If you could give 10 tips to new players, what would it be?

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If you could give 10 tips to new players, what would it... - 1/7/2013 3:31:40 PM

Peef

Posts: 18
Joined: 1/6/2013
Status: offline

I've been reading a lot on the forums, and getting increasingly puzzled to what to do first when I start a new empire.

Automation off, redesign ships immediately or not? manually explore, ...

So my question is simple, for all the more experienced players:

If you could give 10 tips to new players, what would it be?

Post #: 1

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 1/7/2013 7:37:34 PM

Arcatus

Posts: 197
Joined: 1/2/2012
Status: offline

Oh, good question, but I think you will see allot of tips depending on playstyle and preferences.

However, my list in no specific order:

1) Constructors, not colony ships.
- Colony ships are expensive, and colonies are not that useful in the early game. Finding and mining at least one of each resource is very important.
2) But don't let that 90% planet with lots of resources fall into your neighbors hands...
3) Redesign your mining stations so they have some weapons (latest version does this for you)
4) Explore! Find those ancient ships first. That way you can keep a decent war fleet (almost) without building warships.
- And those constructors in point 1 - very useful for repairing found ships.
- Keep most explorers on auto - and guide a few of them manually.
5) Research. On the planets that you do colonize - build a small space port immediately. It adds to your research.
- but how many is complicated. Read this : Click.
6) Kill pirates. Makes everyone happy, and less likely to attack while you are busy exploring.
7) Tax on new planets = 0.
- The revenue is tiny compared to your homeworld, and you want it to grow as fast as possible. And then you tax it
- So basically - most planets are just expansions of your borders with maintenance free mining and a ship/research yard.
8) Avoid the SilverMist. If you spot it - Get ion weapons on fast ships. (if it is early game - pray it goes somewhere else....)
9) Redsign ships. Good design will give a huge advantage over the AI.
- It might be overwhelming, but it's not that complicated. Use the forum if you need help.
10) The AI is very good at finding undefended targets. Get Long range scanners as soon as you can!

(in reply to Peef)

Post #: 2

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 1/7/2013 8:49:59 PM

StarLab

Posts: 844
Joined: 8/27/2012
From: Ontario, Canada
Status: offline

I will only add one point to the above post (all good points there!)

PLAY! PLAY! Then play some more. There is absolutely no substitute for experience in this game.

_____________________________

-Larry Monte

Latest YouTube Series
DW2 Mortalen Preview
DW2 Ackdarian Preview

(in reply to Arcatus)

Post #: 3

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 1/8/2013 8:40:58 AM

Peef

Posts: 18
Joined: 1/6/2013
Status: offline

thanks, that's a superb list :)

do have 1 question about exploring, if you tell an exploration ship to 'explore a system', will it also look for the ancient ships, or only explore planets?

also, is there a way to make the game pause when for example an exploration ship has finished its current mission?

(in reply to StarLab)

Post #: 4

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 1/8/2013 11:51:53 AM

Arcatus

Posts: 197
Joined: 1/2/2012
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Peef

thanks, that's a superb list :)

do have 1 question about exploring, if you tell an exploration ship to 'explore a system', will it also look for the ancient ships, or only explore planets?

also, is there a way to make the game pause when for example an exploration ship has finished its current mission?

It explores everything, but not always in a logical order.

Oh, and

11) Keep a keen eye out for "weapons testing range" and similar sites. These are located in deep space/nebulae and your explorers will not go there automatically. They will contain good ships - unless someone else has fund them...

(in reply to Peef)

Post #: 5

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 1/8/2013 12:37:21 PM

Peef

Posts: 18
Joined: 1/6/2013
Status: offline

so basicly its best to manually really explore with your ships, and see what's around :)

is there a way to make the game pause after they finished their mission?

(in reply to Arcatus)

Post #: 6

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 1/9/2013 4:02:51 AM

ehsumrell1

Posts: 2529
Joined: 8/17/2010
From: The Briar Patch Nebula
Status: offline

Hello Peef. No, the game won't automatically pause. But I have a tip...
If you logically manually name your Explorer ships (I use Deep Recon 001, 002, etc.)
and if you regularly watch your scrolling message area at the top of the screen, you'll
see that the Explorer ships will notify you with a message that states they don't have
a current mission. You can then click on that message (it takes you to the ship) then you
can issue and/or queue new orders.

_____________________________

Shields are useless in "The Briar Patch"...

(in reply to Peef)

Post #: 7

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 7/30/2013 6:45:12 PM

paShadoWn

Posts: 70
Joined: 6/10/2013
Status: offline

1.Dont use autodesigns
...
10.Dont use autodesigns.

(in reply to ehsumrell1)

Post #: 8

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 7/30/2013 8:34:00 PM

Jeeves

Posts: 940
Joined: 9/28/2010
From: Arlington TN U.S.A
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quote:

ORIGINAL: paShadoWn

1.Dont use autodesigns
...
10.Dont use autodesigns.

LOL

Lonnie Courtney Clay

_____________________________

Live long and prosper!

Lonnie Courtney Clay

(in reply to paShadoWn)

Post #: 9

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 7/31/2013 1:34:43 PM

Plant

Posts: 418
Joined: 4/23/2013
Status: offline

Redesigning the roles is half the fun anyhow.

I guess the best tip is to leave all automaton on and slowly remove them as you feel more comfortable as time passes. You'll probably want to put diplomacy and intelligence operations on manual very quickly though.

(in reply to Jeeves)

Post #: 10

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 7/31/2013 4:47:38 PM

scotten_usa

Posts: 196
Joined: 12/9/2005
Status: offline

With Shadows, I've tried partial automation of ship design. I got tired of redesigning EVERYTHING when a new tech came along & I didn't trust the AI to handle it. Now I control my main battle ships: DD, CA, Starbases, etc. and let the AI do everything else. I'll let you know how it works out

< Message edited by ScottenChi -- 7/31/2013 4:49:37 PM >

(in reply to Plant)

Post #: 11

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 7/31/2013 8:29:04 PM

Plant

Posts: 418
Joined: 4/23/2013
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What is DD and CA? Is it the Destroyer and Carrier Subroles?

(in reply to scotten_usa)

Post #: 12

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 7/31/2013 9:28:22 PM

scotten_usa

Posts: 196
Joined: 12/9/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Plant

What is DD and CA? Is it the Destroyer and Carrier Subroles?

Sorry, using naval abbreviations. Destroyer and Cruiser.

(in reply to Plant)

Post #: 13

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/2/2013 1:22:34 PM

w1p

Posts: 135
Joined: 11/23/2011
Status: offline

1. At the start of the game, manually pick your exploration targets. Selecting your explorer, right clicking and "explore unknown system"

2. Like ehsumrell said, looking at the scrolling message bar lets you know when a explorer is free, or alternatively just press I to cycle idle ships. Idle ships are wasted ships (unless military)

3. Design every ship yourself, everytime. Not only is it more efficient, but it will increase your understanding of game mechanics (I think!)

4. Manually control your constructors, ESPECIALLY at the start of the game.

5. Control every military ship manually. Flying around escorting ships is wasting fuel.

6. Make sure your military ships have energy collectors so their not wasting fuel while sitting around.

7. Arm your mining stations, will save you rebuilding them over and over with pirates.

8. Rush that first colonization tech that you don't have (Humans -> marshy). If you have neither (Ackdarians) then get both!

9. Efficiency is key. No nearby hostile races or independant aliens? Why build troop transports?

10. Probably the most important thing from my point of view. I think of Distant Worlds as a race where speed is unlimited and acceleration is exponential. A 2 second delay near the start can cause a 200 second gap near the end. Eg. having a colony ship destroyed by pirates because you didn't park an escort or frigate on a planet you explored 20 minutes ago, all that means is a 2 minute delay until your next one is build. But those 2 minutes now, means 2 minutes less of colony development. It also means another 2 minutes till your next colony ship is up and you have another planet colonized. etc. etc. Basically the stronger you are early on, the easier the game is near the end. Anybody else agree with this?

(in reply to scotten_usa)

Post #: 14

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/4/2013 9:44:15 PM

Trev_lite

Posts: 23
Joined: 7/12/2013
Status: offline

every one says that it is better to design ships yourself.
when you design ships how should you design the ships differently than the auto design?
i do know that the autodesign leaves a large amount of unused power that could power more weapons.
the autodesign has a set amount of weapons and adds reactors as needed (wasting energy output) while a read on the forum that you should have a set amount of reactors for each design and add weapons to use that power.
could people tell how they design ships differently than the autodesign.

(in reply to w1p)

Post #: 15

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/5/2013 5:37:58 PM

Plant

Posts: 418
Joined: 4/23/2013
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http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3366083

Of course, when you start designing for yourself, you usually find that since the auto designs are essentially static, they don't try to use up all available space, they may have an excess of reactors, or have way too little shields relative to the amount of weapons.

< Message edited by Plant -- 8/5/2013 6:02:21 PM >

(in reply to Trev_lite)

Post #: 16

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/19/2013 7:27:12 PM

kheben

Posts: 14
Joined: 6/21/2013
Status: offline

some other tipps:

1: Pause once in a while and go through all ships without orders...in late game, watching a fight will let 100 messages scroll through unnoticed.

2: do not build other colonies in your starting star system, otherwise all ressources will get divided up and your space port with basura space yard wonder will not have enogh ressources for building everything at high speed. (Private sector is still unable to distribute ressources the right way with several colonies-you should be able to unautomize at least some frighters)

3: train your spies with easy missions until you can steal from the ancient ones every month...yealds technologies worth 960 k at once at ~100% espionage..more advanced techs will need several missions.

4: If possible, scrap every investigated ship for fast tech advantage. Keep only real good fighting machines.

5. If u have the money, pay the pirates in the beginning and build unarmed mining stations reduced to the max.
Later, design ships with higher weapon reach, add some escorts for the pirate ships and destroy the pirate station without losses to your economy, if there are several stations, pay for peace afterwords until your fleet is repaired.

6: Most important: refit/repair your fleets manually at a space port wwith enough ressources if you ever want to use them again.

(in reply to Plant)

Post #: 17

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/24/2013 12:02:13 AM

mstWeal

Posts: 8
Joined: 5/25/2013
Status: offline

Since you asked specifically for

quote:

what to do first when I start a new empire

1) Redesign ALL ships and bases manually as soon as you need them. In the beginning for example, make explorers and freighters faster. More cargo onto freighters. No weapons on private sector ships, even if 1 is allowed. No armor and minimal shields onto private sector ships (not attacked anyways and if so they can escape). Put energy cells onto ships and bases properly. Put weapons as appropriate etc. You basically want to know EXACTLY about WHAT kind of stuff you are building.

2) Sort out your research. Check what your total empire research potential is. Build labs accordingly. In the beginning you can only really put the labs onto your initial space port. Later on you can move them to locations providing bonuses if you want. It might make sense to focus on high-tech and energy first before researching weapons. Depends on your strategy and enemies though. Set the current research in every tree. Prime targets are colonization and increased construction size as well as maintenance savings. Note that advanced colonization techs also boosts population growth and that in turn will help your economy, construction speed and research speed. So basically you want to get all colonization tech as soon as you can afford it, getting only those other high-tech researches that you cannot live without on the way. Get Advanced Resource Exploration ASAP.

3) Build a bunch of explorers. If you are playing Age of Shadows you may want only a handful and wait to build more until better tech (hyperdrive etc.) is available. As soon as you have hyperdrive, build 6 or so explorers immediately. They should be designed to have enough fuel to be able to explore 4-5 systems into every direction. There's not much sense in building many more explorers yet because you don't have enough fuel to support longer range explorers.

4) Especially in the early-game, control your explorers manually. Order them to "Move to unknown system". Cycle trough your explorers using the X key. Don't wait for a "Mission completed" message. Pause the game OFTEN so none of your explorers is idle at any time. You will be MUCH faster that way and therefore will aquire important resources / tech faster. For closeby systems, you want to know what resources are available. So navigate your explorers nearby every planet / gas giant / moon to figure out the resources. I do this for all systems that are within my influence circle. This information will also help you to decide which planet you want to colonize first, taking into account availability of resources. Skip gas clouds altogether. There's nothing to see anyways. Once you are out of the your influence range, don't explore for resources any longer. Just move to every system and see whether there are any ruins or debris fields / abandoned ships. Abandoned colony ships are especially OP in the early game. At this point you should have Advanced Resource Exploration available. This way you are still exploring resources to a certain amount because your resource scanner range got enlarged.

5) Build at least 3 constructors and primarily aim for high Caslon and Steel percentages. Focus on strategic resources. Check the component summaries of your ship designs to see what you really need the most but always get as much Caslon and stell as you can. Basic goal in the early game is to get as many explorers and constructors as you can possibly afford. Build more explorers with higher fuel capacity. Check first whether you really have enough Caslon to support that undertaking. More explorers means faster exploration of the galaxy. The faster you explore the galaxy the better. More constructors means more mines and more repairs of ancient wrecks and that means more tech. Build mining stations within your own systems most of the time. Especially in the early game it's MUCH easier to defend these stations. I only really begin to build mining stations in foreign systems in the mid to late game or if I find some rare resource.

6) Don't build military ships. Only build a small fleet of 5 ships or so if you need to clear out space monters. Be aware that your ships are VERY weak. Pay protection fees if pirates cause trouble. Try to find abandoned military ships in good condition and use one of them for defense. They are MUCH stronger than your low-level ships and probably much stronger than the pirates as well. Retire all other ships you can find or repair to boost your tech. 1 retired ships usually provides 1 random tech.

7) As soon as you meet other empires, give them military refueling rights as well as mining rights. Basically you want to befriend everyone so they do not force you into a war. You want to choose when to go to war after all. Having good relations enables you to get free trade agreements which boosts your economy. So get as many free trade agreement as you possibly can. Be aware however that if your partner empire is very far away from you, you also need freighters with a lot of fuel capacity so that might not be a good idea in the beginning. Stay away from mutual defense pakts or protectorates. They only force you into wars you don't want.

8) Invade independents using troop transports and a handful of troops, send 2-3 escort ships with them to clear out potential pirates sitting around at the independent colony. Don't waste precious colony ships on independents. Try to maintain a good reputation by killing more pirate bases. Independent colonies are much better than raw worlds because they come with a certain amount of population which boosts your economy and research.

9) Build up a small fleet that is able to take out pirates as soon as you have 400-size ships. Add in abandonded ships if possible. Try to find pirates and take them out. This will boost your reputation thus improving your relations with other empires. Also it will bring peace to your colonies. As soon as you get more and more colonies, form defensive fleets and put them into key locations from where you can intercept incoming threads. Get explorers with long range scanners so you can sniff out pirate bases. They tend to hide in gas clouds. Equip your space ports with long range scanners so you can see incoming fleets. Put up monitoring stations with long range scanner in deep space as necessary to improve your vision.

10) Build a space port at EVERY colony. It helps colony development, acts as a hub for your mining ships and freighers and provides construction yards to the private sector. But in the beginning, only use small space ports (minimalistic I should say) only. Otherwise it will take forever to build. Build all your ships at your main space ports which you should have upgraded to a large space port by now. Get the Speed Highway Construction wonder (don't know how it's called exactly) ASAP at your home colony to boost up ship construction speed.

11) (Yeah I know it should be only 10 but this is also very important): Set tax to 0% at every colony at all times you can afford it. If you need money, only tax your home world (the smaller colonies don't provide money anyways). Lower tax boosts population growth so you boost production and research and you get higher tax income later on. If you need money, expand your empire and build space ports so the private sector needs to buy ships from you. Or upgrade your private bases and ships so they retrofit and give you money for that. Or consider selling techs to other empires (that's kind of an exploit though).

< Message edited by mstWeal -- 8/24/2013 12:05:25 AM >

(in reply to Peef)

Post #: 18

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/25/2013 5:56:57 PM

Jeeves

Posts: 940
Joined: 9/28/2010
From: Arlington TN U.S.A
Status: offline

1) Money Will pay for troops and warships.
2) Troops conquer independents training up for better clones. Keep your best quality troop busy conquering - PROVIDED it is a warrior race cheap troop.
3) Make troop and cloning tech very high priority.
4) Make colonization of Fortress of Torak very high priority, build troop academy there first.
5) Train clones rather than armor or special forces. They cost much less and CAN be stronger.
6) While your cloning facility builds, build planetary defense troops.
7) About four years into game, when special forces troop tech is mid-level, start training them at strong military race colonies. That is Boskara, Naxillian, Ikkuro, and Mortalen. Building Teekan special forces for example is futile. That assumes of cource that you HAVE such colonies...
8) At the very start of a game, increase your homeworld spaceport research labs to utilize all of your tech potential.
9) After that is done, build constructors not colony ships until you have about 15 of them.
10) Very early in the game purchase Bakuras Shipyards, explorers, and state miners.

In my next game, I am going to play Wekkarrus. I am abandoning my current Sluken game at 9 1/2 years due to the delay in getting tech caused by the tech rewards bug that was fixed a couple of releases ago.

Lonnie Courtney Clay

_____________________________

Live long and prosper!

Lonnie Courtney Clay

(in reply to Peef)

Post #: 19

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/25/2013 9:53:34 PM

thebigpieman

Posts: 26
Joined: 7/3/2013
Status: offline

I would like to point out one.

Make sure deep space research platforms have ample weaponry, I can not relate the number of deep space research stations I have lost and the scientists on board due to either having no ships there are not having enough weaponry to defend against 3 ships. It will take resources but I think it's worth having the stations be able to defend themselves until you can vector forces to it or the in system forces warp in to help.

(in reply to Jeeves)

Post #: 20

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/26/2013 1:37:57 PM

Icemania

Posts: 1847
Joined: 6/5/2013
From: Australia
Status: offline

There are many approaches but to help with the very early game the sequence I use on most starts is:

1. Load save file with Standard Ship/Base designs (to avoid repetition and so you can continuously improve your designs). I also keep ship design save files for Size 230/Energy Collector and another for Size 300 (with a little space ready to add Warp). After that I don't mind upgrading the designs manually.

2. Build a Large Energy Research Station. I build this before anything else to get Energy Research going ASAP. Some integrate this with their starports but they take time to build. If you want to optimise build a small one then upgrade. My initial Energy research order is Energy Collection (saves fuel and does not take long), Space Construction, Enhanced Construction, Warp Bubble then Hyperdrive.

3. Build a Small Weapons Research Station. To invade independents and homeworlds as quickly as possible my initial research order is Improved Assault Tactics, Armor Plating then Armoured Ground Assault. After that focus on your favourite weapon e.g. I like Torpedoes so focus until I have Plasma Torpedoes.

4. Build a Small HighTech Research Station. As exploration and invasion should be your primary focus start with Storage Systems and Transport Systems. Medical Systems and Entertainment Systems are also cheap and when built on ports/bases benefit your colonies. After that Colonisation then technologies associated with Wonders.

5. Build a Small Spaceport and upgrade to Medium.

6. Build 2 Super Speedy Explorers. You can custom design Explorers at the start of the game with a speed above 50 which helps get your home system explored fairly quickly.

7. Build 3 Construction Ships to build Bases in your home system, start with nearby locations, and I prefer a Caslon source first if possible.

8. Upgrade to a Large Space Port.

9. Once you start Warp Bubble research build 2 military ships (since Giant Kaltors come when Warp Bubble is finished) and build 10 more Explorers (Size 300 ready for Warp Bubble). Once Warp Bubble is available upgrade and then they are sent for the first round of scouting nearby systems. Retrofit your other ships.

10. Then continue to build more Explorers and Construction ships. Focus on bases for the strategic resources you don't have.

After that, well, there are plenty of tips around the forum and make sure you read the older threads as well.

< Message edited by Icemania -- 8/26/2013 1:39:35 PM >

(in reply to Peef)

Post #: 21

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/26/2013 3:57:57 PM

Shark7

Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline

My 10 tips:

1. Do not expand too quickly. Pace yourself, every colony requires resources now so its easy to over-tax your economy.

2. Do not build up a massive fleet too early. Maintenance costs can become a problem.

3. When colonizing new worlds, think strategically...do not get the closest colony because it is closest. Check your map, if a potential colony is inside your borders, you can get it later...try to get the ones that will expand your borders and put more potential colonies inside your borders first...you can then colonized the worlds inside your borders at your leisure.

4. Do not recruit too many troops at first...troops cost money.

5. Construction research should be your #1 priority until you can build ships of 500-600 size.

6. Research accelerated construction and build the Bakuras High Speed Shipyard on your capital if possible. Get it before the other races get it as there can be only 1 in the galaxy.

7. Build at least 12 constructors and get the mines built. Resources are the economy.

8. Do not build a star port on every planet, or in every system for that matter. You can get by with a simple station with Medical and Recreation components in orbit for the bonuses (and keep these small and cheap).

9. Research Long Range Scanners and put them on star ports and monitoring stations. It's easier to deal with pirates when you can see the empty space around your colonies.

10. Be nice...at first. During the building phase the last thing you want is to be constantly at war. Build up your empire so it is strong and stable, then go on your galaxy conquering rampage.

< Message edited by Shark7 -- 8/26/2013 3:59:48 PM >

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to Icemania)

Post #: 22

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/27/2013 10:09:12 PM

Cmiller

Posts: 40
Joined: 8/6/2013
Status: offline

Tips if you are in a Prewarp setting:

1.) Always build a large spaceport in the beginning. Large spaceports give 100k research points.

2.) Build one of each research station after building large spaceport. Depending on your research potential, you may want to build a second energy station too, to get the hyperdrives faster.

3.) Build absolutely no ships in the beginning until you research hyperdrives, and I mean the Gerax hyperdrives not the warp bubble. The only ships that you want to build would be 2 exploration ships to reach the temples and explore the rest of your star system, BUT THAT'S IT!

5.) Set low taxes. During the Prewarp age, money is not important. You want you population to be as high as can be when getting out. More population means higher cashflow.

4.) Get the Rusen HighTech Wonder as fast as possible. Despite the 20,000 annual cost, it actually increases your income by almost double! The reason why is the 40% development bonus. And the 50% boost to research is also not bad.

5.) Steal the galaxy maps from pirates you meet. Its good to have the early mapping when you set your explorers out.

6.) Once you've research hypdrives, collect as many temple rewards as you can. The goodies they give can really help in getting you a decent boost.

7.) Depending on what race you are and your spying ability, try and steal some research from other empires. This early tech is good. And if possible form good relations early on (this may not work out depending on what aggression levels you set up), so you can trade and buy techs from other empires.

8.) Build one strong fleet of 10-20 destroyer ships. (maybe 2 depending on your economy) Use these to destroy pirate bases and to secure your empire.

9.) Do not colonize too many planets early on until you've destroyed the surrounding pirates. Or at least until you can defend yourself. Not being able to defend these colonies against pirates can be pita since they will get raided 100% of the time.

10.) This may not be for everybody, but it works fine for me. Don't research colonization technology yourself. Instead either steal it from someone through spying, or trade it through diplomacy. It can take a long time to get it, and usually the AI always go for colonization too early in the game (at least what I've noticed).

~Cmiller

(in reply to Shark7)

Post #: 23

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 8/28/2013 12:29:10 PM

Icemania

Posts: 1847
Joined: 6/5/2013
From: Australia
Status: offline

Lots of good tips here but to spice it up a little I would invite constructive comments on the above tips (including my tips of course).

quote:

ORIGINAL: mstWeal
10) Build a space port at EVERY colony. It helps colony development, acts as a hub for your mining ships and freighers and provides construction yards to the private sector. But in the beginning, only use small space ports (minimalistic I should say) only.

For new colonies I would advise bases at least in the early game when resources are limited. Refer Spaceport Spammers Anonymous.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cmiller
Tips if you are in a Prewarp setting:
1.) Always build a large spaceport in the beginning. Large spaceports give 100k research points.
2.) Build one of each research station after building large spaceport. Depending on your research potential, you may want to build a second energy station too, to get the hyperdrives faster.

I would advise building an Energy Research Station first. Large Spaceports take a while to build and the delta is time when your research could already be moving. It's also prudent to build a small spaceport and upgrade so that other ships can be built in parallel. Also redesign Weapons and HighTech Research Stations to be smaller, so they don't take away from Energy Research, then upgrade them later to balance research speeds as you prefer.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cmiller
3.) Build absolutely no ships in the beginning until you research hyperdrives, and I mean the Gerax hyperdrives not the warp bubble. The only ships that you want to build would be 2 exploration ships to reach the temples and explore the rest of your star system, BUT THAT'S IT!
4.) Set low taxes. During the Prewarp age, money is not important. You want your population to be as high as can be when getting out. More population means higher cashflow.

In my current game (Quameno on Expensive Research) in that 5 years of waiting you are missing out on having 17 mining bases (including sources for all Strategic resources and plenty of additional stock to use for building) and 20 exploration ships that have already fully explored the 16 closest systems, ready for very quick retrofits for longer distances using Gerax. I also have 8 Construction ships ready to build more.

I fully agree set low taxes. You can buy empire contacts from Pirates, and sell technology which often can be enough to fund your entire Empire early game i.e. both to fund population growth from low taxes and all those ships and bases.

That said the build no ships approach can be useful with a Harsh homeworld start. If you really want some fun ... do nothing well after Gerax on Extreme Difficulty e.g. until you hit the 15 year mark. Not recommended for new players though.

< Message edited by Icemania -- 8/28/2013 12:40:28 PM >

(in reply to Cmiller)

Post #: 24

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 9/11/2013 4:22:55 AM

necaradan666

Posts: 256
Joined: 5/28/2012
Status: offline

Cancel your future plans, weddings, birthdays, other social engagements. Stock up on Mountain Dew and Oreos *before* you install...

There's no reason for a noob to start redesigning ships, there's alot of other gameplay to learn before you need to even think about things like that, and even if you do how are you going to know the best way without a bit of experience in regards to different abilities and components.

my first tip would be watch the tutorials until you know the interface by heart, then just play for a while.

Personally I think the automation makes the game harder to control but I only turned it off after I had watched the AI play a few games.

(in reply to Icemania)

Post #: 25

RE: If you could give 10 tips to new players, what woul... - 9/12/2013 10:33:51 AM

starmonkey

Posts: 10
Joined: 6/2/2013
Status: offline

Thanks to Arcatus, w1p, kheben, mstWeal, thebigpieman, Icemania, Shark7 and Cmiller for a wealth of advice for a new player!

(in reply to necaradan666)

Post #: 26

Newibe here... - 10/17/2013 6:22:05 PM

elfman01

Posts: 2
Joined: 10/17/2013
Status: offline

As a newbie, this thread is awesome. I do have a couple of questions if people are still keeping tabs on this thread:

I have played many 4x games since Civilization (I), and MOO (I), and some of my favorites include: Civ 5, MoO 2, Pax Imperium, HoMM 2, & Eve Online (ok, not a 4x, but it's still epic). I have no idea how I missed Distant Worlds, but I am diving into the details and have started a couple learning games to get a grasp on mechanics.

Through all my reading, I have an initial 'plan' on my first 'real' game, and a couple questions based upon my first learning games... (Note: I have only played into mid-game.)

Questions:
1. How do I see how my EMPIRE is on the resource utilization scale. I can view Cargo being hauled for A space station, but it there a screen to show what is needed / being used for my Empire?
2. What is the significance / difference between shields and armor? Is there a reason NOT to go full shields (they regenerate....)
3. Is there a way to increase my Empire's research total capacity? My understanding currently is that the research stations only change the mix of my research.
4. What does "Crash Research" actually DO?
5. It appears that an intermediate step to turn off automation would indicate that I may want to explicitly control: Tech research, Ship Design, exploration targets (initially), constructors, Colony ships, Fleets & tax rates. Am I leaving off anything important?
6. My second trial game had no Chromium (and another element for "plasma torpedoes")... (30-40% of the galaxy explored) is this normal?
7. Can I design a 'smaller + weaker' colony ship to accelerate early growth?

Couple of observations, so far:
1. The AI is a welcome addition... although it does tend to make learning details more challenging. I learned a lot by turning everything off, and accepting my defeat in the interest of learning more.
2. Wonders are still a mystery.
3. Answering basic resource supply questions is non-intuitive. (how much XXX do I have is not an easy answer, where is XXX is easier.)

My general style of play is to: quick expand, turtle & tech, march on to victory. Of course, things always get in the way of 'the plan'.

It appears that a good source of plan would be to:
-Not initially build small starports on every colony.
-Upgrade my homeworld starport to large ASAP.
-Build more explorers than I think I need... especially when I get ready to automate.
-Focus on only one 'primary' branch of weaponry.

any other advice?

(in reply to starmonkey)

Post #: 27

RE: Newibe here... - 10/17/2013 7:11:07 PM

Bingeling

Posts: 5186
Joined: 8/12/2010
Status: offline

I can try :)

1: There is no really good overview. Fuel is used of course. Strategic resources are only used on ship/base builds and retrofits, but the civilians books things too so you do no have total control. You can keep an eye on stores in the expansion planner, usually there are only a few that you won't have "a lot of" after a while.

2: Armor regenerate too once you get repair modules, but that takes a while. Space monsters ignore shields, as do rail guns and some other stuff. Armor also adds a buffer once the shield runs out, which may allow the shield to escape.

3: You increase the potential by having research bases at bonus locations, and by having scientists with bonuses. The best location (location+scientist) for each research area counts.

4: Crash research allows you to burn cash to research a tech quicker. I have never paid too much attention to it :)

5: Any automation setting can work, your set seems nice.

6: Are you sure there were "no" chromium? Not just "no source you can build on"? To get the best view of where a specific research is, use the galaxy map and the known resources choice. That highlights all sources you know of. This may lead to objectives in war...

7: I doubt there is much to gain on colony ship. You can drop an engine or something silly, but the basic answer is "no".

As for the observations:

"How much XXX do I have" is seen in the expansion planner. This also shows you how many sources you got, and through a choice the lower list can show the exact sources (mines). It would be nice with a brilliant tool to view your resource stores, but there is none. Shadows has added some help, though.

(in reply to elfman01)

Post #: 28

RE: Newibe here... - 10/17/2013 9:40:52 PM

CyclopsSlayer

Posts: 583
Joined: 2/11/2012
Status: offline

1&6. The Resources section of the Expansion Planner will show you your Number of Sources, Demand, Stockpile, Shipping. Both local and galaxy wide. Looking at sources by galaxy demand will show you all available mineral sites, use the drop down on the right side to specify the mineral(s) you may be short on.
Really need a tool to see WHERE the resource sources, stocks, demands are at without having to manually look at everything.

7. I concur with Bingeling. If you have active Pirates you might even want to beef up the Colony a little with added Hab Modules to resist boarding, CounterMeasures and/or Damage Control/Repair to reduce damages while landing, a few extra engines to be exposed to damage for less time. Not too much beefing up needed or you'll end up with a Colonization Dreadnought instead of a cheap ship.

Regardless, if you see a 'failed to colonize' message pause go look and see why. You can often force the landing despite there there being a ship or monster on the screen but too far away to actually interfere, yet still forcing the AI to flee.

(in reply to Bingeling)

Post #: 29

RE: Newibe here... - 10/17/2013 10:38:01 PM

elfman01

Posts: 2
Joined: 10/17/2013
Status: offline

I did indeed have chromium in my trial run game Empire territory... others grabbed it before I could mine the resource. I also had the other resource I thought I didn't posses... apparently I didn't click on the correct system.

(in reply to CyclopsSlayer)

Post #: 30

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