[Vince, Pt. II]

I have yet to play a game past even the mid-game, because I find myself wanting to start over and check out some other race-ethics-government-ship design combination. My favorites so far:

• Wormhole > Hyperspace > Warp Drive
• Really indecisive on the weapons, probably a slight lean toward missiles or lasers.
• Love the look of the Avian ships.
• Materialism > Individualism > Xenophilia > Militarism > Pacifism > Xenophobia > Collectivism > Spiritualism
• Despotic Hegemony or Science Directorate are my preferred forms of government.
• Traits: I really like Industrious, Intelligent, and Quick Learners.
• Negative Traits: I gravitate toward Weak (this should probably come with a Mineral Penalty; Army damage seems really insignificant in this game) and Repugnant.

I'm going to spoiler the rest, just in case people don't want to read about it. There's no actual spoilers in here, just my early game strategy thoughts.

Spoiler

As for early game strategy, it seems that minerals trump pretty much everything until you get to about +25 or +30, then I like to divert toward science. My feel so far is that energy is way too easy to manage - as long as you keep a modest surplus in the early game (seriously like +3 or +5), by the time you get to a point where you need energy you will have developed enough of a base to be able to absorb large deficits for plenty of time to develop further and dig yourself out of the deficit. Rather disappointed in the economic model so far, to be honest. I don't need anything super complex, but I hardly even have to think about it and I can balance my energy budget, and by the time I get to +40 or more in minerals, I'm earning them faster than I can spend them. I would like there to be at least SOME kind of difficulty here, be it a bit tighter an energy model or perhaps higher mineral costs as your empire grows.

I need to get better at developing the surface of my colonies before I get to the Sector stage; I have this very bad habit of colonizing then forgetting about the planet and worrying more about mining outposts. The 1 energy per outpost seems to be a pretty terrible investment unless you have a 3+ resource planet, so I usually skip the 1's and 2's unless I am in a region of space with very little in the way of resources. On the other hand, surface tiles are typically much cheaper to build initially, do not tie up a Construction ship, and end up producing more than most planets do.

For research strategies...

Engineering: Engineering is probably my least "favorite" tree in the tech game. That being said...

Betharian Refining is the way and the truth. Even one Betharian Power Plant is a huge asset, especially in the early game. Other than that I push the Spaceport and weapons upgrades as early as I can. I don't tend to lean on Armor very much, but I don't yet know if that's a good plan or not.

Physics: Physics is where all the fun stuff is. I love Shields and will attempt to get them as early as I can. I am also a fiend for sensor, drive, and power source ship upgrades. The Power Hub is a building I like to get early as well.

Society: Another busy tree with several strong options early. New World Colonization, Hazardous Tile Removal, Border Expansion, Increased Influence Gain, Unlocking additional planet types for colonization, and Fleet Expansion are all excellent options, so you're likely never left wanting for a valid tech to research. The Frontier Clinic is fantastic for establishing new colonies as well. I usually start with New World Colonization, then get the Influence Gain tech ASAP so I can pop out a few Border Outposts. After that, the border expansion and fleet expansion options when they become available, and I'm usually left waiting for the new colonization options to start popping up, so once they do they are the first things I take off the board.

To start, I pretty much invariably order up a second Science ship immediately, start construction on a power plant and/or mine on the surface of my homeworld, clear the tile blocker on the +2 energy or mineral tile that I have blocked, and send my 3 ship fleet out to find the bad guys before my science ships can follow. The fleet starts by visiting any stars within my small nation's territory to begin with. My initial science ship begins by Surveying our home system, and won't research any anomalies unless they have a less than 25% chance of failure. I should probably lower that threshold a little, but eh, live a little dangerously. Once the second science ship is finished, I will immediately recruit a new scientist to lead it, then send it off to the nearest system within my borders that doesn't have any aliens in it and start the system survey routine.

Also - scientists who get re-assigned do so immediately, and their ships do not need to move back to the planet to take over research options. If I have any Maniacal or Spark of Genius scientists, I will typically put them on the Science Ships for a short bit to get them up to ****, then as soon as they do I ship 'em back home to head up research. Rotating scientists gets them experience much faster, and should help your research in the long run.

As for where to expand...I like to get my back up against a wall as soon as possible, so I'll usually push toward the edge of the galaxy first. This expansion depends HEAVILY on what my galaxy looks like, so having a close neighbor or several hostile alien fleets early can completely change this plan.

I have not messed around with planetary governors yet, as I like having influence to spend on new leaders and edicts more than the benefits the governors seem to confer. As for Admirals, I get one as soon as my Influence comfortably allows me to; I typically fly one large fleet of ships around, at least in the early game, so one Admiral is all I need.

Speaking of fleets, I will start pumping out the Corvettes as soon as I have a few mining stations up; I don't need them immediately, but I do want to get tough enough to start taking out the Crystalline Entities, Void Clouds, and Mining Drones I run into so that I can survey their (hopefully) mineral rich systems. My initial push is to get the fleet up to 250-ish power, then I usually hold off and develop my economy more. Once I'm sitting pretty, I push to 500-ish in order to handle the stronger Crystalline guys and/or Space Amoebas that may or may not crop up.

I am still loving the hell out of this game.