Hey! So I've been playing a Medium Scenario the last 2 hours with 3v3 and the comp was on Easy Random. Now, it's taken me these 2 hours to get...oh...6 planets colonized. I feel this is really slow. I have the income rate on the highest it can be and I still only get about 3.0 metal and crystal/sec. I was wondering if any "Pros" out there could answer some questions I've developed while playing for these few hours (and yes, I played the tutorials).
-What is population? What does it control?
-How should you colonize to get the quickest resources, therefore allowing for a better army?
-What determines the tax rate on a planet?
-As fleet tax goes up, income goes down, thus slowing your army growth. What's a good way to balance that out while maintaining your "cool?"
Those are all I can think of. I'm sure new questions will be raised in the next few days. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi. 6 planets should take you a couple minutes, not a couple hours. You're screwing up really bad, but we should be able to straighten you out
If you just want success against easy random 3v3:
1) Pick colonizer as your capship (any race).
2) Send out scouts, then send colonizer capship to the first asteroid you encounter (there should be one connected to your homeworld in most circumstances). Colonize.
3) IMPORTANT: After colonizing ANY planet, immediately upgrade the planet (first button on top left). For asteroids, do it once. For any other planet, do it twice. Then build all your extractors.
4) Build basic light frigate until you have no more fleet available. Fleet up to the next level (if necessary), and build a few more. Get 15-20 disciples/cobalts, or 10-15 skirmishers if playing vasari.
5) Colonize any and all remaining planets.
6) In the early phases of the game, there is no need to fleet up any more than what is discussed, and you never need to fleet up unless you plan to build ships immediately after.
To answer your questions:
- Population is # of people on your planet. It controls your tax income from that planet. The more people, the more tax income. Naturally, asteroids will have the least potential for population, and nice juicy terran planets will have the most.
- There is a post by Darvin3 somewhere on this forum, telling you some of the best techniques for colonizing. I will let someone else link it for you.
- You don't determine tax rate on planets, but you can research a higher level of population growth of certain planets (thus higher tax income) under the civil technology tree. Also, the more times you upgrade a planet using the first button on the upper left, the higher the population can grow, thus higher tax income.
- Keep fleet as low as possible until it is time to go to war, then fleet up to what you need to crush your enemy.
For more money, you will need trade ports and refineries, but that's another topic for another day.
To "fleet up" properly remember to scout your enemy first. Unless he does not move his fleet in position against you there will always be plenty of time. Preferably get one of the huge planets as a stop to your enemy. Build 3-5 frigate factories and 3-5 repair bays.
Then let your eco grow a bit but start saving really massive amounts of money and materials. Once you think your enemy is ready for the attack build an "exact" counter fleet. (Does not work against the real pros like Howe, JJ etc. because they will sb you as vasari). Your fleet will be ready within +/- 5 minutes. Enough to defend, and +/- 5 minutes enough fleet to punch that s.. o. a b.... really hard
What race are you playing thats really important.
I am no pro but i can tell you that your main problem was prbly not taking the capital ship with colonize ability. these are the Akkan (tec) the mothership(advent) and the jurrasul(vasari) note that the jurrasul is called the egg or death egg on the forums.
These caps are better starter caps (though of course the ability u pick should be colonize) because they allow u to colonize quicker as colony frigates(frigs) have low antimatter regen.
If ur playing income and going against easy AI i advise u too take as much fleet supply as u want and dont worry about income. do this so u can find ur own personal fleet comfort zone(we all have one) some like large fleets and have learnt ways to support them others like small fleets cuz they want to keep income higher. Trade ports will allow you to balance fleet upkeep ifu can get a good chain size.
I make no claims to be pro, but one thing I would share is, I recently switched my build order. Immediately at game start, I build the cap ship factory first. Then I queue up the extractors, then I wait for 225 crystal to get the civilian upgrade. I'm basically paying a little money to get an early colony cap ship out and about, gaining experience. It's that much longer your cap ship can be regenning shields, hull, and antimatter. You make the money back later, in that you're colonizing earlier. And then if throw a second point into Colonize at level 3, you might make it back and more that way, too (I never do, but...).
@ tetleytea-you can avoid a lot of that with quickstart, but I know most dont like that approach
Always start with a strong cap and mini fleet (I prefer the Kol or Marza and go for choke points while back filling the rest, but the Akkan is good as well) with a preference towards the colony cap for new beginners, and always put a point or two into colony infrastructure, the lowest levels will actually sap credits, also dont be afraid of the black market, that will help you get over some resource humps
also avoid teching up too early (two or three labs of each is a good really start) especially with the fleet size, what till mid to late game
Thank you for that long list! It will help a lot! That was my problem. I didn't scout out fast enough and colonize fast enough. I'm sure if I started over, I'd be able to do a lot better. Thank you ALL so much for your help! I'm sure more questions will come.
Okay, here's a question. If someone could write out all the abbreviations they can think of for Sins and what they mean, that would be a huge help. I'm getting lost with some of the terminology.
I've been playing with that, too, as TEC. It's just, the Akkan blows, except that it colonizes. With the Vasari it's a no-brainer: get the Egg out right away. With the Marza it's like, you want to get that to lvl 6 ASAP.
I still haven't found the race that I like to play as . I think I'm playing as the Vasari right now. Either them or The Advent.
The Akkan doesn't blow, it's a great ship. By all means use it.
If you are playing as the vasari, you can (optionally) modify my instructions as follows:
- drop down 1 military lab, research assailant.
- instead of skirmishers, build a ton of assailants.
- drop additional labs as required throughout your play to research phase missle and hull upgrades
Yeah, I've been thinking that adding about 2 Logistics facilities and 2 Warfare facilities on each planet/asteroid would be sufficient. Two to start and branch out from there with each planet.
And so I have this right...I should take a fleet plus a capital ship out to colonize?
Ugh, so many questions. During single player games, does anyone speed up the game speed to 2x or 4x so they aren't waiting for so long for resources?
sometimes yes, though I prefer to use the black market, if you play TEC you get an upper hand with some research at tier 3 civil (15% discount, w00t1)
I'm playing as TEC now! I sped it up to 8x just to wait for some crystal and then upgrade. But I think once you get to a certain point you don't have to wait anymore or that long at least.
Yes, you need a fleet to colonize with your colonization capship because otherwise it would take forever and a day to kill all the neutrals at the planet you are trying to take. Asteroids are lightly contested, and sometimes ices or volcanos are lightly contested, but terrans and deserts are often heavily contested with multiple long range frigates and heavy cruisers - it is difficult to just waltz in and take those planets unescorted.
Just build a small fleet to accompany your capship for colonization. Send it all into a planet at the same time. Make sure you kill the siege frigates at the planet before you colonize, otherwise they will just bomb it back down to nothing.
Go to Astax's replays thread - I think it's under the multiplayer section, but I could be wrong. Anyway, download any of the replays there and watch them to see how people colonize in a real game. Or, find RagingAmish's guide on various roles (economizer, attacker, defender, etc) and download and watch the replays there (probably in the strategy section) - you will find no better teacher.
Seriously, do it.
I always use an Akkan to colonise. It can do it without support with a little micromanagement and very little expenditure.
Firstly make sure you build a military lab and research repair platforms. Turn off colonise autocast and turn off auto place structures. When you get to a planet take out the siege frigates first, the AI won't do this for you, you have to do it yourself. When they are gone colonise the planet and build a repair platform in a suitable place - this will keep your Akkan going while you clear out the rest of the ships.
If you let the Akkan auto colonise, it can't take out the siege frigates quickly enough to stop you losing the planet.
When you have enough cash, research upgrade lasers. Your Akkan will benefit from this and clear out planets more quickly.
I find with a single Akkan the AI on hard will fall behind on colonisation fairly quickly.
This strategy is against AI only - you won't last five minutes against a rush with a single Akkan!
I did . I'm getting better. I had my asteroid in about 9 minutes. Working on my second planet/third colonized area now. Thank you for the help!
Question: everybody says you're not supposed to colonize the planet with your Akkan before you take out his Siege Frigates. Why the heck not?? You get free extractors. Just colonize it again.
This is a case of know the rules before you break them. If you understand the risks involved and are willing to take them, there's nothing stopping you. For beginners, the rule of thumb is kill the siege frigates first.
5 planets - 53 minutes. Hows that?
While it's true you can get an extractor benefit from allowing the seige frigates to do their thing, you cannot build a repair platform for 2 minutes, and two minutes is assuming the siege frigates don't bomb the planet again. During this time your Akkan will be taking a lot of damage, especially if there are Kodiaks there. The encounter, whatever you do, will leave the Akkan with no shields, so you will need as many hull points as you can.
I'd rather have my Akkan in good health for the next planet and my economy with an early start than worry about a few extractors. Usually fairly quickly I have two fleets of 4 caps, each of 1 Akkan and 1 Dunov. I can then expand on two fronts and get my economy going even faster. With a line of just 4 trade ports, there's enough income to support rapid expansion. Within a very short time there is enough income to support a large fleet + starbases.
As an accountant by profession, I guess I'm much better at managing economy than tactics with my use of trade ports, refineries and economy upgrades. About an hour into a game on a large map I have more than enough income to create a fleet ten times over. At this point my income rate is usually over 1k and metal/crystal 50+ each.
It is all about investment and managing the purse strings
This is a good example of my economy in full swing. This is two hours in on a large map v 3 teamed hard AI.
First of all, how fast you can colonize always depends on what kinds of planets you encounter, how many militia they have, and how they are laid out. With a good layout, five planets could take you as few as five minutes (with quick-start; maybe 8 or 9 without). With a bad one, I'd still expect no more than 20 minutes. You need to be moving a lot faster than one planet every ten minutes.
I don't know how you're moving so slow. How are you spending your capital ship's time?
Sounds like you have improved but are still quite behind. Watch the RagingAmish or other replays you said you downloaded, and watch how they colonize. Once you see what they do, you will know what you are doing wrong.
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