Newbie has questions!
 

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this sort of game so had a few questions...Everyone says populate your own galaxy as much as possible...since there's only 1 oxygen planet should I research Gas and ice colonization first? These take forever! I'm totally lost on research..I understand it BUT I have no clue where to start. I read a FAQ, but it's all encompassing and it doesn't really help with the first 50 or so turns. SHould I populate mining colonies with more people? Does that do anything? I thought settling on a nonoxygen colony is under a dome? DO you need to research the gas/ise first for this to work? and so on...a few pointers would be helpful!
Thanks for any help!
Doc

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...3;t=000570;p=2

or the same thread, in reverse order. (More comfortable for some people.)

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=000570

and

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=005518

[ November 24, 2002, 19:30: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

if you have encountered any races i would suggest trading technology to get the diferent colonization techs.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a good place to use Divide Points Evenly. Put a cheaper tech in the queue, add one of the colonization techs, and turn off Divide Points Evenly when you can complete the cheaper tech in one turn.

Trading (or stealing) the tech from someone else is much faster, though. Or you might get lucky and find the tech on a ruins world.

[ November 24, 2002, 21:32: Message edited by: capnq ]

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

Be sure to explore other systems. Some will have no planets but most will be similar to your home system and some will have several oxygen/rock planets. As for domed colonies, YES, by all means colonize non-oxygen planets as well.

Kim

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Personally, I pick up a couple levels of Ship Building (at least enough for Destroyers), get to Propulsion 3 (cheaper Ion engines), and focus a lot of effort on getting Applied Research 2 ASAP. That Last is a matter of preference; my concept behind it is, the sooner I improve my research output, the better off I will be in the long run ... it places you at a military disadvantage in the short run, however.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">On turn one (2400.0):
- Design a space station with a Spaceyard I component, the required bridge/lifesupport/quarters, and one missile. Add it to your planet's build queue; it should take 0.2 years to complete.
- Put Propulsion, Shipbuilding, and Military Science (theoretical) in your research queue, in that order. If you started with 100K resources, add Construction to th end of that queue.
- End turn.

Turn two (2400.1):
- Propulsion 2 and Shipbuilding 2 both complete; put them back in, at the top of hte queue -- Propulsion first. If Military Science completes, add Point Defense Cannons 1, right below Shipbuilding 3.
- End turn.

Turn three (2400.2):
- the orbital spaceyard completes.
- hopefully, Propulsion 3 completes, but -- no trouble if it doesn't.
- design a Frigate as a scout. Bridge, quarters, lfiesupport, maximum engines. Pack the rest with supply bays; weapons don't matter for this guy.
- Have the HW build two scouts; they should each take 0.1 year to complete
- Have the orbital spaceyard build one scout; it will probably take 0.2 years to complete.
- end turn

Turn four (2400.3)
- send the first scoutship out through a warp point.
- end turn

Turn five (2400.4)
- Send the second and third scoutships out through other warp points.
- Propulsion 3 should be complete by now! Don't put it back in the queue.
- design your first colony ship, using the cheaper Ion3 engines. With Emergency Build, you may be able to produce one EVERY TURN, at the Homeworld ... so:
- set the Homeworld to build a colony ship; turn on "repeat build"; set it to emergency build if needed to get one ship per turn.
- design a population transport with the minimum number of cargo bays, the maximum number of engines, no weapons, and as many supply bays as you can fit in (it'll be making round trips, so it needs lots of fuel).
- have the orbital spaceyard build the transport, and set that spaceyard to "repeat build".
- end turn.

Turn six (and later)
- continue exploring, and grab every breathable world -- or world with ruins -- you have the tech for.
- if you can, trade colony-tech types with another race.
- once you have destroyers or light cruisers, and PDC 3 or better, I suggest pushing for Applied Research 2. After that, make sure you have the ability to build creditable warships, churn out a dozen or two, and work on gettign applied research 3 and applied intelligence 1.

It's not the first 50 turns, but it's probably a decent start.

Now for the "whyfors" of it. The orbital spaceyard lets you build ships, even if your HW has to pause, and upgrade facilities (the labs, for example). Delaying your first colony ship might not seem like a good idea, but getting thm to have Ion3 engines, while you build other stuff you will need ANYWay, is a good idea IMO.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The transports (above) are for moving population around -- yes, low population slows building rates, and lowers resource production. Don't gut your homeworld, but bring other worlds up as fast as you safely can.

You can colonise any ATMOSPHERE, it's the underlaying PLANET TYPE that matters technology-wise.

Any world with the "wrong" atmosphere, will have 1/5 as many facilities and population, as it would have if it had the right kind of air. IOW, a moon will have 5 spaces if you breathe it's atmosphere type ("none" in stock SE4), or only 1 if you don't.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

Thanks evryone..that should help a bit...I'll be back though!
Doc

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

Just remember this is the way Pax plays, and it doesn't mean it is the correct way.

Trade for the other colonisation techs from the AI and they are usually happy to do so.

Personally I just build colonisers for the first year and colonise everything.

As for research, try something different every game and you'll discover what works best for you.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

Or do what I do and set your tech levels on high so you don't even have to bother with research. Everything is right there, right now.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

Part of the fun of being a newbie with SE IV was discovering what you get if you research just one more level of something.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

That's one of the great things about SE IV. Everyone has their own playing style.

The way my games usually start, on the first turn I turn off Divide Points Evenly, and put my initial research points into either one of the largest projects I can finish in one turn, or one or two of the Theoretical Sciences (especially if I took a racial tech), plus something cheap to catch any leftover points.

If I have any breathable worlds or colonizable Ruins in my home system, I build colonizers first; otherwise, I build a scout ship. I don't start putting up construction bases until I'm having trouble storing all of my production.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

I build colonizers, then shipyards as first facility on all planets i colonize, then they make colonizers.
trade for colony tech.
Initially I might build a mineral storage facility or two or three.
When you start to go down to zero in resources and have a negative balance it's time to switch half the production to mineral mines, the rest continue to spew out colonizers.
When every possible spot has been colonized build research facilities.
Later on other things as intelligence facilities.

Research-
I try not to divide research points as I might loose almost an entire turn of research points, if I don't check it every turn (any wasted turns on completed projects are wasted if you divide the points, but not if you have them sequentially)

I go heavily for solar panels. first astrophysics then solar panels 1-3, engines up to level 3 or 4.
I never build supply depots, add 1-3 solar panels 3 to your ship depending on size and it will never run out of supplies.
When I have solar sail 2 I build scouts and sends them out to find strange new civilizations I can trade with.
Not having supply depots gives me more productive facilities.
Any ship that shall be mothballed goes to the homeworld where there is a supply depot from the beginning.
Later I try to research atmospheric modification plants and stellar manipulation for monoliths.
For military tech I go with physics and phased polaron beams initially, later on everything!

(I've never finished a single game though (am a newbie) but I've used this strategy in my current games that I'm still playing)

in other strategy games I've played I've found that expansion is a good winning strategy!

[ November 25, 2002, 10:33: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Absolutely true, and it's not even the ONLY way I play -- it's what I start from, as far as what I expect to do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

For example ... if I find I'm in a system with mad numbers of right-atmosphere worlds to colonise, I build colony ships MUCH sooner (don't need a lot of range to colonise in-system, after all). "More than two" usually triggers that change.

But it's a good thing to try and start with; it seems lots of people do agree on the orbital spaceyard to increase overall ability to build ships (if nothing else, to slowly build up a small stable of light warships in case of early conflict), and seeing others' general starting strategies is often useful in discovering your own. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

I agree with Pax on the shipyard base. However I then have the shipyard produce ANOTHER SHIPYARD BASE, until I get 4 shipyards in orbit.
After those 4, I then have no trouble redirecting the homeworld to upgrades.

I also get a couple of levels of DUC and upgraded engines along with the destroyer hull.

Only then do I go for the theoretical sciences (physics and chemistry) and then go for computer upgrades.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

I never build space yard bases, they need maintnance and colonizing a small or tiny planet in the first system, there building a shipyard, gives a shipyard with faster construction rate and no maintnance needs.

example
(2 turns to build colonizers on home world, three on new worlds):

t1-2: 1col ship at homeworld.
t3 colonize neighbour
t4-9 build space yard there
t3-4 new col at homeworld.
t5-6 col new world.
t5-6 new col ship at homeworld
t7-11 new shipyard at new colony 3
t7-8 col new world.
t9-14 new space yard there 4.
t9-10 new col at homeworld.
t10-13 new col at first colony 2.
t11 send colonizer through wormhole (unless that's already been done)
t11-12 new col at homeworld.
t12-14 new col at world 3.
t13-14 new col at homworld.
t14-17 new col at world 2.
t15-18 new col at world 3
Now the other colonies start to kick in and in an exponential curve you'll soon have 40 planets! (Some must start to make resources)

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

which thread is going to be used. Game Styles or Newbie has Questions. its a little confusing reading from one then jumping to the other about the same thing.

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think the threads are so tangled one can't untangle them.

But we could try to keep this thread strategy focused and the other game-style focused.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

[ November 26, 2002, 09:54: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Newbie has questions!
 

I think that advanced research should take precedence over everything else with some other things added to the mix. That said, here's my WODT (way of doing things).

Firstly - you have a research point bonus starting out so I load in AdvRes2 as first in the queue followed by ShipCon, Engines, Physics, Chemistry and set the queue on Divide Points and Repeat - that way I don't lose points on a roll-over.

I set my build queue to build one scout at each HW; CS; CS; CS (depending on how many breathable planets are in the system (Check the World icon on upper left > breathable atmosphere > send colony ship. Doing it that way lists the ship, loads it with folks and sends it on its way. I will then build a SpaceYard.

A few points:
1) I have specialized CS (colony ships). One is a long range Version with a supply pod; one is for breathable atmospheres and has a storage pod (which gets an extra supply of colonists) and Last one without an SP for non-breathables.

I do not wait for cheap engines to start sending out CS's.

My first few colonies are almost all devoted to Research with extra M/O/R storage so as not to lose the extra points being generated before I start building stuff.

I stop ShipCon at Light Cruiser until I build up more advanced stuff going to PB asap. And so on.

HTH.