Tips for a noob?

[Gwynblade]

I mean I am not a total noob, I have 20 hours in the game butI almost always lose the game. I play on hard and the AI is always stronger for some reason. What fleet composition should I use? I'd appreciate any help and tips. What my strategy should be in general?

 

[Jabby]

Whats your typical setup? I suggest Militarist collectivist spiritualist

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

A strong economy is probably the most important thing. Explore with your science ships and expand your borders, then exploit by building all the space mines that you can. Then you can easily exterminate your enemies.
Fleet composition is sort of situationally dependent to a degree, but being able to out-produce your enemies is usually a winning strategy in any game.

Oh yeah and science. Lots and lots of science.

Also, just play on normal until you consistently destroy the AI and find it too easy. By that stage you'll be more than a match for hard AI

 

[Gwynblade]

Whats your typical setup? I suggest Militarist collectivist spiritualist

My typical setup is always militarist, collectivist, spiritualist and xenophobic

 

[Gwynblade]

A strong economy is probably the most important thing. Explore with your science ships and expand your borders, then exploit by building all the space mines that you can. Then you can easily exterminate your enemies.
Fleet composition is sort of situationally dependent to a degree, but being able to out-produce your enemies is usually a winning strategy in any game.

Oh yeah and science. Lots and lots of science.

Also, just play on normal until you consistently destroy the AI and find it too easy. By that stage you'll be more than a match for hard AI

Yeah, and how should I expand my borders properly? Should I try to build outpost near other my outposts in order to connect them?

 

[Jabby]

My typical setup is always militarist, collectivist, spiritualist and xenophobic

Four ethics?

 

[Jabby]

Yeah, and how should I expand my borders properly? Should I try to build outpost near other my outposts in order to connect them?

Build outposts to grab huge butloads of resources and to connect colonies

 

[PirateJack]

First off, split your starting fleet into individual ships and have them explore your immediate region while your science ships survey habitable systems and those within your borders. I always build a second science ship as well. This second ship should have a leader with a research related speciality. As long as you're not playing a fleeting species you should be able to swap him into a research spot when he reaches level 4/5.

Your first goal should be to build your military up to 10 or so ships, then get your colony ship out. After that, get your fleet up to the cap and go to war. Aim to destroy the economy and fleet of the enemy then sue for peace. You just want to cripple them, and if possible, take a colony that has no spaceport yet.

That's my standard start and it works pretty well.

 

[Gwynblade]

Four ethics?

Modded

 

[PirateJack]

Yeah, and how should I expand my borders properly? Should I try to build outpost near other my outposts in order to connect them?

Also build them in the direction of future colonies so that they cost less influence.

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

Yeah, and how should I expand my borders properly? Should I try to build outpost near other my outposts in order to connect them?

Yes a combination of colonizing choice planets and using outposts to fill gaps/sieze strategic locations/resources. Try to place them so as to maximise the number of systems that will be covered by their border projection, but don't go overboard making lots of them. There is an influence upkeep cost for each one so you will cripple yourself if you over expand with them. Also use them to secure planets that you will want to colonize in the near future but don't want to straight away (each planet increases tech costs by 10% so you don't want to colonize too many places too quickly until you have strong enough research to overcome this).

 

[Jabby]

What ftl method and is any ftl allowed?

 

[Jabby]

A good method is conquering primitives and using them for colonisation.

 

[Summercat]

Modded

You might want to play unmodded, on Normal difficulty, to get the hang of the game first.

 

[Jabby]

Forgot to ask which traits you're using

 

[Gwynblade]

You might want to play unmodded, on Normal difficulty, to get the hang of the game first.

I've already played like that a year ago or so. Normal is too easy though and I really like mods

 

[Gwynblade]

Forgot to ask which traits you're using

Fan. xenophobe, fan spiritualist, militarist, expansionist (a trait from mod called Ethic&Government Rebuild), authoritarian

 

[nyah]

I've already played like that a year ago or so. Normal is too easy though and I really like mods

In 20 hours?

 

[TankRush]

For planetary improvements I always try to clear the tile blockers relatively early, even when I'm not planning to build there. Growth takes such a long time and 1 pop impacts your overall research penalty so little that it's better to just clear away everything so that if you forget to check in on the world, you won't be wasting time later on.

Leaving all that empty space allows you to react to the needs of your Empire as they change as well. If you've been building up your fleet and fall low on Energy then it's only a few months until you can have several new buildings online to supply it. In my games I find that most planetary structures end up being energy or research, because minerals are so easy to mine in space it's not worth it. But planets that have a bonus to mineral production should be milked for all they're worth.

 

[Gwynblade]

In 20 hours?

I played a year ago on a pirated version. On a bought version I got 20 hours, so I got at least some experience

 

[Gwynblade]

And when I try to expand my borders with outposts what if I run out of influence?