falcon57

Join Date 01/2007

Research?

Why am i trailing behind the AI?

Hello,
As a relativly new player I read this forum and picked up lots of good advice and most of it works well but I'm still stuck at some point playing DL 1.4.
I chose everything to be abundant and the size gigantic and the setting tough with nine opponents. My race has the maximum in population growth and the rest went in economy and my party are the technos. I startet the game colonizing as fast as I could, neglecting research favouring military and social spending building only colony ships (My own design: faster than the standard ship). When I was about to meet the first AI race I started reserching trade so that I could set up some trade routes. Then I bought industrial and economic and research know how from the AI while my reserch went into weaponry. As soon as I had Laser V I started to build tiny ships with four beams and built a military base to enhance the ships firing power. When relations with a AI-race gets cool and it is close to me I make little gifts to avoid war.

It would be my intention to do more research and build better ships to wipe the weakest AI nearby, but the AI races do research better than me.

I do have about the same amount of planets as the AI races. Must I work on the colonization speed to be bigger than them? If I do that then the planets have no good buildings on them because too much goes into military spending.

Am I just to impatient and there is always a phase where you are trailing? If so how can you catch up eventually? I suppose the AI will pick fights among themselves and the victor will by twice as bad if the catching up takes too long.

What alternatives do I have to turn the game to my favour or am I condemed to ally with most of them so the AI does the dirty work for me?

Advice will be appreciated. Falcon57

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Have you researched the Research branch of the tech tree?

Better research facilities means faster all around research.
So if it takes 20 turns to research a particular tech with a lab, that figure can be cut to a fraction of that by the right research facilities behind it (like Discovery Spheres).

Sometimes it is better to get the means, before you go for the effect.

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Hi!

I do have about the same amount of planets as the AI races...
What alternatives do I have to turn the game to my favour...?

War with weapons they don't have proper defenses for, and with defenses that match their weapons. Using that combo I usually manage to get the first AI wiped out losing maybe one medium ship of ~10 produced. The rest of the game is then just a mater of execution

.

BR, Iztok

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and don't forget to focus your planets, when you are done with all your improvements, if your not at war, focus the ones you can on research, this will give you a temporary boost to help you research the tech branch of the tech tree

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Am I just to impatient and there is always a phase where you are trailing?

It usually feels that way, yes. Especially in masochistic and higher levels.

If so how can you catch up eventually?

With your high pop growth and econ, you could eventually buy your way to the top. Otherwise, pick out a nearby race and start taking his planets. Send fast ships and fleets designed to avoid space fleets and attack planet defenders. AI planets are usually defended weakly in the beginning. By taking a stack of planets, you strengthen yourself and weaken him. If you have high diplomacy, you could buy yourself some peace once you spread yourself too thin.

I suppose the AI will pick fights among themselves and the victor will by twice as bad if the catching up takes too long.

Not necessarily. In an obscene level game I played, the Korx and Iconians warred nearly the entire game. Neither ever gained an advantage, and I am not sure if any planets actually changed hands. I worked around them, taking all the other races first. By the time I got to conquering them, all their wars with each other left them weak as kittens.

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Not sure how much it helps, but: more planets = more research. That's how I do it. Rather than turn all my planets into research farms, I spend more effort finding ways to acquire more planets; even if they're lowly class-4's. That's not to say I neglect putting labs on bonus research tiles or developing my tech capital, but beyond that my priority is in acquiring more planets.

Suffice it to say that I've only won a tech victory once.

And that was just to see the cutscene.

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Mistralok1

Join Date 05/2006

+22

Increasing your tech ability can be as simple as building more/better research facilities. Choose a planet to focus on research, and built a 'technological capital'. This will double the rate of research being done on that planet. Build the trade good, 'hyper-computers'. This will increase your overall research by 20%. Build the super project 'omega research center'. This gives an increase of 50%. The last two can only be built by a single civ, so you will have to rush to get them first. (Although hyper-computers can be traded for if you lose the race for them). As drakonfire mentioned, focus all the planets you can on research. And not just the planets; don't forget to use the sliders in your domestic screen to adjust the amount of resources going to research. You can focus 100% towards research if you need to- I will do this occasionally if there is a single, important tech that I am trying to get to, such as Barren World, etc., in order to get to that sweet pq18 before the AI does. [Edit] Just thought that I should mention that 'barren worlds' is in DA, before you go looking for it.

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Don't forget Nano Recorders. That only requires Sensor III.

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There will always be a phase in the game where you will seem behind (especially in tech). Don't worry about it. The best indicator of your progress is your population size. Just stay friendly with all the other races through trade routes and a neutral allignment. As long as you choose who you want to fight and when you will do just fine.

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