davea wrote:
That hasn't been my experience, but I have only played on "normal" so far. (a) Why don't destroyers need defense? Do you mean because they are so small they will die anyway, so just focus on weapons? For Hissho, with high levels and high damage, this may be less true. (b) I agree on larger ships it's worthwhile to have some resist against everything, do you find that a flat distribution is best? When retrofitting against one enemy, I tend to build 20/60/20 of defense, where 60 is the weapon they seem to use most. Do you find that 33/33/33 is better? Do you perform much retrofitting?

Destroyers are cheap and I build them with the purpose of trading 1 for 1 with larger ships, for smaller ships my battleship fleets can take them out with no losses generally.

davea wrote:
Sorry, what is "class 1"? Terran/Jungle? Class 2, ones you can colonize with a single tech, Arid/Tundra? So that means you would colonize every system with a terran, even if it had nothing else. Maybe my threshold is too high, and that is why I get behind in pop.

Class 1 Terran/Ocean/Jungle, Class 2 Arid/Tundra/Desert, Class 3 Lava/Barren/Arctic, Class 4 Asteroids/Gas Giants. I would certainly prioritize systems with higher max populations, but a single class 1 planet is going to be good enough for colonization. You can tack dust or science production in there and have a decent income from it.

Sorry, what is "class 1"? Terran/Jungle? Class 2, ones you can colonize with a single tech, Arid/Tundra? So that means you would colonize every system with a terran, even if it had nothing else. Maybe my threshold is too high, and that is why I get behind in pop.

davea wrote:
How do you determine which systems are good enough to bother with? It is probably easy to get 12 crummy systems. Sometimes there are bad starts where there aren't any really decent systems around. Where do you draw the line and say "this system isn't worth colonizing"? Or do you just pick the best ones until you get 12?

I usually won't colonize a system early unless;

1. It has a class 1 planet.

2. It has a class 2 planet with a positive anomaly or resource.

3. It has a resource which I can develop a monopoly with.

4. It has a strategic resource I need and can't find in a better system.

Slar wrote:
3. Expand to 12 max systems as quick as you can. Also prioritize choke points. If you colonize a place that will keep the enemy from getting to 12 systems you can colonize them later at your lesiure. (This includes also researching the neccesary planet colonization).

How do you determine which systems are good enough to bother with? It is probably easy to get 12 crummy systems. Sometimes there are bad starts where there aren't any really decent systems around. Where do you draw the line and say "this system isn't worth colonizing"? Or do you just pick the best ones until you get 12?



For example, this 30-turn challenge is a pretty crummy start: would you get 12? Or would you restart with a new game after exploring a little?



/#/endless-space/forum/27-general/thread/7715-30-turn-challenge-2-hard-sophon-poor-position

Slar wrote:


2. Build up a production center asap. This will allow you to build up the colony and military ships for step 3 - 4 etc

Try to build only exploitations which give a bonus for the planet type you are building it on. The only exception is food exploitations which should be built on a planet in each system with a max population greater than 16 regardless of whether or not there is a terran/ocean/jungle planet to build it on..

dunno if it has been mentioned but here is my suggestions.



No matter what race:

1. keep your tax as low as possible (it will raise happiness AND increase all the other fdis, including research and production. There is a limit however meaning there may be little to no difference between +0 and +4 so experiment).



2. Build up a production center asap. This will allow you to build up the colony and military ships for step 3 - 4 etc



3. Expand to 12 max systems as quick as you can. Also prioritize choke points. If you colonize a place that will keep the enemy from getting to 12 systems you can colonize them later at your lesiure. (This includes also researching the neccesary planet colonization).



4. research fleet size and weapon types, get atleast 2 levels of weapon types quickly (not neccesarily asap). Then produce 2 fleets (5-7 ships each). What I do in the beginning is send these out in teams of 2. This discourages the initial battle, and helps if you meet pirates, while still giving me extra explorers. It also allows me to pull them back if the need arrises.



What generally happens is (I play Horatio so i have 4 systems when my enemy has 2). So when I meet them, someone will attack, I steal their systems, and take them out. I go from mid-pack to leader. Then I never look back, though some try.

First thing I will say is just experiment. If you have experience with strategy games before then try to apply that here, it's not that different to civ rev IMO.

This was the first 4x game I played as well and to get into it I just played a few games as each race, found a playstyle that suited me and stuck to it.



Now I play as the Sophon's and always go for a few decent planets then rapidly expand when you get in front in tech.



So basically, just experiment and also there are a few threads on that have some good advice.





So, play strategies. To start off, I always get as much food as possible then send my two ships off to find some worlds to colonise while researching some tech. That you have to do, always choose a tech to research first turn, which one depends on race and location. Try to colonise as many systems with some decent resources and amounts of planets as you can as quickly as you can. I also suggest turning pirates off till you get into the game more.





Well that's about all I can think of, hope it helps.

From a beginner to a beginner- read as much as you can in the forums, there's some great advice here. Learn the intricacies of why stuff works and why it doesn't. When you have a question in-game, alt tab out and use the search feature on the forum. I've been doing this and it's been really helpful.



I have a commentary vid in my sig, which may be of (some) use to you as a new player.

4x games can be complicated and for a new player it can be somewhat hard to understand, the question "Where do I begin?" when thousands of options are placed before you is something everyone has to ask.



But people who have played 4x games before have a more natural understanding then people who have not. Instead of "How to I build things" you might ask yourself "How much production do I have, what can I do with it and how do I increase it?"



So my question is; what would be your own first personal advice, regarding Endless Space, to:



A person who haven't played a 4x game before.



A person who've played some strategy games.



And lastly; A player who is comfortable with 4x games.



(Considering the person is interested and wants to play.)

Never trust the Hissho.. They are sneaky.

In my opinion if you use specialized fleets you have to really incorporate it in your playstyle.

You have to have scouting ships that tell you the compositions of enemy fleets early and you either have to have very high production to have the right fleet ready for every occasion or you have to have the dust to refit often.and most importantly you really have to check every enemy fleet for its composition one missmatch in the wrong situation can screw with your bigger battle plans.

ArrowLance wrote:
don't risk meta-building, omni-build your ships. That is, don't try and build only one weapon/resist type, make sure you have all three present, mostly on every ship (destroyers don't need resists) and most certainly in every fleet.

That hasn't been my experience, but I have only played on "normal" so far. (a) Why don't destroyers need defense? Do you mean because they are so small they will die anyway, so just focus on weapons? For Hissho, with high levels and high damage, this may be less true. (b) I agree on larger ships it's worthwhile to have some resist against everything, do you find that a flat distribution is best? When retrofitting against one enemy, I tend to build 20/60/20 of defense, where 60 is the weapon they seem to use most. Do you find that 33/33/33 is better? Do you perform much retrofitting?

As a player comfortable with the genre my advice specific to Endless Space is don't risk meta-building, omni-build your ships. That is, don't try and build only one weapon/resist type, make sure you have all three present, mostly on every ship (destroyers don't need resists) and most certainly in every fleet (except on rare occasions). For advice more general, don't neglect your military, make sure you start it early. It's easy to get caught up making your systems more efficient by building improvements endlessly, but you will die for it.

Great links Davea thnx

For the person who has played some 4x games, I have collected links at the bottom of my known bugs thread, linked in my sig. I'd start there.

To a person that has never played any 4x game: "Be patient, make yourself a tea/coffe, whatever suits you, sit down and start reading. Enjoy all the little story parts, they normally hint at the function of what you're reading about. Read the tutorial, too, so you know where things happen. If anything remains unclear, simply experiment around with it or ask. There are enough people totally immersed into the game who can help you and gladly will."



To a person that played some strategy games: "Read your faction traits when you generate the game. Best start with a map that allows you some safe zones from pirates, if you don't want to disable them altogehther, at first. Something like an 8-armed galaxy. Do not include more than one craver or hosshio player into the game. What race you may want to take entirely depends on your playstile. Research n-fusion plants on the right side techtree as fast as possible, get an administrator hero and level him labor->+25 industry. Then build food production, expand in your constellation as fast as possible, then build up the best systems you've found. Until then you should have understood the basics and I wish you fun with finding out the rest. "



To a person who is comfortable with 4x games: "Play and experiment. You know the drill. Go, go, go!"