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Sid Meier's Starships : Tips and Tricks

Blue Emu

GroFAZ
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
310
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
ITT we can compile a list of tactical tricks and strategic tips for the Starships game.

I'll be back to post one or two... as soon as I figure out how to play the game.

In the meantime: got any favorite plans or tactics?
 
Strategic layer:
- when you first start a new game, on the first couple turns, try to go for missions that give you energy. In the early game, energy is hard to get so any extra energy will really get help you beef up your ships. If no energy missions are available, go for a mission with a free tech since a free tech is really strong in the early game when you don't make a lot of science per turn.
- Add warp nexuses to your planets before you do anything else. Warp nexuses give you free movement but also link the bonuses of your planets. So add a warp nexus before you move your ships and before you add modules.
- In the early game, always wait until you are in the bridge screen before adding modules to your ships. This way, you can customize your ships to the specifics of the mission. Later in the game, it does not matter as much because you will be flush with energy and your ships will be pretty strong regardless so it is fine to add modules to your ship in the strategic layer.

Tactical Layer:
- Aim torpedoes to where you think the enemy ship will be at the end of its turn not where it is currently. Put 1 torpedo on each ship so that you can launch multiple torpedoes and have them spread out. That way you increase the odds that no matter what direction an enemy ship goes in, it will get caught by a torpedo.
- Fighters can be good decoys. Often the AI will target your fighters instead of your capital ship, thus wasting a shot, giving you a chance to kill the enemy on the next turn.
- Never move your ship unless it is able to get a good shot off, preferable a kill shot.
- There are 3 ways to move your ship:
1) shoot first then move to cover. Good if you are already in a good position for a great shot and good cover is close.
2) move a little, shoot, then use remaining movement to find cover. Good if you are not quite in a good firing position but close to one and good cover is nearby.
3) move your full movement then shoot. Only use this one if you get a kill shot and the enemy cannot one shot kill you.
- Be careful that your red movement line does not go through a hex with a worm hole because you ship will enter worm hole and pop out somewhere instead of moving to the final position that you wanted. Adjust your movement to avoid a worm hole if you do not want your ship to enter the wormhole. Move your ship in several steps if necessary.

Sip Customization
- Always try to synergize your ship with your wonders and your techs.
For example:
- Converging Light - put lots of lasers on your ship and get laser techs.
- Torpedo booster and/or stealth torpedo - put lots of torpedoes. Try to get both wonders if possible. Get the torpedo techs.
- Cloaking - put lots of stealth modules and get stealth tech levels.
- Hyper launch - emphasize fighters.
- Jump Start - emphasize engines and cannons so that your ships can move further on first turn. On first turn, you will be able to get into great position to take first shot on enemy.
 
Strategic layer:
- when you first start a new game, on the first couple turns, try to go for missions that give you energy. In the early game, energy is hard to get so any extra energy will really get help you beef up your ships. If no energy missions are available, go for a mission with a free tech since a free tech is really strong in the early game when you don't make a lot of science per turn.

In addition to this: In the early game, I'd prioritize world types to conquer first like this: volcanic (energy), arid (metals), earth like (food) and then icy (science).

Another tip: Don't aim to conquer worlds as quickly as possible. When you have some influence on a world, missions seem to give more rewards. So for safe worlds (which no opponent can get to) you can take your time to conquer, reaping greater rewards (and points).
 
Which do people favor... Lasers or Cannon?

I've heard that Cannon (plus high speed) are over-powered, but I've had success with long-range sniping after boosting my Lasers up a bit.

Similarly, Shields or Armor? Shields are directional and seriously reduce damage (once you get them to level 3 or so), but are bypassed by Torpedoes. Armor works against everything, but takes full damage and is pretty heavy.

How many techs do you try to push? Three or four?
 
Which do people favor... Lasers or Cannon?

Personally, I tend to go cannons but lasers can be very good in some instances. If you go heavy on stealth, you can use lasers to snipe enemies from a distance, beyond their range to even detect you. Especially, if you have the converging light wonder, you should go heavy on lasers.

Similarly, Shields or Armor? Shields are directional and seriously reduce damage (once you get them to level 3 or so), but are bypassed by Torpedoes. Armor works against everything, but takes full damage and is pretty heavy.

I tend to prefer shields at first, because they won't slow down my small ships too much but they do block a lot of damage. Towards the middle of the game, when I am bringing in lots of energy, I start beefing up my ships with armor (grabbing a level or two in armor tech also).

How many techs do you try to push? Three or four?

One good tip I have is that when you get a free tech, pick from the most expensive one that relate to what you need. If you pick an expensive tech for free, you get more bang for your buck since you are saving that amount of science.

I think it is good to go deep in a just couple categories rather than spread out your tech levels. Higher levels really add up and give you pretty big buffs. Level 3 in one tech will give you more buffs in that category than level 1 will in 3 categories. So try to get to level 4-5 in one or two categories that you really want to emphasize. For example, if you are wanting to emphasize cannons, get as many levels in the cannon tech. Ignore techs that are not essential. For example, if your big focus is fighters, then focus your tech first on fighters rather than laser and cannon techs.
 
This is just an impression but I get the feeling that when I research heavily in lasers, I get stronger laser in my fighters!?

Can anybody confirm, because then the tech tree is multi-related!! or not??
 
This is just an impression but I get the feeling that when I research heavily in lasers, I get stronger laser in my fighters!?

Can anybody confirm, because then the tech tree is multi-related!! or not??

If the RANDOM modules on your fighters happen to give them something that you've researched heavily (in this case, lasers), then yes, it SHOULD give you the same bonus you have on your ships.
 
If the RANDOM modules on your fighters happen to give them something that you've researched heavily (in this case, lasers), then yes, it SHOULD give you the same bonus you have on your ships.

That is my understanding as well. The techs that affects modules also apply to the modules on your fighters. So a laser tech will also boost any laser modules on your fighters. The difference is that you don't control what modules your fighters get. So your fighters may not always get a module that you have big tech level for. If you do happen to have fighters with the same modules that you have a high tech level for, then your fighters can become quite resilient and powerful.
 
On the topic of randomness, am I the only who kind of hates the amount of things that are "random" in this game? Random Wonder for Supremacy, 2 random techs for one of the factions, random modules for fighters... seriously, is it asking too much that they maybe let us PICK some of these things and actually make them a part of our strategy or something?
 
On the topic of randomness, am I the only who kind of hates the amount of things that are "random" in this game? Random Wonder for Supremacy, 2 random techs for one of the factions, random modules for fighters... seriously, is it asking too much that they maybe let us PICK some of these things and actually make them a part of our strategy or something?

I am guessing that the reason for the random modules on fighters is to balance fighters. If players could pick the modules on fighters, they would just always put cannons and nothing else on them. Fighters would be OP. The randomness forces fighters to be different each time and thus adds some replayability. I think the random techs (Daoming) and random wonder (supremacy) are designed to force the player to adapt and pick different strategies. If you let the player always pick a wonder for Supremacy, then players would always pick their same favorite wonder every game.
 
When you get a new ship, not counting the two you start with, you can sell it's components for the buy price. SO if you don't like it's two freebees you can switch them. Fighters cost more so you get extra from selling them, although if you have a discount on something you'd getting the discounted price back so that's less.
 
You can detonate Torpedoes around a planet or moon in the "firing turn," eliminating the need to predict enemy movements, if the "1" line passes through a planet or moon tile. This can be particularly useful if you have ships with high movement the Jump Start wonder and the fast torpedoes wonder, as defenders tend to spawn around the planet. You can eliminate several opponents with a single torpedo before the enemy can move away from the planet.

As far as I can tell, this has no effect on the planet.
 
I am guessing that the reason for the random modules on fighters is to balance fighters. If players could pick the modules on fighters, they would just always put cannons and nothing else on them. Fighters would be OP. The randomness forces fighters to be different each time and thus adds some replayability. I think the random techs (Daoming) and random wonder (supremacy) are designed to force the player to adapt and pick different strategies. If you let the player always pick a wonder for Supremacy, then players would always pick their same favorite wonder every game.

That sounds more like a problem with Cannons being unbalanced when compared to lasers, rather than a design decision meant to make the player adapt to the situation. Because then you have situations like having your players go "yay, I got cannons on my fighters, this is going to be great" or "crap, I got lasers. FML:mad:." rather than the intended "OK, this is the hand that I was dealt, let's adapt my strategy to this situation."

The same can be said about the random techs and Wonder thing. If some things are always better than others (again, think lasers vs cannons), then getting stuck with the crappier one is just going to make you feel like you got screwed. "Wow, my two free techs are on lasers and sensors. Man, I wish I could take those back and put them towards something useful."
 
Another trick: if your ship is on a worm hole hex and you launch fighters, the fighters will not be positioned adjacent to your ship like normal but will instead automatically go through the worm hole to pop out somewhere else. This can be great way to ambush the enemy. especially if you have the warp control wonder, you will be able to pick where the fighters come out of. You can be one side of the map and the enemy can be near a worm hole and you can pop out the fighter right next to the enemy ship.
 
Always start as Supremacy and hope you get a good wonder. If it's Cloaking, invest in it heavily. Cloaking and Fighters are an excellent combo, especially if the cloak radius is tiny.

The enemy will focus on your fighters while your ships can sneak in with the plasma cannons. They'll never run a sensor check if they can see your ships. Even if it's a pathetic little fighter they'll waste shots at (sometimes even the fighter survives!)
 
Remember you can buy planetary influence with credits.
 
Remember you can buy planetary influence with credits.

Yes. Selling resources for credits early in a game so that you can buy influence is a key strategy because it is very important to get a core of say 3-4 planets that are 100% in your federation as soon as possible.
 
Sorry for the double post, but here's something I only noticed last night despite having played the game since it came out:

You can stack fighters with your own ships, on the same tile.
 
You can stack fighters with your own ships, on the same tile.

Yes. In fact, you can stack two ships on the same tile too. But keep in mind that damage inflicted on a tile will apply to all ships on that tile. So, if the enemy does enough damage, they can destroy both of your ships in a single shot. Considering that cannons can often do 200-300 hp damage easily, that can be enough to destroy both ships if they are stacked. So, stacking can be risky.
 
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