Hey guys,



I already postet this thread in the german subforum, but I hope i can get answers here too.



I just played a new game and had 3 AI as opponents. (Sophons, Pilgrims and Amoebes) and i was allied with all three, so I could try out the game in a relaxing way.

Due to that border pass-pact all AI was moving around the galaxy and also in my territory.



1. Question: How are these Traderoutes working? Is the AI trading with me? Do I need to adjust something? I dont know.



Well, back to the game. The Pilgrims declared war to me - without any reason and ye all the mess began for me.



He had his ships spread all over my territory and attacked many systems at the same time. My whole fleet was at my border system on autodefend.

...But that obviously didnt help, when the former ally turned into enemy and his ships in my territory attacked me.



2. Question: How can I avoid that? Decline border-pass contracts? Put fleets in every system? How to keep up with economy then?



3. Question: How should I upgrade my ships? Use the autoupgrade-button? Or just do something on my own. I really dont know which ship type needs rockets, lasers, shields, etc.?



So, my last question is about terraforming. I already found this chart and tried to figure out how it's working: http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Planet

But why can i terraform iced planeds with fire/lava terraforming ??



4. Question: Can I maybe get some detailled description about terraforming and how it is working? Also, what are the benefits out of it? Should I try to get only water planets, if I play the Amobes? :S



Would really appreciate some help )

1. /#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14048-trade-routes



2. if they are at cold war putting a fleet at the choke points on intercept will prevent them from moving past the choke. Pilgrims get the warp tech much earlier, allowing them to bypass the pre-determined routes at the same tier you get wormholes though, so they can always sneak in.



3. Short answer is that lasers are the optimal weapon in most situations, a repair mod is good, and defenses depend on the size of the ship (bigger = more) long answer can be found in a number of threads spread around the design and strategy guide forums. here is a good one though. /#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14004-attrition-combat-the-defenseless-destroyer-rush-why-and-how-to-address-it



4. http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Planet has the numbers and basic explanation of how the tiers work. The short of it is that low tier planets are highly specialized, but have low pop caps, higher tier planets increase the pop cap and also provide more overall but balanced fids. In general it is worth upgrading to the highest tier, and specializing systems for a task Lava > desert > tundra > jungle for production. Arctic > tundra > ocean for tech. and Barren > desert > Arid > Terran for dust. Note that tundra is the choice for production because it beats out arid after you take into account a few production boosting improvements that any production specialized system will have. Oh, and if you are sowers, tundra is almost as good as jungle for production and ocean for tech, so feel free to stall your terraforming there while you focus on other stuff.

Thanks alot so far.



I guess I understood the terraforming, maybe need to give it a new try (sidequestion: so i focus on planet tier1 and 2 classes to colonize first and skip the rest until later, where i can terraform the "bad" planets?)





But I don't understand how I can defend against those warptechnology stuff. Should I put up fleets in every second system?? :S

liquidGG wrote:
But I don't understand how I can defend against those warptechnology stuff. Should I put up fleets in every second system?? :S

That would be the best defense, if not the most cost-productive perhaps, for dealing with an enemy that can warp. I'd say to have a number of fleets inside your system either win engine mods, or go and research the tech that increases speed, to act as quick responders. When you see that a planet is being invaded, you can get these fleets there quickly to try and defend.

Hmm ok, so I guess I will try to set up at least two starsystems, doing nothing but pumping out fleets for the rest of the game.



This Warpgate technology ruins a bit the "border-war" i guess. I would suggest to implement a technology in the game, where i can hide a system, so enemy fleets cant warp there.

There are also some technologies in the military tree, as well as some hero abilities, that increase a planet's resistance to invasion. This can buy you extra time to respond with a slow fleet, before the system is actually captured.



If you're concerned about trade routes being broken, there's also hero abilities and a system improvement (the Borer's Guild I think) that lets you bypass some of the blockade penalties until you are able to drive off the invaders.



Finally, since you travel in a straight line when you're using warp, you can just follow the line to the system that the enemy will land in, and move your fleets pre-emptively to catch them earlier.

A fast response fleet and strong sensors are the best counter to warping. Warping is slow (extremely so till late game) so with a fast fleet and good influence you can easily catch them before they land.



As far as colonization strategy. You should always be prioritizing systems with the tier 1 and 2 planets, espeically those which are large or have good benifits. A system with only tier 3 and 4 planets is going to be much slower to pop up, but one fully inhabited tier 1 planet can provide the food to keep the crappier planets growing. If you do have a system with nothing but tier 4 and 5 planets it can still work, but you will *need* a hero to provide the food as well as the production to get it off the ground, making it a typically mid game proposition.