i give up ....................

[Alfred33]

yes but the bonus is extremly unstable


btw i simply played on sold some techs to get me going and have allready enslaved the purlpe in the middle and the once below me


so ok thx its working just feeling like ferengi to sell research to get going

but ... it works 68 colonies now 2 slave empires with 10-16 cols left

now it starts to get boring 2nd place has 30 colonies hehehehhe hmmm we will see

[MadMcAl]

ORIGINAL: Alfred33

ok im back thx for answers


1) yes the colonie ships are all onroute to planets
2-3 where to slow and it was allready colonized but this ships are allready onroute to new planet



2) the troop maintance comes from 3 strongpoints i placed close to enemy so my fleets have a shorter way to load new troops

auto troop recuitment is off it allways doomed me

3)on 27 colonies i have 9 spaceports + 1 large at home planet

ok maybe medium would be enough but i dont think thats the biggest problem

4) hmm 21 frigs for empire patrol are to many while i have 27 colonies??

well maybe i try to stock up my invasion fleets with some of them

5)this super rare resources are still in game? i have never seen one since i installed the addon

6) what going wrong with my construction ships trying to repair the Capitals? they sit there forever and forever and ..... i dont see any progress

7) oh yes the explorers well its an 1400 stars game the first i do in every game it build explorers with extra fuel range (480)till 10-12 and later more up to 20 more or less to find good worlds fast engough before enemy is faster

1) Try to build your colony ships manually (meaning refrain from using the build and send colony ship button). Build them at planets with as much population as possible, as that strongly influences the building speed.
Build anything you can with construction ships (stations, especially space ports) or in orbital yards (every ship except construction ships, supply ships and colony ships). For manual control design a "escort" that is, for all purposes a construction ship. They are faster build in the ports and don't clutter your extremely valuable production places on planet.
Design them so that they use as few resources (in number of different resources and in the sum of resources).
What ever you do, try to build them at planets with space ports (only ignore that if you can't build it at a planet with a port), as the port extremely accelerates the delivery of resources.

2)Nothing much to say here. Just make sure you have a enough troop transports available (and ready) to transport the troops to your colonies if necessary.

3)Way way to few. Any colony without a port is essentially cut of from trade. It is cut of from the revenue generated by trade.
Your 352k colony revenue are most probably mostly (80%) generated by these colonies with ports.
Also I see you have 9 research stations. If you have them at places with a research bonus, then why don't you use a resort station with added labs instead, as most res-bonus places also have a scenic modifier?
If they are not in such places, why build them at all?
A small space port like you have it initially has 75% of the research output the research station has (of course the RS has it concentrated on one type, while the SP spreads it) for twice the maintenance costs.
For that you not only get 75% of the research, you get a bonus in trade, you get 2 additional ship yards and you get a small fortress for the defense of your colony.
Now if you tweak the design a bit (you normally don't need a small fortress. For an real invasion it is at best an annoyance, and the occasional Pirate is better served with mobile forces) you get it much better.
Again, with the initial tech I took the SSP, took out 11 of the 13 blasters, 8 of the 10 shield generators, 8 of the 10 armor modules and 2 of the 4 reactors. Instead I added a lab of each type.
The resulting station had 50% higher research output than a research station for 46% of the maintenance, and it still has all the goodies of a space port except the fortress one.
If you retire your 9 research stations and build 6 space ports instead you should have 800 less maintenance costs with the same research output. But your trade should more or less explode. Especially if you tell your trade partners the positions of the new ports.
But build the ports with construction ships, as they are up to 10 times faster with it. Even with a 500M population they are 2-3 times faster.

4) IMHO way to few. You need at least one ship in every system that has one of your colonies, defending it from pirates and so on.
A single frig should ensure that your trade is protected there. Better make that 2 or 3 (later go up to destroyers, cruisers and way later capitals).
But to get that you have of course bring up your revenue, so there is nothing you can do ATM.
Wait until the lightweight SSPs have begun to bring in money (should go fast after the ports are finished).
Use part of this money to build further ports.
Use another part of it to defend your systems.

5) Yes there are, but with only 18 explorers your chances of actually winning the prize are slim at best.
If you should happen to stumble over one (speak about luck) DON'T! TRADE! YOUR! GALAXY! MAP! at any price until you successfully colonized the planet.

6)A Constructor needs resources to repair and/or build. Go in the ship list and look at the cargo of the constructor. If the wreck is in one of your systems, build a space port there that draws civilian shipping. If not, well you are S.O.L. as there is no way to force the civilians to supply a ship far far away from home.

7)Way to few. The interesting systems are few, and if you lose it you lose it. In the beginning a explorer is worth more for you than 2 or 3 cruisers. Don't ever sell your galaxy map if you can prevent it, but try to buy the ones from the others. Talk to pirates and buy information about independent colonies and interesting places.

I hope that could help you a bit.
Of course I still stay by my advice to change your government type.
That is ATM a rather bad government for you.

[Bingeling]

I was puzzled by your high number of colony ships. I don't ever have 11 ships underway in a normal game. Are you very eager to colonize low quality worlds? Usually only the finest ones are worth taxing, and there is a limit to how many hangarounds your need to boost trade, I guess? Also, those space ports you may enjoy handing to everyone can add up to a bit, as well as troops the AI decides to garrison them with.

An AAR image from a game that was well underway, but in no ways mature.



There are two obvious taxation objects, but one was hard to tax. It was a fresh conquest, and it seems I was at war with the species at that time. A few more can be considered for taxation, 30% of 10 is really nothing that makes much impact, though. Rather keep it at 0 and make them breed unless you really hurt for cash or positive cash flow.

That image is with the AI running taxes.

Screenshots taken at the same time show 18 colonies, 55k positive cashflow, 5 escorts, 13 frigates, 70 destroyers. I wonder why I had the escorts and frigates, I ran the military and little else.

[Alfred33]

ok thx all i will try this in my next game

[Data]

Rather keep it at 0 and make them breed unless you really hurt for cash or positive cash flow.

This should be a prototype 4x development strategy, it works in so many games.

[Bingeling]

In one game I had a giant quite low quality colony. I am still not sure if letting them breed would make more people leave, or if high taxes would. A giant colony with lots of emigration could really boost growth of nearby richer colonies...

3% growth is not a lot, but 3% of 18000M is 540M a year, which is a healthy boost to fresh colonies if you can make them leave...

[feelotraveller]

For immigration to happen you need worlds (nearby) with greater happiness and/or higher development. Which generally (but perhaps not always) means that you would need to tax heavily the world you want them to leave from. Still, 1% growth (can't go lower I think) of 18000 is still 180 and depending on the lowness of taxation on other nearby worlds you could get more... not sure of the threshold but perhaps even 1 or 2 lower happiness would do it.

[Bingeling]

But what happens when the colony is full? They stop making kids? Or do people leave to keep under limit?

Scaring them off with 0 tax on developing colonies should not be too hard, I felt a very good growth in that game. New colonies may lack development, though, but if you got an 18000M colony in the area, getting some luxuries should not be hard.

[Data]

But what happens when the colony is full? They stop making kids?

Birth control laws, mass killings, enslavement....take a pick.

[feelotraveller]

Oh, I did not understand that the colony was full. Never had that happen to me... I guess I just don't tax my new colonies enough [;)].

[Bingeling]

I would not be surprised if the top colony in that image is full. They don't come much larger than 18000M, do they? Also, that is gizzies, I think they breed well, so filling up the capital should be easy...

[feelotraveller]

I've seen some homeworlds start with 22000-23000M - human, excellent homeworld start. It's limited by quality, size and suitability, I think, with a +10% bonus to native planet type... I remember reading somewhere. But those homeworlds continued to grow in my games! at least until the point where immigration kicked in...

[Wicky]

Maybe, just maybe the low number of spaceports is what's causing the money problem.
1) A spaceport can have a commerce center to boost tax income. (by +5%, +10% and +15%)
2) It also has docking bays to allow more than 1 ship to unload cargo at a time, which is important for an even distribution of luxury goods.
3) Having all 10 luxury goods in a colony and a medical center onboard the spaceport makes people very happy, which leads to higher taxable colonists.

24 colonies, all pay 0% tax to boost growth, only the capital produces money



-55k in negative, and with +165k bonus income. I always play with manual taxes.

[Bingeling]

Now, that is a silly amount of resource income. I have seen short term crazy numbers, but... Also, lots of possible taxes to be had if the economy turns nasty.

How does your escorts look? About 1k maintenance makes them look like destroyers, but I don't pay much attention to those costs. I smell exploit

[Nedrear]

You can build a starbase to satisfy the needs of a mining station and you can build capital ships to be weaker than a frigate. Do you really suggest that a escort that is used in the way guns/shields/speed 1:1.5:5 to be cheap when using all the build size possible? No you can not!

[Wicky]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

Now, that is a silly amount of resource income. I have seen short term crazy numbers, but... Also, lots of possible taxes to be had if the economy turns nasty.

How does your escorts look? About 1k maintenance makes them look like destroyers, but I don't pay much attention to those costs. I smell exploit

Ya, you're right these numbers can't be correct. The cashflow in the upper right corner only updates once per month, and the taxes were changed a few days earlier. Damn time delay!