So i caved and bought the game (sans expansion) when it was on sale.
I'm still learning. My latest lesson?
Don't declare war without a proper set of fleets ready. Also good ships don't hurt.
I am not very good at 4X games. What are some tips for beginners?
The biggest thing in Endless Space that took me a while to learn is that you absolutely should not for any reason colonize more than one planet in a system unless your first planet is population capped. You only ever want to have one planet in a system with room to grow at a time.
As a complete newb, why is this? I can understand wanting room to grow, but what is the downside of populating more than one planet early in a system's discovery?
The cost per person increases based on the total population space available. If you have one planet colonized, you generate population quicker than if you had two colonized in the same system. Also the vast majority of planets reduce happiness when colonized, which reduces your points towards generating new population (Food + Happiness = People, but not quite that simple)
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21stCenturyCall me Pixel, or Pix for short![They/Them]Registered Userregular
So i caved and bought the game (sans expansion) when it was on sale.
I'm still learning. My latest lesson?
Don't declare war without a proper set of fleets ready. Also good ships don't hurt.
I am not very good at 4X games. What are some tips for beginners?
get a admin or corporate hero ASAP. If you can't try to find one of the heroes with a production/food bonus and assign them to your main system. Be ready to move them once you find a better system(there's a good chance you will find a better system for them to enhance as you explore). Lower the tax rate as often as you can as it will increase food, industry and research.
Only Colonize Terran, Jungle, Ocean > Arid, Tundra > Desert, Arctic at first, until you have Infinite Supermarkets researched(or somehow have a high approval). Try to avoid planets with Red Anomalies. Once you've colonized all of the good planet types (-5 approval or less), research Applied Casmir Effect for wormhole travel, while at the same time beginning to build fleets.
When colonizing, always assign food production exploitation on the first planet you colonize in a system. You may want to continue to do this for the next two or even three planets you colonize on a system depending upon their own ability to generate food + system improvements built.
When ship designing, always modify existing ship designs, rather than making completely new ones. This way you can retrofit existing fleets for dust.
You don't need to declare war to invade a system, so long as it is within 30 turns of the player having colonized it, and it is not within the player's sphere of influence. Use Cold War to its advantage(this goes primarily for the thunderdome that occurs in the center of spiral galaxy maps).
Don't accept peace offers unless it's beneficial to you(will you be researching trade routes, is the guy offering peace really strong/high score?, is he giving you strat or lux resources you need along with the offer, or demanding you give up something to break a monopoly?)
I had a game going as the United Empire where I was doing pretty well. I had gobbled up about 80% of the Amoeba's systems, with the Sheredyn taking a few as well. They only had a few left, when I noticed that Sheredyn were really close to an economic victory. The only settleable systems were well beyond their territory so I couldn't get there before they won. I increased my dust production, and while I was gaining ground, I knew it wouldn't be fast enough. I was only at 51% and they were at 80%. So on a long shot I opened the diplomacy tab to see if I could slow them down by demanding stuff from them. For some reason I didn't even the option to ask for their systems (they were there, because I had the tech, but greyed out) but I was able to really, really easily convince them to give me about 18k Dust.
Per turn.
Suddenly I was gaining almost 40K Dust per turn, getting 5% of an economic victory per turn and they were getting nothing.
I had a game going as the United Empire where I was doing pretty well. I had gobbled up about 80% of the Amoeba's systems, with the Sheredyn taking a few as well. They only had a few left, when I noticed that Sheredyn were really close to an economic victory. The only settleable systems were well beyond their territory so I couldn't get there before they won. I increased my dust production, and while I was gaining ground, I knew it wouldn't be fast enough. I was only at 51% and they were at 80%. So on a long shot I opened the diplomacy tab to see if I could slow them down by demanding stuff from them. For some reason I didn't even the option to ask for their systems (they were there, because I had the tech, but greyed out) but I was able to really, really easily convince them to give me about 18k Dust.
Per turn.
Suddenly I was gaining almost 40K Dust per turn, getting 5% of an economic victory per turn and they were getting nothing.
The diplomacy AI in 4X games tends to swing wildly between meek and complete a-hole. It's also never super worried with victory conditions or long term economic outlook. Heck, in Civ V I usually enforce a peace by making sure enemies give me every single bit of gold they have going into their nation in exchange for resources.
This game is amazing. I was skeptical when I heard about the game because of it giving a huge middle finger to the typical arms race tech branch, but it works soooo well. I hope other space games follow this model in the future.
Also, speaking of the tech tree, I am completely overwhelmed by it. What are the optimal routes?
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
This game is amazing. I was skeptical when I heard about the game because of it giving a huge middle finger to the typical arms race tech branch, but it works soooo well. I hope other space games follow this model in the future.
Also, speaking of the tech tree, I am completely overwhelmed by it. What are the optimal routes?
Research Hammers, one-shot everyone!
Wait, wrong game.
There's not necessarily a single optimal route. You will rarely go wrong by starting with the settlement techs for nearby habitable-ish worlds and then some production enhancers, though.
Barrier seems pretty ridonks. Even if they counter with Adaptive Strat (which the AI almost never does), they just gimped themselves in exchange for damage - which at long range isn't a good trade-off except for missiles (which is why I go into flak! )
I'm really digging a start that goes N Way Fusion -> Core Mining -> Soil Xeno -> Particle Scanning -> Botanical Scanning
You're basically set do do whatever you like after Infinite Supermarkets are on the table (...or at least I am, because I took max Tolerance, which is totally broken :P ). Personally, I'm a fan of just going straight for the Casmir Effect, then bigger hulls, then going to town to say hello.
Y'know what? Fuck Master of Orion 2. As much fun as it always was to sit around waiting for Merculite tech and following a cookie-cutter tech route (gimmicky Warlord rush strategies aside), and then spending hours micromanaging battles, for some strange reason it's more fun just to set up and aggressively push out an empire while picking techs on the fly that you'll need for what you see ahead.
Whenever I don't play the Sheredyn I rage so hard when the enemy just plays Retreat and thumbs their nose at me.
It's why I have advanced fleets of Kamikazis. All weapons and power upgrades to weapons, no armor, no shielding, just destruction. If they do retreat I can make it a devastating turn one still.
Barrier seems pretty ridonks. Even if they counter with Adaptive Strat (which the AI almost never does), they just gimped themselves in exchange for damage - which at long range isn't a good trade-off except for missiles (which is why I go into flak! )
I'm really digging a start that goes N Way Fusion -> Core Mining -> Soil Xeno -> Particle Scanning -> Botanical Scanning
You're basically set do do whatever you like after Infinite Supermarkets are on the table (...or at least I am, because I took max Tolerance, which is totally broken :P ). Personally, I'm a fan of just going straight for the Casmir Effect, then bigger hulls, then going to town to say hello.
Y'know what? Fuck Master of Orion 2. As much fun as it always was to sit around waiting for Merculite tech and following a cookie-cutter tech route (gimmicky Warlord rush strategies aside), and then spending hours micromanaging battles, for some strange reason it's more fun just to set up and aggressively push out an empire while picking techs on the fly that you'll need for what you see ahead.
Who waits for Merculite? I once won with lasers and nukes.*
*On a tiny galaxy with a custom race.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Was I the only one who teched shields and assault shuttles then used the new enemy prize ships to protect my legions of Trilarian space marines?
Though if you manage to capture an Antaran ship then hooo boy!
Especially if you scrap it any get Xentronium armor really early in the game. Only managed that once.
Was I the only one who teched shields and assault shuttles then used the new enemy prize ships to protect my legions of Trilarian space marines?
Nope, that's a competitive multiplayer all-in strategy (which was nicknamed 'Starship Troopers').
The problem with an aggressive all-in strategy in MoO 2 (and I mean in either multiplayer or playing against Impossible AI) is that you need a specific start, with good proximity to other players, to pull it off - and you'll run out of gas after killing 2-3 players at best. On bigger maps with lots of players, you'll just fall behind and be hosed.
If you don't go all-in, you have basically 3 competitive choices: UniTol, DemoLith or Creative (and Creative is another roll of the dice, hoping to be placed into a corner with a nearby monster guarded system). UniTol wants to sit back until Autolabs are available and slowly grind forward, while DemoLith was to rush to Merculite and kill any UniTol or Creative players before they can reach critical mass.
MoO 2 is a solved game in that the tech choices in each tree always have a clear 'must get' pick, regardless of your strategy (with the most deviation going to anyone trying an all-in rush - for example, grabbing Assault Shuttles instead of Advanced Damage Control, or Fighter Bays instead of Reinforced Hull).
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The cost per person increases based on the total population space available. If you have one planet colonized, you generate population quicker than if you had two colonized in the same system. Also the vast majority of planets reduce happiness when colonized, which reduces your points towards generating new population (Food + Happiness = People, but not quite that simple)
Thanks for tips.
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Per turn.
Suddenly I was gaining almost 40K Dust per turn, getting 5% of an economic victory per turn and they were getting nothing.
The diplomacy AI in 4X games tends to swing wildly between meek and complete a-hole. It's also never super worried with victory conditions or long term economic outlook. Heck, in Civ V I usually enforce a peace by making sure enemies give me every single bit of gold they have going into their nation in exchange for resources.
Also, speaking of the tech tree, I am completely overwhelmed by it. What are the optimal routes?
Research Hammers, one-shot everyone!
Wait, wrong game.
There's not necessarily a single optimal route. You will rarely go wrong by starting with the settlement techs for nearby habitable-ish worlds and then some production enhancers, though.
I'm playing mostly as a modified version of the sherrydyn, because dust congruity is hell expensive, and seems incredibly underpowered for its price.
I'm really digging a start that goes N Way Fusion -> Core Mining -> Soil Xeno -> Particle Scanning -> Botanical Scanning
You're basically set do do whatever you like after Infinite Supermarkets are on the table (...or at least I am, because I took max Tolerance, which is totally broken :P ). Personally, I'm a fan of just going straight for the Casmir Effect, then bigger hulls, then going to town to say hello.
Y'know what? Fuck Master of Orion 2. As much fun as it always was to sit around waiting for Merculite tech and following a cookie-cutter tech route (gimmicky Warlord rush strategies aside), and then spending hours micromanaging battles, for some strange reason it's more fun just to set up and aggressively push out an empire while picking techs on the fly that you'll need for what you see ahead.
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
*On a tiny galaxy with a custom race.
Unfortunately you can't board Orion and AI ships are usually built quite inefficiently.
Especially if you scrap it any get Xentronium armor really early in the game. Only managed that once.
Nope, that's a competitive multiplayer all-in strategy (which was nicknamed 'Starship Troopers').
The problem with an aggressive all-in strategy in MoO 2 (and I mean in either multiplayer or playing against Impossible AI) is that you need a specific start, with good proximity to other players, to pull it off - and you'll run out of gas after killing 2-3 players at best. On bigger maps with lots of players, you'll just fall behind and be hosed.
If you don't go all-in, you have basically 3 competitive choices: UniTol, DemoLith or Creative (and Creative is another roll of the dice, hoping to be placed into a corner with a nearby monster guarded system). UniTol wants to sit back until Autolabs are available and slowly grind forward, while DemoLith was to rush to Merculite and kill any UniTol or Creative players before they can reach critical mass.
MoO 2 is a solved game in that the tech choices in each tree always have a clear 'must get' pick, regardless of your strategy (with the most deviation going to anyone trying an all-in rush - for example, grabbing Assault Shuttles instead of Advanced Damage Control, or Fighter Bays instead of Reinforced Hull).