Best affinity?/Game Tips please!

[cleansocks]

i'm thinking sowers but i am mainly asking because i am really bad. i cant win a game of endless space on newbie yet i play Civ 5 and i take over the world around 2020. I really need some gameplay tips and what do you guys think about the best affinity for a custom faction? any help is appreciated!

[cleansocks]

Also some help with tech and fleets because the AI seems to have the same tecs as me yet my fleets are 168FP or HP or whatever while the AI's is 986 or 1067 or something. I NEED HELP!

[siztem]

Making a custom faction, I found the amoeaba (sp?) affinity to be very helpful. it really helps you get going right off the bat

[Undergrowler]

Science, Cloning (Food.) and Happiness. Max those three and chose Sophon affinity. Have your tax as low as possible. If you need Dust raise the tax for some turns. This combination is like a cheat because it makes it so easy to expand crazy fast in the beginning that the AI will never catch up unless you royally botch it.
You're pretty safe to chose negative traits yourself. There are not that many that can break this combination.

[cleansocks]

really? i didnt think the sophon or UE affinity was that helpful because they are tax based. does anyone think amoeba affinity with Tolerant is any good?

Max those three and chose Sophon affinity.

[goth1k]

videos on you tube lets playendless space...race picks are really handy go check it out man =p

[goth1k]

money from tax will increse massivly with some of the later techs xeno travel agency is good early on in any system with more than four population on one planet..keep tax's low and ppl happy grow massive populations through food and not picking armpit planets if you expand balance it out with the techs that reduce empire dissatisfaction from the colony tree..the race picks will help massivley giving you a good lead on the AI every time....

[goth1k]

sophon affinaty, dust archeaology+1,optimal structure+2,legendryheros+2,optamistic+1,sloppysawbones-2,deeproots-2 witch is actually handy and given later techs it becomes a bennafit.....sooo give it a go i think it will help let me know how you get on...

[cleansocks]

thanks i appreciate all your guys comments. if you have any more tips please post because i am REALLY bad at endless space.(let me remind anyone who is just joining this discussion that i cant win even on newbie but i can win Civ 5 on Immortal but not deity, thats too hard).

[Tassasoria]

Another tip that helped me was to kill the first empire that you meet. Usually in the early game the ai only has about 2-3 planets and weak military technology. It is only during the middle and ending phases were the ai spreaded like a plaque for me. Also having some locus race empires (2-3) in your game helpes slow down the other ai in my experiance.

[Dom]

No offense, but if you think the sowers affinity is the best, there is no wonder, you didn't win a game. It's the worst, because of that there is a "save the sowers"-thread made in the community-forum. The sowers affinity is the only one, that is a malus, because food is very important at the beginning, because the more food you have your population will grow faster in your system (what gives you more research, industry, money and food).
The other affinitys are useful I think, but the thing is, what you do with it. If you play a small map and you want to fight, the hissho affinity is very useful, because you get 15% more of all ressources for every styr-system you conquer for 45 turns and its stackable 4 times.
Cravers are also good for a short game with war. With their research tree they are also able to get the biggest army in the game.
For a research game the sophons are great, because of their affinity and their research tree that will give you extra research researches (?)... But because of their quick research they are also very good at everything except money, of course :) I would more than anyone call the sophons the allrounders in the game, and very easy for beginners.
The Horatio are also kind of alrounders a little bit, because the cloning skill is great to just clone your best hero, that will give you maybe extra food or industry, so you can pimp new systems very fast. Problem is, their home planet is tier 2 and thats bad.
I dont like the pilgrims, I think their affinity is great for fast expansion strategies, but for beginners I would advise something more useful.
Amoeba is great for diplomatic win, because of their special researches, but they have (like the sowers) five points less for creating custom races and their affinity is just nice at the beginning, i think.
UE is good for money and Industry, so they are also useful and the automatons I didn't ever understood ;)

So for you as beginner I would say use Sophons or UE, if you know the basics of the game and you win try Hissho for the absolute war fun :) and after that all the other races

to answer your question about tolerance.
I wouldnt use ist, there are better things you can get. If you use Sophons you should have a fast research and you dont need it. Also its not useful to make a colony on a planet, where your people become unhappy.
Try to get something for food, maybe the anomaly that gives you +3 food, if not that than another anomaly, science rings (whats the name?) or the +3 industry, but I recommend food.
Use the better heroes, its expensive but totally worth it. If you start a game, buy a hero ASAP and look for an admin, than give him either the industry or the food skill. If he has the food skill, put him often in new systems, so they can grow very fast.
If your Popüulation grows fast, it should be very easy.
First to research:
N-way... ; 2. Soil Xenobiology (if there is an arid or tundra planet to colonyze you research that first of course). 3. Colonization tundra and arid; 4. Go Casimir effect than go round every no. 1 research like isolation shields, xenologie and so on, than go botannical scanning and nonbaryonic particles. I think this researches are very important at the beginning.

The first thing you should build on a new planet is the food building, you can change it later, but you need the population.

last a little tip for your army... slugs sucks, so just use laser as soon as you can, first rockets, but later laser and defense against rockets and lasers. If you want different weapons put them in different ships, its more effective.
If there are strong enemys at the beginning, like pirates, build the first to research ship (sophon name is Kilo) fill it with the first to research rockets an send an army of them to your enemy, they should kill nearly everything in the early game (but may die also), and they are cheap to build, and if you have 4+ titanium-70 they are even cheaper.
I think that is more than I wanted to write... any more questions? just ask :)
Have fun playing the game, its great, i think

[cleansocks]

I disabled pirates and i still lose. I am still not sure about the sophons or UE affinity but i will try the sophons affinity. it also seems cravers always win. If i dont put cravers in then horatio wins.. I also notice on the FIDS score where it has all the icons i am always last. I will take ur advice from all of you. Any more help would be great!

[Undergrowler]

You lose against pirates because you don't expand fast enough. If you want to expand slow, not recommended, and dont get harassed by pirates put a cheap scout ship in every system that you haven't colonised. Stops pirates from spawning.

Sophons affinity for a lead in research so you always have something to build.
UE affinity for actually being able to build the new things you research before they're out dated.

Cravers usually win in the beginning against new players because they're more aggressive than the others. So research some military technology too and build some ships. If their expansion is checked early they're no big threat.

Horatio win because they grow and expand like crazy. So try to outgrow and outexpand them. If that fails kill them fast.

[cleansocks]

I told you i disabled pirates....on newbie and I STILL LOSE. Although i like your idea of the weapon tech. I try to play diplomatically but militariliy meaning i go to war only if the other faction declares war on me or if they REALLY piss me off like in Civ 5 when germany was denouncing me like every turn or insulting my empire so i just took it. Keep in mind i am good at strategy games like JA2, CIV4, CIV5, WARGAME: European Escalation but i just can't win a single game, ON NEWBIE ON THIS GAME but i like ur tips so i will try to focus a bit more on weapon tech.

[Undergrowler]

I think you need to adjust your play style. ES is a landgrabbing very aggressive and hostile game. If you research or build do it always with the intent to bring the pain to what is not you and to do it fast.
That's the thing really. That's the secret. :P

[Chloe O' Brien]

Best thing to focus on is growth. Get an admin hero (cog wheel icon), Legendary heroes as legendary trait. So u buy lvl 3 heroes. Grab a point in +industry and +20 food bonus at first. So u can jumpstart your systems to max population easy.

Colonize as much systems as u can. Focus on science (most importat stat in the game).
Get Optimism to keep your people happy.. best overal racial trait imo.

Best advise I can give u, play online or u'll stay a nab. Look at other people's custom factions (especially the best players), copy their builds, try them.. and eventually get your own variant.

Warfare is another long story...