Strategy Guide (SEV)
From SEWiki
Most of this contribution goes to Sanfords and Inigma.
Contents |
Overview
Well we need a strategy guide so I might as well start it.
The basic tutorial for the game doesn't get you very far in understanding it all. My first game took me a month to play - so here's my first tip:
Tip: By default the menu\options menu sets the "System Icon Movement Speed" to Medium. This is the speed your ships move (yea the name didn't clue me in either). It takes FOREVER to play a turn if you have it set this way so change it to High or Very High to make your games run faster.
When you start out here is a list of the things you need to worry about roughly in the order of importance:
Gameplay tips
Grow or die
Build colony ships right away and settle as many planets as you can before you encounter enemies. Having a strong base to start with can be key to winning. Build on the bigger planets first. Make SURE you have a spaceport in each system and build them first. What can happen if you don't is you can find planets running out of critical resources and becoming useless. You may even need to bring supply ships to them to help them build a spaceport if you wait too long. Also, if your planet supports more than 4000kT or so always build a shipyard and a resupply depot. Having lots of planets that can supply and build ships helps you keep them busy and lets you rapidly build up fleets if you need them.
Learn or die
I never have less that 50% of my research points go towards "Applied Research". Frequently monitor your research achievements and whenever you improve a level here, IMMEDIATELY upgrade your facilities so you can get all your research facilities learning faster. This makes your knowledge growth geometric instead of arithmetic which in the long term can give you a big edge.
Watch your minerals closely
I find that once I get into the game and start trying to build up a fleet to fight other players I often get into trouble with mineral resources. Devote some research points to improve your mineral extraction technology and each time you gain a level here you should upgrade your facilities to help you gain more minerals faster. Also, when building facilities I always try to build lots of mineral extraction facilities where the planet supports minerals over 100%.
If you do find yourself getting low on minerals scrap any old ships or bases or satellites and get that net minerals positive quick. You can then build updated newer ones when you have the resources.
Diversify your knowledge
I still have yet to learn all the technologies out there but what I have found so far is you need to study these areas first:
- Applied Research
- Minerals Extraction
- Particle Weapons: A lead here early and always makes fighting easier
- Armor: you need to get up at least a few levels here to have your armor worth anything.
- Colonize other types of planets (rock, ice, gas) - start putting a little research into one of the other types of planets early. Once you get this, quickly build the new type of colony ships and settle those new types of planets quickly where you are already in control. This lets you grow without having to fight for the space.
- Light Hull Construction: Its good to get your ships bigger so work on this a little from the start.
- Once you have these established and have upgraded and built more research facilities you can start to branch out to the other research areas. I usually just pick off points from my applied research and spread them out 1% at a time about an ever increasing number of fields to study. But always keep your applied research points at least 50%.
Satellites
Satellites are cool because you don't need to study much to get them and once you build them you can put your superior particle beam weapons on them and build them on planets that can't build ships or can't upgrade. In time you can then develop ships with satellite launchers and lots of cargo storage that can move these satellites to your boundary warp points to protect your strategic points. This will free up your ships to amass into large groups that can smash your competition where you need them. Note that as you build your satellites, launch them immediately into space about your planets so they can serve as a defensive barrier - they do you no good on the planet surface. Support ships can pick them up whether or not they are in orbit so just get them up there as soon as you build them.
Later on, after I have studied some good sensor technology I usually make special sensor satellites which I then build and launch from my planets to give me an easy constant eye on my systems. This prevents enemy ships from sneaking around you and turning up where you least expect them. Once you get satellites watching everything you can pretty much clear your inner systems of ships and keep them concentrated at the boundary warp points for protection.
Weapons Platforms
When a planet is under attack, any weapons platforms on the planet will fire upon the oncoming fleet. They are fairly cheap but take up considerable cargo space (especially on small and tiny planets) and may have a hefty upkeep cost. However, they are great for quick defense of planets which cannot create ships, and they will also participate in land battles along side your troops. Placing one or two on each planet may help with the attrition of an attacking foe while your fleets deal most of the damage.
Carriers and fighters
Fighters are fast and hard to hit. They are difficult for a fleeing foe to escape from, so fighters are great for intercepting ships before they escape. Fighters are fairly vulnerable to point defenses, but against races that neglect to research such defenses, fighters can deal substantial damage with minimal losses. Against foes with point defenses, a cloud of fighters may help ensure missile volleys hit by absorbing the defenses first.
Don't try to grow too fast
If you overextend yourself you can become vulnerable to fleets coming in and ripping you the shreds. Better to add one or two systems at a time. Reinforce your unexplored warp points with satellites and fleets while you fill out your newer systems with colonies and defenses. Once you have established your planet weapons bases and satellites for protection, then you can send your fleets out to grab more systems.
Repair ships
Repair ships are vital to keep your forces both flying and up to date. Not only can they patch up holes in your ships, they may assist in retrofits, greatly improving the speed at which a fleet can be spaceworthy again. By adding Solar Collectors, repair ships may also double as a source of supplies for fleets in repair.
Other tips
Some other tips I discovered:
Tip: Pick up the latest patches from the SEV site. When you upgrade, your saved games will generally still work.
Tip: Use the keyboard shortcuts. I use space all the time to look at my next ship. / to start exploring with my ship, Y to sentry my ship, L to launch my satellites from my planets, etc. The game doesn't quite let you get rid of your mouse but the keyboard shortcuts can really speed things up.
SEV is a really really deep game. I have been a bit frustrated with crashes and such but the latest patches seem to have fixed most of those problems. I think it will take me years to probe the depths of this game - and I haven't even start playing people yet!
Rococho Rangers' Tips
Later in the game its good it invest research in planetary improvement tech, build the climate control facilities on planets with below "mild" conditions to increase your reproduction on those worlds.
Build the value improvement plants on mining/farming planets till the planets value is maxed out, then recycle them.
Lastly unless you have imported other races who breath every atmosphere, then build atmospheric converters on all planets that don't have your races atmosphere. This will take along time, but if your patient then it will increase your planet space by a factor of 5 which in long games is a HUGE advantage.
Inigma's Guides
Custom Layout Guide for the Emperor Suffering from Endturnititus
Knowledge is power. Information overload is helplessness.
Endturnititus is a condition one suffers when they find themselves fretting over hitting that "F12" key or "End Turn" button, thinking they "must be forgetting something." So they check and recheck and still upon ending their turn don't quite feel safe doing so. I don't know about you, but until I learned what I am about to teach you, I would always hit the "F12" key as if I was pushing the final button on a nuclear bomb that would ultimately wipe out my dear empire after spending countless hours crafting it together.
Knowledge is freedom from fear of the unknown. And the cure to the "restart-my-screwed-up-turn-from-a-saved-game mental complex."
The power of this game is its ability to easily gather useful information about your empire easily and so be able to micromanage it on the fly using custom reporting layouts and so at a glance be able to decide how to maximize your empire's resources.
The time taken to setup custom layouts in the reporting windows is well worth it. It will mean less time spent hunting for information, less time mulling over the bloated event log, less time making decisions, less frustration at your turn process, reduces overall confusion, prevents uninformed risky decisions, and prevents losing the game because you forgot to make use of resources you could have utilized (like forgetting to maximize an emergency build queue, or launching that drone that would have given you the sensor edge, or launching that vital sensor satellite that you have to now go back another turn to set up before moving your fleet onward).
The ability to go through the mundane tasks of your turn quickly so you can focus on the fun is a skill well worth learning to fully enjoy this game. Creating custom reports in the reporting windows is, I think, the greatest thing about the game as it makes it easy for you to make quick decisions concerning all your tasks without having to waste time data gathering. Having said that, as a newbie, not knowing what screens to customize and how to use these valuable tools is a catch 22 which I hope to prevent by giving you the screens setup I use below, and in the order I use them.
First some instructions.
Report Layout Commands
To set a custom layout in any of the following reporting screens, simply open the screen and click on "Layout," and then "Create Custom Layout." You can change the order of the layout of the categories from here.
To set a filter, click on the "Filter" button and select the appropriate filter(s).
To set sorting, click on the title of the category to sort by ascending order (Z-A). Double click category to change to ascending order (A-Z). To set multiple sorting stacks, click or double-click categories in order from least important to most important. Example: if you want to sort the three categories:
Size, Atmosphere, Mineral Content
by largest, breathable, highest mineral content with most breathable as most important, highest mineral next important, size last important then do the following:
Double click on Size (to sort from A-Z which is also Huge to Tiny), then double click on Mineral Content (to sort from Highest percent to Lowest percent), and then finally click on Atmosphere (to sort from A-Z which is CO2 to O2 or double click to sort from O2 to CO2). The result should have at the top of your list the most breathable, highest mineral, and largest planet. A very high priority target for colonization indeed.
The following below are the layouts I use. Feel free to use them to get started with designing your own.
Systems (Shift + X)
Inigma's Custom Layout Name: System and Planet Unit Status
Layout: System Name, Notes and Status Icons
Filter: Systems We Have a Colony In, Planets
Sort: A-Z by Name
Purpose: To see at a glance if there are units on planets that I've constructed that need picking up or launching (double click to go to planet and launch), or notes in a system I need to catch up on (right click on system name).
Planets (Shift + P)
Inigma's Custom Layout Name: Colonization Screen
Layout: Planet Name, Planet Size, Planet Type, Atmosphere, Mineral Value, Ship Enroute Name
Filter: Colonizable and Breathable, or Colonizable
Sort: A-Z by Name, then A-Z by Size (Huge first), then A-Z by type, then Z-A by atmosphere, then Highest to Lowest by Value
Purpose: To see at a glance top colony targets that have no colony ship enroute to them yet. The "Send Colonizer" button when enabled (you have to have a colonizer sitting around without orders) makes for a one-click Colonial expansion to those targets. I use the embedded quadrant map to ensure my colony targets are going to systems I want to own instead of halfway across the quadrant in enemy territory. The quadrant map lights up systems when I mouse over on planet names. Later in game, I sort by planet name as highest priority and therefore target systematically entire systems for backfill colonization in order to completely own them.
Colonies (Shift + C)
Inigma's Custom Layout Name: Colony Facilities and Unit Queues
Layout: Colony Name, Facility Space Used, Facility Space Total, Item Under Construction, Status Icons, Mineral Value
Filter: Our Colonies
Sort: Highest to Lowest by Facility Space Used, then by Highest to Lowest by Facility Total Space, then A-Z by Under Construction (showing empty "none" queues first); or Highest to Lowest by Value, then A-Z by Under Construction (showing empty "none" queues first)
Purpose: To see at a glance which colonies can build facilities, or which high value colonies can build resource facilities, or to see what colonies are simply free to build units, or need non-breathables removed (the dome icon shows up in the status icons for which the "Scrap Cargo" button is useful in releasing un-needed pop from their service to the Empire).
Construction Queues (Shift + Q)
Inigma's Custom Layout Name: Construction Queues
Layout: Queue Name, Item Under Construction Name, Queue on Hold, Queue Repeat Build, Queue Emergency Build, Item Under Construction Time Remaining
Filter: All Construction Queues
Sort: A-Z by Name, then Z-A by On Hold (showing On Hold items first), then Z-A Repeat Build (showing Repeat Build first), then A-Z by Emergency Build (showing Emergency Build first), then A-Z Time (showing no build first, and longest build last)
Purpose: To see at a glance my queues in order of priority - from highest to lowest priority: empty slow build queues, then empty emergency queues, then empty queues, then soonest queues sorted by emergency queues, then slow build queues, then lastly items on hold. Categorizing my queues in this way has reduced my decision-making time by almost 80%.
Ships (Shift + S)
Inigma's Custom Layout Name: Ships and Deployed Unit Status
Damage & Supply (D&S) Layout: Ship Name, Design Type, Damage, Status Icons, Supplies, Ordnance
Orders Layout: Ship Name, Design Type, Status Icons, Orders
Filter: Our Ships, or Our Units, or Our Fleets
If using Damage & Supply Layout, Sort: Most Damaged to Least Damaged, A-Z by Design Type
If using Orders Layout, Sort: Z-A Orders (empty orders first), A-Z by Design Type
Purpose: To know what ships at a glance need help, are mothballed, sentried, need a fleet, or need orders. I switch back and forth with the filter to show my units and manage unit, ship, and fleet interactions mostly through this screen initially, and then use the prev/next ship buttons over the quadrant map on the main game screen to "mop up" any ships I may have missed moving, however with the Orders Layout this practically never happens. Supply worries are mostly early game, and I switch to the Orders Layout when I think I've have no reason to check for ships running on fumes - besides the Status Icons are the best and most compact indicator of this, so save the screen space and use the Orders Layout all the way baby!
Inigma's Strategy Tips
Feel free to incorporate this section and these ideas into the greater strategy guide. I didn't know where to put it.
Colonization Strategy
Game Start
At Game start I usually send out scout colony ships during the early game colony rush (colony ships with sensors, supply, built with emergency build, with a shipyard space stations rounding out the last 1 or 2 emergency build slots). The Colony Scouts attempt to scout out defensible choke point systems (systems with one defensible entry into your claimed systems) usually ending their run when their supplies run out if they can't find out, and colonize the closest available planet of the same race atmosphere type. A well led and well designed colony scout ship will be able to scout out 4-7 systems before running out of gas in Balance Mod, increasing your initial empire size claim to at least 5 good and defensible systems in a medium game.
Once you have your shipyard station, set it to emergency build cheap colonizers (think "cheap" as in Wal-Mart cheap so as to be able to build a colonizer by the station in 1 or 2 turns. Basically 3 engines minimum and no fluff but the colony module, bridge, crew, and lifesupport - and set design to ram, so enemies don't capture them easily). The build queue for the station usually comes to about 2-3 colonizers with enough time left to build yet another shipyard station which can be used while the first station reverts to slow build. Emergency building more colonizers while the homeworld and first station are in slow build mode, and then building additional stations at the last of the emergency build will push your productivity beyond many gamers, let alone the AI. I do this until have about 5 stations, at which point the homeworld is no longer slow building and can begin the cycle again, or build other needed ships. Slow building stations make great early game unit makers, so be sure to make maximum use of your production to capitalize on this. An early drone researcher will find this strat even more useful...but that's for another strategy section for another day.
Neutral Space and Hostile Territory Colonization
Often you will find yourself facing a hostile front line colonization situation in which either the enemy is next door and their ships and colonizers are headed for your target system, or they may even have colonies in the same system. You don't want to waste a good colonizer trip by having your virgin colony glassed by vengeful opportunists, so what do you do? You get creative. A good early game frontline colonization defense strategy is one based on a mix of units: mines, fighters, and satellites. You could use drones for defense, but they are best used for offense since they can warp through warp points, but the research cost to get drones is often too high at game start and usually requires a dedicated drone player to get them and use them effectively in time for early game border establishment. Since any planet can construct units, that is why utilizing a quick mix of units on the frontline can be the difference between a glassed world and a thriving military base.
In most cases if you follow my colony rush strategy above, you won't have any dedicated military ships. So what do you do? Use your frontline colonies to churn out small mines first (which requires researching them and small warheads if necessary), then build and launch a sensor satellite to see what's headed your way. Then build fighters to survey the system, and launch them in groups of 8-20 to defend the warp points. Then build your resupply depot so you can resupply your fighters in the system without having them to return to base. If enemies ram your mines, immediately focus on building back up enough so you can create a resupply depot for your future fighters. If the enemy is using point defense in greater numbers than you can overwhelm, retreat from the warp points and use mines on the colony and send in some reinforcements from home; if sweepers, use missile satellites; if missile ships and long range weapons, build up shielded or armored weapons platforms. The point is to hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive and kick some serious alien be-hind. If you've lost the colony before reinforcements from home have arrived, then you have probably expanded too far too quickly. If your reinforcements can retake it the system, then do so; otherwise suck it up, retreat your focus to your closest colony, and batten down the hatches; and then retake the lost system in a future offensive - preferably with an overwhelming show of force so as to secure it from being lost again.
Tips:
- In addition to loading population on colonizers, you can also load mines, weapons platforms, fighters, drones, and satellites, and when you make a colony with it, the units are already on the planet ready for launch and use.
- In addition to the standard kamikaze colonizer, you can add fighter bays, mine layers, satellite launchers, and drone launchers and make specialized colonizers (such as laying mines or sats on the way to a colony, or quick-scouting systems with fighters or drones).
- You can make carrier colonizers and load them with 1k pop and the rest fighters, and use the fighters with the survey order to survey systems or blockade planets and warp points from threats.
- Like any other carrier, carrier colonizers can reload and resupply depleted fighters - which after sending them from one end of the system to another they will need. If you're running low on gas, colonize a resource-cheap planet and build a resupply depot and let your fighters do the rest of the work for you in a system. If you find that your fighters are out of range for your colonizer as its moving on its way to another system, you can stop and move your colonizer to pick them up, or leave the fighter behind for another ship with a fighter bay to pick them up.
Backfill Strategy
After securing choke points (Border Systems with only one or two warp points leading to unsecured systems), I add a waypoint on my homeworld. I usually hit it with ctrl+0 so 0 is my waypoint number for it. I set individual shipyard queues to auto-launch ships to waypoint 0. I order my shipyard queues to build colony ships (an equal amount of all three types if possible). I don't bother counting my needs, and simply queue up 1 colony ship per queue per turn, keeping mental track to meet the demand my Shift+P planet report screen says I need (it follows logically in my turn process below). When I find that I have colonized half of my desired systems, I then take the time to actually count exactly how many empty and orderless colony ships that I have (they are usually recently constructed and thus enroute to the homeworld), and count how many are in the queues of each type. I do this count at the halfway colonization mark, because the number of my enroute to waypoint 0 colony ships is usually enough to almost finish my project, but not quite (which is why I need the exact count in order to finish and not overbuild). I make a chart of Ice, Gas, Rock Need vs Have, and then I go to my Shift+P planets report and work in a clockwise circle from my homeworld, doing the closest ring of neighbors first, and then moving on to the next ring out from that, simply counting the number of ice, gas, and rock planets there are. I subtract the difference with my empty and orderless, and in queue colony ships, and write out the number of colony ships I need of each type to finish my backfill project. I then simply queue that many up. Badaboom, badabing, it then becomes a thoughtless backfill, and without the headache of micromanagement.
Colonization Orders I use my Shift+P planets report using my custom layout(mentioned above) and highlight my mouse over the first ring of neighbor systems of my desired empire working in a clockwise direction to colonize them using the "Send Colonizer" button which always sends any waiting colony ships over my homeworld (because all newly constructed colony ships are auto-launched and enroute to waypoint 0, my homeworld, so that the only waiting and available colony ships are those over my homeworld) to my target planet in the list.
Tips:
- I explore like crazy to find the best chokepoints.
- I colonize all breathables first, with priority on the breathables in my home system, and then those closest to choke points. I then switch my Planet report layout to show colonizable, empty, and unchecking the breathable option.
- My Planet report layout should already have the planet names in alphabetical order (which is every planet named by system, so really it's a system order), with (if breathable) large resource planets listed first. I mouse over my target system in the map to see which system I need to target so I don't send a colonizer to the other side of the galactic quadrant by mistake, and I simply make my way down the target system/planet list hitting the "Send Colonizer" button in the planet report window until all planets in that target system have colonizers enroute.
- When doing backfill, and when there are no more breathables to colonize in my desired systems, I first colonize entirely my home system, and then any choke points. I then send colony ships to colonize entire systems starting with those closest to my home system, before moving to the next in a clockwise, ring-like fashion.
- In a resource crunch, I abandon this systematic colonization strategy and simply focus on colonies with the best resources.
Inigma's Turn Process
Please read my Custom Layout Guide for the Emperor Suffering from Endturnititus above first.
1. (Shift + R) Set Research Spending
2. (Shift + D) Create new designs & upgrade queues (Shift + D)
3. (Shift + L) Read treaty offers (don't respond yet)
4. (Shift + I) Set Intelligence Defense Spending
5. (Shift + X) Launch any units (based on custom Systems report) and give them orders
6. (Shift + P) Send out the colonizers (based on custom Planets report) using the "Send Colonizer" button
7. (Shift + S) Give orders to ships, units, and fleets (based on custom Ship report)
8. (Shift + O) Check my resource levels to ensure I'm not going bankrupt
9. (Shift + Q) Give shipyard construction orders (based on custom Construction Queues report), switch over empty emergency queues to slow build if no longer needed
10. (Shift + O) Check resource levels again
11. (Shift + C) Give non-shipyard planetary construction facility/unit construction orders (based on custom Colonies report)
12. (Shift + E) Create/Respond to treaties
13. (Shift + R) Confirm research is set to what I want (always good to double check)
14. (Shift + I) Set Intelligence Spending (always good to double check and set offense spending last)
15. Now you can finally hit that End Turn button knowing you have covered everything!
Inigma's Fleet Management Guide
1. Set waypoints:
Waypoint 0 - Homeworld (If you've followed my other guides, you've got 2-5 spaceyard stations built there remember?) - this central waypoint is useful for new colonizers constructed at other shipyards to auto-move to and wait for orders before load up from the homeworld without taking pop from your thinly populated colonies. The extra stations there also make for a central location for early game retrofitting or for your workbees (see below) or "freightercarriers" to pick up units for unit rushing if necessary.
Waypoints 1-6 - To mark semi-movable Fleet HQs to mass newly constructed ships, repair, retrofit, or train.
Waypoints 7,8,9 - highly movable waypoints for massing an attack
Fleet HQs move as you expand, so changing orders for every single ship using the Fleet HQ destination in their loop or set of orders is as simple as moving the waypoint for that Fleet to the new location. Be wary of any ships that don't have enough gas to get to the new destination, but you'll know that far ahead of time if you are following my entire strat and looking at your Shift+S Ship Report screen every turn checking for status of any ships damaged, or running on empty.
2. Fleet HQs
Are planets with at least one spaceyard somewhere, but realistically a lot more - preferably can repair/retrofit 10%-33% of your entire fleet at once depending on peace or wartime. In order of priority: closest planet to warp point(s), breathable, worthless, small or larger (to store units). The best Fleet HQ is a breathable Huge, fairly worthless (in terms of min/org/rad) planet only a few sectors away from border warp points. These make great locations for training centers.
3. Fleet Composition
Compose your optimal fleet at http://www.bubbl.us an example can be found here:
http://bubbl.us/view.php?sid=58402&pw=yaehWeVeqivoIMzdlc2ZJQzdFTXpITQ
4. Fleet Construction Management
Assign system-wide dedicated construction queues to construct and launch ships headed for the nearest Fleet HQ waypoint. Waypoints have to be set first before they are available in the construction queue's "queue orders"(or whatever its called) list button.
Inigma's Unit Logistics Management Guide
Definitions:
- System Capital: Planet in system that is considered the single point of load/unload for all units constructed in a system for use elsewhere.
- Border System: System that has one or more unsecured neighboring systems.
- Support System: System that dedicates construction for a Border System.
- Drop Target: The location where units are dropped.
0. Provinces
Make note of which system will support which border system. Then dedicate their queues and units to supporting their border system. Use waypoints to mark out Fleet HQs in each border system, using a clockwise (if starting in the middle or left of the quadrant) or counterclockwise (if starting on the right of the quadrant) method to keep track of which wayponts are where. The best empire defense is 2 or 3 border systems. When expanding, concentrate on taking entire areas so as to secure defensible choke points.
1. Assign System Capitals
Assign a planet to be the capital planet of each Support System. Designate the colony type if necessary, or use system notes to conceal such info from human players. Typically the best capital is one that is large enough to store units and also be equidistant between entry and exit warp points for passing cargofreighters.
2. Construct workbees (frigate, all-unit-in-one cargo ships) and set their orders to repeat load all units at all system planets, and drop all units at the system capital. For large systems construct multiple workbees and set them to repeat load and unload. Use workbees for emergency intrasystem transport when cargofreighters are not around. The best workbee is in balance mod, as fighter bays, drone launchers, satellite layers, and mine layers all can carry cargo, including troops, making for a very nice compact unit work horse).
3. Construct one dedicated cargofreighter per Support System and repeat order them to load and drop units on a Support System - Fleet HQ run. If distance greater than 6 turns round trip, setup transport relays (you know, workbee brings it to capital A, caroship1 loads capital A units and transport them to capital C (skipping B if possible), cargoship 2 loads capital C units and transport them to Border Captial1 or Fleet HQ1. Change up your relay and drop targets as necessary as you expand, and use repeat orders liberally.
4. Construct two dedicated population transports (supercargofreighters) per full 5000M pop planet and repeat-order them to fill up the nearest huge breathable, or Border System breathable.
The point is for both of these strats, is to set your queues to construct to waypoint, so that all you have to do is move the waypoint as you expand; and for cargo ships and workbees to use repeat orders liberally so as to minimize the amount of time and concentration on moving material to the front.
Inigma's Early Research and Design Strategy
I usually only play with Captain Kwok's Balance Mod. Please refer to the latest technology chart to figure out what you have to do to get. These are my general early game techs.
1. Level 3 Sensors (you can't win against what you can't see)
2. Small Mines armed with Level 1 Warhead(s) (you can't hold what you can't block)
3. Level 1 Contra Terrene Engines (you can't win where you can't run to)
4. Small Satellites
Early Unit Designs:
- Mine with two 5kT warheads
- Small Weapon Platform with Level 3 Sensors and missiles
- Small Satellites with Level 3 Sensors
Early Ship Designs:
- Long Range Colonizer with Level 3 Sensor (Max engines, sensor, and supply)
- Cheap Colonizer (3 engines maximum)
- Defense Frigate (max engines, 2 guns, supply)
- Attack Frigate (max engines, 2 missiles, supply)
- Patrol Frigate (max engines, 1 gun, 1 missile)
Early Space Station Designs:
- Shipyard (barebones shipyard only, no fluff - I let system defenses be responsible for defending station)
Inigma's Early Drones Strategy
If you are in a medium to large map game, drone scouts are your best friend. I often don't like sending out explorer frigates since crewed ships stuck in the middle of nowhere without any friends around isn't my idea of boosting morale among my people, especially since explorers often get into trouble (think close encounters of the other-end-of-the-warp-point kind). Besides, historically probes and machines are sent out to explore, long before people do. I like to follow this model in my games by focusing on a drones strategy.
1. Research Small Drones.
2. Research Solar Collector.
3. Design and build and launch Scout Drone with computer core, 2 engines, and 1 solar collector (and if you have the production capacity, go ahead and add some armor to ram enemies).
What is great about the drones strategy is that drones not only can move great distances quickly, but unlike any other unit, it can also warp into new systems to scout them out, defend, attack, and harass. This is great for early game wars when you do not have many shipyards since any planet can make drones. Let me repeat: ANY PLANET CAN MAKE CAPITAL SHIP GRADE ARMED WARP-CAPABLE DRONES. So then what do you do with them? You group them up. Queue up missile drones and mix them with your preferred gun drones, along with a few sensor drones. Launch them as a single group once they are all built. Viola - instant defense. My typical drone groups consist of:
2 gun drones
2 missile drones
1 sensor drone
Most early planets can only make 1 drone per turn, so in less than 5 work months you have a capital "ship" of drones usually more lethal than early capital ships built in the same time period, and it can travel insanely farther and faster than capital ships, and often without the huge maintenance overhead of a capital fleet. If you build each of these drones on five planets, you have all this instantly in a single turn - assuming you get them all to rendezvous into an acceptable stack. These traveling packs of drones are feared by many, except for enemy fighters who alone are equipped with the size, durability, and strategies to target them effectively. Point Defense targets them too, but not as effectively, especially when most of your missile drones overwhelm PD to take out enemy ships en masse. I use drone fleets for defense, and scout drones for exploration, and masses of drones to soften up enemy defenses.
They are useful in a large fight since they distract the enemy, or sting them bad when the enemy isn't focused on them, and in general are the closest thing to an uber weapon in Space Empires V. The mere fact that capital grade weapons can be put on these things, and they can travel across warp points, and can be built on any planet, is what makes using them wisely an attractive option for anyone in the know as to their power.
Thinking outside the box, one could even exploit the launch-relaunch capability of drone launchers staggered in a pony-express line to make a drone travel indefinitely in a single turn to anywhere in the galaxy, making large underproducing empires an overwhelming drone threat to others since they theoretically could mass drones made from all corners of their empire, to the front lines quickly and easily in a single turn. In fact, many a good Play By Web game have been ruined by a unit arms race started by a player abusing the drones strategy, with the one out-producing the other by sheer numbers being the clear winner. Some mods exist that now make re-launching drones impossible, but the capital ship weapon capability of drones is often kept in play still making them a lethal unit to deal with from early to late game.
The effective counter to drones is to set fighters to target them first - assuming of course drones aren't using a wall of point defense drones.
Inigma's Min/Maxing Notes and Early Game Production Rush
This guide assumes one is using Captain Kwok's Balance Mod.
I've heard that some invest all their early research points in Applied Research which ultimately gives a 10% research boost. I have have found this to be an inefficient use of early game resources. I've never upped Applied Research during a game unless I have secured my empire, and have run out of room to build, since I focus on early expansion and control. Gaining control of 5 research planets is a bigger boost than any eventual return on Applied Research in my view - and in early game it's the cheapest investment since not only do you have space for research, but also increased production capacity. In fact, focusing on research early on instead of on techs to be used in the eXpansion part of this 4X game, will have you lose against me any day as I will just annex all the rest of your territory that you could have snapped up for yourself, and turn it against you by constantly harassing you with units, and an occasional military invasion.
I start with a republic, industrious, smart, and builder traits empire that gives me a 10% research boost anyways, and a 40% boost in production, while exchanging troop weakness and hardiness for cunning and pop growth. Doing this min-maxing prep for an empire winds up with me having also a 5% intel boost, and 5% pop boost, with only my troop strength 25% weaker - which with a 40% production boost that overcompensates for it by allowing me to build a ton more troops to make up for weaker troops.
With a 40% production bonus I am able to reach a homeworld emergency build rate of 6600 min/org/rad which allows me to build what I call the "Inigma Instant Base (IIB)" 1 per turn :
- 1 Long Range (5 Engine) Colonizer with Level 3 Sensor and Fighter Bay
- 1 Sensor Satellite
- 2 B-I bombers (fighters with 2 engines and a missle)
- 5 Small Mines 10kT (small mine with 2 5kT warheads) which with 5 equals a total of 400 kT damage mininum up to a 600kT damage maximum, which is enough to seriously disable or destroy 1 enemy frigate or colonizer that lumbers over your colony.
And all this is produced in one single emergency turn on the homeworld.
Since Emergency Build can actually be 11 turns long before reverting to Slow Build, I build 9 sets of these IIB's (colonizer/unit combos) and 1 barebones spaceyard station in the last 2 Emergency Build turns (which I will use to build at a rate of 2020 min/org/rad on emergency build from the station, which if one removes the colonizer's sensor and fighter bay in Designs, will wind up with a colonizer just as fast as the homeworld-built ones since it keeps its 5 engines). I then use my homeworld slow build at 1320 min/org/rad to build a sensor satellite and 3 fighters per turn so my spacestation spaceyard colonizers can load up with fighters (or mines) and satellites when they go off to the wild black yonder to colonize planets of opportunity.
As you can imagine by 2401.1, I've have fielded 9 fully loaded IIBs, scouted out approximately 14 systems, and identified choke points to contain them, and with just enough fuel left over to colonize a planet or two in the choke points, and a spacestation over the homeworld building colonizers every 2 turns, for a total of 3 colonizers to be used for backfilling (with the homeworld churning out a companion sensor sat and 3 bombers to boot), before it builds another station in 4 turns.
In addition, my 9 bases each have landed with a sensor satellite, 5 mines to keep away enemy scouts in the area, and 2 bombers to attack any stray enemy colonizers, or to finish scouting the system. Depending on the threats in the area I may use the first turn of the colony to churn out about 31 mines which is enough to stop most enemy fleets dead.
With drones tech, I then use those 9 planets to churn out scout drones that will scout the whole galaxy, or battle drones with which to secure the empire by chasing enemy blockade runners (rogue enemy frigates or colonizers), or simply target and harass any enemy system of my choosing.
Whereas a researcher who decides to not colony rush at least probably just colonized his home system, and probably didn't venture colonizers farther than a system or two away from home and by now has been greeted by one of my scout drones set to ram, followed soon by a couple of battle drones to plug up their warp points.
And while you're busy fending off my drones, by 2402.0 I've plugged up my warp points with mines, and have started colonizing my empire building research planets on resource dead ones, let alone shipyards, and the occasional intel planet.
Man I love this game.
