Shivetya wrote:
S I always went for n-way to get the system up then hit Nonbaryonic Particles which vastly accelerated my technology acquisition so that getting ACE was hardly delayed and usually arrived by the time I discovered the boundaries of my space.

Huh? Don't you hit the boundary of your starter constellation around turn 10-12 just off the starter scout? I play exclusively on large and huge maps, so I can't understand how you can be too much different here.



In my most recent game, I had colony ships stationed at each of the three wormholes leading out of my constellation by the time I hit Casimir on Turn 18 and I don't use Legendary Heroes, so that's without the +25 Administrator.

Dude, you totally rock. This is simply the best guide for tech on the web for this info. Like trying to find hen's teeth on what this stuff really does and what's a good order and why. Short, Sweet, and Informative. I'd give you a high five if I could!

ruonim wrote:
n-way is first thing you tech. +10 industry on beginning is too good to miss.

I tend to go for that first, too. That and Food bonuses.

n-way is first thing you tech. +10 industry on beginning is too good to miss.

Moved to Endless Space section.

N-way, then ace, then either early food or science tech depending in which border chokepoint systems I rush to take and establish a foothold in early on.









N-Way Fusion Plants are the best!

Generally I go with a balance of infrastructure an passive improvements early on.



Generally my initial plan is Nway and Xenobiology. That gives me the production and food I need early on. After that I don't need any infrastructure techs for a little bit, I can't build any of them yet.



At this point I will pick up Xenology and Core Mining if the special resources and exploitation will help me. Again, the key is the passive increase from the research, I want benefits I can take immediately use of.



Now I generally go for the colonization techs depending on my expansion needs, but with the goal of getting to applied Casmir Effect.



Once I have my initial planets good and settled, Nonbaryonic Particles for the magnetic field generators.



Military Techs will start hitting the picture at this point at higher difficulties (often depends on how close your neighbors are or how warlike my race is). Generally I push for the 2nd tier beam tech, that gives me a comfortable power base to build ships for a while. I generally find early game I need to build up my hulls more than my guns. If I can't even field a few fleets, having better weapons won't help that much.

I look at the tech tree this way:



4X games are an exponential growth process; small early edges make a large difference later. This is muted in Endless Space, since the starting system is typically one of the weaker ones in your empire. But there are still significant advantages to an early buildup. The other thing to remember is that the costs rise steeply as you go out in the rings - 40, 130, 300, 680. So you can complete the entire inner ring in about the same time as a single third ring tech.



You therefore have 5 out of 8 "first ring" techs that can be very useful:



N-way fusion (resource revealed, industry system build) - This is the second thing I build on any planet, so it needs to be researched early



Xenobiology (food exploit upgrade, food system build) - This can speed early planet growth significantly; typically I build this second.



Xenobotany (tundra); Arid Epigenetics (arid). If you have a terran / jungle / ocean spot for your initial colony ship you don't need these at the very start. But you will need them soon, and at least one is required to get to the crucial Applied Casmir Effect. So I typically pick whichever is more common locally.



Xenology (4 resources revealed, dust system build) - if you have these on your starting 2 planets this is a very useful early build, second. Otherwise it's #4 for the system build, which is actually useful but not critical.



Three lower priority first-tier techs:



Isolation shields (science system build) - This is handy, but not as time-critical as the above. I'll time this to be researched once my best planet is out of useful other items to build.



Isotope Fabrication, Advanced Machining - First tier military improvements. These can usually wait until after you can leave your initial cluster, as long as you deploy "fog-busters" to prevent pirates.



Core mining (130) reveals a common resource and boosts the industry planet exploit significantly; this is usually worth doing next if you have tundra in the area or are running the Sowers.



You therefore have 330 research (5 x 40, 1 x 130) of first builds, plus another 120 that come a bit later.



You then have 5 different useful 2-tech beelines in the four branches.



Compact Fusion (130) + Applied Casmir Effect (300): fleet speed, arctic tech, global happiness, and the ability to leave the starting cluster. Getting this early can substantially improve the size and quality of your empire. Otherwise you will be late to the race and typically out-competed for planets in the central hub. For almost all races and setups this is the first beeline. The effects are just too good to pass up.



Particle Scanning (130) + Botanical Scanning (300): dust exploit upgrade, happiness system build, food system build - this is a solid second beeline. The happiness, dust, and food improvements substantially boost empire growth.



Neural Robotics (130) + Nonbaryonic Particles (680): The draw here is the expensive second tech, which unlocks 4 luxuries and provides a huge research boost. The cost is high, and the building cost for the system research building is also high. I therefore typically find that this is better done at this stage, when I've already built up a sufficient production base to actually use the other items. Remember, this takes as long to research as both of the items above combined - there is a very long-term opportunity cost in lost expansion and delayed growth that you're paying for the early research unlock.



Alternative Armors (130), Unstable Isotope Manipulation (300) - basic system defence, system ship building bonus, lasers! Lasers are powerful at this stage, especially if you add Efficient Shielding for destroyers. I will typically do this after the above three to start the military build-up, usually combined with the first 2 40-cost military techs. If you're a military-oriented build, you would probably push this right after Applied Casmir Effects supplies you with your first...victims.



Relativistic Economics (130), Relativistic Markets (300): Trade Routes, Diplomatic Relations options. These are important for races that emphasize trade, especially Amoeba and Pilgrims. They'd be well up on the tree for them, again possibly right after Applied Casmir Effect.



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So there is actually some interesting strategic depth to the starting tech choices, and you will not always research the same things in the same order. There are typically things that are better than others at the same tier - but you can do well in this game with either a "broad" or a "beeline" approach to technology. It would be nice if the three offensive flavors were balanced better so that you had more choices on the top tree, but other than that I think the tech tree is one of the real strengths in the game.

getting starting techs as part of your build slows you way down in the late game as they're not helping you throughout the game.



Best way to have fastest Teching speed?



Growth Plan 3/3 this gives you +30% food making your population grow about 30% faster meaning your total FIDS is going to grow 30% faster and as a result your science grows 30% faster.

Scientists 3/3 this is obvious. It gives you 30% science bonus. If you already have growth Plan you're basically getting a 60% total boost to science.

Knowledge Gathering 2/2 you get 50 science points per CP worth of ships you destroy. This means after every battle you win you're going to finish a research. Queue up several sciences in the tech tree by queuing a tech several tiers up and you'll be amazed at how fast you're teching through war. This is assuming you win your fleet battles.

Legendary Heroes. Any Admin hero will help grow your population and you can also convert Industry to science. Any Corporate hero will directly boost science.



DOn't get early techs as a faction trait... such a waste of points... you spend maybe 1 or 2 extra turns early game to get them if you don't start out with them and then you're zooming along due to how fast your tech GROWTH is from population, from war, from heroes, and from your FIDS bonuses from population.

I posted about the problem of technology trees in 4X games on my blog as well as why they are such a lure to developers. The short of it, tech tree games nearly always result in one best path with very few deviations. So, what path do you follow or what conditions determine your take up rate for specific technologies. Please note, assume that you start with no inherent technologies; I consider any stock race with them to be wasting trait points. I won't bother with the Galactic Warfare tree initially, its rarely something I need until I know whom I am up against.



In my case, I am always starting in the Applied Sciences (right side) of the technology tree.



Start

Too kick start production.

• N-Way Fusion Plants
• Core Mining
• 
  
  

Now, if I have discovered a world in these first few turns that I can dump my colony ship on I stay in the Applied Sciences tree.



Next

Too kick start research. You cannot beat Nonbaryonic Particles because it allows you to build Magnetic Field Generators which make 40 Research per system!

• Neural Robotics
• Nonbaryonic Particles
• 
  
  

Wormholes

Are we bottled up by worm holes, then we need to quickly fix that in the Exploration and Expansion tree (bottom). We need Applied Casmir Effect. This technology is important for two reasons, first being you can use wormholes but also because it is your first technology which reduces your expansion disapproval. If we are not ready to expand beyond our little corner, try below

• Efficient Shielding grants only access to Destroyers, but we will need them anyway
• Compact Fusion Reactors is an alternative if there is a juicy Arctic planet, but you will still need Efficient Shielding eventually
• Applied Casmir Effect to be able to use Wormholes.
  
  

New Homes or More Food

Then comes the question of, do I need food or do I need a place to live.

• Soil Xenobiology if food is an issue (left tree)
• Xeno Botany should I need Tundra planets now (bottom)
• Arid Epigenetics if I am after Arid planets. (bottom)
  
  

Trade

Do we have neighbors we need to trade with, this assumes we can. If either party is eternally at war it won't really matter. The key to trading is in the Diplomacy and Trading tree on the left. This tree is also where we find technologies to deal with approval at a system level.

• Xenology
• Relavistic Economics
• Relavistic Markets (the end result which lets us even trade to opponents)
  
  

Other categories



Fleet Size

Do you need larger fleets, well your solution is in the Diplomacy and Trading tree. Look for the bird icons (unfortunately way to close the Nazi insignia

• Improved Fleet Management is the easiest to reach if you already went for Relavistic Markets. This adds 2 CP (think 2 destroyers)
• Quantum Communications is more expensive on the top branch (C3 Systems)
• Directed AI Computing is mid to late game, it grants 3CP near the end of the top branch (C4 Systems)
• Galactic Trade Center, late game far left below last tech in tree +4 CP (C5 Systems)
  
  

Morale at System Level

Also in the Diplomacy and Trading tree are technologies to deal with approval at the system level. Look for a pink triangle in the upper right corner of the technology

• Botanical Scanning, bottom branch third tech is an easy boost
• Optimized Logistics is in the center and the structure you can build provides additional benefits besides moral boosts.
• Inter Species HR along the bottom is a mid game technology.
• High Consumption Society mid to late game, a technology I found I rarely needed
• Permanent Advantage is late game and the final piece of the puzzle for system morale tuning
  
  

Morale at Empire Level

Expansion Morale is another area many players have trouble with, think of this as Empire wide morale. This is all found in the bottom tree, Exploration and Expansion. Look for left facing white flags. Each will reduce expansion disapproval by 22%

• Applied Casmir Effect is the first, it just happens to be a required technology.
• Applied Atmospherics is just a bit down from Applied Casmir Effect
• Personal Fields is later in game
• Dark Energy Effects is the last
  
  

Research Research Research

Boosting Research will take you into three trees, however Applied Sciences is where the big hitters are. Mostly your looking for the blue triangles in the upper right corner of the technology icon

• Nonbaryonic Particles is the most important and earliest tech to boost research
• Isolation Shields, while fast to develop only grants +1 per population and early game is no where as important as the previous.
• PEV-Scale Accelerators is an exploitation upgrade (they auto upgrade over time) that should be next
• Rudimentary Telepathics
• Wave Function Control, I rarely use its resulting building structure, its mostly a stepping stone
• Pervasive Etching results in an incredible boost for research systems. Very important
• Persistent Construction is very late game
  
  

From the Diplomacy Tree, these technologies boost your tech

• Optimized Logistics, all morale boosters improve system performance, this building can directly affect research
• Relavistic Markets allows you to trade with other empires which is a source of technologies
  
  

From the Exploration Tree. Look for the multi color triangle in the upper right corner

• Adaptive Colonies (right side) First for moon exploration and second for removal of minor anomalies which reduce planet output, mostly for what follows
• Graviton Manipulation, immediately below Adaptive Colonies. Results in one of the best buildings in the game, can become the first one you build on all new systems!
• Low Temp Hydration (left side) mid game. Not nearly as good as Graviton Manipulation but a good boost for larger systems
• Dark Energy Effects (look for the snail down bottomP
  
  

A lot of folks beeline to ACE in order to get at the center immediately. Generally, the smaller the map, the more important that gets. Of course, if you're playing a map that doesn't really HAVE wormholes, then it's a moot point.

So some are claiming they go for Wormhole technology first? Really? Or am I misunderstanding the replies. I haven't been in a game where getting Applied Casmir Effect that early was important, I mean, usually there isn't enough production/research/etc to do everything. I always went for n-way to get the system up then hit Nonbaryonic Particles which vastly accelerated my technology acquisition so that getting ACE was hardly delayed and usually arrived by the time I discovered the boundaries of my space.

Xenobiology

N-way

Xenology (this could be first if I have say hydromiel on HW)

Arid and/or Tundra depending what I find

Arctic+Casimir if I need to get out, or if I have loads of great worlds and I need the approval bonus, otherwise after nonbaryonic

Iso shields+neural+nonbaryonic



After that it depends entirely what's happening - destroyers and weapons if needed, or approval and trade if all is peaceful.

It's been my experience that getting both of the applied sciences initial techs (+10 industry and +1 science/pop buildings) before starting the Casmir beeline is better as long as you have a level 3 administrative hero. He can get the science building built right away, which pays for the lost research before or right about the time you reach Casmir anyway, and the +10 industry can go to work accelerating your production and getting your game rolling. (This might be because I'm fond of starting planets with +3 food/pop. Gets you crazy initial growth.)



If you DON'T have a level 3 admin hero right off, then yeah, the detour costs you turns.



As a side note, going down the left side to get to Casmir effect will give you tundra settling automatically, as well as destroyers.

The first technology goal should always be Applied Casimir Effect for jumping wormholes and reducing expansion disapproval. This gives you the ability to grab the best system in your neighbor's constellations before they have a chance to colonize it - both humans and AI tend to spend their free colony ship on the first planet they can land on. On the way to Casimir you pick up either Arid or Tundra colonization and Arctic colonization.



Sowers might be an exception for the N-way Fusion Plants, as they probably can't build many colony ships without them, and there's not much point to jumping wormholes without colony ships available.



Then grab the inside ring of technologies. It might be possible to ignore the financial starter for now, but by this point it should only take 1 turn to research it anyhow - less if you're a science race. This also ensures you can land on either Arid or Tundra.



The next priority is the first beam technology, as someone often objects to you jumping into their constellation and setting up outposts. This ensures any fighting you get in will be unfair in your favor.



Then, focus on development with Nonbaryonic Particles, Core Mining and Desert Colonization.



What comes next depends on how much fighting you expect in the short-term. If a fair amount, you need to pick up a beam shield.



Otherwise, you're going to want approval. The expansion disapproval/battleship upgrade is my favorite way to do this, but you can certainly grab the first two approval improvements instead.



After that, you just build the trees out, picking up enough military that you always out-tech your opponents.

My Research tree choices depend.



What planet type did I start on? What is my victory goal? What kind of planets are in the systems near me? What are the "special/early" techs for my race?



I will collect ALL of the low level technology ASAP. But which one I research first is always a tactical/strategic decision made based on galaxy generation.



But the big decision drivers for me are:



If my scout lands on a 25 base pop 5-6 planet system, what techs do I need to make it into a forge system?

If I want to colonize everything in sight, how can I get food production I need, the planet types I want and happiness to go along with?

If I'm playing the Hissho: - What techs/ships do I need start finding tasty settlements to invade for my +20%?

If I'm playing Craver's - How can I get to the -50% locust points tech fastest?

Important Technologies (work in progress - feel free to chip in with your suggestions)



As with any game where there is technology acquisition some technologies are better than others and some are mere speed bumps on the road to those you want.



Must Haves early game, you will notice three of these are the third tier of the respective trees, 300 research points each.

• N-Way Fusion Plants - First tech you should get, found in the Applied Sciences tree. Gives you your first system structure to increase industry
• Nonbaryonic Particles - Third tier of Applied Sciences but one of the most important to your tech acquisition, providing a system structure which gives a flat 40 research points
• Applied Casmir Effect - Third tier of Exploration tree, wormhole access. Even in a game without worm holes the -22% to expansion morale issue
• Relativistic Markets - Third tier of Diplomacy tree, opens the ability to negotiate other than war with competing empires.
  
  

Middle Game There are certain technologies you should not overlook going through the middle game, especially after encountering your opponents.

• Improved Fleet Management from Diplomacy, first good fleet size technology
• Optimized Logistics, one of the best system morale structures, provides boosts with high approval
• Futuristic Game Theory to allow for more heroes! Expands your academy where they reside
• Soil Revivification from Exploration to remove bad traits from planets
• Photon Distortion for the Camouflage battle card (reduces missile/kinetics - real early but easy to miss)
• Advanced Simulations for the Barrier battle card (good over all damage soaker)
  
  

Late Game Nearing the end, think you have it all? Mostly technologies costing you 14k or more.

• Self Replicating Structures of Applied Sciences, provides the +50 tonnage support module
• Pervasive Etching out of Applied Sciences for a +20% research structure
• Personal Fields from Exploration for the 22% expansion approval
• Dark Energy Effects, one of the last multipurpose FIDS pumps per population units
• Directed Computing from Diplomacy for +3CP
• Galactic Trade Center from Diplomacy for +4CP
• Non-Baryonic Shielding in Exploration for Dreadnaughts
  
  

Reserved for talking about ship technologies, from healing to increasing power. Feel free to chime in, credit given freely - will likely update this part in August



Hulls All the hull sizes are found in the exploration tree, at the bottom. Each tech icon looks like the ship it develops.

• Excellent Shielding is the first and easiest, second tier left side for Destroyers.
• Baryonic Shielding provides for Cruisers, down the center of the tree 2nd in the center or 4th tier, 680 research
• Applied Atmospherics on the left, tier 6 grants Battleships for 1800 research
• Non-Baryonic Shielding at 7500 research is for Dreadnaughts, again in the center
  
  

Tonnage, making your ship even more impressive Expanding your ships tonnage is a requirement. Look for the barbell icons in the Applied Sciences tree on the right.

• Advanced Simulations is the earliest, providing a 25 ton boost to your ship.
• Self Replicating Structures replaces Advanced Simulations with a 50 ton booster
• Quantum Robotics, 30% boost to ship tonnage. Late game. Looks like two joined shields.
  
  

Engines How you move that bucket of bolts. You will find movement technologies in two trees, Applied Sciences on the right are where the modules that you install in the ship go, in Exploration at the bottom are movement buffs that apply regardless of ship contents. Applied Sciences has automobile style motor icons while the Exploration tree uses smaller motor pictures, galaxy pictures, and an muscular arm. You will need the Exploration technologies to move through Wormholes as well as to move freely, that is, to move without warp lanes. The first list contains technologies from Applied Sciences, the second from Exploration and Expansion

• PEV-Scale Accelerators, tier 2, provides Lossless Fusion Pods. +3 Ship speed, +1 for fleet speed.
• Precision Navigators, tier 7. +4 Ship speed, +2 fleet speed, +3 open space speed
• Quantum Devices provides Integrated Engines, which are +5 Ship Speed, +2 fleet speed, +3 Open Space , +1 Open space for fleets.
  
  

• Applied Casmir Effect, while not only providing access to wormholes increases all ships speeds by 2.
• Atmospheric Filtration
• Advanced Warp Gravitics
• Negative Mass Mechanics
• Dark Matter Shielding, enter any wormhole you control and exit any other wormhole you control. They do not have to be linked.
  
  

Repair Ships take damage, fortunately there are some modules to help with repairing them



Armor Your defense versus Kinetic Weapons

Shielding For defending against Beam Weapons

Flak Missile boats got you down, here is your solution