I cant seem to get the right balance between empire building and army development. I also still use the in game factions as I dont know if i've developed enough of a playstyle of my own to make a custom race...



Any tips?

well, first off, some of the default races are quite awful. If you want to stick with a default, I would suggest sophon or UE for a beginner.



As for getting better, you really just need to learn how the mechanics work. Once you do, you'll quickly learn how to exploit them for faster expansion, a stronger empire foundation, and more blowing things up.



Short list:

1) When in doubt, food exploit.

2) Learn how approval works

3) Play with your tax rate. If you increase it, how much money do you gain? is that money worth the loss of approval?

4) Continue changing your tax rate. Can you raise it 5% without losing much food or industry?

5) Don't build random upgrades. Before you build something, ask yourself if it's worth the time and upkeep cost to build it. For example, sustainable (+1 food on arid, tundra, desert, arctic) is probably not worth getting if you already have 100 food from a terran planet.

6) Learn about expansion disapproval and influence. Colonies outside your influence area get -50% science and dust from "distance with empire".

7) check your tax rate again. Do it.



I would say to look at the manual, but it hasn't been updated for Disharmony.

manual link





here's a few articles that are important to understand:

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Population

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Approval#Empire_approval

I think my issue is researching and building random improvements instead of putting the effort into the military. Would many people put their planets on producing wealth or science fairly early instead of this?



Could you suggest a game setup that might help me prepare a bit more for MP? Galaxy size, shape... I'm thinking ill end up playing random faction for a while to get the hang of things.

play large spiral galaxy with 4 players. You won't have to worry about military for a long time with that.



When you build an upgrade, ask yourself how much of a benefit will this really give, and is that benefit worth the industry cost and the dust upkeep cost that you will have to pay each turn. Often times, upgrades are just not worth building on some systems and you're better off building a ship, or convert industry to sci/dust

To avoid getting killed, try to imagine what your opponents are thinking. If they can reap big benefits from attacking you, assume they will, and invest in military. If they are already preoccupied with other wars/expanding, you can often get away with less defense, but don't get carried away - good players will ally against you if you start pulling ahead in tech.

Here, you inspired me. Aren't you lucky :P



/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14056-beginner-s-guide-to-disharmony-improving-your-game

Don't worry about being terrible, everyone is, the trick is just to be slightly less terrible than the other guy. Then crush him fast.



If you want to really enjoy MP you should play on Tiny/Small and keep everything as Random as possible. Also even with Human players use Endless difficulty, to make the AI of ragequit players more of a danger and to reap the benefits (everything that makes your game more difficult is a good thing) of Expansion Disapproval.



The recent change to remove tech trading has made MP far more balanced than before.