like..yikes Scooby! Noob needing help

[Rhodan1970]

man, when the mag review said it would take weeks to really appreciate the depth of this game they were not kidding. Right now however I am stuck in the just-got-it-for-a-couple-of-days-phase. A few broad concepts are becoming clear now, I have finally come to peace witht eh fact I have no detailed say in what exactly is being researched :( and now slowly grow used to the broader brush strokes of an Emperor. There are still many things that utterly baffle me though.

The thing that frustrates me most right now however is the fact that somehow I can't seem to lift any coloniues other then my Homeworld truly from the ground. I am trying to let the AI do most so I don't mess up too much, but it feels those new colonies are plowing through thick mud when it comes to their progress.

yes for now I only colonize sweet spot and green worlds and yes I let the AI assign DEA .

I understand that the answers to this question might be pretty broad, but I would appreciate any help offered.

Thanks in advance,

Rho

[Beamup]

Well, it takes time for a new colony to really become productive. Things you can do to help out:

1. Make sure you have an adequate supply of food. Starvation really puts a crimp in a colony's development.

2. Make very sure you have an adequate supply of minerals. If you're short, some colonies won't get any and so their industry won't work and you won't get any production points to build DEAs.

3. You can set migration to the planet (Planets screen) to get more people there faster. More people = more productivity = faster development.

If you'd like more detailed suggestions, that's quite possible - just provide details on some of the problem planets.

[Futurist]

By turn 30 or so, many people make sure to always start colonies with 2 or more colony ships. Especially out on the frontier, you want to be sure to get the defenses (and mob centers) built as quickly as possible.

[DeckPrism]

Dev plans, you need some decent dev plans. With some finagleing you can get Roy to put about half of all DEAs towards industry with some lower population requirement DEAs along the way. Read the Economics 101 thread at the top of this folder.

Avoiding wars and putting your money towards planetary development, possibly through an infrastructure dev plan helps. Having more tech than the other guy gives you more planetary improvements. Wisely choosing which schools to research first can get you to good tech faster.

It would also help to play an 'easy' race to begin with, customized for production. Playing against polution penalties can hurt.

You ARE doing some planetary grants right?

There are probably more ideas around; look around.

[SokMonkey]

Alot, this board and the mod board have alot of good info in them, hell the first week I spent about 3 times as much time reading as I did playing. Somewhat annoying, but you will thank yourself later.

[Steely Glint]

You need to either employ some Dev plans or mircomanage the DEA placement of your early colonies. Without the aid of one of those, Mr. Viceroy will just build what he feels like building without reference to the overall game situation and can be a bit of a buffon. That is, (stop me if I'm wrong) a new colony at the start will be developed in exactly the same way as a colony established mid game with the full weight of your empire supporting it.

What I think you need to do, at first, is manage your first few colonies with a view to what you want them to do. That is, you need a good supply of minerals for industry anywhere in your empire to be worth damn. You need to regulate the pace of expansion with the amount of food you have available (I always forget to do this and have chronic food-shortages around turn 100). You need to be aware of the interdependant nature of Moo3's economic system (for example, the productivity of a DEAs on a planet depends on that planets population which depends on, amongst other things, a supply of food - so the strategic employment of 'set migration' to boost population on key worlds is important (say, the mineral rich one that's going to supply your industrial worlds).

Once you understand Dev Plans properly, you can set them up to do all this for you but they take a while to master.

Oh, you almost always get a series of green or better worlds in your home system. Colonise one of those on the first turn with your colony ship.

[RobNelson]

Watch your military budget. The instinct is to raise it so your ships get built faster. This is bad, as that military budget policy is linked to planet money, so setting it high diverts money from building DEAs and buildings. Either of the peace settings is good until you're about to go to war.

Lot's of good suggestions here. Setting migration to new worlds is good, too, though you may not notice this until later in the game.

This Thread (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=302409) also has some good info, though it's still in the "test" phase.

Play around with dev plans. Don't be discouraged if they don't seem to work, regional policy and current need are also factored in.

Read the thread in my sig. Won't help with strategy, but may help anyways.

[Rhodan1970]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply guys. At least it directed me somewhere. I have a feeling I might need to adjust by view on 'time' in the game..I had expected that something of routine and growth would have been happening by turn 40-50 or so. After haven spoken with a friend I think I should be thinking in terms of 200 or so turns...

Impatience...I don't have the patience to deal with it. :P

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by Steely Glint
Oh, you almost always get a series of green or better worlds in your home system. Colonise one of those on the first turn with your colony ship.

I'd call that a waste. I use a system ships for all those planets - they are MUCH cheaper to produce than a colony ship, and you can afford the 1-2 turn delay in order to get a hold of a planet because it gets you a second system that much more quickly.

[Steely Glint]

You can't actually garantee that you'll get a green planet anywhere near your home system. Plus, is controling a system - rather than controling the planet - really that important?

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by Steely Glint
You can't actually garantee that you'll get a green planet anywhere near your home system. Plus, is controling a system - rather than controling the planet - really that important?

Too me it generally is.

However, this position is influenced by my race - I play a production maxed meklar, which means its a joice between 2-3 turns for a syscol and about 6 for a stellar col. 2-3 turns isn't that long, but I'm betting other races may take as much as 10 to get a syscol, so that may be where our opinions are diverging.

[Da_Blade]

Actually, especially with meklar i colonize a planet in-system with my col ship. Getting a second production planet up with the meklars is especially important IMO, since you need much more colony ship to colonize all those little worlds you encounter. I usually don't migrate to any other planets untill that second world is up and running (6+ pop) to get more pop to that world.

[Beamup]

I also tend to use my first colony ship in-system if there's a good planet. My thinking is that I would MUCH rather have a good planet now than maybe have a good planet in 5 turns and maybe not. And if you wait for the scouts to find a good planet before sending the colony ship out, that means it's more like 10 turns delay. Not worth it to me.

Although it strikes me that hab rings will be very relevant here - races that find lots of good planets will be taking less of a risk by sending their ship off.

[Kralizec!]

Ron_Lugge wrote:
However, this position is influenced by my race - I play a production maxed meklar, which means its a joice between 2-3 turns for a syscol and about 6 for a stellar col. 2-3 turns isn't that long, but I'm betting other races may take as much as 10 to get a syscol, so that may be where our opinions are diverging.

Your ten turn guess for some races sounds spot on for my Eoladi. :(

However I personally agree with Ron about using syscols for intra-system and saving the col for establishing a new system. The only exception is if there is a magnate in my starting system (which appears to be a super-rare event).