Game Start Strategy/Information requested

I'm going to apologize if this repeats any information that I may have missed in my brief search on the forums.

I am in the process of learning and getting a grasp on the play strategy of GalCiv 2: DL/DA/TA

I come from a diverse background of Stars! Supernova, Space Empires 3, 4 and 5, Sword of the Stars and Master of Orion 1 and 2.

Each of the games has a variety of conditions to keep in mind when you develop or colonize your worlds. From these I've developed a solid strategy regarding what to look at first when building worlds. Primarily, this leads to several key questions.

1) Can I afford this colony, in maintenance or initial colony purchase?

2) What does my empire need from it's next colonies to flourish?

Sword of the Stars was easy. Colonization cost you money, fully developed worlds contributed significant volumes of money to the bank which was split among maintenance and research.

Space Empires was easier. Colonies didn't cost you more than the ship necessary to get there. The only cost occurred when you started developing facilities for those worlds.

Now, i'm somehow failing to get a grasp on GalCiv 2. I can colonize, but then I'm suffering some insane 10bc cost /wk for just having the colony. If i develop, it goes up radically with each facility costing upwards of 3 or 5 bc each.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing some key strategy that's so simple and basic it's eluded me thus far?

I've been front to back on the wiki, studying concepts, ideas and charts. I get that for resource facilities, bigger isn't always better, specially for special resources. Certain worlds require colonization technologies to be researched.

But what am I missing? Are colonies just expensive to maintain and that's it. Do I need to wait for them to grow beyond a certain threshhold of population before they even out or start producing a profit?

Any assistance is appreciated. GalCiv is a great game, visually appealing and well developed. I just hope to figure out my quandary before I migrate back into fields i'm established within.

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Pretty much.

In GCII, you almost need to colonize at a loss. That's what your starting cash is there for-to get you through the first year.

Population is your primary source of income-whether it be via taxation or tourism. Population growth is based largely on the amount of population you have in the first place (at least in the colonization phase). So ideally you colonize with a full colony ship (250M pop in DA/TA, 500M pop in DL). Some people even use 500M pop, two-module colony ships in DA/TA.

For what it's worth, you'll actually make more money with 2x250M pop planets than you will with 1x500M pop planet-you'll lose more money, too, but that's the price you pay for expanding.

But basically, so long as your homeworld doesn't dip below 2.5B population, you should keep expanding. (Personally, I tend to prefer 4B, but it doesn't make terribly much difference either way-as long as you don't fall below the 75M base growth that 2.5B provides. After all, your homeworld honestly isn't making you that much money early on.)

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So, keep my homeworld at a minimum of around 2.5 Bil, colonize with 500 mil ships to each world.

At 500 mil, as I assume, the taxation will help balance out the support costs assuming it doesn't turn a profit.

And it's going to cost me, that's a general given, within the first game year once colonies are up enough to be profitable.

Well, I'll give it a try here in a few hours when I have a chance to play next. Thanks for the info.

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Well, that made sense and worked like a charm. One turn I was losing money.. the next I was magically well into the black.

And then imagine my surprise several turns later when I discover you cannot bomb a planet from orbit. "what? I have to develop troops??"

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Quoting leprekawn,

reply 3

And then imagine my surprise several turns later when I discover you cannot bomb a planet from orbit. "what? I have to develop troops??"

Yes, this is not Master of Orion. Get Planetary Defenses quickly if you want to invade, The good thing about this is that there is a time window when nobody can do any planetary invasions in the early game, giving you some time to build up.

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