Hi!

Simple: don't play in gigantic.

More seriously: there's a limit of ~200 habitable planets I can stand in a game. Anything above that kills fun, because there's too much micromanagement (MM) involved. All my gigantic games were rare or uncommon stars&planets, but I was still not happy, because it took almost forever to move ships from my production centers to where they were needed.


You need to constantly watch your economy: when your treasury starts vanishing rapidly (-500BC at 59% tax), it's already too late to stop colonizing. IMO -100 BC at tax level that makes 40%+ approval everywhere and with 1000-2000 BC in treasury is a sign to stop.


Gigantic maps tend to play less agresively, so you have more time to develop your empire. Take it, and do the task properly. Only when colonizaton phase ends for AIs, you need to develop some warfaring technologies to make yourself less attractive terget. You don't need to build serious warships until AIs start using engines on their warships: whatever they send at you before that, you can make awfully obsolete when it actually gets to you. Range upgrades you don't need so much, because the default range in gigantic is about 3 sectors, and there's a hard cap of 7 sectors. What you need in those wast distances is speed. And luck for avoiding "speed reduced to 5" event.

BR, Iztok

I have never played on GIG, so I am not sure how that would change things. The YOR Interdiction field thing that slows down the enemy doesn't work well in small games but may work well in a GIG or HUGE. Get something that boosts your influence dramatically and you can create a slow-speed buffer that your enemies can't just charge through. and it will give you a cushion of a move or 2 before you have to start worrying about your enemies.

Please, Iztok or someone with a better understanding of the game clarify what i have written and/or expand upon it. I have not been able to play very far on a HUGE because of my computer's memory, and my inability to remember how far into the game it is when it CTDs from mem overuse so that I can save.

GalenEvil

If your having issues with your economy, especially on gigantic maps, I'd suggest going Super Breeder. I've never had an economy crash early on me with super breeder because the most I colonize the more my tax revenue skyrockets with my population. That said I rarely use it (Super Hive is just to much of a draw when I go all factories, which I always do).

I've been playing gigantic for a long time. Aside from dealing with the huge number of planets, it's actually an easier game. You have lots more planets to make money, build ships, and do research. Hehe, I'd probably get my behind handed to me on a small map. I'll have to try playing one sometime. I'm sure it will feel like a totally different game.

To answer the OP's question, you can stop colonizing when you feel you have enough planets to compete or you can stop when there are no more planets to colonize. Either way works. I tend to stop short when I feel I have enough planets to compete. BTW, I'm totally hooked on that super hive ability too. Thalans rule, hehe.

Have fun!

I just finished a game as the Yor on Medium size wherein the Super Isolationist was the best super ability around. Having 19 move dreadnoughts against 3 move battalions of fleets gave me a much bigger advantage than I could have obtained any other way.

One thing that I do not like about the way that I play in general is that I am not aggressive enough and do end up turtleing by protecting my space with overwhelming force of 2 Medium sized ships. My Medium hulls kept myself from losing planets on Tough until the very end of the game, where the Drengin finally researched Massive hulls. They were not aggressive enough I think.

GalenEvil

Even when ship speeds aren't that high, cargo hulls tend to get loaded with engines by the AIs. The yor ability is a LIFESAVER on smaller maps when 8 move per week spore ships are sent your way.

The amount of time you can spend colonizing depends a lot on your luck. If you totally luck out and get tons of money via surveying, you can run that deficit a long time. However, you need to keep your taxes low early on if you want to develop your tax base fast. I've never played a large map when planets were plentiful, but I imagine that taking your colonization in stages would be a very effective strategy, since spreading yourself too thin without spending some time to build the necessary infrastructure will kill your economy.

I tend to look to colonize at least 20 planets in a normal set up as i feel this gives me the best start without compromising my money flow. One thing to always keep an eye on in the initial stage of a gigantic game is your money flow and by this i don't mean looking at the lower BC figure, but the F4 screen. Looking at this screen you want to ensure you have more coming in than going out so you do not have to rely on the 1000BC anomalies. Instead i use the money gained from the anomalies to rush buy advancements on the planets.

One way i have found to make money faster and get into a positive cash flow situation is to only build one factory and then 4 economy buildings on a newly colonized planet until it reaches the 6 Bil mark. At this stage the planet can then support the extra productivity etc. Of course moving colonist to the new planet to supplement your initial colony does help this and it is a strategy i will use on certain planets (PQ20 etc).

On a gigantic map i cannot emphasize enough the need to get your economy going as you will need it! BTW if micro managing is not your thing then seriously look at the spore weapon technology as it removes the need to look after those poor PQ planets

Good luck in your quest

I'd encourage a moderate compromise here between working towards a strong positive cash flow *and* ensuring that you can build survey vessels early and keep several of them steadily trolling for bonuses & cash.

During the colony rush phase (or phases, depending on how the DA map worked out) I tend to set myself a cash reserve floor (X thousand BC, X varying a bit according to what I can tell about the map). I run 100% production and work on my infrastructure and colony ships until I get near that floor, and then I lower overall production until I'm getting around 50 BC/turn revenue. Doing this plus keeping up survey work means I can often run at 100% for many turns and feel OK about a three-digit deficit.

p.s. I should probably note that I remain more interested in working for an interesting long game than I am in scoring big. If your goal is points first, listen to the folks who type decently and sport the massive Metaverse bling.

I don't concern myself with being able to defend every planet. I'll often sacrifice a few here and there for the sake of getting more later. Putting those ships on the hunt will usually get many more planets than the number lost by taking them off defense.

If you set thing up too sparsely, you may have to use starbases just to extend your range. I like all abundant at gigantic.

Hehe, I hear you man. Somtimes when I'm playing a gigantic map, I think, "wow, what a colossal waste of time." But, when you get those massive amounts of "stuff", it's pretty cool.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time when playing on gigantic galaxies.

I have been playing on gigantic for some time now. The setup I like to use is: myself vs 5 random AI races at the painful level - my games are set up with EVERYTHING random, no minor races, no special abilities, no events and trade on.

You can get into some really wild setups with the random mix. And, on painful, you learn real quick to tailor your strategy to whatever situation you are faced with (or you will surely die).

The #1 problem is to stabilize your economy as fast as possible - the AI has an economic edge at the painful level. The #2 problem is to expand as fast as possible without sinking your economy - for there is nothing worse than being attacked by an AI that has 40 planets to your 10 - he can throw half his planets at you while using the other half to continue his own growth and expansion.

Take advantage of all the abilities you choose for yourself at the setup of the game - they are your edge. What I like about the random mix game is that often you really have to scramble to adjust your initial master plan when you get to see what kind of galaxy you will be playing in. Random everything can make for some exciting games.

One ability I like at the gigantic level is the higher planet quality bonus - it is expensive and worth every penny. You have more tiles to work with and can throw a farm on almost every planet you own. The resulting higher populations fuel your economy via taxes, provide troops for your transports, and make your planets much more difficult to invade.

The important thing, however, is to have fun at whatever type of game you like to play.