I ALWAYS fall behind!

[e11]

ALWAYS.

I tend not to have as many systems as the other empires, because I save some of my influence for edicts, so I can understand why I lag behind on that particular score, but tech and trade?

I keep all my planets in the green on amenities and as my game progresses I generally have most of them swimming in it (whatever "it" is), and I build research labs and keep a science ship at my capital to assist. I still fall behind, because I also need building slots for alloys and production and whatnot.

I honestly don't understand how my neighbors always outpace me on this, and I only won my just-finished UNE game by finding a whole lot of artefacts and being the only one doing anything about the crisis.

[Vovarush]

If you are playing normal difficulties and lag behind then sorry you just need to play better (optimise and specialise your planets/ greed(invest at tech at the expence of fleetpower) a little bit more). If you are playing hardest difficulty then it is pretty normal to lag behind other empires in tech cause ai gets 2x production from everything (but you still can outpace it with proper management and greed).

[superomgj]

Okay, I am by no means an expert, but here are some of the rules I abide by.

#1-No diplomacy until you can not expand any further. There is no reason to use influence for anything at all until you can not expand without war. In the beginning especially, most of your research comes from stations.

#2-Your home planet can not be specialized like other planets can. So the best thing for you to do would be to devote your home planet to increasing your admin cap. In the early game you will develop it normally as this is your only Planet. Don't be afraid to put a couple research buildings in there. Just keep in mind that eventually they will all be replaced. It will more than likely be a energy and food world.

#3-Specialize your worlds- As soon as you get some more colonies you need to specialize them for certain resources.This is all about your % increases. 1 research building on every world is too inefficient. Imagine a planet full of research buildings+Research Institute+High level Scientist assisting research.

#4-Match your scientists with their research field. If you have 3 planets, each with a science ship assisting research then you can swap them out with the current research leader whenever you want to steer your research in a particular way or get that Expertise Bonus. A scientist with the genius trait would be best in general, then when you find a technology with a matching scientist-just swap them out. (Even if the planet doesn't produce much research keep the scientist assiting.So they can level up)(Put the highest leveled one on the planet with the highest base value research)
____________________________________________________________________________

Now here's just some tips in general.

#4-This is a 4x-Early game benefits are exponential. Build a stronk Economy and then focus on research.


One of my last games I played as mechanists. Only One planet. I had a devouring swarm to my north and fanatical purifiers to my south east. I couldn't expand without war...So i did the only rational thing. I built a strong(Ish) Economy from what I had. Then build 11 research buildings on my only planet. I was buying food and consumer Goods every month... But that 600 Research was something else. On one side I built extremly tough starbases, and on the other i stationed my fleet. As soon as I was a couple decades ahead of the Edd boys i showed them the fury of a son of a sheppard.

[Raymond]

just give it time. If you are not expanding like mad man in early game, you are expected to fall behind because other empire are getting more pops than you. Edicts isn't important early game since they adds empire wide multiplication, and your early empire doesnt have much to multiply.

[e11]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Look, should I just be colonizing every remotely inhabitable planet I come across as fast as I can? Or should I be letting each planet build up a little and make sure I have resources to keep everything functioning? Because so far I've mostly been doing the latter.

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

I'm not very experienced myself since I played different versions of the game here and there, sometimes favoring 2.2.7, sometimes favoring 1.9 and so on.

But I'd say just try and do it learning by doing ^^
If you want more guidance, you can look for video guides on YT even though I'm really not sure if they still apply to 2.6 ...

[Raymond]

Originally posted by e11:

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Look, should I just be colonizing every remotely inhabitable planet I come across as fast as I can? Or should I be letting each planet build up a little and make sure I have resources to keep everything functioning? Because so far I've mostly been doing the latter.

that mostly depend on how you want to progress. If you want to surf through the tech tree and get the big toys before everyone else, then you might want to keep an eye on your empire sprawl when you expanding. Expect yourself to be poorer and with smaller fleet than everyone else before your tech starting to make a difference.

[Tardus Coegi]

Originally posted by e11:

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Look, should I just be colonizing every remotely inhabitable planet I come across as fast as I can? Or should I be letting each planet build up a little and make sure I have resources to keep everything functioning? Because so far I've mostly been doing the latter.

What difficulty do you play on? Species, Traits, Government Spec, Origins? Curious on your answer.

[e11]

Originally posted by DonkeyPhartz:

Originally posted by e11:

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Look, should I just be colonizing every remotely inhabitable planet I come across as fast as I can? Or should I be letting each planet build up a little and make sure I have resources to keep everything functioning? Because so far I've mostly been doing the latter.

What difficulty do you play on? Species, Traits, Government Spec, Origins? Curious on your answer.

Ensign. I'm playing a custom species with Adaptive, Enduring, Strong, Sedentary and Wasteful. Galactic Doorstep. Fanatic authoritarian kingdom, splash of militarism.

[Tardus Coegi]

I think your starting out specs are a big issue why you're always behind on Tech. I'm assuming you even rush build a unity building, then go Scientific Ascension, and Pop a second Science building as your second building option?

I usually play as robots with Introspective(20% Reasearch for engineering jobs) and Logic Engives (+10% research for all jobs), High maintanense (10% added pop upkeep), Ring World Start.

First building I get is the Unity Building, Then I unblock the 3 blocked planetary features. Then I build x1 Science district. After that District Is built I delete the Science building, and drop the science jobs from 20 (max) to 3. Build another Nexus District (Drop Maintanence Jobs down to 3) Drop Tech jobs down to 17 (from 30 max at this point) Then Rush Science Ascension Perks, and Max that out. When that's complete you'll get a +10% Research Speed, Unlock the Research ascention Bonus for another +10% research speed.

ALWAYS pick Research Job +20% tech, and Prioritize tech that give +5% Research Speed.

Mid Game, unlock the second Ring world Platform, Dedicate that one to pure science and 1 Nexus District. Dedicate your first Ringworld to 1 Nexus District and Pure Tech Districts.

Late Game, Unlock your third and Final Ring world, Didicate it to PURE Nexus Districts and Prioritize Spaming Nexus Node Buildings (To increase Empire Sprawl to 1k Empire Spawl Late late game).

After you unlock the Final Ring World, Get The Science Nexus MEGA strutcture and the Mega Shipyard.

That point, GG you win due to being super advanced.

[Tardus Coegi]

I play on admiral Difficulty and I'm always ahead of them on Tech with my above strategy.

[superomgj]

"ALWAYS pick Research Job +20% tech, and Prioritize tech that give +5% Research Speed."

The only exception to this is in the very beginning. At this point in time it is more beneficial to you to pick technologies that will help your economy. So, get your hands on your energy nexus, mineral purification , the food building if your pops need that stuff, and then focus down the +20% research options.

[Nightmyre]

Okay, so a few tips

Empire setup:

Positive traits to pick:

Rapid Breeders (pretty much uniformly, *always* take this one)
Intelligent (a good secondary one to take)
Natural Engineers / Natural Sociologists (another good use for a random extra point)

Positive traits to avoid:

Extremely Adaptive (not worth the points. really only pays off if you get tons of planets in your space)
Agrarian / Industrious / Ingenious / Thrity (your pops will be too spread out in jobs to really benefit - only a small fraction will actually make use of the trait)

Other traits will be picked depending on your specific empire

Negative traits to pick:

Deviants (the faction spread is a bit annoying, but overall doesn't hurt nearly as badly as the others)
Unruly (empire sprawl is way too easy to manage right now, so taking on a penalty to it is an easy win)
Sedentary (immigration is not really a huge concern, so another free negative)

Negative traits to avoid:

Nonadaptive (you don't really want your few planets you do get, to be penaliized)
Repugnant (really hurts your early game amenities)

I usually also don't bother with the leader traits (xp, life span, etc...)

For Civics, I'll just list the ones to avoid:

Aristocratic Elite (nobles aren't worth an entire civic)
Corporate Dominion (really should just not exist at all)
Corvee System / Free Haven (immigration is not worth investing in)
Cutthroat Politics / Imperial Cult (edicts don't happen often enough for you to benefit much)
Nationalistic Zeal / Parlimentary System / Shadow Council (just not worth it)

And with respect to your actual gameplay:

-- Generally, colonize any planet in your space with at least 80% habitability. Pick the 60% ones if they are above average (large, good secondary benefits / rare resources, etc...). Anything below 60%, avoid until you can terraform.
-- Take every system you can, but try not to put yourself too far out in the open. Look for chokepoints, grab them, and then get the systems behind them.
-- Make sure you focus your resources on getting your pops the jobs they need. Don't put too many buildings too early - make sure your resources can support them.
-- Don't go overboard on any of the "things you need a minimum of", such as amenities, consumer goods, or food. Just get enough to stay barely in the green - even if you're slightly in the red, it's not really a big deal.
-- Use diplomacy aggressively, to avoid needing to fight wars on multiple fronts. Ideally, keep all your neighbours passive, except for one if you want to fight them.

[Azor]

Originally posted by superomgj:

#2-Your home planet can not be specialized like other planets can. So the best thing for you to do would be to devote your home planet to increasing your admin cap. In the early game you will develop it normally as this is your only Planet. Don't be afraid to put a couple research buildings in there. Just keep in mind that eventually they will all be replaced. It will more than likely be a energy and food world.

There is literally NO benefit to devoting your capital to bureaucrat jobs precisely because you can't make it a bureaucratic world, meaning you can't get extra admin cap from the Bureaucratic Center planet designation.

In reality, your capital is your most productive planet until you can increase your other planet's stability to 100% because capital planets get +5% stability and +10% amenities (it gets an extra +10% output to all jobs with prosperous unification), AND planet designations other than Rural/Agri/Mining/Generator give no bonuses to production.

[superomgj]

Originally posted by hAZ:

There is literally NO benefit to devoting your capital to bureaucrat jobs precisely because you can't make it a bureaucratic world, meaning you can't get extra admin cap from the Bureaucratic Center planet designation.

In reality, your capital is your most productive planet until you can increase your other planet's stability to 100% because capital planets get +5% stability and +10% amenities (it gets an extra +10% output to all jobs with prosperous unification), AND planet designations other than Rural/Agri/Mining/Generator give no bonuses to production.

Good point. I didn't realize bureaucratic center planet was an option. I have been using the Capital to fix short term failings in my economy.

[Markus Reese]

How to play if you want a theme empire and not some minmax at difficulties above ensign:

ENABLE SCALING DIFFICULTY: on

Difficulty is not changing to AI or anything. It only means they get more of everything. Late game AI inefficiency balances it out, but early on you always play catchup.

Scaling difficulty means they start on same footing as you with no bonuses and progress go their max difficulty bonus when they reach end game year. This will give you parity if a casual player, and balanced feel if experienced without having to metagame a specific play every time.