I'm here - introduction

[Bromstarzan]

Fantastic - I thought no other of FO!
Really appreciate you taking the time to answer a newcomer, although I feel I could probably find much info by searching around. The ingame Pedia is great too. The difficult part is to synthezise the available information into something you can base a decision on. I guess that comes from "just playing" the game, gathering a bit of experience and feel for the mechanics.
I do have a couple of questionmarks that I can't straighten out though:

• 1) Should I alwas try to maximise production, i.e. make sure no PP goes to waste (red marks)? Or is there a benefit (PP save for next turn) in not using all the PP every turn?
  2) Is there a screen/window that allows you to see your combined forces in terms of ships/fleets? Or du I simply have to scan the map for every individual fleet in order to view its properties?
  3) Also, can I see what I "have built" on an individual planet? Wanted to confirm that I built, for instance, a shipyard at Matar II, but in the production I can only see what I can build "next time"?

The more I play, the more I like FO. I am now at turn 42 (beginner, 1 AI, cluster) on a new session and keep building my empires platform (thought Turn 42 would have something to do with the answer to the ultimate question? ). The ship design is still pretty much unknown territory for me, but I'll look into it eventually . I still have very few ships, mostly scouts and colony ships. Not sure "when" to start production of military ships... and what is a reasonable amount of colonies before the switch to agressive/defensive products should take place. But I'll look around the forum for tips!

Cheers, and thanks again for an awesome game!

[Geoff the Medio]

...is there a benefit (PP save for next turn) in not using all the PP every turn?

Currently, unused PP is wasted, with no benefit at all.

Is there a screen/window that allows you to see your combined forces in terms of ships/fleets?

You might find the Objects window useful. It's a bit clunky to set filters, but one is for stuff owned by a particular empire. It's accessible through one of the top-right buttons.

[Bromstarzan]

You might find the Objects window useful. It's a bit clunky to set filters, but one is for stuff owned by a particular empire. It's accessible through one of the top-right buttons.

Ah, missed that filter, perfect! Thanks for clarifying the waste question as well!

[AndrewW]

1) Should I alwas try to maximise production, i.e. make sure no PP goes to waste (red marks)? Or is there a benefit (PP save for next turn) in not using all the PP every turn?

Both PP and RP can go to waste.

2) Is there a screen/window that allows you to see your combined forces in terms of ships/fleets? Or du I simply have to scan the map for every individual fleet in order to view its properties?

There's the Object window.

3) Also, can I see what I "have built" on an individual planet? Wanted to confirm that I built, for instance, a shipyard at Matar II, but in the production I can only see what I can build "next time"?

Over in the right panel when clicked on that system there's a row of icons showing what is there (or waiting to be built) there, can hover the mouse over them to see what it is. Though if a shipyard is already present there you shouldn't be able to add another one to be built there.

The more I play, the more I like FO. I am now at turn 42 (beginner, 1 AI, cluster) on a new session and keep building my empires platform (thought Turn 42 would have something to do with the answer to the ultimate question? ). The ship design is still pretty much unknown territory for me, but I'll look into it eventually . I still have very few ships, mostly scouts and colony ships. Not sure "when" to start production of military ships... and what is a reasonable amount of colonies before the switch to agressive/defensive products should take place. But I'll look around the forum for tips!

I wouldn't say there is any best time. Depends on the individual player and galaxy setup.

[Bromstarzan]

Thank you AndrewW for your input! Appreciate it heaps.
Like you say, the shift towards fleet building is a delicate decision that must be based on where you stand in research and intelligence of opponent strength and focus. I'm gathering experience here on my 3rd session of FO and it is a blast

[MatGB]

Have a look at the game graphs, especially the # of armed ships and the rough estimate of military strength. If you're getting behind then build a couple but don't waste too many points until you can at least build robotic ships with shields (um, you need to design them, doofus here forgot to add them last time he did a pass on the premades).

Beyond that, keep scouts and detection range up, start ramping up military production when you can either see enemy fleets or enemy supply lines, concentrate on economy and monster smiting before then.

[Bromstarzan]

Yes, the graphs are good tools, but It feels a bit like cheating .
Using the default ship design (basic hull etc) seems to be a waste, need to go for much higher fighting points. Unless you have a closeby neighbor in early stage (and have no choice).

build robotic ships with shields (um, you need to design them, doofus here forgot to add them last time he did a pass on the premades).

So, rule of thumb: don't use premades? Maybe that's were I got a little confused

[Cpeosphoros]

Welcome to the game.

So, rule of thumb: don't use premades? Maybe that's were I got a little confused

Not at all. Most premades are good in a bunch of situations. Also, just tweaking some of them will give you what you need, until you learn how to roll your own from scratch.

Some small tips which weren't clear for me my first times around:

- The upgrades to Industrial Centers are just techs you research. You don't have to build/produce anything extra so they kick in and double, quadruple, etc the boni.

- Both production and research queues have a cost *and* time requirement. So, you can see something as, say, costing 100 PP (or RP) & 4 turns. That means it will always take at least 4 turns to be produced (or researched), no matter if you already have the 100 points to begin with - it will take only 25 points per turn from your pool. If you have less than 25 points available in a turn, it will still progress, taking as much points as you have available. Small caveat: if you spend, in this same hypothetical production/research, 3 turns putting 1 point in it, you will not be able to pour 97 points on it on the 4th turn - the 25/turn limit will still be in place.

- Supply lines are calculate primarily by counting starlanes jump from the colony they come from. The meter is not visible by default, you have to expand a section in the planets panel to be able to see it. That said, they are always counted individually for each colony and they don't accumulate, so you will probably want to boost supply (eg. by building space elevators, or colonizing tiny/small planets), for colonies in the fringes of your empire. It does no good for you, and most of the time will be a waste of resources, to try to boost supply in planets/colonies in the core of your empire.

- The Objects view is your best friend. It has a bunch of filter options which are actually quite handy. It's awkward to deal with, but I think it's already amazing as it is, lacking only some capacity to "remember"/save its filters. The width of its columns may be adjusted by editing a special section of settings.xml (which is located in FreeOrion's directory of you home/AppData folder).

[Bromstarzan]

Much appreciated Cpeosphoros!
I will have good use of your comments. I still can't build very much, I do have the Industry Centre tech and is not sure if I should build multiple of them, or if one is enough to boost production. Production seem to have stalled with no expected increase. I must figure out why that is .

I'm learning one or two things a day and thats a good pace at the same time exploring the ingame windows, properties and how/when numbers change. The object window is excellent, I just missed the filter option down below in the beginning.

FO is a perfect game for a guy like me on parental leave with two small kids
I also installed Star Ruler 1 & 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, but havn't played them yet. FO came in the way

[defaultuser]

Industrial Centers, like Solar Generators, affect all supply-connected worlds so generally an empire will not need more than one. You can hover over the Industry icon for any planet and it will show you a list of all the factors that go into the target industry there. You'll see something like "Planet X Industrial Center: NNN" at all the connected worlds.

[Cpeosphoros]

Industrial Centers, like Solar Generators, affect all supply-connected worlds so generally an empire will not need more than one. You can hover over the Industry icon for any planet and it will show you a list of all the factors that go into the target industry there. You'll see something like "Planet X Industrial Center: NNN" at all the connected worlds.

Indeed, FO has a design goal that no individual building should be a mandatory, no brainer, have it on all your planets - or all your planets of some kind. There are still some buildings like that (Terraform/Gaia and Gas Giant Generators are the worst offenders, AFAIK, but they are being worked at). If you get yourself building something in every available planet, double check if you are not wasting resources.

[MatGB]

So, rule of thumb: don't use premades? Maybe that's were I got a little confused

Nope, virtually all of the premades are good designs, but when I recently made a pass through I changed the robotic hull designs a bit and forgot to add in the ones with shields (the RoboDestroyer class), keeping instead the ones with fuel and/or speed boosts (the cruiser class) which are still good designs, just not as good for fleet combat messes, better for exploration en force or border defence.

[Bromstarzan]

Ah, that makes better sense with the premades being useful. I think I read in a forum post about not building any ships until stronger were possible as a preferred strategy (stronger than the premade basic hulls etc). I might have misunderstood the post and took it out of context.

[MatGB]

Yeah, it might've been one of mine, basically in the first few turns you can only build basic hulls with mass drivers. Basic hulls are relatively expensive (in part because you can build them with just a shipyard making them easier to build) and have no special abilities, are slow and have a relatively low structure. Plus, Mass Drivers will become obsolete fairly early as enemies research shield technology.

So, unless you need them (monsters, very close enemy), you're far better off investing early game resources into expansion via colony or native conquest—some of whom have relatively low level defences that a basic destroyer can take down so that might justify the expense.

There are exceptions, I tend to build warships very early if I'm playing Eaxaw or Etty (for whom they become obsolete less early due to their piloting bonus) or Egassem (who basically need to rush nearby opponents very early because they'll get behind in tech quickly).

It's worth noting that in 0.4.5 a ship build with Mass Driver 1 only ever had that, whereas relatively recently the weapon refinement techs now improve existing mass drivers (lasers, etc) rather than create a new, slightly better, part. So it is more viable to build ships very early than it used to be, but it's still, normally, sub optimal.

But, the joys of a 4x game, there are always exceptions, and different players will prefer different styles. It's not wrong to build warships really early, but you're almost certainly going to survive better into the mid to late game if you go for early colonies instead.

[Bromstarzan]

Thanks MatBG, yep the beauty of strategy games is just that - you choose your strategy and does it work? Well, it depends on the circumstances and how and when you apply it

Specific questions:

• 1) Is there a way to make supply lanes reach out to a system that is separated by "deep space", i.e. some kind of transport system or outpost that maintain/share supplies to an isolated colony?
  2) Do ships gain strength in some way by combining them into fleets?
  3) I just colonized an isolated Terran planet and "can" build a Basic Shipyard here, but it will "never" be ready. What am I lacking at this planet? Just Industrial capacity/population?