just bought the game need tips

[medicvalues]

what the title says also

what do i do with each type of golem from what I've read on the forum there are some i shouldnt put into battle and instead defence but that

 doesnt make since to me since they constantly lose health

[Wanderer]

They can be repaired and it's not expensive if you stay on top of the repairs.  There's a lot about the game to learn.  At first it's a steep curve.  Have you played the tutorial yet?  If not, I definately recommend that.

From there, try a simple AI 5/5 game with Vanilla and Shield Ninny.  That will let you learn the end to end game, at least the basics of it.  From there, advance as needed, turn on nifty things, etc.

[chemical_art]

1. Do tutorial
2. Start a 5/5 game with vanhilla and shield nanny
3. Pick a "simple" map with a ship you like
4. Start game
5. Go to the buttom left hand side of screen, find "CTRL"
6. Check box called "military auto FRD"
7. Find the manufacting buildings (crap, I forgot the name!)
8. Press the button that is like this ----> so that it is a circle
9. Press each of the little ship icons, so that each ship is being made
10. Watch your ships build up and defend
11. Build turrets and forcefields around your base
12. Use scouts to find a world you like (at the start, this will simpy be all the worlds around your starting world
13. Use fleet to take it, blow up the command station after you feel you could defend against all the world units
14. Build command station.
15. Repeat 11 -14, making a priority to not take every world after your 6th world and always prioritize advance research stations


Should get you started

[Martyn van Buren]

Yeah I'd suggest turning off a lot of the options and AI plots when you start, maybe picking one or two.  Would definitely turn on "Show AI types," and probably also "Human resistance fighters," which helps you without any cost.  It doesn't cost anything to turn on golems easy and spirecraft easy, so you can leave them on and experiment with them when you feel like it; if you lose them you're out some resources but otherwise just back to where you'd be if you hadn't turned the options on.

Also strongly suggest looking at the Wiki on gate raiding and whipping boys and either looking through the fora or asking about them; the really experienced players have written tons of excellent stuff about general strategy under topics like that and I find that when you ask them they're pretty much always happy to write more.

But about golem self-damage; it will stop if you power them down (do this by clicking the yellow play/pause button in the lower-left when you have them selected.  They golems won't fight when they're turned off but you can turn them on when you need them.  You pretty much want to put all your golems in low-power mode when they're not fighting (except maybe hive --- it might need to be turned on to build its swarm ships).  This is also true for Neinzul Youngling fleet ships, which also self-damage, although there's been some talk of changing this. 

Any golem can be used in both offense and defense, but many of them aren't meant to slug things out on the front lines.  The armored golem definitely is, but artillery and cursed are meant to snipe from a long way away.  The botnet mops up enemy fleet ships and turns them into "zombie" (uncontrollable allied) player ships, so it's probably easier to use against waves.  Then the regen and hive golems have peculiar abilities that aren't for direct combat but are very useful when you're attacking a world --- if you're going into a really dangerous world you can clear a space for them and then let them hang out away from the fighting while they support your fleet.  I haven't used the Black Widow golem and don't get it, I'm afraid.

[keith.lamothe]

@medicvalues: Welcome to the forums I would give tips, but I think this has been handled. 

@others: Thanks

[TechSY730]

Just for a defensive tip, tractor beam turrets are EXTREMELY useful on defense. They are magnificent at keeping enemy ships in the range of your turrets.
Gravity turrets may also be a good idea, as they will slow down the stuff that is immune to tractors, and will serve as a "backup" if some of the tractor beam turrets fall.

What version are you using? Because I know of a few tips that will work in the latest versions, but won't work so well in the latest stable release of 5.000.

[zoutzakje]

welcome to the forums, medicvalues =)
You will notice that this game is huge and complicated to understand. My advice to you is as follows:
Just mess around. That's all you can do at first really. Back when I first started I could have people explain things to me a 100 times and I still wouldn't get it. Best way to learn this game is to try things out, make mistakes and learn from them. You will most likely lose some (maybe even a lot) of games before you get your first win. That doesn't matter, as long as you won't make the same mistakes again.
So read around forums a bit, maybe search the wiki if you want to look something up, and mainly just mess around and see what this game is all about. you'll get the hang of it in no time.
As for the golems... when you have selected a golem you can click on the pause icon in the lower left corner of your screen. this will put the golem (or any other ship you have currently selected) in low power mode. This means that the golem will no longer lose health over time until you "unpause" it. Unfortunately, ships can't attack in low power mode. you'll have to turn them back on whenever you want them to fight.
As for the different types of golems... it's probably best to find out yourself and see what they can do. everybody on this forum has it's own playstyle and strategies. what works for some of us, might not work for you. Each golem has it's own unique abilities and discovering a good use for them is part of what makes this game fun.
My personal favorite is the Botnet golem. It can turn enemy ships into zombies who will fight (mainly defend actually) for you.


You also might wanna try the tutorial if you haven't done so already. Good luck =)

[Hearteater]

I've always found it odd that the Vanilla AI is only available with the LotS expansion enabled.

[zoutzakje]

I believe Vanilla was one of the AI types added in the LotS expansion, but I'm not sure. It's a pretty new-ish AI type though, that's for sure.

[TechSY730]

I've always found it odd that the Vanilla AI is only available with the LotS expansion enabled.

It's due to their policy of new AI types only in a new expansion.
Still vanilla seems, well, vanilla enough that it should of been included in the original game in the first place, and should be "backported" to the main game.
It's only one AI type, and the LotS adds many new fun AI types on top of that.

A similar argument could be made for the everything AI type.

[Hearteater]

The only reason to move Vanilla to the base game is for new players.  I recall wanting to play with a "simple" AI type my first game, but all the AI Types, even on Easy, seemed so intimidating or complex.

[Diazo]

Posting to flag this thread to add at a future date to the wiki in the getting started section.

D.

[TechSY730]

The only reason to move Vanilla to the base game is for new players.  I recall wanting to play with a "simple" AI type my first game, but all the AI Types, even on Easy, seemed so intimidating or complex.

Which actually is a pretty good darn reason to move it. I wanted the same thing when I first got the game.

If you turn off the expansions in the lobby (NOT the global settings, but in the lobby), can you still chose the AI types that expansion gives? (of course, they won't get any ships from disabled expansions, but sometimes you want their behavior that is not expansion specific)

[Hearteater]

No, I'm pretty sure if you turn off the expansions in the lobby you cannot get the AI types from that expansion.  How would Zenith Descendant work with the Zenith expansion turned off?