Opening Strategies
 

Hey Folks,

I've been lurking here for a while, finally got my copy of SEIV and had a question. In a game lke this, what usually happens, is that you can do the tutorial, play a game, read the manual but still not know what exactly what you should be doing. So in the Super Fleet thread someone said experienced players usually build 3 space stations around their homeplanet to produce more. I never thought of doing that. So i was wondering if there are any other things that you *always* do at the start of a game that might not be so obvious to a less experienced player.

Thanks for all the great Posts guys...

Re: Opening Strategies
 

Don't know if this counts but I always take the 'Advanced Storage' racial ability. That extra 20% (IIRC) of facilities etc on your worlds is a wonderful edge. (esp on a 3 homeworld or more start). I also always make my research point toward point defense and stealth armor real quick. This way I can defend against the missile races/escort missile fleets and watch on my neighbors unawares.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

well this might be kind of obvious but..

I don't bother with escort class ships, I prefer to build colony ships for scouting, you can get frigate with so little research that IMO escorts are worthless.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

Build your colony ships with only 3 engines and 2 cargo bays.
Reasons:
Build in 2 turns instead of 3
Moves more population to start your new colony
The home planet will replace the population fairly quickly
The 2 squares lost in speed is negligable compared to the 2/3 build speed. I'm not the math type but I'm sure someone here can post it for me.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

Different people use different strategies, depending on their playing style. I don't think I've ever built more than two base shipyards at one world, frex. (OTOH, I've never finished better than third against human opponents, either.)

One thing I usually do is use whatever starting bonus I'm playing with to get one expensive tech right away rather than several cheaper ones.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

Make sure to build storage facilities to store any and all excess resources produced in the early game. It's much better to have, say, 210000 minerals stored than it is to have only 50000 when you start to build more than you can support. Store a lot more minerals than rads or organics. If you're and organic race, store about 1/3 to 1/2 as many organics as you do minerals. You don't need to store very many rads, because they aren't used very much.

Get Solar Panel IIIs quickly and place a few supply ships outfitted with them in each fleet. This extends their range significantly.

And about the 3 spaceyards per homeworld, make sure to get them built ASAP. Unless there are huge (or maybe large) planets of your atmosphere in your home system, get these space yards built in the first 6 turns. If their are huge worlds, build a colony ship or two and get them colonized ASAP. They are the first priority. And don't limit yourself to 3 space yards at each homeworld. When you reach a point where you consistently have a large surplus in your income, build more space yards. Try to minimize the budget surplus.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

Re: resource storage.

I'd rather have more resource Production rather than storage. On poor value planets I'd much rather have research/intel production than resource storage.
A full tank (level 1) of storage is only worth 13 turns of Monolith (level 1) output, and you have to fill it up before you can use it anyways.

If you've got budget surplusses, you can always turn up the factory output and build up your fleets.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

I didn't say to make resource storage facilities at the expense of resource production facilities. Just make a few on each huge planet to catch the excess resources that you can't use yet.

Edit:
And you should take my post in its entirety. I did say:
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>When you reach a point where you consistently have a large surplus in your income, build more space yards. Try to minimize the budget surplus.<hr></blockquote> So, your Last statement is just repeating what I already said. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ 23 March 2002: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]</p>

Re: Opening Strategies
 

My point was just that resource storage comes at the expense of something. Whether that be resource production on high value worlds, or research on low value worlds.
I knew you'd said the bit about factories already, but I guess I missed adding a comment such as "as Fyron said" to it. Sorry.

Re: Opening Strategies
 

No worries SJ! That's what the http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif was for. And besides, I don't really want to quoted anyhow. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

And basically the point that I was trying to make was that early in the game you have to make a decision. You can make another Mineral Miner and then have 6800 surplus instead of 6000 surplus, or you can make a storage facility and store some of that 6000 surplus you are alreay getting. Usually, I just make one of each storage facility on every huge and large world of my atmosphere type, which tends to solve the early surplus problem. Entire storage planets are not really a good idea. And with Advanced Storage Techniques, I don't really miss having a few less miners or researchers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif