Matrix Games Forums

I go broke very quickly. I am playing easy, computer running most everything, 2 scouts exploring just about everything. I get about an hour in and I am broke again. Then I scrap just about everything still broke. Hmmm Oh and I only have 1 colony. BTW when I put The freighters on manual I can't seem to build any? Printed and read the manual twice. Back to the drawing board.

I have been playing this since STUN:DG came out and have upgraded to ver 3.2. The first thing I usually do is check the map to see if I have alot of systems nearby. If I do I only build 1 scout. You can upgrade the engines later to get around faster but it doesnt really matter if you are traveling short distances. Sometimes I will only build 1 or 2 scouts and use alot of gunships. They are relatively cheap and in the early game they can be effective if they are kept up to date with the technology. One ship keeps the expenses down. Concentrate on getting your freighter techs up as soon as you can. I also try to get the library and research capability up as soon as I can. Once both are up and running you should consider exploring the systems that probably border other civs. This makes it easy to make contact faster and prevent the other civs from getting systems that are close to you.
I have began experimenting with starting colonies also. I wait until my finances are good and build on a large system with the most money potential that can give me a base to attack/defend from. Try using the finances tab to figure out where you are making and losing money. That helps me figure out where to improve. It was a great help when I was first starting out. One more thing, you will need money to repair your ships so if your money is low your ships will slowly grind to a halt. Repairs will not be made if you cant afford them.

ORIGINAL: beserko

I go broke very quickly. I am playing easy, computer running most everything, 2 scouts exploring just about everything. I get about an hour in and I am broke again. Then I scrap just about everything still broke. Hmmm Oh and I only have 1 colony. BTW when I put The freighters on manual I can't seem to build any? Printed and read the manual twice. Back to the drawing board.

You're probably building new ships and stuff with maintenance costs too quickly and probably training too many specialists too early. I never build a second ship until my cash flow is positive. This can take quite awhile, so be patient. You may want to research and build Surface Mining Facilities as well - they produce $5 per facility and help out early game finances quite a bit. Also, the AI does a pretty decent job of building freighters, so you may want to leave that on automatic as well.

I'm not at all an experienced player, I'm only on my 3rd game, no farther than Fusion Age, yet I don't have too much of a problem anymore with money :

At start I put 10-15 scientists onboard the scout and 5% on my HW, the income drop to -40 for a time, but as the scout explores and the freighters are auto build it gets better. Then I build a second scout, put max scientists on both, and research Surface Mines: when I get it I put a maximum on them on the HW. Soon the revenue end up positive, with enough cash left from start (at play level 2) for the first colony. Properly placed colony means new trade route and some more surf mines. After 100 years the cash comes in steadily (40-50$).
Surely you build too much ships and didn't explore and build trade routes enough.

Back to my game, see ya later

Not anymore. Ya just have too align the warp core matrix and polarize the gravitational subspace deflectors!