One Addicting Game for newbie to SEIV

[krisarthur]

I just got this game Last night. This game is by far the most in-depth strategy game I've played in a long-time. VERY ADDICTING. Great job... playability is sure lost with some new titles out there... but sure not this one!

Anyway... for a very new, newbie I have some questions:

1. If I can only build 3 facilities on a planet what do you guys build? Any particular order?

2. I keep hearing about building more space yards.... how do I do that on a planet as it says I can only have 1? Is there an advantage to having Space Yards in ships?

3. Don't tell to read the manual as I attempted to Last night - and will this weekend - but could not tear myself away from the game long enough to look into steep details.

4. How do I get the biggest mega galaxy map with most possible planets?

5. How can I limit these HUGE maps to say 4 players total = me + 3 AI?

6. Any other tips for colonizing, ship design, etc. for a new SEIV fan?

[Taqwus]

I. Depends on what tech you have, whether its your first colony in the system, your strategy...

- Resupply base
- Space yard
- Space port

probably isn't too shabby a pick for the first planet in a system at low tech (at higher tech, 'atmosphere converter' is probably a Good Idea for non-breathables). You need the resupply base to keep increasing the effective range of your fleet, the yard may be helpful to build more ships or to repair them, the port isn't too critical unless you habitually forget spaceports (one per system for most races).

II. a) More colonies.
b) the 'Space Yard' ship component, which fits on not-terribly-small ships, and space stations.

(skipping...)

VI. Hrmmm. Generalities in no particular order...

- Take the time to customize your race with a particular strategic plan. Plan on building lots of ships? Maybe reduce your maintenance costs. Want to use Organic tech? Maybe you'll want to boost organic production, as well. And so forth.

Note that this might be less of a good idea in multi, because as soon as First Contact is made, they can see your traits and might be able to guess what you're up to. A race that's very, very tailored for warmongering might just be screaming "Kill me before I betray you!" to everybody else.

- You want to colonize more systems to form a buffer zone. The galaxy is a graph; you are safer if your more valuable systems cannot be reached by hostiles without going through multiple layers of your less-valuable systems. A fleet that Last turn stopped right at a warp point, might have a LOT of movement points left when it emerges on your side -- enough to strike multiple planets, even, depending on the map.

- For a ship, there's almost NEVER a reason to use fewer than the maximum number of engines. The AI probably will, and you don't want to hand its ships a speed advantage.

- Master Computers are NICE -- after a point they save space, and are immune to certain psychic weaponry -- but very expensive. Use with care.

- Colony pods can use cargo bays to hold additional colonists. Carriers can use 'em to hold more fighters. Mine layers can use 'em... well, you get the picture.

- Design your ships with an eye on the other races, as well. Some may strongly emphasize missiles, in which case you need point-defense; some may emphasize beams; and so forth.

- Don't forget mundane utility ships, for tasks such as repair, resupply, shuttling population, laying mines, and so forth.

- Minefields at warp points are a very, very cheap defense.

- The best defense is having powerful fleets stompin' around so much that your opponents don't have the guts or the time to enter your space. Failing that, mines can cut off warp points pretty well, and roaming fleets can intercept anybody that gets in.

- It is better to take a planet by demanding tribute or surrender than by bombarding and invading; you get more surviving colonists and intact facilities. Colonists that can breathe another atmosphere are VERY useful to you.

- A planet, even one without a shipyard and at max facilities, can still be useful. Maybe you could use more mines, fighters or other units.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[LintMan]

1. The facilities you would want to build are really dependent on the situation and on what you need. If it's a world bordering an enemy, you might build a shipyard, resupply depot, and maybe even cargo facility to store mines, satellites, troops and/or platforms. If you have other planets in the system, you can put your spaceport on the small planet to leave more room on the big ones for other things. If you have high enough tech, you can put system-wide improvement facilities on the small planets so they don't take up room on the big ones (ie: system robotoid factory, nature shrine, med lab, system computer center).

2. I think there was a bug in the game (demo Version only?) that allowed people to build more than one shipyard on a planet, which made production go much faster. I wouldn't recommend that.

You can put space yards in ships and star bases, also. I put star bases with space yards at my homeworld and other places where I need to have extra production queues. They let me build more ships while I'm also building facilities on my planets. Putting a space yard on a ship lets it be mobile, so you can, say, move the ship to a wormhole and build a battle station there, or put it in an attack fleet to help you build new ships and bases as you advance.

3. The manual covers all the assorted game windows and options very well, but it doesn't give much playing tips or game details, but definitely read the FAQ part of the printed manual. For gaming tips and strategies, read this forum and I also recommend SE4 Center forums at: http://pub4.ezboard.com/fse4centerfo...ceempirestriad

4. The max number of systems is 255, which you can set by editing the Settings.txt file in the data directory of the game. If you do that, you also need to add more system names to the SystemNames.txt file in that directory or you will end up with blank system names. If you can't think up an 150 new system names, look down a bit in this forum, you'll see a post by me saying "need system names? Get 'em here" that contains a very long list of system names you can use.

Other than changing the max planet number, just make sure you select the biggest galaxy size when you start a new game. Also, don't pick the Ancient galaxy type, which results in more black hole and dead systems.

5. You can set the general amount of computer players when you create the game, but it seems that number scales with the number of systems. I think in my huge galaxy, the medium setting gave me 8 computer opponents and the lots setting gave me 14 opponents. So maybe few would give you the right amount.

But with such a large galaxy, that will be quite sparse, since with only 4 players in total, it would average to be 60 systems per player!

In my current game with 9 players in a huge galaxy, it took me at least 50-60 turns just to make first contact with _anyone_. The AI doesn't seem to excel at this sort of peaceful buildup so I'm solidly in first place and pulling away quickly. In my next game I'm going to add more opponents so that I have some earlier challenge.

In a hage map game with only 4 players, you can probably dominate the game such that victory is assured without ever encountering the enemy.

6. For more tips on the game, go back and read the old Posts in this and the SE4C forums.

Have fun!

[Sultan]

Other than changing the max planet number, just make sure you select the biggest galaxy size when you start a new game. Also, don't pick the Ancient galaxy type, which results in more black hole and dead systems.

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Ayup. Didnt even think of that having an effect like that. Silly me.Btw thanks for that list of names