Getting started tips

[andysonofbob]

Hello!

Please forgive my noobness.

I gave got through the first couple of main tutorials which resulted in +ve relationships with the recommended race but then I am unsure what I am meant to be doing.

I could only seem to do stuff with the race I gifted the space tech too because I have a slight -ve relationships with the others.  Only a little but enought to prevent the basic quests.  I could only do the timed missions where often years would go by in order to get a neutral relationship going.

Am I playing this right?  Should I stay with that race for a period of time or what

Could someone suggest a basic opener to the game for me please?  Give the space tech to the computer recommended species then do these types of things.

Thanks!

[Rujasu]

I'm pretty sure the reason you're not able to interact much with the other races is because they're not spacefaring?
You need to have like -25 influence or something to not be able to do the basic dispatch missions.

[BobTheJanitor]

The best option for starting out is mostly to poke around and see what happens and try not to worry too much about winning for now. As far as what to do next, you can share space tech around, but that will upset some races. You can just wait, each race will eventually get there on its own. You can work with whatever races are spacefaring so far, doing research is almost always useful and it will give you a pile of techs to shower other races with to start off in their good graces once they do get to space. You can do combat missions to build up some credits. Really almost anything is viable up until it all falls apart.

Just remember that in general you're trying to get a few races to like each other (not necessarily to like you, though it helps) (brokering a trade route between them is one of the best ways to get that moving) so you can start off the federation with them. After you have a federation going, more options open up to get other races in, but for the initial creation you pretty much have to have two races that are best buddies.

[andysonofbob]

Is it ok to let the world evolve around me then and do nothing?

I worry that I should always be busy at the start.  Or is it like Crusader Kings 2 where it is OK in the scheme of things for 100s of years to pass at the start.

[Platypus]

In my actually sussesful games I found it worked pretty well when I made the Burlusts extremely powerful right from the gate and then spent the rest of the game playing the white knight against the scary bogeyman I myself had created. Fighting the odd battle against their invasions and then negotiating a peace when things start getting out of hand in order to raise my standing with the other races. Just remember not to oppose them too harshly, you want your little monster to bite everything except yourself.

Generally I found little problem in letting time elapse, just keep a lookout for any wars and I would suggest at least taking some opening actions every time a race becomes spacefaring. Especially the Acutians, I have yet to see them not build a massive armada and start stomping everything in sight immediately after getting into space. Of course I'm still fairly new to this, so I wouldn't take anything I say too much to heart.

[Rujasu]

Especially the Andors, I have yet to see them not build a massive armada and start stomping everything in sight immediately after getting into space.

Which is funny because they're actually not supposed to conquer any planets, capable or not.

The biggest thing is to not let yourself fall behind in tech. Keep yourself up to date and you can do just about anything you want without caring about forming the federation.

[Platypus]

Oops, I meant the Acutians.

Edited my last post.

[andysonofbob]

In my actually sussesful games I found it worked pretty well when I made the Burlusts extremely powerful right from the gate and then spent the rest of the game playing the white knight against the scary bogeyman I myself had created. Fighting the odd battle against their invasions and then negotiating a peace when things start getting out of hand in order to raise my standing with the other races. Just remember not to oppose them too harshly, you want your little monster to bite everything except yourself.

No way!

That's awesome.  That's like all of our current UFO conspiricies summed up in your one campaign!   What a cool game!

What I would like I guess is an After Action Report (AAR) of someone's campaign.  That, I think would be interesting and really helpful to people like me, new and inflexible to cool new game concepts.

[kasnavada]

I kinda tried the burlust trick above, they formed a fear empire and hunted everyone down.

So, it kinda failed...

[Platypus]

I kinda tried the burlust trick above, they formed a fear empire and hunted everyone down.

So, it kinda failed...

No way, you united the Solar System! Even if it is a scary monster empire.

My first game I had a Peltian Fear Empire take over. After crippling every other race so severely that even Peltians could invade, then the Evucks blew up the half of the system not owned by Peltians. So I did the heroic thing, I declared victory and called it a day.

[galdor123]

I just had my first successful game (on easy though, so it will probably be much harder on the other difficulties). A few things I did (it was a very short game!):

- start off with a lot of hunt pirate convoy missions for the bribe items. these items are very useful; with some races you can raise your influence directly, with others you get discounts etc. ESSENTIAL. Also, they dont cost a lot of time. Ideally, you "rescue" some of the pirates which you can then sell or give back to their people for free (i guess you could sell them as slaves but I did not do that)
- START TRADE ROUTES. Cannot emphasize this enough. If you can get a trade route going between two races, they will LOVE each other after a few years. I got several of these started very early. You can even get trade routes with not-yet-spacefaring nations, which I found a bit strange.
- Look if you can give spacefaring to some races without pissing the existing ones off too much. Consider doing quests.
- I started my federation with the Andor and Skylaxians. I very quckly got the Acutians to join, since they loved both the Andor and the Skylaxians (thank you trade routes!).
- The Acutians went and built a competent fleet. They proceeded to attack ALL the non-federation races one-by-one except the Burlusts, who were not spacefaring. I convinced them to stop attacking, which gave me lots of influence with the "victims" -> I could eventually invite the Thoraxians and the Evuck. The Peltians were convinced by the Skylaxians (I think?) to join. They hated me, but liked the Skyaxians, so that was fine.
- the third attack of the Acutians were against the pig people. Unfortunately I did not have enough credits to make them back off, so the Acutians took their planet.
- I then fulfilled a quest for the Burlust, to make them spacefaring. I could immediately get them to join.

Then the game was over. I will certainly try again on normal (I lost a few times on normal before I decided to go on easy).

[andysonofbob]

@Galdor123
Thanks for this.  Very helpful.

But

In my brief encounter with TLF, I couldn't do any pirate missions etc. for anyone apart from the race I gave the space tech to.  Pirate stuff requires 0+ rep which I just dont have.  How did you build up you relationship with the other races?  Did you just do the dispatch style missions over a bunch of years?

Doesn't giving space tech to all the races annoy everyone?

Thanks!

[Billick]

@Galdor123
Thanks for this.  Very helpful.

But

In my brief encounter with TLF, I couldn't do any pirate missions etc. for anyone apart from the race I gave the space tech to.  Pirate stuff requires 0+ rep which I just dont have.  How did you build up you relationship with the other races?  Did you just do the dispatch style missions over a bunch of years?

Doesn't giving space tech to all the races annoy everyone?

Thanks!

Doing space tech missions only annoys races that are already spacefaring.  Also, doing quests generally doesn't give influence penalties, so look out for those.

[FroBodine]

After you have a federation going, more options open up to get other races in, but for the initial creation you pretty much have to have two races that are best buddies.

This is the most helpful tidbit of information I have read about this game so far.  This should be in the tutorial.  There are tons of things you can do, but one of your first major goals is to get two races to like each other. 

Thank you BTJ!!

[galdor123]

Yeah, for the influence thing you have to look carefully. Only already spacefaring races care if you give another race spacefaring tech. Also, for some races it's no big deal if you give another specific race the tech. Use the quest if possible, also do the terraforming missions if possible - free influence! The situation is different every game, since the quests seem random, as is the sequence of the races getting spacefaring on their own.

Just did another game, on normal this time - it was not very different (of course I was trying to replicate my other game). I got the Andor to form trade routes to 4 (!) other races - Acutians chief among them. In my 3 games so far, they just dominated the solar system. My initial federation was Andor+Acutian. Soon got the Evuck to join. I then started to work on the Thoraxians.

While I was doing this, the Acutians wiped out the Burlust, Peltians and the Boarine. Not sure if I am just getting "lucky" with some RNG, or if there is something wrong with the Acutians.
In the meantime, the Skylaxians had finally become spacefaring - they loved and were loved by both Andor and Acutian (trade routes...). It was then only a matter of time until I could get the federationists in power and pay the 20k credits to get the Skylaxians to join (I tried to directly convince them, but that was even more expensive).