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How to vodyani

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8 years ago
Oct 8, 2016, 4:25:53 PM

I want to play them, I really do. However every time I try I usually fall flat on my face due to me just not getting how they play (and getting unhappiness slapped because you lose something like 25 happiness from colonizing the wrong planet.) For those of you who have made them work, how do you do it?

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8 years ago
Oct 8, 2016, 4:48:19 PM

Use your first hero as governor and boost your first system's  as much as possible. Make a strong fleet (but not too strong so you don't go bankrupt). Kill everybody else.


The above is obviously a simplified version but it seems to work well. As Vodyani I rarely do anything other than enhance my military and eradicate all life in the galaxy. The best thing about them - they can build tall empires and don't take disapproval hit when conquering (since they eradicate, not conquer). Because of that, I think they're better warmongers than Cravers. A lot better. They're slowly becoming my favourite faction as a result.

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8 years ago
Oct 8, 2016, 4:51:51 PM

so I should ignore all system improvements in favor of just building a fleet? I haven't actually tried that yet, so it should be interesting. Thanks.

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8 years ago
Oct 8, 2016, 6:41:05 PM

Well, you'll need some of them. Primarily  producing ones, some  can also be helpful. But yeah, having a strong, elite fleet is the key to victory.


There's one more thing you can do - modify your existing Ark ships - if you think you need even more  or perhaps need extra , then all you have to do is change some modules on your Ark and retrofit it. For example, I tend to get rid of my  module quickly since after you reach 3 population it will take a while to unlock extra population slots so you no longer really need the extra food.

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8 years ago
Oct 8, 2016, 9:31:14 PM

1. Make your hero governor and get the system bonuses.  His system options are just flat gross.  Start with the industry one and max it.


2.Start exploring.  The moment you find planets that you can leech, do so.  Getting that first arc is so so so important.  It's worth noting I did VERY little exploring as leeching planets was my primary goal (i wouldn't recommend a second scout ship for example, as leechers the moment you have a target become very important).


3. Redesign your arc.  First design it so that it has all your support slots filled, and then if you don't get a new arc, keep that design until you can upgrade your starting arc.  I recommend filling them with the industry and then dust or science boost.  Once that upgrade is done or once you're ready to make your first arc, BLING IT OUT.  Arc's alwasy take 1 turn to produce regardless of ship systems, so make sure every slot is filled with the highest tech toys you have.  There is no reason your second arc should ever leave the homesystem without a full set of weapons and supports (defense wise I include 1 shield system and 2 armor systems since the AI seems dumb and I'm not sure how the game handles shields, so it can't hurt to have).


4. Redesign your combat ships.  I personally like to make sure they all have an essence module.  Lets them sit there and gain essence while you blockade a planet or wait for a truce to end.


5.  Sometime before your first arc you're going to want to build some leecher ships.  I leave them as total stock (you could change the weaponry i suppose) and then start making as many as possible when I don't have system upgrades.


The #1 goal is getting that first arc out, even if you don't have a planet for it to go to.  I had a great start at first with a minor race 1 jump from my home system, and got a t18 arc.  I then had literally no where for it to go as the starting systems were all hard to colonize, so I just used it as a warship.  They are INSANELY strong (mine had 1 missile launcher, 1 "close only" beam, and then in the 4x slot the long and medium range lasers), and will easily solo fleets of enemy ships while also making invasion much easier (high manpower and huge siege potential).


For record by the time I started my first war I had 1 arc, 4 attacker ships (can't remember), and a couple of leechers.  I'd eventually get another fleete of attackers.


Once you get off the ground things spiral fast.  Whenever you don't have something to produce on your capital make a fleet of leechers and when you have 4 send them out and go drink a planet.  I had about 500 essence a turn by turn 70ish and I'm sure that's probably slow.  The key thing being that leechers are super easy to make and will level up your hero very fast, which gets him to his even crazier bonuses (+1% fids per hero level being your ultimate goal at around level 12.  Which is nuts, but you'll be running away on your good systems far before that happens).


RESEARCH:

Colony techs are godly:


The reason being is that if you have an arc anchored on a system, it puts 1 population on EVERY planet you can colonize.  Get to 2 population and it will put 2 population on EVERY planet you can colonize.  Now they might not be worth rushing (depends on what you see in your early scouting), but make sure that if you ever see a system that could have 2+ planets colonizable, that you get the colony tech for it and get an arc around it asap.



Era 1:


Personally for tier 1 i got the infinite supermarkets tech at some point, the industry boosting tech's (because more industry is great with their arc bonuses), all the colony techs, and some of the dust stuff (not the one that lets you buy out, but I probably would have in hindsight since some of the colony tech was meh). I know i grabbed a few science techs as well.


I skipped hyperium weapons and titanium weapons flat out because the AI is dumb and arc ships are godly.  I was however playing on normal so you may want them. 


Science stuff is mentioned again because getting to era 2 asap is important.  Basically your only goal right now is make more essence and do the bare minimum to keep your starting colony happy and producing.  So industry, approval, and science are your gods. Weapons you care less about because arc's are monsters.


Era  2:

This is where a lot of the good colony tech stuff is, but the very first thing you should do is retrofit your arc to ALL tier 2 stuff.  It will cost a lot to upgrade your current arcs (about 500 a pop, which at least in my game I could easily afford but it did wipe out my stockpile),  but every other arc you build will now come out with it, and be basically unstoppable by the AI .


I grabbed all the colony tech (although mostly because I was feeling too lazy to check the planets that were out there, it did payoff massively though) and then was heading for the tech 2 ships because I wanted to see what they did (no real strategy behind it).


Mid game colonies:


At some point your arcs get very expensive, and your essence income should be very high.  It's worth noting that you can make a pop by using essence, and this is powerful for new systems.  Again my income is around 500 essence a turn, so when I anchor a new system with 2 or 3 planets in it, spending 2 turns and 750 essence (250 for the first, 500 for the second) to gain essentially 4-6 highly productive population is absolutely worth it and jump starts the system to being instantly able to build upgrades.


What to do if theres no viable colonies early game:


This happened in my current game, and the answer was "kill everyone".  You might want to leave one minor race for your racial quest so you can brainwash them, but I'd invade them after that.  Again your arcs are the center of your armada, with 110 manpower and often doing -60 a turn on a siege, they're the fastest way to invade a planet.  You may not be able to colonize it, but at the very least you'll have breathing space, and down the line you can pick it up later.  Worse comes to worse if you really have nothing to grab you can alwasy take other peoples systems, so do that.


Basically right now the vodayni feel very very all or nothing, in that in PvP i'm guessing it'd be super easy to punish them with strike fleets designed to murder their arcs, but vs the AI it's generally a breeze to get off the ground and just run away with the game.

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