Help With Trade & Tech Progression Please

[Ovidian]

I've been playing the game for about a day now and I would rate my skill somewhere between a chimp mindlessly banging on the keyboard and a chimp somewhat thoughtfully banging on the keyboard. And not those NASA chimps either. I'm talking those straight out of the jungle, angry at the world kind of chimps. Ok, I've established that I'm not exactly an expert at the game...let's move on...

Trade- Ok, so...you build a Freighter, you send it off to another world. Apparently this establishes a "trade route." You can only have so many trade routes depending upon certain skills. Ok...so...
1) This Freighter must be sent to a world that you do not currently own, correct?
2) If #1 is yes, what happens when you take over that planet or the planet is given to you? Is this route still valid?
3) When establishing trade routes, does each of your planets that has a starport (which can make Freighters) create various trade routes or is the total number of trade routes for your entire "system (kingdom, civ...not sure what the proper term is there)?" For example, if you can have 3 trade routes, is that from every planet or a total of 3 no matter where they come from?
4) Apparently, once the Freighter establishes the trade route, it flys back and forth between the two worlds. Do most people put more than one Freighter on the same route or is one good enough? Not sure what the typical strategy is there.

Tech Progression- In Civ4, I had a definte Tech progression (Bronze, Pottery, Alphabet, etc). I would adjust according to situation, but for the most part, I pretty much followed a particular pattern. In this game, I'm still struggling in figuring out what everything is, much less what order to go in. So what I'm looking for is seeing what other people are doing. Hmmm, guess it also depends upon Race too. Still, I would really like to see what which techs people value at the start. As the Terrans, I've been going straight through to Impulse Drive, then the Translator thing, Sensors, then straight to General Life Support. After, I throw a few Xeno whatever's and the Planet Improvement. Any thoughts?

Any help, info, or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Commodore]

Can't really help you with the trade as I don't fully understand it yet either.

As for the research, rule number one is to not try and get every tech. The tech tree was specifically designed to ensure that you don't get every tech. Instead, you should pick a general path (according to your style and the victory you are going for) to follow and research that part of the technology tree. Also, when it comes to military techs, you should decided on the weapons and armor you want your ships to specialize in and research accordingly (don't forget to pay attention to what weapons and armor your rivals have and research counters to those).

All of that was just general advice to kick things off, as I'm sure more experienced players will give you more detailed advice.

P.S. Empire or Civ are both acceptable terms.

 

[Berrie]

Ok, my thoughts
1) yes, I think so
2) don't know
3) It's the total number of trade routes that count
4) The little freighter you see going back and forward is just a representation of your trade route. You can't put a second freighter on that particular route, but you can create a new route between the two worlds

Please correct me if I'm wrong on something

About the tech choices...
- Speed is very important in the early rat race to grab as much planets as you can, so I usually start with impulse drive and such.
- I agree with the previous poster about picking a general path...
- Make sure your planets are developping and have something to work on
- a tip I learned on this board: research first a new technology that gives you better factories and then the technologies for better research centers, influence buildings,... Otherwise you end up with planets upgrading buildings in 50 weeks or so.
- look at the 'beginner tips' thread: people have already posted great tips over there

 

[BSmith1068]

On Trade:

1.) Yes.
2.) The route is no longer valid. You can not have trade between two of your own planets. You should get a pop-up message stating that the route is canceled.
3.) Like Berrie said already - total number of trade routes civ-wide, not per planet.
4.) You get one route per freighter, so while you could techincally have all of your freighters go between the same two planets, each one will create a separate "trade route". Depending on your situation, this could even be advisable, as it is easier to defend the routes. Even though you can no longer control the little freighter ships going between the planets, they can still be attacked and destroyed. If this happens enough, the route will also be canceled.

On Tech:

The biggest thing to remember is that there is no "one" or "best" path like in Civ. You can get quite far into the tech tree without getting many of the earlier techs. It all really depends on what you want to do, and what the situation of the galaxy is.

I tend to go for engines first, but from then on it really depends on my goal for the game. Weapons tend to come later for me as it usually takes a while for them to be needed. Engines and diplomacy, with some planet improvement techs are early goals for me.

Once you see that others are getting a lot of weapons, and that their military strength is growing, then it is time to start trading and researching weapons techs. Those diplo techs really help here, as it makes trading easier/cheaper.

You also need to watch what weapons and defences they are deploying, and then research to counter them. I tend to be a generalist in this respect. I'll research down the laser line to Plasma, and then start to back-fill other weapons techs. Form that point forward I tend to have a fairly even tech level for all three weapons types. This allows me to deploy ships as needed that can direclty counter my enemies. (some might argue however that this jack-of-all-trades method is a mistake as it takes you much longer to get to the really powerful weapons techs).

Bottom line is that you need to play around and find out what works best for you and your style of play.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ovidian]

Thanks one and all for all the information. This is only my second TBS game (with Civ4 being the first). So I'm still struggling a bit with a few of the concepts.

It definetly helped me to see what someone else is doing with their Tech progression. I'm still learning the "must have" skills and when to bee-line for them.

 

[JavalTigar]

Here is my general route:

research engines to impulse (design your own ships, ALWAYS) get to republic, then go for ethics (choose neutral) then start building netrality centers for research. I always pick the missile route for weapons cause the AI doesn't seem to go for it and they pack a lot of punch.

Then depending on my victory goal will guide me from there.

 

[Vizzini]

1) This Freighter must be sent to a world that you do not currently own, correct?

Correct. You must trade with AI owned planets, you cannot trade with yourself or with unoccupied planets.

2) If #1 is yes, what happens when you take over that planet or the planet is given to you? Is this route still valid?

The route is terminated. See #1.

3) When establishing trade routes, does each of your planets that has a starport (which can make Freighters) create various trade routes or is the total number of trade routes for your entire "system (kingdom, civ...not sure what the proper term is there)?" For example, if you can have 3 trade routes, is that from every planet or a total of 3 no matter where they come from?

Total of 3 no matter where they come from. Most appropriate term to describe yourself has to be "Empire".

4) Apparently, once the Freighter establishes the trade route, it flys back and forth between the two worlds. Do most people put more than one Freighter on the same route or is one good enough?

Only one freighter is allowed per route. You can however establish multiple routes between the same two planets by sending another freighter.

5. Still, I would really like to see what which techs people value at the start.

You're on the right track. Research "Things That Make Us Go" (I score myself -50 for Gratuitus Star Trek quotes), economics, and diplomacy.

In the "Tips for Beginners" thread I think I posted some of the techs you want to go for fast:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=161591

Yup, I did:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3924967&postcount=72

 

[Ovidian]

I've played a few games now so I'm really getting the hang of things. However, I did have a follow-up question on Trading. Is there a screen that I'm missing that shows all the trade routes? Say I have Earth to Whatever, Whatever II, and Mars to Whatever II. Is there a way to keep track of what's going where? It's not a big deal, but it would help me organize things a bit.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

I've played a few games now so I'm really getting the hang of things. However, I did have a follow-up question on Trading. Is there a screen that I'm missing that shows all the trade routes? Say I have Earth to Whatever, Whatever II, and Mars to Whatever II. Is there a way to keep track of what's going where? It's not a big deal, but it would help me organize things a bit.

Yes you can see all you're trade routes under the (Domestic Stats) tab, then click trade routes in there you can see how many trades routes you have, how many you can have, how much money each one is making, and you can also cancel any trade route from that screen. It's very handy!!!

 

[Ovidian]

Yes you can see all you're trade routes under the (Domestic Stats) tab, then click trade routes in there you can see how many trades routes you have, how many you can have, how much money each one is making, and you can also cancel any trade route from that screen. It's very handy!!!

Yikes! I've looked at that screen a thousand times too. Thanks. That's what I get for having the week off and playing the game non-stop. Getting a little tired...and lazy...