How to become a bulider??????

[tyler666]

You good buliders will you help Me? I wanna become a bulider im getting awful bored just conquering other lands and making people elect me surpreme leader

------------------
Tyler Messer
"Theres no time to discriminate hate every mother****er thats in your way!"

[Killjoy]

Read Vel’s strat guide, and practice, practice, practice!

[Cybergod]

I've read most of the guide, and tried doing things like it says most of the time, then suddenly, out of nowhere, a Hive drop army pops up on my huge piece of land and swoops all my hard-earned work (luckily I had choppers and defeated the scum). How do I make the game more peaceful and NOT be attacked whenever I try some Builder tactics (I've Transcended only ONCE in my whole gaming life)? Or there isn't a single way?

[Velociryx]

In single player mode, the best way to "build" your way to transcendence is to reach a point where you can play the game as though the AI isn't even there, and reach that point as rapidly as possible. Early on, of course, until you get everything set up, simply give them what they want so they'll leave you alone. Once you've got your starting continent to yourself, the game's over.

First step: Rapid expansion. This sets you up to claim a large portion of your starting landmass, which chokes off the growth of your rivals if you're not alone. If you *are* alone on your starting landmass, so much the better. In the first fifty turns, shoot for 12-15 bases. Fifty turns after that, shoot for filling the continent up if you've not already done so. However many bases it takes to do that, that's how many you wanna build.

And while you're colonizing, keep your formers busy building the essential infrastructure of your empire. Pre-restriction lifting, mostly spend your time focusing on forestation and road-building. Make sure you've got at least two road routes to each of your bases, more if you can swing it. That way, when the AI shows up, you have multiple approaches.

Also during this stage, allocate 1/4 to 1/3 of your formers to building more advanced terraforming stuff (boreholes, mines, condensors if you get the WP).

For bases that are more than a dozen or so tiles from your HQ, go ahead and plan for those bases to be specialist heavy, so do a lot of farm and condensor work earlier, rather than later, so you can start crawling food in as quickly as nutrient restrictions come off.

Lastly, during this stage, keep your prototyping current!

Second step: The moment you fill up the continent, set approximately 1/4 of your formers to building strategic bunkers and airstrips. The sooner you get that stuff in place, the better off you'll be. And when you build them, man them! Don't just build them and leave them empty....too inviting a target.

During this phase, you'll get clean reactors, and the moment you do, set up one base to build nothing but 2-1-1 clean garrisons, and start spreading them out through your empire, upgrading them to best armor as you have the cash, or as needed. Double stack them to prevent subversion. Also, sprinkle in some other unit types now and again for good measure. Infantry based probes, rover based artillery, assault rovers....just mix it up. Don't try to upgrade all the units at one time, but DO upgrade any that might be threatened. Do that, and you'll have such a vast army that no matter who lands, you can make short work of them and/or confine them to a small corner of your holdings.

Also, during this phase, rush build infrastructure like crazy! Focus on money enhancers first, cos that'll give you more cash in future turns to rush the other infrastructure.

Third step: Execute a pop-boom as soon as your essential infrastructure is in place at ALL bases. Don't do it beforehand, even if you're tempted to. More efficient to only spend 7-10 turns in planned-dem than to have to keep paying to switch in and out repeatedly.

The end result will be that your empire will approximately triple in size when you execute the boom. At that point, run either some greenie combo or FM (your choice, depending on what faction you're playing), and coast to the end game. If you've done all the groundwork right, you'll be pulling your techs down in 2 turns (worst case), or as many as 2-3 techs per turn (best case), and at that point, despite the AI's production advantages, they simply can't keep up with you.

It is during this point in the game that you wanna just outright ignore any "demand" made by the AI. So what if they threaten you? You've got on the high side of a hundred clean units patrolling various portions of your empire. You've got the resources to upgrade them to any configuration you need, and you're probably three generations of weapon and defense tech, and at least one reactor type ahead of them. In short, you can take out approximately 12 of their units for every one of yours they get, making an attack by the AI at this point pure suicide, and making a war effort against an AI empire a joke.



-=Vel=-

[Drago Sinio]

One good trick you can use against a distant , annoying AI that seems to be about to become a menace, is to set up what I call a "Probe Base" in the heart of their empire.

What you do is put together a small invasion force of probe teams, crawlers and strong garrison units. Then you load them in transports, and subvert a small coastal base in the center of the enemy homeland. The best choice is a small base within probe team range of several of the enemys strongest bases.

Then you use the crawlers to supply a large amount of minerals/nuts to the newly captured "Probe Base", by homing them to the base, then transporting them back to mines/boreholes/farms in a safe area of your home territory.

This way you can immediately start pumping out probes from the base. What you do with the probes is destroy the enemy base facilities, relentlessly.
Just use the "stir things up in there" option on the probe menu. This will either destroy a base facility at random, or destroy whatever unit it is they are trying to build.

When you have a large number of probes built, switch back and forth between building probes and the least expensive needlejet you can build. Use the needlejets to "bomb" their terraforming improvements. (Press "D" when the Jet is over the square you want to attack)

If you are "cash heavy" you can also use your probes to subvert some enemy units, and have them destroy terraforming, kill formers, or strengthen the "probe bases" defense.

If you keep that up for a while, eventually the AI will offer peace terms. Fine, that is exactly what you want. But keep the Jets and Probes there, in case they start up on you again.

What this accomplishes is to weaken the enemy, stop them from getting "too powerfull", without changing your building schedule . You get stronger, the enemy gets weaker.

This is sometimes better than "conquering" them, since they might serve to block the expansion of some other enemy, without your having to stop doing your building and go beat on them too.

And its a reasonably efficient use of resources, since the probes have a high chance of surviving their mission, and they return to your base after doing their evil deed without the enemy having any chance to attack them. You can even have the enemy finance the whole thing for you, by having your probes steal some energy after they have destroyed everything in range.

Just make sure your garrisons are strong enough to withstand whatever attacks are thrown at them. If you are ahead in techs, this is usually not an issue. AND always keep a couple of probe teams in the base at all times, so that the enemy cant subvert it back from you. But you probably already built the Hunter Seeker thingamajig anyway.

[Walt]

Give multiplayer a try.

Your victories will be fewer and farther between.

*evil grin*

That being said, to play as a Builder, you should . . . build!

That's right, build lots of colony pods and formers initially, then once you've got 12 to 20 bases, build improvements and foster trade with neighbors, then build more colony pods and formers. Rinse. Repeat.

Tricks of the trade include things like: Using dem-planned-creches to pop boom; Using GA to pop boom if you can't use the foregoing technique (some factions can't); hunting mindworms for fun and profit, all while running at 100% research; building a super science city (make it your capital if possible and put the Merchant Exchange there for best results); using crawlers a lot; using specialists as much as possible, as they usually produce econ and tech more efficiently than do workers.

I'll give you the same advice that others have posted in recent threads: Read Vel's strat guide. It's a priceless gem.

Walt

[gwillybj]

Try this combination
Play as Morgan. Use only these Social Engineering choices immediately when each becomes available, and never switch to any other: Democratic, Free Market, Wealth, Eudaimonic. You will be able to win, but a military victory is next to impossible. You will have to be very diplomatic.
The sum-total of the modifiers (including Morgan's initial modifiers) will be:
+2Eff -4Mor -3Pln 0Prb +4Grw -5Pol +3Ind 0Res +6Eco -3Sup

Build as many Facilities and Secret Projects as you can support to offset the negatives:
Morale: Aerospace Complex, Command Center (Command Nexus), and Naval Yard (Maritime Control Center); Bioenhancement Center (Cyborg Factory); Children's Creche.
Planet, Resources, and EcoDamage: Centauri Preserve and Temple of Planet; Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest; Nanoreplicator, Quantum Converter (Singularity Inductor), and Robotic Assembly Plant; Nessus Mining Station, Orbital Power Transmitter, and Sky Hydroponics Lab; Recycling Tanks and Pressure Domes (build PD even in non-coastal bases; it's cheap and has zero maintenance cost); Bulk Matter Transmitter; Nano Factory; Pholus Mutagen; Self-Aware Colony; Space Elevator; Weather Paradigm; Xenoempathy Dome.
Police: Ascetic Virtues.
Support: Living Refinery.
Drone-reducers: Recreation Commons and Hologram Theater; Research Hospital and Nanohospital; Longevity Vaccine; Planetary Transit System; Telepathic Matrix!; Virtual World. Do not build Genejack Factory and Punishment Sphere!
Talent-producers: Clinical Immortality, Human Genome Project, Paradise Garden.

Have fun with the worms

[The Commodore]

Hmmm...I'm thinking...

How would it be to use the 'Borgs in Demo/FM/Power? By my count, that would get you Paradigm econ(+4eff), The ever-wanted +2 econ, +1 growth, +2 Morale(wow...a builder with guns), +2 Research(starting to get disgusting here), -3 Police(WOW!!!FM with no drone probs away from base!), -2 Support (Hey...we do this all the time!), and -2 Industry(Bad, but you can rush-build well with all the energy.) Wow...I've just seen how I'm playing my 'Borgs.

This is mighty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Commodore]

Is it just me, or is this...stunning?

[Earwicker]

Gaians are a great Builder faction. Go Demo/Green to get lots of worm $$, with occasional bouts of Demo/Planned/creche/GA when its time to boost your population. Efficiency allows for a good number of bases.

To expand on excellent Drago's Probe Base tactic:
1. Foil or cruiser probe teams work wonders, esp if you have the MCC and the XenoDome.
2. A forward-deployed sea-base or needlejet colony pod placed on emey soil (with your own troops ready to drop in for defense) can be an excellent center of operations (without having to pay exorbitant mind-control costs for a lousy enemy base).
3. Drain energy reserves. Their energy should be viewed as your energy that is temporarily in their stores. Get a number of probes in place, salvage the unity core, and double your pleasure.

[Net Maverick]

Vel,

Never in your strategy did you once mention crawlers. At what stage would you begin to build them, and approximately how many per base? I find it impossible to pull off 1 tech a turn without crawlers...so I assume that they are built some stage in your builder strategy. Or maybe the high population bases are the key. And one more thing...would the same strategy work for a hybrid game? If so, would you add any variations? Thanks...

[Velociryx]

Maverick, as soon as you get Industrial Auto, finish what you're building at your bases and start on crawlers right away! And, keep building them until you get your mineral counts somewhere in the 16-20 range. Do that before building additional infrastructure....you'll be AMAZED at how much more quickly you can finish your infrastructural builds.

Also, when you get Ind. Auto., don't have your newbie bases build their own crawlers....let your more developed bases do that for them....saves time. Let them work on the basic infrastructure....stuff like Rec. Tanks that help their mineral counts anyway, and of course, when you finish all the basic stuff at the new base, if that base's mineral counts still aren't where you want 'em, go ahead and have them work on a crawler or two as well, but the point is, most of a new base's crawlers will be built elsewhere and re-homed to the new base.

The same idea works just as well in a more hybrid-flavored game, 'cept that instead of focusing exclusively on infrastructure when you get your mineral counts spiked, you'll want to build a viable naval presence (in fact, earlier is better where navy is concerned, so you will want to devote an early coastal base to the production of naval units, crawlers or no....and when you get industrial auto, have neighboring bases build crawlers for your main shipyard, while it focuses on building more ships of the line.

Same goes for a designated military base, and it too will be helped by neighboring bases building crawlers to spike the military base's mineral counts.

Per the eco damage thread, go ahead and run some bases with eco damage, hoping for early fungal blooms....once you get them, you'll be primed to control your future eco-damage with eco-friendly builds, which will increase the number of "clean" minerals each base produces.

-=Vel=-

[Net Maverick]

Vel,

Thanks for the quick response. So basically, your strategy in compact format would be this:
1) Rapid expansion. Get 12-15 bases up and running with only 1 or 2 garrisons before M.Y 2150.
2) After this is done, shoot for filling up the continent, annhilating anyone you share it with. Simultaneously, begin construction of crawlers, and have them harvest minerals for you.
3) Once continent is filled up, have one base produce military to spread throughout your land, and have the rest rush build infrastructure.
4) Execute population boom.
A few questions:
1) I normally play as the Spartans, and would building crawlers in stage 2 (filling up continent) not slow down their expansion?
2) Why does a hybrid player need ships more than a builder?
Thanks again.

[Velociryx]

Hey bud! Good questions, all!

To answer them, I'd say the following:

The Spartans, with their inherent Industry penalty are slowed in their expansion efforts--in comparison to other factions--from the get-go. The addition of crawlers to the overall mix serves to offset their industrial penalty. The trick then, is in the timing.

Early game, build your two bases as quickly as you can. To facilitate this, I'd move the rover first to scope out the area, then head the pods you start with in opposite directions on turn one.

Turn two, build a base at the more attractive of the two pod locations, and move the other pod again, placing it three tiles from your HQ base, and setting you up to build your second base the following turn.

Build orders here: You don't have Cent. Eco., so about the only thing you can start on are scout garrisons, which means that they'll finish the turn after you begin them, thanks to the ten freebie mins you get at base founding. Do that, and immediately start to work on a second one. Your base's mineral production will only be 2-3 anyway, so it'll take a few turns to complete the second scout anyway.

Keep your rover busy....what you want is to find some free techs for popping early pods, cos almost invariably, the first free tech you get will be Cent. Eco, and as soon as you have it, stop building garrisons and switch to formers, rushing them as soon as you get the chance.

One former per base will be plenty, and while they're doing their thing, the next thing you want to focus on is building more colony pods (as you prolly won't have the ability to build rec. tanks yet).

This early in the game, you likely won't have much in the way of spare funds, so don't spend what cash you have in rushing colony pods to completion....better to spend the money rushing the formers at those new bases...besides, the two formers you've got need all the time they can get to road build to the new base site and do some advance-terraforming.

Keep that basic pattern up for the first thirty turns or so....at that point, you may want to take a look at your tech position and begin work on one or more SP's, which will slow your expansion, as now you've got bases doing stuff other than building colony pods and formers, but those early game projects are just too important to miss out on.

In a tech-stag game, you're still ages away from getting Industrial Automation, so don't slow your expansion down too much to begin work on SP's....say....one base working on SP's for every 5 you've got, or something like that. This way, you've still got the bulk of your bases firmly focused on expansion.

Also, at this point in the game, unless you're on a truly massive continent, you pretty much know whether you're alone or not. If you're not alone, finish building your latest round of colony pods and head them toward your enemy (who may not be your enemy yet), in order to choke off his expansion and growth. As each base finishes its latest pod, start working on whatever offensive military units you can put together at this point, and go hunting. If your neighbor is anybody but Yang, you'll have an easy time taking them out, and a submissive faction this early in the game will be a huge godsend, especially if it's one of the more research oriented factions.

If Yang happens to be your neighbor, wait till you have probes and impact before you tackle his bases, but by all means, use your colony pods to choke off his growth. Also, if it looks like it's gonna take a long war to make the neighboring faction submit, leave approximately one quarter of your bases building colony pods, with an eye toward filling out the portion of the continent that's safely away from the site of the future conflict, assuming such land is available.

If you're alone, then your job is much simpler....just keep cranking out colony pods and building new bases until you fill up the landmass.

Depending on the prevailing terrain, and your luck with those early game "free-tech" pods, you stand a reasonably good chance of getting to Ind. Auto at around the same time as you fill out the continent.

If that's the case, proceed with a massive crawler-building campaign at approximately 75% of your bases.

Some of your bases, however, should be setting themselves up to do other things.

Undoubtedly, you've got a few bases currently working on projects, and they should get your first crawlers. Don't cash the crawlers in to speed the project along. Better to re-home those crawlers to the project base, in order to spike that base's mineral counts. (of course, if you get the message that someone is about to finish the project ahead of you, by all means, sacrifice the crawlers to get the project!)

Base selection is an important consideration here. If you've got bases with nutrient specials being worked, those make your best candidates for early project bases, cos they'll grow more quickly than the norm. Likewise, a base with a mineral special on a rocky tile makes an excellent candidate for an early project base. More average bases (no specials in their production radii) can be set up to build massive numbers of crawlers at this stage.

If you're looking for a more hybrid stance, this is also when you'll want to select one or two of your coastal bases and start putting together an exploration fleet. A sturdy fleet is more important at this point in the game for a Hybrid stance than a Builder, because the Builder will want to put a token force in the water for exploration and pop-popping opportunities, but the Builder is far more interested in finishing out his infrastructure to start reaping the benefits of economies of scale. Contact with other factions at this point in the game could lead to an early war, which is something a Builder would want to avoid.

If you've set yourself up well, odds are quite good that you landed the WP....very important in tech stag games, because of the delays in getting the more advanced terraforming options by researching techs. If you get it, you want to begin thinking in terms of farm/condensor combos in order to start work on specialist bases.

You also might want to relocate your HQ at this point, to a more centralized location.

Any bases that fall outside the range of 12 or so tiles from your HQ should be considered at specialist bases, or at least specialist-heavy bases, and as distance from the HQ increases, so too should the total number of specialists at the base in question.

Timeframes are a hard thing to predict....very dependent on game setting selections and local geography, so I can't give you a timetable when all this stuff should be coming to completion but you get the idea. What you want to engineer is a situation where you've got bases spanning the continent, TONS of crawlers, and a few very specialized bases (troops, ships, and maybe probes), with the bulk of your bases set up as big energy collectors or specialist havens.



-=Vel=-

[Net Maverick]

Vel,

Sorry about the delay. Got a busy schedule these few days. Concerning the post...basically, you build crawlers right after you finish your expansion, correct? And you build them before you start on infrastructure? Also...what beelines would you consider for each of the three play styles for the Spartans? Thanks for the help