Any newbies around?
 

Well, looks like I'm the first newbie to post here in a while. I can't make head or tail of the "classic threads" forum - I'm looking for an idiot's guide, and they all seem to start a long way beyond where I am.

I've played the tutorial, and I'm about 80 turns into my first game - I've wiped out three empires already (mainly with superior tech), and I've just taken my first planet with troops (instead of bombing it to bare rock and recolonising it, like I did with all the others). I've just researched ship capture and might try that. I've also researched gas giant colonisation, and am now building so many new colony ships that I'm running out of minerals. Etc. I'm sure you've heard all this before.

So, without further waffling, could someone point me towards a "things to think about once you finish the tutorial" type newbie guide? Like how do I start terraforming my planets? I have climate change tech but I really want to change the atmosphere. Is the diplomacy AI quite poor or am I doing it wrong? Every time I make a treaty they break it two turns later and I have to wipe them out. The options look quite sophisticated, so it would be a shame if I couldn't use them.

Looking forward to getting to know this game ...

CC

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Bad news: You aren't doing anything wrong in the diplomacy. Go to seiv.pbw.cc for multiplayer diplomacy. And you want Value Improvement Plants, under Planet Utilization and Atmospheric Modification Plants, under same, so just keep on going.

Re: Any newbies around?
 

From the sound of it you are way ahead of the AI. In this case the "Mega Evil Empire" option kicks in whick makes all the AI declare war on you on sight. For a challange in singleplayer I would like to suggest the TDM-Modpack to you. It just makes the AI more competent (but still not cheating) but changes nothing of the gameplay.

http://home.t-Online.de/home/320045362204-0001/

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Ooh, this is the point where I have to confess to only ever using one mod in my entire life (that was the "make MoO3 playable" mod). Thanks for the link though - I'll check it out.

CC

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Ah - I found the "dubious strategy guide" hidden in the "newbies look here" thread (the urls don't show up as links, for some reason). That looks more like what I'm after ... stay tuned for some idiot questions!

CC

Re: Any newbies around?
 

In the newbie FAq at the top of this forum you have a strategy section aswell, that is really good.

FAQ

Re: Any newbies around?
 

I found the newbie guide and strategy FAQ to be very helpful. Very well put together by everyone here!

Re: Any newbies around?
 

It's still worth noting that even without that, the ai does more flip-flops than a fish in a boat.

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Make sure you have the difficulty set on high. You can also set it so that all the computer players (i.e. everyone else) attacks you on sight. That takes care of diplomacy, I'd say http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Wildcard [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon46.gif[/img]

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Well, I found the FAQ also, but as I said in my first post, I couldn't make head nor tail of it. Now I've put in a few tens of hours of play it makes more sense - but it's definitely written for the "newbie who knows the game but not the strategies" rather than for the total noob!

Anyway, I think I'm going to win my first game, and it's been fun exploring the tech tree etc. (I deliberately switched off See Full Tree). I have a few questions but the only key one for now is:

How do I start my next game with NO tech? I chose a "low tech" start this time, and still had a smattering of techs everywhere. This time I want to start with the absolute minimum. Is there a way to do this? What about the pile of RPs you start with - can I change that? Similarly, is there a way to start your home planet with fewer facilities and stuff? This might sound like madness to some of you but I like building up myself, how I want to. I don't like being presented with a ready-made planet with all the facilities built.

(I realise I've got to start with something, even if it's just Research Centre I, otherwise I can't research even rock colonisation etc. But I would like to start with the minimum possible.)

Thanks in advance - only about five years until I'm ready to take you all on multiplayer .....

CC

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Your homeplanet is automatically filled up; the only thing you can do is start with a smaller homeplanet. As for the other, go into data\TechArea.txt and mod all the start levels to 0.

Re: Any newbies around?
 

Low tech level is the most minimum tech you can get in the stock game. As Narf pointed out you can mod the files to change this but if you mod you should create a mod folder and copy the data folder from the stock game into that and mod those. It is never good to modify stock data files.

Re: Any newbies around?
 

I wasn't referring to the
but the faq on this page.

Re: Any newbies around?
 

With the FAQ, you can use your browser's search function to search for an item you need info on. Reading the entire thing is definitely not a good idea... Way too much information at once! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/Injured.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif