Newbie Questions

from Stardock Forums
New to the game and not the genre. :)


Here's a quick rundown before I get to my points.

I'm in my first real game with the defaults on the CD version and we're past the land grab stage. I'm ahead on tech with huge diplomatic bonuses and I think I'm playing the one with +20 to trade and diplomacy. I've eliminated the Alexians since they had some really nice systems and would have been hemmed in if I allowed them to expand. I am currently at war with the Dregin and the Altarans are my allies in this fight. I am doing well and my invasion forces of dreadnaughts and transports are conquering big systems while still others are defecting to my cause. In short, I want to take out a few more systems and conslidate so that the Dregen don't implode and leave the Altarans with a huge advantage.

Here's my points.

1) It seems to me that early game corvettes are the ticket and then jumps to frigates, followed by dreadnaughts. I'm not saying the others don't have their roles, but these guys are the best bang for the buck in their respective eras. Am I correct?

2) After destroying the Alexians I received a message that they were developing some type of super weapon and that they would destroy the "world" if not stopped. Is this just storyline or is it a reality?

3) There's a red space monster with like 700 hitpoints chasing one of my scouts. Why is my scout the one he wants?

4) Seems like scout building for exploration followed by anomally popping with a few survey ships is the ticket. Is this a good strat?

5) 3 of the civs have given me a notice that they found ancient ships en masse. I even saw a stack of 70 Arcean corvettes go whizzing by. What is that and where can I get mine?

6) Seems to me that one big capital ship is better than a bunch of small ones. For example I went after a Dregin battleship with 13 corvettes and 3 starfighters(stacked) that were heavily modified with my bonuses. I lost all and he was about 75% damaged.

7) Seems the AI is pretty smart about knocking out drones and scouts. Maybe too much so?

8) Can I build the death stars after researching them? I have researched the tech, but am neutral to good. If so, how?

9) Seems like constructors and the subsequent fleets of starbases are a major component of the game. My problem is that I have a sector with 4 "maxed out" starbases and all of the planets now have huge cash deficits in that sector. Yes, they all have huge military, social and research production, but they are killing my economy. Why is this happening since you'd think that efficiency would mean the money would be spent more efficiently as well?

10) I'm doing the trade routes ~500bc/turn income with economic starbases to boot. I'm building all the economic generating social projects and trying to limit other production to specific systems(typical civ type strategy). Are there any othe ways to boost my econ?

Thanks for your time in reading and responding to such a lengthy post.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Since you are playing the CD version, I'm not sure how good my notes will be. I'm using the latest. And I'm a semi-newbie, but I have read quite a bit on the forums.

2) Probably a 'random event'. So yes, if that is what the game said, then it may happen. If no one stops the Alexians, they will become a BIG problem.

3) Maybe your scout just looks tasty. :d

4) I do that too. The best anomalies to go for are scrap metal (to help create super-powerful survey ships) and rocks (free ships).

5) Again, this is probably another random event. You just have to hope that it will happen to you too.

6) See, the problem is that a group of stacked ships do not attack together. They move together, but fight individually. Personally, I find it annoying (though I was relieved when my battleship had to ward off a fleet of Precursor corvettes ;) ).

8) Terror Star construction is independent of the Good/Evil system. Anyone is allowed to build them as long as you have the tech. Building a terror star is nothing more than 'upgrading' a starbase. All you do is add the terror star components to any starbase. However, the final component costs 5000BC to install. And then it's planet-killing time! (word of warning: terror stars are SLOW)

10) Besides raising taxes/cutting spending? I have trouble balancing my budget too.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I have to build one of those terror stars, I have yet to do that... My life is incomplete! ;)
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
1) Depends on map size and type, and proximity to neighbors, I'd wager. Battlehammers seem pretty effective, 'though.

2) *After* destroying them? Interesting...

3) Your scout might be the nearest ship. Try leading him to somebody you don't like.

4) Well, don't forget to crank out colony ships. This again depends on the map; if you start and see tasty yellow stars everywhere you look, colonize!

5) Random events. You can't affect them.

6) Big ships do have more def, so it's harder to hurt them, heavier guns, and more hp. Their robustness makes them more likely to live long enough to gain levels, plus the big absolute numbers means a greater gain from bonuses since GalCiv rounds down. On the other hand, you may not be able to afford a picket line of DNs.

7) Send tough warships instead. ;)

8) Alignment doesn't matter. You need Terror Star tech, plus maybe Planetary Destruction. And a lot of constructors, since you'll want to get all the defensive modules as well, since it might be attacked pretty darn often while moving 1 parsec a month.

9) Production isn't free -- well, most of it isn't.

10) Assorted ways:

- Find Economic resource starbases and max 'em out. Don't forget to build defense modules.
- Build starbases with trade-boosting modules in the sectors where the freighters go. Build a few of 'em if you like; bonuses stack.
- Get to the trade goods before anybody else does. License them to others -- at least the safe ones. I'd probably keep the Diplomatic bonuses for myself only. Even Gravity Accelerators isn't too dangerous in the hands of a weak or friendly minor, since with trade goods they CANNOT pass them onto a third party. Do more wheeling and dealing with safe tech. Just get any associated trade goods first.

In my most recent game, I had a "pet" minor -- I'd given it a corner planet in my area that nobody else could get to, ran eight trade routes to it, built bases to boost those routes, and made it utterly dependent on me. It ended up with loads of BC (e.g. somewhat late game, it was sitting on 36K) but without much tech (since it was still a small minor), so I had a ready-made customer. I could safely sell it quite a bit of tech that was either defensive, or already "out there" among the other majors. Since I was running my econ at basically no net cash flow (lots of factories and high-maintenance buildings), this was rather convenient.

- Blackmail, if you feel like it.
- False ceasefires. In that same game, I accepted a peace treaty from the Drengin for all their 8000 BC and whatever influence they had at the time, then immediately broke the treaty. I'd already decided to eliminate them because they got the "+1% to random ability per month" event, and were getting other random freebies as well (PQ35 worlds, uncolonized worlds all turning to >= PQ15, etc).