help, im always far behind everyone in PBW
 

Hi everyone,

i finally managed to create this thread, so i need your help.
I played SE 4 against the AI for ages and i recently decided to join PBW.

Right now im playing in 4 games and in every game im far behind (usually in the Last 1/3 or worse).

At the beginning i always construct 2 space yard bases and start building a scout and pump colony ships. I research propulsion tech, too. I even construct transports to carry my pop to new worlds. Still i cant seem to get enough planets, each player has more worlds, score and even research...i cant help myself but asking here for help.

what am i doing wrong ?!

Re: help, im always far behind everyone in PBW
 

Score doesn't matter too much, as some players (myself included) have inflated scores due to the use of Base Space Yards and Light Carriers (instead of planetary Space Yards and Light Cruisers). Your number of colonies does matter a lot however.

I cannot give a definitive advice, save saying how I do *my* expansion early on (I am reluctant to say "my", since my way is virtually the same as Primitive).

- Put your homeworld on Emergency Build straight ahead, and queue eleven Colony ships to be built in one turn. If you don't have enough in Construction aptitude, and/or a poor homeworld, you will need to use a retrofit (for example, use a Colony ship hull with the module and the necessary, and add the engines with a retrofit).
- Your colony ships will act as scouts on their way; you will likely lose one or two to black holes, or enemy fire if you are unlucky. If you are afraid of the possibility of capture, give them Kamikaze orders so that they will ram the enemy (destroying themselves in the process).
- Colonise far away, at least two systems away from your homeworld to begin with. Unless you need to secure a planet at once, go for the small, unbreathable planets first. Then, build a planet Space Yard, and use this planet to get more colony ships even further away from home. Only colonise close planets to get more minerals, and above all, organics and radioactives.
- Construction and Mines I should be your priority early on. Unless you start very close to someone else, you should have Mines by the time you make contact. They can be rather nasty to secure other planets in the system, and to deter any raider.

Also note that you will likely have an impressive income through trade treaties if playing in big games, so it will help lessening the gap with these big Empires.

Lastly, sheer colonial size does not spell the game; your lesser size can be used to strengthen your defence, whereas a big Empire has to deal with logistics and possible riot runs (when your two farthest colonies are twenty turns away from one another, you will have a hard time protecting both). If you are in peace with your neighbours, you should have a lot of resources through trade, allowing you to build many Base Space Yards later on, and so a nasty fleet. Then, you will hopefully be better than me to handle said fleet, and so you may be the one bringing my huge Empire to its knees. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Oh, my Last usual remark: never overlook Stellar Manipulation. If there are many Asteroid Fields nearby, you will want to consider creating Planet Shapers, increasing your economical strength quite a lot in the meantime. Likewise, Warp Openers and Warp Closers can turn the tides of a war if you are the only one with these technologies available. And in the end, what about the ever-so funny Star Destroyer? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: help, im always far behind everyone in PBW
 

Don't do scouts and transports.
Only build COLONIZERS!
Until you can colonize no more or you're at war, but try to awoid war at all costs.
Send out the colonizers as far as they can reach with the availible supplies and then build ship yards.
Build some colonies closer to home later on with resource and research, but above all else shipyards.
On all shipyards build colonizers.
Repeat.

On single player you can play alot of games, so it doesn't matter if you loose alot, you'll win alot too.
PBW takes longer time, so you'll not win as many games.
Out of 20 players only one can win, so if everyone is equal, you'll win one out of 20 20 player games.
I've never won any!
If a single player game starts out real bad, you might quit and restart? That don't happen in PBW.
Have you had these kind of score positionsin atleast 4 single player games aswell?

I'm not in PBW to win, it's great if I do, but until I do I'll have fun anyway, I like diplomacy and empire building.
I dno't want to do war.

EDIT: One minute Alneyan.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[ July 24, 2004, 20:27: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: help, im always far behind everyone in PBW
 

Read this It might help.

Re: help, im always far behind everyone in PBW
 

thanks for the suggestions and tips, i guess i will try them in the next games i will play on PBW http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: help, im always far behind everyone in PBW
 

Good luck. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif