General Newbie Help

[Gniss]

Is there any good source for newbie information. The overwhelming majority of posts in this forum seem to be by and for experienced players and I have not been able to find anything really helpful (beyond the short strategy section in the manual and the terse information on StrategyWiki). (And yes I know the best way is just to play lots of SP games, but that can become tedious without a real direction that more beginner help might provide).

This is quite a contrast from other games, like Civilization. My favorite example is the game of Stars!. To this date there are plenty of places to get newbie information even though the game ceased development over 10 years ago. It still attracts new players largely, I believe, because it is easy to pick up the game and learn basic strategy. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

[Velusion]

Stars! was great!

Newbie info eh? Well if you've done the tutorial you've pretty much got all the major rules. Everything else (and it's a lot of "else") is just extra info. The manual has a few pages of new player tips in the back...

I dunno.... what more exactly where you looking for?

P.S. If you are interested in MP play no need to slave away at SP for longer than you want to... there is usually a newbie game starting every week or so and blitzes happen on the weekend.

[RobO]

Velusion said:
I dunno.... what more exactly where you looking for?

General guidelines, overall game strategies, things to do and not to do under different circumstances.

A simple example: I have learned in Stars! that the privateer makes for a very economic colonizer and freighter in the initial expansion, unless you have an Ironium shortage. Which means you have to adapt your race and playing style to get the Construcction 4 Tech by the time your expansion starts for real.

I'm new to this as well and haven't yet had time to go through the manual. I can see that the strategy tips at the end help a bit, but there's a whole catalogue of articles on optimizing play in Stars! But then, Stars! lends itself to math and analysis.

I guess playing the game is the best way to go. It just takes a lot of time to cover a fair amount of ground.

[Evilhomer]

You might want to check out the stickied post "The strategy index". It gives some advice how to play most nations, and might be what you are looking for.

[Edratman]

Also play a few quick games on small maps with 3 random opponents, normal settings. You don't have to go more than 20/25 turns and use a couple of different nations. Then if you go through the posts following that, almost all of the posts will no longer appear to be expert level discussions (especially if you see anything from me).

[thejeff]

One of the goals to shoot for in the early expansion phase is a province a turn. At least 10 provinces by the end of the first year. More if you've crippled your scales for a bless or SC pretender.

Lategame stuff is much harder to practice in SP, since the AI is so bad at it. You can learn to build SCs to take on the AI hordes, but those SCs won't stand up to MP tactics.

[Velusion]

Ya if MP is your real interest SP is only useful for learning the basic game and experimenting on how to expand optimally in your first 15-20 turns. Otherwise just jump into an MP game. You'll quickly find yourself reading the entire manual .

I suppose someone could/should put out a 2-3 page "How to jump into Dom3" thread/article. That might be good for quick learners who don't want to read the entire manual but want at least a reference point on their first game.

[Lord_Bob]

When you pick a race and design a pretender for MP, try it out a few times in SP. The first few turns of MP is just like SP.