Strategy Articles!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

your faq is indeed an impressive accomplishment.

[Stone Mill]

Originally posted by Slick:

quote:

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***PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK! This is a DRAFT.***

Feedback:

Great to see another article. Superb as always. (I hope this does not seem too presumptious) Here are a few things I noted...

[edit] 17.3.3.c ships are not "scrapped" they are "abandonded". The main difference is that wheh you intentionally scrap a ship, you get a percentage (in settings.txt) of the resources back. Abandoned ships return no resources, any cargo being carried is lost, and the AI certainly won't choose wisely when deciding which ships to abandon.

17.3.6.2 Add prioritizing ruin planets. Personally I prioritize them just after breathables unless there is danger of another empire taking it, in which case ruins are highest priority. If you don't have the colonizing tech for the ruin planet yet, try to defend it to deny it to the enemy.

17.3.6.4 2nd paragraph: note that production & construction rate can drop after you remove population from your homeworld. Advanced Storage Techniques will add more space for population so that you can remove some population without losing your bonuses.

17.3.7.2 treaty % is incorrectly used here. See FAQ 10.6.10

17.3.7.3 solar generators produce minerals, organics and radioactives, not just radioactives. Also under Temporal, the Temporal Shipyard has a higher construction rate than a spaceyard III, but a planet with a spaceyard facility has to scrap it before building a TSY.

17.3.8.1.a Do system-wide facilities benefit planets owned by other empires in that system???

17.3.10.f 20% of the other empire's income multiplied by your political savvy %.

17.3.13.c Organic races can make some of the best fighters in the game using the Small Electric Discharge weapons. [edit] This, combined with the organic tendency to be able to significantly outproduce others, makes fighters very formidable for organic races. There is also no limit for the number of fighters in a sector. For more on fighters see FAQ section 8.2.

17.3.14.2.f Don't write off a construction queue when it is in "Slow" mode. Slow mode is a great time to build units.

17.3.15 (See also FAQ 4.6)

Once again, great work and thanks for covering the areas that I mentioned before. It is great to see another player's perspective and methods. It sure showed me a few good tips, but overall it made me feel that I don't do such a bad job managing my games after all.

Slick.

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Muchas Gracias! Edited my original post.

[Stone Mill]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I hardly see any mention of the overpowering Monolith economy. Sure it takes time to get set up, but once you get going, nobody can compete (esp. combined with good colonization strategy).

Again, this is just what makes sense to me...

I don't blindly build monoliths because there a few factors which makes that process inefficient:

a. I never build monoliths in the early game, and find that Monoliths aren't really comparatively desirable until Monolith III is available. The build cost (up to 5 turns) with a regular space yard is too prohibitive. Usually, your empire needs immediate application of resources. If I have better construction % (can build them in 2-3 turns), I will be somewhat more likely to use them. Generally, I can only pump out Monoliths this fast with Temporal yards.

Compare:
5 turns to build one Monolith facility(I,II,III; 500,700,900 of each resource, respectively)

5 turns x 5 resource extraction facilities(I,II,III; 800,900,1000 of each resource, respectively)

The resources gained by 5 Mineral Miner IIIs (5000) easily surpasses a Monolith III (900 minerals). If you project how many minerals actually applied to your economy in those 5 turns, it's not even close: (5000 + 4000 + 3000 + 2000 + 1000 = 15,000 for the mineral miners)

Not to mention that monoliths are quite expensive and tie up your yards for more turns.

Monolith growth strategies can be enhanced if a resource converter and lots of extra storage is available, because you are building tons of extra organics and rads.

If you don't have a converter, why extract so many organics and rads that won't be used?

Because of the resource "rules of thumb," you will generally need 10 : 1 : 3
So, why not just extract what you need, and put it to use quicker? Organic races make Monoliths more desirable because their resources may be something like 10 : 5 : 5

I still look at Monoliths like a luxury item. In a competetive game against humans, I stick with:

1. I usually build monoliths only when I have a planet with good values in all 3 resource types (and there aren't that many of 'em). I may sometimes select a planet with 2 out of 3, if I need those 2 types.
2. If for some reason I am comforatble and don't need the resources immediately, and I don't feel threatened.

If I'm playing the AI, I may toy around a bit more, because I certainly don't feel threatened.

[ June 14, 2003, 05:16: Message edited by: Stone Mill ]

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
***PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK! This is a DRAFT.***
c. ships will be abandoned at random due to shortages; as opposed to scrapped. The main difference is that wheh you intentionally scrap a ship, you get a percentage (in settings.txt) of the resources back. Abandoned ships return no resources, any cargo being carried is lost, and the AI certainly won't choose wisely when deciding which ships to abandon.

Better say "The game certainly won't choose .. " then the "AI certainly..." as you otherwise might get the impression that it only applies to AI run empires and not YOUR empire.


17.3.7.2 Planet Values %
Pay attention to the mineral, organic, and radioactive value % on a planet’s details. When determining where to build a facility, use a planet close to or exceeding 100% for a given resource type. That percentage is part of the formula used in producing your empire’s total resources:

(Extraction Facility value) x (planet’s resource type %) x (empire’s racial %) x (Planet Computer Facility %) x (System Computer Facility %) x (planet’s happiness %) x (population %) x = total mineral resources committed to your empire for that facility.

For example, a Mineral Miner I extracts (700) x Planet mineral 120% (1.2) x empire racial bonus 110% (1.1) x Planet Robotoid factory I 110%(1.1) x System Robotoid factory 110% (1.1) x Jubilant happiness 120% (1.2) x 500 population 110% (1.1) x treaty +20% (1.2) = (x) mineral resources committed to your empire for that facility.

x treaty +20% ??? What do you mean?

17.3.7.3 Develop Your Planets

The key to economic growth is maximizing your planet development. Special facilities can help, but they take a while to build. Therefore, in a small universe or one-on-one game, I rarely use any advanced facilities, unless I’m really comfortable and secure.

Medium scope game facilities :
a. Planet Robotoid Factory (Computers). I usually build these Last on a planet. Second to Last, I build a space yard to expedite the build time and facility upgrade time (quite often, I set the yard on emergency build for these.)
b. System Robotoid Factory (Computers). I usually build these Last on a planet. Second to Last, I build a space yard to expedite the build time and facility upgrade time (quite often, I set the yard on emergency build for these.)
Note: System Robotoid Facilities do not increase the benefits of remote mining. (Imperator Fyron)
c. Monolith Facilities: only if the planet has good values across all categories, and I feel I can wait 5 turns.
d. Scanners: I don’t generally use them because the bonus is applied to only one resource area, rather than all three. And you have to cannot use both Robotoids and Scanners at the same location; only one takes effect.

Grammar.

17.3.10 Predict Resource Swings
How did this Happen?
All new players learn a hard economic lesson when they start using advanced tech and their economic needs change. Players can experiences economic droughts of 10, 20 or more turns trying to compensate for current resource needs. For instance, you start using Phased Polaron Beams on your designs, and find your radioactive reserves drained while you halt all production to build radioactive mining facilities. The best bet is to plan ahead.

Most commonly, economic swings are caused by:

a. (Mid game) Building and maintaining components with a heavy radioactive cost, such as shields, armor, certain weapons types such as PPBs, and stellar manipulation components (huge!). Rads are most often underestimated.
b. (Early game) maintaining too many colony ships en route; building too many non-resource producing facilities at the same time
c. Mass building or upgrading of facilities, especially special facilities.
d. Losing (or acquiring) fleets and planets.
e. Retrofits to your current designs, using new components with a different resource cost. Retrofits are subtracted from your stored resources. When you give the retrofit order, the specific resource cost is displayed. HOT! you must take a mental tally of all retrofits you order in a turn and ensure the total cost does not exceed your storage!

If you have a surplus in your resource income/expense, the total cost of the retrofits must be compared to the storage AND predicted income the next turn.
You can retrofit with a storage of 0 if you have a turn result of enough positive resources next turn.

[ June 14, 2003, 09:44: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Fyron]

Stone Mill, you think too much in the short term. Of course they are less efficent immediately. That is where the balancing comes in. But in large epic games, going with Monoliths is pretty much always a better idea. Such games often have long periods of peace, and those periods are good for getting Monoliths going. Compare Monolith III with Miner III, 2700 (or 1800 of one resource with converter Is) to 1000 resources. In the long term, Monoliths really pay off.

I never advocated Monoliths in small games or in the early game, btw.

And naturally, Monoliths go hand in hand with Resource Converters.

And yes, Monolith I and II are not very useful, which is why I never build them.

Also, SY III + HI + 120 const. apt. gets Monoliths in 3 turns on low pop worlds, and in 2 turns on high pop worlds. Take Organic, and you can make all planets high pop worlds (well, large and huge ones, at any rate) in no time. Temporal is not the only way to get fast construction rates.

[Ruatha]

I'll have to side with Fyron on this one. In PBW games with 20 players I try to get monoliths early.
I do build M1 and M2 though, mainly to stake in those slots and to get fast upgrades to M3 later.
In late games I really use alot of Rads and organics too as I put atmosphere converters on 100+ planets in NGC2 and also built some Null-space weapons. PPB's are the base weapon in my fleet.
In networks I've converted alot (not 100 though) planets, those atm converters cost alot!
Mineral shortage is something I seldom experiance but early in the game I can get a lack of orgs and rads.
Even though they take time to build, I do them on my ringworlds aswell, the ringworlds will never be completed before the game finishes but my income will continue to rise along with my fleet size.

[ June 14, 2003, 12:08: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Stone Mill,

Excellent piece, lots of interesting stuff.

The only thing I was surprised by was your (and others) negative view of Remote Mining.

While I'd never remote mine a planet - unless future colonisation was completely impossible - I find asteroids very useful, especially because of their very high resource percentages.

One can build, relatively early in the game, a Light Cruiser with three mineral RM components that will cost around 1500 minerals in maintenance, and mine around 6000 minerals on a 200%+ asteroid. Something that takes 4-5 turns to build and returns an income of 4500 a turn is as good an investment as a mineral mine (unless you're thinking very long term when the degradation of the asteroid mineral percentage becomes an issue).

And a key benefit, which no one has yet mentioned, is that asteroid mining is (obviously) not prone to rioting. So it's a guarranteed source of income even during a major war when you're suffering damage.

This saved my neck in a very recent game, when a large number of my planets had been glassed, and two thirds or more of the rest were rioting. My asteroid mining income kept my fleet alive and the empire operating.