Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

I looked up a few newbie threads, but...I guess what I need is a mission tutorial for the demo. I've never played a game like this...it looks like a riot, but does anyone know where I can get a tutorial for complete gaming idiots? A "step by step" guide to get the demo started?

Thanks

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

There's a tutorial in the full game. I don't know about the demo, sorry...

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

There is a tutorial in the demo. It gives a step by step plan, and it knows what you're going to see, so it's instructions are pretty good. Otherwise, just remember, Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate

[ September 29, 2002, 16:54: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

Don't forget communicate.

It will help you against pbw players

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

Communicate falls under the Exploit Category. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Firstly - choose a race and use 3k points. From that 3K - choose 3 good racial characteristics - stay away from the more exotic ones for now (crystalline, organic, psychology).

Natural Merchants, * Storage and one other or buy points in Intellect, ship attack and production. Don't waste it on Ancient Race.

Whilst still in the Choose Points, select planetary conditions = Good and choose 3 planets.

Atmosphere - Rock/Oxygen.

Select LARGE map, Middle Age - generate map.

When the game starts - look at ALL the systems that you 'know'. Click on the Planet icon at upper left and then Colonies/breathable to see how many good planets you have in total. Whilst you're at it - click on Special to see how many planets you may have that have Ruins on Rocky planets.

Click on the 2nd button from the left (upper) to design some ships.

Design a Colony ship; exploration ship; maybe a space station; and a transport vessel(see threads for ideas on these). Next click the left-most button and save Empire (and probably the game too).

Click on the Research icon and choose some rsearch projects. Put Advanced Research 2 in the 1st slot; Ship Construction in the next; Chemistry in the 3rd; projectile weapons in the 4th. Turn off Share points and turn on Repeat.

Using the Construction menu (wrench) - hold down the shift key and left-click on each of your 3 homeworlds; then click on multi-add.

Put an exploration ship in the first slot and a few colony ships in the others (depending on how many breathables you have available). Close this window. Now you have all 3 build queues building explorers and colony ships.

Click on the Crown and choose Empire Options.

Turn off "ask when ending a turn (second from the top)
Turn off 'colony type dialog' (look down the list)
Close this window(s) back out.

Hit the bent arrow to start play.

That should get you started.

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Absolutely do not do that unless you do:

Autosaves: Before the game starts, in game setup. click the mechanics tab *the very Last one*. Click the Autosave Frequencies to Every Turn, or every 10 turns, and in between, whichever you like.

Set ministers:
click the crown button
click ministers
click COLONIZATION
click Indiv. Ministers On
click yes
scroll down
click automatically use individual ministers
click close
click close

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

I don't use ministers for one thing so doing what you suggest is not necessary. Ministers are a waste of time and resources and frequently screw up. I don't reccomend them - especially for beginners.

For another - I save regularly.

[ September 30, 2002, 16:09: Message edited by: Elowan ]

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">See, I don't know about that. If someone is totally confused, and they turned on all the ministers, they'd see in the log -- ships biing built, planets colonized, research conducted, facilities being built, and all the rest.

One AI is as good as another, so the playing field is even. Almost simultaneously someone would say "Ohh, so thats what you do" and "Now see, I wouldn't have done it that way" and from there a playing style would grow as you improve on the default method.

Atticus - did this thread help at all? Did you have a specific question, and do you remember what was initially confusing. Maybe if someone wrote a tutorial from a different point of view, it would be helpful to other newbies.

Usually, when I show someone SE4 for the first time, I show things a little differently that the tutorial does.

[ September 30, 2002, 16:20: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Whoa! How does one even START this game?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I wouldn't recommend trying to decide how to spend racial points straight off. It's easier to pick a stock race from the Quick Start menu, or Load Existing from Set-Up/Players. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I only turn off "ask when ending turn" in solo games, and then only if I have almost nothing to do for long stretches of turns.

I also turn off "ask when deleting the first item from construction queue", because I'm constantly fiddling with those, and very rarely make the mistake of deleting something that's partially completed.