This game is frustrating me.

I find myself really wanting to like this game but I have a hard time doing so sometimes. I like all the races but their racial traits (with a few exceptions) do not seem to fit their history as well as how they should play in the game (I am looking at you Iconians). One of the other aspects of the game that tends to frustrate me is the fact that it seems like their is no reward in expanding (other than to deny your opponent resources) as colonizing can quickly lead you into economic ruin. I have since learned to stop building infrastructure to help somewhat. I also really dislike the technology tree with its multiple research projects that you must get through before you can actually start doing meaningful research (the weapons path comes to mind). Does anyone have any tips as far as what I can do to better my game? Does anyone else seem to be having the same problems that I am having with this game?

On a positive note Arnor looks to have quite a few additions in gameplay that are great! I am absolutely loving the idea of racial techtrees and I really hope they are fully realized and implemented well.

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Building a civilization is not an easy task. You should not expect it to be handed to you on a silver platter - you have to work for it.

Think about it; you are an intergalactic leader of an entire race of beings spreading to multiple worlds. You complain that expanding is frustrating because managing the economy is difficult? Be happy that all you have to do is play with a couple sliders and decide whether or not to slap down a building here or build a ship there. I'm not saying that it isn't difficult, in fact it is a delicate balance to really manage your infrastructure well, but the reward comes with the successes you get from your ventures.

Each new planet is an investment. Many of them are risky ones, especially in the beginning. How many planets can you afford to colonize and maintain without breaking the bank? That is something you will learn with experience. If you can manage to keep the colonists happy and your economy in the black, then eventually you will start turning a profit. That's exactly why you start out with that 5000 credit surplus; you're expected to be in the red for a while. When you do start profiting though, that's where you reap your benefits. Every planet can produce quite a bit of money, and it really builds up after a while (some of the profit numbers I've seen in the past have been silly, especially in DL).

It is certainly difficult to manage all the aspects that the game provides you effectively, but that's what makes the game interesting. It'd be boring if you could just follow one "perfect" method and be done with it. Try not to be annoyed with the expansion, try expanding a little less in the future and work with that; find your limits. It's very satisfying to come to that perfect balance one day and know you're going to kick ass from here on out.

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Okay, so there's your motivational speech. There are plenty of threads dedicated to strategy, which I suggest you read since you haven't said anything really specific as to what's going wrong in your games.

That said, here are some tips:

- Don't overcolonize. Just because the computer has 20 planets and you only have 9, that's okay. Work with what you've got. The AI will probably go broke for a while trying to build anything worthwhile on those worlds.

- Only build ships when you have to, and try not to rush build them unless they're almost near completion. One big mistake people make is rush building ships early in. That's super expensive and the money could have been used to keep your economy up for months.

- A happy population grows faster. If you keep your population (on worlds, not overall) at 100%, they grow twice as fast (and four times as fast if you're super-breeder). Keep your people happy, and you will have more people paying taxes!

- Only upgrade to the next industrial/research technology when you can afford it. Getting enhanced factories and above when you don't need them yet can cost you a lot when all of your planets suddenly start building again (after having an empty queue).

- Keep a high diplomacy, and make the computers fight each other. If other civs like you, they won't be as interested in steam-rolling your civilization. Pay them to go to war with everyone else. Killing you will be low on their priorities if they're at war with every other civ.

- Research early techs that provide empire-wide bonuses. The first impulse-drive, war, or entertainment tech, for example, will net your entire civ some nice bonuses, get them before focusing too heavily into one tree.

- Watch your cash! This is important. Your goal is to keep the production slider at 100%, but you need to make sure you're not going to go too far into the red at any particular time. A good way to supplement this is have a couple survey ships flying around grabbing you money, or selling off less-useful techs to the AI for cash. Keep the money flowing however you can!

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To be fair I never expected it to be easy its just I have always thought the 12 billion credit maintanence for a new colony was pretty steep. Add in infrastructure (which I have been delaying building longer and longer) and your economy just gives up the ghost. I also wish the tech tree was more interesting but that will more than likely be dealt with in the Arnor expansion.

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As stated in the above threads the ideas will work to keep the game interesting but you seem to find the infrastructure frustrating and it can be...try adjusting the sliders to achieve a balance that best fits what you are trying to do. I use a higher research value of 40% for the first part of the game and let the military and social sliders each stay at 30%...this gives me faster access to various techs without hurting my ship or planet building capabilities. Also while it seems trivial the more trade you do with other races will help your economy in the early stages more than is readily apparent. Utilizing a planet to produce a wide varity of materials also helps keep the total output for your empire much more stable. The loss of a planet due to war or flipping is less costly when it is not the only planet producing money/research/ships. And while this is my style of play I like influence star bases beefed up to the max around my planets in an overlapping arrangement. This makes it difficult for you enemies to flip a planet and it acts like a magnet to invading ships which can help alert you to an invasion and/or weaken an invasion fleet. Hope all these will help You enjoy the game better... I think it is the best game out there bar none.

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I played this game a long time before I read, reread, and read again some strategies that finally made a big difference. In the past I would colonize quickly and tax the pants off my people to barely break even. My approval across the board would be in the red and, while I had a fair amount of planets, I never made any money. My civilization would stagnate and I had to wait out this economic "hump" until I started turning a profit. I started every game dead last.

Now I grab about 4 or 5 worlds and make sure that everyone is at 100% approval. I don't buy colony ships and I only buy my first factory on my first world. Then I sit and lose money for a while. You start out with that 5K but you don't have to spend it. Once my population has grown since everyone is so happy I can crank up the taxes and start colonizing a little more. I have to research a little in the economic tree to start turning a profit but the colonize/100% approval/sit and lose money approach absolutely changed the way I started the game. It puts me in a good position to do whatever it is I want rather than colonize and struggle to survive.

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if you doint like it change it to suite you this game is very easy to mod I almost never play with the games races I just make my own.So to get to the point if you doint like it change it.

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So to get to the point if you doint like it change it.

Metaverse.

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I like all the races but their racial traits (with a few exceptions) do not seem to fit their history as well as how they should play in the game

True, the races do seem to be sort of generic without a whole lot of variation in their character. There is some, but not a lot. TA should address that with more differences from one race to the next.

One of the other aspects of the game that tends to frustrate me is the fact that it seems like their is no reward in expanding (other than to deny your opponent resources) as colonizing can quickly lead you into economic ruin.

Economy is tough in this game. You can easily lose in the first couple game years just by overextending your expansion. Planets and infrustructure can bankrupt you which may seem counterintuitive, but it does work out if you can hang in there. Once population levels get up there and economy improvements are made, those planets do start making money and if you build them right, a lot of money.

I also really dislike the technology tree with its multiple research project that you must get through before you can actually start doing meaningful research

It does take a while to get to the real useful techs, but I think it needs to be that way. There wouldn't be much point to reasearch if you could get the best stuff very early in the game. Also, when playing in larger galaxies with more habitables, you can build quite a research powerhouse and blow through these boring techs pretty quick, especially if you set the research rate to "very fast" in the game setup.

I think you're finding the early game most frustrating and I can totally understand that, it's hard. However, the reward comes later in the game when you have some real economic, production, and research horsepower. Early game is just something you have to get through to get to the good stuff. Once you get over that economic hump, you can concentrate on what's fun, that is, building warships and kicking some alien butt.

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Great posts in this thread. I would also like to add that you should keep in mind that the AI is facing all the same problems you are. If you find a way to hurt their economy, or lower their moral, or slow their research, then the repercussions are the same for them as they are for you. This allows for a great variety of strategies. Can't stand up the thier ships in battle? Try to destroy their economy by attacking trade routes, or maybe bribe another race to delcare war on them.

As for the high cost of colonization, how long would it be until we saw a "profit" from colonizing a planet even as close as Mars? It would be 10's or even hundreds of trillions of dollars just to go there for a quick look-see and come right back. This game is well thought out, and not just another me-too strategy game. Have fun!!!

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The best thing I have found is focusing planets buldings.
I have 2-3 early on that just create buildings to improve planetary output. Look for planets that already have a string output over spending without anything already.

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