Research issues

I seem to be having trouble keeping up in research wih the other civs. I usually average a 70 or so, but can never get passed 100. I play on the normal level, and, since I'm far behind in tech mostly, I end up getting squashed. How do I raise these research, economy, military levels passed 100?

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You need to develop a healthy economy. Then you can use this to fuel 100% spending. Having a couple of specialised worlds helps.

Examples: Any high PQ planet (18+) is a great planet to make an economic world out of. Different people will have different ideas about how best to do this but I personally use this rough build order 2 factories, a starport, entertainment, farm, bank, bank, economic capital, farm, entertainment, bank X the rest. Focus it on social and one day that world will generate a significant chunk of your income.

For research - first of all I tend to build a lab on every world just to ensure I am getting some research across the board, but it also pays to have some dedicated research worlds following much the same pattern as above but replacing most of the banks with labs and the economic capital with a technological one.

Failing finding any high PQ worlds, base the decision upon where the best resources are.

Poxy Planets (-6PQ) can be turned into research colonies.

Also try to get a starport on all your PQ9+ worlds - this will let you gear up for war considerably quicker, helps you knock out a load of defenders/constructors.

I personally play at Tough (I like the AI to play to its best but I have never liked giving production/economy boosts to the AI)..... within 30 turns or so after the colonisation phase, I will be highest in economy and research but lowest in military. I tend to just build a single defender for every colony until I get into conflict with the AI whereupon I design the best level ship I can and knock a load of them out en masse with 100% military spending for a few rounds. This will take me from bottom of the pile to at least midway through the pile. After conflict has ceased, these remain at key planets to act as skirmishers and keep my military stat high.

Make sure you build economy bases in places where they get the most benefit - across as many of your quality worlds as possible.... get multiple ones overlapping if possible.

The final specialised planet is the Manufacturing one. This should be chosen entirely by the bonuses that are viewable in the planet screen or by any special event you get when you colonise (like Starship +40%). This needs it's factories down and will need a manufacturing capital - watch your spending before you build the 700% factories and manu capital though..... this will take a sizeable percent of your income. This planet (s) will be the ones to crank out your higher end warships from. Don't overdo them in terms of factories - a few quality resources is better than a sprawl of non resource built factories.

Next make sure you enact your overall strategy by using the sliders. I tend to put spending up to 100% immediately and push research up a little to maybe 50% - my research rate will only very rarely go below 50% for the entire game (just to do a few turns of Military build up or Social infrastructure).

On top of that, if you have decent diplomacy you can deal with the civs. Look around at what they have, find a tech that one has to sell that the others dont. Buy it no matter what it costs then sell it on to every other civ. I prefer not to sell my own techs but if you do it this way, you get a free tech plus a load of cash for basically just a few clicks. If you ever sell one of your techs, sell it to every AI and Minor Race on the same turn to make sure its you who nets the cash for selling it.

By late mid game I will tend to be around 230+ in research and economy and my military will be anything from about 40 to 200 depending on what the AI have been doing.

There are endless possible tips to tell you, but the best way is to play, set yourself long term strategies and try to enact them.... develop the parts that work well and discard the ideas that are wrong. You will get there with experience!

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A good way to learn the game is to save the game at the first turn. Play it out, see what happens. Then load the save, try a different strategy. And I mean really different. You might want to try to build up your military as fast as possible. Or you might want to try playing diplomatically. Try something crazy. Don't allocate any money on research after universal translator. Buy and trade your tech. See what works. See what you like.

Start a new game, this time with different settings. Try to pick your race so that it suits the strategy you liked to play with in the previous game. Save the game on first turn. If you see that the starting place is impossible, then it is actually really good for learning. What I don't suggest is saving every 10 turns or before that big important war. Or cherry picking the galaxy. Makes you a dull boy. You need to know before the war that you are winning, that is what strategy is all about. You need to know how to play from bad starting position. That is where all the fun is. Always play until you are really sure there is nothing you can do. After a while, you will know what overall strategy is good in a given situation. If you find a killer strategy that seems to always work, then I suggest you _don't_ use it too much. It isn't fun. Master of Magic and invulnerability + Chosen One comes to mind, if anybody remembers that old great game. BTW it is availabe for free now, you need it + DosBox (dos emulator).

For all those who think the AI is too easy. Try to play every game without ever using saved games, and _always_ play the given galaxy. See how often you win. Ofcourse there are people who can beat the AI almoust always, but I think in many situations it is actually the player that is cheating with saves, not the AI with its high-level bonuses.

Maybe I will learn how to play the game one day, too...

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Great advice, Akaariai.

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For all those who think the AI is too easy. Try to play every game without ever using saved games, and _always_ play the given galaxy. See how often you win. Ofcourse there are people who can beat the AI almoust always, but I think in many situations it is actually the player that is cheating with saves, not the AI with its high-level bonuses.

I've actually never reloaded.... I'm quite surprised to even consider it!

I get way too into the flow of the game to think about external mechanics such as the load autosave.... or other external mechanics like eating and sleeping!!

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