Some things I noticed in my current run - and asking for advice

[Tom D.]

So this is my first run with the Apocalypse and Distant Stars DLC as the UNE. I'm a few decades into the game and despite already being trading with the galactic market for a couple of decades, I got the event that it was founded, despite it thus already existing for a couple of decades. Is this WAD? When I discovered the market I was surprised because I didn't get a message but it seems like that message was delayed for just 40 or so years...

In 2267 I also got the birth of the Space Piracy event which I'm almost sure of should fire soon after the beginning of a run, but here it apparently got delayed a couple of decades too for some reason - also WAD or not? The pirates themselves also triggered inside a system of mine, not sure if that's intended too or not.

I'm pretty sure some weird stuff like this might come up in the future so I'll likely update this to avoid spamming threads, but I'd be glad already to know the answer to my previous two questions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[redrum68]

1. I think you are confusing the internal market that you start with the ability to trade with and is isolated to only you with the galactic market which is used by everyone and founded around 2255. The event is indicating that someone founded the galactic market and now you will use that instead of your internal market. Rates will fluctuate a lot more since everyone will then trade on it.

2. The pirate event is a random event that still is in the game but IMO is outdated and based on how pirates used to work. Now that piracy has be reworked at it primarily a loss of trade value on along your routes, the event should be removed but it still has some chance of spawning and you then have to deal with the pirate fleet. I don't think there is anything you can do to avoid the chance of it happening.

 

[Tom D.]

1. I think you are confusing the internal market that you start with the ability to trade with and is isolated to only you with the galactic market which is used by everyone and founded around 2255. The event is indicating that someone founded the galactic market and now you will use that instead of your internal market. Rates will fluctuate a lot more since everyone will then trade on it.

Now that I think of it that section with the current Market leader might not have been there before that but I didn't even notice so maybe it's not that obvious, but that might just be me. That explains it though, thanks.

Also, now that I have the opportunity, from the few screenshots above, does it look like I'm doing good? I'm at around 2270 but I have a feeling that everything goes so much more slowly since the new economy overhaul patch. The Empire sprawl severely limits you from expanding a lot, I think I have like 20-25 systems and there's an entire galaxy arm waiting full of rich of resources to be taken but I simply can't because I would end up with +100% costs for everything. My fleet has a total of just under 2k power, in 2270 which is probably way too low but on the other hand the other empires are equivalent power as me, so it's not like it's just me as a player who is held back. If the Khan comes or the endgame crisis, how am I going to survive if I probably will have a fleet of just 5k when 2400 comes around? I'm having a lot of fun but I'm just so insecure on how I'm doing cause I have to relearn everything and I have no real numbers to compare with.

 

[Riftwalker]

also i think the pirate event wont fire during war, so any chance you been at war for a while?

 

[Tom D.]

also i think the pirate event wont fire during war, so any chance you been at war for a while?

I haven't been at war at all . I was lucky that two of my 3 earliest neighbours to the west were fanatic xenophiles, and the empires in the north I only discovered probably around 2260 (which is late too I think?).

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

The Empire sprawl severely limits you from expanding a lot, I think I have like 20-25 systems and there's an entire galaxy arm waiting full of rich of resources to be taken but I simply can't because I would end up with +100% costs for everything.

This is the single most important thing you need to relearn right now. Ignore that sprawl penalty. Completely.

That's why you're underperforming.

Sprawl is just the new way of calculating what used to be flat rate increases to tech and unity costs based on number of planets etc. The only "new penalty" with it is the increased leader costs. And that is to balance their cap being removed.

So to reiterate, ignore sprawl, take that God damn territory!

 

[Tom D.]

This is the single most important thing you need to relearn right now. Ignore that sprawl penalty. Completely.

That's why you're underperforming.

Sprawl is just the new way of calculating what used to be flat rate increases to tech and unity costs based on number of planets etc. The only "new penalty" with it is the increased leader costs. And that is to balance their cap being removed.

So to reiterate, ignore sprawl, take that God damn territory!

Any other tips you have, some numbers I 'need' to have in production or so at a given date to have some guidance in how good I'm doing? I recently was able to increase my administrative capacity so currently I'm positive again, but I'll likely that all the territory I want and see how big the penalty will get. Below are some screenshots detailing the current situation, I'm also a bit unsure in what to build on planets, you kinda have to predict that you will run out of for example consumer goods so that you build the first time a new building slot becomes available a civilian industries building, otherwise you're stuck. Maybe that's also because I have just 3 planets and am going quite tall due to aforementioned Empire sprawl, I'll probably colonise 2 or so more planets too in the near future.

Spoiler: Screenshots 2272

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

Any other tips you have, some numbers I 'need' to have in production or so at a given date to have some guidance in how good I'm doing? I recently was able to increase my administrative capacity so currently I'm positive again, but I'll likely that all the territory I want and see how big the penalty will get. Below are some screenshots detailing the current situation, I'm also a bit unsure in what to build on planets, you kinda have to predict that you will run out of for example consumer goods so that you build the first time a new building slot becomes available a civilian industries building, otherwise you're stuck. Maybe that's also because I have just 3 planets and am going quite tall due to aforementioned Empire sprawl, I'll probably colonise 2 or so more planets too in the near future.

Spoiler: Screenshots 2272

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I never really go by set income numbers at set dates. They're kind of meaningless when you consider the huge range of galaxy options and how much they will influence these milestones.

But you really need to get yourself very far away from the mindset that you need to be in "positive" admin capacity.

It looks like you could easily take 4-5 times as much territory as you have, just from aggressively expanding in the unclaimed territory around you (it actually looks like you struck real lucky on that).

Taking all those systems will have far more impact on your income than worrying about buildings on your 3 planets.

And yeah, it's a bit of a constant juggling act balancing all the new economy factors. But that's the fun of it. Only advice to say there is probably what you already know. Alloys are the new minerals, you want to maximize your income of them. Nothing can rival an Ecumenopolis for that. Which means the first League is now the best precursor reward, especially if you are an empire who could not otherwise access ecus.

And colonise, colonise, colonise. There's really no benefit from delaying your colonisation any more. And pop growth is just so much more important that it's always best to get your colonies started asap.

 

[Volapyk]

Pretty much agree with everything Brian said.

Expand, expand, expand, that is the key, especially in singleplayer, wide is king. Not that a tall playthrough can't be fun to do, but if you want to do 'good' go wide.

A few things to notice on your planets, they have way too high ameneties, get them working other jobs. If you really want to optimize the number of jobs available should reflect the number of pops, there is no reason to pay maintenance for a district or building if it isn't going to be worked. Same with housing, no need to build another city district if you dont need it.

Also you have sooo much alloy stored up, it really should be used for something. I'm kinda suprised you haven't increased your fleetlimit yet, either through tech or some anchorages, maybe spend some alloys on that, you might be saving the last spacestation capacity for something, but if you expand to more systems it will go up quickly, you get exactly 1 extra per 10 systems you control.

You have a lot of food stored up, maybe activating the extra growth decision on your planets would be a good idea, as pop growth is really something you want a lot of, the more the merrier really.

 

[beckermt]

also i think the pirate event wont fire during war, so any chance you been at war for a while?

It definitely can fire during war.

 

[FonVegen]

The event can fire during war, and both it occurring and it being able to happen while you are busy fighting other empires makes sense. If you leave your trade routes unprotected or at least don't give them enough protection for the amount of trade goods passing through then of course some... unsavoury individuals will exploit that, and, if left unchecked and unchallenged, eventually they will demand everything you have going through that unprotected system. And the government being busy invading other empires or defending against an invasion and pulling all fleets to the other side of the empire is certainly nothing they would complain about.

 

[Tom D.]

A few things to notice on your planets, they have way too high ameneties, get them working other jobs.

It's quite funny because most of the times I had a small shortage of it, but looking at it now I definitely have a lot extra now, I might replace some building.

Also you have sooo much alloy stored up, it really should be used for something.

That's probably also due to limited expansion, that's probably going to change as I'll be expanding a lot more now.

I'm kinda suprised you haven't increased your fleetlimit yet, either through tech or some anchorages,

Tech-wise I've been avoiding them as other options seemed to be more lucrative but I definitely want to upgrade it some more, and anchorages will probably add up too once I start expanding.

You have a lot of food stored up, maybe activating the extra growth decision on your planets would be a good idea

I was kinda on the fence to use it because I thought you still got a pop growth bonus when you reached the cap but this was probably changed in the patch? If so I'll definitely spam that button some more, I occassionally used it but I'll use it more in the future if that cap bonus is indeed removed. All in all some very useful info here, thanks !

 

[FonVegen]

I was kinda on the fence to use it because I thought you still got a pop growth bonus when you reached the cap but this was probably changed in the patch?

Yes, that was completely done away with. You now have to boost your growth by decision on a planet-by-planet basis, and with "Nutritional Plentitude" (also increases happiness and thus stability) if you're going for an empire-wide boost. Yes, you can do both simultaneously.

 

[Bryartuck]

Do NOT build buildings or districts if you don't have the pops to fill the jobs. You have waaaay too many jobs available, and are paying maintenance on things that are not producing anything (you have 14 free jobs on Earth and 5 on AC). Don't be afraid to leave building slots empty until you need them (wait until you have an unemployed pop to build something). Not only that, but most buildings provide specialist jobs, and your pops will abandon basic resource jobs to fill them, potentially causing shortages that can cascade.

 

[redrum68]

As others have mentioned, the most obvious thing is to expand way more and ignore the empire sprawl penalty. I recently wrote a guide on understanding and improving your early game in 2.2: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/beginners-guide-to-2-2.1149412

 

[Badesumofu]

Just lending my voice to the advice that you should ignore the sprawl penalty. Why worry about having the cost of techs double if the size of your empire triples? Grow as big as you can, snake off territory (though try to keep cohesion at 100%) get big.

I aim to be able to wipe out marauders before 2350 and then wipe out fallen empires before 2400. You need to grow big to do that.

 

[Tom D.]

All very useful advice here, thanks for that. I'm now at 2286 and I have gained 3 more planets and am about to colonise an Ecumenopolis (didn't know you could get those if you didn't have MegaCorp) due to the First League event chain (first time I actually finished it) so I'll have 7 planets in 2 years. Two were colonised, one conquered from nearby primitives who were already in the Atomic Age so I didn't want to risk getting a contender for that space to my left so I just conquered them quickly. In the spoiler are some more screens of the current situation, for now my issue is a next AP as I don't really know what to get. I'm leaning towards Executive Vigor for the extra edict duration time or the one that gives + 10% unity. I want Master Builders and Galactic Wonders for the Megastructures but I need 3 AP first to be able to pick those later so can't take that for now (and don't have the correct technology too).

Spoiler: Screenshots 2286

 

[FonVegen]

You can get quite a few DLC features in the vanilla game (specifically a ringworld and an Ecumenopolis) through the precursor chains, though only one per playthrough. The First League capital is incredibly powerful, and since nobody else in the galaxy can have this planet type you are probably going to be able to steamroll everything soon. Just be very careful to have enough mines so your economy doesn't collapse, with the same going for food.

 

[redrum68]

Starting to look a little better and I would definitely recommend to keep expanding with more outposts and more colonies. You probably want at least 2 construction ships building outposts/stations if you don't already. You could also look to resettle some pops from your original 3 planets to help speed up the growth of your colonies. Getting them up to 10 pop and upgrading to Planetary Administration removes their growth penalty.

For AP, I'd lean towards Interstellar Dominion to reduce influence cost of building more outposts to continue to expand your borders since you'll probably be doing that a lot over the next 10-20 years and later on it'll make claims cheaper. Your monthly influence gain is also low (3) at this point in the game and you should consider reviewing your factions happiness and trying to rival 3 empires if you haven't already to boost it.

You also have a large stockpile of alloys so upgrading a few starbases for either trade hubs/anchorages and building your fleet to max naval capacity would be a good idea as that will act as a deterrent to the AI declaring war on you.

 

[Talanic]

Reiterating on the second point:

Birth of Space Piracy can actually be a good event. Specifically, the pirates can have good loot - including an L-Gate Insight.

Regardless, it happens specifically when you have a high level of Piracy in a system. Piracy only increases when you have trade (flowing from a starbase that's collecting trade via trading posts towards your capitol system) without enough defenses. Defenses come in three forms: Another starbase inside the system will prevent all piracy. Other starbases with weaponry modules will protect multiple jumps worth but will only suppress a flat amount. Lastly, patrolling fleets of ships will suppress specific values of piracy as well.

Pirates can spawn multiple times, but will NEVER spawn if your piracy is completely suppressed. If I read the files correctly, at least 10 points of trade need to be eaten by pirates in order to spawn them. I don't know if that's 10 points across your entire empire, or 10 points in one system. Either way, you'll be best served by using starbases rather than patrols, later on, as your trade value will eventually increase to the point that a patrol fleet is infeasible.

I am uncertain about the triggers for non-trading empires. There's events for them, but I don't know. Some of them are explicitly