question

[d=me]

Originally posted by BlackCat


Ehrr, I find it difficult to avoid to hold it. Do you set that synt garrison to prime defender with ctrl+d in militia station ? That alone takes care of 2-3 of those weakend attackers in the big stack next turn.

Knowledege of the enemy doesn't make me stronger as such, but it vastly improves my tactic since I know where to go, how many defenders there are etc. "Knowing thy enemy" isn't some smartass sentence - thats half of the battle.

As Kata stated earlier, do scouting from start - you don't begin searching for a suitable place for a new colony when your CP is build - the same goes for possible future enemy grounds. A scout or two roaming around from start should reveal most of what is now spartan ground.

Yes I did desginate the infantry as defender. But he got killed by the first rover that attacked. and then the artillery bombed the base so most of the rovers are now yellow or red. And then her and infantry attacked and I had 2 rovers left after her turn. How did you take care of all of her troops that are in different squares?

[Kataphraktoi]

I'm getting IA very early now. So after I get crawlers am I more free to research thing that interests me?

Lets be clear, that no one is trying to impose anything on you. If you want to research something-do so. However, in that case i wouldnt expect you to be expecting to see any more Q's from you, if you do not desire to improve. Everything people have been telling you will VASTLY improve your ability to research what you want-infact, after you get good enough you can do even very stupid things and still win.

[d=me]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi


Lets be clear, that no one is trying to impose anything on you. If you want to research something-do so. However, in that case i wouldnt expect you to be expecting to see any more Q's from you, if you do not desire to improve. Everything people have been telling you will VASTLY improve your ability to research what you want-infact, after you get good enough you can do even very stupid things and still win.

No, I meant when I get supply crawlers can the research be more directed towards competing for secret projects and strong military units instead of focusing on infrastructure and income.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by d=me
Yes I did desginate the infantry as defender. But he got killed by the first rover that attacked. and then the artillery bombed the base so most of the rovers are now yellow or red. And then her and infantry attacked and I had 2 rovers left after her turn. How did you take care of all of her troops that are in different squares?

Then you forgot to take out the rovers. Be sure to kill arty, rovers and elites and weaken the rest - there are plenty of your own units to do it.

[d=me]

Nevermind, I started a new game. Thanks.

My question is that once I get the supply crawlers can research and resources be more directed towards discover (This means the same as the base governer's option)? Like instead of spending everything on infrastructure can there be some room for SP races and building prototypes? Or is it still necessary to focus on build? But the stuff like optical computers have to be researched sooner or later. I meant something like research one infrastructure tech and one discovery/conquer tech and alternate like that. Is that a decent way?

[d=me]

Looking at the higher tech levels on that chart, there aren't really many more techs that adds to infrastructure. Like on level 7, only advanced ecological engineering is purely for infrastructure.

[d=me]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7944

Velociryx mentioned that the university need strong units to win the game because many tech doesn't do anything that can stop aggressive factions. He emphasized on utilizing the tech to make tangible things.

this is an ideal faction for Builder-play, but some interesting variants crop up if you try the other styles.

That was what I was looking for. I wasn't really interested in defeating everyone when the world is on tech level 3. I wanted to generally stay strong to fend off enemies and take over their close by bases while I can win by trancendence.

And he said that the hunter seeker alogrithm is important.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by d=me
No, I meant when I get supply crawlers can the research be more directed towards competing for secret projects and strong military units instead of focusing on infrastructure and income.

Well the route to IA ( with cent ecology) gives you the Virtual World, WP and the PTS to compete for-- isn't that enough for a start? ME as well I guess.


people vary a lot of next steps. Some possible routes

1. The most common is probably through eth calc to genesplicing and on to eco engineering-- The goal is to get restrictions lifted so you ahve more resources

2. Depending on your neighbors, weapons may be needed immediately

3. A quick beeline to doc flex can often be useful -- particularly if you can get probeshibs out there. In addition mobility is useful since then your poppopping can sometimes instabuild expensive rover crawlers to really hurry along those projects

[Flubber]

Originally posted by d=me

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7944

And he said that the hunter seeker alogrithm is important.

and he is right. In MP getting it can be huge, particularly when all the hummans are massing probecruisers. Against the Ai, its just nice to deny the AI getting it. Its not like there is much trouble detecting and eliminating AI probes

[Flubber]

Originally posted by d=me


But the stuff like optical computers have to be researched sooner or later. I meant something like research one infrastructure tech and one discovery/conquer tech and alternate like that. Is that a decent way?

Two things

1. you don't need to research every tech . Some you will trade for a or steal. The benefit of beelining is that you are quite likely to be on a different path than the AI which makes it quite likely that you can have a tech lead AND still garner a lot of tech from the AI. They will research most of the useless crap like optical computers for you.

2. I don't know why you are so set on making false divisions like "infrastructure " or "discovery" tech and think you need to make some set method of alternating them. The game is fluid and while the AI beeline is clearly the strongest path for most games ( almost all if you are fast enough), there is a lot of variation beyond that.

You should always plan your techs as part of planning your empire. See what the individual tech does and what particular techs it leads to rather than getting caught up in a category. Obviously if you are still playing blind you would have to choose a category, but you should simply emphasize categories that make your most desired tech the most likely one to get

Planning techs means for instance-- If I have IA and am about to discover eth calc, I may start farming a rainy square . . . I know my next choice will be gene splicing that eliminates food restrictions so I may try to get food production high and ready for an immediate switch to demo/planned and then any base withn a creche can popboom. But if decide instead to go for Doc flex, I may have that former build a few more roads and forests instead - - - - Planning has to be integrated and the tech choices is a very important part of everything else you do

[d=me]

Originally posted by Flubber


Two things

1. you don't need to research every tech . Some you will trade for a or steal. The benefit of beelining is that you are quite likely to be on a different path than the AI which makes it quite likely that you can have a tech lead AND still garner a lot of tech from the AI. They will research most of the useless crap like optical computers for you.

2. I don't know why you are so set on making false divisions like "infrastructure " or "discovery" tech and think you need to make some set method of alternating them. The game is fluid and while the AI beeline is clearly the strongest path for most games ( almost all if you are fast enough), there is a lot of variation beyond that.

You should always plan your techs as part of planning your empire. See what the individual tech does and what particular techs it leads to rather than getting caught up in a category. Obviously if you are still playing blind you would have to choose a category, but you should simply emphasize categories that make your most desired tech the most likely one to get

Planning techs means for instance-- If I have IA and am about to discover eth calc, I may start farming a rainy square . . . I know my next choice will be gene splicing that eliminates food restrictions so I may try to get food production high and ready for an immediate switch to demo/planned and then any base withn a creche can popboom. But if decide instead to go for Doc flex, I may have that former build a few more roads and forests instead - - - - Planning has to be integrated and the tech choices is a very important part of everything else you do

What to beeline for? And if you beeline what about that equation that makes some techs unavailable?

[Kataphraktoi]

Beeline for your objective. your objective should be based along lines of how your planning to win. this boils down to techs that increase your research potential.IA, enviromental economics, doc:air power, doc:initiative,nueral grafting,etc,are all key techs.

note some of my key techs are keys to more advanced keytechs like MMI, PlanetEcon, etc. however,sometimes i will stop my research along a certain line, aka i research doc:air power then head for another key tech,like on the left field of the tech tree maybe. that gives me basic air capability. without doc:air i would have 0 airpower, and heading for MMI also, the change between jets>choppers is not as big as none>jets. other times it makes sense to get MMI asap

hope that made sense.

you basicly need to choose between heading for techs that advance your ability to get techs, and increase your industry, and heading for techs that can damage your enemy or prevent damage to you. your b-line should depend on the situation

[PJayTycy]

5 techs : Industrial Automation (wealth, free market, probes, crawlers, network nodes, virtual world, planetary transit system)
7 techs : Environmental Economics (restriction lifting, human genome project, weather paradigm)

Then, some other b-lines are possible. MMI is the most popular one, but it's the longest one too. If somebody else is clearly ahead in this one, I'll choose 1 or 2 of the shorter ones to get some SP's and to be able to trade with the MMI-b-liners.

2 techs : Bio Engineering (neural amplifier, longevity vaccine, clean reactors)
2 techs : Intellectual Integrity (command nexus, citizens defense force)
2 techs : Adaptive Economics (planetary energy grid)

7 or 8 techs : Mind Machine Interface (needlejets, choppers, rovers, foils, thinkers, cloudbase academy, cyborg factory, missile weapons)


After this, you'll probably be involved in some war, so research might take a back seat. If you're still on a peacefull planet (or only a little war), take the long shot to fusion power (the number of techs listed depends on which of the short b-lines above you have researched):

8-10 : fusion power (fusion reactor, hunter-seeker algorithm, engineer, planetary datalinks)

I don't know what the next b-lines should be. But you've got the choice between :
=> satellites
=> better defense, deep pressure hull, carrier deck, repair bay
=> bio machinery (cloning vats)



When a certain tech is not available to choose for one of the b-lines, choose the most valuable tech from the next b-line.

[d=me]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
Beeline for your objective. your objective should be based along lines of how your planning to win. this boils down to techs that increase your research potential.IA, enviromental economics, doc:air power, doc:initiative,nueral grafting,etc,are all key techs.

note some of my key techs are keys to more advanced keytechs like MMI, PlanetEcon, etc. however,sometimes i will stop my research along a certain line, aka i research doc:air power then head for another key tech,like on the left field of the tech tree maybe. that gives me basic air capability. without doc:air i would have 0 airpower, and heading for MMI also, the change between jets>choppers is not as big as none>jets. other times it makes sense to get MMI asap

hope that made sense.

you basicly need to choose between heading for techs that advance your ability to get techs, and increase your industry, and heading for techs that can damage your enemy or prevent damage to you. your b-line should depend on the situation

What about that equation that can mess up your ability to research what you want quickly. And I always needed stronger weapons to defeat aggressive factions because they already have more units. And trade for stuff like optical computers, What if the AI didn't beeline for it either? Like in the beginning I nearly only research for build techs but afterwards there should be a balance now right? And I never trade my weapon techs because that's what makes my units stronger than santiago.
Stuff like planetary economics don't really give tangible things like Velociryx said. I did try to research the money tech and choose Wealth early but then some faction like sparta just declares war on me and I lost.

I noticed that the higher you go on the tech tree the fewer infrastructure techs there are. But even on the lower levels like level 5 I still need strong units and can't still be using laser rovers while the spartans are using gatling lasers. I find researching for the social techs too much makes the game very hard to play because the enemy always declares war on me. they are a lot behind me but they got the gatling gun while I'm still using impact rovers. And they take that advantage and destroyed me before I can research the weapon technologies. Like once I was way ahead of the gaians in tech but I didn't build the nuke and they had one. and everytime I talk to them they always bring up that fact to scare me. And super formers aren't really tangible things that can stop her nuke.

I know that I should get IA early but I don't really know about other techs and which other ones are important to enchancing research. Can you list some of them?

[Kataphraktoi]

The ones listed in Pjays post aregood techs for research. if your near sparta, IA and then beelining for doc:air power would be the easiest way to kill them off.

Agressive use of air units(ie constantly attacking targets in the open) will easily alow you to stop any S attack. your vulnerable at the begining, but my uploaded savs clearly show the utility of probe teams as your primary defense. if all else fails-let them TAKE the base, then probe it back the next turn. you really do not want to be cranking out rovers at this stage of the game. the S are stalemated easily enough, the air power and finish them off. then you can build rest of the game in peace

you may be under the impression the discover techs allow you to increase research better than the other techs-thats simply not true. you will go much fast heading for build techs