Master of Orion/How to begin: Difference between revisions
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Much more detail on how to manage the early phase. This *was* a page on how to manage turn 1. Now it's a page on how to manage much more. And yes I read every other page before I edited!
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Dragonsister (talk | contribs) (Much more detail on how to manage the early phase. This *was* a page on how to manage turn 1. Now it's a page on how to manage much more. And yes I read every other page before I edited!) |
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The scouts should unquestionably sent out to survey the surrounding worlds first turn. In efficient play this will always happen first turn. It is hard to argue that any other course of action has any merit whatsoever. | The scouts should unquestionably sent out to survey the surrounding worlds first turn. In efficient play this will always happen first turn. It is hard to argue that any other course of action has any merit whatsoever. | ||
The use of the colony ship, though, is more complex. It can either remain in the home system until the scouts find it a suitable place to colonize or it can be used as a scout ship itself. | The use of the colony ship, though, is more complex. It can either remain in the home system until the scouts find it a suitable place to colonize or it can be used as a scout ship itself. We'll get to those refinements later. | ||
So. Send off your scouts, small or large. If you find only one habitable world within range, clearly that is where your colony ship should go. If you find two or more, then factor these into the decision as to which world to colonize first: | |||
* worlds that can take more people are better; | |||
* worlds that are Fertile are better; | |||
* Rich habitable worlds are wonderful; | |||
* Artifacts worlds are very good. | |||
Ties or near ties may be decided by where your colony ship is right now, or which choice will open up more star systems for exploration. (It's also nice if your second world is just 3 or 4 parsecs from a few likely habitable stars; it gives you more choices for your third world, and you can get more colonists out that way later.) | |||
I usually like my second world to concentrate on research, once it is full of factories, and I concentrate my home world on building colony ships - which makes Artifacts worlds very good second worlds. | |||
Once you have landed your colony ship, transport some people from your home world to the new world. Natural population growth depends upon the number of people already on the planet; so it is very slow for a planet to grow from 2 people to 9. But if you send 7 people from your home world to the new world, it will take the home planet only about 3 turns to replace them. (In the 6 turn model the first delivery of colonists might be 16 people.) It can pay to send more than one delivery of colonists; planetary populations grow fastest when the planet is about half full. | |||
If you're lucky enough to find a habitable Rich world within range, keep sending colonists til it is nearly full; this will be a ship-building world rather than a research world, and you want it ready to go ASAP. Same logic usually applies to Rich worlds you colonize later. | |||
Keep your scout ships exploring - think about their courses so that they do not have to backtrack; they are very slow! This is the eXplore part of eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. | |||
Keep your home planet focused on building factories until the industry slider begins to report 'MAX' (unless you're playing Meklar, when getting to MAX takes forever - you need to colonize before then!); then consider diverting resources to other goals. | |||
Do you need another scout ship? Build it just as your slider starts to MAX - then start work on the colony ship, if you have at least one more habitable planet in your (expanded) range. | |||
Are you going to need to do some research to get anywhere? Go into the Tech screen and set all your research to Propulsion, Planetary, or (usually) some mix of both, depending whether you've scouted out habitable but remote worlds, or Barren/Tundra near by. | |||
If you have close by habitable worlds, set most of your 'over max' resources to the colony ship and just seed one or two clicks into technology; if you do not, focus on the technology and leave starting the second colony ship until the relevant bulb is better than half full (at which point you can split your efforts so the colony ship is ready about the time you get your breakthrough.) | |||
A factory takes at least 10 turns to pay back its investment. (20 if you count pollution.) A cloned colonist takes twice as long (unless you're a Klackon). What this means that if it's going to take more than 20 turns to build that colony ship (i.e. if you can only spare one or two clicks), don't start yet - keep investing in your production instead. You'll get the colony ship sooner by starting it later! If you've got more than twice as many factories as colonists, sink those one or two clicks into colonists for a few turns. | |||
Once your second colony ship is ready, you can really begin the eXpand phase of the game - not that you're done exploring, especially not in a Large or Huge galaxy. Your third colony ship should not be nearly so long in coming! | |||
As you send out more and more colony ships, transport colonists after them. Once your first worlds fill up, they can both donate a few colonists to each new world, with minimal, temporary impact on their own production. Although once it takes more than 10 turns to get out to the new world, you may be better leap-frogging colonists to the second generation colonies. | |||
You will always have either Hydrogen fuel cells (range 4) or Deuterium (Range 5) available as your first propulsion tech. Whether, after that, you go for faster engines or greater range depends on what you're offered and whether you need that range boost to get to more habitable planets. | |||
Your first Planetology tech might be Terraforming +10 (good if the planets you're colonizing are on the smaller side, or just because it's so cheap and will still be enough to unlock the next tier of planetology techs.) Or Controlled Barren Environment (good if you've scouted one, especially if it's Rich) or Improved Ecological Restoration, which will free up resources - I like this choice where I have larger habitable planets to colonize. Your second Planetology tech will hopefully be Controlled Tundra Environment or Controlled Dead Environment. Larger galaxies won't be out of nice habitable planets when you research this second tech, but you might well be finding that you've colonized every non-hostile planet in easy reach. Building one or two ships for hostile planets may let you extend your range so you can get regular colony ships out to the nice planets. | |||
Grab rich planets early. Colonise lesser planets later, and if you find there's a side of the galaxy that only you can reach, you'll want to mostly grab the planets between you and the AI first. (Dangling a scout ship over each of your new colonies can provide some protection against early invasion.) | |||
Thus goes the eXpand phase. | |||
Why would you use your first colony ship as a scout ship? | |||
To better understand how to proceed it is helpful to discuss the cost of letting it sit in the home system and do nothing. It is not readily apparent, but there is a cost. | To better understand how to proceed it is helpful to discuss the cost of letting it sit in the home system and do nothing. It is not readily apparent, but there is a cost. | ||
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That narrow situation where there are 2 and they are at least a distance of 4 apart is the only case where it might make sense not to send the colony ship out as a scout on turn 1. | That narrow situation where there are 2 and they are at least a distance of 4 apart is the only case where it might make sense not to send the colony ship out as a scout on turn 1. | ||
[Another editor: I see two other things to worry about. One, what if one of your nearest worlds is Orion? It has happened to me! Having your first colony ship crushed by the Guardian is "restart game" time. The other wrinkle is that if your colony ship finds an Artifacts planet, and you colonize it immediately, you do not get your free tech. However, if you scout an Artifacts planet with a colony ship, and say 'No' to the initial offer of colonization, then you get the tech as normal - and you can leave the ship there to colonize the planet the following turn.)] | |||
Note also, using it as a scout also lets you use the scout that would have scouted that world to scout something else instead, allowing you to scout more worlds faster. This can be an advantage. | Note also, using it as a scout also lets you use the scout that would have scouted that world to scout something else instead, allowing you to scout more worlds faster. This can be an advantage. | ||
