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

[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.

[Taqwus]

Some random stuff.

- Exploration is vital. Sending a single unarmed ship w/ extra supplies (especially solar collectors, once available) works well. Multiple ships don't reveal more information, and single armed ships are both a) still rather vulnerable, and b) expensive. Find your neighbors before they find you.

- Don't build too many ships early -- watch the mineral count. It's easy to build too many pop transports and strangle your economy; if you do, mothball or scrap.

- Ditto for the build-n-construction-bases-at-start method for cranking out ships. It's fast, but gets pricey -- once you've got some colonies and need to build facs on them, consider mothballing until you can afford to keep 'em building.

- Missiles are nice early, with the longer range, slow ships, and relative rarity of large amounts of point-defense. Beams tend to work well later.

- Defend in depth. One needs recon layers (say, spy satellites in neighboring systems), some front-line defense forces, and reserves to handle breaches. Well, at least until the age of Warp Warfare...

Mining warp points is often a good idea. Thankfully, the mine minister does this decently well if you build the minelayers and keep them fed with mines.

- Track what your opponents have for tech. If you need it, maybe you can trade for it, demand it, steal it, or steal a ship with it.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[dmm]

Right away, get a cheap unarmed escort and send it on a one-way exploration mission to the far reaches of the galaxy. Use it to find as many alien empires as possible. Run it almost out of fuel, then either gift it to an AI ally or put it into a storm (either as a spy or to destroy it). It will quickly pay for itself in trade revenue.

[dmm]

If you send a ship out too far, don't despair. Bring it back as far as you can, and send another ship (or a fleet) to meet it. They can share supplies and all get home. This is a nice trick in the early game, before solar collectors and space yard ships.

Another good range-extending tactic is to get a military alliance with someone far enough away that you're not competing for the same systems. Then you can use their resupply bases. In a huge galaxy, you might use this to leapfrog across the whole galaxy, then trade colonization techs with those distant neighbors. (The heirs to your throne might regret that decision 100 years from now, but, hey, that'll be their problem.)

You often want a competing empire's planet mostly for its population (for instance, because they breathe a different atmosphere). So, after obtaining the planet (and presumably angering the other empire), take a bunch of the pop and then give the planet back. You may be able to avoid a protracted war, and still get what you really wanted. (BTW, I find it annoying that you can trade all sorts of stuff, but not population. With human players, though, you can sometimes make this kind of deal in advance. Related side note: Players with different colonization techs and different atmospheres who ally faithfully from early on will be very hard for outsiders to beat. Just watch out for mimic intel ops!)

[Cyrien]

If you can trade for the colonizing techs. If possible trade for them with a neutral race that will never leave it's home system anyways. Failing that trade with the weakest alien out there that has what you want. Trade it with a race you know you are about to kill but are currently still peacefull with. Failing all of the above trade with someone far far away AND with their neighbor, for other techs you need or their colonizing tech if different. This will prevent the AI from expanding rampantly over it's neighbors far from your own borders and becoming a major threat later on. Thus preventing your descendants from regreting your hasty trades in later decades and bad mouthing your policies in history texts.

[This message has been edited by Cyrien (edited 29 October 2001).]

[Taqwus]

Another bit -- after meeting an AI race for the first time, read its description quite carefully. Some happen to be quite warlike xenophobes, and may give you less prep time than you'd like.


Logistics: an unsupplied war fleet isn't very useful. It can move only one square per turn (either strategic or tactical), and its shields (if any) stay down. _And_ it's still costing full maintenance despite its low utility. Hitting the only enemy colonies close enough to be used as staging grounds can be more useful than hitting the fleets directly. Conversely, it's good to have redundancy in your own supply network so the loss of a single colony doesn't effectively cut your empire in half.


Design and counterdesign: Examine enemy ship designs. Consider adding your own designs to counter them if they pose particularly dangerous threats.


Intelligence: "Communications mimic" is a nice toy for starting wars between other players, especially AIs who won't necessarily question the authenticity of the DOW. Even between human players, a successful mimic DOW will zero their trade level, which can be substantial between two economic powerhouses, and it'll take twenty turns to recover. "Crew Insurrection" is another fun op, since a subverted ship in a fleet may not only remove itself from action, but perhaps damage its former compatriots, as well. A solo ship might be safely brought back for tech analysis.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night