Maintenance Questions

[zman]

I've been playing for awhile now, with varying levels of success.  This might be a redundant question, but I have trouble controlling maintenance costs/levels if you know what I mean.  In my latest game-- The Garden- and lots of Xenos (I wouldn't recommend lots of Xenos right off the bat--- I've gotten bogged down battling the vile aliens... Lost my entire fleet, went negative cash flow and it took 30 some turns or so to rectify the situation... but I digress.) I still can't control maintenance... I went through all my remaining colonies and tried to balance out upgrades vs. quality and the best I could do was 123% maintenance-- and this was after I lost my entire fleet except for one Wolf Cruiser, so the fleet wasn't causing the problem.  I went through the colonies and demolished much more than I should have and paid the price when the next wave of Xenos came after me and yet, still have somewhat out of control maintenance costs...

I've probably rambled a bit too much here, but if anybody has some suggestions, have at it!!   Thanks.

[Brutus Aurelius]

Welcome! I'm may not be Andrew or Cory, but I can answer your questions just as well. But to help you, I will need some info from you first.

1) What is your economy based on? Trade Points or Mining?

2) What is your political situation? Are there Good Conflicts encouraging Trade, or negative ones causing bickering between the Factions?

3) What is your average Morale?
Loosing all of your ships in a short amount of time probably caused a big drop, leading to lower Net Income.

[acecow]

Feb 28, 2016 12:02:41 GMT -5 Brutus Aurelius said:

Welcome! I'm may not be Andrew or Cory, but I can answer your questions just as well. But to help you, I will need some info from you first.

1) What is your economy based on? Trade Points or Mining?

2) What is your political situation? Are there Good Conflicts encouraging Trade, or negative ones causing bickering between the Factions?

3) What is your average Morale?
Loosing all of your ships in a short amount of time probably caused a big drop, leading to lower Net Income.

Yeah, I'd look at Morale as well. Losing ships quickly, being invaded, building over quality (seems you remedied that) can all hurt a lot.

For politics, do you hae an imbalance of colonies/faction which keeps causing bad politics to show up?

What factions are you using as well?

Let's see if we can salvage this game!

[zman]

Generally speaking, I try to concentrate on Mining... More mines than factories. I think I DO have an imbalance of faction colonies... I haven't paid too much attention to balancing out my colonies. I get somewhat carried away discovering star systems and founding colonies, then improving those colonies and many times, the star system closest to my latest discovery produces the Colony Ship... kind of a willy-nilly approach, I'm beginning to think. However, I think the positive politics have outweighed the negative... My morale average is in the dumpster-- I think you're correct in your assumption about the loss of my fleet-- but tied in with that, I went into a financial death spiral, as I noted in my earlier post, and couldn't do much about increasing Spice or anything else. Plus, I demolished a lot of improvements, many, in retrospect should not have been demolished. I was rolling along pretty good until the Xenos exacted their cruel justice upon my colonies-- and I haven't been able to recover... losing colonies now-- due to the lack of a starship fleet to defend and unrelenting Xeno pressure to take over my little corner of the Universe, although I'm back in positive cash flow. But, I fear it's too little, too late.

My factions are: Moklumne... Cedar Syndicate... & Steel Song.

I've been trying out different combinations to see what might happen. And, I've taken my past failures in the game and learned from them-- although not to the degree I'd like!! Thanks for your help.

[Brutus Aurelius]

Well, I think your first mistake was the imbalance for the Faction Colonies. You want the number of Colonies and Ships to be as equal as possible.

Second, Morale is key to keeping Maintenance Rates low for your Colonies.

Third, we need to know exactly what Conflicts you have ongoing.

I also highly recommend, if you are still new to the game, to play a few games on Medium sized maps with 1-2 Xeno enemies. It will be much more forgiving in terms of pacing than a nasty tournament map like the Garden.

What difficulty are you playing? I recommend Easy or Normal until you have won ay least one game, as Difficulty dictates how likely Factions are to fight, how many Credits you start with, and how quickly the Xeno grow in power.

[fallen]

1. Mining economy is great. It builds a strong backbone, that's a good start.
2. Demolishing upgrades generally doesn't help, unless you've built far too many specialist buildings (Spice Halls) or something. But blowing up Mines or Factories is only going to further damage your economy.
3. A simple economic plan is to "build what you need". Only add Habs, Spice Halls and Factories when the colony needs them. Always add Exchanges and as many Mines as you can afford to your worlds.
4. Economic prosperity is built upon the back of political stability. If you ignore politics, treaties and conflicts, then you'll end up in economic trouble again and again. Focus on building up Trade Routes and Trade Alliances as much as you can in the early game, and whenever a negative politic comes into existence, work hard to squash it quickly.
5. Build ships that are below your top end expense. It is tempting to immediately deploy the latest and the greatest weapon to every ship, but I like my fleet ships to have one element that is top end (say their weapon) and the other elements that are middling (armor, upgrades). If you got all in 100% best on all your ships, you end up with massively expensive fleet before your empire can sustain it. Instead, build cruisers with good Repair skill, powerful armor and middling torpedos, and fighters with the best possible guns but crap armor, and a carrier behind them with the best repair training and upgrades possible. (etc).
6. As others have said, Morale is king. Nothing can improve or nuke the profit margin of a colony like Morale. At 7 Morale, you're at 100% maintenance, and at 10 Morale you're at 70%. Staying at 10 on every colony will make a world of difference in your economic power.

[elwoodps]

Hi zman ,

There's a lot that can be learned re Morale and related topics in this thread:  Morale?

Feb 28, 2016 13:49:06 GMT -5 fallen said:

.......
6. As others have said, Morale is king. Nothing can improve or nuke the profit margin of a colony like Morale. At 7 Morale, you're at 100% maintenance, and at 10 Morale you're at 70%. Staying at 10 on every colony will make a world of difference in your economic power.

While I totally agree with fallen 's post, I'd like to clarify this last point:  The Maintenance Rates at the Morale levels that he quotes here assume that there are no Positive (e.g. an Alliance or a Trade Alliance) or Negative (e.g. a Trade Embargo or a Spy Battle) FACTION POLITICS active that also affect Maintenance costs.

An example of Positive Politics that affect Maintenance costs: A Trade Alliance reduces Colony Maintenance by 5%, so Colonies of the participating factions at 7 Morale will have a Maintenance Rate of 95% (instead of 100%).

An example of Negative Politics that affect Maintenance costs: A Trade War increases Colony Maintenance by 10%, so Colonies of the participating factions at 7 Morale will have a Maintenance Rate of 110% (instead of 100%).

For more info on this topic, check out tenbsmith 's ST4X Faction Politics Guide.

[fallen]

elwoodps - great add, thank you +1

[tenbsmith]

zman, if you get a chance to read over the ST4X Faction Politics Guide to which elwoodps linked, I'd really like to hear your feedback. I majorly revised it recently and I'm curious how it reads for a newer player.

[zman]

Thanks for all the good input, guys-- I'll respond with some details on the politics I've been dealing with-- actually mostly positive-- and I'm going to read the Politic Guide and offer some feed back.

I really appreciate all the info!!

[zman]

Here's a rough overview of what's been going on politically... I'm sure I'm missing a conflict or two, but this is pretty much what I recall. I've had a number of Spy Battles, Trade Wars and Trade Bans-- other than that, I'm not sure.... Treaties I've employed include: Trade Summit Meetings, Trade Treaties, Military Alliance, Assassin's Call, Trade Sanction and Duel of Assassins... While I haven't kept close track, it seems most of the Politics have been positive.

But, more importantly, reviewing the information Brutus Aurelius, acecow, fallen and elwoodps have offered me, shows me I'm playing too casually, way too much by the seat of my pants and not paying close enough attention to the overall health of my colonies. Like I said, I get carried away founding colonies, making improvements and building fleets. My problems seem to follow the same script-- for 200- 250 turns, I'm making huge amounts of money-- then suddenly, the military/industrial cluster f*ck I've created catches up with me. I HAVE learned how to turn it around, economy-wise, but by that time Xenos are kicking my ass-- and in the case of this latest game are taking over my colonies. I'm back being able to build some ships, but I've had to retreat a couple of times due to the Xenos' aggression.

To answer a couple of other questions, I'm playing "The Garden" on 'Normal', and for reasons I know longer understand, have maximum Xenos-- 6 enemies-- out there with bad intentions.

A GREAT hint is build only what is needed...  I haven't been following that edict too closely!!

I haven't had a chance to read the Politics Guide-- due to a surprise snowstorm up here in the North and the resultant necessity of moving all that snow!! Going to do that now...(read the guide, I mean-- snow's done being moved...)

Again-- thanks for the help!!

[elwoodps]

Hi zman ,

I'd suggest putting your current game on hold for a while and starting a new one.  One where you can hone your political and colony management skills with less pressure from the Xeno while you're learning.  If you like The Garden map (and there's lots to like about that one), go for The Garden on Normal against perhaps just 2 Xenos. Then maybe try another one either on a higher difficulty level, or on Normal against 3 or 4 Xenos. I think you'll master the game more quickly that way.

Then when your skills are sharp and you feel like you're ready for a challenge, you can return to the game that you shelved, and derive great satisfaction from digging your empire out of its current hole, and kicking lots of Xeno ass (if they even have asses, to paraphrase Brutus Aurelius ).

[zman]

elwoodps.... I've been thinking of doing exactly that.... Medium size map, normal difficulty and ONE Xeno...maybe two. I think Brutus Aurelius' observation about the Xenos bears some investigative work!!

[zman]

One of the nice things about having both Star Traders 4X and Templar BattleForce is that if you have a bad day in your Universe and the Xeno have been exacting a terrible price upon your colonies and fleet... Why, just head over to Templar BattleForce and kill some of those ass-less buggy things face to Leviathian Battle Suit face... Quite satisfying!!

[CdrPlatypus]

On the subject of xeno-physiology I'm sure they at least have waste disposal chutes. It's more a question of surrounding padding.