Newbie has questions!

[Pax]

Originally posted by doctahg:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this sort of game so had a few questions...Everyone says populate your own galaxy as much as possible...since there's only 1 oxygen planet should I research Gas and ice colonization first? These take forever!

Personally, I pick up a couple levels of Ship Building (at least enough for Destroyers), get to Propulsion 3 (cheaper Ion engines), and focus a lot of effort on getting Applied Research 2 ASAP. That Last is a matter of preference; my concept behind it is, the sooner I improve my research output, the better off I will be in the long run ... it places you at a military disadvantage in the short run, however.

[b]I'm totally lost on research..I understand it BUT I have no clue where to start. I read a FAQ, but it's all encompassing and it doesn't really help with the first 50 or so turns.[/qb]

On turn one (2400.0):
- Design a space station with a Spaceyard I component, the required bridge/lifesupport/quarters, and one missile. Add it to your planet's build queue; it should take 0.2 years to complete.
- Put Propulsion, Shipbuilding, and Military Science (theoretical) in your research queue, in that order. If you started with 100K resources, add Construction to th end of that queue.
- End turn.

Turn two (2400.1):
- Propulsion 2 and Shipbuilding 2 both complete; put them back in, at the top of hte queue -- Propulsion first. If Military Science completes, add Point Defense Cannons 1, right below Shipbuilding 3.
- End turn.

Turn three (2400.2):
- the orbital spaceyard completes.
- hopefully, Propulsion 3 completes, but -- no trouble if it doesn't.
- design a Frigate as a scout. Bridge, quarters, lfiesupport, maximum engines. Pack the rest with supply bays; weapons don't matter for this guy.
- Have the HW build two scouts; they should each take 0.1 year to complete
- Have the orbital spaceyard build one scout; it will probably take 0.2 years to complete.
- end turn

Turn four (2400.3)
- send the first scoutship out through a warp point.
- end turn

Turn five (2400.4)
- Send the second and third scoutships out through other warp points.
- Propulsion 3 should be complete by now! Don't put it back in the queue.
- design your first colony ship, using the cheaper Ion3 engines. With Emergency Build, you may be able to produce one EVERY TURN, at the Homeworld ... so:
- set the Homeworld to build a colony ship; turn on "repeat build"; set it to emergency build if needed to get one ship per turn.
- design a population transport with the minimum number of cargo bays, the maximum number of engines, no weapons, and as many supply bays as you can fit in (it'll be making round trips, so it needs lots of fuel).
- have the orbital spaceyard build the transport, and set that spaceyard to "repeat build".
- end turn.

Turn six (and later)
- continue exploring, and grab every breathable world -- or world with ruins -- you have the tech for.
- if you can, trade colony-tech types with another race.
- once you have destroyers or light cruisers, and PDC 3 or better, I suggest pushing for Applied Research 2. After that, make sure you have the ability to build creditable warships, churn out a dozen or two, and work on gettign applied research 3 and applied intelligence 1.

It's not the first 50 turns, but it's probably a decent start.

Now for the "whyfors" of it. The orbital spaceyard lets you build ships, even if your HW has to pause, and upgrade facilities (the labs, for example). Delaying your first colony ship might not seem like a good idea, but getting thm to have Ion3 engines, while you build other stuff you will need ANYWay, is a good idea IMO.

SHould I populate mining colonies with more people? Does that do anything? I thought settling on a nonoxygen colony is under a dome? DO you need to research the gas/ise first for this to work? and so on...a few pointers would be helpful!
Thanks for any help!
Doc

The transports (above) are for moving population around -- yes, low population slows building rates, and lowers resource production. Don't gut your homeworld, but bring other worlds up as fast as you safely can.

You can colonise any ATMOSPHERE, it's the underlaying PLANET TYPE that matters technology-wise.

Any world with the "wrong" atmosphere, will have 1/5 as many facilities and population, as it would have if it had the right kind of air. IOW, a moon will have 5 spaces if you breathe it's atmosphere type ("none" in stock SE4), or only 1 if you don't.

[doctahg]

Thanks evryone..that should help a bit...I'll be back though!
Doc

[Baron Grazic]

Just remember this is the way Pax plays, and it doesn't mean it is the correct way.

Trade for the other colonisation techs from the AI and they are usually happy to do so.

Personally I just build colonisers for the first year and colonise everything.

As for research, try something different every game and you'll discover what works best for you.

[ArchAngel7]

Or do what I do and set your tech levels on high so you don't even have to bother with research. Everything is right there, right now.

[Baron Grazic]

Part of the fun of being a newbie with SE IV was discovering what you get if you research just one more level of something.

[capnq]

That's one of the great things about SE IV. Everyone has their own playing style.

The way my games usually start, on the first turn I turn off Divide Points Evenly, and put my initial research points into either one of the largest projects I can finish in one turn, or one or two of the Theoretical Sciences (especially if I took a racial tech), plus something cheap to catch any leftover points.

If I have any breathable worlds or colonizable Ruins in my home system, I build colonizers first; otherwise, I build a scout ship. I don't start putting up construction bases until I'm having trouble storing all of my production.

[Ruatha]

I build colonizers, then shipyards as first facility on all planets i colonize, then they make colonizers.
trade for colony tech.
Initially I might build a mineral storage facility or two or three.
When you start to go down to zero in resources and have a negative balance it's time to switch half the production to mineral mines, the rest continue to spew out colonizers.
When every possible spot has been colonized build research facilities.
Later on other things as intelligence facilities.

Research-
I try not to divide research points as I might loose almost an entire turn of research points, if I don't check it every turn (any wasted turns on completed projects are wasted if you divide the points, but not if you have them sequentially)

I go heavily for solar panels. first astrophysics then solar panels 1-3, engines up to level 3 or 4.
I never build supply depots, add 1-3 solar panels 3 to your ship depending on size and it will never run out of supplies.
When I have solar sail 2 I build scouts and sends them out to find strange new civilizations I can trade with.
Not having supply depots gives me more productive facilities.
Any ship that shall be mothballed goes to the homeworld where there is a supply depot from the beginning.
Later I try to research atmospheric modification plants and stellar manipulation for monoliths.
For military tech I go with physics and phased polaron beams initially, later on everything!

(I've never finished a single game though (am a newbie) but I've used this strategy in my current games that I'm still playing)

in other strategy games I've played I've found that expansion is a good winning strategy!

[ November 25, 2002, 10:33: Message edited by: Ruatha ]