Starting Industry

[Able Archer]

I'm not understanding where my Industry Points (IP) are coming from at the start of the game, or what I should do to increase them.

It appears they are earned based on tax rate, but all other things seeming to be equal (as much as they can be turn to turn), some turns I'll have a small surplus (+27), but most I am using everything I make. This has made it difficult to build early. In my current game, I've been trying to build an Industry I in my city for about 6 turns, but can't get enough IP to finish the project. No other building going on.

Any advice, even simple pointers, greatly appreciated!

[maerchen]

Depending on your difficulty, council and tech level startup, you should have a) service tax and b) private light industry I which both provide IP production/revenue.

It is one of the wonders of this game that you have to struggle with everything. I always go with commerce 40+ early game as it comes with a private economy bonus of 40%, so IP production is okay-ish.

If you are interested, you can see that in Reports - Zones - Specific Zones how much IP are collected via taxes. Yes, IP are collected by your IRA. The service tax is providing you with Cr. and IP. And no, you cannot influence the service tax.

Building a public industry is not recommended if you have no steady income of metal via metal mine or are waging a war that needs reinforcements. Be sure to have the IP and metal in stock before you think about building one.

If you are in the situation that no minor regime is in the vincinity for conquest, you should think about colonization. This will seriously drain people from your capital, but every zone collects its own service tax and when a settlement hits 25k population it will start to build its own light industry I, provided you set up Zone orders with a public budget of 1-15 Cr. as incentive to do so.

Playing the Eager Industrialist Fate Point stratagem on your capital is another very good option, as he will raise the light industry level by one but only up to III.

[Able Archer]

Many thanks for the great response.

I haven't gotten to the point of Colonization yet--I'm sure many questions will follow when I do get that far along.

I'm curious--and I realize every game starts differently--I had one last night that I had to bail on after 5 or 6 turns, as I got completely overrun (playing on Normal difficulty, per suggestion of the tutorial vids I've been watching)--how quickly do you typically get into a shooting war? From what I can tell, you can't recruit but a few Independent units, or maybe a brigade in the first several turns. I'm not clear how quickly things are supposed to get aggressive.

Again, thanks for the response--I'm enjoying what I'm seeing. Looking forward to getting much deeper. (I'm a boardgame wargamer, so it is a treat to have a game that gets so involved).

[Able Archer]

One other question I thought of--you don't directly control what is researched, correct? It comes about from your councils (Econ, Mil, etc.) finding things to advance. Is there any direct control over these finding, aside from the decisions that come up offering to change focus (from Hospital to Barracks, for example)?

[Edgewalker]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

I'm not understanding where my Industry Points (IP) are coming from at the start of the game, or what I should do to increase them.

It appears they are earned based on tax rate, but all other things seeming to be equal (as much as they can be turn to turn), some turns I'll have a small surplus (+27), but most I am using everything I make. This has made it difficult to build early. In my current game, I've been trying to build an Industry I in my city for about 6 turns, but can't get enough IP to finish the project. No other building going on.

Any advice, even simple pointers, greatly appreciated!

I've got exactly same problem, I'm trying to research industry burning everything for metal trades so I can build it and it still goes painfully slow.

On the bright side freefolk with their 4800 rifleman unit joined me as I had high populace happines due to cult of pleasure presence so I can effectively defend my territory from the huge alien war-snails :O

[maerchen]

On Colonization: Just do it. You do not need to raise colonists, a colony costs only 5 PP and it will automatically drain people from your neighboring zones.
Side note: I am on a huge, heavy forested, hard radiated and alien life infested world, and now my private industry delivers much much more IP than I ever expected from 30+ colonies. Was my own first colonization game, as only the zones every 5 hex ensured survival of my infantry troops at 700+ rad. Worked out very well, as the next neighbor was 18-25 hex away. YMMV on smaller, dense pppulated worlds.

On bailing: I wrote a thing: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2314171481

You can for sure go aggressive on turn one. And if you restart a cursed game with the lastplanetgenerated.se file, you can change your profile setup to acommodate to that. I recommend not giving up, but rewind and reassess the situation. Go full autocracy - enforcement - fist, it helps getting free militia.

Do not give up, turtle up, raise the indie MG wall, let the enemy attack.

Research: I have another guide for you in the guides section here. You cannot control the discoveries, but there are a lot of tips and workarounds given.

Haha, I am in the exact same situation, my R&D is in denial of finding heavy industry.

[Anonymous Helper]

Originally posted by Able Archer:

One other question I thought of--you don't directly control what is researched, correct? It comes about from your councils (Econ, Mil, etc.) finding things to advance. Is there any direct control over these finding, aside from the decisions that come up offering to change focus (from Hospital to Barracks, for example)?

You have control over research but not discoveries. You can influence discoveries little by limiting technology research until you have discovered all the tech you want in the tier as researching (not discovering) several tech (was it 3?) will unlock next tier lowering the change of getting what you want from the previous tier as discovery tech is picked at random from all the available techs.

[i do games]

An important thing I learned re: trying to rush an Industry I on turn 1 is that it actually costs 3x, or however many times it says, the amount of resources (it'll say 3x: 500 Metal, 100 IP, etc) and that amount gets consumed per turn of construction for a total of 3 turns.

And those resources have to be in your SHQ on your current turn in order to be consumed by any ongoing constructions, which is not at all intuitive and frankly becomes confusing if you're building multiple things.

But a good way to keep track of these details is on the MNG - Assets tab. Make sure the city where your SHQ is located is selected on the left side, and then click the Preview and Expand buttons in the top right and you'll see how your next turn stockpiles will probably look. The Cons(umption) and Prod(uction) columns being the most useful in this instance,

Also for this reason, getting a source of metal (from a Recycler or ideally Metal mine) asap is very important because Industry I costs 1500 metals

[Able Archer]

Thanks so much for the input!

[Avloren]

If you're going the public assets route: finishing that first public Industry I can be a major milestone for your economy, but trying to rush it before you're ready for it is counterproductive. The main cost is metal (1500 total), so before you even start it you want to build at least one source of extra metal income (preferably a mine, but a recycling post or two will suffice). You can supplement that with trading, but I wouldn't try to buy all 1500 metal.

Militarily speaking, I almost always raise a few Independent MG battalions ASAP before I even think about economy. That's the smallest MG unit possible, spread them out along your borders. They're very efficient at holding off random incursions, just have them sit there and defend, don't expect them to attack effectively.

So my early strategy often goes something like cheap troops->metal production->IP production. Also might throw in a source of food or water if I'm desperate for it, depends highly on map. When to shift to the next step will vary depending on your map, resources, enemies, etc. - as a rule of thumb I would keep building military until your immediate surroundings are safe and your capital's unrest/fear is under control.

If your IP is instantly 0 every turn, you're probably trying to do too much. If you start multiple constructions it'll spread out your meager IP income and they'll all take forever to finish. Focus on one thing at a time, and don't start it until you have the resources stockpiled to finish pretty quickly.

I can't really comment on the commerce/private industry strategy, haven't tried it yet. But either way you should have a plan and make sure your regime profile aligns with it.

[Friedrich]

When you first start you most likely don't have any real industrial base. Rather, your IP likely comes directly from your population. Think of this like artisanal laborers and their tools.

[Able Archer]

Great info!

I just started a new game, and landed on a map with radiation everywhere for my starting area. I'm unclear on what (if anything) I need to do about that? I saw there are structures that reduce radiation--any pointers on how that works, though? (I'm not immediately finding a report that talks about it.)

[maerchen]

Radiation above lvl 3 hurts the readiness, morale and health of your troops. If not in an environment suit or an armored vehicle (poor militia), you will lose them quick. Assets come with a natural shelter effect of rad level 4. Further information is on page 159+ of the manual.

I am currently playing on such a world. I colonized every 5 hex a new zone to keep the troops somewhat alive. Side effects are a migration drain on your capital and a heavy bonus to IP production as the colonies reach 25k population, enough for them building private light industry I. I now have 37 zones...

[i do games]

Originally posted by maerchen:

Assets come with a natural shelter effect of rad level 4.

Good to know. I was building Anti Rads on everything..

I've never seen any negative effects from radiation, either on my population or army (even with just Padded Envirosuits). Granted I had no idea what sort of effect to even be looking for, but none of them ever died or lost readiness so it wasn't obvious.

But also I never saw rads over 450~ so maybe I just rolled decent planets? What's the highest rads you've seen without nukes?

[Thomas]

You can get up to 1000 rad (if there was nuclear war after resolution and exploding nuclear plants) - but those zones will probably be neutral mutants. Major regimes are placed in areas with highest populations - which usually means near lakes/seas and low radiations (and near each other).

[Wilhelm]

Originally posted by maerchen:

On Colonization: Just do it. You do not need to raise colonists, a colony costs only 5 PP and it will automatically drain people from your neighboring zones.
Side note: I am on a huge, heavy forested, hard radiated and alien life infested world, and now my private industry delivers much much more IP than I ever expected from 30+ colonies. Was my own first colonization game, as only the zones every 5 hex ensured survival of my infantry troops at 700+ rad. Worked out very well, as the next neighbor was 18-25 hex away. YMMV on smaller, dense pppulated worlds.

On bailing: I wrote a thing: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2314171481

You can for sure go aggressive on turn one. And if you restart a cursed game with the lastplanetgenerated.se file, you can change your profile setup to acommodate to that. I recommend not giving up, but rewind and reassess the situation. Go full autocracy - enforcement - fist, it helps getting free militia.

Do not give up, turtle up, raise the indie MG wall, let the enemy attack.

Research: I have another guide for you in the guides section here. You cannot control the discoveries, but there are a lot of tips and workarounds given.

Haha, I am in the exact same situation, my R&D is in denial of finding heavy industry.

if i start over with the planet file... is my starting position again randomly chosen or do i start at the same position?