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reduced for chosing research. And finally, morale and research allocations cause the least amount of pollution.
How do I allocate my funds?
Funding is divided between ships (military), research and social spending (planetary construction). In the early game,
I've tried pumping out the colony ships as fast as possible with a 60/30/10 split on resources, plus setting my spending level at 80% and keeping taxes at 28%. Observations: it's not a sure-fire plan. I seem to spend too much time playing "catch-up". I need to catch-up in research, social spending and despite the high spending on colony ships, planets. I'm now trying a more even split. Any comments on this would be appreciated.
A more successful approach that I have been using lately was suggested by John Martz. Set the the resource sliders to a
25/50/25 split. In John's strategic view, this game is driven by technology. He with the best tech wins, or at least has a good shot at winning. Getting to Impulse as fast as you can is paramount. Now, pump out the colony ships and use you're hopefully superior movement rate to compensate for your lack of omniscience. Remember, the other races start with a galactic map with the star colors already known. On the technology front, shoot for Universal Translator and then
Galactic Trade. (as a note, John has said he's been trying a 20/58/22 split and it seems to work just fine, if not better.)
Since we're talking economics at this point, what do mean by "supply side economic model"?
In one of the phases of the beta, Brad Wardell, one of the project programmers at SDS (and all around decent guy), posted this information in an info file. He has further defined this in the following way: there is an optimum tax rate at which you can get money from the population. The way to get to this value is to realize that (in this game, maybe life?) people are happier keeping their money. That would mean, no taxation, but that is a bit hard on game play. Therefore, there is a level of taxation at which the population is willing to pay taxes and still remain happy. In the game, a happy population grows more quickly, does more work, which in turn, makes a larger base available for taxation. Therefore, at certain levels of taxation, you can actually get more money (after an initial hit) by _lowering_ the taxation rate. If you tax too heavily, you will get an initial revenue increase, but you will eventually get less than you had before you instigated your increased tax rate.
How often do these "Allocation Buttons" pop up?
Aside from a statement like, "when you have enough people", it is related to the type of government. For the Imperial government, you get a second icon at 300,000 people and one more each 300,000 until you reach 9 icons and 240,000 people.
For a Star Democracy, you get your second icon at 200,000 people and one more for each 200,000 until at 160,000, you get your last one. The Star Federation get its second icon at, surprise, 100,000 people and one more for each 100,000.
One the planet that I worked this out, each icon was worth
4.33 bc. This amount will vary with the quality of the planet, whether or not it suffered a production hit due to an event, and the number of unused planets in the system. I have had class 10 planets that had more resource points than a class 13 just because of the unused resources in the system.
How do I increase the population of my planets?
Make happy people. Happy people do happy things, and one of those things is to increase the planet's population. One main influence is taxation. If the tax rate is too high, then the population does not grow, and in fact, even decreases. It is not so much that you're taxing your people to death but that instead of staying in your little settlement, they've joined the Inter-stellar Posse Commitas. A planet is a very big place, and a few hundred thousand, spread out, would be real hard to find. However, be careful about lowering the tax rate since the population gets even more unhappy about raising taxes once they've been lowered than if you had kept them the same.
Taxation aside, another method is to increase the moral of the people through various social programs. Planetary programs have primarily three functions: increase moral, increase production or other. Most programs have mixed benefits but some target one aspect in particular. Example: Entertainment
Networks. They do not help research or starship attacks, but your people are much happier.
If your people are unhappy living where they are, ship them somewhere else; off to war, for example. I've been known to stick them in orbit, waiting for the next war. Reducing the population of a planet is one way to make the remaining people happy. It's best not to speculate why.
Reduce pollution. Polluted planets are unhappy planets.
Although Earth First! would not be a good name for unhappy people in this situation, the projects your planets are building may have to be put on hold to prevent widespread revolt. Consider building pollution abatement projects.
Consider changing your resource allocations to morale and research.
And lastly, reform your government. The increased freedoms of the Star Democracy and the Star Federation can generate happier people. However, if you already have low morale (40% or less), going to these forms of government may actually foster widespread revolt. While I've not tested it personally, I am under the impression that Imperial
Governments do not suffer revolts. Or, at least, it has to get a _whole_ lot worse than under the other two forms.
A GENERAL NOTE!!!!
DON'T FORGET THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION BUTTONS!!!
The details window of the planet can let you fine tune the amount of resources you spend on various aspects of your planet. (Either hit the [Details] from the View section which is either by hitting [View] on the system window or by a double-click LMB or use the RMB from the systems window.
You can vary the allocations between social projects (the cornucopia), military projects (the open-end wrench), research (the OS/2 terminal), and morale (the microphone).
Consider allocating resources at the local level instead of doing it galactically with the sliders. (thanks, John)
I REALLY CAN'T EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH!!!!!
I used to have a tougher time facing the more challenging opponents (I was getting creamed!), but with more diligent monitoring of the local resources, it has been a very different story. The Allocation Resource Buttons can make or break a campaign!
How do I reduce pollution?
Basically, you have two choices. Either don't spend as much money on military and social (i.e.-putting more in research) or build pollution abatement projects. If the planet in question has Resource Allocation buttons assigned to military and social projects, switch them to research or morale.
Which research path should I select?
The beginning is easy. Take General Cold Fusion, followed by
Impulse Drive, then Universal Translator and Galactic Trade.
Start your trading empire since money is the key!!!!! Then, pick up Galactic Diplomacy and race for Warp Drive (via
Antimatter) and Shields (via Deflectors). Then, grab
Battle Tech I. Above all, trade, trade, trade. Tech and goods. However, don't trade Battle Tech unless it's with an ally! John Martz first articulated this strategy in several of his posts to comp.sys.os2.games. Of course, there are lots of ways to play the game, this is one that works for many. As a side note, I've lately been going for Cloaking via
Planetary Defense. This also appears to work quite well. It also can give you jump on building Tur-Ahn Training which is a very nice Galactic Achievement.
What's the best way to conduct a war?
Aggressively! Given the design of the game, being the attacker is _the_ bonus. What I mean by this, is that you should _attack_ incoming, enemy vessels, rather than letting them attack your systems and using the planetary defense bonus as your protection. Aggressively does not mean stupid! As
John Martz put, "I rarely start a war, but I always finish them." Cover your home systems with one (maybe 2) ships and have a fleet nearby to attack incoming, enemy vessels. It can also be handy to leave one planet unguarded to act as a trap for enemy transports. Some of the personalities in the AI do not see ships sitting in space as a vicious threat, which they are. They only occasionally attack them. Beware of Draginol.
This military commander was tweaked just a bit to counter this strategy and makes extensive use of stealth cruisers.
How do I make friends and influence enemies?
Trade. Other routes of influence are the "secretly declare war" option and the "destablize" option under the GIA.
How do I select the best trade routes?
Rich planet to rich planet, I think. I must admit to not being very quantitative on this one, but that is what I think
I've been seeing, and net posts agree with this observation.
Do note, that as your planets improve, you will need to send out new freighters to take advantage of your increased planet wealth. New technology begets new products for trade that in turn require new trade routes to be established.
How do I bargain with those dirtba.... the customers? hmmm????
In general, there are three basic characteristics for the race with whom you are attempting to bargain. The first is their "greed" level. I guess this affects how quickly they are satisfied with a deal. The second characteristic is how ethical they are. I suspect this governs whether the initial bid will be reasonable or not. The last racial trait is guillibility, which is easily tied to how tough it is to just plain bargain with them. As a note, your fifth bid is your last bid. If that bid is not accepted, you have lost the deal.
One bidding method
First bid--bid as high as slider permits.
Second bid--only slightly lower than your previous bid.
Often, the AI will settle for a bid much higher than its original bid.
Third bid--slightly higher than the AI's bid (the AI's third bid). This bid is a more "realistic" bid in the "mind" of the AI, and it will usually take it.
Warning: occasionally, the AI will break off trade at this point and start a trade war.
Fourth bid--match the AI's bid (the fourth bid). If they don't like your offer after this round, they will almost certainly start a trade war. If their last offer isn't to your satisfaction, DON'T BID--break off negotiations.
The above is from John Martz.
My experience with this is not so hot. Probably because it conflicts with my normal bidding system of matching increases/ decreases, which seems to get me into a few trading wars now and then.
More on bidding and trading
The trade system is something that really doesn't fit with the "strategic" nature of the game but is fun (at least, a majority of the play testers thought so) and gives a bit of a break from the general flow of conflict in space. In the bidding process, you can end up with one of three results.
1) you make the deal, the preferred outcome. However, the deal you make will affect how the AI deals with you in the future. If you were an easy sell, that is what they will expect later.
2) you start a trade war. This result is one designed to add some cost and risk to the bartering. Sure, it's a bit unrealistic, but since this is only a hand-wavy trading system, this is probably one of the best compromises available for adding some tension to the negotiations. One advantage to a trade war is that it does hurt the both you and your victi... prospective customer. I've not tried this as a war strategy (seems mildly self-destructive, to say the least) but it does seem to make the more recalcitrant trading partners a bit more pliable in future negotiations.
3) you break off. This has the effect of preventing you from trading with that system for some period of time, it does save you from a trade war and it saves your freighter for some other deal, but it doesn't seem to influence the other race's bargaining pattern. Again, the penalty is a method to encourage you to -deal- with your trading partner. It may not be realistic, but then again, this arbitrary idea that you would just pack up and try a whole new planet just because you couldn't turn a high enough margin fails to take into account the cost of the ship, the crew, the
How do I allocate my funds?
Funding is divided between ships (military), research and social spending (planetary construction). In the early game,
I've tried pumping out the colony ships as fast as possible with a 60/30/10 split on resources, plus setting my spending level at 80% and keeping taxes at 28%. Observations: it's not a sure-fire plan. I seem to spend too much time playing "catch-up". I need to catch-up in research, social spending and despite the high spending on colony ships, planets. I'm now trying a more even split. Any comments on this would be appreciated.
A more successful approach that I have been using lately was suggested by John Martz. Set the the resource sliders to a
25/50/25 split. In John's strategic view, this game is driven by technology. He with the best tech wins, or at least has a good shot at winning. Getting to Impulse as fast as you can is paramount. Now, pump out the colony ships and use you're hopefully superior movement rate to compensate for your lack of omniscience. Remember, the other races start with a galactic map with the star colors already known. On the technology front, shoot for Universal Translator and then
Galactic Trade. (as a note, John has said he's been trying a 20/58/22 split and it seems to work just fine, if not better.)
Since we're talking economics at this point, what do mean by "supply side economic model"?
In one of the phases of the beta, Brad Wardell, one of the project programmers at SDS (and all around decent guy), posted this information in an info file. He has further defined this in the following way: there is an optimum tax rate at which you can get money from the population. The way to get to this value is to realize that (in this game, maybe life?) people are happier keeping their money. That would mean, no taxation, but that is a bit hard on game play. Therefore, there is a level of taxation at which the population is willing to pay taxes and still remain happy. In the game, a happy population grows more quickly, does more work, which in turn, makes a larger base available for taxation. Therefore, at certain levels of taxation, you can actually get more money (after an initial hit) by _lowering_ the taxation rate. If you tax too heavily, you will get an initial revenue increase, but you will eventually get less than you had before you instigated your increased tax rate.
How often do these "Allocation Buttons" pop up?
Aside from a statement like, "when you have enough people", it is related to the type of government. For the Imperial government, you get a second icon at 300,000 people and one more each 300,000 until you reach 9 icons and 240,000 people.
For a Star Democracy, you get your second icon at 200,000 people and one more for each 200,000 until at 160,000, you get your last one. The Star Federation get its second icon at, surprise, 100,000 people and one more for each 100,000.
One the planet that I worked this out, each icon was worth
4.33 bc. This amount will vary with the quality of the planet, whether or not it suffered a production hit due to an event, and the number of unused planets in the system. I have had class 10 planets that had more resource points than a class 13 just because of the unused resources in the system.
How do I increase the population of my planets?
Make happy people. Happy people do happy things, and one of those things is to increase the planet's population. One main influence is taxation. If the tax rate is too high, then the population does not grow, and in fact, even decreases. It is not so much that you're taxing your people to death but that instead of staying in your little settlement, they've joined the Inter-stellar Posse Commitas. A planet is a very big place, and a few hundred thousand, spread out, would be real hard to find. However, be careful about lowering the tax rate since the population gets even more unhappy about raising taxes once they've been lowered than if you had kept them the same.
Taxation aside, another method is to increase the moral of the people through various social programs. Planetary programs have primarily three functions: increase moral, increase production or other. Most programs have mixed benefits but some target one aspect in particular. Example: Entertainment
Networks. They do not help research or starship attacks, but your people are much happier.
If your people are unhappy living where they are, ship them somewhere else; off to war, for example. I've been known to stick them in orbit, waiting for the next war. Reducing the population of a planet is one way to make the remaining people happy. It's best not to speculate why.
Reduce pollution. Polluted planets are unhappy planets.
Although Earth First! would not be a good name for unhappy people in this situation, the projects your planets are building may have to be put on hold to prevent widespread revolt. Consider building pollution abatement projects.
Consider changing your resource allocations to morale and research.
And lastly, reform your government. The increased freedoms of the Star Democracy and the Star Federation can generate happier people. However, if you already have low morale (40% or less), going to these forms of government may actually foster widespread revolt. While I've not tested it personally, I am under the impression that Imperial
Governments do not suffer revolts. Or, at least, it has to get a _whole_ lot worse than under the other two forms.
A GENERAL NOTE!!!!
DON'T FORGET THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION BUTTONS!!!
The details window of the planet can let you fine tune the amount of resources you spend on various aspects of your planet. (Either hit the [Details] from the View section which is either by hitting [View] on the system window or by a double-click LMB or use the RMB from the systems window.
You can vary the allocations between social projects (the cornucopia), military projects (the open-end wrench), research (the OS/2 terminal), and morale (the microphone).
Consider allocating resources at the local level instead of doing it galactically with the sliders. (thanks, John)
I REALLY CAN'T EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH!!!!!
I used to have a tougher time facing the more challenging opponents (I was getting creamed!), but with more diligent monitoring of the local resources, it has been a very different story. The Allocation Resource Buttons can make or break a campaign!
How do I reduce pollution?
Basically, you have two choices. Either don't spend as much money on military and social (i.e.-putting more in research) or build pollution abatement projects. If the planet in question has Resource Allocation buttons assigned to military and social projects, switch them to research or morale.
Which research path should I select?
The beginning is easy. Take General Cold Fusion, followed by
Impulse Drive, then Universal Translator and Galactic Trade.
Start your trading empire since money is the key!!!!! Then, pick up Galactic Diplomacy and race for Warp Drive (via
Antimatter) and Shields (via Deflectors). Then, grab
Battle Tech I. Above all, trade, trade, trade. Tech and goods. However, don't trade Battle Tech unless it's with an ally! John Martz first articulated this strategy in several of his posts to comp.sys.os2.games. Of course, there are lots of ways to play the game, this is one that works for many. As a side note, I've lately been going for Cloaking via
Planetary Defense. This also appears to work quite well. It also can give you jump on building Tur-Ahn Training which is a very nice Galactic Achievement.
What's the best way to conduct a war?
Aggressively! Given the design of the game, being the attacker is _the_ bonus. What I mean by this, is that you should _attack_ incoming, enemy vessels, rather than letting them attack your systems and using the planetary defense bonus as your protection. Aggressively does not mean stupid! As
John Martz put, "I rarely start a war, but I always finish them." Cover your home systems with one (maybe 2) ships and have a fleet nearby to attack incoming, enemy vessels. It can also be handy to leave one planet unguarded to act as a trap for enemy transports. Some of the personalities in the AI do not see ships sitting in space as a vicious threat, which they are. They only occasionally attack them. Beware of Draginol.
This military commander was tweaked just a bit to counter this strategy and makes extensive use of stealth cruisers.
How do I make friends and influence enemies?
Trade. Other routes of influence are the "secretly declare war" option and the "destablize" option under the GIA.
How do I select the best trade routes?
Rich planet to rich planet, I think. I must admit to not being very quantitative on this one, but that is what I think
I've been seeing, and net posts agree with this observation.
Do note, that as your planets improve, you will need to send out new freighters to take advantage of your increased planet wealth. New technology begets new products for trade that in turn require new trade routes to be established.
How do I bargain with those dirtba.... the customers? hmmm????
In general, there are three basic characteristics for the race with whom you are attempting to bargain. The first is their "greed" level. I guess this affects how quickly they are satisfied with a deal. The second characteristic is how ethical they are. I suspect this governs whether the initial bid will be reasonable or not. The last racial trait is guillibility, which is easily tied to how tough it is to just plain bargain with them. As a note, your fifth bid is your last bid. If that bid is not accepted, you have lost the deal.
One bidding method
First bid--bid as high as slider permits.
Second bid--only slightly lower than your previous bid.
Often, the AI will settle for a bid much higher than its original bid.
Third bid--slightly higher than the AI's bid (the AI's third bid). This bid is a more "realistic" bid in the "mind" of the AI, and it will usually take it.
Warning: occasionally, the AI will break off trade at this point and start a trade war.
Fourth bid--match the AI's bid (the fourth bid). If they don't like your offer after this round, they will almost certainly start a trade war. If their last offer isn't to your satisfaction, DON'T BID--break off negotiations.
The above is from John Martz.
My experience with this is not so hot. Probably because it conflicts with my normal bidding system of matching increases/ decreases, which seems to get me into a few trading wars now and then.
More on bidding and trading
The trade system is something that really doesn't fit with the "strategic" nature of the game but is fun (at least, a majority of the play testers thought so) and gives a bit of a break from the general flow of conflict in space. In the bidding process, you can end up with one of three results.
1) you make the deal, the preferred outcome. However, the deal you make will affect how the AI deals with you in the future. If you were an easy sell, that is what they will expect later.
2) you start a trade war. This result is one designed to add some cost and risk to the bartering. Sure, it's a bit unrealistic, but since this is only a hand-wavy trading system, this is probably one of the best compromises available for adding some tension to the negotiations. One advantage to a trade war is that it does hurt the both you and your victi... prospective customer. I've not tried this as a war strategy (seems mildly self-destructive, to say the least) but it does seem to make the more recalcitrant trading partners a bit more pliable in future negotiations.
3) you break off. This has the effect of preventing you from trading with that system for some period of time, it does save you from a trade war and it saves your freighter for some other deal, but it doesn't seem to influence the other race's bargaining pattern. Again, the penalty is a method to encourage you to -deal- with your trading partner. It may not be realistic, but then again, this arbitrary idea that you would just pack up and try a whole new planet just because you couldn't turn a high enough margin fails to take into account the cost of the ship, the crew, the
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- Galactic Civilizations (1998) hints by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
Getting started - Galactic Civilizations (1998) FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50