My pop and production growth seems to always stall against the AI so was checking the Empires bonuses screen to see what I could do about it. Noticed a couple of techs it lists as potential bonuses but didn't find them on the tech screen so can anyone tell me how to get them? Fusion and Antimatter Power Plants, and Medical Isotypes. Thanks
The Fusion and Medical Isotopes are potential techs you can unlock when Helium-3 is discovered. You then need to research it and place outposts on gas giants where Helium-3 is present (some have 0). The bonus is immediately applied empire wide. Antimatter Power Plants work the same way, only it is a tech you can unlock when discovering Antimatter instead. Antimatter is rarer but provides substantially higher production per source empire wide. Choosing these means you aren't choosing to unlock the other techs. I can provide some other tips when I am back at my PC in front of the game.
Thanks, thought it might be that. Where do they show up in the tech, is a new slot formed? I had Helium but I guess I choose another tech when I got that (think I had shields so went the military route). In this last game I realized I was up against the AI that gets 50% pop growth so no wonder I fell behind. I created a custom version of the Humans with 25% growth to see how that helps and took some other abilities. What's been happening is that I keep pace until around turn 200 and at that point the AI always seems to start pulling ahead exponentially. This is on Viceroy difficulty and medium galaxy. cheers
Yes, the AI will start to pick up speed around that turn mark. So, it's a good time to decide what will you do? Will you try to win peacefuly through the galactic vote (e.g. building more wonders, accessing more strategic resources, having more population, among others, all that helps gather more votes). Or, will you prepare for war, and strike the AI hard before it becomes too strong? It's up to you If you want a more leasury paced and relaxed game experience, you could always set the AI to Weak or Very Weak while choosing Prefect or even Magistrate for yourself.
Ok thanks, so basically I need to start to attack around 200? Also what turn does the vote come as in this new game I don't think I've seen it yet and I got to turn 250 before quitting due to the AI start to take over.
Strange, you should have seen the galactic council convene as soon as you made contact with the AI. Can you check that you had the Election Victory enabled in the new game setup screen? If that was the case, could you send me a save of that game where you say the galactic council hasn't fired up? Thanks.
Actually I think I disabled it on my last game so it carried over but didn't realize it disabled the elections completely (I thought maybe there was another purpose for them other than winning) so that's probably why.
Yes, new research options will appear in your tech tree. If you went the military route you likely missed the economic techs like the power plants. Here are some quick tips that may help you: Don't underestimate optimizing your worlds and play to your race's strength. Trying to out-grow the Sulak is going to be difficult. Look for the research options that provide free empire-wide benefits with no building required (Synthetic Food, Atmospheric Bio Agents, the aforementioned power plants, etc.). Try to get the 3rd level of infrastructure in specific categories. These give flat empire wide boosts to things like planetary engineering, building construction, and ship building. This along with support ships helps your new colonies get going. Don't underestimate planetary engineering. Even habitat control can be buffed to give you high pop-growth bonuses through tech, infrastructure bonuses, space culture choices, and support ships. It is possible to terraform new worlds very quickly as you get deeper into the game, and this removes the most significant penalties. Use support ships to help boost habitat control and terraform results. Don't be afraid to put 100% of your colony's production to planetary engineering some times. The same is true for infrastructure. Some times that is superior to a different building or ship as it provides long-term production benefits to the colony at no additional maintenance cost. If you have strong colonies that are one gravity level off, try to research the appropriate gravity generator to offset the penalty. If you have strong colonies that are the wrong type, try to terraform them as quick as you can. I actually prefer these because terraforming eliminates all the penalties with no building slot required. Domes are a good choice before you can accomplish this. Don't underestimate morale. Morale, infrastructure, and population all play a large role in your production. Morale and pop growth can be boosted by Ecology. Your homeworld starts at level 1, but can be boosted to level 3, as can all other planets except Barren. Be warned that terraforming wipes out any ecology improvements, so try to boost ecology after you terraform if possible.
Thanks, very helpful. I initially didn't realize you can disabled certain AI factions but previously seemed to always get the Draguul so didn't investigate further. That's what caused me to end up getting Sulak this time. Yes, have been trying to get all the empire wide stuff but missed that one growth tech. I've been making sure at least one infrastructure chain gets fully built in one planet to get the empire bonuses. For the construction ones (build time and extra slots) they both say the 3rd one gets 100% build and 15% less maintenance cost. Do both of those stack? Or is that if you get both rows of 3? Didn't realize support ships could help PE but makes sense as I think that's governed by production (which the ships give I know). I've been trying to get as many habitat and terraforming techs. On my previous to this last game I tried focusing more on my military and colonizing native habitats but then I lost the population and culture race. The military didn't help much since I was outnumbered. With this last game against the Sulak I focused on colonizing as much as I could and getting all the habitat and terraforming stuff going. But then my military suffered and I still didn't get as much of the map controlled as I'd like. The bottleneck seemed to be colonyship construction. I usually put all my resources into one field at a time, either PE, Infrastructure, or Construction. I'll split it thought if I find that 100% in any one of those doesn't reduce the turn time. Sometimes you can put 80% into one and 20% into another and get the same turn time (for the 80% one) as if you put 100%. I haven't been using the domes too much as I didn't want to lose a slot but maybe that's counter productive if the planet is not producing well fast enough to be useful (before the AI takes over). Is there way to destroy buildings? Also is it correct that you get a new slot for every infrastructure level? I've been using the extra slot construction level to increase that but then it seemed you get them anyway as the infrastructure increases so maybe I was overdoing that. When I'm losing these games I have a lot of unused construction slots so that tells me I probably need to use them more wisely to get things going from the start (mainly the biome stuff). I've been getting the Ecology up to 2 minimum, on this last game I didn't make it to 3. And also keeping an eye on morale. Generally I'm trying to get pop up as fast as possible and also happy so they can produce. But as above it seems I'm mainly losing the race to paint the galaxy and get behind that way. I'll have to find a way to build colony ships quicker maybe. Either that or take the planets forcibly How do you go about war usually? For instance in a medium size world with one AI would I be looking at some small battles early (and then making peace) or build to one large one? I'm mainly been playing to accomplish the latter but maybe that's part of the problem, letting the AI go unchecked for too long.
A good question. It is when you get both columns of 3, so all 6 under the Civil Engineering and Starship Engineering categories, or all 3 of the Planetary Engieering ones. This could probably be made clearer. They can, and if you look closely at the planetary engineering infrastructure tooltips in your colonies, you will see they also grant an empire-wide bonus to each of your support ships. Support ships have specific bonuses designed for eco-engineering tasks in this way. I don't tend to go wide early on with colonies. I like to stabilize a few core worlds, terraform them to my ideal scenario, and get their gravity optimal if it isn't already. Once I can get colony ships in 10 or so turns I may start using them. Early on if my choice is 20 turns for a colony ship or 12 turns for infrastructure, I am going for infrastructure every time. That's not to say going wide early can't work, but it's not my style. There is a space culture perk that grants a free colony ship and starts each new colony with 2 pops. I recommend this one to give you a third colony early, assuming you have decent worlds nearby. Don't settle a planet that is terrible for you early on because you will spend forever getting it up to speed. I find it is better to focus on other things. Later on with infrastructure perks and support ships you can support new non-ideal colonies easier. Exactly what I do too. They support three people in the recent releases instead of one. I find they are quick to build and help early on. Give them a try and see if they work for you. Yes there is. Click on the name of the building in the upper right corner of the colony screen. You can destroy those old domes after you've terraformed, the cloning center when the colony is full, etc. Even the robotic factory which loses effectiveness later on compared to what your colonists produce on their own. Yes, every infrastructure level gets you one new building slot. The infrastructure option you are picking gives you an extra one, so you would gain two slots whenever you pick it. Try not to overindulge in slots or you'll have a lot unused. It is better to get the other bonuses, such as planetary engineering or providing extra production to building construction or ships, or even additional ship support points. It varies. If I am playing Draguul, I tend to end up in wars early on. Their skill set is just well suited for it. In general though I am a economic player, building up a few core worlds with high production output. In those cases, the major wars come later on. If you go this path, I would recommend the power plant techs when the option presents itself. Get outposts everywhere special resources are and get those empire-wide production boosts going. This will help you keep up with the AI.
Thanks, that explains a lot then as I was prioritizing getting one row and then taking my time for the other thinking I had the bonus already. Should have checked that it was working before assuming. Good to know too, should help speed things up. I usually get the exploration and production perks first and then the free colonyship once I spot a good planet (that doesn't require work). I try to get 3-4 solid planets first before going to the ones that need terraforming etc... I use the initial ones to help fund researching the techs for terraforming before trying to get those planets. I then do all 3 rows of the PE tech on those planets first before working further on them. I've noticed the AI won't venture too deep into my side of the map so mainly look to push out towards them to claim as much as I can. Ok didn't think of that (that they would help) so will try that too. That's good to know, I thought I was stuck with them so was avoiding the things like domes which seemed redundant if I terraformed but now I see it would be better to use them at the start and then destroy. And sorry just remembered in my last game I accidentally clicked on the physical model of the building and it asked me if I wanted to destroy it. Yes that seems part of my issue, worrying too much about slots I never end up using so the planets are operating and lower potential for nothing. Cool will try. Humans have the peace ability which I guess would make it fairly easy to go in and attack some of the AI's planets and then revert to peace again. In my custom human faction I took that off though so not sure if I should try with it on again. Seems like a good solution to keeping them at bay. Thanks again for all of this, looks like I have a lot of room to get things running better easily in my next game.
Hi medway, I want to focus on this and try to help Once the AI builds up, they get out of control, and it isn't the same race all the time either. Usually, if you let them survive past 200 turns, they'll take the lead and you won't be considered for the vote, but there is hope, and it ties into war and fleets. What you need is to find a good world early, it doesn't have to be ideal, sometimes rich and tolerable will work too, also the larger the better. This world has to be developed fast. Start out by putting everything into infrastructure (100%) till you get 3-4 levels. By the time you have 4 infrastructure levels on that planet, at least one should be in building constructions faster, and at least one in building ships. Get a leader there asap. The idea is to have at least two high production worlds early, your Homeworld and a colony world. Now you will be able to dedicate one to civilian ships such as outposts and colonies, and the other to war ships. If you wish, stay out of war and build up relations while you grow, then when you are ready, attack your weakest neighbor. Preferably you want to hit them in as many worlds as possible on the first turn and try to really hurt them. Bring lots of assault ships with you to take over their worlds. If you prefer, you could nuke them instead and re-populate with your own species. This would mean fewer revolts but it would take longer to grow your power. Try this approach if you haven't already, and if you want to discuss specifics, especially going to, and being at war, I am at your disposal
Thanks Konstantine. Now I know that around turn 200 is a breakpoint I can plan accordingly. I also agree a second planet to produce ships is needed, I was trying to do too much with my homeworld. Eventually that one gets some good production points but by then it's too late. Now that I know how to get the bonuses correctly that should help too. One thing about that, does it matter what planet you get all 6 on (for both building and ship construction) Can I do 3 on one and 3 on another planet?
No my friend, while that will give some bonuses to the colony, all six must be achieved on the same world to confer bonuses empire wide.
So in this current game the only terran world was guarded by a space creature. By around turn 100 I finally gave up hope there would be one in the other systems once they were all explored and colonized a swamp planet. The guarded terran world is ultra rich and huge I think so should be good once I get there but is it a bit late (think I'm at turn 125 now building up my military tech to take it on) to be getting my second good planet?
It's going to be a struggle but get to that world quickly. I don't know your ship layout, but around turn 125, 3-4 destroyers will beat that monster. You can use a other ships, and even kill it with a well designed cruiser, but as I can't see your ships, I advise you commit 6-8 SSP to taking it out. Oh, the early ships you get for free, are inadequate for taking this out. You want something shielded, and preferably carrying missiles as well. Escort your strike force with a colony ship if you have one available, that way you can colonize it as soon as you clear the monster. Once you colonise, set 100 infrastructure till you get at least to the third level, also if you have a support ship, send it there, even if it means you pull one away from your homeworld. With a support ship aiding your growth, it should be a powerhouse world by turn 200. Perhaps it is a little late, but it will give you a fighting chance. Edit Can you tell me anything about your available forces? It might be doable with less SSP depending on what you have
Thanks. I've noticed this situation seems to come up quite a bit, a juicy planet guarded by monsters. It does usually mean there isn't a normally habitual world to choose from though which stalls the initial development. Will see how I get on in this current situation though.
