Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing something?

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Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing something? - 7/23/2011 8:07:12 PM

Westheim

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I got Distant Worlds last week and so far have started ten or so galaxies. However, no matter what settings I take to start a new game, I never seem to find enough planets of the type I can colonize to even stay remotely in touch with other races, powerwise.

Yesterday I played a game as Humans and found a meager four continental planets in the 5x5 sectors around my homeworld. Swamp planets everywhere. Some insect race gobbled them all up to the point where they led me 33-3 in colonies ... and then decided to make my pity three colonies as well.

And it's been like that in about every game I started. I can not find any planets to settle and then some insects come and dismember and devour me. Am I so horribly unlucky or is it supposed to be like that?

< Message edited by Westheim -- 7/23/2011 8:08:52 PM >

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 8:36:52 PM

Harmonious Hegemony

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You may be having a run of bad luck, but my advice is to put more focus on exploration. Build a lot more explorer ships, design them for more range and guide them manually. Generally speaking, the planets are out there, you just have to find them. If you put your explorers on automatic they will fart around exploring gas clouds and the like when early in the game what you need are colonies.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 8:40:37 PM

Data

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Hi Westheim, what settings do you have for the galaxy and your empire? Especially expansion, colony prevalence, home system and such. These have an impact on what you observe.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 9:06:23 PM

Igard

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HH is correct. One of the first things I do after starting a new galaxy is build at least 8 explorers.

Once you've got them out there, keep checking the navigation tool for potential colonies. It's the checkered flag icon on the left of the screen.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 9:08:11 PM

Westheim

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I usually start off by building a bunch of four or five additional explorers right at the beginning, but I didn't send them around manually most of the time. I find it hard to keep track of the fuel levels and such of a dozen explorers.

I've set all the empires to starting, for a) I'm confused enough by having four colonies, I would not be able to start at all with ten or more, and b) I don't want anybody else to start with ten more colonies, either.

Anyways, I've set homeworld quality to normal, and potential colonies to above average. Well, it *does* in fact work, there are tons of potentially habitable swamp and desert planets out there whenever I play Humans, f.e., they are just inhabitable for me ...

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 9:11:45 PM

Data

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Actually, we have a better chance of colonizing other types by finding one of ohter race's colony ships and spawning a colony that in time will get large enough to generate more colony ships for those environments than researching the colony techs. In the end it tends to balance out even if the start seems difficult.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 9:15:43 PM

Igard

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Make sure your other empires aren't set to 'Random' sizes. This will always put you on the back foot when you set your own empire to 'Starting'.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 9:27:33 PM

Westheim

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All empires are set to starting, to keep the galaxy as open as possible. I've mostly created 400 star galaxies with four or five opponents so far. Maybe I was wrong there and should select less to avoid overcrowding...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Data

Actually, we have a better chance of colonizing other types by finding one of ohter race's colony ships and spawning a colony that in time will get large enough to generate more colony ships for those environments than researching the colony techs. In the end it tends to balance out even if the start seems difficult.

Yeah I already realized that. Research is one of the major problems I have with the game so far. It's not only totally random, it's almost anarchy in the research department.

I come from a Civilization background and I am used to be able to select Archery as my next science project, due to come in in eight turns. Archery would probably not help in this game.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 9:47:06 PM

Data

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Well, if you could shoot some bacteria on those swamp planets to terraform them it would be great.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/23/2011 10:53:19 PM

Westheim

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Which research department does contain the Genesis Device from Star Trek II?

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 3:11:06 AM

Erik Rutins

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Hi Westheim,

quote:

ORIGINAL: Westheim
Yeah I already realized that. Research is one of the major problems I have with the game so far. It's not only totally random, it's almost anarchy in the research department.

I come from a Civilization background and I am used to be able to select Archery as my next science project, due to come in in eight turns. Archery would probably not help in this game.

The Return of the Shakturi expansion adds a tech tree, which is certainly a bit less random in feel. The original research system also has its proponents though and if you focus on the path that leads to new colony modules, you will also be able to expand more quickly.

Regards,

- Erik

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 3:49:46 AM

Igard

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Yip. With the expansion, you can select to research either Ocean world or Marshy Swamp world colonisation and so on. Same goes for different types of weapons, shields, reactors etc.

But no genesis device for Barren worlds as yet...

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 9:12:53 AM

Data

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the only research department that has that is the one at Paramount atm

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 1:02:49 PM

Westheim

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I might buy the expansion at a later time - if I come to terms with the base game first, of course. This brings us back to the slightly uneven creation of planets the game has given me so far...

About stranded colony ships - I found about four or five of those in my games. All but one held a species specialized in the same planets as my own race, so they were thoroughly unhelpful. Found one with ... I don't remember the name ... those green humans once, which would have launched be into colonizing desert planets big time, hadn't it been for insects overrunning me just in time ...

Two more, minor things I'm wondering about: I seem to have my starting colony on a habitable moon surrounding a gas giant planet in about 50% or more of my games. Is this as common outside of my crappy laptop, too? And how to you keep track of where your colonies on moons are actually located. The moon names don't show on the galaxy and sector maps and I find it impossible to memorize that my colony on the continental moon Oklub is circling around the desert planet Urd Mantill VII.

Thanks for you patience with somebody totally unable to come to terms with the game.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 1:28:08 PM

Data

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Yes, names are unfriendly enough but there are two ways to deal with them: use the colony screen to quickly locate what you need and / or rename the places to something you find more appropiate. Renaming is also done in the colony screen.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 2:41:07 PM

randal7

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I don't know if anyone has run the numbers, but anecdotally, continental worlds seem to be the most scarce, followed by ocean and ice, then swamp, then tons of desert and volcanic. It's been a while since I've played the original game, but there are ways to deal with this continental shortage:

-save up to crash research colonization at the earliest opportunity

-buy the location of independent planets from pirates. The AI does not prioritize this nearly high enough and you can usually grab most of these, giving you access to different planet types. This obviously can unbalance the game, so set number of independents according to your taste for a challenge

-(exploit) control your explorers manually and use "move to" instead of "explore". As soon as you enter a system you know what types of planets are in it; "explore" takes longer and only adds mineral surveys. By using "move to" and backfilling with "explore" where you will colonize, you can explore much faster. The computer does it the slow way, hence the "exploit". Yeah, you miss some things this way, but speed in finding colonies makes up for it.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 4:56:38 PM

Igard

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Those are excellent points from randal. I always used to use explorers to manully 'move to' a system, then jump to the next. Much quicker, but I'm too lazy to do that now, so I just spam about 8 or so and let them get on with things.

About the moon names, they used to be numbered just the same as the planets, but we all complained that it was confusing, so now we've got something even more confusing. I would've much preferred an alphanumeric system added to the moon name, so in the Sol system you would have 'Sol 3' and the moon would become 'Sol 3a' or something to that effect.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 5:29:38 PM

Westheim

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Haven't dabbled much with crash research yet and have shut off pirates completely so far, but I will come to those eventually. Naming the moons that way doesn't seem too terrible an idea, however. "Urd Mantill 7a" is much clearer than "Oklub" for sure... except for if your home world is a moon, where such naming would be unrealistic giving people's preference to be in the center of the universe...

A little philosophy here and there...

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 5:43:51 PM

Igard

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It's very easy to change any colony name. Just go to the colonies panel and select the colony, or select the colony and double click on the info panel in the bottom left. On the right side of the window there is a box with the name of the colony where you can retype to anything you want.

Or you can use the evil-editor.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 8:38:29 PM

Data

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quote:

they used to be numbered just the same as the planets, but we all complained that it was confusing, so now we've got something even more confusing.

lol, how very true....still, we should complain when needed

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/24/2011 9:20:28 PM

Westheim

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Aaaand another game down the drain. I have 7 colonies, Teekans have 29, Sluken have 24, and the latter are already about to come after me. I've seen this before, I don't have anything to withstand them ... the only change successfully implemented this time around was changing the name of moon colonies.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/25/2011 12:06:33 AM

Igard

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That's a bit of a gap. I can't remember the last time I played with 400 stars. I always play with 1400. I think the game is actually harder when there are less stars due to overcrowding.

When I first played this game, I did find it hard to keep up with the other empires expansion. It's one of the things you've got to learn to prioritise and it's not that easy.

I think having a small size galaxy will make it harder. Perhaps try for a larger size next time. Don't play with the speed settings unless you're going to slow things down. Build, maybe about 10 explorers to begin with and every now and then, just tell one to 'move to' a star. You can give them the order then immediately reset them to auto by pressing the 'A' key.

Continuously check the navigation tool for potential colonies. It's the fastest way. You could also try building a couple of colony ships, so that they're at the ready. I don't know if they're sent when you click the quick action key (the one in the bottom left of the info panel), so you may have to send them manually to any newly discovered habitable planet.

How is your money situation? If you find that you can't build colony ships because you're running low on cash, free up some money by scrapping some military and some ground troops (you won't need these so early on). Search for resort locations using the navigation tool as these are a good source of early game income.

Can't think of any other suggestions right now, but keep at it and you'll get there.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/25/2011 6:32:24 AM

Westheim

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Cash is not so much of an issue. I'm usually a good bit on the plus side early on, when I reject all proposals for military ships (yes, I have most things on suggest, as long as I don't realize everything involved in the game).

Yesterday the Sluken attacked (as usual), but this time they were already engaged in another war and even though I am totally failing with getting a major offensive going, I took one of their most tiny colonies close to my home system. That's a first. That's progress. (jumps around singing)

I'm keeping track with potential colonies with the expansion planer thingie. I have already noticed that there is a gap of several minutes between the sighting of a habitable planet and the time it is thus marked on the sector map.

Thank you for your kind advice. I feel like I'm already down to 97% struggling and 3% knowing what I'm doing.

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/25/2011 12:46:13 PM

Data

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Those 3% are the most important ones....going for 4%

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RE: Unlucky with galaxy generation or am I missing some... - 7/25/2011 4:21:51 PM

Spacecadet

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As everyone has mentioned, make sure Starting size is "Starting", but also make sure Technology is set to "Starting" (and not Random) also.
Otherwise, if the AI Empires have "Random" Tech, they may well begin with Colonization Technologies for other types of Planets.

Put other AI Empires at "Far" distance away also.
This will give you some breathing room and give you a chance to figure things out.

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