What do you do early game?

[󠀡󠀡]

Seems for me I just afk run time with research, scans, and farm metal while I wait to get oxygen and water stored into tanks for domes. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or not.

What do you do early game to make the game fun/worthwhile? I'm not sure how to make it without having a ton of funds to purchase prefabs. The only way I know to make money is to find rare deposits and then you need domes + colonists + mine to farm it to sell on a shuttle. So are there any tips / ideas that you all do to get your game up and going smoothly?

[Soviman]

Early game for me largely depends on the map. I also avoid needing to ship things in by basically creating an artificial timer based on how many electronics/mechanical/plastic parts I have left. Once I reach the point where I am running out of at least one of those I start working on my domes.
I recently completed the achievement for getting 500 people as Russia on 500% difficulty. The map was particularly difficult as water was on one side and resources were on the other so I had to figure out the easiest way to pipe them across the map, most of which involved the early game as I needed the water before I could drop a single colonist. It took 90 sols before I even got my first passenger ship.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by GOTR Soviman:

Early game for me largely depends on the map. I also avoid needing to ship things in by basically creating an artificial timer based on how many electronics/mechanical/plastic parts I have left. Once I reach the point where I am running out of at least one of those I start working on my domes.
I recently completed the achievement for getting 500 people as Russia on 500% difficulty. The map was particularly difficult as water was on one side and resources were on the other so I had to figure out the easiest way to pipe them across the map, most of which involved the early game as I needed the water before I could drop a single colonist. It took 90 sols before I even got my first passenger ship.

So then it seems this game is mostly a planning afk waiting game.

[Bobucles]

Fast scanning and Moisture Vaporators are your friend. Futurist start is useful because of the strong boost it gives to scanning. Placing a sensor tower in every 2x2 area will give the fastest scanning speed and give you good dome placements as early as possible. Once you have a good colony site, start building right away. No need to wait.

Out of all the prefabs, the Moisture Vaporator is probably the best one for all situations. It is a reasonable cost prefab, gives good late game tech, and has easy upkeep. Grab a few, use them to get dome water supplies established very early.

The electronics prefab needs such a high population before paying off that it's useless early game. Squeeze your electronics supply as long as possible and don't feel ashamed to order more. The exchange rate between selling rare metals to buy electronics isn't that bad.

The Machine parts factory is pretty good, but is more of a second or third dome project than a first dome project. It may be possible to research it first, but if not feel free to order one, machine parts are great.

The polymer fab has a pretty fast research and doesn't need to be ordered as a prefab. Save the money for other things.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Fast scanning and Moisture Vaporators are your friend. Futurist start is useful because of the strong boost it gives to scanning. Placing a sensor tower in every 2x2 area will give the fastest scanning speed and give you good dome placements as early as possible. Once you have a good colony site, start building right away. No need to wait.

Out of all the prefabs, the Moisture Vaporator is probably the best one for all situations. It is a reasonable cost prefab, gives good late game tech, and has easy upkeep. Grab a few, use them to get dome water supplies established very early.

The electronics prefab needs such a high population before paying off that it's useless early game. Squeeze your electronics supply as long as possible and don't feel ashamed to order more. The exchange rate between selling rare metals to buy electronics isn't that bad.

The Machine parts factory is pretty good, but is more of a second or third dome project than a first dome project. It may be possible to research it first, but if not feel free to order one, machine parts are great.

The polymer fab has a pretty fast research and doesn't need to be ordered as a prefab. Save the money for other things.

Thanks for the confirmation. That's what I found out myself so far. I went Europe this time with Futurist background so I can research quicker and get funding for researching. Plus the other perks are good too. I've been making water evaporators, tanks and storing it up along with a few batteries and oxygen tanks for my domes. I found a good map location with a few rare mineral deposits nearby so my first two domes are going to be my monkey makers / miners / farmers. I'll do research a bit later as I already get a bonus from Futurist background anyways.

[Ericus1]

Originally posted by Dr. Z:

So then it seems this game is mostly a planning afk waiting game.

Not in the slightest. You can play it that way, but that is not the ideal way. Frankly, that's how inexperienced players play. The game is a snowball. Bring probes to find rares and concrete. That is literally all you need.

I usually have colonists by Sol 5, end the founder phase within 3 Sols, and am running my rockets nonstop either on missions or shipping rares back and bringing in colonists or supplies, building as fast as I can. By the time the first rares site is running out I will have scanned enough of the map to know where to expand to.

[SkiRich]

I typically start my game by scanning and waiting. I spend all my money on getting the field scanned as fast as possible including purchasing satellites and sending all my rockets with them.

I want to find that perfect spot for building a space port for refuelling and offloading resources.
That usually includes finding a watering spot or two.

To me thats most important, getting those rockets to come and go and get refueled.

The next task is mining for rare metals to make more money.

This way of playing does not work for anyone needing to get certain amounts of colonists before sol 100, which is a trigger for many mysteries.

To each his own. There really is no wrong way to play early. Its all about your goals.

[lost]

In addition to other comments, what you do early depends a bit on what game rules you have enabled, too. In some cases, spending the first hundred or so sols preparing things and targeting strategic techs is the way to go. In other cases, getting colonists on Mars quickly is better.

But you definitely shouldn't start stuff then go extended afk. Dust storms and meteors can really ruin your day if they come while you're afk.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by Ericus1:

Originally posted by Dr. Z:

So then it seems this game is mostly a planning afk waiting game.

Not in the slightest. You can play it that way, but that is not the ideal way. Frankly, that's how inexperienced players play. The game is a snowball. Bring probes to find rares and concrete. That is literally all you need.

I usually have colonists by Sol 5, end the founder phase within 3 Sols, and am running my rockets nonstop either on missions or shipping rares back and bringing in colonists or supplies, building as fast as I can. By the time the first rares site is running out I will have scanned enough of the map to know where to expand to.

That's all well and good, but...

Do you care to share your knowledge? That would be most helpful.

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by SkiRich:

I typically start my game by scanning and waiting. I spend all my money on getting the field scanned as fast as possible including purchasing satellites and sending all my rockets with them.

I want to find that perfect spot for building a space port for refuelling and offloading resources.
That usually includes finding a watering spot or two.

To me thats most important, getting those rockets to come and go and get refueled.

The next task is mining for rare metals to make more money.

This way of playing does not work for anyone needing to get certain amounts of colonists before sol 100, which is a trigger for many mysteries.

To each his own. There really is no wrong way to play early. Its all about your goals.

That makes some good sense too. I have yet to find "big water spots" on my map so I've been spreading out vapor gatherers and researched the tech to make them gather more for now.

Originally posted by lost:

In addition to other comments, what you do early depends a bit on what game rules you have enabled, too. In some cases, spending the first hundred or so sols preparing things and targeting strategic techs is the way to go. In other cases, getting colonists on Mars quickly is better.

But you definitely shouldn't start stuff then go extended afk. Dust storms and meteors can really ruin your day if they come while you're afk.

AFKteors are a nightmare in a few other games I have too I play. Why I have numerous backup autosaves for several days, but I only play it on x1 if I do afk for a bit so I don't go past my autosave backups. Regardless it seems there are a few ways to "early game play"

[fractalgem]

Well, if you want easy money in the early game, you can also start as brazil and start flattening the map.

[kbmodigity]

Originally posted by fractalgem:

Well, if you want easy money in the early game, you can also start as brazil and start flattening the map.

^^^This