Research

[Calapine]

This might be quite a noobish question, but...

The techweb feels a bit overwhelming at the start and there quite a few useful techs: resource unlocks, miasma, biowell, farms, different orbital units,...

In short, I have no idea what to priotiese and notice I end up researching more or less on a whim.

Are there some basic research guidelines? What are some must haves?

 

[Lucius_]

All 6 techs in the first ring are basically required, including computing, which has the cost of a second ring tech. The leaf techs under those are situational, and will probably change based on the game. I'm not good with tech names, so some searching will help out for the rest. Academies are good and used in many optimal strategies. They aren't required though; personally I rarely pick up that tech unless going Supremacy, and I still win Apollo. Institute gives a building quest for a free tech, so that tech is really important. Everything else is situational based on victory condition.

 

[aguliondew]

Your priority should be base on your starting cities advancement. Go for pioneer to get your first colonist build and start getting your trade routes up. After that look at what your cities need health, food, or production. Then it is up to you what you want to focus on: You can get techs base on your diplomatic trait, go for affinity techs, focus on all food based building or anything you feel like doing. Their is a idea strategy but it is not that hard to beat the game using any strategy on Apollo.

 

[Ryika]

Nothing wrong with just starting by picking up whatever you need at the moment. You'll somewhat automatically find more "in-depth" build orders and useful beelines once you're comfortable with the general layout of the tech web.

 

[Calapine]

Thanks (a lot)! That's already very helpful.

One follow up if I may...


I am guessing shooting for one good orbital (tech) is probably useful.

Do you have a rule of thumb which one in which situations? For example: +1 food/tile with weather controller and+1 culture/tile with holomatrix both really look quite enticing...

Cala

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I am guessing shooting for one good orbital (tech) is probably useful.

Do you have a rule of thumb which one in which situations? For example +food with weather controller, or +1 culture with holomatrix both really look quite enticing...

I really like the spy satellite because it reveals a lot of the map and helps you see what is happening. I usually place 1-2 on the edge of my orbital coverage strategically where I think an enemy AI might attack me from. It's a great early warning system.

The satellites really depend on your situation. If you are trading with several stations, then station sentinel is a must. If you have high negative health, the Paen satellite gives you extra health.

I would also recommend that once you got the basic first ring techs, to tailor your tech strategy to the affinity you are pursuing. Focus on techs that give that affinity.

 

[Alkaid]

You don't need the orbital units too much. The most useful one is probably the Solar Collector. The +1 food one isn't bad but it's just not that useful to go out of your way for it, unless you wanted to get the Supremacy affinity from that tech anyway. Holomatrix is pretty poor. Magrails are a better reason to get the tech Holomatrix is on, but not quite worth going out of the way for unless you again wanted to get the Purity affinity from it anyway.

The main way I'd suggest navigating the web is going for techs that give the affinity you want most. Also somewhat prioritizing the techs that allow you to improve the resource relevant to your affinity's units and buildings. Terraforming is a good tech to get somewhat early if you're going for purity, for example, so you can get floatstone. (and assuming you actually have some floatstone around to even improve)


Always start with pioneering (pretty obvious I guess) and then get the techs that reveal titanium and petroleum. If you take Electromagnetic Scanner to reveal titanium, geothermal and petroleum on the map from the start, you should go Pioneering > Chemistry so you can get the research labs and recyclers. If you don't pick the scanner, I like to get the titanium tech first after pioneering instead, since revealing titanium that might be near you will get your production boost from it started faster, then Chemistry after for the labs and stuff again.

The rest of the early techs you can just take what seems best for your situation. You should probably go for the spy agency tech after the rest of the early inner ring techs to get spies rolling earlier, or delay it for some affinity techs if you're threatened by AI. For the most part you then branch off towards what will give you the affinity you want. Don't worry about being too strict with an order unless you're trying for some fast win times. As far as just securing a win, you have room to be looser with what you tech towards and making detours to non-essential things that might make life a bit easier, even if a more optimal game might skip them for speed.