Conventional - Quick Tec Catch-up starts (how many research labs?)

[wobbly (OP)]

So I'm looking to play a conventional start with increased no.  of research labs where I can hit the standard starting tech level quicker without out-pacing it to much on the other-side.  I'm wondering if someone has tried & has a good recommendation for no.  of starting research labs? How quickly do people normally build research labs? How much slower in a conventional start where you have to build other basic buildings first?

[Jorgen_CAB]

This obviously depend allot on the population you intend to start with. But if you start with 500 million and player race for government then you get five labs and that is sort of challenging in the beginning. In this case adding up to perhaps 10-15 labs would make life for you much easier.

If you start with a higher population base the easier everything will become for you. I find that at 2000 million population you will be able to build up pretty fast, both economically and research, you also will have allot of resources on Earth to mine and colonization will not be a number one priority from the start.

[Whitecold]

Most of the other buildings can be converted from Conventional Industry, which is much cheaper and quicker than building from scratch, so with enough population and therefore enough industry, you will be much stronger economically when you reach the same tech level.

[Brian Neumann]

One thing that makes a big difference in how fast you get techs researched is if you have scientists with the right bonus.  Having a scientist with a 25% bonus work in his field literally doubles all the research done.  In general the fields of research that make the most difference in a conventional game are:  1.  Construction and Production, 2.  Logistics, 3. Power & Propulsion.  There are a few things from the sensor field that help, notably the geological sensors, but the rest of the sensor field can wait until you have gotten your home system up and running.  You will be pretty much helpless if a npr comes visiting, but realistically that is true anyway.

Brian

[wobbly (OP)]

Thanks for the replys. I've started larger population conventional starts before & found that either your spending a very long time converting 2000 or so conventional industries (which can be a little dull) or running below optimal if you don't convert them all, which is why I prefer modified conventional starts(conventional+extra labs or conventional+commercial shipyard+geoscanners, etc.). I like a slower start then TN with-out it being as slow as a standard conventional start.

[alex_brunius]

Thanks for the replys. I've started larger population conventional starts before & found that either your spending a very long time converting 2000 or so conventional industries (which can be a little dull)

Uhm... With 2000 CI instead of 500 CI you get 4 times higher initial production too, so you will convert 4 times faster and should finish the conversion around the same time regardless of amount, right?

If anything you should finish conversion of more starting CI quicker due to suffering less from rounding, unless I'm mistaken.

[wobbly (OP)]

Uhm... With 2000 CI instead of 500 CI you get 4 times higher initial production too, so you will convert 4 times faster and should finish the conversion around the same time regardless of amount, right?

If anything you should finish conversion of more starting CI quicker due to suffering less from rounding, unless I'm mistaken.

While this make sense I'm not sure whether it's actually true in practice. It's particularly not the case if you don't up earths minerals & happen not to have the duranium to convert 2000 CIs without some mines off Earth. I'm not sure it's exactly a straight linear calculation in the first place. Your mining at conventional rates for the first few years. Then your using up those minerals at an increasing rate as you convert to construction. To me it certainly felt like it was taking longer, but I'd have to play around to double check. Possibly I was just mistaken.

[Hawkeye]

The trick is, to concentrat on conversion to construction factories first (as much as the mineral situation allows) as this will up your construction capacity considerable. Only then, you start to convert to mines, fuel refineries, ord factories and so on.

Re. upping earth minerals. Personally, I up earth´s starting minerals x3 to x5 (depending on the size of the starting population) to take all the construction into account that will be needed before you can really start going

[joeclark77]

One of the issues with conventional starts is that you will have shortages of Mercassium from building research labs, and Neutronium from building shipyards.  Earth can very easily be depleted of these minerals before you catch up to what other players get "free" with TN starts.  So this is a factor that justifies giving yourself some free starting labs and/or free minerals.

Personally, starting with any fewer than 20 labs would drive me out of my brain, so that'd be my recommendation for a conventional start.  YMMV.