Matrix Games Forums

Hi everyone! First I would like to say that this is one of the most awesome games I have ever played. The freedom, possibilities and sheer replayability make it my favorite game of all times(you can say a dream game [:D]).

Second, here's the situation I need help with: I started a 700 star game as a human faction on the edge of the galaxy with the basic start options and I checked the option for the opponents to be picked randomly; it all went surprisingly well at first with me directing the AI here and there and generally peacefully expanding, though the number of habitable planets was extremely low; I had a constant level of money and the expansion was going slowly but steadily. Eventually I made contact with a bunch of empires, some of which were humanoid and friendly(Kaidan), others which were not so friendly(rat people I call them, the Keterov race I think they are called).

So, of course the ai goes behind my back and starts randomly attacking the rat people until they eventually declare war and my reputation goes from admirable to dubious in less than a month.

Anyway, using my newly discovered advanced capital ship and cruiser I manage to win the war and capture a large part of their colonies, but not without my infrastructure going down like a rock in a lake. After peace ensued the income was basically outcome and in the - red. Now, I have several empires willing to declare war on me, mainly sluken and the rat people again, plus a previously old(they must have started advanced) but weak empire, the Teekan, who now have over 100 colonies and the biggest fleet in the galaxy. I am in 3rd place, with my friends the Kaidan in 2nd and Teekan in 1st. The issues

1) No matter how good my dealings with the Kaidan are I can't get them to sign a mutual defense pact. My relation with them is in the 30+, I have a trade agreement since like forever, and we are in a position to help each other, plus my fleet is the 3rd strongest, and I have tech at least equal to them. With their fleet I might be able to take on the excessively expanding teekan rodent empire, plus the smaller annoying empires that keep trying to provoke me. But they keep refusing cooperation, despite the fact their enemies are mostly my enemies as well and we are so friends that I allow their fleet to station in my systems. Any tips on how to get them on my side? I can't see any option to buy the alliance or anything. Also, my rep is back to satisfactory and they like it, so it can't be that the cause. They even occasionally sell me tech for like 2000-3000, which is awesomely cheap compared to the rest of the empires.

2) How can I repair my economy without cutting into my fleet. The fleet ain't that big and it's the only thing keeping the enemy empires from barging into my systems. I checked the expansion planner and it seems my empire doesn't need any more resources, plus I have 24 colonies, mostly well developed since most of the planets I could colonize were independent. Also, the rat people are attacking again so that's not an option. So far, only the loros fruit has been found and in the hands of the teekan rodents. I have like 2 capships, 5-6 cruisers and a bunch of destroyers and other smaller ships all in all not more than 30-35 I think. Not a lot of troops either, just like 1-2 per planet max.

3) Research is not going well at all. There weren't any nearby research hotspots and the ones I found later were already taken and near enemy territory. Most of my tech I got through trading (teekan gave me all their tech for a mining station in a disputed system, hehe) and I can build cap ships and big stuff now quite fast+ my ships seem to be the most powerful of all the empires. But my empire doesn't seem to be doing research on its own at all. I did manage to find a supernova just out of the galaxy, but at first I had problems supplying my research bases with fuel and now, even though I put a fuel mining base in a gas cloud 2 light years from the bases they still don't receive enough fuel. Also, there are like 10 freighters always hanging around the stations doing nothing and 2 are occasionally bringing in fuel, is that normal? Any ideas what I can do to make the stations work? I hate having to buy

4) Troop war, I have problems doing it, since my ships don't synchronize when dropping troops and it all ends badly eventually, plus they are hard to get. Any way to speed up recruitment or hints on how to conquer planets without bombing?

5) My advisers keep telling me to treat my Kaidan friends like junk and cancel all my good treaties, betray my allies and launch sneak attacks on neutral empires. Is there an option to shoot them?

6) Do spy missions actually succeed? It seems that even those with over 60% chance fail. Before I took control of spies the AI kept sending them to the enemy and every one of them got captured. Now I have like 5-10 of them just doing counterespionage and it seems they keep catching rat people trying to infiltrate. Any use for spying at all? Do the agents get experience from counterespionage as well?

7) I noticed in the empire summary screen that spaceports can bring an income. Does it depend on the size of them? In the beginning I had only medium and small and no income, now I have a couple of big ones after the war and I get a very low income.

8) How profitable are resort bases, if not necessarily in a scenic location?

Cheers

I try and help you, but I'm not that great myself [:D]

1) No matter how good my dealings with the Kaidan are I can't get them to sign a mutual defense pact. My relation with them is in the 30+, I have a trade agreement since like forever, and we are in a position to help each other, plus my fleet is the 3rd strongest, and I have tech at least equal to them. With their fleet I might be able to take on the excessively expanding teekan rodent empire, plus the smaller annoying empires that keep trying to provoke me. But they keep refusing cooperation, despite the fact their enemies are mostly my enemies as well and we are so friends that I allow their fleet to station in my systems. Any tips on how to get them on my side? I can't see any option to buy the alliance or anything. Also, my rep is back to satisfactory and they like it, so it can't be that the cause. They even occasionally sell me tech for like 2000-3000, which is awesomely cheap compared to the rest of the empires.

You say the Kiadians are in 2nd and you are in 3rd, I've noticed with Mutual Defence Pact Empires that are weaker than you are more willing to sign.  I've had a Mutual Defence Pact with Kiadian before, they asked for it themselves rather than me asking them, I also get asked by the Securans a lot (I play as Humans too).  At the time they asked their relationship with me was Delighted, I'm guessing you are Friendly at the moment.  If you manage to get your reputation to Respectable, maybe that would give them that little push.  Killing a pirate faction or two should do that for you (also if they ever ask you to put trade sanctions on someone, say yes).

2) How can I repair my economy without cutting into my fleet. The fleet ain't that big and it's the only thing keeping the enemy empires from barging into my systems. I checked the expansion planner and it seems my empire doesn't need any more resources, plus I have 24 colonies, mostly well developed since most of the planets I could colonize were independent. Also, the rat people are attacking again so that's not an option. So far, only the loros fruit has been found and in the hands of the teekan rodents. I have like 2 capships, 5-6 cruisers and a bunch of destroyers and other smaller ships all in all not more than 30-35 I think. Not a lot of troops either, just like 1-2 per planet max.

A real tricky one without seeing a screenshot of your Empire summary screen and also a screenshot of your Expansion Planner screen sorted by price.  It sounds to me the most likely cause (as you mention this later) is you are paying too much maintenance on Spaceports.  In your Empire Summary you can probably see the maintenance cost and you will notice large Spaceports are really expensive to maintain.  Personally, small Spaceports are what I prefer, only using Medium or Large as defensive platforms at valuable planets.

3) Research is not going well at all. There weren't any nearby research hotspots and the ones I found later were already taken and near enemy territory. Most of my tech I got through trading (teekan gave me all their tech for a mining station in a disputed system, hehe) and I can build cap ships and big stuff now quite fast+ my ships seem to be the most powerful of all the empires. But my empire doesn't seem to be doing research on its own at all. I did manage to find a supernova just out of the galaxy, but at first I had problems supplying my research bases with fuel and now, even though I put a fuel mining base in a gas cloud 2 light years from the bases they still don't receive enough fuel. Also, there are like 10 freighters always hanging around the stations doing nothing and 2 are occasionally bringing in fuel, is that normal? Any ideas what I can do to make the stations work? I hate having to buy

Look in your Research screen, you will see a grey and a red row around the middle of the screen called I *think* Maximum Output and Actual Output (or something similar), if the top row of numbers are greater than the bottom row of numbers, that means your Empire is doing as much Research as the population allows, because the top row indicates the amount of Research your facilities can handle and the bottom row the amount of Research your population can handle.  If these numbers are equal, build a Research station at either Blackhole, Supernova or Neutron Star.  You can crash Research (press the lightning symbol next to the Research you want to crash), this will put all your research into that single technology until you get it, it can speed up aquiring individual techs, but remember the lower the current amount of Research done on the tech you crash, the more money you are charged to Crash it, so best is to Crash stuff that is around the 50% mark already researched.

4) Troop war, I have problems doing it, since my ships don't synchronize when dropping troops and it all ends badly eventually, plus they are hard to get. Any way to speed up recruitment or hints on how to conquer planets without bombing?

Tell your Troop transports to move to the planet first (crtl-right click, select move to planet) and when they are in orbit right click to attack with them all selected.

5) My advisers keep telling me to treat my Kaidan friends like junk and cancel all my good treaties, betray my allies and launch sneak attacks on neutral empires. Is there an option to shoot them?

When you are able to do certain aspects of the game better than the automation (or you disagree with what the automation is doing) go into the options screen and set that to manual.  I use all unautomated now except ship design, but for my first few games I played with automation on and turned it off one bit at a time as I learnt to do the stuff myself.  Imagine this is your advisors being stood against the wall and shot if you like [:D]

6) Do spy missions actually succeed? It seems that even those with over 60% chance fail. Before I took control of spies the AI kept sending them to the enemy and every one of them got captured. Now I have like 5-10 of them just doing counterespionage and it seems they keep catching rat people trying to infiltrate. Any use for spying at all? Do the agents get experience from counterespionage as well?

Try and go on missions with around 87% success rate or more, letting them take a year to do it, unless you don't care about reputation (like you are roleplaying an evil Empire or something).  As far as I know the higher your spies skill level the better they are at catching enemy spies, I think the % success rate doesn't take this into account (which is good, or it would tell you about your enemies spies).  So 60% chance, minus what the enemy spies are doing to catch you isn't much chance of success at all.

7) I noticed in the empire summary screen that spaceports can bring an income. Does it depend on the size of them? In the beginning I had only medium and small and no income, now I have a couple of big ones after the war and I get a very low income.

When the private sector buys ships (freighters, miners, passengers etc) they pay your state for them at the Spaceports, this is your Spaceport income.  The private sector won't buy new ships if it doesn't need them, so if your Empire is expanding the private sector will buy more to transport the extra goods to your new planets or growing population planets, finding new Empires also will get them to buy more to trade and for immigration (at least I think), finding new resources especially the rare ones will lead to them buying more too.  Its very rare that Largespaceports make more income than they cost in maintenance, small spaceports can do so though sometimes, and when they don't they still cost less to maintain, this is why I propose large spaceports more for defensive purposes and building warfleets, but double up these roles at the same ports to save cost of buying more large.  Also at high population planets troops are recruited quicker, so build large spacports to guard high pop planets, build your fleets here and they might be able to load up troops right away if you kept training troops on the planet.

8) How profitable are resort bases, if not necessarily in a scenic location?

Only build them at a scenic location, they are good source of income, at early game (6-10ish planets) they seem to give me 2-5k income, it gets more as the Empire gets larger.  They are more succesful close to high population planets (within the same or next sector it seems).

Hope this helps! Good luck!

I really really don't like leaving the AI in charge of my military. The AI seems inclined to raid before declaring war which is brutal on your rep.

1 - It is much harder to sign deals with bad rep, I've noticed. Even with a positive score. Just continue to trade with them, in particular rare resources, and they'll warm up to you, but you might have to wait awhile for the rep to bleed off a little.

2 - The key ways to get money are

A - Luxory resources to your colonies.

B - Free trade agreements. The more the better. This can be surprisingly profitable. In my current game, I make 122K from colony taxes but a whopping 88K from free trade! It does take awhile for the money to start rolling in. And you have to be trading with the other empires like mad for you to get the big profits.

C - Resorts. This tends to be a small stream, but steady which is nice. In my current game with 4 resorts, I'm sitting pretty consistently at 22K or so.

Building private ships also makes you money, but it is too unreliable for me to count it as "income".

Ultmately, you may just have to cut into your military. Scrap stations which you just don't need. Cut troops levels to a minimum at safe star systems. And then if need be start making do with the ships you can afford. One option if you have nuclear devastators and you don't think you can take and hold the loros fruit planets is to bomb it to bits lowering its quality to the point where it is no longer profitable to hold it. Giving rare resources is a powerful way to make friends and so you'll be taking a valuable tool away from the Teekans.

By the way, I generally play the Teekans so I'm rooting for them. Sorry.

3 - Multiple empires can share research hotspots. Bases should be given sufficient energy collectors to be self-sufficient otherwise they will bleed you dry in terms of fuel and the logistical cost of moving the fuel around.

4 - Yeah, this is a definite problem. About the only thing you can do is micromanage. Order the fleet to move to the planet. Once they are in orbit order them to attack, they'll unload troops pretty much at the same time then. Expect to need 3-1 odds to win and even then. I dropped 35 troops on a 6 troop planet and lost!

5 - The diplo advisors are fools. They should be left out the in the sun to die. Seriously, I just turn them off in the options.

6 - Yes they do succeed but remember that is a base chance not taking into account counter-espionage. It is a good idea to build up your spies by conducing counter-espionage yourself or do missions with a very high chance of success (98%) even if it isn't something you want done, just as a training op.

7 - Spaceports generate income by building private ships. As far as I know the size doesn't determine anything, except of course the more ship yards on a station the more ships it can build more quickly, but ultimately this just makes space port income more spikey instead of more constant.

8 - It can be a modest source of constant income. I've never build a resort at a non-scenic place so I couldn't say but seeing as how they don't generate a ton of money even at a scenic place I can't see a non-scenic being all that grand. They are definitely worth building, but I tend to keep them cheap and minimalist. Few defenses.

Hope that helps!

ORIGINAL: Merker

1) No matter how good my dealings with the Kaidan are I can't get them to sign a mutual defense pact.

I never needed to ally with anybody, so, I don't know this one. IIRC, Kiadians are very cautious, so they don't ally themselves easily. You may want to attack pirates and monsters to get your reputation even higher.

2) How can I repair my economy without cutting into my fleet.

IMO, this is quite a big fleet you have only 25-30 worlds. But you said earlier you had lots of space ports, including medium and big. Space ports are good, but most of the time, I find I don't need to build anything but small ones, to both meet the demand of building of the private sector, help the spread of the resource in my empire (I'm not sure it helps a lot, but...) and boost the development level of high quality worlds. I don't really now what medium and big space port are for, unless you have to build a fleet in a hurry in a particular sector. Large space ports cost a lot, so they have high maintenance costs. You probably don't need them, so you may retrofit them to small space ports, which will save you some thousands of "K".
Next, it seems that the constructor AI builds a lot of useless mines, that cost money to build and have maintenance costs for the private sector. If they had more money, they may build more ships, and gain your empire fresh cash. Check the mines stocks (ship and bases screen, cargo tab), and scrap the ones that are not needed. Be sure to colonize, or if you cannot, to build mines on worlds with luxury resources that you lack: this will make profit to your private sector, that will get you taxes, and it will help grow the development of your colonies.

If you did not automate the ship designs, it could be a good idea to upgrade the civilian ships designs. This sometimes cause the private sector to upgrade its fleet. (that is, if they have the money)

The private sector tends to build ships when you create new colonies. If you did seize Teekan worlds (with enough population if you're using the beta), they have the ability to colonize desert planets, so help yourself, and use the planer to colonize all you can; for what I read on the forum, the colonizing AI seems to be a little slow, so give it a hand. And explore a lot. Build a lot of exploration ships to find the precious habitable worlds, and especially the independent colonies, that may enable you to colonize new world types.
If you need some money in a hurry, you may sell your territory maps. AI empires love maps, and will give you good money in exchange. I did not find any drawback to this until now. Keep your galaxy maps, if you don't want to risk the others to colonize the habitable worlds you found.

3) Research is not going well at all.

In this game, research is slow, very slow. To get it going anywhere, you need to either trade, or find derelict ships and retire them into your shipyards. So explore...
Later in the game, when your population start to be big enough, your potential research will be higher and more efficient. Check you potential research: by default, space ports come with research labs, and they have usually more than enough to reach the maximum research potential. There is no need to have more research labs than potential but to avoid wasting potential. You may want to scrap some your research stations to save maintenance.
Your problem with fuel, I'm not sure, I did not get that problem. Perhaps your private sector is bankrupt, so they don't spread the fuel efficiently ?
Note that you can order your ships to refuel directly at fuel mines.

4) Troop war, [...]my ships don't synchronize when dropping troops

This problem is more or less solved in the beta, so I assume you don't use it. All I can advise you is to order your troop transports to orbit the target world before ordering them all to drop the troops.
Note that troops get experience when victorious, and get more and more powerful. If you lost several times trying to conquer a world, the defending troops may have become very powerful, perhaps train your troops on easy worlds before trying again, or, obviously, bring even more troops.

5) My advisers[...] shoot them ?

Yes, shoot them ! They are pretty useless, if you ask me, excepted the ones that order troops and manage taxes. The option to do so is in... the options menu. It is not very visible, because these are presented in form of drop down combo boxes, where you can choose something like "fully automate/give advices/no automation".

6) Do spy missions actually succeed? [...]Do the agents get experience from counterespionage as well?

Yes, and no. I don't think counter-espionage get your spies any experience. Perhaps when they catch enemy spy, but I doubt it. You may have had bad luck, with you expeditions. I usually only send spy with chances of success over 85%. To "train" your spies, you may try to steal territory maps, and sabotage little things. Teekan have particularly bad counter-spying, so you may want to train them here. Forget stealing research, though, as it seem unless you are technologically very behind your target (2 levels or more), you won't get anything from it, but experience.

7) I noticed in the empire summary screen that spaceports can bring an income.

They bring income when private sector order new ships. The size of the space port will only make them build faster.

8) How profitable are resort bases, if not necessarily in a scenic location?

If your resort base is not in a scenic point, they will never get any customer. Even on a good scenic location, you will need it to be quite near very populated planets to get any tourist.
As I design my space ports without labs, and that object granting research bonus often are scenic locations, I crate resort bases stuffed with research labs. They are more research stations with a resort part, but I fear that a base with research station beavior may not be able to get any tourists. So, if they get customers, it's all good for me, if they don't, well, a research base don't need to earn money to be valuable.

You were faster than me!

B - Free trade agreements.

I forgot that one.

Building private ships also makes you money, but it is too unreliable for me to count it as "income".

It may seem that way, but when they do, and when your empire get bigger, it amounts to nice sums. Once, I got a big upgrade of the merchant fleets that got me 200 000 K at once.

I generally play the Teekans [...]I dropped 35 troops on a 6 troop planet and lost!

Teekans have very bad troops. Each score something like 5500 each where the ikkuro, for example score more than 13000! Pay attention of where you order new troops, to get the best of the races of your empire.

Yeah they're bad, but 35-6 ... I didn't expect the outcome, granted the 27 reinforcements won the day vs the two remaining troops... it was just one of those funny moments in being Space Marshal.

His Supreme Cheesiness <translated from Teekan>: "How goes the war Marshal? Will we have control of this sectory soon?"
Space Marshal: "Your cheesiness, I have 35 of our shock troops landing on the home planet now. They have but six defenders. This won't take long. .... Ahh yes here are the preliminary battle reports. Hmmm.... yes.... I see."
HSC : "Well? Have we won?"
SM: "If by winning you mean are our troops dying at a signifcantly faster rate than the enemy such that we will lose, than yes we are winning. I'm sending in reinforcements now your squeakiness."

Don't get me wrong, the money made from space ports is great, but it is unreliable. As say you can try to sucker money out of your private economy to fill your coffers, but even that isn't a guarantee that they'll respond, and who knows it what time frame, and your lowering your logistical capability while freighters are upgraded (not normally a big deal but this can cost you in free trade money so there can be a price to be paid... I've noticed that after making an upgrade my free trade money tends to drop a little due to decreased trading overall). I don't do any long term planning based on it. For example, suppose I have:

100K taxes
50K Free Trade
20K Resorts
45K Space Ports

at a given moment.

My expenses are currently at 120K. In my view, I would only expand expenses by perhaps another 20-25K. I use space port money like an unexpected gift and use it to handle whatever happens to come up. Also, it makes for a nice reserve.

"Rare" luxury spices have a huge effect on your economy. Check under your expansion planner screen for the following: kaladdian spice, Loros fruit, Zentabbin fluid. If you don't have at least one, get one asap! Since these are extremely rare, you might need a lot of exploration ships to find the planets with them. I had to explore 40% of a 700 star map before finding the first one. If an AI race occupies the rare luxury planet with a mining station, blast it, immediately, no questions asked, no matter if friend or foe. Then, build your own mining station there along with (I recommend) a defence base. Your income should quadruple after taking one of these rare luxury items, or octuple if you can get two. Conversely, your opponents might be strong because they have this rare luxury item at your expense (i.e. and you don't).

I think there are only one of each of the 3 very rare luxury resources in a galaxy: you can see this because the planet they are mined from have the name of the resource. Basing your expenses on the hope to find one is very risky; You can hint when someone discovered one of them on the planner, looking at the galaxy stock.

There can definitely be more than one of each. In my current game I control two Korrabin Spices.

Yeah I've had two Zentabia before&nbsp;[;)]

ORIGINAL: Florestan

As I design my space ports without labs, and that object granting research bonus often are scenic locations, I crate resort bases stuffed with research labs. They are more research stations with a resort part, but I fear that a base with research station beavior may not be able to get any tourists. So, if they get customers, it's all good for me, if they don't, well, a research base don't need to earn money to be valuable.

There are also solid gold/solid dilithium asteroids and ringed gas giants which are scenic locations. You can design a resort with mine facilities for dual purpose at these locations.

Woa, lots of answers and fast. Thanks a lot people.

Now, to reply to those suggestions.

Well, problem nr 2(economy) basically solved itself after a few minutes(a month in game time) since I got a massive income(like 30K) out of nowhere and so I can now build more capital ships and wage war in peace [:D] . I suppose all those mining bases my C-ships built during the brief cease-fire paid off or something, otherwise I can't explain the sudden recovery(no rare resource discovered). The empire summary screen:
http://img256.imageshack.us/i/20100730163347.jpg/
http://img844.imageshack.us/i/20100730154200.jpg/

To problem nr 1(Kaidan refusing alliance), well, I have been killing all the pirates I could find, but with the war with the Murilea empire(rat people) I can't spare any ships to kill the far away bases.
Here's the murilea( they have weak strength but still attack me):
http://img191.imageshack.us/i/20100730154937.jpg/
Kaidan: http://img299.imageshack.us/i/20100730163410.jpg/

- Problem 3: well, in my previous game(I continued playing the basic tutorial with the amphibian dudes) research went extremely fast after I built a research starbase I designed myself in a nova system (with like 15 labs of each type) and that was all I ever used. Now I have the most advanced yards, capital ships and I accidentally discovered the death ray which put my measly empire into the top 3 in that first game. In this game, I have like 7 labs that are always low on power and, as I stated, I buy most of my research from other empires. Here's the status of the research: http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7025/20100730154457.jpg

Strangely, that first game went extremely well with all automated option on and little input from me. My empire has a noble reputation, gets along with most big empires, has the loros fruit, and income of like 150K + a wealth of 200k+. Also new colonies appear every month like 2-3.

In this game I asked your help with, the AI just plunges my empire into disaster if I let it do anything. Exploration went extremely poorly and the Teekans have explored most of the ruins in the galaxy and have 108 colonies now, compared to my 24. Though they are neutral, they can easily crush me without Kaidan support.
http://img819.imageshack.us/i/20100730163406.jpg/

Problem nr 4: well, I only had this troop problem when ordering my personal capital ships to attack the planet, even though they were both right on top of it they still disynchronized and I lost 4 troops senselessly.

Problem 5: Heh, I know I can turn off automation but they sometimes make good suggestions like telling me where an enemy mining base is, and it helps. But most of the advice is bad in this second game.

Problem 6: Hmm, same issue in the second game. My first game spy missions went exceptionally well on auto and my few spies were getting me all the tech of the other empires. Kind of weird it doesn't work better with the humans, especially after assimilating Ketarov, who have spying bonus. Seems each game is unique in events.

Problem 7: Ok, I understand the spaceport thing now. However I can't scrap them since they are the only defense for some of my colonies, my empire is very badly placed in space. Besides, I have 4 medium custom designed space ports that are basically HUGE space yards that I created and they don't have high maintenance.

Problem 8: Yeah, I guess i'm going to have to finish the war first, before testing resort bases.
What are undocumented scenic locations(apart from Neutron stars, black holes)? I read something about certain gas giants, any ideas which types? I have all types of gas giants in my systems...

New issues:
9) There is still a fleet of transport ships not doing anything near my research bases. Any idea what to do about it, apart from destroying the bases(since they are useless anyway out of power and all that).
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8396/20100730154601.jpg

10) I'm not at war with Teekans yet, just Ketarov. Teekans keep invading my systems and colonizing everything in sight then trying to cut a deal for the disputed bases with their advanced tech(the most of which they gave to me for a measly mining base in a far away system, hehe). A direct conflict would be suicidal, any suggestions on how to soften them up and get to ruins faster than them?(they seem to have explored everything already and can colonize most planets). Without Kaidan support I stand no chance, but it does seem I have the upper hand in capital ship tech and weapons, and I am considering investing in like 10 of those monsters. However, their territory is mostly unknown to me(108 colonies).

11) What determines what a C-ship can build? In my first game a C-ship could also build custom designed starbases, now the only way to build a research starbase of my own design is to classify it as a 'research station' or other such things... I have the tech for stations size 2250 and the base in question is 1100, yet there's no option for the C-ship...

12) If a ruin has been explored by another empire I can't get anything from it? Because I was hoping to start the story somehow but all ruins turn up empty....

13) If I leave only one mining station design for example, will the AI build that? It seems to always avoid my better armed and better shielded designs for some reason....

PS: I have the 1.06 beta patch.

Cheers

Ok, I stand corrected about some problems I had.

For one, the economy seems to have made an amazing recovery up to the point I had like 150k at once, without even owning one of the top luxury resources. Seems the idea was to get more luxury resource sites and then I had a colony population boom all of a sudden. Also, the ai built a resort base at some ruins and that brings a huge profit, at least 22k a year now. I have also noticed that space ports are crucial to bringing profit. I built a lot more small space ports and my income rose by 20-50k at once, as it seems resources move around a LOT faster.

Second, while I was making attacks on the Murilea Homeworld, my advisers suggested I should offer them to become a subjugated dominion. I clicked to option without much thought, and it seems they accepted it!![X(][X(]

I have a question, what does a subjugated dominion do, except pay tribute. It doesn't seem they help in in wars or anything, I don't have any option to demand tech or money or anything. I believe there should be more advantages to having a subjugated faction bow down to your empire, now the most useful parts are the tribute and sensor data.

Now I've invested in 16 more capital ships and declared war on the sluken collective dudes who kept trying to provoke me. Seems they were extremely weak and just lost their colonies 1 by 1.

As for research, I just built one of my custom starbases with lots of labs, some gas mining equipment and weapons on a gas giant in someone's system(I just thought it would be fun [:D])  and it seems research has had a massive boom, and I'm getting discoveries every few months or so, at least a LOT faster than before. I have to upgrade my capital ships nearly every month  to keep up with all that tech.

Now it seems the whole galaxy is at war, and someone's finally challenged the Teekan, I've seen their colony numbers drop a bit from 160 [:D]. I have a few more empires to take down before making a run for them.

Cheers.

What is exactly the difference between giving territory maps (how large is a territory?)&nbsp;and galaxy maps?

Territory maps gives them just your/their systems (colonies) and not even the details of those systems like resources, just the colonies.  Galaxy map unveils all exploration completely including resources of everywhere you have explored.

Edit: In other words give them your territory maps and get theirs for better trade, but try to never give a galaxy map away, but do try to get theirs by any means possible.

BTW good story Merker, you should write an AAR someday. I like it how you desribe your strategic issues. To me the economy is also somewhat random in this game. Sometimes it goes well and then it drops again. You are more in manually designing ships and stations. I've stayed away from that thusfar. I trust the game automation.

about how to find scenic locations: it's what makes the galaxy map button useful. I still don't understand why the option is not simply in the main map, but there, you got a filter to highlight discovered scenery locations (and good research spots)

ORIGINAL: Merker
In this game, I have like 7 labs that are always low on power and, as I stated, I buy most of my research from other empires. Here's the status of the research: http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7025/20100730154457.jpg

Hmm your research stations shouldn't be low on power ever. They aren't supposed to consume fuel either, they should have energy collectors to cover the energy usage of their components. Maybe you designed your own research labs and forgot to add energy collectors ?

Problem nr 4: well, I only had this troop problem when ordering my personal capital ships to attack the planet, even though they were both right on top of it they still disynchronized and I lost 4 troops senselessly.

As someone pointed out to me a few days ago, while troop transports are setup to drop troops immediately, other military ships such as cruisers or capital ships only attack planet when it's clear by default. You can alter that behaviour with the design panel, however that won't change the behaviour of existing ships, so my own solution to that particular problem is to use troop transports only to attack planets. I removed troop compartments from my cruisers & capital ships, which makes them slightly cheaper, and I also stripped weapons off my troop transports just so they aren't tempted to waste time shooting things.

Problem 8: Yeah, I guess i'm going to have to finish the war first, before testing resort bases.
What are undocumented scenic locations(apart from Neutron stars, black holes)? I read something about certain gas giants, any ideas which types? I have all types of gas giants in my systems...

You can check all the scenic locations known to your empire using the galaxy overview panel. In addition to neutron stars and black holes, certain gas giants with rings, peculiar asteroids, and planets with ruins might be "scenic locations".

10) I'm not at war with Teekans yet, just Ketarov. Teekans keep invading my systems and colonizing everything in sight then trying to cut a deal for the disputed bases with their advanced tech(the most of which they gave to me for a measly mining base in a far away system, hehe). A direct conflict would be suicidal, any suggestions on how to soften them up and get to ruins faster than them?(they seem to have explored everything already and can colonize most planets). Without Kaidan support I stand no chance, but it does seem I have the upper hand in capital ship tech and weapons, and I am considering investing in like 10 of those monsters. However, their territory is mostly unknown to me(108 colonies).

First thing you should do is steal a map of the ennemy's empire using spies really. Deep cover is pretty nice as well, not only will you get the locations of all systems, you'll get the locations of ennemy ships as well (or should, lost all information on one of the AI factions in my current game for some reason, spy still in deep cover).

11) What determines what a C-ship can build? In my first game a C-ship could also build custom designed starbases, now the only way to build a research starbase of my own design is to classify it as a 'research station' or other such things... I have the tech for stations size 2250 and the base in question is 1100, yet there's no option for the C-ship...

Constructor ships should be able to build any design that is not obsolete, so not sure what the problem here is.

13) If I leave only one mining station design for example, will the AI build that? It seems to always avoid my better armed and better shielded designs for some reason....

If you only have one (non obsolete) design for each mining station type (normal and gas), then yes, the AI will build that.

For one, the economy seems to have made an amazing recovery up to the point I had like 150k at once, without even owning one of the top luxury resources. Seems the idea was to get more luxury resource sites and then I had a colony population boom all of a sudden. Also, the ai built a resort base at some ruins and that brings a huge profit, at least 22k a year now. I have also noticed that space ports are crucial to bringing profit. I built a lot more small space ports and my income rose by 20-50k at once, as it seems resources move around a LOT faster.

Careful not overbuilding spaceports, while they do help spreading resources across your empire, and increase the development level and happiness of your planets (hence tax revenues), they also cost a lot in maintenance. Many spaceports built on planets/systems close from each others do not offer many additional benefits.

I have a question, what does a subjugated dominion do, except pay tribute.

That's pretty much it really. They are probably less likely to declare war on you as well if at all possible but I'm not so sure about that.

Yes, and no. I don't think counter-espionage get your spies any experience. Perhaps when they catch enemy spy, but I doubt it.

I can confirm (using the latest patch) that your spies do gain experience from catching other spies. I have only ever used one of my 10 spies on enemy espionage missions (he has about 400 experience now). The other spies vary (they start with 100 in experience) between 125 to 200.

So each time an enemy spy is caught, whichever spy was responsible for catching the enemy spy receives some experience for his efforts.

Again, this is from my own personal observations using the latest patch.