I can not figure this game out at all...

I spawn with only a few planets in range... my last game had only 2 that I could colonise... 1 had pirates and they destroyed scout.. the other had primitive. I colonise the primitives, and try to build a tank, but revolt destroys the colony next turn. Meanwhile I build 3 destroyers, I run out of money on destroy 3 and the 1st destroyer is auto scrapped I send the last 2 and they all get destroyed by the pirates and now I am starving on the planet, have no slots to build new buildings..

This is basically how all my games have gone. I just can not work out how to play this game at all.


1) Can you rush production.. if so how?
2) How can you tell how many buildings you can make on a planet
3) How can you scrap ships
4) Tips?

- EDIT -

Tried again.. same lame results. This time I researched bombers so I could bomb the primitives before I colonise but I couldn't work out how to build them. No Bomber showed yup in the build que selector thing, and in the ship designer I couldn't see a way to make one.. BUT in the space station there was a bomber modual?

Take a look at this guide:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =762515742

It should get you started.

Yes, you can rush production by clicking below the cost on the production window in the lower right corner.

Bombers are a component on a ship. You need a hull type which has some small craft bays which will vary depending on which race you play as.

You can make as many building on a planet as it has 'slots'. You can see the slots in the upper right hand side of the planet screen. If you start as anyone but the humans, you'll likely start with a Factory, a Mine, and a Farm already in place.

You can scrap ships by clicking on the ? on the ship and clicking 'Scrap'.

Hope it helps!

Hi there and don't threat, just enjoy those precious moments when you do not get all the strings of a strategy game yet

Here is a few tipps to get you started:
1. Build a farm first on your planet (this will help with your first colony
2. Notice that the scouts and colony ships have a larger range then the transport, so move them separately to reach out to star systems furhter away from your home planet
3. Start trading with your transport right after you have colonised your first planet (it will start transporting food to the new colony which you will need unless you rush a farm on hte new colony right after colonisation
4. Do not engage pirates, nor any other enemy you may cross with your scouts, simply retreat from the battle. Do not autoresolve
5. Do not colonise planets with natives on them untill you have researched markets. These increase moral when built on a planet. There is tech that decreases base native dissent towards you
6. Rushing any production is done right at the bottom of the currently produced building/ship. Its a cost number and metal number (if any needed). If you do not have enough funds and metal, it will be greyed out
7. Bombers are like mnetioned, small crafts. You can only equip them on carrier type vessels or bases (starbases or planet defenses). You can bomb any colonised planet though with warships if you want to with the exception of natives: they cannot be wiped out from orbit, sorry. Its a game mechanics thing (also technically they do not have a coloniy to wipe out) so you need to learn to get along

Buidling farm, sending transport to trade and avoiding enemy ships and natives is in no way the only steps you can take initially, should be enough to get you started though on most maps and with most races except for Humans (this race has a difficult starting position: Do NOT start with them! )

Hope you will have fun playing

Ouch, sounds like a rough couple of starts. A couple of questions to start:

1) What race were you playing as?
2) When you say 'only two planets that could be colonized' do you literally mean only two that could be colonized without the Biodomes tech, or two that were 'good' candidates?

As for general starting advice what I usually do is:
1) set the Transport to start trading immediately
2) send the scout to yellow or orange stars in range first, more likely to have good colonization targets
3) on the Homeworld I usually queue up a farm, a factory and then wait to see before I fill in the last slot
4) don't fight with the scout; don't be fooled by the weapons it should run from every enemy it encounters
5) If you find a world with good fertility nab it and get another factory on the homeworld. If you don't, nab the most mineral rich world and build mines there and build another farm on the homeworld.
6) If you find a good world with native inhabitants build a troop transport first; colonize the world and get the troops there ASAP. That will buy you a few more turns to get helpful techs or just build more tanks.
7) After this things become more open; if there are lots of good colonization options spam colony ships. If hostiles are guarding anything particularly good start building up a fleet. If there aren't a lot of high fertility worlds around research the improved farming tech. Keep up your transport numbers to keep food moving and build up a cash reserve.

If you want to start another game and post some screenshots I'm sure folks would be happy to offer specific pointers.

-Will