I'm here - introduction

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Bromstarzan
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I'm here - introduction

#1 Post by Bromstarzan »

Well, since I could not find an "Introduction"-section, I'll just post a line here.

Discovered FreeOrion about 6 months ago, took some beating testing it out and just now returned after being annoyed Spacecom lacked the save feature. I liked the simplistic concept of Spacecom and when looking at FreeOrion it came across beautifully to me - with more to the core of course. Here's the beauty of it all - as you all know - but I just have to post a picture :D:

Image

Problem is, I'm not used to 4X games so this is my true introduction :mrgreen: to the genre (spent my time before born into FreeOrion on DCS and CMANO essentially).

I realize I have to read through some of the material here on the forum to get started. I did fine in my recent game up to about turn 100, then the Coalition came down on me like a bonecrusher, even on "beginner" settings, lol. I think I went up the wrong research tree, indeed :lol:

Anyway, my sincere gratitude to the developers of this gem - it looks good, feels good and plays good. It stands out in my world of tactical/strategic gameplay like no other, and I havn't even started yet!

Keep up the development and I'll try to bring in some useful feedback from a beginners stanpoint if you wish to consider.

Cheers,
Bromstarzan
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Vezzra
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#2 Post by Vezzra »

Thanks and welcome! :D

defaultuser
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#3 Post by defaultuser »

There have been some past threads with assistance for new players:

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9316
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9941
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9838
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9955
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9954

Yes, early tech tree is important. Growth techs are some of the first you should be looking at. In the early game, most of the time you'll be doing colonization and development first. Just looking at your screenshot there, there are way too many low-level warships that aren't too useful. The points spent on building them would have been better spent on empire infrastructure in the form of productive colonies. In Beginner mode, you shouldn't find yourself in very early combat unless you go looking for it.

Remember that you're not stuck with the default starting species. You might find it easier (I know I did) to try Chato with a young universe. Chato have a research bonus and thrive on worlds with bright stars that you get in a young universe.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#4 Post by Bromstarzan »

Thanks for warm welcome.
Also, I will take your advice defaultuser and explore the techtrees in more depth, especially the "growth" category. It is naturally as it should be, I just must find a balance between exploring/finding suitable colonies and developing my homeworld. I will have a look at your links that you so kindly posted. I also like to not know too much, since part of the game is to find out... but if I get totally stuck, I'll torment you (this forum) with my newbie-questions. :lol:

(and yeah, the image was from a wild roaming session taking too many chances and consequently ending with the collapse of the human race :mrgreen: ).
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MatGB
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#5 Post by MatGB »

I'm not used to 4X games so this is my true introduction
Oh wow, the learning curve on this game is steep enough for experienced 4X players, I really look forward to getting feedback posts from you, especially about in game explanations, documentation, etc, as we know we're lacking with that and are hoping to improve it.

Short advice: some techs give flat rate bonuses per populated planet. Most give bonuses based on the population of the planet, more people is generally better than more planets but both is good. The more people you have, the higher your research and industrial output, the better your ships and the more you can build.

Certain growth techs (and this isn't very well explained in game at all) improve your ability to colonise adequate, poor and then hostile planets, others improve total population on each planet. Subterranean Habitation is an essential very early game tech, followed by others that increase population.

eg: Your Homeworld has a Cultural Archives, that gives a flat rate research bonus and a per population production bonus. Setting your homeworld to research and boosting population through techs is far more efficient in the early game.

Good luck, feel free to ask questions and like I said, feedback very welcome, we really need to improve some of the descriptions, especially tech descriptions.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

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Re: I'm here - introduction

#6 Post by defaultuser »

It is a bit of a challenge when you're new, as the game is just so big. There are many things to learn. Hopefully the links will help out. Mat is certainly right (he's an extremely experienced player and a developer) about the different types of boosts you can research. The flat rate ones really encourage expansion, as a colony will get its level from Nascent AI or Adaptive Automation regardless of focus or even abilities of the species at the planet. So species with no industry or research will still have the flat rate level from the tech.

The game I'm playing now I had to do a lot of colonizing with Silexians, one of the less useful native species having no industry and poor research. But they could colonize worlds that my Egassm starting species or exobots couldn't do much with. But they still piled up the points just from the flat-rate bonuses.

I recommend spending some time with the Research tab. Unlock all the techs, then go through the possibilities for Growth, Production, Learning, etc. Click on the various techs, see what they do and how much they cost.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#7 Post by Bromstarzan »

Thank you both, MatGB and defaultuser, for coming back with very useful tips.
I read through the links (posted above by defaultuser) and see now where I did my "wrong" choices early in my first playthrough. But, hey, some cars can also be driven incorrectly without reading the manual! :lol: (I started with military research too soon - before having a solid base population/growth/infrastructure).
It seems, by the user tips in that list, there are indeed a red line that leads to progress, but not necessarily. Other steps and strategies might work - depending on the game setup, naturally.

Some specific questions, I can probably find answers to by searching the forum and dig into the pedia.
I need to read-up on starlanes and supplylanes - what creates/maintains/removes/blocks them, the meaning of strategy in terms of navigation bottlenecks (connecting nodes), what figures to keep an eye on etc etc.

I'll also try to post pitfalls that could be typical for beginners in order to support documentation development.

cheers,
Broms
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#8 Post by defaultuser »

Supply lines are important especially for colonization. Some of the Construction techs extend supply. It depends somewhat on the type of galaxy you select. I like to play cluster, and that is prone to gaps that need to be overcome.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#9 Post by Bromstarzan »

defaultuser wrote:Supply lines are important especially for colonization. Some of the Construction techs extend supply. It depends somewhat on the type of galaxy you select. I like to play cluster, and that is prone to gaps that need to be overcome.
So it is basically just the infrastructure of your producing planets that decide the supply range/capacity? Presence of ships/outposts placed along nodes do not extend/widen supplylines?
Cluster configs seems like my cup of tea too - like to solve logistics :mrgreen:
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Vezzra
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#10 Post by Vezzra »

Bromstarzan wrote:So it is basically just the infrastructure of your producing planets that decide the supply range/capacity?
No, supply is a separate stat, that has nothing to do with infrastructure.
Presence of ships/outposts placed along nodes do not extend/widen supplylines?
Outposts yes, ships no. Supply is a stat that is tied to colonies/outposts.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#11 Post by Bromstarzan »

Ok, I see. Thanks for clarification!
I will experiment and watch my supply stat.
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#12 Post by defaultuser »

As far as interrupting supply lines, enemy action will do that. AI ships or wandering monsters that bombard a key system in the supply chain can disrupt it.

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Bromstarzan
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#13 Post by Bromstarzan »

defaultuser wrote:As far as interrupting supply lines, enemy action will do that. AI ships or wandering monsters that bombard a key system in the supply chain can disrupt it.
Sounds good. And it works the other way around I take it? Disrupting enemy supply lines is quite fun in other games, so I hope it has an effect in FO too?
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#14 Post by defaultuser »

Generally speaking there's no difference between AIs and human players, all rules are the same.

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MatGB
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Re: I'm here - introduction

#15 Post by MatGB »

Yup, definitely, the AI tries to spread its production across multiple shipyards to take into account chance of supply disruption but cutting off, for example, the capital/homeworld, or the solar generator, etc is always a good approach.
Mat Bowles

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