06-28-2021, 07:44 AM
First few turns - Just a couple of comments here of what I would recommend in addition to or instead of the excellent advice already given.
- What has the highest priority often depends on your setup and how you plan on playing your positions. However there are a few things that I would recommend doing regardless of other considerations
- set your research, If you saved points to buy tech then now is the time to use them and the best place to use them is on something that you need right away or want to get a jump down the tech tree. For the most part these are things you need right now and probably not horizon techs for this first buy. (I like Mk II Jump Survey Sensors, then 2nd Gen Space Science and then Mk III Jump Survey sensors.) Whatever you do, have a plan and don't waste points to buy tech.
- The next priority for me is to build your mines. For any of the major items it is worth only spending one order to build all you will need in one go. If you run out of construction materials (CM's) then you just DISM industries to get enough to build your mines. For most things a yield under 50 is not worth much so why bother. In Draco the yields tend to generally be pretty good. Also remember that mines take power so If you build 15k mines you will need 15k power . Also, we find the best number of mines to build is (yield*5)-20
- I also build more shipyard slips. At the start you will build a single ship a turn and that is rarely enough so build more, 5-10 in my view will do for a start. This will allow the pathfinders in your shipyards to complete much faster so they can be used.
- production - You need cargo bays, colony beacons and colonial berthing units, and some engines to colonize.
- Production can only be used once and it does not carry over until the following turn if you leave some unused. So, you should plan on a clean up build. BI iron 100000000 works and you will never have enough iron. Just give it a build priority really high, like 20000. This will ensure that no matter what else happens your industries will try and do something every turn.
- There a number of installations that you can build and you should build them, eventually. I would hold off on them and use them to fill in when you are short on orders. It can be difficult to come up with 40 orders worth of things to do after the first couple of turns, until you have built enough new stuff to make new ships and have more fleets move around.
Turn 2-3
-Priv is not really about how other players contact you. It is about one thing only. Do you want players to be able to get your name, address by doing an REA order. If you do, then leave it to off. If you don't then you need to set it to on.
- for myself, I would recommend building all the ship components listed on turn 1 so you can start building ships on turn 2. There are a number of spreadsheets out there to help with production so if you don't want to make your own ask around and somebody will probably share.
- If you have opted for using points to buy Mk II JSS then your pathfinders are now obsolete so once they have done their job surveying your planets in your home system you should move them back to the HW and scrap them for parts. You can then rebuild them with a Mk II jump survey sensor.
Turn 4-10
- At some point in the first few turns you should have all your planets scanned with PMAP And GEO. The ORB order is almost never needed and is generally a waste of orders, however you should do a few just to see what results you get. Be sure and do one on your home planet too. The CSV is useful in the beginning but after you have done a few they can mostly be figured out and are also a waste of an order.
Once you have scanned all your planets and all the system just outside of your home system you may want to evaluate your situation for a couple of things. The biggest is my book is to determine if the setup is viable. One would assume they all are and one would be wrong. If you are in a system with few planets, surrounded by empty nexus systems then it may not be worth it. If you designed your lifeform to be a colonizer and your staring planet has a temp of 450 and you breathe Sulfur Dioxide, then I would suggest starting over.
Here are a few things I would use to evaluate a setup that I would consider bad-
- A system can have 14 planets, the most I have ever seen and each planet can have 4 moons. That is a max value of 70 orbits so if you are on planet 1 and the only other orbit is moon 1a then think hard about a reboot.
- Are you missing yield for any of the following on the HW, iron, crystal, lumber
- Is your planet temp over 350
- Does you HW lie in some sort of space phenomena, Ion storm etc
- Did you find Death Machine forces in your home system or in the first systems out
Here are the good ones -
- HW yields for iron, lumber are over 600, planet has either a hydro or a geothermal yield over a few 100
- The more planets in a system the better, especially asteroid fields and other planets with higher yields. Ideally all resources should be found in your home system or 1 away
- Numerous WP's out from your HW and if some of them are dead ends with planets that is good to.
- Another planet in your Home system has a lumber yield of 300 or more - A single yield of 500 is better than a number of yields in the 300 or less.
Some choices you will make may either be good or bad depending on your system resources so take some time to evaluate things. It will just cost more to build weapons that require Caldaran crystals if you don't have any available in your system.
Good Luck
- What has the highest priority often depends on your setup and how you plan on playing your positions. However there are a few things that I would recommend doing regardless of other considerations
- set your research, If you saved points to buy tech then now is the time to use them and the best place to use them is on something that you need right away or want to get a jump down the tech tree. For the most part these are things you need right now and probably not horizon techs for this first buy. (I like Mk II Jump Survey Sensors, then 2nd Gen Space Science and then Mk III Jump Survey sensors.) Whatever you do, have a plan and don't waste points to buy tech.
- The next priority for me is to build your mines. For any of the major items it is worth only spending one order to build all you will need in one go. If you run out of construction materials (CM's) then you just DISM industries to get enough to build your mines. For most things a yield under 50 is not worth much so why bother. In Draco the yields tend to generally be pretty good. Also remember that mines take power so If you build 15k mines you will need 15k power . Also, we find the best number of mines to build is (yield*5)-20
- I also build more shipyard slips. At the start you will build a single ship a turn and that is rarely enough so build more, 5-10 in my view will do for a start. This will allow the pathfinders in your shipyards to complete much faster so they can be used.
- production - You need cargo bays, colony beacons and colonial berthing units, and some engines to colonize.
- Production can only be used once and it does not carry over until the following turn if you leave some unused. So, you should plan on a clean up build. BI iron 100000000 works and you will never have enough iron. Just give it a build priority really high, like 20000. This will ensure that no matter what else happens your industries will try and do something every turn.
- There a number of installations that you can build and you should build them, eventually. I would hold off on them and use them to fill in when you are short on orders. It can be difficult to come up with 40 orders worth of things to do after the first couple of turns, until you have built enough new stuff to make new ships and have more fleets move around.
Turn 2-3
-Priv is not really about how other players contact you. It is about one thing only. Do you want players to be able to get your name, address by doing an REA order. If you do, then leave it to off. If you don't then you need to set it to on.
- for myself, I would recommend building all the ship components listed on turn 1 so you can start building ships on turn 2. There are a number of spreadsheets out there to help with production so if you don't want to make your own ask around and somebody will probably share.
- If you have opted for using points to buy Mk II JSS then your pathfinders are now obsolete so once they have done their job surveying your planets in your home system you should move them back to the HW and scrap them for parts. You can then rebuild them with a Mk II jump survey sensor.
Turn 4-10
- At some point in the first few turns you should have all your planets scanned with PMAP And GEO. The ORB order is almost never needed and is generally a waste of orders, however you should do a few just to see what results you get. Be sure and do one on your home planet too. The CSV is useful in the beginning but after you have done a few they can mostly be figured out and are also a waste of an order.
Once you have scanned all your planets and all the system just outside of your home system you may want to evaluate your situation for a couple of things. The biggest is my book is to determine if the setup is viable. One would assume they all are and one would be wrong. If you are in a system with few planets, surrounded by empty nexus systems then it may not be worth it. If you designed your lifeform to be a colonizer and your staring planet has a temp of 450 and you breathe Sulfur Dioxide, then I would suggest starting over.
Here are a few things I would use to evaluate a setup that I would consider bad-
- A system can have 14 planets, the most I have ever seen and each planet can have 4 moons. That is a max value of 70 orbits so if you are on planet 1 and the only other orbit is moon 1a then think hard about a reboot.
- Are you missing yield for any of the following on the HW, iron, crystal, lumber
- Is your planet temp over 350
- Does you HW lie in some sort of space phenomena, Ion storm etc
- Did you find Death Machine forces in your home system or in the first systems out
Here are the good ones -
- HW yields for iron, lumber are over 600, planet has either a hydro or a geothermal yield over a few 100
- The more planets in a system the better, especially asteroid fields and other planets with higher yields. Ideally all resources should be found in your home system or 1 away
- Numerous WP's out from your HW and if some of them are dead ends with planets that is good to.
- Another planet in your Home system has a lumber yield of 300 or more - A single yield of 500 is better than a number of yields in the 300 or less.
Some choices you will make may either be good or bad depending on your system resources so take some time to evaluate things. It will just cost more to build weapons that require Caldaran crystals if you don't have any available in your system.
Good Luck