So much to learn!

[Imperious_Leader]

I'm still playing my first game since getting the complete game .I began the game poorly located,but such is life.Ive been at war with what was the number 1 race at the time [they are number two now]since the very beginning.I made some very big mistakes early on.To start with I relied to much on trade I had partnerships with both the Ukra-Tal and the Eee,when the Ukra Tal declared war on me reasons unknown I suddenly had a huge deficite situation. Took several turns to correct and left me seriously weakened.Most of my fleet being mothballed and no production to speak of.Next mistake came in not using intel effectivly and on one occasion not making sure I had a project going.My original deficite was in minerals and after that I concentrated on producing them to the exclusion to all else....big mistake as I would learn later.After fixing my mineral problems I began building a huge fleet to visit the Ukra-Tal so we could discuss our mutual diffrences face to face.With my fleet built and ready to wring peace out of the Ukra-tal I thought I was ready to go check out their real estate,thats when I forgot to keep an eye on my counter inteligence the Ukra-Tal stole most of my resources,may they all burn in my sacred fires!!!!Had to scrap some ships mothballed the rest.At that point they exproprated some of my real estate!This made the financial sittuation even worse.Thought I was just about done at that point,but my people don't give up easily.I almost bankrupted myself mining the only warp point that they could come at me through.I have two mine layers that do nothing but replace the mines that the Ukra tal keep sweeping by running their ships into them .They have managed to break through the mine field several times,This was when I discovered that they had researched cloaking tec.Their cloaked ships compleatly ignored the fleet I had sitting on the warp point just incase they made it through the mine field.I didn't even know they were in system till they began destroying colonies.All I could do was watch them destroy one planet after another till the whole system was gone.By the time my fleet caught up with them it was too late for anything but revenge.I have now colonized the same system three times.Mean while on the Drushocka border....they began as the num one race and are now num two , the manual said they weren't the sharpest pencils in the galactic holder and thank the great bird of the galaxie they are not. They also have only one worm hole that they can reach me through,and I have lost track of how many unarmed unescorted colonie ships I have sent to oblivion.

Lessons so far.

1 economics are soooo important.

2 Check everything every turn.

3 The Drushocka are just plain stupid.

4 Mines are wonderfull things.


My goal with this game wasn't really to win [but it would be nice] but was rather to learn.Began with low tec to see what everything did and what's most important to research....juries still out on that one but sensors have moved up the list....I just reached the point where I can detect cloaked ships . The biggest lesson so far has been the importance of economic diversity.My minerals are great now but I'm at the point in the game now that radioactives are needed and I don't have any.....more mothballing ...sigh In fighting the Ukra-Tal I know that my ship designs are better than theirs I just can't afford to build any.But again my people have not given up....well except the traitors who rebelled and went over to the Ukra-Tal.Note to self build more troops on all home worlds. I may be in 5th place but I'm having a great time.

[Slick]

I love reading these types of posts! There are a lot of resources out there to make the learning curve a little easier. See the stickified threads. But certainly learning things by having problems with them in-game sure teaches the hard way!

[Arkcon]

Imperious_Leader said:
"They also have only one worm hole that they can reach me through,and I have lost track of how many unarmed unescorted colonie ships I have sent to oblivion."

The stock AI does this a lot, its true. It doesn't seem like much of a tactic, but they only have to get through once, colonize some moon, build a spaceyard, and now they can bring the fight right in your backyard.

'Course, you could research ship capture, and take one of those colony ships. You might get a novel colonization tech, maybe some advanced engine technology, plus a few million methane breathers as a sla--... er, liberated workforce.

[Renegade 13]

Sounds to me like you're doing really well for your first game....I remember my first game after I got the full game. Wasn't a pretty picture, I got clobbered good! But don't worry, if beating the stock AI's ever gets too easy, download the TDM modpack, it has a lot of beefed up AI's. Can be tough for even very experienced players to beat. And if you have a craving for some real live competition, come join us over at www.pbw.cc for some multiplayer action.

Welcome to the forums, and good luck!

[Combat Wombat]

My first game, I gave up because all of the buttons were confusing obviously I kept working at it though.

[Atrocities]

We all went through the learning curve. Welcome to the club.

Membership and dues packet will be sent via email.

[Grandpa Kim]

Oh, how I envy you, Imperious leader! There is nothing more fun than the first taste of a great game. Welcome and enjoy!

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Tips for your following actions:

-Try to lure the Drushocka into a treaty every other turn. In my experience even stronger races tend to take a higher level treaty every other turn.

-Send out small, cheap, expendable scouts to other systems to look for new colony sites - the bigger the better, and if they have a breathable atmosphere it's even better. If a system has at least one breathable world colonize that first of all.

-Design a colonizer with the control comps, colony, engines and satellite layers, and load it up with a decent amount of people and a number of defense sats. At the end of each turn, drop the sats in space to defend the CL, and a the beginning of the next turn pick them up again and move on.

If necessary give up your home system completely until further notice. Take as much of your population to your new colonies as possible.

-Once your economic basis is sound, start making research colonies and intel compounds. Start researching weapons technologies and shields ASAP to equip your ships wih superior technologies. Run counter-intel continuously, highest level possible. Fill up ALL your available intel slots with counter-intel, enable Divide Points Evenly and you'll never be worried by intel attacks again.

Try to dupe the Drushocka into giving you advanced technologies, either in form of raw techs or ships, in exchange for "dummy" gifts - giving them systems, tech you know they have, star charts - and assets in your doomed home system. (note: if you get the message that your home star is going to explode, it's even better. I once pulled a stunt on the EEE, giving them all (depopulated) colonies in my doomed home system in exchange for a Huge Oxygen (breathable) planet, lots of advanced tech ships and breathable colonies all the way to their home system. Imagine their surprise when their new system blows up...)

-Strike at the Ukra-Tal to whittle away their defenses piece by piece. Use only small, cheap, fast ships for hit-and-run strikes, eliminating small portions of their defenses at a time. Once you spot a crack in their defenses, force it open with a wedge of strong, large warships and wreak havoc on their planets. As their defenses turn back to defend their planets, send in more ships to attack the retreating defenders before they can reach your main fleet. When you got the Ukra-Tal firmly contained in their home system, Subjugate them and turn a healthy profit from them...





(side note: all this may take hundreds of turns to complete. Also watch out for the Organic Armor the Ukra-Tal can deploy.)

[Renegade 13]

Personally, I would NOT, under most circumstances, ever abandon your home system. Waaaay to valuable, and what's the point anyways??

If you're having some trouble keeping enemy ships back, first make sure you can detect them cloaked. Then sit on the most obvious invasion route for the enemy with as many ships as you can muster. If you are guarding other warp points that haven't you haven't been attacked through in a while, move most (but not all!) of those ships to guard the vulnerable warp point. Of course, in Multiplayer games, this can be taken advantage of. Send a few small fleets through the one warp point to distract the enemy from the real invasion point, which was then weakened by your withdrawing forces from it...you get the picture.

Most of all though, the biggest advice I can give you is to try new things, innovative things, and learn. Find what works best for you, since other people's strategies may not be comfortable for you. Trust me, the process of learning and trying new things, and then having your new innovative strategy actually work are some of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

[Imperious_Leader]

I CAN'T BELIVE I'VE BEEN SO STUPID!

Ok it's turn 647 I have expanded to 9 systems , have colonized 49 planets,and I still have no resources!I couldn't afford to build 10 mines and buy a cup of coffee at the same time.Literaly if I wanted a cup of coffee I would have to put the build que for the mines on hold for a turn buy myself a coffee then resume the mines next turn.How the hell can you reach the point where you can afford to build ships?Turn 648 built another monilith....still no coffee in the near future but won't have to mothball anything or put anything on hold.The system where I'm holding the Ukra-Tal at bay is like and open wound bleeding out the pitiful resources I have.Can't afford to build ships and mines at the same time can't stop building mines ergo can't build ships to take the war to them.I consider myself a deffensive player but even for me just sitting here and letting them come to me is driving me nuts.Sure it's draining them too, they have lost aprox 90 dreadnaughts so far,the cost of which must be frightning.But they're building the d***ed things at the rate of about 5 every 2 turns.If it were not for the mines I'd be history.Turn 649 oh great one of my planets has rebelled and gone over to the Drushocka.It's in an out of the way system and they're compleatly cut off but still I can't just do nothing.....lets see I have a few ships mothballed nearby....how much wuuld it cost to activate one of them for a few turns....feeling more and more like an accountant...sigh......hmmmm.....I think it would be more cost effective to build a few troops ,divert the population carrier that I've been using to build up my colonies.....no mines for the next turn but the Ukra-Tal haven't been through the warp point in a few turns so the mine field is stable.Built the troops,and I've been wanting to try them out anyway.Ok soI retake the planet with no problem no loses on my side hopefully I'll be able to use then some time in the future.Time to check the books and make sure I can afford to build some more mines..........what the hell I have a surplus of almost 20000 everything!I didn't build any moniliths this turn what gives....the only thing diffrent is the planet I reaquired...what wonderus miracle have those sweet Drushocka wrought.One look at the planet and I know what an idiot I've been.When I played the demo I really didn't colonize outside my home systems....maybe a planet or two but nothing signifigant.Mostly I played around with ship designs.I'm embarrased to tell you all what I overlooked but maybe this will be helpful to someone else new so ....what did I not build in any of the systems that I had expanded into?????????????????????????????????????????????

if you said spaceports you're right.Soooooo supid!After building spaceports in all my systems I now have surpluses of almost 90000 in all resources every turn,I guess I can buy that coffee now ....hell why don't you all have a coffee....I'm buying.Ok now that I have totaly embarrased mysely I'm just going to go to my room now and hide.


Question though first, whe I built stuff in other systems without spaceports it did seem to make some small diffrence without a spaceport do you still get a small trickle of income or am I just seeing the normal eb and flow of the ecconomie of my home systems and thinking its new income?