Hey everyone. I'm very new to the series and I really need some help. The tutorial does a good job of explaining some things, but in terms of tactics and strategy, I'm lost. I have a list of a few questions that will hopefully guide this discussion. But if you have any other tips that you care to mention that I didn't ask about, please post it. I can use all the help I can get.
1. How should I start the game? Specifically, should I just auto send all my units out to look for life and planets?
2. When I find a planet, should I immediately colonize?
3. Should I specialize planets or balance them with factories, research and wealth? I found that specializing resulted in me losing lots of money quickly. I'm not interested in min/maxing. I just want to have a good chance against the AI.
4. Can someone please explain the stats and how the different stats and mechanics are locked together. For example, are colonies separate from each other or do upgrades on one affect others? What is production, manufacturing, research, wealth, etc? What do they all do?
5. What are the different resources in the game?
That's all I can think of right now. But if I have any more questions, I shall ask. Thanks!
1. You should manually move your ship toward stars.
2. This depends on your map. If you have some nice planets near you, but more stars to explore far away, you may want to hold off and use your ships to explore your map instead. You need to colonize planets to extend the range that your ships can travel, so helps to at least colonize a few as you explore.
3. You should determine that depending on the location of your planet and what special features that they have. For example, a planet with the "Serene" trait will give you a boost in Influence growth. If this planet is sitting by itself at the border of your territory, then you may be interested in specializing this planet into a culture producing planet. Alternatively, if you have a group of planets, three or more, within a diameter of 12 tiles, you may want to turn all of these planets in manufacturing planets, regardless of what special qualities they may have. That way, you can have all of them sponsor a single ship yard, so you can pump out expensive ships in a single turn.
4. Colonies are separate from each other, but a few improvements do affect every colony under your control, such as the Singularity Power Plant. At the basics, Manufacturing is for building ships and improvements on your planets. Research generate points for you to unlock new techs. Wealth generates more money to fund your colonies and ships.
And yeah, you should probably check a few tutorials for specifics.
