MoO2 tech beeline for non-creative races

[Flare]

What is the best MoO2 tech beeline for no-creative races? ~Grimace~ I have always played creative & I want to break myself of that habit. However, I would like some input from you all before hand. Thanks in advance.

Kevin

[vmxa1]

Well that depends on a few things. Mainly what is my racial traits and then what am I trying to do in this game. BY that I mean, am I going for a Warlord/Tele fast capture? Do I want to play it defensively and play the game out to 300 turns or so?
Do I have a Uni race, if so then I do not need morale structures, if not, I do.

Here is one path for a blitz race:
1. Research Lab
2. Reinforced Hull
3. Automated Factories
4. Hydroponics Farm (Bio for most nonblitz races)
5. Neural Scanner
6. Supercomputer

I should have mentioned that tech start is a big impact, Prewarp is not the same as Adv tech.

[The Mad Monk]

I tend to fiddle with my build path every game. I start pre-warp, and don't even look at space techs until every planet in my home system is settled. This has taken as long as seven years in some games...

I almost always hit reinforced and factories, then labs, because when I count in build times, I seem to be able to establish both on all colonies faster with factories first.

[Sikander]

It does really depend on what sort of game and race you start with. The balance you want to achieve has you getting new techs at about the same rate as you have implemented the last tech. Just government type alone can have a big impact. Consider the same decision tree used by a player using Unification vs one with Democracy. In the former case, the +50% production is going to make it quite simple to build things, the difficulty will be keeping the tech up to the pace. In the latter case techs will be simple to get with the +50% tech bonus, and much harder to implement. Thus with a Unification type government it seems more likely that it will beeline to research labs than factories than a Democracy would. Other factors like pollution also play a role. Factories aren't going to help much if most of your new production ends up as pollution.

[CharlesBHoff]

Re: MoO2 tech beeline for non-creative races

Originally posted by Flare
What is the best MoO2 tech beeline for no-creative races? ~Grimace~ I have always played creative & I want to break myself of that habit. However, I would like some input from you all before hand. Thanks in advance.


Try to get hold of the Master Of Orion II Battle At Antares The Official Strategy Guide.
Kevin

[vmxa1]

"Try to get hold of the Master Of Orion II Battle At Antares The Official Strategy Guide.
Kevin"

I hope you are kidding. This is about as lame as a guide as I have ever bought, well Ascendancy guide makes it look good.
There are several nice strat plans on the web for Moo2.

[Harry Seldon]

There are several good ones in this forum. You could try searching the archives.

[da_hal]

heh i bought the "officially crap" civ guide, moo1 guide, and xcom guide. the xcom guide is pretty good actually.

[Harry Seldon]

Maybe we should try to get vmxa1 to write one for us. Most of the ones you'd search for here are his anyways.

[da_hal]

Oh, i use a slightly different strat for non-creative:

chem 250
chem 650
chem 1150
chem 2000
chem 4500

i then trade for everything. usually i get:
all con up to 650, sometimes 900
all engines up to 900
all socio up to 2000
all biology up to 1500
all computers up to 1500
most beams up to 2000
most shields up to 2750

it has a lot to do with relative tech distance, not which techs you have. also, i can sometimes double dip and get several unique trades out of a single tech by trading what i get in another trade.

in terms of the emg strat, the only vital element is the minaturization of mercs up to chem 4500. otherwise, everything else that is required only takes a few extra spaces and doesn't really matter if it minaturizes or not.

this also works well with uncreative, and i can trade for chem i don't have.

for some reason, chem tech has huge trade value. with either chem 650, i usually get auto factories, research labs, reinforced hull, hydroponic farms.

[vmxa1]

I confess that I always buy the guides, even when I have finished the game before the guide is in the stores (mm8 comes to mind).
The best one I have is Moo1, that is very comprehensive.

[vmxa1]

BTW the worst one I have is Ascendancy.

[vmxa1]

Research labs- this is the first technology you always want to research, without these, it would be harder to research other things. It provides +5 research and +1 research per pop.

Reinforced hulls- you need this to increase the hull points on any ships. Without these, it would be easier for enemies to blow away your ships easily.

Automated factories- you need this to build things faster, since it provides +5 production and +1 production per pop.
After building these, you may want to build your 2nd colony ship.

Deuterium fuel cells- if you want to explore a bit further, you may want these, but you don't have to get these right away.
Tritanium armor- this are the best early game armor available. It adds a +10 ground combat, it increases the hull and structure points on a regular titanium ship by 2 times.
Getting Tritanium armor, or fuel cells, you get missile upgrade mods that let you configure your nukes to heavy armored, or fast missiles.

Biospheres- it is better to get biospheres over hydroponics, because biospheres give you 2 extra pop at every colony. These extra pop you could make more food than with Hydroponics, better yet, you could use the extra pop as you like.

Cloning centers- depending on your race, you may want this to expand your pop faster. Normally, this is better than choosing +growth for race picks. You want these for SUB/LITH, or TOL/Lithovore, or UNI/subterranean, or UNI/aquatic races.

Soil enrichment- if you do not make 4+ food per pop at your home world, then you want these. Unification races already add extra food, and sometimes you do not need these for unification races. Cybernetic don't require these either.

Neural scanners- this adds +10 to all spy activities.

Super planetary lab- gives +10 base research, and provides +2 research per pop.

Spaceports- this increases the empire BC income at wherever this is built, by +50% more revenue. Anything built after this, helps you make more money.

Robo-miner- gives +10 base production, and provides +2 production per pop.

Augmented engines- this adds a good +5 movement to all ships. It also provides better defense against beaming weapons.

Ion drives- you need these drives, so you could move at speed of 4 parsecs per turn.

Space academies- you CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT THESE. You need these to build any type of ships, especially if they are BEAMING WEAPONRY ships. They upgrade the crew of any ship being built at a colony from green status to regular status.
Regular status means +10 both ship beam offense and defense. They also increase a ship's status by the turns, as a ship is docked at a colony with these.

Fusion beamers- you need these to fight creative races, especially if the creative races have shields on their ships.
This is probably the best weapon to fight a creative with in early games, because fusion beamers have the enveloping modification that can be easily used to wear down any shields on all sides.

Battle scanners- you NEED these also, because this adds a +50 beam offense to any ships these are put in.

Pollution processors- reduces the pollution to 50%. Great if you are going to blitz an enemy, because you could use automated factories, and pollution processors in your home planet to build full-figured battleships in about 15 turns, and cruisers in 10 turns.

Merculite missiles- by time you get Zortium armor, you get full mods on these. Do a good 14 damage while a nuclear missile is 8. If you get either pollution processors, or these missiles, you get full modifications on nuclear missiles, so you could use mirved nuclear missiles to take out monsters.

Atmospheric Renewers- reduces the pollution to 25%. Better than pollution processors.

Pulson missiles- these are better missiles than Merculite. Do a good 20 damage per missile, and they are faster, and harder to shoot down. Rarely will I get Pulson missiles, maybe when I am tolerant.
Iridium Fuel Cells

Zortium armor- this is the best armor to get in mid-game games. Early game you need Tritanium armor, it adds +15 to ground troops, and they take 2 hits to go down I believe. Increases the hull and structure points on a regular titanium ship by 4 times. If you are a creative, you reach tolerant status by researching Zortium armor, and you also get a +1 production per pop race bonus.

Mass drivers- the best early beaming weapon. Does not lose damage when shot, and you can get armor piercing modification.

Inertial Stabilitzers- these add turn movement to ships, and also provide a good +50 beam defense.

Cybertronic computers- these add +100 beam attack to all ships being made.

Autolabs- provides 30 RP in every colony where these are built.


So many things are dependant upon the game and the race.
Races that ignore pollution can skip PP and the like, raqces that do not need food, can ignore hydro/soil and so on.
Am I going to use a tele and want to get out fast and far?
One race I use, does not even do any research with a normal tech game. Advance tech vs prewarp. If prewarp, I need to learn the tech to make ships, otherwise I know them from the start.

[Gilgamensch]

Good job vmxa1

Are you living to play, or play to live

[vmxa1]

Thanks, its better than nothing.