Noob question about starting a game

[Javolenus]

I just started a game on "easy" and with no epochs, cults, corporations, syndicates. Here's how it went:

1. Need industrial points to build a metal mine, ice mine, agri-dome.
2. But can't build any "industry" (to get "industry points") because I have no metal.
3. Can't buy any metal because I have no money.
4. Can't raise any money because I have nothing to sell.
5. Now there's "unrest" in my zone but I can't ...
--A) Pay the rebels (because I have no money).
--B) Defeat the rebels (because I have no soldiers, and I can't raise any soldiers because I have no money or materials)
... and so the "unrest goes up" and now I have no money at all.
6. In frustration, I thought I'd just kill everyone by playing a "strategy card", but I lost a "dice roll" (plus I have no troops anyway) and so failed even to do that.
7. Thought to play a strategy card that opens some kind of vault (in the hope of finding metal or money or water or food or industry points etc.) but I don't have enough "fate points".
8. Clicked the "end turn" button a few times in the hope things would somehow get better. They didn't.
7. Quit the game.

Question: if this is "easy" -- what's "difficult" like ?!?

[Radagy]

Try the other way round: start by building a Recycling Facility.
In a few turns you will get metal to build an Industry Asset and rare earth to sell and make some money.

[Javolenus]

Thanks for this---yep, that worked! Built the mine first and then the "industry I" building. Thanks again--very helpful.

[Philo32b]

Also, about Industrial Points, even though you don't start out with any industry built, you do get some small amount of IP from service tax that your citizens pay, in addition to the credits they pay from any income or sales tax. You can see this in Reports --> Zones --> your zone --> the amount of IP will be buried in the Detailed News. This small IP can eventually help you get your water and food and then industry going. I think, but I'm not sure, that once the private economy sets up its own light industry that this will give you a few more IP to use as well.

[Javolenus]

Many thanks--that's useful info. I checked out the reports and found useful data. Thanks again--appreciated.

[HansLemurson]

Also, just because you see your total IP available drop to Zero, doens't mean you're not producing any Industry Points! It just means that your various projects are using it up faster than you are producing it, so your stockpile gets depleted and not replenished. But the projects will slowly inch their way to completion, and once they are done, IP will start flowing back into your SHQ's reserves.

Try not to build so many projects at once, and remember that the displayed cost is for EACH TURN that the project takes to complete. A mine whose construction uses 125 IP and is done in 2 turns will actually consume a total of 250 IP before it completes. Similarly, Light Industry consumes 500 metal for 3 turns which means a total cost of 1500(!) metal.

If you build projects one at a time, then you'll be able to benefit from them sooner, as they will complete quickly and start work, rather than splitting your construction capacity. If you only have the capacity to fully support one project at a time, then you can have one project complete on turn+3 and the second on turn+6. If you build both at once, they will both compete on turn+6, and you will have lost 3 turns worth of productivity.

[Philo32b]

HansLemurson

Excellent advice. Once you get enough infrastructure going, you can build several assets at once, just always stay within your means to avoid the productivity hit that HansLemurson talks about. I keep a running tally each turn of my metal and IP that has been delivered from zones that turn (if you hover over the resource in your SHQ list on the far left, it will give you several bits of info on that resource, including delivered from zone). I then go to Reports --> Overview --> Construction Overview. This lets you click on each asset construction project, taking you to the asset. I subtract the metal and IP that this asset will take each turn (listed on the icon) from my tally. If I have some left over after accounting for all assets, I can build another that is in budget. I wish there was a report that did this for me, but it isn't hard to do, and it avoids constantly prolonging asset projects. (The "delivered from zone" tally is a little conservative because zones keep some of the resource when they think they will need it, but it is a good general guide to go by.)

[Javolenus]

Many thanks for this good advice! By building 1 asset at a time, I was able to make a much better start to the game.