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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.148 PW Depends on whether you want to side with the "Techs" or the "Morphs"... Metamorphs can build pods very early in the game, so they get a head start on the normal races, who have to wait until they can build a shuttle to get off their home world. Morphs have a collective IQ, which means that in the beginning their technology level will increase *very* slowly. Since your tech level determines what kind of whiz-bang stuff you can build, it will take a while until your average Morph race gets its first shuttle up in the air. Things even out later in the game. FGS Depends on your playing strategy. If you enjoy spending a lot of time playing with ships and fleets I'd choose normal. If you don't want to spend a heck a lot of time and don't mind spending your time on planet surfaces, choose morph. GRIF It really depends on the game that you are playing.. If you are playing in one of the clakson games it is a must. With the HAP games you really aught to start out with a tech race. Choosing a normal race will allow you to build better ships earlier, in general, while the meta races tend to allow you to have nice things like higher fighting capability, etc. With the clarkson enroling system the meta's are the strongest races, you can make a meta with the same characteristics as a top line normal cheaper, giving you more points to use for increasing your abilities. PILL This is entirely up to individual tastes, If you are just starting then flip a coin.. try that type then next game swap.. then perhaps make a decision as to what you will play... TAO I'd say normal. If for no other reason but because many don't like them... EMPI It depends of which tactics you are going to use: if you want to be good in man to man-fight, choose meta (because of absorption), if you want fast developing tech from the very beginning of the game, choose normal ( with iq like 170..) and so on... LB I have only played metamorphic races. I like the fact that they can send up pods immediately and don't have to wait for tech. They are more challenging. You don't have the technology of a normal race. Also, you can take a planet without having to destroy it (absorb). That takes skill. Anyone can bomb someone into the stone age. CLAW Normal for the first games, it all makes much more sense. ZURG Well I almost always go for meta, but I depends on the time you have to play or the number of friends you have to help play your race. Metas take time (you need macros aswell, but I have done well spending hours podding before I discovered macros), to come in the top 5 of a big game you will need 1-2 hours per update if you know how to use macros. (2) What type of home planet should I choose? ---------------------------------------------- FEEP A high resource, low fertility planet (desert or airless) You can always increase fertility later with resources. KJM Consider the sector compatibilities which are easiest for a given planet type (they're usually marked with a * by racegen). Planet types such as iceballs and airless are more difficult because they tend to be smaller and have less resources, making your race slower in getting underway. Note - choosing Earth (Class M) planets may seem tempting, and it's not a bad idea. However, in some universes, there are many Earth inhabiting players. This means there will be more competition against your race for these planets. GVB Pick a planet that is rather large ( desert,forest ) because you are not likely to get many planets in your first game... NEUE Class M / Earth GARF 1. Desert 2. Forest 3. Earth (you need too many sector preferences to use this planet effectively) RN This primarily depends on the sector compatibilities you choose. Jovian planets (gas giants) are very large, and have the ability to fuel up ships (so I hear). Half of the sector space in a galaxy is gas. Jovians are few and far between. Their resource content is not very rich, but passable. Whether or not Jovian races should be allowed to terraform sectors to gas is being debated. Class M's are primarily like earth. Don't be fooled, they have LOTS of water...usually. If you have water as a compat, class M is not a bad choice. Water balls are usually small but not too bad for resources. Iceballs are few and far between (I think) but also not too bad for resources. GURU Picking planets is tough. I like to start on a Class M or desert since they are usually large. Large home worlds are good because they can be taxed, and a big planet has more res than a small one. MUU I would go for the generic M-type planet. They aren't the most common, but they are really useful. As another option, you could go for a desert planet. These are GREAT for resources, but are generally very rare. Forest planets are also good, as they produce decent amounts of resources and your population will explode. As for other planets, such as asteroids, airballs, iceballs, and jovians, I would not advise choosing any of these as they all have problems associated with them, such as smallness, lack of resources, and rarity (for the jovians). FNEB Choose either a Jovian, a desert planet, a Class M, or a forest planet. All the other types are too small to start with, and you'll find yourself having a hard time producing resources since production on a given planet goes as _the_power_ "number of sectors owned." Producing resources quickly on your home planet is crucial. MICR Personally, I like forest and desert planets. They have very good resource concentrations and despite much of the documentation, they are often quite large. To a certain extent, planet choice is moot because planetary size, and atmosphere have a much greater effect on the game than the planet type. Just make sure you are compatible with the vast majority of sectors that appear on your planet. (One reason I dislike class-Ms is because most races don't have enough sector preference diversity to colonize greater than 90% of the sectors, and the uncolonized sectors stick out like a sore thumb.) TRIB To start out with, use either forest or desert. Higher resources, and costs less in racegen; you can thus pick other sector pref's. I prefer a forest planet myself. NB I tend toward earthlike planets. Jovians are fun too if you don't mind being somewhat separated from the mainstream of the game. PW Again a matter of taste :-) I personally love desert worlds, since they have an extremely high resource content (i.e. you can build huge amounts of stuff from them). On the down side, desert worlds are low on fertility, so your population increses quite slowly. The "basic" home world is a "Type M" (Earth-type) planet, which is pretty even in all respects -- a pretty good choice for your first game. Other choices are the Water world (not that great), Iceball (avoid!), the Forest world (low resources, high fertility), and the Jovian. Jovians are unique in that they automatically make your race a gas-breather (which rules out any other sector preferences). This make for a division in the game between the Jovians and all the other races, as neither can use each other's worlds (although Jovians *can* terraform normal worlds into gas ones -- this could be considered a bug). You probably shouldn't choose a Jovian for your first game, although if you're feeling brave go for it! FGS Doesn't really matter too much. Just don't pick an iceball or asteroid since those usually are kind of small and puts a constraint on your earlier expansion. Don't choose forest worlds, either. There aren't too many of those. GRIF It really depends on what you want out of your home planet. For cheap compatibilites, you should choose a forest. For high populations, forest or water then earth. For resources, desert. The best way is to fiddle around with the enrol system until you have enough points to do what you want. You will find that the cost for compatabilities change as your home planets do. This cost has eliminated iceballs from being a viable starting planet. PILL Most choose a class M (All sector types except gas) simply because it enables the player to parallel their race against the thinking of a modern day situation. TAO Maybe earth or forest (if this is asked). Both have fairly good fert and resources. Not desert, because fert is so low there. EMPI In earth-,forest- and joviantype planet your population grows faster... In desert-type planet you have relatively greater resources... Of iceballs and Airlesses I have no experiences.. LB Earth type planets. Their size can support a decent population (Meso's need population for tech). They have pretty good resources. CLAW Desert, or Earth. Both are fairly large size planets, have plenty of resources, and can be found in just about every system. ZURG Desert, Earth or Forest (Jovians are good too, but try the others first), as a meta you can have 1 guy live on any sector type so even if you are on an Earth type with incompatable sectors you can still mine resources there. (3) How should I spend my remaining points? -------------------------------------------- FEEP Fiddle around, trying different things every game... that makes it fun. KJM Metabolism is important for producing resources at a reasonable rate, especially early on; many players recommend at least 0.95 or 1.0. Adventurism encourages your people to spread out without your help. IQ is useful for developing tech. They're all useful, of course... which to emphasize the most is your personal preference. Just be sure, in your first few races at least, not to cripple any one stat too greatly, or you may regret it. GVB Metabolism is great, at least 1.0, and fight should never be below 3 or 4. RN IQ will take most of them. Good IQ is about 150-170, 200 if you really want to spend the points. GARF Raise iq to at least 180 and metabolism to 0.9. Drop adventurism to 0.05, birthrate to 0.6 (or maybe 0.5; it's not important to have it high), and get a little fertilize. RN Metabolism is a good place to put points. This represents how active your race is. A race with a low metab(.8 is considered low) will build up fuel, and resources(res) at a slower rate than a race with a 1.0 metab. You don't absolutely need a high metab. Lower metab is still playable, but it requires shrewder planning and foresight on the part of the player. Birthrate should be high. Adventurism need not be high. It represents the chances of members of your race deciding to expand the 'frontier'. For techies, iq is usually a good one to boost up. Don't take more than 3-6 sexes required to reproduce. GURU Always try and get a metab of 1.00 or great. I like to have 1 sex, since it makes colonizing easier. Concentrate on either a smart race or a good fighter type race. MUU A high IQ is nice, as this allows your technology level to increase more quickly. Sector preferences are also really nice. For a normal race, the other stats aren't as important, in my opinion. A low mass is useful, and sometimes you can save a lot of points by reducing your adventurism to as low as possible. This has the effect of having to move all your population manually... They will not move on their own. FNEB Get at least three sector preferences, but don't go for the "common" choices. It's best to find an unusual mix. You'll work much better with potential allies since you won't be wanting the same types of sectors. Also, make sure your metab is _at_least_ 1.0 unless you're a Jovian race (in which case 0.9 is a good minimum). If you're not going to spend the points on a high iq, spend 'em on fight or metabolism. Don't try to max things out too much...at high levels of any attribute, then the cost rises much more quickly than the attribute, but you want something high to give your race a distinct edge, if possible. MICR It's up to you. Generally, its not possible to take over the universe on yuor own, so you should make sure that you have something to offer potential allies. A perfectly well-rounded race, may not have much to contribute TRIB For a first time player, try to only add sector prefs, go with the default setting for the most part. They're not great, but they're not bad either. I would try to have these sectors pref's: Forest, Water, Desert, and land. Also drop your # of sexes to 1. It make metabolism a little cheaper. NB Fight ability is good, but I tend to think reproduction (minimizing number of sexes) is more important. PW Hmmm... depends heavily on the type of play you're going to foll. If you're a "tech" then you can downplay the "fight" and invest in IQ, and vice versa if you're going to go for the "Wood Clubs & Brute Strength" -department :-) I personally like investing a lot in IQ (tech). FGS Make sure you have decent IQ (~150), reasonable birthrate (>0.6), good metabolism(1 or so), and try to be compatible with as many sectors as you can. GRIF Well that really depends. To pull out the maximum res you need both a high pop and a high metab (res is required for the building of ships). Also Birth is good and so are compatibilities to sectors; likewise, someone with fight 10 troops is really nasty to come across. The only way to really tell what you need is by your playing style. That only comes with experience... Go for a basic race that populates well and has 180 tech... it is a good start for a beginner. PILL Again it depends on what race you chose. If metamorph then fight would be useful followed by birth, then sectors (preferences). You may wish to sacrifice some of the iq tech level for other things. If techie, then perhaps higher iq. Fight is not highly required but a fight of one is a major loss. With such a low fight most techies would be (initially) at the mercy of meso pods. Then you can choose between birth and metab. TAO I usually drop my fight a little, buy metabolism and then just sort of spread the rest evenly (no use taking too much fertilizing or adventure though. If you won't be able to play in the start, then that advantage might help). Be unisex if you have the points. EMPI Take higher fight,metabolism and iq... IMHO don't waste your points to get better fertilization; after the tech-level 5, the Space Plows will have the same effect... LB Metabolism is very important. After that a meso should go for fight. Birthrate is fine at 50 - 60 %. Spend extra points on met and fight. Maybe sector compat. also, but it's expensive. CLAW Desert, or Earth. Both are fairly large size planets, have plenty of resources, and can be found in just about every system. ZURG Metas need a good fight and metabolism. In a blitz game you will need adventurism more than .25 (unless you have a population spread macro) otherwise have .1, a very high birth rate is needed to take planets quickly (metas like me are greedy, take all those sectors, ask Feep :-). If going for a low IQ meta then have some (.25) fertility, pods and absorb are a must!!! If playing HAP go for metab of 1.8-2.0, in one game I had 6 planets after only 2 and a bit updates cos I got some res and fuel after the first update! You can afford to be pretty heavy as you will not be using techie ships for a while. (4) What sector preferences should I choose? --------------------------------------------- FEEP Definitely water, desert, land, and mountain. When playing a "Jovian" race, you really can't go wrong since there is a very high percentage of gas giants out there. KJM Always choose the ones which are best for your planet type; those are cheapest. I don't recommend buying more than one other sector compat, if even that, since the *number* of compatibilities you have is a factor in point cost as well. GVB Main preference plus one or two another ( take 100%, because they're cheap after the first 30% or so... ). So, maybe a desert and forest. Or another good choise: desert, land and mountain. NEUE For a Class M planet, take land, water, and ice. These are very common to the other planets too. Forest can also be a good choice. GARF with desert: land/mountain; with forest: land/mountain/water; with earth: land/water/mount (mount is not important but has high resource content). RN Recommendations for these are plated, land, and water. You should have compatibility with these three sectors before you choose others. You don't need 90-100% on every secotr type you do choose. You can select 50% or lower so you can make use of the few odd sectors, or asteroids, forest planets, etc. . . Ice is a good one, since it shows up on iceballs and most classM planets on the poles. GURU Pick as many sector prefs as you can; get them to at least 25%. The best ones in my opinion are home planet sector, desert, mountain, land, forest, water then ice. MUU If you don't have a sector preference in a certain sector type, you effectively can't live on those sector types. So, if you can afford it, buy some compatibility in all, or most of the sectors. They don't have to be bought at 100%. 10%-20% should do for most of them. Be sure to get one or two sector-types at a high compatibility, such as 90%-100%. If you live on a Class M, I would suggest land, water, forest, and a little desert. Again, if you can, get at least a little in all the sector types. FNEB I mentioned this a little bit before. Land and forest have the highest fertility (I'm not mentioning gas since, if you take a Jovian race, gas is your only viable option), hence can support more population. This is good for races with collective iq. Mountain and desert have high resource content but low fertility, so they're good for races with high metab. Ice is useful since it is found on almost all the planets in at least some small amounts, and water is a good choice for a race starting on a class M, though it is generally poor in resource content. Select an unusual mix and you'll find working with allies much easier. MICR Similarly it's not a good idea to be compatible with every kind of sector. MANY alliances are based on sector incompatibilities. TRIB See comment to question 3. NB Land, forest, and water are my favorites. PW 100% for your "home" sector type (i.e. water for water worlds etc.), and at least 50% on a couple of others. "Land" and "Mountain" are pretty good choices, since they are quite common. Again, this depends on your play style. You can either invest a lot in sec. preferences and be able to utilize pretty much anything right at once, or you can invest in tech and build Terraformers as soon as possible (with Terraformers you can change sector types into your own preferred sector type. FGS Try to include either land or mountain because many of the asteroid/ iceball type planetary bodies will have one of these two sectors on them. GRIF Totally dependent on your home planet. The more the better but you will find that some sector preferences cost too much due to you being on a planet that does not have the sector much. You will get the idea if you try having a desert home and water compatibility. Water tends to be one of the most common (generally supports high pop but low res production). Forest is the same as water but supports a higher pop and is very rare (throughout the universe, that is). Land, is incredibly common with average pop and res production. Ice is common, supports little population but high than average res. Gas is only good if you are a Jovian race: low pop/sector and low res. Mountain his high res and low pop. Desert same as mountain but generally more res. PILL Depending on what race gen is being employed will depend on you avenues of decision. These mainly being that you will require 100% of the main sector(s) of what ever planet type you have chosen. Ie class M land(*) or mountain (^) on the GB enroll system. Variances have and will occur in the 2 main race gens available.. (GB's { code, and Clay's port driven system). TAO I've had quite a good start with starting on earth and being able to use water, desert and land. Deserts could be changed to mount, maybe. That way you can land on most planets, get resourceful sectors (desert) and still can spread well on your home planet (water). EMPI As many as possible so you have wider basement when you start to colonize colonizeother planets..... Mountain is resource-rich and quite a non- rare sector type, but it costs points. If you take gas, you don't need to take any other sector types.. :) LB Water is pretty abundant in the universe. Forest is rare. Choose water, and then land or mountains. Stay away from rare sector types. CLAW Besides your planet type sector, definitely choose mountain. There are mountains on every planet, and asteroid. ZURG The primary sector type must be 100% i.e. on Water planets have water 100%, forest 100% on Forest planets etc. On Desert planets you can usually have desert, mountain or ice as 100%. For metas it is good to have some compat with forest as your population grows fast because of the high fertility. Always go for some on land ! If playing HAP have some mountain as there is lots around. ******** PART 2 - THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME ******** (1) What should I do before the first update? ---------------------------------------------- FEEP Beg for an update. It doesn't make much of a difference to unload people from the government center. KJM Unload a few people from your government center to join in the first reproductive pass. Be sure to leave at least one in so you'll get APs! Spend the APs you have moving a few people around diagonally from your starting sector, to encourage widespread colonization. Decide if you want a tax rate (lowers efficiency I believe) or mobilization (eventu- ally produces destructive capacity at the expense of resources). Chat some with other players. GVB Unload @, spread the ppl to next-to-@-sectors. Because you NEED as much ppl as possible and they do _not_ reproduce without you spreading them. Even if you have high adventurism this is recommended. NEUE Get your MIN-SEXES to as many sectors as you can. You will be limited by both AP's and total population. I tend to unload 4-6 people from my @ before the 1st update. Load them back in after the update though. GARF Unload your @ (load #number c -10). Depending on your number of sexes, that number of people to the highest fertility sectors so you have a lot of people after the 1st update. RN Move your people around. It's important to get your planet covered as much as possible. Move them around in small groups so you use fewer action points. Soon, your people will start making resources and fuel. HINT: Use the 'analysis' command to determine which sectors are your most resource rich. It's probably not a good idea to unload people from the government center. You need people there to maintain efficiency, which is a very important aspect of secotr stats. The more efficient you are, the faster you pump out res. And the more effecient your goverment, well. . . think about it. GURU On the first update, take enough people out of your @ and move them 1 space away from your @. This will help you spread out faster, but you will not get as many ap's as fast. After the first update, load the @ to full again. MUU The most enjoyable thing to do, and sometimes really useful, is to meet all the people. Potential allies and enemies always pop up. You should also look at your position and determine possible routes to nearby stars. That's about all I usually do before the update, except for unloading the @. On the very first update, I usually unload five(5) crew from the government center. I then spread them around to five nearby sectors. After the first update, one should always reload the center with crew, as an insufficiently manned center does not produce Action Points(AP's), which, as you will find out, limits the number of actions you can do. AP's are vital in the beginning of the game. FNEB Nothing, unless you want to try unloading your government center Raising tax rates and mobilizing should come after about the 6th or 7th updates, IMHO. If you will be on at the update so that you can reload your center after the first update, go ahead and do it. Unloading your center at the beginning, taking 4 crew out, is nice because it gives you a head start on your expansion at the cost of only a couple of AP's (this is not entirely clear to me due to conflicting information, but I'm told that centers probably _don't_ produce fewer AP's with less crew inside...still, you might as well keep it fully loaded after the first update). MICR If you are playing in a game where you start out with 1200 people, You probabally want to colonize the four sectors on a diagonal from your start sector. (I assume here that all races have six sexes or less) If your race has one sex move one person into each sector, otherwise move six. This will use your APs most efficiently. If you are playing in a game where you start with one person, you might want to unload the government center, but never unload more than 5 and reload it immediately after the first turn. TRIB Drop the # of civ's in capitol by half. Use extra population on the planet. Rember to load up the cap again later. Also, spread people over sectors, just put your # of sexes in each sector that you have ap for. ample. I have 1 sex, thus I move 1 pop into all but one of the surrounding sectors, I then move all but one in orig sector into the one empty sector, then I repeat the process again until planet is covered. If you have over 40 pop in a sector though, move only half. If costs too much ap to move more than 20 pop. NB Not much! Try out commands, read the help extensively, and try to communicate via broadcasting with other players. I've never tried to unload my @! Hey, maybe I'm not all that far from a newbie myself. PW Unload the crew of the government center (@), and move people to nearby sectors that look promising (high resources and compatible sector type). Chat with the other players. Try not to think of the million other things you should be doing instead of playing this (altogether too addictive) game.... FGS Spread your people out. I usually unload my @. For a morph, dump off about 3 or 4. You only have 5 AP's to start out with, and it costs one to move one guy, so dropping off more really doesn't help. GRIF Unload your @ and spread the pop out, but don't forget to load the @ back up after the update PILL First, unload 5 crew from your capitol (ship number of your capitol will be equal to your race number)...eg, "load @ c -5" or "load #shipnum c -5". Once you have done this, you spread out the 5 pop (one at a time as you have only 5 AP's before the first update. Make sure you don't move the pop onto imcompatible sectors. This is, of course only if you are a one sex race; you would have to modify the numbers for how many sexes you have. As long as you move a whole "breeding group" you are okay. The good point of this: It helps get your pop increasing faster; fert and eff on those sectors will already start to increase. Bad: You will get half the AP's that update, so I suggest after the first update you load your gov center back up. Remember that a capitol or gov center will only produce ap in relation to its current level of crew (ie. 100% crew gives you 100% ap, etc.). The next thing you should do is have a look at the number and distribution of the planets in your home system. Next, go to the global scope and have a look at where you are in