How the **** do yu keep up in tech

[Wardad]

I find the base spaceyard trick can be difficult to pull off.
They cost maintenace, and build slowly.
So, if your empire has very low maintenace costs and boosted construction rates it should help.

By the second year of your expansion you could be starving for minerals, or organics, or rads. That is when the base spaceyard maintenance really bites. Unless your lucky enough to find rich planets in system.
New Facilities builds consume a lot of minerals.
New colonizers consume a lot of organics and rads.

I usually do not do the base space yard thing. I like to have a second spaceyard on a nearby moon or tiny planet within 0.7 years of the first colonizer. When handed lemons, make lemonaid.
When handed large juicy planets then build facilities first. If they are all juicy then build base spaceyards at the homeworld.

Try to tweek your racial construction rate so that you can at least do this:
HOMEWORLD: full population, emergency build, colonizer with no engines (3650 minerals), in 1 turn.
COLONY WORLD: colonizer with 4 to 5 engines, 2 turns.

Then retrofit engines onto the colonizer while you pump out more. I find it easier to manage if I can build with 3 engines. The standard spaceyard repair/retrofit rate is 5 componants a turn, but could be reduced by the racial setup.

BEWARE: Repair/retrofit does not fill the new engines with supplies. The planet needs a resupply facility for that.

BEWARE:Homeworlds get population bonuses for construction. Will your game homeworld be 2000M or 4000M?
You can lose a pop bonus by causing the pop to drop. 4M is replaced by growth, but 20M may not be.
Consider taking Advanced Storage Techniques. It increases your pop by 20%, and facilities space by 20%.

[ March 31, 2004, 13:42: Message edited by: Wardad ]

[Wardad]

wha hoo

I got in the Last word...