Newbie has questions!

[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 ]

[Pax]

Originally posted by Baron Grazic:
Just remember this is the way Pax plays, and it doesn't mean it is the correct way.

Absolutely true, and it's not even the ONLY way I play -- it's what I start from, as far as what I expect to do.

For example ... if I find I'm in a system with mad numbers of right-atmosphere worlds to colonise, I build colony ships MUCH sooner (don't need a lot of range to colonise in-system, after all). "More than two" usually triggers that change.

But it's a good thing to try and start with; it seems lots of people do agree on the orbital spaceyard to increase overall ability to build ships (if nothing else, to slowly build up a small stable of light warships in case of early conflict), and seeing others' general starting strategies is often useful in discovering your own.