hxc's Guide to Set Starts

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:47 am

I wrote this a while ago, updated it tonight, and finally am posting it. The very very basics of a set start.

I would just like to add a note here - this guide isn't a perfect guide. Yes, I have followed this and have had terrible set starts before, and I've also had very good set starts. It just depends on your planets, really. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with some of the tactics, but it works for me.. and if you get decent planets or have decent commerce, you'll end up doing well.

Another side note, in order to achieve a really good set start, expect to be at your computer every time you expect to get an expedition finding a new planet, and then from about turn 290 to somewhere in the mid 300's, or later if you can. Yes, it will equal about a day of being around your computer, but thats the level of dedication a good set start should take.

Step 1: Create your character. You have 11 races to choose from. Celebrus Opes, Karakiri, Tetecuhtin, and Cochehua are totalism races. This means they have a higher production at the cost of fighting abilities. Classism races are Mactabillis, Imperialist, Dementian, and Accedo Machina. Classism races are usually good at one specific thing, and are decent in both production and fighting. Personalism races are the warrior races. They excel at fighting, and don’t produce much on their own. They’re also the hardest races to play successfully. These are Jinchou Tennou, Mocuepa, and Thatloque.

Step 2: Now that you’ve created your character, you’ve spawned into a council and a cluster at random. The first thing to take notice of is the cluster you’re in. Until you get cruisers, which require 14 matter-energy techs, you won’t be able to attack out of your cluster. Now, enter the game. You have 300 turns in which to prepare yourself. This 300 turns equals out to be 25 hours, so remember what time you’ve started your character, and 25 hours from that is when you can be attacked.

Step 3: There are a few things you need to do right when you first start up your character. First off is to go to the recall menu, and recall your stationed fleet. And then disband all these fleets. Then, go to form a new fleet and select all your commanders. Put them all to 1 ship, and fleet em up. Go to mission, and send all of them out to train. Click on the link that says "Domestic" and scroll to the bottom of that page, and activate your expedition.. Expeditions will find new planets for you, which will give you more research, production or military, which will help you conquer the galaxy.

Step 4: Go to concentration mode and set that to military. Military mode will help you gain commanders, which is the most important thing to have when starting a new set. Then, go into research (under domestic) and invest money. A good size investment is 3,000 pp. After you do that, you’ll want to choose a research path to go down. Theres a few really good choices, with Self Evolutionary S/E (steal tech) being what will be most beneficial to most races. (IF YOU ARE JINCHOU TENNOU OR COCHEHUA DO NOT SELECT THE TECH FOR STEAL TECH. Go for AMM for Cochehua and Hyperspace Communication for JT!) Finally, you’ll need some more ships to fleet up future commanders to be trained, so go to Shipbuilding and build 150 Patrol Boat Mk I.

Step 5: Now you wait. Your expedition will take 48 turns to find a new planet. Fortunately, buidings start being created on your new planet as soon as its found. But here is a good time to explain a few things about planets. Each planet has its own resource value. Ultra Rich, Rich, Normal, Poor, Ultra Poor. Ultra rich will produce the most PP, while Ultra poor will produce the least. The resource values only effect PP, and not RP or MP. Planets also have a size.. Huge, Large, Medium, Small, Tiny. Obviously, Huge will be able to hold the most buildings, and Tiny the least. So, the planet with the best production would be a Huge Ultra Rich planet. So, when your new planet gets back, if its Rich or Ultra rich, put factories on it. Anything else deserves Laboratories. This is because research is important at the start of your character, as higher tech weapons will make it easier for you to win battles.

Step 6: When your expedition fleet returns at turn 48 (or so), it will automatically go out again. You should fleet up all your new commanders into one ship fleets again, and send them out to train. You should do this every hour or so, as you should be getting new commanders fairly quickly. Once your expedition fleet finds a new planet, (at the earliest, turn 72.) you should do this again. Once you hit 5 planets though, you’re out of protection. You should also design some new ships, and set them to build. Go to fleet -> ship design and type in a name for your new ship class. Then, from the drop down menu, select frigate and hit OK. Select Titanium armor, and Fusion/Nuclear Missiles, and a device. Hit OK again, and then on the next page, hit “register this ship.” Your ships are now ready to be built. Go to ship building and set 400 of them to build. This will take a while. After you’ve done all that.. all that’s really left to do until turn 300 is wait for ships to build, train commanders, and keep research invested.

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:48 am

This post is reserved for additional information if its needed.

PVT Joined: 25 Jan 2009 Posts: 1

me no engliziano

PVT Joined: 30 Jan 2009 Posts: 2

i can't find 'steal tech' under research. i am imperialist and have discovered advanced psychology for stealing info as a special op. but i don't think that is what you meant

these are my choices for research. as you can tell i am a noob, however, i played like 10 years ago and loved this game.

You can research the following tech(s) :

Social Science Information Science
Self-evident Language
Universal Translator
Collective Mind
Solution of Chaos Equation
Self-Evolutionary Network

Matter-Energy Science Life Science
Novarization
Nanoscale Robot
Matter Compression
Psionic Power
Telepathic Training

PVT Joined: 30 Jan 2009 Posts: 2

after forming fleets of 1 commander each and getting them trained, and building up a new fleet of 300 new ships...how do you designate how many commanders per fleet of how many ships? cause it would take a long time to give more/better ships based on their skills, stats, etc.

thanks so much.

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:04 pm

The easy way to do it is to build 800 of the largest ship you can build in 1 turn, that would come out to 20 fleets of 40 ships (you'll have a few left over, not every commander can hold a perfect 40). Then start building the next biggest size ship and replacing a fleet at a time, scrapping the older ones so you don't get fluffed.

Short answer to your question, you should always have 20 full fleets. A level 20 commie holds between 36 and 40 ships per fleet.

Oh, and when you reach dread level, skip strait to dooms next, don't bother with mofo's. As you get better you'll learn theres a few other classes you can safely skip.

Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 11:13 pm

Avgvstvs wrote:

i can't find 'steal tech' under research. i am imperialist and have discovered advanced psychology for stealing info as a special op. but i don't think that is what you meant

these are my choices for research. as you can tell i am a noob, however, i played like 10 years ago and loved this game.

You can research the following tech(s) :

Social Science Information Science
Self-evident Language
Universal Translator
Collective Mind
Solution of Chaos Equation
Self-Evolutionary Network

Matter-Energy Science Life Science
Novarization
Nanoscale Robot
Matter Compression
Psionic Power
Telepathic Training

Steal tech is Self Evolutionary S/E and Self Evolutionary Network.

And to answer your other question, DA is right. Go for 800 ships of Frigates or something, which will equal to be 20 fleets of 40. If you don't get to the 800 before protection breaks, fill the rest out with gunboats.

SFC Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 476

A great number of veterans skip over battleships to dread walls also.

Battleships aren't worth the cost of dieing versus dreadnaught walls and the rest of an armada of battlecruisers.