First turns Research and builds.
 

I have tried to play the AI in a couple games and I always seem way behind the AI. I am still learning. I have tried to read the hints and so on and they have helped. But I still seem to fall behund. What do you do for the first 50 turns for research and building?

Thanks.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

50 turns?!

That's a long long time...

You'll want to get ship construction up to Light Cruisers fairly fast, just for the large mounts.
You can max out your DUC research in a few turns, and that will be good enough until you get around to researching APB or PPB.
Grab some shields, CS/ECM, and some training facilities, and you should be good to go.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

In a large map without too many enemies, I rush-research a second colonization tech.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Yes 50 is a long time. I was trying to type 20. It was close. Only 30 off. I will make a list and try your suggustions.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Of course, I'm a builder; I understand you can have a lot more success doing early military.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Building and expanding sounds good too, but last time I tried that I was smashed and had hardly any warships to fight back. The evil X people(Don't remember how to spell the name) had dreadnaughts already and I only had LC completed but none built.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Against the AI, do physics twice, then get phased polaron beams. Phased shields are a long way away, and you will slice through their ships once you have it. Meantime, defend your planets with DUC's and CSM platforms. And by being nice to the AI while you research.

When you're on the ropes because the AI is coming on too strong, quickly research Construction, then Mines, and plant a minefield on any warp point or around a small planet the AI will go for. Once the A.I. is hit by mines, it will pause its construction and research to research mines itself, so it can have mine sweepers. Don't take a nap here, use the pause to build something that will tip the power balance in your favor -- like troops to capture a nice planet of theirs.

Oh, and be prepared to abandon all of this when you play against humans.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

I almost always go with Construction, Mines and Fighters early on myself (it should be over around turn 20 or before). Mines are a powerful defence early on, Fighters are a mobile defence, and Light Carriers are adequate vessels (about the same as Light Cruisers, with in-built cargo and more hitpoints, but easier to hit and somewhat more expensive). Light Carriers also make very good minelayers, as they are able to lay many mines on a single turn while carrying quite a few such mines.

I believe your problem with warships and technology was that you did not expand enough: expansion is a key part of the game, as the more colonies you have, the merrier (and the more powerful you will be). Colony ships are cheap to build, and they can be sent to several systems away to build a forward spaceyard there, which in turn will produce more spaceyards to claim more systems.

Your best bet for defence in the expansion phase are those Mines: they pack quite a punch, and several Minesweepers will be needed to remove them. By the time someone else has the means to build a small fleet and enough minesweepers, you should hopefully have a solid economy, allowing you to build adequate vessels. The AI may be eager to get into early wars however, much more so than human players, so this may be a problem (though you spoke of Dreadnoughts, so I guess it was later in the game).

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

yes, early expansion is extremely important.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

As said above, expansion is the key. I believe someone on the forums once said that you should colonize like mold. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif When I first start a game, the first thing that I build is about five to ten colony ships, with a frigate or two thrown in there somewhere. Make sure taht you are also building a couple of research facilities on each new planet to ebsure that you have ample supplies of research points. Another thing that I have heard on the forums is that everyone has their own method of research. Paly the game a few times and experiment with the different tech trees. Also, try playing a game with full research to help figure out what tech treed lead where.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Pysics 2 - Phased Poloron Beams
Construction 1
Mines 1
Armor all the way -

Defend your planets with 1 to 2 CSM/DUC weap platform, a swarm of mines. Deploy mines everywhere. Warp Points Planets, etc.

Once you get PPB, as stated above, you've won the game.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Alright I am going to print this thread and then try to organize it into a strategy for starting. Then I will try it. I might have time to play this weekend. I hope.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Atrocities' advice is consistent with my experience against the AIs. I would add, however, that PPBs are less effective against optimized AIs (e.g. Berzerkers) or generic AIs with ECM, unless the player counters with sensors and training facilities.

I concur with the advice about early expansion and suggest following the standard 1-colony-ship-per-turn policy for the first 11 turns, with one or two spaceyards ready to take over when the homeworld is forced into slow build.

So far this thread hasn't mentioned min-maxing your racial traits, but this is where the game can be won before it's even played. I'd suggest enhancing research, construction, mining, and maintenance abilities at the expense of ground combat, intel, trade, farming, and refining.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Brand new to posting on this forum, but since all I have played is against the computer (AI); I have a few things to add:

You are going along, colonizing a planet or two, clicking screens and all of a sudden, your planets are under attack, your economy is tanking and your ships are facing weapons you’ve never even heard of. Welcome to Space Empire IV (SEIV). Unlike most of what is available from the gaming industry, one can and often does lose in the start of the learning curve of this game. The best advice is to get up and try again. Eventually, you’ll figure out some strategies on your own by learning what doesn’t work. SEIV does not start you with some simple scenarios, then slowly add technologies as you can handle them. You can (as did I did many times) get blasted out of the galaxy very quickly as you learn about this game.

All the suggestions so far assume that you are colonizing every planet you can as fast as you can, building facilities to keep your economy in the black and pumping research as much as you can. My guess is that you may be having trouble holding onto those planets?

Weapon platforms (and satellites if playing with mods)

A. If you are playing against the nominal AI from any of the demos or Gold, use weapon platforms (WP) with capital ship missiles (CSM) and large mounted Depleted Uranium Cannons (DUC) to keep your colonies safe for quite a while. If you keep the construction costs of the WP less than 2k, you don’t even need to start building these until you actually see another AI player, and then only where you need them. In the default game, one of these WP will stand up to quite a bit of punishment in the beginning of the game, giving you breathing room to grow. Suggested research? Ship Construction II, Projectile weapons II-V, Propulsion II-III, Military Science I, Point Defense I-V, Construction.

B. If you are playing any of the mods (especially TDM, which restored my faith in SEIV AI – thank you, thank you, thank you for a wonderful mod), before you research construction for mines and fighters and Military Science for point defense guns (PD), you may need a mix of WP and DUC and CSM satellites for the first few turns to defend your planets. PD becomes more invaluable, since many of the modified AI use them and use them correctly.

C. Never needed min-max to stomp the AI in the regular Gold version, but really look at that if you are playing any of the mods.

Sorry for a long winded intro, but being a fairly new player myself, I can still remember getting the “You Lose” screen

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

For each situation there is a tactic to surivive and prevail.

Read through the FAQ and even the E.R.A.S.E suggestions. Also check out the Dubious Strategy Guide, its old but it might still have some great info. There have been so many great discussion about tactics and strategy on this forum over the years that have fallen from view that to now think of them is to regret not doing more to preserve the information contained within. There was a link library to most, but after the forum was upgraded back in August of last year, all of those links were nullified. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Any ways, the best sources for info are the players who play and they are mostly on this site. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Discussion about Torpedoes It Might help some.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

I have tried to read the dubious guide, but found it rather long and a little unorganized. Way to big to print. It was like 380 pages long. I have read the tips and tricks. Also the FAQ. The newbies look here thread. I just recently got the Max/Min guide. I think that will help.

Actually they have all helped but I still needed some suggestions for the beginning. Now I need to make a early turn plan and stick to it.

Do you guys start at med or low tech? I have been starting at low.

I really like what I have seen from PPB and DUC's. I definitely need to expand faster while building a fleet.

Some of the suggestions were to build colony ships on emergency for ten turns. Then how do you build anything else? How do you build ship yard ships? What size hull do you need?

So many questions


<font color="blue">Forgot to add my thanks to everyone for the help. You guys are extremely patient. </font>

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Space yard ships generally don't get used for quite a while, as they need the Cruiser hull at a minimum, Battlecruiser if you want a good movement rate without master computers or any extras such as a quantum reactor. Much more common is space yard bases, which can be built from turn one with the Space Station hull. I typically put one or two space yard bases somewhere in the eleven turns of homeworld emergency building at the start.

Re: First turns Research and builds.
 

Turn 1-3 : a base space yard per turn that will make scout ship, mine, and/or early war fleet
turn 4-10 : colony ship
turn 11+ : the planet begin making mine and/or scrap his space yard to build additional facilitie ; the bases space yards and colonies' yard make add colony ship and anything you need.

Against the AI it's waaaaaaaaaaaay too efficient that I don't use that strategy. Against human it seem work fine (I play with friend, not with contributor of forum because I lake a permanent web connection)