Surviving in 1.1

[Supreme Shogun]

Let us open a thread for discussion new strategy.

One thing I noticed, due to the population growth cap 3% turn the tax base you previously enjoyed takes longer to get to (planet filling up ). I resorted to trade and a couple bases to supplement my income just to keep me afloat/ trying to sustain a 100% industrial capacity.

Anyone else want to post some tips ?

 

[Selous]

i had this really weird "thing" happen to me in a game yesterday ... i rapidly expanded and ammased more land? than anyone else .... then for some reason my popularity droped to 1% ... then a while later i had a civil war and lost most of my empire, the other half of my civ were quite friendly after the breakup ... i think that was because i was freindly because i were at war with a couple of baddies .... but with a start like that in civ i would have won (unless someone really bad happened) .... but i got mushed by my own guys ... what the hell happened and how do i stop it?

 

[Nath]

Entertainment centers in new colonies. 100% morale brings population up to usable levels much more quickly.

Building mega population planets for money is a huge waste, markets > farms. By "mega population" I mean "above 15-20 billion."
It was always a huge waste, imo, but now it's worse. Hopefully the final version of the patch will use The Other Tax Formula.

All that starting population in the capital just begs to be dumped into colony ships, giving the other colonies time to grow. Much moreso now than before.
I'm considering going with the default "two colony pods" setup for colony ships now

Setting military production to 10% and allocating the rest (minus research) to social makes things much easier to manage. I'm so happy that it doesn't vent into space anymore

Don't get lost in the ship designer. It's much cooler now, I know, but there are heathen races to conquer.

Don't make rambly, convoluted and irrelevant forum posts.

Don't play until 3am

 

[Rustwork]

i can't say much as far as a comparison. i had only played a few games and was just beginning to understand the interaction between all the elements.

i never examined population, but it does appear that building your population is an important method for success. as to that i have one word, Aphrodisiacs! +50% pop growth. i play with a custom race and give it full pop growth from the start. i keep my colonies very happy. once i built aphrodisiacs i am at 120% bonus pop growth. i think the 3% also effects the AI, but they aren't as focused about growing their population, at least on challenging. i think this gives the human the advantage.

my population graph looked like a ski jumping ramp compared to all the others. this was only one game on a medium map. i am dominate over all other aliens and will easily have any victory i choose at this point. time to up the difficulty.

overall i like the improvements. i still have some suggestions to streamline game play, for example: i'd like a screen that allowed me to adjust my production sliders along with viewing the production details for each colony. i find myself toggling between f4 and f6, trying to micro-manage for efficiency the exact percent balance between the three production options. say i move the research slider to gain a week on a tech, i want to know right off if this will lower production somewhere else. i've noticed that i can research a turn or two faster without harming production elsewhere. or that i can build improvements quicker without effecting my research. do others use a similar method to micro-manage, is there an easier way that i've overlooked?

 

[Masquerouge]

Let met just say that with the new pop growth model, you really really want to plan where and when you're going to build troop transports...

 

[Duelingground]

I'll echo Masquerouge's comment above, planning where your troops will come from is much more important now.

Playing over the weekend, I found myself actually setting up a couple of planets to become...egads...agricultural centers. It also affected my initial colony rush, before this latest update, I could generally rush buy 4-5 colony ships without really hurting my starting planet's population much. Now, I'm finding that after the first 2 ships, I'm really shy on citizenry.

 

[woodelf]

Playing over the weekend, I found myself actually setting up a couple of planets to become...egads...agricultural centers. It also affected my initial colony rush, before this latest update, I could generally rush buy 4-5 colony ships without really hurting my starting planet's population much. Now, I'm finding that after the first 2 ships, I'm really shy on citizenry.

How about the AI? Are they having problems filling 4-5 ships does it seem?

 

[Duelingground]

Eh, WE, based on their rate of expansion, I'd say it's equal, but will try to pay more attention to that next game.

The colonization phase did seem to go on longer, now that I think about it.

 

[woodelf]

Eh, WE, based on their rate of expansion, I'd say it's equal, but will try to pay more attention to that next game.

The colonization phase did seem to go on longer, now that I think about it.

That's great news IMO. Colonization shouldn't be done before I get Impulse Engines!

 

[Duelingground]

Agreed.

One thing that's really helped me with initial colony rush has been designing a faster colony ship immediately upon starting a new game, just one colonist pod, and as many engines as I can cram onboard.

I send my starting ship to the closest system not in my quadrant, the new ships often reach their targets, even though they are further away, before my starting ship reaches it's star system.

 

[woodelf]

Cool. Less pops = less colony pods = more engines. Very nice.

 

[Supreme Shogun]

I seem to like taking some pop growth bonus whenever I customize a race now.
Kind of like giving 2 points for +10 economics analogy. It does a empire good.

 

[Vizzini]

Building mega population planets for money is a huge waste, markets > farms. By "mega population" I mean "above 15-20 billion."
It was always a huge waste, imo, but now it's worse. Hopefully the final version of the patch will use The Other Tax Formula.

Markets are a multiplier of population - the higher your pop the more formidable those Market bonuses become.

I send my starting ship to the closest system not in my quadrant, the new ships often reach their targets, even though they are further away, before my starting ship reaches it's star system.

Then design your new ship and -upgrade- the one in space. You lose one turn to upgrade it but you'll more than gain that back by increasing the speed.