I'm here - introduction

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defaultuser
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#46 Post by defaultuser »

MatGB wrote:NB: Laenfa get a stealth bonus for their colonies, but the AI doesn't use it in their ships (yet), so Laenfa won't be sneaking past anything any time soon.
Didn't they used to? I seem to recall being really confused about ships disappearing and getting attacked by stuff I didn't see when I was new. Turned out to be Laenfa ships and I learned about researching detection.

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Re: I'm here - introduction

#47 Post by defaultuser »

I costed out armored troop ships at one point. I think using a basic large hull with one Xentronium plate (still gives three troop pods) cost about 50% more than the standard troop ship. So you could just build half again as many ships if your losses stay within that range. However, when I'm going after Experimenters, I use Titantic hulls to carry troops. You can fit a lot guys in one of those.

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Re: I'm here - introduction

#48 Post by MatGB »

There was a time, a long time ago, that they also got a stealth bonus on ships.

Oh, wait, Multi Spectral Shields. I take it back, if the AI unlocks MS Shields from an Ancient Ruins it will use them as they're a fairly good shield that also grants a stealth bonus, so they're not deliberately using them for stealth and aren't going to be making strategic stealth attacks, but they do have stealth—they also use asteroid hulls heavily and they can hide in asteroid belts fairly well.
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#49 Post by defaultuser »

I started playing with 0.4.4, so it might have been back then. When you're new, lots of things confuse you.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#50 Post by Bromstarzan »

A little confusing: when and how to use Troop drop vs Troop ship. I can see neutrals are loosing 1 unit per turn (after hitting Invade button), but heir troops count stays the same. Planet Shield is 0 from start. I probably interpret the information incorrectly as well as carry out the invasion in the wrong way. I'll experiment a bit more.

Thanks again gents for pointing me in the right direction.
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#51 Post by defaultuser »

Troop drops have very little structure and are cheap but they also take one more turn to build. Obviously they are unable to do interstellar travel so you have to already have a planet in the system to be able to employ them.

For me the use cases for drops are very rare. One would be if you colonized a planet in a system that had a native world with no defenses and so you build some drops and take is without needing to bring ships from anywhere.

Without ships to bombard the planet, planetary defenses will recover. Hover over the troop icon on the planet and you will see the max troops and the projected next turn amount. If they're maxed and you kill a couple at time they will just be replaced. If you're using drops build all you need to complete the job before invading.

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Re: I'm here - introduction

#52 Post by Bromstarzan »

Thanks defaultuser!
I'll see if I get the hang of it. Do I even need to drop troops on native/neutrals (white fonts) in order to capture them? I would just assume so, as I wish to:
  • A) extend my supply lanes via one of those neutral systems.
    B) get my hands on their RP and PP (also population I guess)!
I am looking at:
  • 1) bombard with frigates (or suitable) until X stat is 0 (X = defence?).
    2) fly in and "invade", i.e. drop troops numbers that are greater than the planets troop count.
PS: had my first FO-crash last night when merging fleets. I saw it's been brought up previously and if it occurs again I'll pass the logs to the bug hunting dept. DS
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MatGB
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#53 Post by MatGB »

Bromstarzan wrote:Thanks defaultuser!
I'll see if I get the hang of it. Do I even need to drop troops on native/neutrals (white fonts) in order to capture them? I would just assume so, as I wish to:
  • A) extend my supply lanes via one of those neutral systems.
    B) get my hands on their RP and PP (also population I guess)!
Natives are a key part of the game, many of them are nearly as good as imperial species and have differing environmental preferences, if you, for example, play as Human and capture, say, Tae Ghirus or Kobuntura, then you can colonise Swamp or Barren worlds, etc. Plus, more people = good.

I am looking at:
  • 1) bombard with frigates (or suitable) until X stat is 0 (X = defence?).
    2) fly in and "invade", i.e. drop troops numbers that are greater than the planets troop count.
Planetary shields need to be at 0, that's it, and 90% of native worlds will be at that level already so you only need to send the troopships in, it's only a small number of natives that have shields by default, and then there are high tech natives specials that can also give them.quote]PS: had my first FO-crash last night when merging fleets. I saw it's been brought up previously and if it occurs again I'll pass the logs to the bug hunting dept. DS
I think it's now supposed to have been fixed in the most recent test builds, but am not 100% sure, it's been an ongoing annoyance for years tho so more data is always good.
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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#54 Post by Bromstarzan »

Sweet, many thanks for tips and clarification, MatGB.

I now own 2 of the neutral systems and it worked fine (with my intention and the way I went by to achieve it). Very interesting to "take over" tech, indeed. Have not experienced this yet, but it sounds like a very cool feature (strategic/tactical). Maybe I just did, must check back on those systems I just captured.

Had a very interesting session tonight at turns around 120-150 (early-midgame?). While still trying to decide on a few research branches, did 3 raids into enemy territory trying to damage their fleet, and it was a big success! :lol:. While having enough intelligence on enemy fleet composittion and striking with a somewhat stronger fleet, I could "exterminate" 3 groups and still come back to repair my striking force at Willow beta. Lost a couple of frigates, but that's nothing in the context of the whole battle :mrgreen:.

The game mechanics answered very well to my intentions and I was able to carry out my plan with a successful result over 30-35 turns - pure satisfaction! It was just an operation in the total scheme of bringing the whole galaxy under my flag, ofcourse!

Also, picked up a little more by reading forums and the Pedia, taking notes and forming my understanding of the game. Next session, I will explore the use of gas giants and Asteroid belts, I guess? Maybe try to develop Exobots and/or seek for species that will add special techs?

PS: I love the music in FO but this session I went nostalgic with my library of themes from Medal of Honor (1 & 2), Half-Life (1 & 2), Rainbow 6, Hearts of Iron 3 and Ghost Recon (1 & 2). DS
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#55 Post by defaultuser »

One of the better natives to acquire is Mu Ursh as (assuming you aren't play Eaxaw) you'll get their 50% piloting bonus.

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Re: I'm here - introduction

#56 Post by Bromstarzan »

Thanks defaultuser, I'll keep my eyes open for Mu Ursh! :lol:
  • 1. As of now I have taken over a planet from the Beige Goo (pop 26.2), and can see some stats (in green, Symbiotic Biology etc...), but there is another system where they thrive and I wonder if I need to take all their populated planets/systems in order to gain their special techs?
    2. Also managed to start building a Gas Giant Generator, but it came to me in a confusing manner (had to switch from research to industry focus on my home planet). Thought I had to send outpost ships to the Gas Giant first, but that seemed like a waste? I'll come back to this in a jiffy... :mrgreen:
    3. Troops: Is there a way to send troops pack onto Troop ships for the use in another invasion? Or do I just build/assemble new ones?
See, this thread became a good example of what questions a beginner faces in the first play-through. I'll try to sum it up in some kind of mindmap eventually, but hey - I've still got a long way to go with my dear neighbor in the Bach & Kala systems! :mrgreen:

At turn 167: Production 105, Research 29.4, Ships 42, Population 140, Detection 30. What numbers should I worry about?
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MatGB
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#57 Post by MatGB »

Bromstarzan wrote:Thanks defaultuser, I'll keep my eyes open for Mu Ursh! :lol:
  • 1. As of now I have taken over a planet from the Beige Goo (pop 26.2), and can see some stats (in green, Symbiotic Biology etc...), but there is another system where they thrive and I wonder if I need to take all their populated planets/systems in order to gain their special techs?
Think there must've been some confusion, there's no special tech gained from natives, but they have different strengths, the Goo are a non-colonising species so you just get awesome industrial output at minimal cost, others are useful in different ways (look out for, for example, Telepathic natives if you're playing a non-telepath race, having some telepaths reduces the cost of Psionics from 600RP to 100RP, which given how good Distributed Thought Computing is is a nice little bonus, so you can research it much earlier).
2. Also managed to start building a Gas Giant Generator, but it came to me in a confusing manner (had to switch from research to industry focus on my home planet). Thought I had to send outpost ships to the Gas Giant first, but that seemed like a waste? I'll come back to this in a jiffy... :mrgre
en:
You do need to outpost the giant in the system, yes, and not a waste in the early to mid game, might be considered so in the very late game but you can always turn the GGs into Artificial Planets.
3. Troops: Is there a way to send troops pack onto Troop ships for the use in another invasion? Or do I just build/assemble new ones?[/list]
Build new ones, they're deliberately expended as it makes balancing these things much easier, they form the nexus of the garrison on your new world and stop the natives rebelling (we don't have rebellions, yet, but we might).
See, this thread became a good example of what questions a beginner faces in the first play-through. I'll try to sum it up in some kind of mindmap eventually, but hey - I've still got a long way to go with my dear neighbor in the Bach & Kala systems! :mrgreen:
A mindmap or other useful summary would be very useful and we definitely appreciate that sort of thing, as we definitely want to improve the in game explanations and expand on the tutorial system over time.
At turn 167: Production 105, Research 29.4, Ships 42, Population 140, Detection 30. What numbers should I worry about?
If it were me, all of them, but especially research, that's way to low and would explain your other numbers being low as well, I'd switch as many worlds as you can to research ASAP and concentrate on research improving techs and population improving techs. Then you want to get detection up a bit more. You've got enough ships, I suspect they're not very good so building more at this stage will be a waste, get the RP output up then you can get better tech.
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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#58 Post by Bromstarzan »

Excellent clarifications there, MatGB, many thanks!

Yes, I read that a good rule of thumb would be to have production, research and population up to - or near - the turn number, at least by turn 100. So that just confirms my beginner status :mrgreen:

I'll calm down my frontline and cool my industry to turn on the research knob for a while.

I might have neglected research in favor for production, and that punishes me now. I do have control of my opponent though (remember; I play beginner with just 1 AI) just by reading the graphs, but for a harder setting, I guess I would be in trouble. I'll continue my journey and see how it goes. Was fun learning about the troop ships (invasions), gas giant generators and now I designed a couple of nice ships. Tomorrow, I'll also look into the differrent ship designs and how to acheive the ability to design/use better/bigger hulls. One step at a time...
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#59 Post by defaultuser »

I'm not sure what species you're playing, but one thing that can help as you're learning is to start with Chato and young universe. Chato get a big research bonus and they can colonize a wide range of worlds one you get a few basic growth techs down.

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Re: I'm here - introduction

#60 Post by Bromstarzan »

I'm playing the humans. And yes, I heard Chato with a young universe could be the way to go for beginners. However, I like the game I'm in now, will see if I manage to survive past turn 200 :D
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