.com.unity Forums - Newbie has questions!

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Originally posted by doctahg:
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!

<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.

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[b]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.[/qb]

<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.

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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

<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.