Astrowars

[stacyt]

Beth,
At this point if you started over, you wouldn't be close to any of the NEMOs, and chances are no other alliances as well. The best thing to do, is to try to make contact with a couple of good players in your area, and work as a team. If you notice that there is a player in your area that belongs to an alliance, you can contact them to try to get into their alliance.
As far as your culture goes. How many cybernets do you have? It takes a while to get another culture to take a planet? If you look at your sceince screen, at the bottom it will tale you when you'll get your next culture.
Ty_05_f,
If you listen to sammy he'll get you going. This is only the 2nd time that elfdoctors, and I are playing.

 

[beth]

I'll take any advise sammy wants to give me, but I just know that he is ploting to take me over.

So, right now I can't see any data on any other planets except a bit on the other couple of players in my system. Do you have to just wait to get more data abilities as you expand? This process is very slow and as some of you know, I'm not very patient.

 

[stacyt]

To see more systems you need to increase your BIO science. Every 2 lvls of BIO increases what you see. Also if your BIO science is 6 lvls above another player, you can see what their science lvls are.
I normally get my BIO to lvl 2 right frim the start. Than I work on social. Social is important, as you want to keep your population lvl going. Last beta my pop on most of my planets where at 17. Population is important as it increases the amount of science lvls you obtain, plus it contributes to your PP's per hr.

 

[beth]

So, you're saying to switch to bio. Right now I'm working on social.

 

[elfdoctors]

Considering you don't have a startup lab, I would stay at social for a while. You are not going to be expanding out of this system for a while so not being able to see another system will not harm you (and it may only worry you when you see a strong player there). Your population growth will often max out if you don't get social up. Several times last beta, my growth stopped while I had to get my social up again. Growth is good because it helps you get more production and more science. It also helps give you more points.

 

[beth]

somehow on v 3 Research Lab

 

[sammystingray]

Ty_05_f, I was looking for where you are, and we can definately work together soon. There are NEMOs close by as well. Dabbler is at 31/-10 or something like that, so he'll be on our screen as well. Not sure who else, most NEMOs logged in while I was at work.

 

[stacyt]

sammy,
ty put in a request to join. I vouched for him, maybe you could as well.

 

[sammystingray]

I said I have no idea how good he is, but he's a nice fellow, and is very close....all true.
What the NEMOs do not need is once a day players because they are the ones who get attacked and start entire alliance wars....active players are the key. How often do you login? The NEMO alliance only forums need to be visited daily as well to stay updated.

 

[beth]

So is it necessay to join an alliance to make it? I guess it makes sense to keep other packs from swarming in on you. I've been playing now for 24 hrs and not much going on. Build up is pretty slow. The guys in my system are basically de-funk, so I'm pretty much on my own. Its lonely out here in deep space all by my lonesome!

 

[stacyt]

Beth,
Are the others logging in at all. If not build a few destroyers, and attack them. Thats only if their not logging in.

 

[beth]

No, no activity from them. There are several other planets around that are empty as well. I'm completely by myself in deep space. Yes, I was thinking that I would just take them over. That would at least give me whatever they had while they were on. Jump start so to speak. Otherwise, those lame deadbeats are just going to attract someone else to move in!

 

[sammystingray]

wait until they are idle for 3 days before you attack, and build up your farms, factories, and cybernets etc. until then. You are not alone. Other systems seem far away right now, but later on, people from other systems will play a major role in your game. It would take a few days right now for you to travel to the next system, but I was system hopping in about 5 hours by the end of last beta with a minus to speed (energy). If they are idle they are falling behind even if they come back.
The LAST thing you want to do is send a couple destroyers which will take two days to get there, and they login and EASILY beat them. They will get player level, SUs worth hundreds of PPs, and you will be the one behind.

 

[beth]

So, in terms of battles, what am I supposed to do if I get attacked? I don't see any defense options to play with.
I wasn't going to venture out anywhere. Just throwing pps at homebase development right now. It seems so slow! I only have a level 2 population.

 

[stacyt]

If someone attacks, you use your SB to help with defense.
As far as attacking the others. I would build about 6DS, and launch to a free planet next to them. Than you can launch from that planet onto them. This way if they login, you can try the same thing to one of the others players. As it is, it'll take a few days to get this done. If they havn't logged in by than, you should be in good shape, and you should have culture to take the planet.
Of course you'll want to get your planet built a little more before you start building DS.

 

[beth]

So, when the time comes, not now, but in a few days, I should launch a colony ship off to an empty planet, right? To colonize it.

 

[stacyt]

You'll want to launch before your culture goes up. You want to time the landing after your culture has increased. You also have to login for your culture to update, so make sure to time it so that you can login before your ship gets there.
Also if you can send 3 colony ships, as it will start the planet with 15 PP's when you take it. This will help get it developed quickly.
Just so you know to take an inhabited planet you must use transports. You need 1 transport for every pop level.

 

[beth]

So what happens if I get attacked? At this point, I'm defensless!

 

[elfdoctors]

With a neutral race, it will roughly 24 hours to fly to a neighboring planet. When your culture gets to within ~24 hours, then launch your colony ship (if you can afford it, launch three - the extra pair will give you 30 extra PP's immediately and you will be able to get that system up and running quite quickly). The time for your culture to rise to 2 seems forever initially (~14 days with 1 cybernet, but as soon as you build more cybernets, the time needed drops rapidly).
Later on, when you successfully attack to acquire a planet, the planet will usually be reasonably well built up.
If you get attacked, you can adjust your starbase as well as buy some destroyers. Raising your physics score will also help. If you click on the help tab on the bottom of the News page, you can find a battle calculator tool which helps to tell you how much to build up to defend.
If you look on the overall player rankings today, I am currently ranked #17! (I finished out last beta ranked #918 but I made some stupid errors that I will not repeat this time). I probably won't stay there but it shows that you learn a lot the more you play.

 

[stacyt]

doc,
You past me up! Guess I need to get to work and catch up to ya. #17 nice rank. I got as high as #42, but dropped to the 100's. Doubt I'll stay there foor long though. Probably end up somewhere in the 500's by the end of the beta. I do plan on getting the highest ranking PL though, or at least in the top 50.
My fleet is still #4 though, and on the PL rank I'm 24. I had one of the best guarded planets yesterday.