Some questions from a noob

[Abefar]

Hey,

Im new to this game, but not new to 4x game genre . (MOO,Stars!,Amada,Galciv,Sots I played them all)Somehow i missed this title so now I just bought vanilla + ROTS. (thinking of getting Legends mostly due to "borders")

I must admit I havent spent to much time with this game yet, but here are some questions:

Im a little intermidiated by this game. I having a hard time getting an overview of things. Maybe thats not the point with this game. I have most stuff on automation for now(exploration, construction ships, ship design, etc). Only thing I really control are some fleets with military ships. I have no clue of whats going on in my empire. No overview of what ressources I might be lacking or are my planets getting the 10 types of luxury ress. etc. The ress. system in this game seems a bit redundante by the way, because there is a really overflow of all types of ress. (easy acess to all ress.)

How do you guys keep an overview? Are you just letting the AI handle everything and run the game on autopilot?

I have a question about the AI also. My first encounter with the AI was from the start of the game with the race called Quameno. Within a very very short time they colonized everything and had 32 colonies vs mine 5. How are they able to colonize every type of planet? (ocean, continetal, volocanic, desert etc.)

I hope someone could give me a few pointers on how to get started without being to confused about whats going on in my empire. In other 4x games im used to have overview and control over every aspect of my empire.

Thanks in advance! [:)]

[Sylian]

I usually control everything myself, so i know what's going on in my empire. I also dont like how the AI handles certain things. But you have to experiment yourself to see what amount of automation suits you best.
As a beginner i would advise you to automate:
- Taxes
- Placement of Characters
- Population Policies
- maybe Troop recruitment

The following i would automate, but keep checking regulary and override auto commands if you feel its needed
- Reasearch
- Ship Design (you will want to carefully study this and eventually create your own designs, as you will be able to create far superior designs than tha AI does)
- Constructors (automate the construction ships, use construction orders to cue up orders - dont overdo it)

Handel yourself
- fleet formation

Put everything on the right side of the automation option to "suggest" - this allows you to see what the AI thinks it should do and then decide yourself.
Gathering information about resources can be rather hard. The expansion planer can give an overview what resources are needed most. Also espeacially at the beginning of the game almost all your production is done at your homeworld. So checking the cargo of your homeworld and comparing the stocks vs the reserved values gives inside what resources you lack most. Dont build to much at once. Try to secure the most important strategic resources (Steel, Polymer, Lead, Gold, Carbon Fiber, Aculon ...) ASAP. Luxuries are good, but not crucial at the beginning. They will only help you to develop your colonies and thus getting higher income.
My first priority on High Tech research are almost always the first 2 colonization techs. Check here what you really need. Some races are already able to colonize continental or marchy swamp - dont spend time researching if you dont need it.

This post may get you some further hints for strategies.

[the1sean]

ORIGINAL: Sylian

Put everything on the right side of the automation option to "suggest" - this allows you to see what the AI thinks it should do and then decide yourself.

I can't agree more, I am an avid player, and I still put all of the options on "suggest" so that the AI can remind me of some detail that I missed or show me an option I may not have thought of. Automate taxes, too, and automate your frigates and escorts, just control your war fleets and troops, and check teh victory conditions screen often to see your objectives and get motivation!

[Grotius]

Me, I didn't really start to "get" this game until I put everything on manual control. It's best to do this at the very start, when you have relatively little stuff, or maybe in a game with a very small galaxy. It also helps to be willing to lose the first time you play.

But the other suggestions in this thread are sensible too. It kinda depends on what level of micromanagement you like.

[Malevolence]

ORIGINAL: Abefar

I have a question about the AI also. My first encounter with the AI was from the start of the game with the race called Quameno. Within a very very short time they colonized everything and had 32 colonies vs mine 5. How are they able to colonize every type of planet? (ocean, continetal, volocanic, desert etc.)

ORIGINAL: Malevolence

I've been trying to figure out why certain races are able to quickly colonize, while other races tend to be stuck in 6 colonies and under for the first one or two decades... so I played the Toads (...I mean Quameno) who have won more than half of the games I've run on automation.

In less than 20 years, 24 colonies in 22 systems (2nd of 11 factions) (see image--blue-colored empire). The Teekan (another race who wins often) had 26 colonies as of the same period (the brown-colored race in the image).

Teeken +40% construction speed
Quameno +40% research
Ackdarian +10% research and +60% construction speed

Leaf ----------------------- Total Dev Cost (K)
Colonization 01 ------------------ 120
Continental Colonization 02 ------ 600
Marshy Swamp Colonization 02 ----- 600
Ocean Colonization 04 ----------- 2760
Desert Colonization 04 ---------- 2760
Ice Colonization 06 ------------ 10920
Volcanic Colonization 06 ------- 10920

I don't know what the percentages of each type of planetoids are spawned in the galaxies, but it's clear that with a commitment of 1200K research, every race that uses a native colonization type other than Continental and Marshy Swamp quickly capture their second and third access to more colony types. Compare that with Continental and Marshy Swamp native races who must commit 3360K research to gain access to the other Tech Level 2 colonization type and the subsequent Tech Level 4.

With the Quameno research bonus the advantage was even more pronounced.

Based on my observation, access to colony types in conjunction with ability to quickly produce colony ships made all the difference for the player's Quameno empire. Per the image, the Quameno empire was quickly able to gain control of many more colonies than other empires. You can also notice the other highlighted systems where colonization is possible.

[Abefar]

Thanks for the pointers. I see where I should be headed. I also think getting Legends will help with the overview. I think the galaxy map in ROTS is a bit confusing in respect to getting an overview of my empire in the galaxy. I think borders would help with this alot.

[Neotheone]

It also helps to be willing to lose the first time you play.

That wasn't hard for me my first game. I was surrounded by alien factions and I had like 7 colonies and everyone else had in the teens and 20's? Then two of them got mad at me for no reason (that I could think of) and came in and slaughtered my capital and wasted most all my ships. This game suxs. It's just a swarmfest of ai opponents who come in an clobber a newbie and frustrates them and then they toss it aside because it suxors. I'd rather play Galactic Civilizations II than this suxors mess. But, I'm giving it a chance as I'm not a quitter but seriously you guys saying play all of it non-automated are into masochism. I wouldn't dare to try to play this full manual, that's just flippin ridiculous an really impossilbe once you get into the 100's of colonies to control.

[Malevolence]

ORIGINAL: Neotheone

It also helps to be willing to lose the first time you play.

That wasn't hard for me my first game. I was surrounded by alien factions and I had like 7 colonies and everyone else had in the teens and 20's? Then two of them got mad at me for no reason (that I could think of) and came in and slaughtered my capital and wasted most all my ships. This game suxs. It's just a swarmfest of ai opponents who come in an clobber a newbie and frustrates them and then they toss it aside because it suxors. I'd rather play Galactic Civilizations II than this suxors mess. But, I'm giving it a chance as I'm not a quitter but seriously you guys saying play all of it non-automated are into masochism. I wouldn't dare to try to play this full manual, that's just flippin ridiculous an really impossilbe once you get into the 100's of colonies to control.

lower the number of AI opponents. I use 1 AI empire per 100 stars as the starting settings. go for a game with 3 or 4 AI perhaps to get a feel for the mechanics. I'm a manual guy in the early stages and switch to more AI control as my empire grows. based on your starting race type, know your natural enemy races. you're going to fight them, so undermine their progress as soon as you encounter them. my two rupees.

p.s. I know lots of friends who like games, but I'm the only one who likes this type of game.

[Grotius]

Seven homeworlds is a lot for a newb! And you probably were swarmed because your military wasn't as strong as that of your opponents. It helps to have allies, too.

As Malevolence said, try playing with a smaller galaxy, or maybe make colonizable worlds more rare, to cut down on the number of colonies you have to manage. I learned by starting with 1 world, 1 spaceport, and just a handful of ships, in a small galaxy. I put the game on slow, did everything manually, and slowly realized I could speed the game up without sacrificing my micromanagement. Now I can manage dozens of ships and several starbases, still with most things on manual.

Of course, I don't mean I'm steering every ship. I organize my ships into fleets, and I give the fleets orders like "patrol this system" (with range limited to that system). The minute a ship is built, I put it in a fleet, and it just takes its orders from the existing fleet orders. I order exploration ships to explore a whole sector of space, so they're busy a while. I use the UI to queue up construction projects at research or tourist worlds. I do queue up construction projects manually, but I don't find that to be a big burden. I revise ship designs manually too; I enjoy doing that.

I dunno, playing that way, I don't find it hard to keep track of everything. If 5 things happen at once, I just pause the game and deal with them one at a time. Mostly, though, I can run the game continuously while intervening frequently to give simple orders.