A few quick questions for some friendly gurus to contemplate answering for me. I know mine settings has been done to death, but I'm a slow learner

1a) Is there anyway of starting Stars so that your HW has minimum minerals every time?

1b) If the startingG on my HW was going to be 30%, what would it be if I allocated 50pts to Min Concs?

2) Scenario: HW has 30% G conc and about 250K of G. RW has 0 points allocated to (something/nothing).

If I have OBRM, PGR 19%, 1 in 1000 and something like 10/3/16 mine settings, what is the best way to deal with pop growth well in excess of my ability to get the G out to build the facs? With decent G I would just take it to 275K pop and hold it there, but here G is wayyy low.

For example, (and please don't argue the merits of different mine or fac settings - they are what they are ) if I have facs set to 13/9/14 (and the mine setting and PGR above) do I:

a) keep my pop below, say, 275K and export pop to my best breeders which hopefully have a better G conc than HW. Gradually building pop to 275K in line with the # of factories I can build? ((If I do this then the number of mines operated is reduced, so it take a little longer to get to a stable 275K with maxFacs)); or

b) just let it climb to 275K, build out the mines as the G runs out and build the extra 3 or 4 fac's the extra mines let me build.

My gut feeling says (a), testing seems to make me think (a), but I'm wondering if there is a (c) strategy or (d) strategy I am missing.

3) What are the weakest mine settings a 15/x/22 HP can work with?

Cheers
S.

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[Updated on: Sat, 07 July 2007 03:11]

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Soobie wrote on Sat, 07 July 2007 08:47

1b) If the startingG on my HW was going to be 30%, what would it be if I allocated 50pts to Min Concs?

Only one answer for you, no time for more.

I think it was Jason Cawley that once said on the newsgroup:
"Real thing you get is +1/4 times points spent to 2 concentrations and +3/4 times points spent to lowest one."

So as an example let's say a player has spent 48 leftover points on mineral concentrations:

normal    bonus    total
78          12          90
52          12          64
30          36          66

IOW if you had a germ concentration of 30 you would now have more than doubled it. IMHO that might be worth it for HP races since as been said before: germ is their fourth hab range. Of course if your germ is 31 and your bor is 30, well ... germ only gets 12 points ... Anyway with 48 points left over you will have a germ concentration of at least 42.
Not sure what happens if you use 50 leftover points, since that would give 1/4 = 12.5, might be rounded up or down, haven't tested that ... Also haven't checked what happend when all concentrations are 30.

mch

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Hi!

Soobie wrote on Sat, 07 July 2007 08:47

1b) If the startingG on my HW was going to be 30%, what would it be if I allocated 50pts to Min Concs?

3/4 of points would be directed to the lowest MC, 1/4 to both others. So a planet with MCs 30/30/50 would turn into about 67/43/63.

Quote:

what is the best way to deal with pop growth well in excess of my ability to get the G out to build the facs?

Being HG the pop is your best and free asset, so you need to take special care to grow it at max rate. In your case I'd set queue on planet to 500fac's/500mines, and just let planet grow naturally to 25%. The only diversion into research would be to have freighters build after planet goes over 25%, and building additiona mines before factories to get enough minerals to run the colony drive. When queue would turn green, I'd "jump" planet to 33% hold, and from there on slowly to 45% hold (just 10-20 fac's and mines built each turn) while exporting pop, researching, and building ships for the rest of the empire. If there wouldn't be need for pop exports, the I'd again "jump" it to 45% hold.

Quote:

My gut feeling says (a), testing seems to make me think (a), but I'm wondering if there is a (c) strategy or (d) strategy I am missing.

IIRC JC has done some tests here, and they showed the B is best for quick econ. But quite often I build some 50 mines before factories, esp. in disputed areas, where I need defenses (forts/docks) up quickly, and that can't be done without minerals. So very often I play there as a -f, and start building factories only after the planet is out of the biggest danger.

[/quote]3) What are the weakest mine settings a 15/x/22 HP can work with?[/quote]
Whatever you can afford. With normal mines efficiency never go below the number of factories, but rather 2+ higher. Better have 1 factory less and 3 mines more, than the opposite, because in the BB era you'll have terrible problems with germ for electronics on your BBs. IMO a decent solution for your HP would be mines at ~12/3/~20, or the Alien Miner. I see remote mining only as a partiall solution, because you need decent tech for decent miners, but that tech cost LOTS of resources, that should go into factories instead . Killing RMs is also way to easy . Besides, a HP with remotes has only slightly better econ than a 12/x/16 HG with OBRM, but is significantly more vulnerable in early and mid part of the game than that HG. My advice is: chose HP only for slow games with some room.

Hope that helps.

BR, Iztok

[Updated on: Mon, 09 July 2007 13:56]

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Micha wrote on Sat, 07 July 2007 12:45

I think it was Jason Cawley that once said on the newsgroup: "Real thing you get is +1/4 times points spent to 2 concentrations and +3/4 times points spent to lowest one."

Indeed. Those interested in old wisdom can check that thread (including some math) here: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.computer.stars/brow se_thread/thread/f0581ead7fab6da/84db188658808187

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[Updated on: Mon, 09 July 2007 19:18]

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