Everything you need to know about racial picks and tech choices.

[Delthea]

When you're starting to play, you find there are some things you like, and you stick with them longer than you should (Creative/Lithovore are the biggest offenders). Other times, you simply misread or misjudge a pick's usefulness and never give it the time of day. As such, this list will explain each useful pick and tech, try to explain why it's useful, and show scenarios where you would want it.

Population Growth -
Useful for: Rush
The +growth picks are good if you want to expand quickly and produce a massive fleet of ships in the early game. Because cloning center is a 400 RP tech, the window of advantage for this pick is small. the -growth pick is not a good choice. Although the cloning centers are cheap, the early stages of the game are the most important, and delaying your early game to that extent for a measly 4 point is asking to get run over by even average speed races.

Farming -
Useful for:
These are not good picks at all. +2 costs almost as much as lithovore, and still doesn't work on toxic/radiated/barren planets. Additionally, soil enrichment, astro university, weather controller, and biomorphic fungi all emulate the effect of this pick. -1/2 is only 3 points, and much like the population penalty, you're slowing down your early game for a very small amount of points.

Industry -
Useful for: Rush, Survival, Tech
Example: Unification, +1 production, Tolerant, Large Homeworld - Unification, +2 production, Aquatic, Large/Rich homeworld

These guys are never NOT useful. While farming falls off quickly, leaving only a couple farmers on each planet, and science is also less useful, with the ability to drop 9001 colonists on researching without ever having to worry about pollution (or if you have no more research tasks to make), industry works early/mid/late just fine. Early, it helps build your research labs, auto factory, and colony ships. Late, it helps you pump out doom stars.
Great synergy with unification, as the government bonus multiplies the industry bonus. Further synergy with Tolerant, preventing the massive early pollution problem you would normally have with this race.
-1 production is probably the second-worst penalty in the game. Never get this unless you're trying to challenge yourself. In addition to slowing down your early game, you're also slowing down your late game.

Science -
Useful for: Rush, Survival, Tech
Example: +1 research, Democracy, Lithovore - +1 research, Democracy, Creative, Rich homeworld - +2 research, Democracy, Subterranean, Large Homeworld

Though not as good as the industry picks, science can still be good for rushing. Make a battleship with nothing in it as you rush cybertronic computer. Research pollution processor+iridium or deuterium+atmospheric to get powerful MIRV missiles in a hurry. This is your go-to pick for teching up, though. It has great synergy with democracy, due to the bonus multiplying with the government pick. Further synergy with lithovore, as you'll be able to drop all your population on research, amplified by the pick, amplified by the government bonus, without the drawback of pollution you'd have on a +industry/unification race.

Money -
Useful for: Nothing
Overpriced garbage. Don't get this. The positives are way too expensive, and the negative *could* be good, if not for the fact you need the BC to build research labs, autofactories, and marine barrackses on your early planets; Then it hurts again later, when you need huge stacks of cash to purchase ships outright. Democracy is a built in +0.5 BC, and costs only 2 points more than the dedicated pick.

Ship Defense -
Useful for: Points
The negative is a great pick to get spare points.
The positives are overpriced, and not good, even if they only cost half as much. Cybertronic computer is +100 attack. Moleculartronic is +125. This same-cost-as-unification pick is less than half of that. Additionally, the way the math works in this game favors offense far greater than defense. Finally, +attack doubles as a defensive stat, due to the nature of point defense weapons.

Ship Attack -
Useful for: Rush, Survival
Example: +2 production, Unification, Warlord, +50 ship attack
The negative is okay for the spare points if you really need them. The longer you plan on running the game, the less the negative hurts. The bonus, however, never goes out of style, no matter how late the game is. Best used with weapons that don't dissipate over range, such as Mass Drivers or Disrupters. Better used with beams than with missiles.
+Attack also has the benefit of allowing your non-heavymounted weapons to shoot down missiles with ease.

Ground Combat -
Useful for: Points
I get this negative every game. The only situation in which such a perk would be necessary is if you're capturing ships via boarding. That's it. Even then, you're going to have a hard time capturing ships until you get access to later techs; and that's if you even WANT the enemy ships in the first place. With invasion of planets, you can always make more transport ships.

Spying -
Useful for: Points, Situational, Tech, Score
Example: +20 spying, Repulsive - +20 spying, charismatic
A convenient bug (feature?) is that, while using Repulsive, other races will not demand you stop spying on them. They will still get angry with you, they will still declare war on you when it suits them, but they will not open the comms channel and make demands of you (or declare war on you) every time you successfully steal something. Because of this, you will not end up at war with six races at once, and you can casually collect advantageous techs without overcommitting population to research.
With charismatic, you can steal techs, trade them off, and then sue for peace.
The negative is also a good source of points if you don't plan on spying. They will eventually steal some techs or sabotage something if you're not equipped with defensive spies of your own, but that's certainly a better trade for three points than -1 production.

Feudal -
Useful for: Making the game harder on yourself
You'd think the decreased shipbuilding cost would be awesome for a rush race, but the tradeoff of requiring more research more than makes up for it. Rush races want either MIRV missiles (must research pollution processor level) or a powerful computer (Giving up supercomputer? Going to cybertronic with a penalty?) and of course, robo factories. All of these require a lot of early tech that feudal isn't much a fan of.

Dictatorship -
Useful for: Anything, Score
The sky's the limit with this one. It's free, it's affected by morale, it's got a nice bonus from Psionics, it's got a defensive spy bonus. A great default.

Democracy -
Useful for: Rush, Survival, Tech
Examples: Democracy, +1 science, Lithovore - Democracy, +1 science, creative - Democracy, +2 industry, subterranean, Large HW - Democracy, Artifacts, +2 science, +1 industry
Although overpriced, it's still useful in that it multiplies research and BC gain. The BC buys your early buildings to get you ahead and the research gets you your techs faster, but the offset is that you'll need to devote more to industry to make USE of that tech.

Unification -
Useful for: Rush, Anything
Examples: +1 industry, Unification, Tolerant, Large HW - +2 industry, Unification, Aquatic, large/rich HW
This was the default race for online play back in the day. Unification effectively gave a free +50% morale for farming/industry (doubled to +100% at galactic unification), while tolerant acted like levels of terraforming AND a free core waste dump. Many mods have increased the cost of unification due to respect for its power.
The only drawback, if you can call it that, is that the race is unaffected by morale (Oh poop! I *have* to get planetary supercomputer instead of holo simulator now!). In games that go to several hundred turns, unifications could possibly be making slightly less industry per planet than a fully decked out dictatorship with a spiritual leader.

Low-G World -
Useful for: Points
5 points is a lot, for a -25% penalty on non-LowG worlds (until you research the 1150 tech, gravity generator). Compare to -50% BC at a lower cost. This is a balanced flaw.

Poor Home World -
Useful for: Making the game harder on yourself
1 WHOLE point in exchange for neutering your initial speed? Don't take this.

Repulsive -
Useful for: Points, Spying
This is overpowered. It gives too many points. It lets you get away with murder in the spying world. Drawback is that you can't trade/demand from other races, and the leaders you attract are of a lower quality. But seriously? Six points. I grab this on all games I try to get high scores, since it's the easiest flaw to work with.

Uncreative -
Useful for: Bragging rights
The single worst pick in the game goes to this guy. Every person gets research labs and automated factories. What's this? Oh, you don't get auto factories, battle pods, or radiation shield this game. Lolsorry. Good luck! This needs to be a 10 point flaw.

High-G World -
Useful for: Nothing
Too expensive for what is effectively "No penalty on high-G worlds WITHOUT the need for gravity generator".

Aquatic -
Useful for: Rush, Population fixing
This allows half the habitable planets you find to act much better than they are, both in terms of food production and max population. Additionally, terraforming is as good as gaia transformation. A speedier version of subterranean.

Subterranean -
Useful for: Score, Population fixing, Survival, Tech
Example: Subterranean, Lithovore, +1 industry/science, Large home world - Subterranean, +2 research, Creative - Subterranean, Unification, +2 industry, rich home world
Allows planets to hold 2-10 more population (But no effect on food production). Completely ignoring the rest of the perk, this is great. The longer the game drags on, the better this perk becomes. As your planets fill up, your colonies become much more efficacious than others, with your 42 max pop outproducing 32 max pop planets of the same type and size. A techier version of aquatic.

Large/Rich Home World -
Useful for: Using extra race points
Got points left over? Get these.

Artifacts World -
Useful for: Rush
Less useful than Large/Rich, but could serve a purpose. If you want to rush certain techs before exploding across the galaxy, you could use this. Otherwise, +1 science is a more stable pick. Perhaps it would be more balanced at 2 points to pick.

Cybernetic -
Useful for: Cheating with evolutionary mutation
Overpriced AND inefficacious! Ships explode too fast to take advantage of the self-repairing in combat, advanced damage control is only 900 points, and replacing food consumption with industry consuption is a lateral move at best.

Lithovore -
Useful for: Rush, Convenience
Example: Democracy, +1 science, Lithovore - +2 production, rich HW, Lithovore - Subterranean, Lithovore, +1 industry
The biggest rush pick in the history of rush picks. In the end, when all players have 2 farmers per colony, Lithovore feels like a waste of ten points. In the beginning, though, when you have 6-8 guys on science vs everyone else's 2-4, you're setting the stage for the biggest head start you can have. As more players pick up soil enrichment, weather controller, and astro university, however, your edge (and chances of winning) dull dramatically.

Charismatic -
Useful for: Survival, Tech, VS AI
In games with AI, you can make friends with everyone, offer trade/research agreements with everyone, trade techs with everyone, and use that as your defense. Charismatic helps with this, AND allows better leaders to come by. This pick is why outpost ships exist.

Creative -
Useful for: Convenience
You get to research every tech in the game. You can also steal it with spy+20 for 2 less points. You can also trade/demand it with Charismatic for 5 less points. It can be useful if you're in a research heavy race, and want to kill people quickly (iridium AND atmospheric is a great combo for missile ships.), but otherwise, it's just a xenophobe's tech that costs a bit too much.

Tolerant -
Useful for: Rush, Population fixing
Example: Tolerant, Unification, +1 production - Tolerant, +2 production, Rich home world - Tolerant, Lithovore
Not quite as rushy as lithovore, but really close. Tolerant races can put more units on less habitable planets, they get a free core waste dump on every planet, and they're better at winning with missile ships (since they don't need pollution processor or atmospheric renewer). Because of this, tolerant races synergize spectacularly well with production bonuses.

Fantastic Traders -
Useful for: VS AI
Even vs AI, this is an overpriced pick.

Telepathic -
Useful for: Convenience, Rush, VS AI
Example: Telepathic, +20 ground combat, Unification, Warlord - Telepathic, +50 ship attack, Unification, Warlord
An interesting pick, to say the least. The +spy feels like it's just tacked on there. Telepathic races shine when they're allowed to instantly assimilate planets with their mind control. You can use +20 ground combat to rush someone's start location and board their star base with a cruiser to win the game in 30 turns. Alternatively, you can use +50 ship attack and simply mow over everything you see in space. This pick synergizes spectacularly well with unification, as you assimilate the targets immediately, and they gain the +50% food/industry bonus. It also works well with warlord, since you can get +2 command points immeidately for conquering, and a quick +1-6 from rebuilding the star base with fully functional population on a loaded planet.
Unfortunately, if you DON'T get to mind control planets in a hurry, you've completely fallen flat. This pick becomes useless in defending yourself or winning in space combat, and the mind control only works if you're already winning (a.k.a. A "winmore" button).
Vs the AI, you can simply go after the weaker races and mind control their stars while the stronger guys threaten each other.

Lucky -
Useful for: Nothing
Overpriced and doesn't have any tangible effect on the game.

Omniscient -
Useful for: Rush
Usually banned in online play, Omniscience allows you to save a few turns in the beginning of the game by finding out which planets are habitable, the quickest way to get to other players, and WHICH players to attack first (Find that demo/lith and invade him!)
Vs AI, it helps you discover stealthy ships, which can prevent unpleasantness.

Stealthy Ships -
Useful for: Nothing
AI can always see your ships, regardless of stealth capabilities. Did you ever notice that if you try to refit your whole fleet at the same time, everyone suddenly declares war on you? They know how many ships you have and where they are at all times.

Trans Dimensional -
Useful for: Situational
Going first is nice, and +2 speed is nice. While I personally never take this (augmented engines and better drives make up for this), it's certainly not bad. Interphased drive plus trans dimensional is 9 parsec/turn instead of 7, and et ceteris parabis, Trans Dimensional ships operate in combat before non-trans-dimensional ones.

Warlord -
Useful for: Rush, Survival
In the end, the better equipped ships win, no matter how many of them there are. One single doom star with achilles targeting, structural analyzer, hyper-x capacitors and mauler device will destroy several AI controlled doom stars. Earlier on, however, the ability to have 14 missile frigates without losing BC can pose quite a threat to other players.

[Delthea]

Tech tree choices!

3 - You get this. The other options are there for AIs, creative races, and challenges only. If you're playing to win, you take this.
2 - The logical choice. You can make an argument against it if the situation permits (Spying, demanding, trading), but if you're not getting this, you probably need an explanation.
1 - Worth getting.
0 - Not worth getting.

Physics

150 - Fusion Physics
2 - Fusion Beam : Tons of mods, and enveloping makes for a great early game beam weapon.

1 - Fusion Rifle : If you're rushing to raid/capture a star base (i.e. telepathic races), this can give you an edge.

250 - Tachyon Physics
1 - Tachyon Communications : Allows your starbases to generate more command points. It's good if you're expanding quickly with a high production race pumping out battlecruisers, or if you're massing missile frigates for an early monster/conquest.

2 - Battle Scanner : +50 beam attack is huge, and you'll probably use this on all beam ships until the end of the game.

0 - Tachyon Scanner : A miniscule increase to detection range is not worth it if you could have 4 more command points to station a battlecruiser in the star system (Or a more deadly star base) in the star system instead.

900 - Neutrino Physics
1 - Neutron Blaster : Depending on the enemy's level of technology, you might be able to get away with fusion beams at this level.

1 - Neutron Scanner : If you find yourself in need of a better scanner, this is the first one worth getting.

1150 - Artificial Gravity
2 - Gravity Generator : It makes bad planets better. Early monster-guarded planets might be huge gaia ultra-rich but with high gravity.

1 - Tractor Beam : A special use item that can help you board/capture/destroy enemy ships, by reducing their evasion and movement capabilities. Very specific scenarios (usually GC races) would prefer this.

1 - Graviton Beam : A very powerful beam weapon with no modifications. A good choice if you don't plan on getting phasors/plasma cannons

1500 - Subspace Physics
2 - Subspace Communications - Make more ships. The better choice, if you don't have Tachyon Communications.

1 - Jump Gate - Defend your home planets better. Easier to live without if you have Warp Interdictor

2000 - Multi-Phased Physics
3 - Phasor : A highly modifiable beam weapon. The most powerful naturally shield piercing weapon in the game.

0 - Phasor Rifle : Get plasma instead.

0 - Multi-Phased Shields : Maybe if it increased the amount of damage blocked instead of simply allowing the shield to have more HP, it might be worth looking at.

3500 - Plasma Physics
2.5 - Plasma Cannon : Naturally enveloping means FOUR TIMES normal damage on unshielded targets. A few battleships loaded with these and battle scanners can take out the guardian easily.

2 - Plasma Rifle : The best rifle in the game. If you're using ground combat to board ships (not necessarily to invade planets), you want this.

1 - Plasma Web : If you're unable to kill ships in a single turn (Online play), this guy can do some fantastic damage. Unfortunately, it needs time to do its thing.

4500 - Multi-Dimensional Physics
2 - Disruptor Cannon : "Damage not reduced by range" is rare on beam weapons. Rangemaster unit works spectacularly well in tandem with this guy. The weakest weapon that's able to penetrate the strongest planetary shields.

1 - Dimensional Portal : Too easy to acquire from other sources. However, if you're playing a spy penalty and cannot bargain/demand for this tech AND you want to win via attacking Antares, this is the way to go.

6000 - Hyper-Dimensional Physics
2 - Hyperspace Communications : +3 command per star base is good, but the ability to control your ships from anywhere is a hack-like advantage.

1 - Mauler Device : Pros : Never misses. Allows you to skip cybertronic/moleculartronic computer. Can siege planets with the strongest barriers. Cons : Strictly worse than plasma cannon. If you plan on getting an advanced computer and have plasma cannon, this is just a bad weapon.

1 - Sensors : If you're using missiles and want to stay that way, this is good. If you skipped all other sensors and you're this far into the game, you might need this.

15,000 - Temporal Physics
2 - Time Warp Facilitator : When combined with phasing cloak, this tech is a "win button".
~Your turn (DONE), enemy turn can't see you, Your turn (ATTACK), Your turn (DONE) you recloak, enemy turn can't see you. Repeat ad nauseum.

1 - Stellar Converter : The best planetary defense in the game. Ships can also mount these to destroy tiny/small/medium/toxic planets, then you can rebuild an artificial planet to maket it barren and large/huge. Good for building score, not so much for combat.

1 - Star Gate : If you're on the defensive, this allows you to reposition your army from any colony to any colony in a single turn. If you're on the offensive, it's a tech of convenience.

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Computers


150 - Optronics
3 - Research Laboratory : Without this, one worker generates 3 RP. With this, one worker generates 9 RP. With this, you still get 5 RP per turn even when there's no scientists at all on the planet. This tree is the exact reason Uncreative should be a 10 point flaw.

0 - Optronic Computer : Increases your +25 ship attack to +50. Not as great as it sounds.

1 (barely) - Dauntless Guidance System : Your missiles do not self destruct if their initial target dies. Seriously, though. You'd better win in a hurry. If your opponent manages to not-die, the massive penalty you suffer as a result of their ability to get to robo factory and supercomputer *three times* faster than you.

400 - Artificial Intelligence
2 - Neural Scanner : +10 spying is never bad.

1 - Scout Lab : Allows your ships to generate RP, but you need to waste space to install this system, making them less combat ready. Also confers better combat ability vs space monsters and antarans, both of which are laughably weak to missiles.

0 - Security Stations : Defense against raiding parties. Kinda super-bad.

900 - Positronics
2.5 - Planetary Supercomputer : A double-research lab. +10 RP per turn on its own, and +2 RP per scientist.

2 - Holo Simulator : +20% Morale (farming/industry/research production) for your units. If supercomputer wasn't such an enormous boost at such an early stage in the game, this would be your 100% choice. If you're in a position where you don't need to quickly beeline other techs (strong fleet), this gives you a bonus to the more-important industry generation as well as a smaller bonus to science.

1 - Positronic Computer : +75 to hit instead of +25. Same as Optronic Computer. You'd better be putting yourself in a position to win with this, else you're setting yourself up for some pain (Though not as much as the former scenario).

1500 - Artificial Consciousness
1 - Emissions Guidance System : Dramatically amplifies the deadliness of your missiles, but you must choose this modification in the shipbuilding screen.

1 - Rangemaster Targeting Unit : A special system that must be installed on the shipbuilding screen that increases the accuracy of attacks at long range. Good with heavy mount disruptors.

1.5 - Cyber-Security Link : +10 spying. Stacking lots of spying bonuses makes acquisition of other techs trivial. If you're not using missiles, and plan to get a stronger computer, this is the best choice.

2750 - Cybertronics
1 - Cybertronic Computer : +100 beam accuracy. If you still have electronic computer (+25), you want either this or moleculartronic. Cybertronic computer is a massive jump from electronics, and as such, makes your warships much more formidable.

1 - Autolab : +30 RP. Does not make your scientists stronger. If you have several colonies, Autolabs are a great choice.

1 - Structural Analyzer : Beams that penetrate shields do double damage. Shield piercing, armor piercing phasors love this.

3500 - Cybertechnics
1.1 - Android Workers : Self sustaining, can populate toxic planets without the need for freighters. A great choice for research-y races that don't have much in the way of morale.

1 - Android Scientists : A respectable choice for unifications.

1 - Android Farmers : By the time you're here, the +3 food is probably not a big deal.

4500 - Galactic Networking
1 - Virtual Reality : A free holosim on every planet. +20% food/industry/science from each colonist.

1 - Galactic Cybernet : If you pick this, you're committing to winning with late game tech. Unlike the Research Labs and Supercomputer, the cybernet comes so late that the effect isn't as sizable or necessary. Research lab nearly triples your RP gain, whereas this would only be about a 75% boost to science (depending on your race, stats, and board condition).

6000 - Moleculartronics
1 - Moleculartronic Computer : If you have cybertronic computer, you should skip this. If you have electronic computer, you need this (Unless you plan on using maulers or missiles).

1 - Pleasure Dome : 30% morale. A huge boost to your shipbuilding capability.

1.1 - Achilles Targeting Unit : In MMO terms, "Ignore enemy defense, increase chance to crit." Shield piercing phasors are lethal with this. Great synergy with Hyper-X capacitors, High Energy Focus, and Structural Analyzer.


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Chemistry

250 - Advanced Metallurgy
1 - Tritanium Armor : Double HP on all ships. If you're able/willing to outpost from star to star, you can get this first, as the next armor upgrade is at 2000 RP.

1.1 - Deuterium Fuel Cells : Increase ship's effective range by 50% (6 parsecs from 4). One of the X's in "4X" is "Explore". Your base exploration capability on your scouts is extremely limited, and it's very easy to get walled into a corner if the wrong stars spawn.

650 - Advanced Chemistry
1 - Merculite Missile : While merc missiles are twice as good as nuclear missiles, and radiation shields can singlehandedly block an infinite number of nuclear missiles, researching this tech level unlocks the MIRV enhancement for your nukes, making them *more* effective against ships than merculite at this tech level. Pulson missiles are in the next tree, if you're willing to make that trade..

1 - Pollution Processor : Pollution control is exceedingly important in this game. If you skip pollproc, you really ought to pick up atmosphere renewer.

1150 - Molecular Compression
1 - Pulson Missile : If you skip merculites *and* these, you're going to have a bad time with your missile bases' and star bases' ability to defend your planets. If you have Merculites, these are not a necessary tech at all.

1 - Atmoshperic Renewer : If you didn't take pollution processor, this is a 2. You need some pollution control or your early game ship production is going to suffer.

1 - Iridium Fuel Cells : If you didn't take Deuterium Fuel Cells, this is a 2, as it will double your ships' effective range.

2000 - Nano Technology
1 - Nano Disassemblers : A free pollution processor on every planet. If you skipped Pollution Processor and Atmospheric Renewer, this is a 2.

1 - Microlite Construction : A free +1 industry for each industry producing colonist on every planet.

2 - Zortrium Armor : If you have Tritanium armor, this doubles the HP of all your ships. If you haven't researched any armor, this QUADRUPLES your ships' HP. Zortrium vs Titanium is a hot knife vs butter.

4500 - Molecular Manipulation
1 - Zeon Missile : Are you committing to missiles? If not, this will only marginally improve the efficacy of your innate defenses (star base, missile base), as fleets will be able to shred those without fleet assistance.

1.1 - Neutronium Armor : 50% better than zortrium. 3x better than Tritanium. 6x better than Titanium. A great pick, even if you already have zortrium. If you do not have zortrium armor, this is a 2.

1 - Uridium Fuel Cells : If you have Iridium, you've already got enough range to get around the galaxy with outposts (which build in a single turn at this point in the game). If you only have Deuterium (or somehow, no fuel cells) this becomes a 2.

10,000 - Molecular Control
2 - Adamantium Armor : The best armor you can research. 1.33x stronger than neutronium. 2x stronger than zortrium. 4x stronger than tritanium. 8x stronger than titanium. A spectacularly worthwhile tech that singlehanded amplifies your fleets' survivability. Especially when compared to...

1 - Thorium Fuel Cells : A tech of convenience. If you have Iridium or Uridium, you can span the galaxy. If you have neither of those... Adamantium armor is still really good.

[Delthea]

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Construction

80 - Advanced Engineering
3 - Reinforced Hull : You know how Zortrium is a nearly 100% pick, and it only doubles your HP over tritanium? This triples your HP, compounds with your best armor, and is strictly better than every other tech at this level.

0 - Fighter Bays : You're better off using the beams yourself, rather than launching minions (which can be destroyed) to shoot them for you. Also, these minions can be shot down before ever getting a chance to deal damage.

1 - Anti-Missile Rockets : This can help you take out enemy star bases early, but having triple HP on all your ships is better in nearly every scenario.

150 - Advanced Construction
3 - Automated Factory : See Research Laboratory. This is a monster buff that comes super early. Not getting this is quite a setback.

1 - Heavy Armor : Triple armor. Can be ignored by armor piercing, but HP is HP. In PvP games, you can often steal automated factories, as 99% of players will get this. Drawback, of course, being that you need to wait for your spies to get itl.

1 - Missile Base : The best planetary defense in the game, and it's available super early. In AI games, this singlehandedly beats antaran invasions, and it does massive damage vs player ships in PvP.

250 - Capsule Construction
3 - Battle Pods : Increase the space on ships by 50%. Jam more systems and weapons into your ships, allowing you to have more firepower per command point.

1 - Troop Pods : If you're GC based and warlord, and as such, don't need to worry about command points, you may think having a higher marine capacity for boarding/raiding is useful.

0 - Survival Pods : Saves ship leaders if the leader's ship dies and your fleet survives. Too situational, and battle pods is better at keeping your leaders alive, as your fleet will be much stronger.

400 - Astro Engineering
2 - Spaceport : Each unit producers 1.5 BC instead of 1.0. More money is the same as more production, just at a lower scale.

0 - Armor Barracks : If you're invading, you can simply build MORE transports. If you're defending a lost colony, you have bigger concerns than "Is my ground army strong enough?"

1 - Fighter Garrison : Charge a frigate into the host of interceptors, then self destruct. No more interceptors for ten more turns.

650 - Robotics
2 - Robo-Miners : See Planetary Supercomputer. It's a double autofactory, and distressingly powerful at only 650 RP.

1 - Battlestation : Allows you to produce 2 command points per colony instead of 1. You're generally better off getting Tachyon Communications if you're that hung up on CP.

0 - Powered Armor : Marines are stronger and take more hits to kill. Not worth giving up Robofactories for.

900 - Servo Mechanics
2 - Advanced Damage Control : Ships heal to 100% after combat, regardless of where they are. Otherwise, ships will only heal after combat if located in a star system with a friendly star base.

2 - Fast Missile Racks : Great for overrunning enemy missile defenses. Garbage if you're not using missile ships.

1 - Assault Shuttles : The first tech that lets you board mobile ships. If you're dedicated GC, you can use this to steal functional enemy ships. Especially good in PvP, as -20 ground combat is a standard pick.

1150 - Astro Construction
2 - Titan Construction : Bigger, stronger battleships. You need more PP to reach full command point capacity in titans than you would battleships, but if you're at full command point capacity anyways, THAT is your limiting factor.

1 - Ground Batteries : Better than fighter garrison if you're hung up on planetary defenses, but not as good as missile base. If you're not in need of CP (read: warlord), ground batteries are not bad.

0 - Battleoids : Bigger marines. Useless on defense, tech of convenience on invasion.

1500 - Advanced Manufacturing
2 - Recyclotron : Not as good as robo factory, but more production is more production.

2.1 - Artificial Planet : A must-have for score games. A must-have for subterranean. A generally slow techh that trades acceleration for top speed. You need to wait a while for this to pay off, due to the massive PP cost of building a planet, but this lets you expand if the game is in a standstill.

0 - Automated Repair Unit : Heals your ship's armor or structure every turn. Takes up ship space to install, and in order to work, Your ship must both (A) be damaged and (B) not have a damaged automated repair unit. Basically worthless.

2000 - Advanced Robotics
1 - Robotic Factory : A not-very-good PP generating tech. It takes time to build, it costs money to maintain, and takes forever to pay itself off. It's still better than the alternative, though.

0 - Bomber Bays : Remember how interceptors get destroyed by a suiciding frigate? Same thing here. As an added bonus, you get to waste space on your ship to install this thing!

3500 - Tectonic Engineering
1 - Deep Core Mine : It's a triple autofactory. Better than core waste dump most of the time, but if you can get both, do that.

1 - Core Waste Dump : No pollution is very strong. If you have atmospheric renewer, get deep core. If you have pollution processor and nothing else, this might be a valid option. In either case, you might want to try and trade/steal for one, then research the other.

6000 - Superscalar Construction
3 - Advanced City Planning : All your planets have +5 max pop. You know how subterranean is a 6 point pick and adds 2-10 max pop per planet? You know how people take tolerant in part due to the population amplifying effect it gives? You know that people don't take aquatic because of the farming bonus? Yeah. This is another one of those. In games where you're going for score, this pick becomes a 4.

1 - Star Fortress - Allows planets to make star bases that give +3 CP instead of +1. Their PP cost is massive, though.

0 - Heavy Fighters - More interceptors that get blown up by a frigate explosion. Or rather, at this stage in the game, by point defense phasors. A complete waste of space.

7500 - Planetoid Construction
3 - Doom Star Construction - Same as titans vs battleships. 9000 PP worth of battleships will beat 9000 PP worth of titans. 9000 PP worth of titans will beat 9000 PP worth of doom stars. The command point cost decreases dramatically as ship size goes up, however. 6 CP worth of doom stars is equivalent to 15 CP worth of titans, or 60 CP worth of battleships. If the game has gone on long enough to get to a point where CP matters *and* doom stars are researched, this tech decides the winner.

0 - Artemis system net - Attackers invading your system take a miniscule amount of damage before the battle begins. Expensive to produce, expensive to maintain.

***************
Power

250 - Advanced Fusion
2 - Augmented Engines : A special system that lets your ships move faster/further in combat. Very useful in games where "Whoever gets to attack first in combat wins".

1 - Fusion Drive : Your ships move 50% faster than if they had no drive. If you absolutely need to defend something and can't wait for ion drive, this is better than nothing.

0 - Fusion Bomb : Better bombs later, if you even use bombs at all.

900 - Ion Fission
2 - Ion Drive : Move twice as fast as no drive (4/turn vs 2/turn), and 33% faster than fusion drive.

1 - Shield Capacitor : If your ships aren't getting blown up in one turn, it's effectively regeneration for your ships (provided this system does not get blown up).

1 - Ion Pulse Cannon : Ignores EVERYTHING to pop systems. A disturbingly powerful tech for a very small period of time, as it's completely negated by Class III shield. A helpful tech for telepathic races rushing to take over someone's home planet.

2000 - Anti-Matter Fission
2 - Anti-Matter Drive : 5/turn movement speed.

2 - Anti-Matter Torpedoes : Missiles that cannot be shot down.

1 - Anti-Matter Bomb : If you're really hung up on using bombs, this is probably the only one worth getting. Anti-Matter Torpedoes are nearly as good as these guys, AND can attack non-planet targets.

2750 - Matter-Energy Conversion
1 - Transporters : Bomb planets from a distance, board ships from a distance.

1 - Food Replicators : Converts industry to food. The single highest BC maintenance cost in the game, but allows you to survive on toxic planets without the aid of freighter fleets.

3500 - High Energy Distribution
2 - High Energy Focus : Beam weapons do 50% more damage. stacks synergistically with structural analyzer and achilles targeting unit. Better vs strong shields.

2 - Megafluxers : Ships have more capacity. Very useful. Better in the endgame.

1 - Energy Absorber : Take less damage, deal more damage. Takes space to install.

4500 - Hyper-Dimensional Fission
1 - Proton Torpedo : The best torpedo out there. While plasmas are stronger, these guys are instant. After you fire them, they behave like beams and hit instantly. With Overloaded, ECCM, and Enveloping, these guys are going to be your standard on late game missile ships. The upside of proton torpedo ships is that it lets you free up a LOT of decisions on other trees. Computers can be wholly ignored, as well as beams and beam-related techs (battlescanner, hyper-x, high energy, structural analyzer, etc.)

1 - Hyper Drive : Less useful if you have anti-matter drive, or plan on getting interphased. It's still not a bad tech, though.

1 - Hyper-X Capacitors : A must-have if you're using beams to kill people. "Beams Fire Twice on the first round of combat" is hard to pass up.

10,000 - Interphased Fission
2 - Interphased Drive : It's hard to overstate how great it is to be able to outmaneuver your opponent. This is the fastest drive that can be researched, and is a must-have on races that have trans dimensional, as this bonus will guarantee that you're going first in combat.

1 - Plasma Torpedo : The strongest missile in the game. Can't be shot down, has absolutely massive damage, and if the game goes on long enough, can eventually become overloaded and enveloping.

0 - Neutronium Bomb : Bombs are nearly 100% worthless at this stage of the game.


***************
Sociology

650 - Xeno Relations
1(3) - Xeno Psychology : Passable if you're trading, as it is one of three factors that apply to the success rate of demands on other empires. The largest effect on demand is always going to be fleet size, but more presuasion doesn't hurt.
This pick is useless if you're repulsive, and useless in games that only have human players. As diplomacy is often banned in online play, this becomes a useless pick in such scenarios. If it is NOT banned, however, this becomes a 3, as stealing techs from the AI will give you a sizable advantage over your human opponents, even if you're invading their planets and would have use of a management center.

1 - Alien Management Center : Useless if you're telepathic, as you will instantly assimilate other races. If you're using troop pods to assimilate colonies, this tech is a must. If you're not, this tech is useless.

Everything else in Sociology is a no-choice field.

***************
Biology

80 - Astro Biology
3 - Biospheres : Two more citizens will produce more than two food, which can be shipped to barren/toxic/radiated planets via freighters. Additionally, they will also increase your BC and increase population growth by a small margin due to the inflation of capacity.
Population is power.

1 - Hydroponic Farm : If you're truly unable to sustain your early colonies, because you're only producing 2 food on your home planet and everything else in range doesn't sustain itself, this can be a short-term-gain-long-term-loss option, effectively building a single farmer on each planet.

Advanced Biology
2 - Soil Enrichment : Doesn't cost any BC to maintain AND increases the efficacy of your farmers. A must-have if you're only producing 2 food per farmer. Aquatic and Unifications would usually skip this for cloners.

2 - Cloning Center : One of the single best buildings in the game. Housing is an overpowered feature, and this effectively offers a fraction of that all the time. It's only unfortunate that it's in the same field as Soil Enrichment.

0 - Death Spores : Bombs that kill colonists, but leave buildings. It could be useful on non-telepathic races to take over partially-developed planets, but the other two techs are far too amazing to ignore in favor of bombs that can be replaced with "A few more troop pods"

900 - Genetic Engineering
1 - Telepathic Training : 5% bonus to spies. Good if you're using spies, or if you're playing Democracy, or if you're using a spying penalty pick.

1 - Microbiotics : +25% bonus to population growth in a game where you want as many people as fast as you can. The better choice for Dictatorship and Unification, unless you're using spies offensively.

1500 - Macro Genetics
1 - Subterranean Farms : The lower your population capacity, the better this pick becomes.
Subterranean players, Aquatic players, and Tolerant players should never get this one.
If you skipped Biospheres, this becomes a stronger pick. If you're rushing, Subterranean farms are also better. The longer the games drags on, the worse this pick becomes.

1.1 - Weather Controller : If you have any population fixing (which you should), this becomes stronger. The higher your max pop on a planet, the better this becomes, as you also have access to terraforming by this point. Stacks multiplicatively with Unification, as well, making it +3 per colony on those races. If you're able to safely terraform your planets, this is an even better pick.

2750 - Evolutionary Genetics
1 - Psionics : +10% At this point, you're either well defended against enemy agents (rendering this unnecessary), or you're committed to spying (rendering this the pick to get). If you're on the fence, Dictatorships will get this one (due to the bonus +10% morale system-wide). Democracy can get this to improve counterintelligence, but simply "making more spies" can help here.

1 - Heightened Intelligence : The +1 research is useful for Unifications, as they're lacking research power, due to their morale immunity. The +1 research is useful for Democracy, as it's multiplied by the Democracy's science bonus. If you're rushing to some big techs for a powerful battleball, AUTOLABS is the one to get, not this.

4500 - Artificial Life
1 - Bio Terminator : If you're still hung up on capturing developed colonies at this stage in the game, this is a passable pick. This bomb can be equipped to a ship to strip a planet of colonists to make it capturable, while leaving the buildings intact. Useless for Telepathic races.

3 - Universal Antidote : System-wide +50% population growth, that takes nothing to build. It's very hard to make an argument against this one. Does not stack with microbiotics.

7500 - Trans Genetics
1 - Biomorphic Fungi : Effectively the same as Soil Enrichment, except that it does not require any industry to build, and it works on planets that would otherwise not support farming. At this stage of the game, a relatively useless pick.

1.1 - Gaia Transformation : Strictly better than the fungi, in that it allows your food-bearing planets to get the +1 that the fungi would get, except that it also increases your population on those planets as well. However, by now, you've either won the game, and this is a "win-more" tech, allowing you to secure dominance over your opponents, or you're NOT winning, and you should be going for miniaturization/wartech (physics, chemistry) to make your ships more lethal in combat.

2 - Evolutionary Mutation : Store the 4 points for increased score multiplier, or pick up Warlord to add a ton of command points to your arsenal, which will allow you to support a much larger fleet.

[abonamente]

Would be nice to have a full and clear tech tree, with everything explained, in game, and such, this is a very convenient and useful guide for the Steam players. It really should be stickered on the top of this forum.

Just a thought, though: like 99% of the strategy games players (myself included, of course), you seem biased (when giving the 0-3 points) towards your own play style and usual game settings. I am sure that for every single rank in this guide arguments can be made (pro-/against) by someone else, resulting in a quite different set of values attributed to various techs. Because, as you mention in some places, things may change dramatically with the game's settings, player's play style and whether it is a player vs. AI or PVP game. See, for instance, your brief explanations, how would vary the value of the Artificial Planets, or Graviton Beam, Autolabs etc. Personally, I'd make a strong argument for the wildly different values that can also be attributed to Doom Stars (0-3), Gyro Destabilizers (0-3), Planetary Radiation Shields (0-3), Microlite Construction (0-3), Genetic Mutations (0-3), Disruptors (0-3), Mauler Device (0-3) and so many more. There are just too many factors which might influence that value each game or even stage of the same game. Like the way you organize your ships' load (which you mentioned in several places), espionage, random events (Antarans attacks, Admirals/Administrators, time-space anomalies), other races in game and their position in galaxy, the presence of human players, your custom traits, organic/mineral rich galaxy, type of victory pursued etc. etc. etc. Any combination of these factors might alter radically the value of certain techs.

Perhaps a * system (instead of points system), to mark with one * only what you'd really-really consider, always, regardless the above mentioned circumstances, would be more helpful? Like *Automated Factories, *Research Labs, *Planetary Supercomputer, *Astro Universities etc.?

[Freysgodi]

Hi! Your estimate of fighters surprises me. We are speaking of tactical combat, right? In this case fighters are blitz's best friends. Using them you can beat huge galaxy with 7 AIs on impossible in 70-100 turns. In late game they are useless, yes, but it only matters if your enemies survive that long.

[Delthea]

***************
Force Fields

WARNING! This is far and away the most subjective and heavily fluctuating tree in the game. Opinions expressed here are to be taken with a grain of salt.

250 - Advanced Magnetism
0 - Class I shield : A very weak shield that is hardly worth noticing. if your battleship is equipped with this, the shield will reduce 1 point of damage from each oncoming attack, and eat up 20 more points of damage past that before failing.
For reference, a HV Fusion Beam does 3-9 points of damage. 4 fusion beams will destroy a shield that takes up quite a bit of space.

1 - Mass Driver : A good rush weapon. This does a flat 6 points of damage, and can be fired at maximum range without suffering any dissipation. A good choice for point defense because of the immunity to range dissipation. A passable choice for rush races that have an early computer upgrade, the warlord race pick, and/or the +ship attack race pick.
The longer the game goes on, the worse this pick becomes, as Fusion Beams eventually outshine Mass Driver by a long shot. (Pun totally intended.)

2 - ECM Jammer : An amazing missile defense weapon that offers a massive +70% to missile evasion. While it does not render complete immunity to missiles, it drastically tilts the battle in favor of the ship with the ECM Jammer.

650 - Gravitic Fields
1 - Anti-Grav Harness : +10 to ground combat, stacks with best rifle. If you're not using invade/raid/capture, never get this. If you are, Inertial stabilizer is still really good, and you should consider the merits before skipping it.

3 - Inertial Stabilizer : +50 to beam defense, +25 to missile defense, and reduced turning costs make this an absolutely spectacular defensive tech that multiplies each ship's survival capabilities dramatically.

0 - Gyro Destabilizer : Do 1-4 structure damage, and spin the enemy ship in a random direction. You'll see the enemy AI use this on you. In very early fights, it's possible that the random direction you spin them in can render them unable to hit back, but the damage is negligible, and if the enemy has inertial stabilizers, they WILL be able to hit back, and with better combat capabilities than you have, as their defense is higher, and your space is wasted on this thing. Useless vs star bases.

900 - Magneto Gravitics
1 - Class III shield : The first shield worth looking at.
As long as the shield is active, it shaves 3 damage right off the top of each incoming attack. Rest of damage is absorbed by shield's HP.
Shield remains active until 15*ShipSize HP is dealt to the shield (15 for frigate, 60 for battleship).
The first beam that can eat through this shield effectively is Phasors, at 2000 RP.
Although missiles can tear through this quickly, you can use ECM Jammer to slow that process down significantly.
Class 3 shield + ECM Jammer + Inertial Stabilizer renders your ship nearly invincible to all combat pre-phasors.

1 - Planetary Radiation Shield : Turns radiated planets barren, allowing them to be terraformed into planets that support higher population. Super useful if you're able to defend yourself without the aid of Class III Shield. Also cheaper than the higher tech planetary shields that effectively do the same thing.

1 - Warp Dissipator : Prevents enemy ships from retreating. If they attack you and they lose the fight, they have to suffer the full loss. Since this can mean the end of a game, simply HAVING this tech can act as a deterrent in online play.

1500 - Electromagnetic Refraction
1 - Stealth Field : Useless vs AI. Useless vs Omniscient players, though Omniscience is usually banned in online play. Colony Ships and Troop Transports cannot use this tech, so only equipped fighters can use this. If you want to cheese some colonies (vs players. AI can always sense your ships) by bombing underdeveloped colonies, this could see some use vs players that have forgone Radiation Shield. Otherwise, it takes up a lot of space for very little practical use.

2 - Personal Shield : Increases ground combat by 20%. A sizable boost if you're doing any sort of ground combat.

2 - Stealth Suit : If you're not using ground combat, this tech helps defend you, improves your espionage, and allows you to skip other spy techs. I get this one 99% of the time.

2000 - Warp Fields
0 - Pulsar : Area of Effect weapon that hurts all ships in range, regardless of owner. Requires you to be close to the enemy to use effectively. Generally a very bad choice, despite Loknar's ship throwing it at you like he's some sort of ninja.

3 - Warp Interdictor : Increase your reaction time to get every system you own within your sphere of influence. Almost always banned in online play, but if it's not, there's a reason why it is. Get this.

1 - Lightning Field : Kinda works vs missiles, but it's just not very good. At least it's better than Pulsar, if Warp Interdictor is banned.

2750 - Subspace Fields
2 - Class V Shields : 66% stronger than Class III Shields. If you skipped Class III Shields, this is a 3, as it multiplies the survivability of your combat ships several times.
A battleship with this shield will take only 13.5 damage per HV phasor, and require 8 phasors to strip the shields off of. An unshielded battleship would take 144 damage from those same 8 HV phasors. Depending on your tech level, that could be half the HP of a ship, and thus, this tech would improve your survivability by 50%.
Versus Plasma Cannons, an unshielded ship would take 72 damage per cannon, on average. A Class V Shielded ship would devour eight of those before any damage gets across.

1 - Multi-Wave ECM Jammer : If you don't have ECM Jammer, this becomes a 2. If you know your enemy is using torpedoes, ECM Jammers are your only defense against that.

1 - Gauss Cannon : A stronger Mass Driver. Stronger than a phasor, but not for long. If you're getting this tech, use it immediately, as Phasor quickly outshines it with its massive customizability.

3500 - Distortion Fields
1 - Cloaking Device : As per stealth field, the invisibility part is useless. Unlike the stealth field, however, it offers an enormous 80 to beam defense and 50 to missile defense as long as it remains active. Unfortunately, it deactivates as soon as you fire, reducing its usefulness to games where you're resigned to going second in combat. If the opponent takes Trans Dimensional, or commits to Augmented Engines, Cloaking Device is useful.

2 - Stasis Field : Cheese cheese cheese! Go fast, freeze, end turn. Next turn, unfreeze, fire all you've got, re-freeze. Repeat. Great vs AI, often banned in multiplayer, because of this trick.

2 - Hard Shields : All-around shield booster, and rather good at what it does. +3 damage reduction (huge), allows shield use in nebula (useful if you can make combat happen in one), prevents transporter use (even after shields die), and negates the Shield Piercing mod.
You know how Class V shields shave 5 damage right off the top? Now it's 8.
You know how a Battleship was stopping 8 plasma cannons before failing? Now it's 10.
Did you completely skip every ground combat tech? Who cares? They're not raiding you without tractor beams.
Does your opponent have Auto-firing, shield piercing, continuous, heavy mounted phasors with achilles targeting and a structural analyzer? ...Uh.. you're a fair bit behind in the tech race, but at least you'll have three times longer per ship to lament your imminent doom!

4500 - Quantum Fields
2 - Class VII Shield - 40% stronger than Class V shields, and a good choice if you have Hard Shields. If you skipped Class V shield, this is a 3, as it's more than twice as good as a Class III Shield, and offers great protection vs Plasma Cannons (which you should be seeing quite a bit of at this point in the game).

1 - Planetary Flux Shield - If you don't have Radiation Shield, the argument can be made that you want this to start terraforming your radiated planets. Seriously dampens the effect of beam weapons hitting the planet. If you know your opponent is dedicated to beams, this can allow your planets to try and fatigue your opponents with their natural defenses.

2 - Wide Area Jammer - 130 missile evasion to the ship it's on, and 70 missile evasion to every other ship in your fleet. Pop one of these on a Frigate with an inertial stabilizer, build four of them, and let them hang out in the back to give every other combat ready ship in your fleet a +70 missile defense without having to pay the space for the ECM Jammer on each ship.
If Warp Interdictor hasn't been banned out, you can drop an interdictor and a Wide Area Jammer on the same ship to make it a truly scary totem for your fleet.

7500 - Transwarp Fields
2 - Displacement Device : All attacks have 30% chance to miss this ship. This effectively increases your ship's survivability by a multiplicative 50%. Great defense, but at this point, you're probably aiming for the ability to destroy your opponent quickly, rather than letting them do it to you.

2 - Supspace Teleporter : Bounce 18 squares before turning and moving. Works great vs missile/torpedo ships. Works great if the enemy remains in firing range, as you can attack, then teleport back 18 squares. A little bulky and tricky, but if it fits your playstyle, it can be better than any other special system in the game.

1 - Inertial Nullifier : Ships can turn for free, and have +100 beam defense. A very bulky system that takes up a lot of weapon space.

15000 - Temporal Fields
1 - Class X Shield : The best shield in the game. Eats 10 (13 with Hard Shields) off the top of every weapon before losing HP. 200 HP on a battlecruiser, 300 on a doom star. Exceptionally powerful versus Plasma and Phasors (though at 15,000 RP, you're probably facing maulers and disruptors). Cutting disruptors to 2/3 power is a great head start, though.

1 - Phasing Cloak : More cheese, especially in conjunction with Time Warp Facilitator. "Wait, Fire, Wait Wait, Enemy turn oh-wait-no-ships-I-guess-I-am-done, Fire, Wait, Wait, Enemy turn again really-still-no-ships-oh-okay-then, Fire, Wait, Wait, repeat." This combo is an instant win vs AI, while other players can also take advantage of this. If the enemy is faster than you, they may be able to disrupt your cheese combo (depending on version played), and then win a firefight, due to the 375 space you're cashing out on your doom star for that system that's useless after your first attack.

0 - Planetary Barrier Shield : Totally useless at this stage. Renders your planet immune to plasma cannons, if your enemy hasn't teched any higher than 3500 by the time you've hit 15000. Turns radiated planets barren, if you're still at a stage in the game where that matters. Increases planet survivability, but fleet sizes make it such that a planet's natural defenses won't be able to make a dent before collapsing. Do not skip the best ship shield in the game for the best planetary shield, unless you're bringing your planet along on sieges.

========

This rating system, as with every rating system produced by every person ever, is going to be subjective in nature. While I do my best to explain in detail where and why each pick would be chosen for a new player (the target audience), it's going to be literally impossible to come up with a set of numbers everyone agrees on.

The 3s are "Almost everyone would agree that this is a great choice.", and as such, is reserved for things like automated facotry and research lab. More experienced players can forgo this if they're playing in such a way that warrants it, but a first-timer should look at it like "I really ought to take this every time until I get the hang of the game."

2s and 1s are "You CAN take these. I'd prefer a 2, but don't rule out a 1. If this is your first game NOT playing creative, consider the merits of the 2." While I prefer to take Microlite construction over zortrium armor most AI games, it's because I know I'm in a situation where I can rush to neutronium, or I know I'm fast enough that my paper thin defenses won't matter.

As for my hatred of fighters, I just don't respect them. The group I used to play with on lordbrazen's site had this game tuned to a science. Things like "Frigate with MIRV nukes acting like a swarm of bees" and "single battleship with 360 area fire fusion beams and cybertronic computer singlehandedly wiping out a fleet of those frigates" were commonplace. When it came to fighters, it was all risk and no reward. While some tricks could have you flatten a group of AIs in 100 turns, like +GC/Augmented engine/Telepathic mind controlling, Unification/Tolerant battlecruiser on turn 60 popping your neighbors, or fifteen MIRV nuke frigates collapsing the entirety of the galaxy due to the star base's laughable inability to deal with missiles, these require some practice to master; And a newer player that wants to learn how the game works probably doesn't want to learn by finding out how to game the system's weaknesses (missile base > every antaran attack, higher fleet score = more demand leverage)

The rest of the list will be up eventually. Each tree takes about an hour to compile, and I don't have a lot of spare time these days.

All said, it's not meant to be an affront to anyone, nor is it meant to say "people who pick heavy fighters over advanced city planning are dumb". It's meant to give the (hopefully) new influx of players who picked this up on Steam a barometer to work with.

[Narnyay]

Will you finish your guide? To recap you have left out reviews for Sociology, Biology and Force Fileds branches

[Delthea]

To be honest, I completely forgot about this.
Yeah, I think I've got a couple hours off next Sunday to continue it.

[Sloan]

Trans Dimensional - Useful for: Rush )
Stealthy Ships - Useful for: if opponent have Warp interdictor, vs Human player
Fantastic Traders & Charismatic Useful for: nothing

[Delthea]

It's true that stealthy ships are good vs humans, but even if the opponent AI has warp interdictors, stealthy ships are useless. They are permanently omniscient, always know where your ships are, and will be able to react to your supposedly invisible ships no matter what you do.

[Delthea]

Arright, that's all done.
Way more work than I thought it was going to be

[lordpeyre]

I know I'm way late to this party, but I wanted to thank you for this analysis, Delthea! This game's an OLD favorite of mine...I hadn't played much lately, but my kids have just gotten into it (I married late), so I'm playing it again and having fun learning more about the technology. (I always tended to use a brute-force approach to ship design for instance.) Rediscovering an old favorite is such a breath of fresh air - I might need to update Bladrov's Palace after all this time...

[WULT]

Originally posted by Delthea:

Telepathic -
Useful for: Convenience, Rush, VS AI
Example: Telepathic, +20 ground combat, Unification, Warlord - Telepathic, +50 ship attack, Unification, Warlord
An interesting pick, to say the least. The +spy feels like it's just tacked on there. Telepathic races shine when they're allowed to instantly assimilate planets with their mind control. You can use +20 ground combat to rush someone's start location and board their star base with a cruiser to win the game in 30 turns. Alternatively, you can use +50 ship attack and simply mow over everything you see in space. This pick synergizes spectacularly well with unification, as you assimilate the targets immediately, and they gain the +50% food/industry bonus. It also works well with warlord, since you can get +2 command points immeidately for conquering, and a quick +1-6 from rebuilding the star base with fully functional population on a loaded planet.
Unfortunately, if you DON'T get to mind control planets in a hurry, you've completely fallen flat. This pick becomes useless in defending yourself or winning in space combat, and the mind control only works if you're already winning (a.k.a. A "winmore" button).
Vs the AI, you can simply go after the weaker races and mind control their stars while the stronger guys threaten each other.

You miss some points. In battle you can use ships just boarded as they were your own. So you are able to steal ships in battles you will loose and retreat your fleet. Scrap the stolen ships and gain some tech. Rebuild your fleet and win the game.