First research goals

[emky]

No matter the faction I'm playing, I always prioritize Containment Fields + Fusion as my first research goal. Every game varies from there, though there's a strong bias toward Market Theory then Self-Organizing Networks as early as possible. If other plants have useful but not friendly species, I'll get Alien Psych. early, or for Phidi I make sure to get them a Lasers or Mass Drivers since they start with nothing.

What's everyone else's first-few-goals for research look like? Am I silly for prioritizing "I only need to build 2/3 as many traders" and "I don't want my ships to explode on stray hits" so much?

Even with Tinkers (who love missiles and might otherwise not need to upgrade power plant early), you need Fusion to get to Fusion Missiles.

[PrivateHudson]

For me it's always Xenology -> Orbital Construction, as all my early research (besides racial and population built-in) is provided by Science Star Bases, not Labs. Planets mostly are covered in Mines. Then usually go Guidance Systems (to build anti-Harpy/Pirate missile boats) and Market Theory (to not bankrupt from it, and to quell occasional aliens unhappiness). Then either Fusion Warheads or (more often) Hyperspace Beacons.

[gaerzi]

Usually xenology, and first thing I do is refit scout ships to have a lab. Those +2 science bonuses really help in the early game!

Market theory, guidance systems, and boarding tactics are next. Missiles to get rid of harpies, boarding to capture pirate craft, plus xeno-engineering if not playing humans, and market for money.

After that I go for tachyon physics and hyperspace metrics so that the ships get a little bit less sluggish. When playing on a "sparse" galaxy, hyperspace beacons follow.

Containment field, fusion, and fusion warheads are next. This is also when I start looking to get to improved solar panels, docking fields, and such. Also alien psychology and artificial organisms as needed.

I tend to rely on ship capture for combat, so I don't research weapons much. I'll generally focus on trade so as to be able to afford a large swarm of mostly-captured-and-refitted warships, and deal with harpies through a lot, and I mean a lot, of fusion missiles. Once I get the ball rolling, I go for lab upgrades until hyperspace cloud and artificial sentience, and with those two done the rest of the tech tree is swallowed super-fast.

[sishelper]

I find myself lately more than before going to Orbital construction to double science labs in orbit, then I go for Boarding tactics - Low Orbit Refitting and Xenoengineering. I find always around me human pirates playing on brutal with extreme pirating. Those pirate ships I take over. I am extremely happy wiht the cruisers and transports early game. But more over I am happier with a colony ship take over which saves me 20+ turns and gives me a huge headstart plus a human race to complement my own .

[zenopath]

My goto first research is marketplaces. This is a cheap tech that is actually pretty important. You're almost guaranteed a native species in one of the planets near you, and ploping down a marketplace or two will definitely help keep them from rioting and rebelling. It also helps with colonization, as you can have a marketplace on every world producing enough money to quickly build 1 factory on each new world. Money is important factor in early game.

After that, I usually go guidance and magazine bays if I'm playing Yoral, escort cruisers if Im playing the crab people, or missle cruisers for humans. Light cruisers are fine if you are playing snake people, and missle destroyers are ok if you are playing Tinker, but you might need 2-3. This gives me a decent ship(s) capable of clearing space harpies relatively easily. I usually build one fairly early on, maybe after setting down my 2nd or 3rd colony if there are unguarded worlds. It also helps to have at least some military as alien factions usually have a "your military strength is quite pathetic" penalty to relations if you have nothing. This makes it very likely that they will attack you early one, so getting enough to protect yourself is pretty important. Good rule of thumb is that if any of your neighbors think your military is pathetic, you should build more ASAP. *Humans have a heavy cruiser that sort of makes it unnecessary in early game, so you can skip this step if you are human*

Then I try to get the research upgrade tech for teir 2 labs, sure its expensive, but upgrading your research techs makes getting everything else faster, and you can survive with only nuclear missle ships for a fairly long time if you have at least 2 dedicated worlds with 3 factories *including your homeworld*. You probably need to have at least 1 or 2 dedicated mining worlds asap, pick the smallest ones.

After that, industrial automation, Then nanoscale production, unless I'm in some sort of rush and have an early game war, in which case ill probably go hyperspace metrics and deflector shields instead.

[nweismuller]

As the Phidi, I generally prioritise first xenology (taking advantage of xenology to immediately get 2 extra research points a turn on my current scout) then artificial organisms. Following that, I may or may not get alien psychology before going to containment fields, mass drivers, and close-in weapons (so I can start building up some fleet to discourage adventurism and deal with pirates and harpies) before going through fusion, superconductors, nanocomputers, and self-organising networks. Once I have self-organising networks, I then proceed to get industrial automation and interstellar currency (and, potentially, interspecies law) before bionomics, duranium construction, and nanoscale fabrication. Once I have nanoscale fabrication and all my economic structures are up to tier 2, I tend to consider my 'early' research done and thereafter push into physics and shipbuilding so I can start getting shields, extended scouting and colony range, and cruisers in place. My playstyle is... quite pacifist, with the only wars I tend to be inclined to start being those against neighboring Marauders so I can free their slaves, so I will often stiff military technology for an extended period while I try and push for ever more economic productivity in the Combine.

[zenopath]

A lot of people seem to like building labs on their scouts. IMO you really don't have enough alloys to make that practical. I just can't see budgeting for that sort of construction when you've got colony ships to build. So unless you only plan to build 1 lab on your existing scout ship, which hardly seems worth the research points, there isn't an easy way to get enough scout labs for this tech to matter.

I also don't much care about artificial organisms. Yes, it's nice that you can reduce the total number of farms you have, but farms aren't that expensive to build, and with 1 teir 1 farm on every world you will probably by fine. It doesn't ever seem like a priority for me until after I've already gotten both teir 2 labs and factories...

What I will say is that if you are looking to build a decent early game warship, Rapid Lasers are actually not bad. Sure, maybe nuclear missiles do more if they hit, but a lot of the time you will be fighting pirates with PD early on, and rapid lasers don't run out of ammo. It's a fairly inexpensive way to double your ship's firepower with 1 tech.

[gaerzi]

A lot of people seem to like building labs on their scouts. IMO you really don't have enough alloys to make that practical. I just can't see budgeting for that sort of construction when you've got colony ships to build. So unless you only plan to build 1 lab on your existing scout ship, which hardly seems worth the research points, there isn't an easy way to get enough scout labs for this tech to matter.

I tend to build a small fleet of scouts -- anywhere from just three to over a dozen, depending on the game -- that can serve as early game warships against harpies.

I also don't much care about artificial organisms. Yes, it's nice that you can reduce the total number of farms you have, but farms aren't that expensive to build, and with 1 teir 1 farm on every world you will probably by fine. It doesn't ever seem like a priority for me until after I've already gotten both teir 2 labs and factories...

That's only true if you've got a lot of hospitable planets in your game. If you have to make do with arid and ocean planets, then all of the food comes from the farms, and that means 4 units of pop per farm maximum or you starve.

[nweismuller]

So unless you only plan to build 1 lab on your existing scout ship, which hardly seems worth the research points, there isn't an easy way to get enough scout labs for this tech to matter.

For what it's worth, getting one lab on my existing scout ship means I get my next tech the same turn I otherwise would, and thereafter labs on the few scouts I turn out is gravy. But, well, Phidi, who have sociology techs discounted.

[zenopath]

For Phidi, rushing to teir 2 markets makes a fair amount of sense. I guess if you going to do that anyways, you can go ahead and put a bunch of scout labs on your scouts. Also Phidi have pretty subpar ships anyways, as they are expected to use mercenaries to fight, and their best early game ship is torpedeo destroyers, so sure, put labs on them, they are very spammable.

[DanTheTerrible]

For me it's always Xenology -> Orbital Construction, as all my early research (besides racial and population built-in) is provided by Science Star Bases, not Labs. Planets mostly are covered in Mines. Then usually go Guidance Systems (to build anti-Harpy/Pirate missile boats) and Market Theory (to not bankrupt from it, and to quell occasional aliens unhappiness). Then either Fusion Warheads or (more often) Hyperspace Beacons.

Agree with the first part, Xenology, small craft, orbital construction are ALWAYS the first three. Once xenology is complete I put a science lab on my scout ship. If I'm playing Gremak, with their ultra-slow initial research, once xenology is complete I'll build a science cruiser to speed up early research -- a light cruiser hull with everything stripped out except a power plant and two labs.

After orbital construction is complete, market theory is almost always next. After that, too much depends on the situation to really predict before game start.

[Serenitis]

Generally, everyone wants the following early game:
Xenology - Science boost, plus it leads to other needed things.
Hyperspace Metrics - Travel speed is important for both expansion and defence.
Market Theory - Money runs everything, plus morale effects are useful.
Boarding Tactics - 'Free' Science/Metals/Ships.
Guidance Systems - Missiles are strong early, and double as defensive measure.

Most factions I tend to start Xenology, then Markets and go from there as circumstance dictates.
Although I may swap over to Guidance/Boarding if there's a protected system in my reach.

Humans though are odd. They really want to start Xeonology more than anyone else for the extra science since they don't get access to labs for quite a while.
But they also want to jump on Boarding to capture pirate ships before anyone else clears them.
And missiles can make your ships last longer since if PD 'reaction' fires, it's not available to fire directly the following turn. V. useful when fighting without shields.
And, Humans also get access to EMP missiles without needing Fusion. 20dmg weapons while everyone else is capped at 10 is a huge draw.
Playing Humans I will usually go Xenology -> Boarding -> Guidance.
Then I can work on markets while I'm building/expanding since thier extra starting freighters can pick up the money for a while.

Most factions will also want to work through the construction techs early on to unlock Xeno Engineering, if only for the ability to pick-and-choose which captured ships are sent to the labs, which are re-purposed, and which are turned into resources.
And also because many of the factions starting ships are not really well suited to boarding actions, so they need something better.
(Phidi, Orthin, Ashdar and Tinkers urgently want better ships. Gremak and Yoral don't care so much.)

Humans again, are odd.
They don't need construction at all for Xeno Engineering since they start with Low-Orbit Refits. And thier starting ships are good enough for boarding actions and general use for quite a while.
When playing as Humans I will frequently de-prioritise construction techs entirely and use my lab time to fill in my starter list, then work on the industrial/upgrade path.