frigate rush, optimal strategy?

[hollowpoint]

Been analysing and practicing for couple of weeks now...

It seems that aggressive trading, complemented by
frigate rush is a strong opening strategy (at least wihtout
patches).

Point that I would like to discuss is:

Quite low end planets with very limited population seem to give
some production:

- Is conventional wisdom wrong: stay away from planets under 15.

If the only goal is to waste two closest neighbors and money is not an issue (active trading), maximal military production seems beneficial to me.

So the problem is about shortest time to produce k frigates and l
transports (1 billion per transport) reaching m target planets and
succesfully eliminating resistance.

Has anyone ran simulations or optimized shortest path to this? What
race picks provide the most punch for the buck?

br HP

(I think one interesting parameter is population and 100%
morale boost to pop growth.)

[hollowpoint]

I briefly visited this again. Simulation model should not be too difficult.

Each planet i has:
growth(pop, morale)
morale(pop,pq,tax)
researchProduced
productionProduced
doneProduction
productionGoal

(researchProduced and productionProduced are deductible by
analysis of economics model)

Each time step has:
tax, military, productDecision(for planet i), (researchDecision)
(lets keep it simple, no social production at first, also research+military=1,
also assume that you trade techs vigorously to get money, so we can keep
allocation at 100%)

Start system can be described:
distanceMatrix(planet_i, planet_j)
quality(planet_i)

Of these, we can classify own planets (reachable before computer)
and enemy planets (planets we want to reduce to smitherins).

We can assume that defense consist only of battle axes (anything less is one battle axe) (also number of battle axes per planet can be approximated) Also each enemy planet has population, which determines number of transports needed.

Technology can be classified to T0, T1, T2, (T3)

T0: colony ship
T1: frigatte
T2: transport
T3: warpdrive

Interesting techs are thus (comm theory, univ transl, defense theo, battle
armor, deflectors, space mili, shields, energy chann, weapon theo, phasers, inter stel tac, prop, cold fusion, impulse drive).

Time to get each of these should be determined by k research points.
(research queue optimization should not be too difficult)

So optimal frigatte solution is:
decision(t) = { tax, military, planet_i_productionDecision, researchDecision)

(+correct target for produced transports and frigates)

Solution should give also min_t -> victory.

It is easy to add complexity to the model -> effect on social improvements.

----
Lets see what my matlab and time schedule says...

br HP

[LDiCesare]

In terms of PQ < 15 being not good for colonisation: It's rather lss than 13. Lower than 13 costs you money to upkeep, so it may have an effect on your other planets.

A frigate rush is a good strategy but you will never be able to use it on maso level except maybe on a tiny map, since the ai will be at least as advanced as you in research.

[Desert Dog]

I have to agree with LDiCesare I always colonize PQ 14 and use this to gain on the AI a little. Maso level I don't understand how to play at the higher levels. Challenging is a bit hard for me at the moment.