Any tips for a newbie?

Ouch...a lot of good questions here...I'm by no means a pro yet but I'll try to answer some of these probes.

1st off... you should espionage your immediate neighbors and find out what THEY are researching/building. Then you can decide what off/def you should use to counter. Assume that any "Wary" or less diplomatic level from a neighbor is about to declare war on you.

Trade goods I have no idea about using yet, but the "Planetary" bonuses of things like a "Manufacturing Capitol" are quite good. Take care where you place them to take advantage of potentially large populations and high PQ.

IMHO I bypass the lower PQ's to take more distant higher PQ planets. I figure that the lower ones are just colonized for me by others, and will eventually be mine regardless. If the AI colonizes Mars (PQ4 in the starting system) for me I can only thank them for saving me the effort of a Colony Ship, which I can send out to some more fruitful location.

Influence Starbases have worked well for me so far, but they can really piss off the culture on the losing end.

I can tell you this for sure...if you build a starbase of any kind, then you better augument it quickly with weaponry. As a matter of fact, I create bases ONLY when I've got 5 or 6 constructors grouped -- so as to upgrade it quickly. The Resource Bases that you discover should be grabbed quickly though...even without defenses added by you, so as to keep the AI from taking them, which they will do rather quickly.

Apparently, the game doesn't care if you have 5 factories with 5 Billion pop, or the same 5 with 25 Billion. Maybe someone can clarify this for me as well, but it's what I read on some other post. If that is the case, I think it calls for some attention in the dev department. Why build those Adv Farming tiles then eh? (except for troops of course).

Lastly, usually your Homeworld gets the brunt of the Colonizing drain. You need to balance it's output/population as best you can in the beginning of the game. Don't let the Pop slip down too low for sure. Eventually it will be a rather high producer fairly early in the game so you want that for banging out higher cost ships. The 2-5th planets you colonize will be your main producers from what I see, as you won't strip them of population for colonizing quite so early in the game.

Ok well these are just some thoughts from a relative newbie to the game and I hope they help you a bit

Enjoy the game! (and don't forget to badger SD for Multiplayer) heheh

Oh..and I forgot to mention...always build 2 factories on every planet before anything else. All other building goes much faster. Perhaps you want a starport after the first factory, but only if you absolutely need it. After those 2 initial tiles, it is your choice to build a Financial or Research structure. Personally I always build at least one of each, especially on potentially high Pop planets. And I usually go for the Financial first as that can help speed builds of ships/tiles later.

Ok!

Apparently, the game doesn't care if you have 5 factories with 5 Billion pop, or the same 5 with 25 Billion. Maybe someone can clarify this for me as well, but it's what I read on some other post. If that is the case, I think it calls for some attention in the dev department. Why build those Adv Farming tiles then eh? (except for troops of course).

This is the way the economy works. People = tax dollars (based on tax percentage). Research and Manufacturing buildings take the money you earn and turn it into the production. The amount of conversion is based on how many of each building + modifiers. That's why a 700% tile might wreck your economy based on your slider bars, without a good population to support the money it will require. So in essence, your people is equal to production, but only in so far as they earn you money to produce with.

Be wary though, given overcrowding, you will lose morale, which is also influenced by your tax rate. Loss of morale due to population is capped at -80% which is around 24B people or so (if I'm not mistaken). Once you get there, you can add population to your heart's content. I played one game where I put 100B (which is the max) on a planet, and only needed around 9 VRC to counter it at 75% tax rate. Of course, that left little room for stock markets. Bleh.

At any rate, given all that, one of the things you can do with PQ 4-10 planets is turn them into production planets. 5B people is plenty. Place all factories (except for bonus tiles, excluding food of course). On your PQ 15-25 planets, turn them into population centers (again bonus tile dependent) and make them churn money out for production. I've had no problem with my economy once I learned to do this. Assuming I make it past the first rush/attack cycle.

Hope this helps.

-thefinkster

Well, I went back through the manual and actually read all the formulas and looked at the diagrams, and it has basically solved my economics/growth/production problems(there are a bunch of useful little buttons I had no idea existed!). However, I still have trouble with military matters. I'm not sure what the problem is-it just seems I'm always outclassed. I'm working on building Defenders, and he comes at me with fleets of heavy fighters, etc. I don't get it, it seems like he must be sacrificing his economy to fight me, but he can carry it on for a long while before he gives up. Then, three turns later, he declares war again!

So, really, now I need to learn how to balance military and social issues. Any tps on juggling the two and still keeping my economy intact?

Manufacturing and Research are pretty easy to understand. Each factory or research facility you build lets you produce more. A rough formula is: building capacities * (industrial capacity / 100) * (spending distribution / 100). So, lets start with a newly colonized planet with only the initial colony on it and look at social production. The initial colony building produces 12 manufacturing points. The industrial capacity slider is at 100%, and the distribution to social production is 33%. So, plugging values into the formula gives you (12 * (100/100) * (33/100)). 12 * 1 * .33 = 4. So, your new colony is producing 4 social prodution points. Building a basic factory, which has a cost 50, would take 13 turns.

Now looking at the planet using these assumptions, your new colony will produce 4 military production points, 4 social production points and 3 research points. As you build factories and research facilities, these numbers go up. For example, a planet with 4 industrial centers and 2 discovery spheres will have building capacities of 76 for manufacturing (12 from initial colony + 16 * 4 industrial centers) and 46 for research (10 from initial colony and 18 * 2 discovery spheres). For a quick reference to the manufacturing and research capacity of the planet, look in the summary at Industry and Research.

Now, I did not touch the effects of the various capitols or the effects of economy starbases. The short explanation is that they add percentages on top of what your planet can produce. As for focus, I don't know the formula for how it works, other that is adds roughly half of the production in the other 2 areas to the area of focus.

On the topic of research, The only tech I wait 40 weeks for is Technological Victory. For everything else, I have enough research capacity built up that I usually don't wait more that 10 weeks for a tech to complete.

On the topic of why to build those advanced farming tiles: Taxes. Plain and simple. The more people you have, the more you get in taxes.

I am certainly not a pro either, but I hope this helps. And if it makes you feel better, I have the same problem with having no military sense.

Edit: I see that I spent so much time trying to write this post that is became obsolete before I posted it.

I'll try to answer a few.

Don't pass up small planets. You will be surprised at how many quality ship producing planets are low in planet quality number. At worst they are a set it and forget it economic boost.

For technology. Find the ones that suit your playstyle best obviously. I prefer playing with 70% population bonus for my civilization. This keeps my tax revenue growing rapidly so I can research military and social production technologies.

Early on don't research anything that takes more than 8 or 9 weeks (preferably 6 or less) until you can get its research time lowered. Make exceptions for something thats slightly longer but extremely useful such as large ship hulls. If you wait too long on one technology the AI will run right by you.

The AI turns on you if they sense weakness. Got 100 fighters with only the weakest weapons? They'll attack. You have to keep a respectable defensive force on all your planets (focusing mostly on the outter border planets most) as well as keeping them up to date technologically. You only have to carry a big stick. It doesn't matter if you don't care to use it.

Well you shouldn't focus on one type of weapon or defense, that way you can be ready for what ships the enemy throws at you, it also goes the same with all tech, spread your research around the tech tree so you aren't falling behind, to help with that you should take the creativity ability bonus to research more than one tech at a time. You should never turn your homeworld into a manufacturing capital unless unless it has the random 700 or 300 bonus to it( but if you playing with stars, habitable and unhabitable planets go for it). Also when you start a game BUY a factory if you don't your progress will be sssssssslllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwww.

Hiya! heres a few hopefully useful points.

1. I tend to work on military and technology fairly evenly, and on culture only later on in a game if I think I can nab some planets with it. I usually lag a bit behind in tech early to grab more planets, then catch up later.

2. for weapons you are probably best focussing on one - even if the AI has matching defenses, the added damage of being further along one particular branch will cancel most of the advantage you would get reasearching less far up an alternative branch to get a weapon they cant defend. on defenses you could spread a bit if necessary.

3. engine techs are very useful to get early. xeno ethics you will also want to get to quickly. wonders/trade goods, aphrodesiac is good, and eyes of the universe. I quite like the moral ones too. galactic bazaar and diplomatic translators are very useful if you're playing with tech trading on.

4. No. if you keep a reasonable military (design your own ships!), they will probably not attack. sending freighters to them will also help.

5. depends on the number of planets. I tend to colonise (usually skipping 4-7 range) until my initial 5000 is running low, or all planets are gone. then start building up my infrastructure so I can keep spending 100% for all but a very short time.

6. whichever is easiest/possible

7. buy a few factories. what you do after this is personal pref, but in most situations try to be building a colony ship in not more than 4 turns.

8. No way! i rarely research anything taking more than 5-6 weeks, 10 absolute max if I really need it. if everything takes this long, you need to increace tech spending or build more labs.

9. again, personal pref, but you'll certainly want a fair bit of manufacturing power on there.

of course this is just how i prefer to do things, just take all the ideas various people are posting and use the ones you like/fit in your style

Here are some more big-picture ideas (all of the previous posts are also good):

1) In the early game I focus on building my empire and economy. So I research the ship speed improvements (faster colonies for that colony rush and resource grab), some of the diplomatic line so that I get better governments (with their production and economy bonuses) and trade capability, and start laying the groundwork for eventual military (range improvements, miniturization, sensors)

2) My clue to start building a military is when the first AI builds a military ship. You see that under the military graph on the main screen. Then I shift research to some sort of offensive weapon and start building ships to keep the AIs from declaring war on me (keep diplomatic at "cool" or better).

3) From there you can branch off to victory using culture, diplomacy, military, or tech

4) As far as my planet management goes...PQ <=6 1 factory and the rest research. PQ 7-12 1-2 factories with balanced economy/research. PQ>12 economy/population. My production worlds are the ones that have juicy production bonus tiles (300% or 700% or multiple 100% tiles). Any worlds that have planetary research bonuses I may shade towards more research buildings. If I've got a high PQ planet with several research bonus tiles I make it my research captial and max out the research on it.

-Should I assume my closest neighbor is going to turn on me soon, no matter how nice I am? Is the fact that he always seems to do so my fault? If so, what can I do to make him happy?

It sounds like in general you are not paying attention to the reports section of the diplomacy screens.

There you can see why each civ likes and dislikes you. To avoid war, I try to keep civs at least neutral towards me. Wary is acceptable, but needs to be watched more closely.

This is also where you can tell if you need more military ships. If you see

-our military strength

That means the civ sees you as weak militarily and an easy invasion target. As you grow your military, you will eventually see

+our military strength

which means the civ sees you as strong militarily and an difficult invasion target.

So pay attention to this screen is my suggestion. If you want to avoid wars (at least those you don't start), just study this screen to learn what causes the various pluses and minuses.

-If my neighbor has a planet I really want(say, a level 22 just outside my area of influence) should I wage cultural warfare to get it, and risk him attacking me during the wait, or should I be more overt and send some troop transports and declare war?

You don't need to risk the attack. See above to see how to avoid war.

-Is it better to choose between military/cultural/technological focus immediately? Or should I work on all of them evenly?

I tend to mix them up depending on what I'm doing. If I'm find ship wise, I might run 20/40/40 to focus on social and technology. If I'm preparing for war, I might do something like 80/10/10.

Another thing I do is when my technology goes down 1 week, and I don't plan to research the next techology in that branch for a while, I move my technology slider down so I "just get" that technology. Though you have to watch when you set it so close, I've had it not give me that technology before (rounding error?) even though it said one week. I will generally put it at the minimum, then bump it up 1-2% to be sure I get it.

-Should I rush for any particular technology? Paricularly, trade goods and any galactic wonders, but other things I should shoot for are welcome. Usually I shoot up the engine tree, but clearly that isn't working for me.

I've played this different ways and I doubt there's a single good strategy. Remember you can also trade for technologies, which is a very powerful strategy. Although, now I usually disable it for that very reason.

I generally research the entertainment branch first. And also try to get some of the +approval special buildings. I also try to have all my capitals (except political) built as soon as my manufacturing capability can handle it.

-If I go military, should I decide on a weapon type(gun/beam/missile) and stick with it, or try to even it out? What about defense?

When I'm ready to start my military, I look at what the AI's are using (particular the ones that don't care for me). Then I choose the one weapon and one defense type that will give most advantage.

There are some people that use all three defenses, though I like to stick with one because the lower level defenses take up a lot more space than the higher level ones.

Remember you can probably capture or trade for high level techs late in the game which can give you an oppertunity to diversify without having to research the entire brances.

-How long should I work on the colony rush? Should I pass up closer, low quality planets for more distant, high quality ones? How far should I be willing to go? (funny story, last game I tried going for only high qualities, and my neighbor grabbed the lvl. 4 inside my home system) -During colonization, what should I build first? I'm still not clear on how this works. What factors determine building speed? Is it just # of factories? Is there anything I can do so that first building doesn't take almost a year to complete?

As for what planets to grab, I tend to pass up the low level planets unless I'm playing on a really sparse map. Letting the AI grab the low planets in your systems is generally not a problem unless you are at playing on a really high difficultly level. Although if you are playing more of a pacifist, then maybe try not to let that happen too much.

There are two strategies I like for colony rush depending on the map size/density. This all assumes you have ion drives, rush research this.

1. If there are very few planets to colonize, just buy colony ships every turn at your home world. Don't go broke though.

2. Otherwise, build 4 factories on your homeword. (sometimes if you have bonus tiles, you can get away with less.) Start building a colony ship. Each turn buy one of the factories (but not the first one, let it build. This generally lets you get 4 factories in three turns). Now you should be cranking out a colony ship every two turns.

I generally don't need to build colony ships at new colonies unless it's a large/sparse map. Instead, just send your ships to the farest points of your range first (to beat the AI), and hit the close stars with your 2nd wave of ships since it will take the AI some time to get there.

-What's a reasonable wait for research? Forty weeks? Thirty? How long should it have to be before it is too long of a wait?

On "normal" research rate, jeez 30-40 weeks. I almost (if ever) see it that long. Are you building labs? You could also be going too high up the tree too earily on. After the colony rush, remember to prioritize getting spending up to 100%.

One other tip for the colony rush on large, abundant maps. Once you get your colony ship producing planet(s) stable (e.g. one ship every other turn), stoping social projects on that(those) planet(s). Then set (globally) military to 1% and social to a high %.

Why? Because unused social points transfer to military points. So your colony ship producing planet(s) will have high militry production and your new colonies will have high social production.

Okay, time for a technical question.

This game is not compatible with dual-core CPUs, apparently(well, it runs, but some of the animations are messed up) and I can solve this pretty easily by just resetting the affinity to one core, but I have to do this every time I start the game. Is there any way to make the system do this automatically? This is also true for R:TW and NWN, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Should I try to turn my home planet into a maunfacturing giant, so I can pump out ships as fast as possible, without having to establish a colony for that purpose?

I don't see what advantage this would have. Your colonies won't be that far behind your home planet. Choose the best colony this purpose, e.g. starship bonus or several manu. bonus tiles.

In fact, I usually change my homeworld to my largest economic planet. (To move the extra homeworld bonuses to a better planet.)

Out_of_Ideas: I run a dual-core CPU and have no problem running the game and getting the right animations. I'm afraid I can't give any advise on what to look for though. I would say to update video drivers, but if the game works on one core, I suspect video drivers are not the culprit (but try anyway, you never know!)

Didn't say what kind of processor you're running, but there's a sticky thread on AMD dual core CPU's here.

I like to keep peace with the other races until the end of the game when I'm ready to conquer the board. There are some tricks to keeping other races from attacking too early.

Keep an eye on your relations through the diplomatic screen. Check relations every few turns. Relations will move to hostile before a race declares war.

If you play "good", you don't get as may bonuses, but it improves relationships with other good races right out of the gate. That's half the universe you'll have an easier time with.

Although it's better to colonize higher PQ planets first, aliens get touchy when you share star systems with them. Try to claim all habitable planets in a star system before the other races get to them. One trick in doing that is to buy a starport on a newly inhabited planet, then buy a colonizer with nothing but a colony module on it. Load a few colonists and send it over to that neighboring planet.

Go for those yellow diplomacy techs. Diplomatic bonuses make it easier to maintain good relations.

Trade with the other races. Trading improves relations. Set up trade routes with the ones that are harder to please. Buy techs off them. If you see your relations falling off with a particular race, pay homage to them with cash or other gifts.

Some galactic wonders and special projects are "must have" Watch for those. They become available when you research various techs. The detail view of the research screen tells you what techs provide what bonuses and projects. Galactic Bazaar and Spin Control Center are two I can think of off hand. Restaurant of Eternity is a good one. Diplomatic Translators are a big help.

Military strength improves relations. It's sometimes the only way to keep the Yor and Drengin at bay. If they are afraid of you, they will suck-up. Start building military ships when you see other races doing it. (look at the graphs in the cockpit of the main view). I take a medium hull and stick nothing but missiles on it. Then I build them and leave them in orbit. They're cheap to build and they give the illusion of military strength when actually, you have little.

Don't put military ships in alien space until you are ready to fight. A few troop transports too close to alien space can cause them to declare war. I keep them parked next to my planets, then line them up along the borders of my space just prior to invasion.

Take advantage of war you are not involved in. You can form an alliance with a losing race providing a high change they will surrender to you when they give up. Wait until you see their military strength getting close to zero. Then form an alliance and supply them with ships and cash to improve relations. You'll inherit their remaining planets. If your alignment is very good, you get the Concepts of Righteousness tech. That tech provides a project called Hall of Empathy which further improves chances of alien surrender to you.

Ok, have fun!

Didn't say what kind of processor you're running, but there's a sticky thread on AMD dual core CPU's here.

I like to keep peace with the other races until the end of the game when I'm ready to conquer the board. There are some tricks to keeping other races from attacking too early.

Keep an eye on your relations through the diplomatic screen. Check relations every few turns. Relations will move to hostile before a race declares war.

If you play "good", you don't get as may bonuses, but it improves relationships with other good races right out of the gate. That's half the universe you'll have an easier time with.

Although it's better to colonize higher PQ planets first, aliens get touchy when you share star systems with them. Try to claim all habitable planets in a star system before the other races get to them. One trick in doing that is to buy a starport on a newly inhabited planet, then buy a colonizer with nothing but a colony module on it. Load a few colonists and send it over to that neighboring planet.

Go for those yellow diplomacy techs. Diplomatic bonuses make it easier to maintain good relations.

Trade with the other races. Trading improves relations. Set up trade routes with the ones that are harder to please. Buy techs off them. If you see your relations falling off with a particular race, pay homage to them with cash or other gifts.

Some galactic wonders and special projects are "must have" Watch for those. They become available when you research various techs. The detail view of the research screen tells you what techs provide what bonuses and projects. Galactic Bazaar and Spin Control Center are two I can think of off hand. Restaurant of Eternity is a good one. Diplomatic Translators are a big help.

Military strength improves relations. It's sometimes the only way to keep the Yor and Drengin at bay. If they are afraid of you, they will suck-up. Start building military ships when you see other races doing it. (look at the graphs in the cockpit of the main view). I take a medium hull and stick nothing but missiles on it. Then I build them and leave them in orbit. They're cheap to build and they give the illusion of military strength when actually, you have little.

Don't put military ships in alien space until you are ready to fight. A few troop transports too close to alien space can cause them to declare war. I keep them parked next to my planets, then line them up along the borders of my space just prior to invasion.

Take advantage of war you are not involved in. You can form an alliance with a losing race providing a high change they will surrender to you when they give up. Wait until you see their military strength getting close to zero. Then form an alliance and supply them with ships and cash to improve relations. You'll inherit their remaining planets. If your alignment is very good, you get the Concepts of Righteousness tech. That tech provides a project called Hall of Empathy which further improves chances of alien surrender to you.

Ok, have fun!

Sorry about the double post, forum problems, won't let me remove it

One way to keep aggressive AI's at bay is this. Every planet that I colonize during the rush, gets a Starport put in the queue, when I see that colony rush is nearing completion, I immediately cease construction of colony ships and start to build little defender ships. Usually small hull and filled up with weapons (no engines are needed as these boats won't be going anywhere), if you know what your enemies are using for weapons, you can put 1 type of defense on the hull, but weapons are the key. once you get bunch of these built (one or two to a planet only), the AI's will be less likely to see you as easy pickings.

When I start a new game, the first place I go is to the economy screen, and raise my spending and taxes as high as they'll go and still keep my populations morale and the economy out of the red (well yellow for the econ). Then I jack my research to 60% or higher and military to 10%, something like 10/30/60 for Mil/Soc/Rea. whatever you are comfortable with will work, but GET RESEARCHING! I never spend more than 4-6 weeks on any tech, ever (never went for Tech victory so that may be an exception), and I try not to spend more than 2 weeks on any tech.

Use that starting 5000bc, and don't be afraid to spend it, so long as you don't go negative. Buy factories, colony ships and starports early on, to build up your production levels. When I get down under 1000bc's I start slowing down my buying. Always keep an eye on your tax rate and its effect on your morale. Early on you will spend alot of time tweaking this to keep your citizens happy. I schedule 2-3 factories on every world, more on bigger ones and then I build research and financial buildings in a mix after that, then plan for specializing on big worlds, you can always go back later and replace a research facility with a bank if you need to later.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Cheers,
Reaver

Some straightforward tips that I like

- On the first turn, design a new scout ship using the cargo hull instead of the small hull. You can now fit 2-3 engines depending on the techs you chose at the beginning. I usualy go with 3 engines and 2 sensors (I take maxed out engine technology as my starting techs). This scout is FAR superior to the default scout; it can explore 2-3 times as fast for a minor increase in cost. The downside to using a cargo hull is that the scout will have 1 HP, but as it carries no armaments it would be destroyed no matter how much HP it has. I always purchase one of these scouts on the first turn, as they greatly assist in finding habitable planets and galactic resources. I also like to strip any sensors and life support off the starting colony ship and fit more engines; 1 move point a turn is dreafully slow on the default ship.


I always buy my first factory on my homeworld to greatly speed up the initial build phase. Beyond that, I either spend the first 3-4 turns researching one or two of the cheap techs that can help in expansion or I finish three factories and begin making colony ships immediately.



Just some more general tips;
- High quality planets have more tiles and a higher max population; don't make these an industrial focus, instead add a few farms and morale enhancing structures, and then fill up on markets. These high quality planets are best served as revenue generators. By the same token, don't bother with culutural or economy buildings on low quality planets, as the actual effect of these structures is based completely on population.

- Select the "military strength" graph option, always. Military strength is probably one of the biggest checks done by the AI when deciding wether to go to war. Always look at that military graph. If your line is above another races, it's very unlikely that they will declare war on you. If you drop below the Drengin, the chance of them attacking you is very high. The way I play, and it's probably not optimal i'm sure, I keep my focus on building up economy and tech in spurts of researching structural upgrades for several turns, then switching over to actualy build the upgrades, then switching over to make constructors for a few turns, then repeating. I always keep my eye on the military bar; once a civ gets above mine, I switch over to military research for a bit if i've been neglecting it for awhile, and then switch and crank out one new defender ship on every planet. If my bar climbs to a safe height, I go back to the previous cycle. I only search for war when I distinctly see another race pulling ahead of me in economy and research.


- When it comes to picking military trees; One weapon, one defense is what I usualy select. The dominant component on all your ships should be weapons, currently they are simply much more effective (from my observations) than a massive defense. It may seem bad to focus only on one defense, however "incorrect" defenses DO lend some benefit against the wrong damage types. When pairing the wrong damage with the wrong defense you take the square root of the defense rating to get the effective rating. For example, and i read this from either the manual or the developers web journals; Against a beam weapon, having 4 shield defense is the same as having 16 missile defense, so you are not helpless and the greatly reduced space on your focused defense allows you to place more of them, offsetting the lack of diversity. Some incorrectly think that the wrong defenses simply do nothing against the wrong attack types.

This is coming out a bit more long winded than I thought, so i'll cut it short here

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