Your "must-buy" techs

[mindloss]

Knowledge is one thing I think has been done especially well in AI Wars. In every game I play, knowledge is such an effectively limited resource and the benefits so dramatic, that choosing tech paths is a new decision every time. There's no one obvious I-win-button path that you always want to take.

That being said, there are a few technologies that are almost mandatory for standard games. I'm wondering what techs people will pretty much auto-buy by default.

For me, I (virtually) always pick up the warp sensor, and usually most of the other 250-cost stuff. Scout II's for 500 are also automatic almost always. Mk2 of the "big three" ships usually get purchased eventually, but especially bombers, which I think is almost mandatory (although I've experimented with going down the bomber starship route instead). The one other thing I think I never go without is a level or three of FF tech (and with the HFFs, there's potentially over twice as much knowledge suck as before!)

Oh yeah, and grav turrets. Love those puppies.

There's plenty of other stuff I like to pick up when I can, but those are the ones that get bought in 90% of my games.

[Nalgas]

Depends to some degree on whether I'm playing by myself or with my multiplayer group and what the game settings are.

In multiplayer I'm "scout guy", so I always end up with mk3 of those and am in charge of prioritizing our future targets.  I still usually get them in single player, except they'd be a bit silly on something like a 10-planet map.

In single player, the economic command stations are hard to say no to first thing, because the resources are just too helpful, and there's usually somewhere safe-ish to build them.  In our large multiplayer games, a lot of the time we don't end up taking a ton of planets total, and we don't end up with very many each, and they often are somewhere that needs the better protection of a military one, so that's a bit more questionable.

The mk2 ships almost always get unlocked early.  Bombers are mandatory, and so are fighters, depending on your bonus ship.  Force fields happen eventually as needed.  Flagships are pretty common early.  Also a fan of gravity turrets.  mk2 engineers are not uncommon at some point in the game.

I used to always get spider turrets really early in the game, but I kept killing my economy with them, so I've found other ways to deal with things and don't unlock them at all a lot of the time now.  I also used to use tons of Raid Starships back in the day when they were the scourge of the galaxy, but I don't think I've spent much knowledge on them in months at this point.

[Philo]

Almost always my first unlock is mkIII economic stations. And mkII Fighters. The fighters are just so cheap and effective in the early game. That uses all my early game knowledge pretty much. From there on I usually unlock everything differently every game depending on situation. Eventually I'll get spider turrets though when I have too much excess resources.

[keith.lamothe]

Almost always my first unlock is mkIII economic stations.

Me too.  It's probably horribly inefficient for early striking power but there's something compelling about unlocking swimming pools filled with gold coins

[Gudamor]

In any game where I've got high-health, resource-intensive ships like spirecraft, golems, FS ships, or even just a starship-heavy fleet, I find the level 3 engineers to be incredibly useful.

Fifteen teleporting invisible engineers that repair at 3x the rate of the level 1 engies have saved many a deep strike from their doom.

[Ranakastrasz]

I always get raid starship T2 and T3, they are just too useful not to have, in taking out resource distribution nodes when my economy stalls, guard posts (especially in the case of eyes), Warp gates, and even work with my fleet to take out hostiles inside force fields.

[Nalgas]

I always get raid starship T2 and T3, they are just too useful not to have, in taking out resource distribution nodes when my economy stalls, guard posts (especially in the case of eyes), Warp gates, and even work with my fleet to take out hostiles inside force fields.

They are still useful, but I just can't get over the loss of my Invincible Raid Fleet of Doom from the 3.0 days.  I used to be able to take a full cap of all marks of them in a large multiplayer game (so going against stronger defenses than usual) and single-handedly take out every data center in the entire galaxy in a single trip without losing a single ship with proper micro.  There really was no precision strike I could not pull off with them, and maybe a small diversion to create an opening.  They're just too depressing for me to use now, so I let someone else on my team do it instead.  Heh.

[Ranakastrasz]

I always get raid starship T2 and T3, they are just too useful not to have, in taking out resource distribution nodes when my economy stalls, guard posts (especially in the case of eyes), Warp gates, and even work with my fleet to take out hostiles inside force fields.

They are still useful, but I just can't get over the loss of my Invincible Raid Fleet of Doom from the 3.0 days.  I used to be able to take a full cap of all marks of them in a large multiplayer game (so going against stronger defenses than usual) and single-handedly take out every data center in the entire galaxy in a single trip without losing a single ship with proper micro.  There really was no precision strike I could not pull off with them, and maybe a small diversion to create an opening.  They're just too depressing for me to use now, so I let someone else on my team do it instead.  Heh.

I do that in multiplayer, its just that I really want my Ship cap gifting option to be implemented, just because it would allow me to easily control (and rebuild) a raid fleet, without accidently ordering my allies fleet around at some other point in the game, when I only want control of a few units.

[x4000]

Mark III Econ for me, too. I almost never unlock more ffs, I definitely never get the warp sensor. I do tend to frequently be the one to get mark ii/III scouts while the rest of my mp group uses their k for something else. I also don't really use grav turrets; I tend to go for spider turrets instead, and then get mark ii bombers and/or some other fleet ships and turrets. But it really varies.

[eRe4s3r]

Eco MK3 - Tractor MK3 - Flagship - MK2 units - MK3 Units

Only after thats all unlocked i often go for raid starships (they are just incredibly useful ,p) and MK2 turrets of all kinds. Tractor Mk3 can save you from certain doom if place them well and together with a tachyon sensor ;p

[Orelius]

I normally go this route:

Econ Mark III --> Fighter II, Bomber II, Bonus II, Decloakers (if necessary) --> Fortress I, Gravity I, Bomber III, Bonus III, Figher III, Frigate II, Frigate III

I'm now considering adding some hardened forcefields into the mix, as having a new cap of forcefields for just 1000 knowledge is too attractive to pass, especially since I normally just plunk mark I forcefields on command stations and leave them be.  I also normally don't unlock the upgraded scouts until I really really need them, though I'm considering taking the plunge with the new knowledge cost reductions.

[Coppermantis]

I go Flagship>Grav turret>Adv. Warp Sensor>Mk. II Fighter/bomber/frigate/bonus ship*, and then it kinda differs based on AI Type/Difficulty. Sometimes I go for Zenith Starships, or Mk. II Economic stations, or sometimes go to Mk. III of whatever ship I upgraded to Mk. II. Sometimes I get fortresses or Hardened FFs.


*Only one or two of these

[zoutzakje]

wow, lot of people using eco command stations... I actually never use them, ever. It's logistics all the way and occasionally a militairy when I believe it's more efficient. MK II and III logistics always get unlocked (though not right from the start). For my economy I occasionally unlock better harvesters, but not always. I'm used to taking my time for every aspect of the game, so I don't mind having a slow economy. Grav turrets right away (don't underestimate logistics + grav turrets, takes AI ships ages to get somewhere). because of logistics I won't need warp sensors. I unlock the mk II ships only when I think I'm going to need them against a wave. mk III gets unlocked later as well. If I have blade spawners as bonus ships however, I will unlock mk II and III right from the start.
I only unlock better turrets if I got a full cap of the mk I, which only happens mid/late game. no fortresses. FF MK II and III will always get unlocked. I don't hop planets and always capture everything in a straight line (for defence purposes) and I protect every command station with a FF.
I find mk III engineers very usefull once I got a golem so they get unlocked midgame as well. scout mk III is an obvious choice for me, since I always leave 1 scout on every planet I scout and I play on 80-planet maps most of the time. Do the math and you know I'm still short on scouts.
Raid starship mk II will get unlocked for sure and depending on how smooth my raids go I might unlock III as well. I unlock flagship and sometimes the zenith starship one as well.
that's about it. works well for me.

[mindloss]

I usually go for Mk2 econ station pretty quickly, set those up and use logistics for most other bases, seems to give me the econ I need... but then again, I usually play on tiny (10-25 star) maps.

Also I LOVE Mk3 engies... I get those as soon as it's feasible, lump the 15 together and hotkey 'em, and keep them constantly zapping around to wherever they're needed... they're OP in an awesome/fun way, as opposed to the game-breaky/exploity way.

[Trandrin]

Econ station mk3 are nearly always a must. I like a strong economy. Other then that I get whatever strikes my fancy. Been finding the joys of grav turrets on big waves to be a boon though. I don't seem to spend much knowledge of capital ships though. Dunno never really find the "need" for them.