Totally lost

I have no idea what I'm doing

from Sins Forums
I really want to like this game. Homeworld is one of my favorite games, and I love 4X games as well.

So far I've played four games. The longest one lasted about 20 minutes.

I went through the tutorials, which I honestly didn't find very helpful. The basic information in them was too basic for me, and the more in-depth information seemed like it was just laying out a lot of out-of-context facts.

I just can't seem to get a foothold. In my first game was on the small random scenario easy AI, normal speed. The first planet my first ship ran into was guarded by a capital ship, some cruisers and a bunch of frigates. Meanwhile I had a scout, a couple mines and had just started doing research. They followed my scout home, game over.

In my second game I figured I'd build up some frigates for defense before I left home. This time I had chosen a scenario that described itself as resource-rich. I was very surprised from the previous game that it was possible for my next door neighbor to start out so advanced, so I figured a non-random start would be better. In game two I made the mistake of colonizing a barren rock with no mines, which dragged down my economy and made it impossible to build stuff, so I gave up after about 10 minutes of inability to build anything.

The third game played out similarly, my economy stalled very early on, and an early attempt at colonizing wiped out most of my fleet for some reason.

The fourth game I did a bit better, got my second colony going after a few minutes of scouting and clearing out a habitable world. Just as I had finished researching trade and was getting ready to build a couple trade platforms, in comes a huge fleet of pirates and wipes out my homeworld.

WTF?

Is the message here "don't leave home without bringing a capital ship and leaving a fleet of cruisers to defend"?

As I said, i really want to like this game, but I'm very frustrated at this point and not having a lot of fun with it.

Some very basic advice on what scenario to start with and step-by-step explanations of what to build and research early ***and why*** would be very helpful.

I feel right now like I'm stumbling around in the dark with this game, and stubbing my toes and banging my elbows into things is not fun.
31,552 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

If you can, jump on IRC (irc.stardock.com /join #sins) for a hands on help session. If you can't, just write back here and we'll write something up for you.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Lets see if I can help. First off I am going to assume that you don't know that you can build a free Capital ship. So with that in mind, when you start your next game, build a cap factory and get your free ship first. While you are building that get your mines queued up to be built. After that, I usually send 2 scouts out on auto explore. Just right click on the button. Next I figure out which world/s I am going to take over first. I send my cap and 2-4 combat frigates to take care of the militia and then take it over. Right after that, make sure you upgrade the world/asteroid so it is not costing you money. Then just rinse and repeat. Later on you need to change statiegies but that should get you started.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather avoid IRC if it's all the same. :)

And thanks for the pointers. How could I have missed that you get a free capital ship right off the bat?! That beats the pants off sending a few frigates that may or may not survive the contact.

Okay, any suggestions for which scenario to choose? I avoided the "quick conflict" type scenarios because I want a little time to figure out what I'm doing before I run into the computer player. I looked up the one I was using, "Storm Front", which I chose because it said "ample resources." Might there be a better sandbox?

I need more detailed advice about what to do after colonizing. There are far too many options: population, logistics, tactical, explore... How do I know when the first colony isn't costing me money? Just use the credits mouseover info or should I be looking at something more detailed in the colony's planet info?

The tech trees are another thing that's a major source of confusion. Too many options, and no info about the pros and cons of different categories! (Yep, I've read the manual, maybe I haven't fully comprehended it...). Do I go for ship upgrades? Straight to trade? What about the Advent and Vasari? What impact does all that Advent psi stuff really have? What does Vasari enslavement mean? How can I choose what to research when the gameplay impact of these techs aren't clear to me?

Okay, right, too many questions.

I'm just looking for the kind of step-by-step starter approach that is provided in other games by a scripted campaign.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Maybe this is one of those games a strategy guide and instructions might actually be useful.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I started a small single player game as my first game and got panned. I was stuck on my planet with a huge fleet of pirates one way and the enemy the other way! There was no way my economy could match theirs.

On my 2nd game, I went for a bigger map and made a big effort to push out my economy and planets so that I could actually afford to research stuff. Its a pain at the start if you get attacked as you're fleets usually miles away, I generally build a few turrets and then spam build them hoping they last until the fleet arrives.

If you mouse over the research options and planet improvements you can get a rough idea of what upgrades do. Although I still haven't figured out what population does!
I try to keep a balance between offensive upgrades and empire, although last game I went almost mainly offensive, and just researched empire when I needed something from it.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Believe it or not, I found it very helpful to do each tutorial twice. There is a lot of info and I noticed I had missed a few key elements before. Also, upgrading your fleet management really helps increasing cap with some bigger ships. Hang in there!

//M
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I'm getting owned hard, even after the tutorial.

Where do you get a free capital ship? Because I start a game, build a captial ship factory, then don't see anything about a free ship, just see what they all cost, etc. I build the one that has the ability to colonize and by this time I'm out of credits soon enough. (Built all the mining, etc but never seem to get credits...).

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Where do you get a free capital ship? Because I start a game, build a captial ship factory, then don't see anything about a free ship, just see what they all cost, etc.
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When you first build the capship factory and look at the construction options, you should see all of them as being free (until you've built your first one).

For credits, get enough crystal mined then you can upgrade your population on your homeworld. That will give you a decent boost in taxes.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I'm getting owned hard, even after the tutorial.

Where do you get a free capital ship? Because I start a game, build a captial ship factory, then don't see anything about a free ship, just see what they all cost, etc. I build the one that has the ability to colonize and by this time I'm out of credits soon enough. (Built all the mining, etc but never seem to get credits...).
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Stiler - I think I was making the same mistake as you to start out - took me a couple early plays to figure it out, but the screen with your Frigates (scout, light, and colony) are not the free capital ship being talked about here. I thought the colonizing one was until I realized that is all they do and they are very weak. You have to build the Capital Ship Factory, which is different from the factory you start out with. Then you can build your uber Cap Ship.

My problem now is figuring out how to unlock some of the more advance ships and tech trees - but I'll refer to the manual later on that (some good bathroom reading :-))

Later,
~JO
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
It took me a while to figure things out when I was playing the beta. The tutorials are a little too basic. It would be nice if somebody from Ironclad or an uber player posted a basic strategy guide.

While I'm thinking of it, is there a downloadable pdf manual?
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
While I'm thinking of it, is there a downloadable pdf manual?
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It's included with the game and can be found in the same location as you installed it at (manual.pdf).
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
While I'm thinking of it, is there a downloadable pdf manual?


It's included with the game and can be found in the same location as you installed it at (manual.pdf).
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Thank you Kryo.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
For more of a sandbox type game choose one of the Random games (I can't remember the exact title as I am at work). Remember that you can colonize any planetoid. (Asteroids, Terran, Lava, or Ice) Build up each planets pop cap. The first button in the planetary build screen. Make sure to build your flagship, as has been said here, along with several frigates (combat type). Make that one fleet and us it to clear out the militia nests. If TEC (I would recommend it until you get ahold of the dynamics) build 2 civic research labs. Research trade ports. Build in all your star systems. Takes a little bit, but your economy will start growing by leaps and bounds. Eventy your trade will out strip the credit revenue of your planets.