Whats a Mandatory build on all you're worlds? & What is Leasing??

Just as background... I use my own tech tree, which has the weather control tech but not a tech that nets me one of those lovely 'starter' improvements that gives the pop and econ boost. Later I can trade for it, but begin game I have to let everything develop on it's own.

Alot also depends on whether this is beginning, middle or end game and whether I have alot of planets or just a few.

A PQ 10... with no bonuses...

4 factories, 2 morale, 1 weather cont, 1 CEC (no enemy spies), 1 embassy, 1 farm, 1 space port and the rest Economy buildings IF I need the ship building. As soil and habitat come in, I build another econ then another factory. Really, except for the factories or for special worlds this is the build on all of my worlds.

If I have good production already, I only build one factory and build money improvements for the rest of the factories, everything else stays the same.

If there are bonus tiles, especially science ones I build those instead of factories.

Later in game, I can build one of the starter buildings. Once the planet is built up, I convert it to the CEC.

I Don't Lease. Ever. If I can't pay for it, I don't get it. True, I can hamstring myself for a turn or two, but that's far better than tying myself up for months or years down the road. Get a calculator and see just how much that rush job can coat you down the road sometimes. I'm not saying that there won't come that one time I absolutely have to lease to protect or delay an invasion, but as a general rule I don't lease. Ever...

T

You're own tech tree?

You modded it in? or is there an easy way of making you're own tech tree?

Do you do little research? I normally have 1/3 econ planets, a coupla productions planets & the rest research planets.

I play immense maps with 5ish opponents

in DL & DA I used a cutom race (only 1 tech tree that I knew of)

But I kinda like the Terrans, I'm playing my 1st game as em, (normal enemies) with 1/3 of the dip techs, & the super buildings that you get I can trade my oldest tech they don't have for 2-3 of their planets, all there ships & most of there money....... It kinda makes it to easy....

& thanks for the help!

2 factories, a morale building, a star port, a farm (if not a racial homeworld) and the Counter Espionage Center.  From there, I specialize depending on tiles, asteroids and planet's location in the empire.

If playing as the Krynn, then both morale/influence buildings get placed on each world.

If playing as the Korath, and border planets get the Dark Influence building.

Trying to make sense of the time-line of your OP, but are any of those questions still open?

There are huge differences between DL/DA builds compared to TA builds.

in DL/DA, since everyone shares the same tech tree/infrastructure, there is really only "one" most efficient build (I'm not saying its perfect, but it covers everything you need) which would be: 2 factories, a morale structure, a starport, a farm, the counter espionage (though if you think you can outspend AI espionage spending, then its not as big of a worry- i usually consider this one, important but not an absolute), and the rest economic structures.  Obviously using speciality tiles per what they are.

in TA, the concepts are the same but you have to tailor to whatever your race is.  For example, the Yor do not have spammable economic structures (unless they trade for them) so you have to plan around that. 

In TA, there are editors that came with it, that allow the Player to create their own maps, tech trees, and planetary structures.  They are only for use in sandbox games, not Metaverse.

Hope that is a better explanation for ya

Drache84, if you have the Twilight manual, the planetary improvements including super projects, galactic achievements, trade goods, and unique improvements are described there, beginning on page 70.

One building I almost always build is the recruiting center-it gives you 25% population bonus as well as a 10% economic bonus.  Once the population growth tops, I replace it with an economy building, counter-espionage center, or something else.  If you're a beginner like me, than you might want to put planetary defense on some planets.

Yes. You can use the editors in TA, should you have it, but I don't. I use a freebie program called XML Marker. In the folder with the individual tech trees, copy one and paste it. Rename it from 'copy of...' to whatever you want. I then open it in XML Marker, make it half screen and then open another tree that I want to take something out of. I took the Arcean tree, removed the odd engine stuff and copied in the engine path from the minor race tree. To make up for having the weather control, I left out the tech that gives the recruiting center. It isn't until I've got most of my colonizing done that I can trade for it, so it's effectively wiped from my early game starts. Just makes it a bit harder to stay in the black and let's the AI get a little jump on me. I did use the editors to create a new tech and a new improvement named industrial sectors (plural). I hate the industrial sector as it is in game, plus there are some seriously cheaper production buildings for some of the races like the Torians. I made mine to be the same production as I.S., but 2bc less maintenance, 8bc vs 10bc I believe. Now I don't have to worry when everything auto upgrades, where as before I had to go planet by planet to stop all of them from upgrading.

Not at all. I usually have 2 to 3 science specialty worlds. Any world with a 300% tile or two 100% tiles gets built up for science. They get the science labs, the 25% helper center (I forgot what it's called...) a farm, two morale, the Counter Espionage Center (CEC) and TWO econ buildings only. The rest are filled with the Research Capitol and extra labs. I don't care if these guys are running in the red... The 2 econ buildings just lessen the pain by taking advantage of the population.

I play gigantic or large, 9 opponents. Abundant planets and stars. I used to play spread out, but Tight Clusters has grown on me. Plus it makes gigantic maps playable. I don't allow surrenders, asention or tech victories. Trade brokering only and no mega events. Occasional regular events, which are enough to mess with you in a long game. I also disable the 'super' abilities. With tech brokering the races stay pretty seperate as it is, and some of them are really unbalanced... Especially late game.

I imposed a rule that I don't trade for planets. The AI don't value them highly enough... As the Terrans with Super Diplomacy you can really rake the AI good... And you're right, it's too easy.

I play a custom race, as noted by my avatar, the Sol Republic. It should be the S.O.L. Republic, as it always seems I'm 'shite' out of luck ... Someday maybe I'll write it's humble beginnings so they'll stop rolling around in my head. 

Most welcome for the 'help'... If anything else hits you, I'll be around.

T

Speaking for DA

Depending on the size of the galaxy, late game i usually have all PQ 10 or less nothing but stock exchanges and a farm and maybe a single research building.

A typical planet for me has no morale buildings, unless i have a farm on a bonus tile, then i MIGHT build one. I build one farm and a starport, the rest will be half factories and half stock exchanges with maybe one lab for every planet. If the plant will have more than 4 industrial sectors then I'll build a Quantum power plant. Of course bonus tiles for research get used. I like to play with tight clusters with economic starbases adding to production; thats why i like at least a lab per planet, so the benefit from the starbase doesn't get wasted.

It does depend on where the planet is and what my situation is. Near borders I'll allow for more factories and deep into my territory is where special structures like trade goods get built.

Ahaha!

+1

i didnt realize everyone uses CEC so much. ive NEVER once built one...and ive never had a problem with spies either.  If you just keep a few percent of your income going towards espionage, you should be fine, or at least thats been my experience.

Every race is different, so it really depends on your build.  however for a vanilla race, i have three different types of planets.  production (all industry and a power plant), research (all tech and a coordination center), and econ ( 1-3 factories depending on pq, a morale, a farm, and the rest stock markets).  I build planets in a ratio as to keep my economy running.  usually its a 6:1 ratio of econ to a prod or research, though i tweak depending on how much my current income is. 

i never build culture centers, and am completely in the dark about strategies using them.  I think thats why I fail as the Thalans.

I also put a recruiting center on every econ world.  i dont build over them, i keep them for the transport army i constantly build throughout the entire game. 

If for some reason i havent built any suitable research worlds, ill start putting a research tile on every econ planet.  Its all about how the games going and what I think I need at the time.

Mega Events.

Like many who have already posted, I use the following on most of my worlds:

• Starport
• Counter Espionage Center
• 2 factories
• 1 Morale building & Farm (or second morale building if Civ Capital)

However, I will use the following if I can somehow get my hands on them:

• The Arcean "Navigation Centers" (I prefer the advanced version)
• Iconian "Merchant Trade Complex" (better than stock markets)
• Any PQ improving planet improvements (such as the Arcean "Weather control Zenith")

@lethstang: CEC is mandatory build for me. I don't enjoy the 'espionage' component that much. Besides the mega events, it still sucks to be you when you meet a decent race from far away who decides now is a good time to use the 20 spies he's been saving for a rainy day. I keep 1-5% diverted to spies and hoard agents up to 6 or 7, sometimes using 4 of them for passive on the other big stick on the block so I can keep up with them and to negate spies until the CEC's are built. After that, spies are a non entity, I never have to deal with another one of I don't want to.

Plus it's 20% morale, so it's not a total waste.

I can't imagine not having morale centers. By end game I'm running an 80% tax rate at 90+% approval. I can even breach the 80% limit and still be 60-70% if I have to should the economy have a sudden fluctuation.

My custom tree doesn't have the recruit center, however later on when I trade for it, I'll build it on newly captured worlds. However, once they're built up I replace it with a stock market or a morale build if it's needed.

@Sole Soul: +1 what? I could use a grapefruit...  

T

I stopped using morale structures. By end game I'll have planets with a full 13 billion population and morale in the 60's tax rate can still be at or near 79% (at 80% things get bad). Having your approval in the 90's isn't doing anything special for your empire. In fact, once a planet hits its maximum population, morale can stay at 22% as long as you can still win elections that is. However, there are some occassional planets that have abnormally low morale levels that may get a boost from a structure.

That's very interesting indeed... I think I will attempt this next game. The 7bc per morale building on the upper scale adds up to quite a bit when you've got 50 planets. (or 100...)

I am very curious about elections though. I realize as long as you carry 51% no can beat you, but if it drops below you're OK so long as the votes are split between other groups, yes?

Is the transition to Democracy still viable as an option? If you're having trouble as a republic trying to go democratic doesn't sound feasable at all.

Guess I'll find out!

T

I would never NOT get all of the government techs. The lose of those economic bonuses would negate any benefit from not having morale structures. The way my morale stays good for elections is that my oldest planets are all nearly maxed out with population and have a morale in the 50's maybe, my newly colonized PQ1's and planets that I have recently invaded have low populations and stay at 100% morale for a while even at tax rates near or above 70%. So my average approval is something like 65% to 75%. I'm not sure if thats a weighted average of some kind or simply the sum of all moraes rates divided by the number of planets. As a planet gets to 13 billion it builds a transport. Some planets don't have starports and therefore get to keep their people unless a neighboring planet builds one for them. Since later in the game there is always a war going on, and I typically have freedom of movement, those transports will be put to use.

I have never done the math to see how much I'm benefitting, but those morale structures take some time to build. I'd rather have an extra stock exchange or something more useful. Keep in mind that I'll have all of the morale boosting trade goods and at least one yellow resource. When you have 2 or 3 fully mined, you can run your taxes at 79% and still have growth of some kind on all of your planets.

I used to follow the rule of one morale stucture for each farm; or was that 2? There was a thread on here a long time ago about a no morale stucture strategy and i gave it a whirl.

Since I play immense maps with habitable planets common, in the beginning I usually go only with 1 factory, recruiting center, starport, then start building economic buildings in the rest of all tiles. I will build the appropriate buildings on special tiles.

The reason being, is that during the initial colony rush, putting too many factories will drain your economy and you will quickly be losing way too much money. I usually trade influence points for other civ's BC's until my populations get high enough for me to start reaping in some cash. Doing this will make your vote not matter hardly at all during the first UP vote or two, but who cares, you can get a massive amount of tech's and BC from other civ's solely with your IP, espcially if playing with Terrans. At that point I will build 1 more factory and a power plant on each planet.

I will specialize certain planets as well, when the tiles there are suitable. And I will build morale buildings on planets that need it.

Of course as far as spies go, I dump money from the get-go into getting spies and place them civ-wide to gain intel on all opponents. By the time the AI usually places a spy on me somewhere, by that time I usually have Advanced Intel on most all, and have 30 spies sitting around doing nothing, so it's easy enough to nullify them for the rest of the game. CEC center may be built by end-game, but I usually dont make those a priority myself.

I usually play Maso difficulty, which I find to be too easy nowadays. The next difficulty up I found to be way crazy tougher initially, but once I figured out that AI civ's will give almost anything for influence points (up to a point, certain techs they won't trade unless you offer a lot, those I just ignore), that allows you to keep up quite easily.