Okay, so the first game I actually played for a long time (~60 turns) I ended up leaving once I realized that all of the enemy's ships were more powerful than mine, due to some fundamental errors I had made (being very inefficient) during the first ~20 turns. At the end I had about ~20-30% in the resource wheel. (I forget)



I was going with Sophons, and I want to continue with them, but... which race would be easiest to learn? And do you guys have any tips? I'm probably going to try Newbie mode so that I can get a grip on the basics of the game, instead of Easy like last time. (This is, basically, my first turn-based 4x game.)

back in the previous alpha versions i would say horatio but their Initial (beginning) pop growth rate and science has been nerfed noticeably when the game is in slow settings also increasing the population in a planet tends to make colonies unhappier so you get rid of that headache. seen this happen with Terran and ocean and jungle planets and they had no negative anomalies whatsoever.



try the hissho since your just learning it would be good to get a idea of combat and how to manage research since their malus gets in the way so learning with a sort of pressure would help.



there also very viable as a defense class since they get defense bonuses for losing colonies but gain fids (food, Industry, Dust, Science) bonuses when capturing a enemy colony.



there also pretty decent with armament damage bonuses and that masters of destruction trait.



so losing colonies is a bit more forgiving with this class.



also their accuracy bonus makes weapons more accurate by 15% although their ships may look decorative to some people.



ALSO you can keep ships leveling steadily with a wargame center built in a system which also gets affected by bushido and lowers the costs of ships.



also look at some of the 30 turn challenges they may help.



don't forget population growth is based on food on the system so its good to start out with a food exploit then switch up to the appropriate exploit then sustainable farms to quickly increase your population



also remember that choosing the age of the universe changes the difficulty of colonization. like new or normal will have yellow and blue suns which have more terran and ocean planets. while a old universe will have more hostile planets.

It depends.. did you play 4X games before?

and if yes what was your gameplan back then? Rushing, turtling, REXing, ...



but I would say try the sophons.. their research boost makes it easier for new players to get where they need to be in the research tree and it makes up for wrong choices in research

tips:

- hmm expand quick and expand early... getting and keeping expansions is too easy in ES so far

- expand on planets that give a happyness bonus, set taxes on a setting that you will be barely positive because that buffs all other aspects of production (food, research, production)

- in the beginning population is the most important thing

I played my first game with the Sophans and I think that if you play on easy for the first game it is not so difficulty.

It the race must represent your gaming-style. Sophans must be played to research to have an advantage.

Cravers are the best. ATM there is no real profit from making peace with anyone. They will expand, get to your borders and WILL wage war upon ya. Its better to just kill em all.



Turtling doesnt work well, at least on impossible. Expanding at maximum speed allows me to win 9 games out of 10 on any galaxy size.



Increased fleet size + increased ship capacity + better weapons make Cravers fleets the strongest of all out there.



More pop on small to medium planets - good.



Increased production for 50 turns - extremely good. Allows you to develop systems faster. -25% later on wont matter much - you will be dominating starting from turn 120+ anyway.



The sheer number of worlds allows em to outresearch sophons easily. Research victory is really an option.



Again - diplomacy is completely broken and if you have borders with someone and DONT have overwhelming fleet - they will come for you. But if you have overwhelming fleet - why wait? Just kill em all.

StK wrote:
It depends.. did you play 4X games before?

Well, Galcon and Eufloria, if those count... maybe Greed corp? Not sure.

Hety wrote:
Cravers are the best. ATM there is no real profit from making peace with anyone. They will expand, get to your borders and WILL wage war upon ya. Its better to just kill em all.

Ah, good idea. I was on the border, though. What are the 'locusts' in their affinity trait?



Probably going to try Cravers, I suppose, move on to Sophons when I'm more experienced - their traits are extremely appealing to me.

Insani wrote:
Ah, good idea. I was on the border, though. What are the 'locusts' in their affinity trait?

They get a 25% bonus for the first 50 turn on a planet and a 25% malus after the 100th turn on that planet.

Ah. Thanks.



I've been playing Craver on easy, and honestly, this is pretty damn easy. I'm expanding like the plague. I can instantly build the hive ships on my home system ,which is very luxurious.



One question, though, not sure if it warrants it's own thread - how are you supposed to repair your ships, or whatever? It seems that, after I've fought in a single battle, none of my ships in that battle can fight again, even though they still have a lot of health.

Insani wrote:
Well, Galcon and Eufloria, if those count... maybe Greed corp? Not sure.

Those are not 4X games. Alpha Centauri, Civilization, Galactic Civilization, Master of Orion, and Sword of the Stars are all 4X games.



Expanding at maximum speed is definitely the best way to go right now. More systems means more growth happening means more (industry for ships, science for techs, or dust for whatever it is you want it for).

You can only issue one attack order per turn per fleet. They ships repair automatically in empire borders. Support modules and hero abilities may speed the process up.

Ah, thanks. I could SWEAR that I did try changing turns, but eh. Bad memory, maybe.