Re: My personal strategy guide
Posted: Mon May 02, 2016 5:28 am
Would it be possible in the future to have "advanced" galaxy generation settings? i.e. where you can type in percents for values, adjust individual A.I. difficulty (to make them all maniacal), etc.
I've noticed that on some seeds most of the closest systems are all filled with a certain "class" of planets (Inferno, Radiated & Barren). I assume this skew is due to the abnormal seed that was inputted, and it would be nice to know how the random universe generator works so that such occurrences could be prevented. (I also want to know for curiosity's sake)
As for strategy, I don't think FO is balanced (as in recommended settings)around having a research centric focus for the early/mid-game as it would always be better to expand. If one really thinks about it, having Adaptive Automation earlier is good, and RP is roughly at around 0.5x the PP in the first 100 turns (So it's more valuable right?). But the problem is that although you may have 2-3 colonies, you have no warships or really ships at all by the time you get it. If a focus on industry had been the goal from the beginning, then you would have had the same amount of colonies as well as warships/troop ships. I think that the only time research works is if you're against the A.I. in a large system (30+ per player) with little to no monsters. Laefna could theoretically start off with research, but they have a penalty. Otherwise, Chato in a young galaxy is quite frankly broken. Gysche could try, but the -weapon dmg and -troops is a steep price for the setback in early game fighting power.
With monsters and specials, this is especially noticeable as your path or a good system is blocked by a maintenance ship or dyson forest. Sometimes with monsters set to "high", you can't even play the game without queuing up a couple outposts asap to stop the kraken nests/drones from taking over the galaxy.
This is why races with an industry penalty (i.e. Cray) aren't very good comparatively as they're too dependent on not being harassed in the early game. In a normal game with med to no monsters, I would focus on research for the early turns. The moment I get Zortium (usually after Nascent, or maybe I go to production after Nascent) is the time to crank up production on robocruisers. Lasers, Symbiotic, and Radar are a lower priority when you compare it with a stack of Mass 4 robocruisers & destroyed monsters/conquered worlds/specials. As the game progresses (mid-game, turns 50-100), you will have built up the largest fleet because the A.I. doesn't know how/where to stack their ships, letting you pick them off without losing any. It wouldn't matter if you only have 25 RP by then; a stack of laser 4 ships is good enough against anything they can whip up by then (still robos w/o shields). Once you have around 10 ships, it basically turns into a waiting game for troop ships. Because you conquered the A.I. so early, you will be able to focus on research with the additional colonies/home world. Robocruisers are good until plasma & diamond before they need to be replaced, as the A.I. now has either asteroid hulls or self gravitating ones. All you need to do is catch up on research, and then continue to outproduce them. With each victory, the A.I. has less of a chance and your footing becomes firmer (They still don't stack their entire fleet, except on homeworlds). This is assuming that you are within easy reach of one of the A.I., else a mid-game focus on research can be considered if there is no combat. Regardless of what you choose, many techs aren't particularly useful/necessary as they a) can take effect after hundreds or thousands of RP/and or PP have been dumped in over 50 turns aka. late game or b) Only useful against A.I. One such example are the stealth techs; they require you to spend double the RP to get it (sensor + cloaking) and a human player can counter it easily if they paid attention to certain things (i.e. they have radar while you already have scanners, so they may expect cloaking soon). (Detection past neutron scanners is usually not required unless playing against experimenters) Of course, this is coming from someone who likes to optimize for the best efficiency, so this might not be your playstyle.
If one wanted to play a long game or fight the "boss", then research is the way to go. But having 30-ish systems means a quicker game, and thus an industry focus is the best. (Can basically win without micrograv/GGG, no asymptotic architecture, nanotech medicine, only robocruiser).
I've noticed that on some seeds most of the closest systems are all filled with a certain "class" of planets (Inferno, Radiated & Barren). I assume this skew is due to the abnormal seed that was inputted, and it would be nice to know how the random universe generator works so that such occurrences could be prevented. (I also want to know for curiosity's sake)
As for strategy, I don't think FO is balanced (as in recommended settings)around having a research centric focus for the early/mid-game as it would always be better to expand. If one really thinks about it, having Adaptive Automation earlier is good, and RP is roughly at around 0.5x the PP in the first 100 turns (So it's more valuable right?). But the problem is that although you may have 2-3 colonies, you have no warships or really ships at all by the time you get it. If a focus on industry had been the goal from the beginning, then you would have had the same amount of colonies as well as warships/troop ships. I think that the only time research works is if you're against the A.I. in a large system (30+ per player) with little to no monsters. Laefna could theoretically start off with research, but they have a penalty. Otherwise, Chato in a young galaxy is quite frankly broken. Gysche could try, but the -weapon dmg and -troops is a steep price for the setback in early game fighting power.
With monsters and specials, this is especially noticeable as your path or a good system is blocked by a maintenance ship or dyson forest. Sometimes with monsters set to "high", you can't even play the game without queuing up a couple outposts asap to stop the kraken nests/drones from taking over the galaxy.
This is why races with an industry penalty (i.e. Cray) aren't very good comparatively as they're too dependent on not being harassed in the early game. In a normal game with med to no monsters, I would focus on research for the early turns. The moment I get Zortium (usually after Nascent, or maybe I go to production after Nascent) is the time to crank up production on robocruisers. Lasers, Symbiotic, and Radar are a lower priority when you compare it with a stack of Mass 4 robocruisers & destroyed monsters/conquered worlds/specials. As the game progresses (mid-game, turns 50-100), you will have built up the largest fleet because the A.I. doesn't know how/where to stack their ships, letting you pick them off without losing any. It wouldn't matter if you only have 25 RP by then; a stack of laser 4 ships is good enough against anything they can whip up by then (still robos w/o shields). Once you have around 10 ships, it basically turns into a waiting game for troop ships. Because you conquered the A.I. so early, you will be able to focus on research with the additional colonies/home world. Robocruisers are good until plasma & diamond before they need to be replaced, as the A.I. now has either asteroid hulls or self gravitating ones. All you need to do is catch up on research, and then continue to outproduce them. With each victory, the A.I. has less of a chance and your footing becomes firmer (They still don't stack their entire fleet, except on homeworlds). This is assuming that you are within easy reach of one of the A.I., else a mid-game focus on research can be considered if there is no combat. Regardless of what you choose, many techs aren't particularly useful/necessary as they a) can take effect after hundreds or thousands of RP/and or PP have been dumped in over 50 turns aka. late game or b) Only useful against A.I. One such example are the stealth techs; they require you to spend double the RP to get it (sensor + cloaking) and a human player can counter it easily if they paid attention to certain things (i.e. they have radar while you already have scanners, so they may expect cloaking soon). (Detection past neutron scanners is usually not required unless playing against experimenters) Of course, this is coming from someone who likes to optimize for the best efficiency, so this might not be your playstyle.
If one wanted to play a long game or fight the "boss", then research is the way to go. But having 30-ish systems means a quicker game, and thus an industry focus is the best. (Can basically win without micrograv/GGG, no asymptotic architecture, nanotech medicine, only robocruiser).