Beginners Guide, HELP!!! (Please Read And Post)

[Atrocities]

I would like to get as much clear and concise in put upon this subject as possible. So please don't pass this thread up. If you have something that you feel is inportant to a beginner, any tips, basic first 50 to 100 turn strategies, or favorate settings, please for the love of God, post about them. Thanks.

And if your a beginner and have questions, please post em too. Thanks.

What it would take to write a beginners guide.

Time. Without a doubt, time.
Patience. Can’t get much done without it.
Knowledge. A real must have.
A Plan. Without this, nothing will work.
Interest. Dedicated to seeing it through to completion.

There is a difference between a Beginners Guide, and a Strategy Guide. A Beginners Guide is just that, a guide for beginners. It would have to demonstrate how to set the game up from the start, explaining all the features in detail, in addition to stressing that a player understand the game features prior to playing.

The scope of a beginner’s guide would have to be limited. There is no way to describe each and every thing that a beginner would need to know, so the best course of action would be to focus on what a beginner should know.

Basically, how to set up the game.
A clear understanding of what setting up a game entails.
The basic does and don’ts of the first 100 turns.

First and foremost, the guide would have to be standard. IE, the settings would have to be pre-determined before writing the guide. IE, what size galaxy, how many racial points, resources, technologies, etc.

A mind-boggling exercise to say the least.

What would be ideal would be a basic Up and Going guide that quickly introduces the a new player to the game set up features, and walks them through the 50 turns of the game. We all know that there are an endless amount of “strategies” to be played out in the first 50 turns, but what would be best for a beginner?

Let’s say that we set up the guide to give the beginner all the advantages. Small Galaxy, all Warp Points Connected, 3 planets, 2k racial traits, (Temporal & Lucky), low Bonus, and low AI empires and Neutrals.

From this, what would you recommend a player do for the first 50 turns. Keeping it short.

Another aspect of a Beginners Guide would have to be a walk through of most of the in game features. Oh what a task that would be. What would be the most important features a new player would have the most need for?

What about Ministers? On, Off, or Half-and-Half?

EDIT*
God what a complex and overwhelming thing to be considering doing. Writing a basic Beginners Guide. What am I thinking? I think I need professional help.

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New Age Ship Yards

"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Captain Picard STNG

Borg Breen Species 8472 Cardassian Dominion STNG Ferengi Klingon Romulan
Trek Movie era TOS Illuminati Starwolf Rogue Fleet


[This message has been edited by Atrocities (edited 28 October 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

Basic Empire Operation:
- A red scrunchy popcan icon means You need to build a spaceport!
- Send ships back home before they fall below half supplies. Once the yellow fuel barrel icon appears, its too late.
- Recovering crippled or out-of-fuel ships. (use of tenders, repair bays and solar collectors)
HowTo: Decide what type of colony to make.
- Are you running out of some resource?
- Are you falling behind in research/Intel?
- Special-effect facilities.
- And how these apply to the value/size/conditions of the planet and your empire.
HowTo: Build some basic, legal ship designs
- Test them in the simulator!
- Test ships against common enemy designs, not just against each other.
HowTo: Coarser points of politics.
- What each treaty type actually means.
- Trade resources to keep the ecomomy running.
- Tips on how to not unduly upset an AI.

Generic tips:
- Build weapon platforms/sats when your planet finishes facility constrution.
- Emergency build colonizers, take breathables first, then explore.
- Never bother with funny-shaped wormholes unless its your only choice.
- Defend chokepoints, not planets.

EDIT: formatting

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 28 October 2001).]

[dumbluck]

you know, this sounds a lot like the tutorial scenario that is included w/the game. Maybe it would just be easier to flesh this out some?

[Atrocities]

Good point.

[ratster]

I've probably spent more time reading this forum than playing the game.

I think the most overwhelming thing to a beginning player is deciding what to research(since it is so critical to successful play), and in what specific order.

Is there a visual representation of the tech tree anywhere Online? Like a line chart?

[Andrés]

What would be useful is a list of newbie FAQ and put easy to find links somewhere so we don't have to answer the same questions over and over.