. Projectile Weapons are good in the early game. But later you will want Phased Polaron Beams (Physics 2 -- Phased Energy weapons), meson bLasters, or anti-proton beams (both those are in physics branch). Other good things in the physics branch are Scanners and shields. Astrophysics -- Stellar Harnessing will let your ships travel further and faster.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

There is no single "best" strategy. Scout around a bit and see what the races around you have to offer and what (if any) threats are imminent. You can steal or trade a lot of techs from the AI, so consentrate on whats really neccessary http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Mines gives the best and cheapest early defence against the AI - Point defence are a must - Ship capture can help you steal tech worth a zillion - Combat sensors and training are neccessary when things get serious, but not before - Shields, Armor and a big gun for all non missile combat ships - Ship constructions; you want LC's pretty fast for the large mount (steal it or research it ?) - Troops for capturing planets and keeping your people happy when times are rough - Solar sails for speed - And so on ..... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

Another question - on an early scout, is it worth it to have 4 engines instead of 6 if it means I can build it in one turn? And how much do early-game scouts need supply bays? Finally, should I divide research evenly or not?

[ May 09, 2004, 23:14: Message edited by: joeljermon ]

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

Make the scout design thats best for your particular purpose. If its just for peeking into the next system, 4 engines and no supply might be OK, but for long range scouting you need both. Or you can build whatever you can in one turn and retrofit it to a better design later. Or you can just use colonizers for scouting, no need to give those fuel for the return trip http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Never ever divide research evenly. You will loose whatever extra points there is when a project is done. When doing sequential research the extra points carries over to the next project.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

Suggestion: pick whatever tech is quickest to research. You'll learn how technology progresses in SE4, you'll learn what works (and especially what doesn't), and you'll come up with tricks for using your new toys. If you research something of dubious use (planetary weapons comes to mind), you won't be too far behind the AI anyway.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">MY favorite weapon of choice in the demo was the phased polaron beam. Since you don't get phased shields in the demo, these are pretty powerful weapons.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

A few more things:
1. Is it just me or are fighter rocket pods basically worthless? They do a lot of damage, but have terrible range and take ages to reload (30 turns, that means you can only fire it once per combat!) I'd much rather have a meson, anti-proton beam, or even a level 3 uranium cannon on my fighters. Maybe they could be useful for fighters that are made to just launch their missiles and then die, but why not just build suicide drones or kamikaze fighters in that case?
2. What exactly does the ionic disperser do?
3. Weapon platforms are for planetary defense, right?
4. Do computers ever keep alliances for more than a few turns? They offer a trade alliance, I accept, and a few turns later they break it.
5. Are robominers worth it? I mean, they do permanently deplete the planet, but I suppose they could be useful if you really need resources.
6. Not a question, but a general comment. Tactical combat seems lacking compared to MOO2. The ships take way too long to move, they're too small, and it needs to be a bit easier to determine weapon range (especially when dropping combat satellites - ugh, if you're one space off, they don't do a thing!) Besides the obvious graphics and sound issues, the tactical combat is the only real flaw I've found.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

1) Rocket pods are for the instant-kill. If you crush the enemy on the first turn, it dosen't matter how long the reload time is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Plus, your fighters don't have to stay close and face the PDCs... They do all their damage up front, instead of being gunned down after a shot or two of the regular guns.
2) IDs will destroy engines. Armor and other components are ignored, although they only do normal damage to shields.
3) Yes. Toss on guns and shields, and the planet can shoot back at the enemy. Platforms will be destroyed first, before any population loss occurs.
4) It depends on the AI, but if you stay out of their way, and if they're already at war with someone else, they will tend to be friendlier towards you.
5) I personally loathe to use robominers, and prefer to StellarManip my way to 100% breathable, optimal conditions and 255%+ maxvalue planets, even when its not practical.
Robominers are effective, but I just don't like them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
When you do use them, DON'T mix and match miner types. If you have all mineral robos, then the organics and rads value won't decrease, but if you have even one miner working the resource, its value goes down by 1% per turn.
6) There are settings and options to toggle, animations, fast combat, etc.
Its definitely not practical for large combats, and you can't use it in multiplayer unless you're doing it HotSeat.
You should definitely get some practice with developing good strategies for your ships, or you'll be at a disadvantage when you play against other humans.

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

1. Is it just me or are fighter rocket pods basically worthless? They do a lot of damage, but have terrible range and take ages to reload (30 turns, that means you can only fire it once per combat!) I'd much rather have a meson, anti-proton beam, or even a level 3 uranium cannon on my fighters. Maybe they could be useful for fighters that are made to just launch their missiles and then die, but why not just build suicide drones or kamikaze fighters in that case?

Small missile pods allow fighters to fire once, deliver HUGE damage (just imagine your standard squadron of 5 fighters all firing their missile pods for a total of 500 damage, enough to destroy an unshielded cruiser!) and retreat to safety (unlike a kamikaze fighter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ). You might have to fiddle with their strategies a bit to get them to actually retreat though... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif
They also are one of the Uber Troop Weapons, another being Small Shield Depleters, since all troop weapons have rate of fire 1 and normal damage type overriding any settings the weapons might normally have on fighters http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

2. What exactly does the ionic disperser do?
Destroys the enemy's engines, reducing his speed and his ability to fire weapons (since engines store supplies needed to fire). In the Gold Version the ionic dispersers are required to get past the target's shields first; in 1.49 they skipped them entirely.

3. Weapon platforms are for planetary defense, right?

Yep! Just leave them in cargo on a planet and they will fire at attackers that come in range. They won't work if you put them in cargo on ships, though that does let you ferry them around from planet to planet when needed.

4. Do computers ever keep alliances for more than a few turns? They offer a trade alliance, I accept, and a few turns later they break it.

They do, sometimes. The AI is just plain silly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

5. Are robominers worth it? I mean, they do permanently deplete the planet, but I suppose they could be useful if you really need resources.

IMHO, they're not too useful in the stock game, unless you build a huge starbase that pulls in 10,000 of each resource per turn or something... but those things take years to research and construct anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Some mods make them more useful, though.

6. Not a question, but a general comment. Tactical combat seems lacking compared to MOO2. The ships take way too long to move, they're too small, and it needs to be a bit easier to determine weapon range (especially when dropping combat satellites - ugh, if you're one space off, they don't do a thing!) Besides the obvious graphics and sound issues, the tactical combat is the only real flaw I've found.

Yes, MOO2 had excellent tactical combat; the only flaw was that it could get tedious when you had hundreds of ships on the screen! If you want to speed up ship movement, though, you can disable ship animations and/or enable Fast Combat, using the options button on the right. Actually, I don't think many people around here play tactical combat anymore; most of us play PBW games, where you can only have strategic combat.
Now you might like SE5's combat - though no one apart from Aaron Hall and maybe David Gervais have seen it (assuming it's even been implemented yet!) it's supposed to look something like Starfury, only on a larger scale with more ships (maybe a bit like MOO3). (Yes, I know, MOO3 was horrible, but the combat engine did have a FEW good points... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif )

Re: Just got the demo...a few questions
 

Wait until you buy the full Version of the game and can get into the mods. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif