Report message to a moderator

[Updated on: Fri, 27 March 2009 10:55]

Report message to a moderator

[Updated on: Fri, 27 March 2009 11:10]

Report message to a moderator

Report message to a moderator

Report message to a moderator

Report message to a moderator

Report message to a moderator

Raindancer wrote on Fri, 27 March 2009 21:35

It seems to me that it would be most effective to drop 55K per planet (building factories and mines and terraforming, in whatever order I think is best), and use the rest of the pop on Resource worlds (those in the 20-80% range) until such time as the resource worlds are full, then work on filling yellows and reds for some extra resources and minerals.

Yes, but no.

You need to transfer pop to low-growth worlds unless you want to wait forever for them to develop themselves.

That pop will come from high-value worlds (breeders) when they are around 33% full. 55k on a yellow would be a good start. Tactic and economic reasons make higher pops desirable. 100k would be good enough, but as long as there's breeders nearby growing lots of pop (35-55k per turn) you can keep them growing at maximum by offloading excess pop to low-value planets that would grow their own pop much more slowly.

Then, when the yellows finally go green (twice as fast with 100k pop than with 50k) they'll already have a decent 100k pop ready for exponential grow.

Even then, you should be offloading pop from breeders to the smaller greens, and also to big worlds that have already built all the mines and facs that their pop can operate and where crowding has slowed breeding. And only when everything else is pretty much full should you allow the last breeders (usually the poorest in Germanium) to fill themselves.

As with everything else, practice these things in a testbed before trying them in a real game!

Report message to a moderator

m.a@stars wrote on Thu, 02 April 2009 10:28

Raindancer wrote on Fri, 27 March 2009 21:35 It seems to me that it would be most effective to drop 55K per planet (building factories and mines and terraforming, in whatever order I think is best), and use the rest of the pop on Resource worlds (those in the 20-80% range) until such time as the resource worlds are full, then work on filling yellows and reds for some extra resources and minerals. You need to transfer pop to low-growth worlds unless you want to wait forever for them to develop themselves.

Yes, and I do that with the 'better' yellow planets. Part of the original question was about the planets that are -4 or worse.

Quote:

That pop will come from high-value worlds (breeders) when they are around 33% full. 55k on a yellow would be a good start. Tactic and economic reasons make higher pops desirable. 100k would be good enough, but as long as there's breeders nearby growing lots of pop (35-55k per turn) you can keep them growing at maximum by offloading excess pop to low-value planets that would grow their own pop much more slowly.

I am very familiar with breeders and how to use those. That has always been one of my best skills. I had forgotten (over a number of years of not playing) about how to apply those to yellow planets. I can see on some yellows, for tactical reasons as you say, to keep 100K pop there.

Quote:

Then, when the yellows finally go green (twice as fast with 100k pop than with 50k) they'll already have a decent 100k pop ready for exponential grow.

Except that any pop over 55K only get half the resources (referencing posts above), so 100K pop is only (approximately) 1.5x better than 55K pop. So that pop will be more valuable on a resource world (any green world that is not a breeder) where it contributes full resources toward building more resources. Once the planet goes green then I will load a small green up to max pop.

Quote:

As with everything else, practice these things in a testbed before trying them in a real game!

I just do not have the patience (or time) to put all that level of detail in a testbed. It is much quicker and more interesting to discuss it here, and then others can learn about it as well.

Raindancer

Report message to a moderator

Raindancer wrote on Thu, 02 April 2009 18:32

Part of the original question was about the planets that are -4 or worse.

My personal preference for the races I've played lately, when the red/yellow in no worse than -9 and it has minerals or strategic interest, and there's a breeder with excess pop that has nowhere better to go, is to fill the red/yellow to 120k pop or more.

Quote:

Except that any pop over 55K only get half the resources (referencing posts above), so 100K pop is only (approximately) 1.5x better than 55K pop. So that pop will be more valuable on a resource world (any green world that is not a breeder) where it contributes full resources toward building more resources. Once the planet goes green then I will load a small green up to max pop.

But your task, should you choose to accept it, is not to maximize a few big greens, but to populate, develop and expand a sprawling galactic empire.

To that effect, as long as you offload less pop per year than the breeder is growing, the breeder itself won't suffer significantly, and the less fortunate planets will greatly appreciate the extra pop, be it at 100% or at 50% efficiency.

One rule of thumb for when to stop exporting pop is when all factories/mines that the breeder's pop can operate have already been built. That of course happens earlier for good "resource" planets than for Germ-poor worlds.

But even then, if you got places to fill and nowhere else to pull pop from, by all means, move that pop and keep the green worlds breeding.

Quote:

I just do not have the patience (or time) to put all that level of detail in a testbed. It is much quicker and more interesting to discuss it here, and then others can learn about it as well.

Much depends on particular race traits (growth, hab, mobility), and playstyle, and even game goals. After talking is done, you need a testbed or three. For example, read Cawley's Tutorial - How to get over 25k resources by 2450 and compare the theory with your practice.

Report message to a moderator

Report message to a moderator

Report message to a moderator

Now I know why playing against joseph is so tough....



Very nice guide. It is nice to have a good rule of thumb, and the maths behind it.

Note that joseph's values are only for fastest way to get green. It does not take into account how many factories you will have, and thus the benefit *after* you hit green.

Now for most planets, going green will allow for such a great immediate improvement, that going green asap is by far the most important consideration.

but for deeper yellows, that will only go to low grade greens, you may want to build max factories, and then do terraforming. The decrease in time to green is insignificant, yet the benefit of the extra factories on going green will be more significant (though not by that much).

Doing a present value of future free resources might prove this idea.

naz

Report message to a moderator