What's the most important thing to research?

[jpinard]

What's the most important thing to research?

I keep getting creamed by the computer and am finally asking for help. I know my problem is the researching I do early-on... well because I never get past early on!!

Help please!

[Atrocities]

Planets utilization IMHO.

[raynor]

One surefire defensive measure against the AI is to research Construction, Mines and Warheads up to level III. If you block your wormholes with 50 or so small mines with warhead III's, you'll be quite safe until you can research Stellar Manipulation and completely close your wormholes altogether.

[Spoo]

I always try to max out the DUC tree first. Then shields to level 5.
I also try to make sure my current hull size is no more than on level behind the AI.

On a side note, I turn off "divide points evenly" in the research menu, and let a colonization tech be my second project so it can soak up any excess points on the turn my primary project completes.

------------------
Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

[Tenryu]

jp,
I really don't know if there is any 'one' best thing. Probably depends somewhat on what you are playing, low tech or high tech and what Mods or changes you have made to your files.

I always play low tech start, 5k racial points, 30k resources, high computer difficulty, large number of computer player, large quad. I usually pick a few of the special computer empires, EA and sergrtti always, except for the darloks{they drive me nuts!, if I get them as a random, I weep and hope I don't meet them too soon, when I do meet them, I spend all my efforts focused on wiping the little buggers out. God, I hate them!

At the start I usually research in the following order. It seems to provide a solid base for a build up and sufficent defensive technology to survive and expand.
missles>2, duc>2, ships>2, propulsion>2, duc>3, ships>3, {if no pd at start, then milsci>1 and pd>1}, propulsion>3, physics>1, shields>1, shields>2, construction>1, fighters>1, smaller weaps>1, smaller weaps>2, ships>4.

I vary some depending on what is going on, how soon I am getting whomped on, instead of fighters, sometimes i go for mines and the warheads. This seems to get me going ok. 1.27 was way nastier then previous Versions. I expect the cloaking changes to make the darlocks an even a more hated pest. Only additional races I use are sergetti, narn, darlock, toron and ea. I may add some others though, but was really hoping the AI main modders,{tampa, meph, GE, sinapus}would eventually find the time to jazz-up the existing ones a bit more.

And just so you don't feel like you're the only one, I got my butt chewed up in a squeeze play over the weekend by the ea, sergetti, and xichung. I wiped out the Xi, but the others got me. Bastards!

[Lemmy]

i usually go for physics and then phased energy weapons, ship construction and shields

The phased energy weapons are one of the more expensive weapons but they are still powerfull later on in the game, i haven't researched anything stronger yet ( (damage/size)/fire rate, that's what i use to define strong ), troops are also good, that you can capture there planets and if they breath a different atmosphere you can also colonize more planets,
military science/ship capture is also very useful, especially if you capture a different colony ship type, or a larger ship and analyze them at your shipyards.