Best faction to start out as?

[White]

This will be my first time playing an Amplitude game though i have played some other 4x games. What faction should i pick for my first game?

[Mirror]

depends what kind of game you want to have. If you want it simple and not complicated, go United Empire. I mean on second thought, there are a lot of factors when it comes to deciding this. Are you a warmonger or a pacifist? like complex races or simple ones? do the races need to look cool? does story/quests matter? on and on...might need some more information to answer as best as I can.

[ashbery76]

United Empire because Humans first,plus its the more generic 4x race in gameplay.

[[FTJ] Otto]

United Empire is not very straightforward to play, tho.
Their faction traits seems to indicate a military and expansionist faction, but then you get the whole focus on influence with Emperor's Will and a main quest that branches heavily and can lead you to pursue Industrial, Military or Scientific victories. United Empire is the jack of all trades of the game, and I think it's easier to start with a faction that has a defined, clear-cut path to victory.

The Sophons are a great starting faction for these reasons, as they are single-handedly dedicated to science.

[Chaika Trabant]

United Empire, Sophon, Vaulter, Lumeris, Unfallen.
Everything else requires at least some basic knowledge of the game to play.

[White]

Yeah, just looking for simple gameplay. Thanks for the answers

[NaceWindu]

Sophons are a good starter race, I think out of all the races they have the least oddities with UE being the second least complicated mechanic-wise.

[Giga]

Riftborn, Sophons, Vodyani, and United are fairly strong and easy to learn.
Umbral, Vaulters, and Unfallen can be extremely powerful, IF you have patience and know how to play well.

Personal suggestion: Start with Sophons. Riftborn are fairly facerolly, but that also means you learn less about the overall game. Also, they're kinda the inverted faction; 90% of what makes them good, is the exact opposite for other factions, so you don't learn the general flow of the game.

....Wish I could quote posts from other threads, wherever.

[chefcook90]

I'd recommend Sophons if it's your first time - they have the most straight-forward gameplay and the best end-game ships out of all the races.

A lot of people will tell you United Empire, but you can massively screw them up if you pick the wrong Faction Quest options.
Their entire gimmick also revolves around farming Influence, which compared to other resources requires a decent understanding of the game to farm well.
Plus they're a bit odd in that their exploration ships are actually better for combat than actually exploring.

[White]

I'm 70 turns into a Sophons game and i think im doing really well. Also having alot of fun. Really great game. Thanks again everyone.

[chefcook90]

No problemo :)

[Drowsy Louis]

I would give Lumeris a try, lots of dust generation and pacifist specialized faction that can force peace unto others.

[jim]

Originally posted by chefcook90:

I'd recommend Sophons if it's your first time - they have the most straight-forward gameplay and the best end-game ships out of all the races.

A lot of people will tell you United Empire, but you can massively screw them up if you pick the wrong Faction Quest options.
Their entire gimmick also revolves around farming Influence, which compared to other resources requires a decent understanding of the game to farm well.
Plus they're a bit odd in that their exploration ships are actually better for combat than actually exploring.

Like to put in 1 thing:
As a new player you likely try to grab many planet to get a certaint controll.
United Empire has limits in that, resulting in Expansion Dissaproval again resulting massiv riots.
Takes some time before your able to research Cultural Invertics wich give you the possibellity
to expand futher. Not so critical if you know or on a small map, but can be tricky if new.
Ofc United is a good starter but this must be known if a new player don't want a restart after a short time.
Early riots is very hard to stop, without abondon several systems wich prob. isn't a popular idea

Faction quests is likely Military to a new player. Improving dmg to ships. So it's likely newbees choose right and no prob. done

[[FTJ] Otto]

Originally posted by jim:

As a new player you likely try to grab many planet to get a certaint controll.
United Empire has limits in that, resulting in Expansion Dissaproval again resulting massiv riots.
Takes some time before your able to research Cultural Invertics wich give you the possibellity
to expand futher. Not so critical if you know or on a small map, but can be tricky if new.

Actually, the United Empire is probably the traditional faction (read, not Hissho) the least bothered by wide expansion.

First, it starts as a Federation, which means you get [+1] max system for every hero you have. With the starting hero and the one you get at the end of chapter one of their quest (so very early in the game), that's already two systems that you can colonize without hitting the overcolonization threshold.

Second, thanks to their trait Expansionists, they only suffer a 7,5 happiness penality instead of 10 for each system above the limit.

If anything, the UE is built to expand as much as they can and then some. Your point still stands (overcolonization is a pitfall easy to fall into for a new player), but the United Empire is not the right exemple to give when talking about it.

[jim]

Tnx mate. I learned something there. Have played - 1 weeks so.
1 more thing: I believe United Empire have the best (Powerful Ships).
A new player looks at it as a bonus. Newbee friendly???

Plz tell if i'm wrong
http://prntscr.com/n780ve and you can if wanted pull out another 10 k dmg and
More to research on it, but not much

No secret that i ended up in a total global riot on my first game, restarting....

[Spacesuit Spiff]

I'm gonna say UE for the same reason I'd say WW is the best starting EL faction: industry. Even if you ignore every single mechanic they have access to, as long as you keep building things you'll do alright, especially since the IND passive law will keep them afloat economically for a good while.

Sophons are the second best because of that Pathfinders trait, but they require you to learn the tech tree enough to leverage all that science into anything. Might as well just go UE and build science buildings.