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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Jul 21, 2014 7:45:56 GMT -5
For my economies, I ALWAYS have a heavy focus on Minerals. I try to reach 100% extraction on any worlds where it is possible. Then, with the maintenance monster satisfied and with a decent Income, I then layer on more and more TP. I am almost always constructing things until late midgame, when it is more population control and Naval construction, and I can reach 7k + in income, with a huge nest egg.
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TeeWee
Hero
[ Star Traders 2 & Heroes Supporter ]
Posts: 247
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Post by TeeWee on Jul 21, 2014 8:17:43 GMT -5
For my economies, I ALWAYS have a heavy focus on Minerals. I try to reach 100% extraction on any worlds where it is possible. Then, with the maintenance monster satisfied and with a decent Income, I then layer on more and more TP. I am almost always constructing things until late midgame, when it is more population control and Naval construction, and I can reach 7k + in income, with a huge nest egg. While this is good advice in general, I'm always stuck on the specifics during the game and I haven't been able to reach such a saturation on minerals yet. I was able to get around 500 income, I've never seen 1k, let alone the 7k you're mentioning here. How do you do this in a practical sense? I always get distracted from building mines because I build Colony ships, Hab units, spice dens, exchanges. How do you balance minerals against hygiene factors (Hab, Spice), expansion (Colony ships) and planet quality levels? |
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Jul 21, 2014 8:54:40 GMT -5
Well, the 7k is late game, when many planets are well developed and have good hygiene already, with room for growth, and with a decent CP per turn. In a practial sense, I always leave some planets idle so I can respond to destroyed ships during battles with the Xeno. At that point I also have 100+ Trade. Bear in mind this is also on Medium to Large maps. I also avoid going over Quality unless the Population growth demands it.
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Post by squee on Jul 21, 2014 12:40:30 GMT -5
The most important thing for me is to never go over population or quality. That, and stopping alien world killers and colony ships. It helps to have more than 1 extra population capacity. Building mines is always important, even when you think you have enough income. You will always need money to build and maintain warships and more structures. Especially early game, get mines at every opportunity.
You mentioned you get distracted by building new colony ships, but building mines might be more important sometimes. It will definitely help to deliberately slow down colonization and focus on setting up a decent economy on each planet. I like to plan ahead and in early colonies that have enough quality I build enough mines so I would have 100% capacity after future mine level upgrades, sometimes more if I need the income (demolish extra ones later).
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deucemaccoy
Curator
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 55 
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Post by deucemaccoy on Jul 22, 2014 1:45:18 GMT -5
My number one tip is colonies, colonies, colonies! If you have three colonies, two are producing a net income of 100 each, amd the third is costing you 25 a turn (say it has low quality or some such). That scenario will net you 175/turn. Now, expand that to 6 colonies, and your income is now 325/turn. 12? Now you're talking 650/turn. And by thw time you're up in the teens, your older colonies should be worth more, etc.
I tend to be mine heavy, though in my most recent (I just won victory 10 mins ago, btw) game, I have learned the value of TP, and in my new game I will be starting tomorrow, I will be including the exchange as one of my early tech grabs.
I start the game (after researching the colony ship, obviously) racing down the political tech side, going for mine 2 and factory 2 asap. By the time I have those, I typically have at least one set, if not two sets of new colonies up and running (I like to keep them even in the early/mid game). Then, I move onto the military side, and research up to carrier, and each branch inbetween. These techs serve as my initial colonial defense tech base. After that, I begin to beeline on politics again to reach Mine 4.
By the time I have mine 4, I usually have a rough idea of where my enemies are, have basic home defenses up (1 carrier with repair, one heavy fighter, and 2 light fighters per system requiring defense). After mine 4 is when I begin really seeking to max out mines, and getting an exchange 3/4 on each and every planet I can squeeze them onto. Once I get my income above 5k+ a turn, I never see negative again. By the time I finished off the xeno tonight, my bank was in excess of 53 million.
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Post by phantombudgie on Jul 22, 2014 3:17:16 GMT -5
I always try and get the tech to build Exchange 3 or 4 ASAP in the game. I put Exchanges on every colony, even quality 7 or so (I have demolished a mine on several colonies to fit it in). The income can vary when politics happens, but when you get a trade route or two it really does bolt a couple of SRBs to the economy. I always build lots of mines, but I interrupt this for exchanges.
+12.2k/turn FTW (30 colonies). I'm going to need it, I build my fleets expensively. 500k I have saved so far, but when I invade it won't last long.
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Post by fallen on Jul 22, 2014 8:57:54 GMT -5
Very exciting to see that everyone has a different #1 rule or strategy!
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deucemaccoy
Curator
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 55
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Post by deucemaccoy on Jul 24, 2014 1:13:31 GMT -5
Observations on early game trade points. Just tried a game that focused on exchanges early on, and mines only when possible. My income took a long time to gain speed (longer than I expected), and the time spent working the 2 techs in to get exchange 2 took away from time I could have had my military up, which caused the first time in playing this game that I lost both the explorer and one of the defenders. In short, I nearly had my tail handed to me, and I was unhappy with my economy.
Started a new game with the update, and I will wait until I have spice treaty and trade alliance options before building exchanges. I believe (time will tell), that before these political options, tp are not as effective as mines.
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Post by phantombudgie on Jul 24, 2014 1:50:42 GMT -5
Faction Diplomacy 2 gives you Exchange 3 as well as Trade Sanctions 2. I don't worry about any other exchange tech until later in the game, and this tech already comes with building your political toolbox for slapping factions back into line.
Up to this point it is mines all the way, then I hit the exchanges. I focus heavily on construction tech after getting colony ships and fighters and a cheap weapon tech or two.
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