Crash course pls

[vils]

Ok, ive been restarting many times now, i desperately need a step by step crash course in how to not get bankrupted too quickly.. I end up demolish all military ships and all troops just to get by.. and it doesnt even help.

Basically i dont do much, i send colo-ships as soon as i get ah chance, but those habitable planets run out quickly after i got 3-4 or them. No research bases at all, thats waaaayy to expensive.. no agents.. yet lots of mines is built but that is controlled by the AI..

ending up cheating with the editor isnt really fun..

Also i wonder how to custom build ships, the manual is not saying much at all... :-/

[lordxorn]

Assuming your version is 1.02, make sure you don't have any deals with pirates.

You can do this by clicking on them in the diplomacy screen, and look for "cancel protection...."

Having even on of these deals can bankrupt you even if you are positive cash flow.

Also don't accept all the recommendations to build ships, the AI will bankrupt you.

Keep an eye on your expenses and income, Spaceport income is temporary so don't expand based on that.

I don't know what other automation features you have turned on, but if you manage colony taxes, new colonies are taxed at 0%. Once they have grown don't forget to make them pay their fair share.

[HsojVvad]

This has worked for me. I thought I would be a smart ass, and play like a MOO game. One scout ship and nothing else. So I went into the editor, and ereased everything, except my explorer ship. Man the game is soooooooo BORING doing it that way. The developers are correct in saying we need infanstructure to be playable at the begining. But you know what? Yes it was boring, for the hour or two that I tried it, but I have lernt things. I understand things better.

I guess when you have nothing, you see the obvious when something happenes. Again yes it was a boring game to play for me, but I did learn alot. Try that and see what happenes. I recomend if you do this, put pirates on minimum, and if you see any, just use the editor to erease them. Also earase everything if you like, but keep your star base that is over your home planet. This way you will see having no private sector you don't get much money in the begining and once they start getting busy, you get money. Or, earase all your military ships and just keep the star base, explorer ship, the 2 construction ships (man they take forever to get built) and your mines and private sector. Try that and you will learn some things. Remember to hit the F12 button to see how your empire fares over time.

I use to make shure no private sector ships get built. Now I let the AI do that for me, since that is a good way of being in the red as well.