I always choose "Xeno Ind" to improve my manufacturing and research, then "Planet Improvements" for the food and tiles, and finally "Xeno Commerce" for the morale and econ.
Question: Since we begin with factories and research labs, and "Xeno Ind" simply improves them, is it a better strategy to go "Planet Imp" and "Xeno Comm" before upgrading the factories and labs? Any theories or observations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks all.
xeno industry should be a lower priority, imo. especially if you play with auto upgrades. the xeno lab/factory are just a 5% improvemetn over the basic version, but cost an additional 45 manufacturing (i.e. +150% compared to the basic building). i usually turn off the auto upgrade straight away and leave my plant at the basic level for quite a while - early production is too valuable to waste it on an the overproeced xeno lab/factory upgrades.
i only pick up the xeno industry once i have the other early "must haves", and i usually plow through to advanced construction and institutional research to unlock the manufacturing and research capitals.
xeno commerce and commerce specialization (supportive population) are pretty high on my early priority list. interstellar travel is very useful early on (+1 move for all ships). the follow up interstellar specialization (transport specialization) is pretty useful too (allows for design of custom double module constructors with some spare room for other useful stuff like an engine)
some of the tech trees also have some "low hanging fruit" that are worth picking up really early. a prime example would be the hive in the thalan tech tree - makes sense to pick that up as the first tech.
universal translator can be useful if you meet someone early on.
wpkelley41, I think you have it all wrong. At the beginning of the game the most important thing is to explore & colonize planets before any other race does. It is almost mandatory that you research Intergalactic Travel first. That will immediately add +1 to the speed of all your ships. You must get there first. This also helps with your survey ship investigating anomalies.
In my games I have the first 6 techs scripted out ahead of time, to get me started off on the right track. Try researching these, in the order listed, to see if you get off to a good start. Here they are...
1. Interstellar Travel
2. Xeno Commerce
3. Xeno Industrialization
4. Universal Translator
5. Diplomatic Specialization
6. Diplomacy
Many people, including myself, make their home planet a production planet. This allows you to to build ships quickly (Constructors, Colony ships).
I make the 2nd planet (Mars) a research planet. It is very important that you don't fall behind in research. If you're strong in research it improves your trading position.
The third planet colonized should be an Economy planet. If you don't do this quickly, you will start to have money problems.
I build the rest of the planets based on what the planet has to offer, but I'm always looking to make research planets.
Here are a few general tips...
1. On every new colony, I always start with 2 factories. Whatever you want to do with any colony will be facilitated by these factories.
2. Only build shipyards on production planets. Shipyards require production, and it is a natural combination with production planets. It is usually a waste on any other type of colony. Always build a shipyard as the first item on a production planet. That way it will build in 1 turn.
3. There are many planet types that you can create. Here is the list that I use..
P - Production
R - Research
W - Wealth
I - Influence
M - Mixed
The one-letter designations I append after the planet name (i.e., Earth - P). This way it's easy to see what each planet does, and it's easy to find them to make future additions.
4. All things being equal, I'm always looking to build Research planets if possible. You can never have enough research.
5. All my original planets are specialized with P,R, or W. Later in the game, conquered planets may become I & M planets. If a conquered planet is mostly utilized with a mix of tile types, I leave these mostly as they are and set them as 'Mixed.'
6. Industrial planets can easily manufacture tiles for themselves. Research & Wealth planets usually need help to get up to speed, so these are good tiles to purchase to help the colony get up to speed.
Here's another early game trick I use. Don't build any scouts. They're not very fast, they can't fight, and they can't explore anomalies. My favorite explorers are constructors. Constructors are faster, they can begin mining resources immediately. And each starbase constructed adds to the range of your other ships - notably colony ships for new colonies, and survey ships for investigating anomalies.
I pretty much agree with your ideas but I wonder why you assign XC such a high priority? I generally don't need approval or BC early on. Based on your logical approach I think I may be missing something.
As I mentioned, you can never have enough money. As I said, the production planets can pretty much take care of themselves, but the non-production planets need help - especially the research colonies. You need to spend money to pay for research buildings and to pay for commerce buildings. The two factories alone are simply not efficient enough. If you have to build 8-10 buildings on many planets, you're going to need money - a lot of it.
Also, buildings & ships have upkeep maintenance. the more of each you build, the more it will cost you. I like having auto-upgrade always on, and that gives you more effective buildings - but again, you have to pay for it.
Sometimes during trading, you may have to sweeten a deal with money to make it go through. I'd rather pay money outright than pay credits-per-turn.
Hope this helps. Post any other questions you may have.
P.S., There's a YouTube video on Beta-5 strategy where the guy playing the game admitted that he messed up and regretted not going for XC much sooner. He was trying to build buildings and he simply ran out of money. Personally, I like to have about 3,000 bc at all times, 5,000 to 6,000 is quite common for me. The bottom line is that you would always like to turn extra credits into improved efficiency. It's all good.
approval is amazing early. supportive population is an instant 25% raw production. That makes you 25% better at... everything...
I usually beeline it. Then movement tech and transport spec.
Thank you guys. I will attempt to adjust my strategy.
Agreed. You always want to keep your approval up to get that +25% bonus. I always keep an eye on my approval and sometimes I will have to add a happiness building, but if possible I would rather improve happiness by using a starbase expansion instead - especially if the Economy starbase effects two or more colonies. That way, one improvement effects multiple worlds. Good efficiency.
As for how to specialise your planets, the decision is usually not too hard IMO. the key thing to realise is that manu planets benefit from being in close proximity since shipyards can have multiple sponsors. research and wealth planets get no benefit at all really.
also, due to overheads, it's usually better if research and wealth world's are of higher class.
finally, I tend to prioritise research over wealth. usually at a ratio of about 3 research world's for every one wealth world. which usually leads me to the following rough guide (I still take planet bonuses and my empires needs into account)...
1) is the planet close to other planets? If yes, manufacturing! otherwise it must be on its own, proceed to step 2...
2) is the planet high class (12+) - if yes then research. If no then wealth.
again, that's a very rough guide, and local factors like planet and colonisation bonuses come into play fairly regularily, along with empire needs.
Actually, that's part of the fun of the game. It's a lot of fun to keep refining your strategy to a system that's best for your play style. I think you're at the early stage of a very enjoyable journey. Nice for you.
For myself, I'm currently working on the next 6 techs to acquire. This is more difficult however because, while I always track my research on a research worksheet, the issue is unclear because by that time I'm trading for techs - and so some key techs may not show up on my research worksheet. The +3 planet approval I'm sure is going to be one of them.
and finally, as someone mentioned - build factories on research and wealth specialised planets! I usually go for at least 2 and a solar plant. preferably 3. This, along with farms, is where the overheads come from.
as for approval buildings, I usually consider them last resort. I'd rather beeline for +approval techs, or build star base modules, or get the tradeable resource.
As Yor i usually get this techs first:
1. Interstellar Travel (+1 Moves, and better sensors, engines, range modules, a must have)
2. Transportation Specialization (30% less mass for support modules, this works also for carrier modules!)
3. Ion Drive
4. High Output Drives
5. Xeno Commerce
6. Supportive Population (+4 to moral early on is op)
7. xeno entertainment
8. Interstellar tourism (money for free )
9. universal Translator
10. Planet utilization
11. Enhanced Production (+1 Total Manufacturing)
12. Terraforming
13. Extreme Colonization (as yor you also get +1 level to research and manufacturing)
14. one of the spezialisations to extreme worlds
15. Atmospheric cleansing (at this point i can colonisate ALL planets)
interesting that you push so hard up the tree.
I actually find the choice at #11 (growth vs production) to be a tough one when you are not the yor. big advantages and disadvantages to both IMO.
anyone got thoughts on which is better? early game and late
If you like to design your own ships, which is almost mandatory, it is extremely useful to go for miniaturization whenever you can. The more things you can put on a ship, the more power per logistic you have.
If you have the Dense trait (more mass can be packed on ships) pick up the tech that lets you build "Small hulls." This means you can now pack colony modules on a much cheaper frame.
yeah i use that sometimes to get closeby planets,
but most of the time i use a cargo hull with:
colony module
4x enviromental support
4x ion drive
after my first 4 techs those ships have 17 moves and the same range as my scouts (3 sensors, 4x enviromental support, 4x ion drive on a cargo hull)
(i use a custome race with dense and +2 moves)
The best strategy that I have found when I play with the Terrans is...
By this time your science should be skyrocketing and Earth/Mars pumps out one colony/constructor per turn... might consider another manufacturing planet for more expansion or military ship production. Research are so high by this point that you unlock technologies faster than you have time to use them so its basically downhill from here...
Improvements to labs and factories isn't relevant to non yor races first as they have good ones to start. For me unlocking wealth improvements is critical as I can't start making money without them and i need to start sometime. If you are a synthetic race then that changes because the starter improvements they have are only 10%.
Don't settle Mars first. It's more important to get your first ideology point and get the 3 constructors from Pragmatic, which you can then upgrade to colony ships.
This little trick SERIOUSLY speeds up your expansion in the early game.
As Terrans you also get Colonizer which means all of your new worlds can start with shipyards, which means they can immediately start spamming colony ships the moment they colonize.
I settle Mars with my first colony ship that I rush, not with the one I get from the start... Mars will after just a few turns help with building new colony ships so is very important to colonize as fast as possible.
I also don't upgrade the constructors because I deem it to be a bit abusive but it is otherwise a good strategy.
I also deem the possibility to construct shipyards with Colonizer ability to be way too abusive so I never do that... I rather build my worlds into research centers in the early game. I'm also not convinced you gain that much from it since you can build colony ships in one turn on Earth pretty soon anyway...
Where is Supportive Population? I can't seem to find it.
ON EDIT: Never mind -- just found the search function.
when i start play GC III i use this guide http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438892333 . This learn me alot about good start.
that guide isn't really a good way to learn the game. contains a lot of misinformation and bad advice. you're better off playing by your own strategy.
The in game scout ships are pretty much useless in this game. I usually design my own Scout with faster movement and send it out or send a constructor. I also set my ship yard to build just constructors because you will need them for the resources.
One of the first ships I designed was a 'double' constructor, which has proved to be cheaper to build and quite useful. If you start with the 'pragmatic' ideology you get a 'double constructor' benefit as well. By combining these two things, you can create an extremely robust starbase system quite quickly.
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