Dealing with the bears early?

[haphazard1]

The upshot is that tech before factories is not always "really slow" - it depends on your situation and what you want out of it.  That's one of the things I love about this game.

This. One of the great things about MOO is that there are many ways to approach even the early game. What techs you have in your tree for the initial options has a huge effect on whether some early trickle research is a good decision or not. Whether you have habitable planets reachable without needing more range tech, whether you have a close neighbor, whether the galaxy includes Silicoids who could grab hostile worlds early...lots of things affect your choices right from the start. There is no early game strategy that always works. You have to be ready to adapt to circumstances.

[Bionic Commando]

Perhaps this is a new thread, but what are the best openings and situations they’re played in? I generally do “2nd colony research only/build home world” and I’m wondering if it’s hurting my game!

[kjn]

Using the second colony for pop and research, and the home world for production (and initial seeding of techs) is probably as close to a default opening as you can get. But there are lots of details here, and certainly room for lots of personal experimentation.

Like if the second colony builds any factories (I prefer to do so), exactly when research is opened (I tend to do it after I have scouted the entire galactic neighbourhood, but that will of course depend on galaxy size), if opening of research is done all in one go or staggered, and so on.

Since I open research a bit late, probably between 2310 and no later than 2315 or so, I often have some factories in my second colony, and continue with the factory buildup while continuing with trickle research. I've also started to experiment with opening and seeding the initial research fields over two or three turns instead of one, usually first planetology, then propulsion, last construction. That allows me to gauge the need for RIW 80%.

[Shaddam IV]

Since I open research a bit late, probably between 2310 and no later than 2315 or so

You do this even if there are planets available with no range or planetology tech?



I always figured it was best to go all factories until a colony ship can be built in ~7 turns. Never did any math on that but it tends to sync up well with population transfer unless you're the silicoids or sakkra. Imagine my embarrassment if I've been playing like a noob for 25 years.

[RFS-81]

There's a handful of techs that are good to have before that point, and it's good to check very early if you have them in your tree.

Improved Eco Restoration is the big one because it frees up a big chunk of production that you'd otherwise spend on waste cleanup. Plus, you get an increase in your planetology level which gives you a bit more production from population and cheaper colships.

Terraforming+10 is cheap and can keep your planets in the optimal zone for population growth longer.

Improved Industrial Tech 9 ... Maybe? Not as good as the Planetology techs.

In general, building more factories on your home world is the right move early on though.

[haphazard1]

I agree with RFS-81 that it can be worth spending a few BC early to check what techs you have available. Boosting your clean up effectiveness can be worth it, since the tech is cheap enough that payback comes very quickly. Terraforming+10 can also be very helpful, especially if you have one or more small planets available. And of course knowing what range tech options you have (or do not have) is valuable for planning purposes.

But if you have habitable planets in range, it is hard to go wrong by focusing on early factories and getting col ship production going as soon as possible.

[Bionic Commando]

Imagine my embarrassment if I've been playing like a noob for 25 years.

I wake up in a cold sweat wondering that some time. I need to get some discipline and code out some early game simulations to figure out "optimal play".

[kjn]

Since I open research a bit late, probably between 2310 and no later than 2315 or so

You do this even if there are planets available with no range or planetology tech?

I always figured it was best to go all factories until a colony ship can be built in ~7 turns. Never did any math on that but it tends to sync up well with population transfer unless you're the silicoids or sakkra. Imagine my embarrassment if I've been playing like a noob for 25 years.

Open research, yes. How much I invest into early research early on depends on map and available techs. Since MOO rewards a steadily rising investment (like initial investment followed by trickle research), my home world usually spends only a few turns researching insted of building factories (I'm still experimenting on the best way to do so). Most of the research EPs will come from the second colony.

I also prefer to have my homeworld maxed out before I start to churn out colony ships. Generally, that means they will come out every four turns or so.

[Shaddam IV]

Since I open research a bit late, probably between 2310 and no later than 2315 or so

You do this even if there are planets available with no range or planetology tech?

I always figured it was best to go all factories until a colony ship can be built in ~7 turns. Never did any math on that but it tends to sync up well with population transfer unless you're the silicoids or sakkra. Imagine my embarrassment if I've been playing like a noob for 25 years.

Open research, yes. How much I invest into early research early on depends on map and available techs. Since MOO rewards a steadily rising investment (like initial investment followed by trickle research), my home world usually spends only a few turns researching insted of building factories (I'm still experimenting on the best way to do so). Most of the research EPs will come from the second colony.

I also prefer to have my homeworld maxed out before I start to churn out colony ships. Generally, that means they will come out every four turns or so.

How do you decide on the timing of your sliders on the second colony? I assume this depends most heavily on the techs available in planetology and construction

It's really only occurring to me now that early game optimization is definitely test-able and doing so might show me that my own 'gut feeling' strategies I've developed aren't very good. I was surprised to see so many people hating on Reduced Industrial Waste 80%. I know it's not great but I would sometimes as the better construction tech races take both RIW80% and Industrial Tech 9 if both were available and only Duralloy at the next level. They're just so cheap.

There are a ton of variations, obviously, that's why people are still playing this game. But repeated openings on the same opening save for a bunch of different situations should show definitive results based on population and total production by, say, 10 turn increments. It would be very tedious, unless a bunch of people participated....

[haphazard1]

I like RW80 and IIT9, but will usually delay putting BCs into them if I have habitable planets within range. Pushing out more colony ships and claiming territory is better, at least to my thinking.

The early optimization decisions get more tricky when you play the races that shift the standard limits (rocks and cyborgs, mainly). The oddball cases make me rethink me normal patterns of play, which is why I am still coming back to this game after all these years.