Tips to improve playing?

[-- scippie --]

I have never been really good at 4X games, mostly because I didn't have the patience to go deeply into it. I was a teen when I played MOO 2 and could only win on easiest difficulty because I was mostly playing the game as a clicker, building everything, making massive fleets, destroying every planet, ...

But that isn't how this game is supposed to be played (and isn't winnable at higher difficulties) and now that I am older, I want to take my time to play this game right.

I have already won at tutorial and easy difficulty, but now that I am trying on average difficulty, I am already struggling. I am currently at a point where most of the stars have been taken. I am playing against 3 AI's and I am bigger than 2 of them, but one has gotten a lot bigger than me in the last N turns and is starting to bully me by building outposts and colonies in my systems. So I tried it (first time), I declared war and tried to attack him. He was strong, very strong, and I didn't stand a chance. He had mostly destroyers but wiped out my cruisers and battleships with ease. He took my outposts and started going for my planets. I stopped there, I knew the game had gone too far to be able to win it and I need to start a new one with better strategy.

But what... I don't know where I am going wrong in what I am doing. One thing is certain: I was mostly building ships on my home world while other planets were not really big enough to do the same to build a massive fleet in no time. So that's something that needs to improve. But I don't know how, because I really tried to build strong planets. I built star bases that became battle stations.

But it's probably a lot more than that and I would love to read about and look at others who are good at it, understand their tactics, understand why they do what they do so that they win on the harder difficulties.

I admit that there are still lots of buttons I click without really understanding what they are doing. I read them and I think: hmmm, allright, I understand that, but I don't know what to choose. I guess I don't really understand them yet.

I read the beginner guide here on Steam a while ago and I am now going to read the other guide about winning on impossible (although I expect I won't understand much of it). But are there other interesting resources to read that can help me become better at this game?

ps. I have the same problems with other 4X games like CK2, CIV5, ... but I have always thought I wasn't giving it enough effort, but with this game I really want to give it the effort and become better.

[coyote720]

I hope you get some longer, more detailed posts, but I'll give you my #1 tip: Work toward being able to build superior warships.

Bonus tip: Your most advanced weapon system is rarely the one you want to use. Thanks to miniaturization, you can pack more of a lower-tech weapon and with more of the weapon upgrades into the same space as your most advanced weapon.

[i_nive]

You can create a custom race that fits your play style. I don't want to just win, I want to play(and possibly win) my way to my best satisfaction.

[sirwhiskers]

I'll second the recommendation to play a custom race that fits your own playstyle. In response to the overall question, here a few older threads that address this.

Favorite Evolutions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/984680/discussions/0/3415430580685812177/

Favorite Custom Races: https://steamcommunity.com/app/984680/discussions/0/3446961485750932140/

Impossible Playthrough Guide: https://steamcommunity.com/app/984680/discussions/0/6620895347250598179/

And here's a thread from the ISG boards that has a ton of advice and tips: https://interstellarspacegame.com/forums/index.php?threads/human-vs-ai.1682/

[-- scippie --]

Originally posted by coyote720:

Thanks to miniaturization

I have been looking around to find the miniaturization technology in the research tree but can't find it. Where is it?

[-- scippie --]

Thanks for the help guys, I just won a game on average.

[Vivisector 9999]

Originally posted by -- scippie --:

I have been looking around to find the miniaturization technology in the research tree but can't find it. Where is it?

It's not a specific tech, but a concept held over from Master Of Orion 2. Whenever you research a new tech level, your weapons from previous tech levels get smaller, taking up less space while still having the same power.

[-- scippie --]

Oooh, I never knew that about MOO2. So the faster I research horizontally, the more the low level weapons get miniaturized? Nice!

[sirwhiskers]

Yep, up to level 5. To see the impact of your current miniaturization level, go into the ship design screen. Add a weapon, then hold the mouse over the arrows under the space required. Here's a screenshot:

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198076617104/screenshot/2527164217054314577/

[-- scippie --]

Very nice, thanks

[the_charch]

enjoy the game and the victories.

[Prometheus]

Since nobody commented on upgrading your planets. One big thing to remember is that infrastructure isn't just picking one of the bonuses. Its also a multiplier to the planet's production. Planet production = Planet resources (sufficient, rich, etc) x population x infrastructure. Also each infrastructure level gives a building slot.

As a general rule you can never go wrong with the infrastructure bonus that reduces building upkeep and gives you extra slots. Its the best choice more often than the others and even in its worse case scenario its still a very good choice.

Do not ignore the eco engineering bonus from infrastructure. It almost always get it on smaller planets and you definitely want to 3/3 it a few times. Especially in regards to my next point.

Support ships are excellent at bootstrapping a newly settled planet. You can put as many as you like above a system and they give their full bonus to every planet present. Note that they give their bonus even if you have nothing allocated. So if they give 100 eco, even at 0% eco on the planet it credits 100 per turn to eco. They give eco based on the number of eco infrastructure bonuses in your empire. They give production based on all infrastructure levels in your empire. You also get one ship for free when researching the tech (BUT NOT FROM GETTING THE TECH ANY OTHER WAY).

Speaking of planet allocations. Definitely focus. The sooner one finishes the sooner you get that bonus. If going 50/50 eco and infrastructure will take you 8 turns to get both but focusing gets you 4 turns to get 1 it is objectively wrong to 50/50. Also the triangle is clunky and difficult to fine tune. I suggest switching to sliders (the button to switch is on that same screen).

[-- scippie --]

Ok thanks. The ECO part is still a big question mark for me. I know it is necessary, but I don't really grasp what it actually does. I know you can have planets with ECO levels 0, 1, 2, 3, but again, I don't really understand what it is for, except that it is good to have extra population and they are happy with the living conditions of course.

[Prometheus]

That % in the morale indication is a simple and direct % modifier to everything the planet does. Population growth? yes. Credits from population? yes. Science? yes. Production? yes. I can keep going but I think you get the point. Planet eco levels give 10% per level increase to morale.

Eco engineering is one form of planetary engineering and are basically the same thing. If I say shift the planet's allocation to eco I mean the green planetary engineering category. When I say support ships give eco, well you get it.

[HurtfulPlayer97]

Just don't improve the Eco rating until you have it terraformed to the point you want. Without a special ability you cannot terraform a planet with an Eco level of 3.

[some moron]

When I play on hard I skip all but the very good planets.

Eco just makes everything a moderate percentage better, but over time that really adds up.

You definitely want to terraform the planet to meet the specs of the race that's going to live there. If I capture a planet with a race and I have to terraform, I leave them there. If they don't match and I have to terraform, I wipe them and start over, for my race benefits.

For miniaturization, I decided that, minizurized can equal to the same damage as a higher tech, but miniaturization means if they shoot down or dodge one of your attacks, there will be more attacks that can still hit. I decided that miniaturization is better to use than max tech.