So you have your bases in the wrong places, huh ? No problem ! We'll have you sorted soon. First thing you need to do is SCOUT. Finding good places to colonize is the most important thing you can do for your empire. Your bases are the foundation of your empire. I cannot overemphasize the need for THREE METALS !!! Get three metals on every base. The only exception is Crystalline, and some say not to even take those. The reason is the production you get. I know, you think you want money. This is wrong. All the Credits in the Epsilon Galaxy will not defend your base. You need to be able to turn that cash into STUFF !!! You need production and construction, as much as you can get your hands on !
Don't try this for your first colony, you need some economy to cover the expense of building this way. Try this on your home planet, and you will fail.
So, when you've found a great spot, where you know you can grow fast (3 metals), you've launched the outpost ship, picked a name, and founded a base. What now ?
Build 6 metal refineries, then a shipyard, then alternate between Nanite Factories and Metal Refineries until they both cost over 1000 credits. This only seems ridiculous, trust me, it's the best thing ever. Once the shipyard is done, you can make fighters and ship in cruisers (or whatever, this isn't a fleet guide) from somewhere else.
Once your construction is what you want it to be, build FIVE spaceports. Even if you're only trading with yourself, once you get to 60 Econ or so (five days), you'll get 18-20 econ per route ! Your trade routes will make far more money than the Spaceports alone.
After this is done, you can begin to differentiate your bases. You can build Shipyards if you need large ships, you can build research labs... Whatever you need to do. Somewhere in there, make sure you build defenses ! Turrets are your friend ! Especially the ones that hurt people that want your derbz. Ions are OK, everything smaller SUCKS, don't waste your money. I prefer to start turrets with Photons. Then, move to Disruptors. The point of turrets really isn't to make him pay. The most effective turret never fires a shot. You want to look so expensive to attack, that they never bother.
For building shipyards, I can only recommend 5 levels of construction:
(A) 1 shipyard; I put this on my research & econ bases. I lets me exploit the productivity I built there.
(B) 8 Shipyards, this is only for your home planet, so you can make the outpst ships.
(C) 12 Shipyards, you can build everything up to HCs. I recommend NOT using these to build fighters, you can pick those up from other bases nearby.
(D) 16 Shipyards, Battleships, and Fleet Carriers, baby !
(E) 20 shipyards, at least. This is for CAP SHIP production. This base will make your dreads, and titans, once you're ready.
Once you've started building, commit to it. 15 shipyards are useless... You could've built Robotic Factories and gotten the same results. Finish what you start ! The same goes for Spaceports. You have 14 spaceports ? So what, you still only have 3 trade routes.
Speaking of spaceports, once your base is working the way you want, build 15 spaceports. Just shut up and do it, you'll thank me. 4 trade routes can generate 50 income -or more- per hour, per base. This is more, faster, than you can build with Econ centers or crystal mines.
Move your bases ONE AT A TIME !!!! Every time you take a base down, it recycles all the buildings on a base into a credit for founding the next base (50% of the credits that you spent building the buildings on the base you're taking down). In addition, the game reduces the cost of founding the next base by 75%.
E.G.: If you have 8 bases, you spent 6400 to found the base. You built 5k worth of buildings before you found out the neighbors are going to be a pain in the ass, so you take it down... When you go to build the next base, the cost will be 800 credits to found it, minus your 2500 credit from demolition of the last base equals a FREE BASE !!! Plus, more credit left for the next time.
So, you see... When you take a base down, your next one is usually free. After you've founded the base, you can build ALOT of stuff before it starts getting expensive, so you can till the old base under, and grow a new one. The whole process is about 3 days per base, so start now !
Why are you still reading this, I told you to start, moron... Shake a leg !
Subject: How To Relocate Your Empire Without Going Completely Nuts 
Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:57 am
