Newbie in Crises

Don't overextend your economy:
(a) be very cautious before leasing anything. In general, the only time newbies should lease is for the first couple of colony ships at the start of the game on smaller maps, and later in the game for the occasional trade good maybe.
(b) don't build EVERYTHING - you can't afford it. Get rid of the high expense-low benefit buildings. If youa re in a very military situation (and not researching), consider getting rid of your research buildings.
(c) get rid of ships that cost maintence if they arent of much use any more (try selling them)

Generate more cash flow by
(a) having more/better trade routes;
(b) getting tribute by selling tech/ships/etc;
(c) improving your economy
(d) support higher tax rates by having higher morale

Have a lot of fun, and feel free to ask more questions! - We love helping people get into it!
[Message Edited]

Thanks for the help. I'm still pathetically hopeless at the game and in general the genre. So I am hopelessly unaware of such terms as leasing and selling. I'm presuming you sell via diplomacy?

Ok, I've just started a new game. I've so far colonized 1 planet in the Sol System (Apart from Earth) and have just colonized another star system. Already my leasing has reached 15, and I've been told by people, NOT TO LEASE.... question from the newb How the f*** do I do that?

Well, it's really simple - you just let your colonies build colony ships the "slow way".

Some important facts you IMHO have to know to succeed at this game:
1. Per-colony, population growth stops below 54 morale, and doubles at 100 morale.
2. Each government level boosts your tax income greatly, but you'll probably have to lower the tax rate some because it's harder to maintain morale at higher government levels. Do upgrade when you can though!
3. You have to PAY for 2/3's of additional production from buildings, and you don't get the entire free third unless you're using your full capacity. Moral of the story: if your spending isn't at or near 100% or you are losing money at your current spending level, DON'T BUILD MANUFACTURING BUILDINGS. Also, the power plants are MUCH better choices than the MFC for early manufacturing enhancement...research those once you start making near what you can spend.
4. PQ is absolutely CRITICAL to morale and affects many other things...build your PQ-enhancing buildings first, or at least very very early.
5. PAY ATTENTION to building maintenance costs, and DON'T BUILD EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE. Examples: don't build starship-bonus stuff unless you plan to go to war. Don't build manufacturing centers unless the ability to spend more credits per turn is worth the 2bc/turn overhead. Don't build embassies and CEC's unless you're going all-out cultural conquest; to maintain control over your own sectors, stick with research labs/centers/GRC's...they provide significant influence as well as research bonuses, which are 2/3rds-free. Don't build News Networks on planets in the core of your empire...they're mainly useful only when you're in danger of losing a planet to another civ's culture. Since your core planets aren't likely to face that situation unless you're screwed anyway, save the maintenance.

-EtherMage


~SDC~

how much stuff have you leased... try only to lease a bare minimum of things... leasing will put you into debt quickly... and raise your taxes... it'll keep you from being too far in debt for a little while... hmm, i'm not sure what you mean about leasing reaching 15 but the easiest way to stay away from leasing is to not purchase things and just let your people build them naturally.

~SDC~

What do you mean by your leasing has reached 15? Leasing is when you pay for ships and improvements on the installment plan instead of waitin out the turns that it takes to build them. Selling is when you call up one of the AI players and offer to sell them a tech, ship, star base or star system for cash. I don't do much of that myself but it can be a good idea at times I suppose. Play a game or so at very low difficulty and be sure to read all the messages sent to you by the game interface (the robot) Watch the graphs on the upper right of the screen and try to keep up with the AI as much as possible.

You'll get the hang of it.

~SDC~

Cord

In your post you mention that you have colonised one planet in the Sol system and one other star system. May I suggest that it would be better to leave Sol for the time being and instead grab other star systems leaving Sol until you have grabbed as many systems as you can. Umh, grab the systems with one colony each and colonise any extra planets in those systems later.

Instead of leasing try putting you military spending to say 80% and your science to 20% and jack up your spending to 100%. Increase your tax rates as much as you can while still leaving Earth with morale of 100. You should be able to churn out a colony ship every 3 or 4 turns depending upon Earths' planet quality. Also consider researching towards Impulse Drive so your colonists can get to other stars faster (and before the AI).

You can think of it simply as managing your income and spending:

Income:
1) Colonize the good (15+) planets. Anything below will add extra costs. Go for the 13-14 planets when you have PQ improvements.
2) With your building list, be sure to give priority to improvements with PQ or economic bonus.
3) Trade becomes important from mid to end game, especially if you're looking to concentrate on research. It's quite complicated, so I suggest a read through the few posts that are dedicated to trade.

Spending:
1) Research is expensive compared to production. If you're looking to concentrate on research (50%+), make sure you have a sound economy and watch out for deficit.
2) Follow EtherMage's advice and manage your building list. If in doubt, simply avoid the ones with high maintenance (above 2bc), until you need them.
3) Fleet & starbase maintenance isn't usually a problem. Just watch out for the deficit.

Roy

~SDC~

Best tip I have for new players is not to lease anything. Under the new leasing system that came in recently, it costs much more to lease. Too much for the benefit. If you bought the game retail, disregard that section in the manual that says to lease your first couple colony ships. Now it will break you. Jack your military up to 100% in the beginiing and you crank out those colony ships every 2 turns.

~SDC~

sorry, newbie question: What is PQ?

Truzenzuzex,PQ is Planet Quality, the number that says how good the planet is.