I’m a newbie player, and I just started yesterday! I’m having trouble deciding which tech I should get. Which technology is best for the first week? I’m playing the newcomer’s map, too.
Experimentation and Weapons? Maybe. Also whatever you get first experimentation bonus.
Other opinions?
WHAT
I love banking for the early game. Experimentation can also be good. Scanning is very useful in dark games and even more in turn based dark games. This also depends highly on strategy (see below section), it can make sense to just research what you experimented in. This is also affected by tech trades, if someone else already has a tech it can make sense to just buy it even when you have partially researched it.
Weapons can be very useful iff you are seriously blocked in and need to immediately fight. HR (Hyperspace Range) is similarly useful in niche situations where you could expand iff you had it.
I never prioritise Scanning in non-dark games. Likewise I would not go for Manu(facturing) or Terra(forming). Weapons is better than Manu if you need to fight right away. Banking is better than Terra for early game because you will probably not be building on low resource systems.
HOW
I’ve got two strategies for starting games. Both give first tech before end of cycle 2. The important thing is to get over ~3.064 research points per tick (in normal 24 tick cycles), which almost always means a mean of 3.5.
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Don’t build any science in first cycle, but calculate how much money it will take to purchase 3 science in second cycle. Spend most of your first cycle money on Economy but keep money back (CostOf3Science - CycleIncome). When cycle 2 comes around build 3 science and swap to researching what you got the experiment in. Experimentation gives you a mean of 3 science first cycle. If it hits what you are already researching with your 1 science you can invest only 2 science second cycle. This method works well in bigger games where there is high probability that you can get techs from people.
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Build 3 science first cycle, build 1 science second cycle. Total confidence in what you get. You can start bartering with other people because you can guarantee level 2 banking or experimentation before second production. This method works best if you organise alliances or trades early.
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I would definitely support strategy 1.
I started out with five science points, so do I still have to build science?
P.S. That’s a lot of really useful information, thanks!
To clarify my previous post, most normal games start with 1 science. So good general advice but of course need to take into account custom settings.
If you start with 5 science already built you can either up it to 7 to get Bank2 or Exp2 before end of first cycle or just leave it as is. 5 is way above the requirement to get tech before end of second cycle.
However, the above is only true at the start of the game. You get science every tick so after the start you need to take into account your current points and remaining time till end of cycle. If for example you want banking this cycle, or to check if it’s worth getting, you do: (PointsRequired - CurrentPoints) / (TicksRemaining - 1). At the start of a game this is (144 - 0) / 23 = ~6.26, half way through first cycle it becomes ~13 with no accumulated points or 7.64 if you have been researching with 5 science from the start.
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