FAQ...First 50 turns

[James Sterrett]

First thing you should build is a space Yard - a starbase that has the minimum required parts plus one Space construction Yard.

Now you have two ship construction facilities, though the one on your planet is faster.

Design a dedicated recon ship - smallest size, no weapons or armor, three supply crates; this is a cheapo ship to run and explore the map.

Design a colony ship; be sure to add an extra cargo crate to it so you can haul more colonists.

Design a missile boat: pack a CSM launcher onto an otherwise unremarkable small ship. Used correctly, this ship can demolish opponents in the early game (run away and pepper the enemy with missiles).

I tend to play in large galaxies, so I have time to expand before I'm in contact, so I build colony ships like mad, along with a few recce ships and missile boats.

Research Construction, then Mines. Build a mine/sat layer ship: a cargo vessel with one mine layer and one sat layer. Now you can mine your planets and warp points! 8) Large warheads (warhead tech 3) is a cheaper path to better mines than doing the mine research to get bigger mines.

Crank your CSM tech to 2 or 3 to make your missile boats good. For some reason, CSM 1 missiles don't seem to kill planetary weapons platforms, but CSM 2+ ones do.

Then work on the military science, chem, physics, and psych trees to get:

- Point Defence

- Armor

- Resource conVersion

- Applied Poli Sci (for pacification centers)

- Shields

- Phased Polaron Beams

Also crank up your ship tech for bigger hulls.

Alongside this, do applied research, then applied intelligence; alternate between these are long-term projects.

Expand like a rabbit; build mines to protect your worlds and systems.

Others will have different strategies, I'm sure. 8)

[This message has been edited by James Sterrett (edited 19 December 2000).]

[Daynarr]

Here are some military research tips for starting empire:
1. Go as fast as you can to the DUC level 5 (DUC - Depleted Uranium Cannon). That thing is cheap to research and gives you some fair firepower while you research better things.
2. Research Chemistry and then Armor to level 3. This is much cheaper to research then the shields, and only Shield IV and Shield V have better protection per tonnage.

This will give you very comfortable start and leave you enough time to research for some other things (most of them covered by James).
Hope this is of some help.

[Daynarr]

Here is another quick tip:
- When you decide on research NEVER divide points evenly. When you don't use it, all the research points are used on 1st tech in queue. If number of research points exceeds the required amount for that tech, then all the extra points are used on following tech. This is a point where dividing research fails (extra points are lost there). Also make sure that you have enough techs in queue to use all your research points.

[Grumbling Grognard]

Something not mentioned yet (AFAIK) is that if your race has a special technology (organic, crystal, etc.) then I would strongly suggest you invest in researching that early and often.

Your race paid a lot of points for that tech. and these techs (all of them) can be pretty powerful (esp. in the early game).

------------------
The Grumbling Grognard

[Psitticine]

Propulsion can make an excellent early research area. I like to take it up to level 4 and get the move advantage over my opponents. Combine faster ships with long-range weaponry, and you've got a killer combo!

Also, remember that those 1 facility "dot worlds" in your starting system can be used for space yards. I tend to go ahead and settle one or two and use them to build up a military while my homeworld creates colony ships. I do it that way because the new colony won't have the population capacity to successfully "seed" new colonies and it is a needless delay to route them from another yard into the homeworld. Also, colonies will be more useful early on than large fleets.

Those small worlds'll also be breeding more population, which you can always skim off to build up those juicier worlds as you find them.

[rdouglass]

I agree with most things, but in addition I spend early research points on Stellar Harnessing. It gives you extra range by getting Solar Collectors and later extra move points by getting Solar Sails.

However, I personally DO divide research points evenly. My reason: I do a lot of upgrading of my ships and don't want to upgrade just 1 or 2 components. This way, I can upgrade 3,4, or 5 components at a time. I also want to be researching many areas at once. I do not experience the "lost research points" discussed earlier in the thread - I think that has to do with the fact that I "repeat" the research areas.

[Sessile]

I generally pump research points into the applied research field, until I get the second level of research facilities. Tech is such an important advantage in the middlegame that it's worth the initial loss of advantage. The first tech you choose to rsearch receives whatever bonus you picked initially, and choosing AR first makes a big difference in your research curve. The question is, can you hold out against the rest of the creepies till then? Well, CSM escorts can be cranked out pretty quickly, and you should also colonize like mad-- whoever has the biggest facility base in the middlegame will have the overwhleming advantage, since that player will be able to out-produce and research the others. If you have the initial jump in research, you can skew more of the facilities to production, which in turn allows you bigger fleets.

------------------
If it floats and it don't say quack, sink it.