Let's play on Youtube

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

26 episodes now uploaded, two more coming tommorow!

I will not post all of them anymore. You can find the playlist here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpVUxdiS7yw8r36noD0kxn6n_iIuGHNt7

I am still looking for tips and help!

[Jorgen_CAB]

You seem to do very well...

One thing that you might start to think seriously about is to build a small military ship or PDC. Once Luna hits 10m population it will start to demand protection. Earth don't do this because it is the capital.

You will either need troops to suppress their protesting or ships to please them. You only need a single ship to start with.

I'm going to watch your EU-IV videos as well... this new iteration of the series seem to be quite solid.

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

Thanks man and sorry, I missed you message.

Yes, I am thinking about a small patrol vessel that would scout the solar system. I was waiting for the overall notion of what the players will demand of me and your message made an impact. So a smaller “gunboat” type ship will be it.
I will though make it around 2000 tons – several beam weapons, large sensor arrays so that we know what’s cooking and at least 12 months deployment time. It will have new, faster engines too that will take it from Earth to Mars, around the belt and to Jupiter and back in the period of its patrol.

BTW – you were watching the LP. What would you do next? We both agree on many things but you are more experienced than I am. So my future strategy revolves around this:
a) Increase the size of Mars colony and make it mine more basic minerals. I need a stable influx of Duranium that I can count on. While this goes on I would like to get couple of factories there so that it can produce its own infrastructure from the local mineral deposit. Good idea?

b) I want to colonize Luna, get some Neutronium mines there and have a better basic network to start the trade business rockin’. Also due to it’s proximity I might start to use it as a place for the deep space tracking station (might be roleplay worth to transport those there and make it our main radar base for Sol). Good idea?

c) I want to start an automated mine colony on Mercury – that place has some nice minerals. But it will be a secondary project to getting some more comets mined as those have better accessibility -> faster stockpile generation. Good idea?

d) I was fantasizing about making a colony at either Jupiter or Saturn (the moons of course) but Jupiter (much richer) seems like a better idea. The manned colony could be a local outpost with a small shipyard and defense and it could be a local storage for the minerals mined by automated installations here. Maybe even a small production base could be established so I don’t have to haul the goddamn infrastructure all the time. This will be heavy on resources but I think it could be worth it. Good idea?

e) Earth will be the only big manufacturing and research center we will have for Sol with small infrastructure building centers around the place where Duranium is plentiful. That means more fuel, research and manufacturing + another level or two in starbase and academy. After that is finished we should be ok for at least 40 years regarding logistics and personal. Good idea?

f) Finish the Lilian II design (a combined geo/grav survey ship with sensor arrays and better engines that will mean we eventually retire the old Lilian A1 refit ships) and a Snake class patrol gunboat. Good idea?

PS: the troop transports are still on schedule, don’t worry

[Jorgen_CAB]

Well here are some of my ideas which are not all based on pure efficiency but also fun...

One thing that I usually deem of outermost importance in the early game is to get a good mining of Duranium and Corundium going so I can have a continuous expansion of the industry and mining production. Without those two minerals there are no more mines and that means no more other minerals. So this should be your early engine for expanding your Earth empire. I will admit that I don't remember where you had nice quantities for these minerals. In my own current campaign I hade huge deposits of just these two minerals at very good rates on Luna but I don't think you were as lucky as me.

For role-playing purposes I see no reason not to colonize more places in Sol, most places are relatively easy to terraform to decent levels as well. Colonies on Mars and Luna should obviously be a priority for trade income purposes, this income will actually grow to become very significant in the future.

For any colony which I intend to become more or less self sufficient I send about 50-100 factories from Earth, that way they can start producing stuff on their own and relieve my fleets to haul stuff elsewhere (it is also the only way you can build space-ports on a planet since these can't be moved by ships).
This is mainly a role-play thing I do as in Sol you can rather just do it on earth and ship it instead. But I like to have a local industry since that feels like the right thing to do in a well established colony. As in my Luna colony I have shipped about 100 industry there and they are now 50% on building new industry and 50% building mines/auto-mines.

As for survey ships I tend to go with multi-functional ships I call science vessels. This ship would have both grav and geo survey sensors. Although most people would say that it is a waste of resources since the ship can only do one thing at a time and the sensor is actually expensive, which is not completely untrue, except that you only require one class and one yard can build several of them without any retooling wich is both time and resource consuming in and of itself.
Eventually I build large cruiser type ships with hangars and build small 500t shuttles each with either a grav or geo sensor. This ship can usually take about 4-8 of these and have lots of sensors and weapons to defend itself with. One such ship could usually perform both a geo and grav survey on its own in a system as well as scouting them for enemy forces. But this would be at a much later stage.

All in all I think you have it planned out pretty well.

[Jorgen_CAB]

If you like you could give me my character I introduced in your channel "Morgan Thane"

He should be a high ranking officer with a high survey bonus. Create a new Task-force and put him as head of it and call it Science and Exploration Directorate (SED). Then all resources for exploration (military or civilian go there) could be an interesting plot between the military and the more civilian oriented part of the government. If you feel it suits your role-play style. 

Personally I usually group my initial forces into three different task-forces, Federal Fleet Headquarters (FHQ), Science & Exploration (SED) and Logistics Department (LOD). You might probably have some more innovative names to call it though. 

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

If you like you could give me my character I introduced in your channel "Morgan Thane"

He should be a high ranking officer with a high survey bonus. Create a new Task-force and put him as head of it and call it Science and Exploration Directorate (SED). Then all resources for exploration (military or civilian go there) could be an interesting plot between the military and the more civilian oriented part of the government. If you feel it suits your role-play style. 

Personally I usually group my initial forces into three different task-forces, Federal Fleet Headquarters (FHQ), Science & Exploration (SED) and Logistics Department (LOD). You might probably have some more innovative names to call it though. 

Played a bit today in the morning (4 episodes, about 66 minutes of recording) and new be good! We colonized Luna (it has about 300 thousand people now) and made Mars self-sufficient (about 30 mines and 8 factories – should be XXX and 10 in the end, that way we can keep producing enough infrastructure on it for its own needs). The civilians also found a new civilian mining colony so we are a bit more settled and safe regarding the mining capacity.

I am having serious trouble though in the technology sector. I finished two more techs but I am indecisive which way to go as we have so many technologies we need. I finished the fuel production 28k, improved duranium armor and started researching the battalion transport and got back to the jump point theory. But I still have no one capable of the engines research which is slowing me down greatly. My original plan was to get the jump point theory, then get the jump engines and ion engines and remain at that level for some time while starting to work on the gunboats, PDC’s, Lillian II class type survey ships and so on. However at this point I am just stuck.

On the upside though I am surprised by the capability of the civilians. They have so many ships now. My transport fleet is just docked without anything to do. Which is good – it allows me to save fuel for later when I need it (now to 17 million liters in reserve with 1,7 million every year added). 

I will grant your request but not now. You will be our first sector commander

[Erik L]

I am having serious trouble though in the technology sector. I finished two more techs but I am indecisive which way to go as we have so many technologies we need. I finished the fuel production 28k, improved duranium armor and started researching the battalion transport and got back to the jump point theory. But I still have no one capable of the engines research which is slowing me down greatly. My original plan was to get the jump point theory, then get the jump engines and ion engines and remain at that level for some time while starting to work on the gunboats, PDC’s, Lillian II class type survey ships and so on. However at this point I am just stuck.

Going to reference the bolded part there.

Any scientist is capable of researching in any field. If I recall correctly, they get their bonus to all research. In their speciality however, they get 4x their bonus.

So a scientist with a 20% Logistics bonus gets 20% extra RP on everything except Logistics, where he gets 80%.

[kks]

And that also means that Emma Ferguson is better than an expert in PP with a 15% bonus. And your DS specialist Christopher Lynch is still better than a PP scientist with a 10% bonus. I hope they both are still living. On the other hand you might want to give any PP scientist an research project, no matter how good he is, because it will help him training his skills. Reaching Ion engines will take a few years nevertheless. Have you thought about using Emma Ferguson for better improvements in your research techniques?

I'm already looking forward to the next episodes. 

[Erik L]

What kks says is true. Even if they don't research in their area, they have better chances of getting skill ups if they are working.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Later on when I have lots of labs I also usually give one lab to each second in command scientist to skill them up so I can replace them when the old one retires (dies).

Even later when you have hundreds of labs you will give scientist more labs than they can use, but that is far far in the future. 

[Jorgen_CAB]

On the upside though I am surprised by the capability of the civilians. They have so many ships now. My transport fleet is just docked without anything to do. Which is good – it allows me to save fuel for later when I need it (now to 17 million liters in reserve with 1,7 million every year added). 

In the early game in Sol I rarely build anything but one or two transport ships that each has one 5000t cargo hold. Civilians will grow very fast and will be able to take care of everything for you. Later on you will want your own ships to perhaps go through jump points with no gates or places that are more than four jump points away. Civilian ships will only go to places that are a maximum of four jump-point away. I think this goes for contracts as well, but I'm not sure.

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

Going to reference the bolded part there.

Any scientist is capable of researching in any field. If I recall correctly, they get their bonus to all research. In their speciality however, they get 4x their bonus.

So a scientist with a 20% Logistics bonus gets 20% extra RP on everything except Logistics, where he gets 80%.

Yes, you are right. Bad wording on my part, I meant that I have no expert in the respective field. I am aware that anyone can do it but a research rate of 165% (Emma Ferguson) and a guy before (100% + 4x 35%) is massive.

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

And that also means that Emma Ferguson is better than an expert in PP with a 15% bonus. And your DS specialist Christopher Lynch is still better than a PP scientist with a 10% bonus. I hope they both are still living. On the other hand you might want to give any PP scientist an research project, no matter how good he is, because it will help him training his skills. Reaching Ion engines will take a few years nevertheless. Have you thought about using Emma Ferguson for better improvements in your research techniques?

I'm already looking forward to the next episodes. 

I'll start from the end - thanks I will publish them sometimes later this week. There is definitely more to come, no worries

Regarding the scientists I though that the bonus was 5x when it was their field and once if it wasn't but it's 4x/1x. Then yes, Emma - who is assigned to Jump Point theory btw - so she is still alive - is the best choice. But a propulsion expert would free her for better projects. However her condition worsened to serious medical condition so I don't count with her at all now, just trying to squeeze most of her hoping she will die with the blueprints in her hand.

I thought about the upgrade however it's worthless now imo. I have 10 labs = 2000 research points. The research would give me only 400 bonus now which is only 2/25 of the outcome. And it would take 2 and a half years if I gave all the labs to one person. I know Emma would speed it up quite a lot (360% research rate overall) but she is not going to make it, nor am I willing to give her all labs when she's going to kick the bucket. Mineral production, exploration and growth is more important now. I plan to get at least 6 more labs at which point I will go for the upgrade but now it seems like a waste compared to other projects at hand.

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

What kks says is true. Even if they don't research in their area, they have better chances of getting skill ups if they are working.

Yup, I am aware of that. Which is why I have four or five projects running most of the time. But no propulsion expert anywhere nearby -.- Only five defence system experts >:@

Ad Jorgen - I am aware of that possibility which is why I exploit it so much now (and hah, I have a 1x colony ship and 2x cargo ships). In my previous games I did something wrong and the shipping lines did not form or when they formed they did nothing (no ships, no capability to carry anything). However I wasn't as experienced as I am now due to all the advice I get so it was maybe my mistake

[Alfapiomega (OP)]

Also, about the engine technology, I have been pondering about this for a while whilst I was reading the wonderful Northern Coalition AAR.

What is the good starting engine to stick with? I mean the cost increases but at some point there has to be one that you stick with for some time, right? My point is - I have nuclear engine now and I will go to nuclear pulse. But once there I might design my whole fleet with them, go adventuring, mass producing ships and in the meantime researching another engine, getting it and then refitting everything. Which locks me in an endless cycle of upgrades and is just stupid.

Instead it would be better a better idea to get one, then stick with it for couple of decades, fully utilize it, then do i.e. two more jumps and do a whole fleet upgrade and sticking with that one. Later on it’s not such a huge problem but in the beginning the research can go quite fast imo.

So how do you do it? So far I decided to go all the way to Ion and stick with it, then to internal confinement fusion and we’ll see then.