Imperium Nova: free TBS multiplayer browser-based game

[Bosh]

http://www.imperiumnova.com

Fairly simple mechanics and pretty much non-existant graphics, but pretty fun and not very time-consuming (you can get by with just a few minutes every days or two and still keep up just fine). Unlike most games of this sort instead of running a planet you run a House (think Dune, whole game seems very Dune-inspired) that can run business in one or more areas (politics, trade, mining, psionics, military etc. etc.) across a couple different planets.

There's also a good number of newbie-protection mechanisms that make it hard/undesirable for big players to squish the new fish without having too many artificial restrictions. But they do assign people to Galaxies (servers) randomly to keep a bunch of people who know each other all deciding the play on the same galaxy and then gang up on everyone else.

Right now I'm using my illegal narcotics smuggling profits to build up a small covert ops network that I hope to have some fun with.

I'd recommend giving it a shot.

[Jules]

Anybody else in Andromeda?
I'm House Gushur ("We brake for no one!").
Baron Georg Gushur at your service.

[Bosh]

Aaaah, good to have another apolytoner there.

I'm House Boshkayev, which is based in the central regions of the galaxy. Our prestige is a bit low at the moment due to nosy Imperials catching me smuggling drugs but I'm doing OK otherwise

You're doing the merchantile sphere I believe (good choice). Some basic tips:
-Remember that you need buildings on both ends to establish a trade route (so if you have a pair of trade hubs you can operate 3 routes between them).
-Don't operate more than one illegal (at the most two) trade routes at once, you'll get caught too much
-Find a rich world that's near to you and a poor world that's near to you and run the bulk of your routes between them, that's the most efficient way to make money in the merchantile sphere. In your case your home planet is of average wealth, so its not a terribly good place to base merchantile operations out of (unless you want to run a slave smuggling operation, you've got cheap slaves at home and could sell them to Fortuna). I'd recommend taking the bulk of your money and build trade facilities on the planets of Media Borealis and Porrima.
-Get rid of anything that costs you money that isn't your trading busiess. Disband your army and don't spend anything on covert ops or security until you have your economy built up a bit.
-Make sure that you never get to a point where you projected end of month income is negative. Do that by building a couple trade buildings right now.

[Jules]

Thanks, Bosh.

[self biased]

i've landed in andromeda as well: i should have kept my first dynasty. i hated the others.

[self biased]

can someone throw me a frikkin bone here? i'm house azemiops.

[Bosh]

Good to have you in Andromeda self.

You're merchantile too so most of what I told Jules goes for you as well.

You're off in the east, not tooooo far from my own centers of operation. Pretty soon we'll be able to cooperate.

You also want to run trade routes between rich and poor planets. Your home planet is prosperous, which is OK. I'd operate routes between your home planet and the poverty-striken planets of Azha and Aspidiske.

Two more tips:
-For your second sphere of activity I'd probably recommend transportation, I'm going to be going into that myself. The only problem with it is that it requires a bit more detailed management than most spheres.
-As far as the alliances go there's four ones at the moment the Imperial Sentinels won't let newbies in, the Landsraad are the big power and are a bit arrogant, one of the members of the Serenity Compact tried to bully me so I don't like them much which leaves the Imperial Free Houses which seems like a good group of people (but then I'm biased since I've joined them).

[Jules]

Hey, cool! Now there's 3 of us. The Andromeda Galaxy will soon be ours. Mwahahahahahah!

Ok, my house is based on Syrma which is in the southwest corner of the known galaxy. It'll be cool when they add the exploration sphere btw. Self biased is on Meissa Alpha (center-east edge). Bosh is in the center somewhere. What's the name of your homeworld?

Follow Bosh's suggestions. I'm still learning the game too. Just waiting for my new trade facilities to get built right now.


--"He who controls the spice controls the universe!"

[Bosh]

I'm in Menkent, its a bit west of self but not THAT far. His home world is just baaaaarely outside of my range of operations.

[self biased]

this is very in depth. i'm a little intimidated.

[Bosh]

There's a lot of depth to the game but what a newbie has to do to get by in the merchantile sphere is very very simple. Don't worry about the more complex stuff until later

[self biased]

how do i set up these trade routes?

[Bosh]

Originally posted by self biased
how do i set up these trade routes?

If you want something simplier hit the "essential tips" link on the Headquarters page and hit Restart. Psionics, Geology, Science and Construction are very very simple to operate but won't make you as much money in general (especially Construction).


1. Build buildings on the two planets you want to trade among (I told you above which ones are good for you). You should have two buildings already. Spending about all but 3K on building buildings right off the bat should be good.
2. There are three building sizes (Outpost/Center/Hub). An outpost can operate one end of one trade route, a center 2 and a hub 3. That means if you have a Hub on Planet A and one outpost each on planets B, C and D then planet A can have one trade route with each of B, C and D.
3. Look at the trade prices of the planets you want to trade between the two planets you want to trade between. Figure out which trade good you'd make the most profit selling (probably mineral or medical supplies).
4. To actually set up a trade route go to the Headquarters screen, then click on Merchantile, click the + button next to "Trade Routes Operated" and select there you want the trade route to operate and what commodity you want to trade.
5. After a day or so in-game the trade route will be up and running and after another day after that it'll start making you money.
6. Disband your army unit, select covert ops and science spending down to zero and select no security for all your dynasty members to save money.

[self biased]

what determines income from a trade route? at the moment i'm buying Machinery @ $87.50 from an adequate supply, and selling for $48.51 to an above average supply. somehow, i'm making money off of this deal.

[Jules]

You sure it's not going the other way around?
As far as I know it's just the price differential plus some randomness. Maybe the competence of your sphere leader is factored in too.


Meanwhile, I've come up with a naming convention for my facilities: "Andromeda Trading Guild. A.T.G. Serving House Gushur for millenia. We brake for no one! Especially those inbred hicks of House Imperator!"