Hello! Just got the game a few days ago and have been definitely enjoying it. I hoped to ask a few questions of some of the veterans.



1) Ship design - Any tips? Are we supposed to focus on just like beams, missiles, or ammunition based weapons for the entire game instead of all 3? Is there a point to using more than one type of weapon system on a ship? How do you all generally stack up the modules (How much defense, armor, etc?)



2) Trade routes - Is there any way to make these happen by my own control? They seem to just appear in systems at random.



3) Expansion strategy - Get as many systems as possible first, or fully colonize all systems under your control first?



4) Resources/Planetary Exploitation - Should I be exploiting whatever the particular planet is weak in, or should I be basing entire systems around 1 particular resource?



5) System wide improvements - Build every possible improvement in every system?



Thank you all so much for any insight you could provide, and great game Amplitude!

1 - Yes, there are 4 ship designs in the tech tree I guess. Beams and Missiles are the strongest far now, you need to look at your enemies ship so you can make yours better.

2 - When you are allied to one faction you get trade routes, but only in systems where it's possible. The home star system acomodates 2 trade routes. After this, there are improvements that increases up to 4

3 - Balance between these two. Don't colonize every system like crazy, but don't focus only in one system

4 - Food and Industry first, them Dust and Science

5 - Not all improvements are the best for all the star systems. Try to find what does each improvement changes

1) Ship design - Any tips? Are we supposed to focus on just like beams, missiles, or ammunition based weapons for the entire game instead of all 3? Is there a point to using more than one type of weapon system on a ship? How do you all generally stack up the modules (How much defense, armor, etc?)



There are several ways to play the game and you need to take into account what the current situation is: If your opponent has way more research done than you, then their half-weapon half-armor ships are going to dominate but that can be countered by greater ship production and you can make "glass" ships. Glass ships are those that are easy to make, pack a punch and die every time. If the fight is defensive and their tech is more advanced, your advantage could be in logistics and consistently changing your ship design.



There isn't a point in using more than one weapon type on a ship. If a battleships deals 100 missile, 100 beam and their armor is 100 missile, you would deal 100 beam; if you had a solid 200 solid missile, it would be 100 missile. There are perks to the functionality of different weapon types though.



When designing ships, take into account the added LABOR cost of the things under the third tab (modules or something?) -- early in the game it is easy to double the production cost of your ship for a slight 10% increase in power. Also, when designing, hover over the ship type and see what bonuses are received by that ship type and design accordingly. My lightweight ships usually end up as gunboats/missilesboats/beamboats and my heavier ships have a lot more defense.



2) Trade routes - Is there any way to make these happen by my own control? They seem to just appear in systems at random.

You can't really control these... you may be able to cancel a route in the diplomacy screen but I'm not sure.



3) Expansion strategy - Get as many systems as possible first, or fully colonize all systems under your control first.



Get the best systems fast but pay attention to strategic resources. Sometimes colonizing a planet in a system that is a Garden of Eden (because it has lots of food and happiness and will make people fast) is the best route but you also want the +3 bluecap mold really bad. System control is way more important early on to stymie the computers or other players from nabbing systems in space you're possessive of.





4) Resources/Planetary Exploitation - Should I be exploiting whatever the particular planet is weak in, or should I be basing entire systems around 1 particular resource?



It depends on the system. I'm going to provide two examples that would result in making different decisions from a new colony ship.



Colonize a huge dessert planet that can hold 9 people in a system that gives +7 industry, +2 food, +3 science, +5 dust per person on the planet (just made that up, say it has Hydromel on it if the numbers seem large). Options are: Industry upgrade, or food. If you get industry, the (currently) 1 person on the planet will produce an addition 3 industry, raising the total to 10. If you get food, you raise the food by 2 and get +4 but you get a new person twice as fast and when that happens your industry will be 14, food 8 (+2 per person on planet, and +2 per person from exploit and dust 10 -- food is the better option.



Colonize a medium artic that can hold 5 people in a system that gives +1 industry, +2 food, +12 science (Hyugen rings?), +3 dust per person. Getting an exploit on the system will take 20 turns if you do not rush it with money. If the food exploit is selected, by the time it is built, it won't be needed anymore cause the planet will be full or nearly so. If the industry exploit is selected, when it is finally built, future constructions will go faster (+2 per person on planet). If the science exploit is selected, +4 science per person when it is complete. The dust exploit isn't even on the table. I would select the science exploit on this planet, even if it is the only planet in the system that is going to have a science exploit. Other planets would hopefully have more potential for industry and food to make up for shortcomings.



5) System wide improvements - Build every possible improvement in every system?

Except for those that don't result in anything useful, yes. To build an improvement that gives +2 dust per explorered moon in a system with no moons is goofy, or +2 experience per ship produced there having when you never make ships at that system. In the past, late game, when I had 24 systems, I often just built everything cause at the point the only finite resource is how much longer I want to play the game -- I've just started to entrust the systems that I don't care about to automation.





Enjoy the game, I love it. If you ever want some people to play with, let me know!

Lecompte wrote:
1) To build an improvement that gives +2 dust per explorered moon in a system with no moons is goofy...

I don't think the game will let you do this. I seem to recall improvements that were not able to be built in a system not show up in my build options.

PeterSmith wrote:
I don't think the game will let you do this. I seem to recall improvements that were not able to be built in a system not show up in my build options.

Correct, I'm not sure if terraforming every planet so that some improvements already built would no longer give a benefit auto removes them or not though, so that's possibly worth checking. Honestly though, by the time you can terraform a whole system, 2-3 dust per turn is unlikely to make any significant difference.

I'll have to take a screen shot of it unless I've just been seeing wrong (not impossible). I see the upgrade available quite often in systems with one moonless planet, I can built the upgrade that gives +2 dust per turn per person in the system. Likewise, it maybe a huge planet, but I can still see the upgrade that increases population on tiny and small planets.





... but honestly, if that is your only gripe with the huge swath of text -- I'm a pretty happy guy.

Xanoth wrote:
Correct, I'm not sure if terraforming every planet so that some improvements already built would no longer give a benefit auto removes them or not though, so that's possibly worth checking. Honestly though, by the time you can terraform a whole system, 2-3 dust per turn is unlikely to make any significant difference.

The Careful Sweeping improvement gives 2 dust per population on planets with moons right? That can actually be quite a significant difference.... (Incidentally the wiki seems to have wrong information on this)

Yes, 2 dust per population. It has a 3 dust upkeep. Also tax determines how much of that 2 dust per population you really get. 50% tax rate = 2 dust per population, above or below that will change what it gives. It's worth keeping this in mind for any improvement that generates dust.



For more information on tax and income, see the guide here: /#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14057-understanding-dust-production-and-income-in-a-system

[Postingintwopartsasit'stoobigtofitintoonepost...]

Lecompte wrote:
Get the best systems fast but pay attention to strategic resources.

1) Ship design - Any tips? Are we supposed to focus on just like beams, missiles, or ammunition based weapons for the entire game instead of all 3? Is there a point to using more than one type of weapon system on a ship? How do you all generally stack up the modules (How much defense, armor, etc?)



Take a look at the wiki's page on combat, it'll explain things better than I could. In a nutshell, it's a mix of personal preference and adapting to what the enemy's using.



It also depends on your level of tech as compared to your opponent: if you're far ahead of them, it doesn't matter too much, and you can probably steamroll them with just about anything. On the other hand, if you're behind, judicious use of strategic loadouts can give you an edge and make impossible battles possible.



Personally, I like to focus on beams for weapons, and a mix of armor types so I don't have to retrofit too often, as it can get quite expensive. When that's not an option, I check to see what the enemy is mostly using, and I build accordingly.



Like Lecompte, I tend to use lighter ships as kamikaze glass cannons, and bigger ships with defenses and armor.



Also important:

Lecompte wrote:
When designing ships, take into account the added LABOR cost of the things under the third tab (modules or something?) -- early in the game it is easy to double the production cost of your ship for a slight 10% increase in power.

As a side note, it's entirely possible (though slow and headache-inducing) to win military victories without ever using weapons at all. You can read more about this in my ""The Way of Harmony" through Expansion!" thread, where I got the Amoeba "no weapons" achievement through an Expansion victory.



I wouldn't recommend this as a general tactic, but what I learned from that experience is that purely defensive ships can be great for controlling enemy movements, and giving you some breathing room against a technologically superior foe.



2) Trade routes - Is there any way to make these happen by my own control? They seem to just appear in systems at random.



Can't help with this, don't know much about them. But the wiki has a few things to say, though it doesn't go into great depth. Nutshell: trade routes are created automatically if you meet the requirements, you don't get to decide the specifics.



3) Expansion strategy - Get as many systems as possible first, or fully colonize all systems under your control first?



It's about balance. Spread too fast, and you'll get into serious trouble. Spread too slow, and you'll be outpaced by your adversaries.



It's generally better to only colonize one planet per system at first and build that one up before colonizing more. In part so that you grab as many systems as you can (though don't over-extend yourself), but also because early on, the types of planets you'll be able to colonize will be limited, and may come with penalties.



In choosing which planets to colonize when you first grab a system, consider which planets will be easiest to grow. My personal preference is as follows, from best to worst (basically, focus on food & industry at first - take a look at the wiki for planets to see exact values per type):



* Jungle, Terran, Ocean, Arid, Tundra, Desert, Lava, Arctic, Barren, Asteroid, Methane, Hydrogen/Helium.



An aside to all this is strategic resources, luxury resources, and anomalies. Always pay attention to these: they can make a huge difference, for better or worse.



Luxury resources, especially, can make it worth colonizing an otherwise crappy planet if it can get you that 4th one, and thus the global bonus.



Don't forget you can colonize in-system as a build action (click on the planet you want to colonize, you'll see an option/command for it), so colony ships are only needed for new systems.



You can still use colony ships to colonize new planets in a system you own (or even add population to one of your planets), it's just that you don't -have- to. Both colonizing with a ship and as a build action has its advantages and disadvantages.



Nutshell:

Lecompte wrote:
Get the best systems fast but pay attention to strategic resources.

4) Resources/Planetary Exploitation - Should I be exploiting whatever the particular planet is weak in, or should I be basing entire systems around 1 particular resource?



Again balance, but it's also a matter of playstyle. Personally, I tend to have a heavy industry focus, with food to get things started. It depends on the planet types and resources, though, of course. But that said, I very rarely use dust or tech exploitations.



When choosing how to exploit, the two primary considerations are "What do I need most?" and "What would this planet/system be good for?".



Early on, your primary objective is growth. This means food & industry. If the planet is Tier 1, I'll usually start with industry exploit. Otherwise, I'll usually start with food exploit.



Beyond that initial growth period, though, it depends on what you need/want. Want to build a huge fleet? Make dust? Tech a lot? All of the above?



As I said before, I like to focus on industry (since it can be converted into dust or tech anyway, albeit at something of a loss). But sometimes (especially early/mid-game), I'll have a need for dust and/or tech, and focus on those a bit more.



Also consider terraforming. Bumping up a type tier will also bump up the population cap, as you can see in this planet sizes & population chart. Not only that, but it can boost dust or science without necessarily needing to switch exploit types. You can do that anyway, for an even greater bonus, but I generally prefer sticking to industry exploit, so that I can build improvements faster.



Some of my favorite planet types + exploits (no food, because food is just a stepping-stone):



* Desert with industry or dust exploit ( or :dust.

* Tundra with industry exploit ( + :science.

* Arid with dust focus (:dust.

* Jungle with industry exploit (:industry



If I'm terraforming, this is my chosen path: Lava -> Desert -> Tundra -> Jungle.



I wrote about terraforming back in alpha (see here), and though the exact values have changed a bit, the overall theory still applies now.



I find that, for the most part, proper planet type & system improvements usually takes care of dust & science. Which brings me to...



5) System wide improvements - Build every possible improvement in every system?



Building everything everywhere is not a good idea, as some things will simply not be worth it/needed in some cases. I would say that most things are worth building, though. The better question is "Which do I build first?", IMHO. By end-game, I tend to build everything simply because I like having a clean & empty build list. Some basic things to keep in mind:



* Improvements which give bonuses to ships you build or bonuses to system defense can make a huge difference, but they're highly situational. Early on, only build these on a few worlds (best industry for ships, fringe worlds in case of attack for defenses). As the game progresses, though, your industry will improve considerably, and you'll be making a lot more dust per turn.



The low-tier ships/defenses improvements are quite cheap n' quick to build at this point, so I like to build them everywhere (though as lowest priority), "just in case". By end game, same story, but to a greater degree; by end-game, you should have more money than you know what to do with, and even your crappiest systems will have decent industry. If I've got nothing else to build, I'll build ship & defense improvements everywhere by this point.



* Improvements to trade routes can be either very useful, or completely useless, depending on your situation. Unless I'm following a specifically trade route-oriented peaceful/economic strategy, I tend to mostly ignore these.



By mid-game or so, I like to build the cheapest trade route improvement everywhere, just so that each system has at least one trade slot available (provided there's at least one AI I can trade with). Then I might improve a couple of systems which have the best routes. This is all extremely circumstantial, though. Basically, if you have a bunch of decent trade routes, it can be worth improving them. Otherwise, you're wasting time and resources.



* Improvements which give bonuses to certain planet types depend, well, on the planet types available in a given system. I may have forgotten some, but here are some examples of techs which give bonuses to only certain planet types:



Improvements

- Sustainable Farms (+1 food for Tier 2 & 3)

- Epigenetic Crop Seeding (+1 food for Tier 2 & 3 planets, +2 food for Tier 1 planets)

- Wasteless Supply Chain (+2 food for Tier 4 planets, +1 food for all other types)



Improvements

- Optics Research Labs (+2 science for Tier 4 planets, +1 science for Gas Giants & Tier 3 planets)



Improvements

- Heavy Isotope Refineries (+10 industry, +1 industry for Tier 2 & 3 planets)

- Interplanetary Transport Networks (+20% industry, +2 industry for Lava, +1 industry for Tundra, Asteroids and Tier 3 planets)



Since I will always terraform my planets to Tier 1 (usually Jungle), given the time/opportunity, some of these techs are of no interest to me. Yet, depending on the situation, I will usually build them anyway, as they can be of use before I get around to finalizing my terraforming (which often doesn't even happen anyway).



Honestly, in most cases, I'll end up building all of these improvements. The one exception is Optics Research Labs, which I'll only build if I have at least one Gas Giant or Asteroid in my system.



Heavy Isotope Refineries and Interplanetary Transport Networks are a worth it in absolutely all cases, IMHO, and should be built on every system as soon as you can. They have planet type-dependent bonuses, but their general bonuses (+10 & +20% industry, respectively) is wonderful for everyone and everything.



The moon improvements (Intensive Cultivation logistics for food and Careful Sweeping for dust) will end up being built on any system with at least one moon, but the "when" of it can vary quite a bit. If those systems don't presently don't really need food or if I'm presently mostly happy with my dust production, they'll be a low priority; I'll build them, but I'll build more immediately important stuff first. If I need food for growth somewhere, or if I'm low on dust, these improvements will be a primary objective.



For dust improvements, tax makes things tricky, as Xanoth mentioned. Seriously, read the thread he linked to:

Xanoth wrote:
Yes, 2 dust per population. It has a 3 dust upkeep. Also tax determines how much of that 2 dust per population you really get. 50% tax rate = 2 dust per population, above or below that will change what it gives. It's worth keeping this in mind for any improvement that generates dust.



For more information on tax and income, see the guide here: /#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14057-understanding-dust-production-and-income-in-a-system

As for if improvements show up or not in a system they can't be used...



Seems to me that in the game's present build, if an improvement wouldn't help at all in a system, it doesn't show up on the list. All improvements used to be listed in earlier builds, but it looks like they've changed that. I've seen improvements pop up and disappear from my list as I terraform my systems.



I think that an already-built improvement will stay on a system, even if you terraform everything so that it no longer works/helps, but I'm not 100% certain about this. I don't have any save files where I can easily test this right now, but I'd bet money on that fact.



In the end, most things have their uses; it's much more a question of "When should I build this?" than "Should I build this?". There's no blanket answer to this question which will work in every situation, but it generally comes down to "What do I need most right now?". Answering that question will usually point you in the right direction.

It should be noted that if you have the leeway in terms of disposable income to cover any upkeep then building a Colony ship each time a system hit its population cap in the early game can really make a huge difference.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all of the good information.

One more... Large Arid/Tundra or smaller ocean/jungle/terran when expanding early, if those are the two choices?



Does the "large" make a planet better than a more hospitable smaller one?



Thanks!

Size just affects total population.



The preference list posted by ElegantCaveman still holds true regardless of size, particularly when you're dealing with Tiny Ocean/Jungle/Terran, which would have populations equivalent to a Large Lava/Barren but far more benefits. Ideally for early expansion you should prioritise Industry, I often prefer Desert to Tundra/Arid for instance, and as the game progresses move towards Science.

The size of planets can be relevant when considering which improvements to build. Adaptive Taxes, for example, costs 7 dust, but provides 2 dust per population unit. So you won't want to build that on systems with few inhabitants, especially early on (though you probably won't get that early on unless you rush to it). But if you have a system with 5-10+ population units, it can be a great money maker.