Some advice..

don't mix research, production, economy on planets. perhaps just one factory for econ and science planets to help with upgrades, no starbase needed.

you don't need high population on research and production planets, so no need to waste space on farms and morale.

Econ planets benefit from high population, not sure about influence? I normally don't concearn myself with influence on planets except for fending off AI influence.

Usually i will have more economy planets than anything else. just two or 3 manufacturing planets is usually all an economy can support depending on how many planets overall you have. along with 3 or 4 science planets

You're talking about the start game, so I think it's too early to start thinking of specializing planets. My early game, I'm thinking two things: colony rush, and which planets do I want to build first. I don't have the money to build them all, so my class-5's often will sit there producing nothing for awhile. Planets with manufacturing tiles are getting Starports and putting out constructors, colony ships, and Diplomatic Translators. Research tiles are getting Xeno Labs, period. At opportune points I research Planetary Improvements, Ion and Impulse. And then I may be eyeballing rushing my nearest neighbor w/ Planetary Invasion or Spore, depending on my race & strategy.

Later on I start giving thought to where I put my capitals (my Econ and Political Capital tend to go on my home planet), but that's usually after the colony rush is well underway, if not over. I don't consider that game start. If you're doing fast tech setting or playing Gigantic/abundant/abundant it'll be different, though.

Interesting strategy Mystik, is that for DA or for DL? Back in DA I rushed the engine tree, but now I am in the process if rethinking my opening game.

My own strategy (which is always being revised, heh)

1. Tech tree
Xeno Research -> Stellar Cartography ->Sensors

After that its (lately) the two military production techs (for shipbuilding),
then a mix of diplo tech (including the Translator), economy, and engine techs.
As soon as I get new propulsion techs I'll upgrade every ship I can, especially colonizers and constructors.

2. Surveyors
I use the Abundant setting for anomalies, and they fund my initial "deficit spending" mode until I get my economy up to speed and establish trade routes.
I have a "Discovery Prototype" ship, cargo hull, engines, life support, basic sensor. Then I have a "Discovery MK 1" that's the same model with a Survey sensor.

I build these alongside Colony ships and Constructors (to grab galactic resources quickly). The Prototypes get upgraded as soon as I get Sensor I. Great thing about these ships, if you find a super plum planet, or Econ galactic resource, you can upgrade them to either a Colonizer or Constructor right there & grab it quickly if need be.

Naturally, use Auto Survey.

3. World Development
I always mix up improvements in the beginning. The only time I specialize, early, is when I come across Class 12+ worlds and have a Captial improvement in the wings. Otherwise, its always a mix of factories, starport, trade (2 minimum), one farm, entertainment, and lab. I like each world to have an Embassy if there's room, influence pulls in those tourist credits.

The only constant "rush buys" I make is the first factory for each world, to grease their production. I do this until I run out of money.

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I can't empathize enough how important galactic resources are, especially the greenies. Anymore when I spot those I rush out a Constructor or even sacrifice that surveyor and claim it.

Is spending tons of money to extend your colony rush as long and far as posible the only way to win on higher difficulty levels? There seem to be plenty of different play styles, but to extend your self dry and then make up for it in trade seems to be the strongest start overall.

How much does asteroids and different environments change the first phase of the game?

I Am almost always using the 70% Growth bonus (I think it is the best:)) and moral(sp) bonus. First I lower taxes until I have 100% on the worlds I want to grow. (My homeworld + any gems I find) I buy a factory on my new worlds but thats it.
I build moral buildings so I can raise taxes and keep growing.
I turn my low class planets into research.
Med into production.
High into Prod Cap, Econ Cap and Tech Cap and Econ/trade planets.
I use the money in the treasury and in Anomalys to pay for running low taxes. Once I have my Econ planets at max pop I raise taxes untill 75% moral on the planets that can still grow then tax until 45% moral.

I don't quite understant how the pop bonus works in DA or DL. Say you picked the 70% population bonus for an ability and you run your moral at 75%. Does that mean you get 70%(Ability) + 25%(moral bonus growth) = 95%???????

Please help me understand

For DL, absolutely not true. I suspect most do run the colony rush as far as possible, but I end my colony rush while there are still planets that I am sure I can claim. I instead switch my focus to galactic resources and internal development so I can get out the military chute before at least one of my neighbors. Basically, I switch from rushing colony ships to rushing transports. Transports net me planets that already have some improvements VS a freshly colonized planet.

Not always. I don't like every world to have either, but sometimes the embassy pulls in more on the bonus squares. And you've got the flipping, which is far more valuable in DA.




Without getting too long-winded, you're probably building lots of speed-2 colony ships. Impulse 1 turns those into speed-3 ships. That's a 50% speed increase. And it means 33% more anomalies for your survey ships.

I do agree, though, I usually don't research Impulse 1 till the colony rush is ALMOST over. If you have enough planets, you can usually take 2-3 turns and research it (when your colony ships are probably in transit anyway), as opposed to early on when it'll take closer to 8 turns.

I always rush throught the engine tree to Impulse III before the end of the colony rush. Though I usually don't finish impulse III until the colony rush is almost done survey ships can then take advantage of the speed (survey ships with speed between 12 and 16). I usually get about 1/2 of the anomalies on a common anomaly setting with 5 opponents. I think its a huge advantage (especially if you have the creative pick and hit a lot of the civilization graveyards), plus if you tech trade you can usually trade the impulse techs away by the time the colony rush is over so the AI really can't take advantage of it.

So my tech tree goes:
Xeno labs--->(assuming you ion already)Impulse I----->Impulse II------->Impulse III----->Sensors I-----universal translator----->Trade,ethical alignment

Be warned, if someone declares war on you before the trade and ethical alignment you are boned.

I take it this is DL? I have to have Hyperwarp before I'm able to achieve speed 12 in DA. I haven't found much benefit to researching past Impulse I in the colony rush in DA, but I'm open to ideas. But yeah, you can trade Impulse II and III to the AI's and they won't get the +1 Speed bonus. It's sweet. And you can trade Impulse I to minors, 'cause who cares--they're not going anywhere.