Round 10 Startup Guide

[Ultimate Newbie]

I started writing this when i was in the beta, but since my expulsion (i was afk for a coupla days at one stage, heh) there has been alot of changes, particulary regarding shippies. Nevertheless, i think its better than nothing .

Rightio – PA R10 is similar to the PA you knew and love (heh) in the following ways:
- There are Races
- There are Ships
- There is Research / Construction
- There are Planets / Galaxies
- There are Fleets
- There is PA Mail
- There is a 'Politics' board (now called Galaxy Discussion – 'Affairs' as we know it has been called Politics, which is very annoying indeed).

Now, there are some very large variations, which at the time of writing are changing every day. I would like to point out that the Alliance and Traveltime issues have not been implemented during the beta, either as an effort to keep them secret for as long as possible or simply because they aren’t ready yet.

The following are some very important conceptual changes that dictate play in R10, which must be grasped quickly for success:
- Roids are now next to useless. Initiating more than about 30 per type is sheer folly. Having more than 100 is either due to capturing them in combat (though capping is incredibly rare – I think the most anyone has ever lost in a battle was 12, with averages of 0 to about 3), or because they don’t know that roids get expensive very quickly . THERE IS NO NEED TO SCAN FOR ROIDS – you can init them right away from tick 0.
- Eonium Production is Imperative. Having a lot of E around is vital, as roughly a third of your ships cost E (this varies with race – Ziks for example have 50% whereas Terrans have around 20-25%). Furthermore, Agents (‘Covert Operations’) and Scans (‘Waves’) all cost equal amounts of M, C and E.
- Networth and Score are no longer equal. Networth, like the old version of score, displays the value of a planet’s fleet, mines etc. This is quite different to score, which effectively measure’s a planets activity. Score determines universal rankings. Score can be gained by Covert Operations (1 score per 'Successful' Covert raid (regardless of the number of agents), Combat (determining score from combat is currently guesswork, but it is THE major source of score), and finally from Roids (atm you get 1 score per roid, thus their effect is minimal).
- Race's Ships have equal capability. This means that going Cathaar means that all your ships are 'Classic' or 'Conventional', and there is no EMP. Nor is there any Cloaking for Xandathrii, nor Stealing for Zikonians. This means that determining what race you wish to go its determined more by a ship’s resource cost and targeting, rather than their capabilities, though there are variations between races.
- The use of Covert Operations to gain resources and disrupt enemies is good fun .

Some other differences are far less major, and include:
- The removal of the Galaxy Status page, replaced by galaxy incoming being listed on the Overview in times of crisis.


Start-up Guide
Tick 0:
- Click 'Engineers' – select First Priority as RESEARCH, Second as CONSTRUCTION and Third as MINING [later this third priority could be changed to either Security, War (Combat), or can be left alone, depending on circumstance and/or how you wish to play]. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SELECT THIS _BEFORE_ YOU BEGIN ANY RESEARCH OR CONSTRUCTION. This is because you miss out on the reduced time bonus if you select the project first. Furthermore, you can only change engineers every 48 ticks – which means this is the only decision time you have for the lion's share of protection time.
- Click 'Construction' – select 'Metal Refinery' if you are a Terran, 'Crystal Refinery' if you are Cathaar, or either as a Xandathrii. Note: if you are a Zikonian, change races immediately.
- Click 'Research' – select 'Planetary Mining II (temp)' [grey box, second from top]. This allows you to construct more than 10 mines (and up to 25). Keeping this tech path high means that you will not be restricted later on. Researches take bloody ages to complete in R10, even with 2 mins ticks :\
- Click 'Mining' – build as many Mines (Roids) as you can afford for each type – IIRC its 3. This will give you 9 score.
Tick 1:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 2:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 3:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 4:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 5:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 6:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 7:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 2 M 2 C 2 E.
Tick 8:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 1 M 1 C 1 E.
Tick 9:
- Init as many mines of each type as you can. IIRC its 2 M 2 C 2 E.
Tick 11: Your Construction should be complete. Click 'Construction' - If you were a Terran, now construct your 'Crystal Refinery', If you were Cathaar/Xan, now construct your 'Metal Refinery'. Click 'Research' – I selected 'Heavy Cargo Transfers' to efficiently mine up to 100 asteroids, although 'Light Hull Specialisation' as the Ship Tech branch takes a LONG time to complete. Either of these three can be selected, though Terrans should have greater emphasis on Ship Technology, as their Heavy Ships are good.


Tick 12 +
From here, it is a lot more difficult to outline tick by tick the steps that should be taken, however I would like to emphasise the importance of Metal/Crystal/Eonium Refineries – you want to have one of these building whenever you aren’t doing something else such as Ship Factories, Security Centres or Finance Centres. Remember that covert operations have the capacity to destroy your structures; so having at least two of key structures (eg Light and Medium Factories, Wave Amplifiers and Security Centres) is to be recommended. Remember, however, that a priority should be given to making those Refineries – without them you are buggared.

Race Selections
PA R10 has the same four races; Terrans, Cathaar, Xandathrii and Zikonians, however their differences in this round are significantly reduced. All ships are 'conventional' ie, there is no EMP, Stealing nor Cloaking anymore, and the only differences that I have seen so far are Cost and Targeting. Ships now only have one target (as there are only three classes – Small Medium and Large), and there are no published stats to calculate the efficiency of the ships, however a general effectiveness of each unit can be gauged and that is what I have been attempting to do.

[PS: If anyone wants to update that last little bit on ships - feel free - i've kinda missed whats been going on recently other than there being an additional class]

The major difference between races is their resource costs – Terrans require significant amounts of Metal, Cathaar large (but not to the extent of Terrans) require Crystal, and Zikonians require vast shedloads of E, and finally Xandathrii require exactly equal resources for all ships.

There seems to be a paper-scissors-rock system to the races still. Terrans > Xandathrii > Cathaar, though the position of Zikonains is unclear, and the effectiveness of Cathaar’s medium ships against Terrans has yet to be determined by me, however I would like to point out that round 1.5 of Beta was dominated by Cath, and this round seems to be dominated by Xans. Xandathrii's Small, Cathaar's Medium and Terran's Large ships seem to be effective.

I hope this gives a little bit of a clue as to what you can do at the beginning...

[Alastor]

Very nice reading...altthough i am sure that the ships and combatsystem is different now, than when you played. All other stuff looks correct

But nice and easy guide, hope someone can tell us more.

[Wandows]

i think its quite changed from what i have seen lately


For as far as i know the M/C/E ratio's needed for each race has changed again

dunno exact ratio's but what i recall is:
Terran: Most M, bit less C, even less E
Cathaar: Most C, bit less M and E
Xan: even for all 3
Zikonian: most E, bit less M & C


I have also seen BRs where quite alot of roids where exchanged (50-100 a tick)


If you research planet mining 2 first i think you will have a problem initiating roids as you can only mine 50 roids effectively @ the start and that number is reached pretty fast, so upgrading that to a 100 first ( would be better then increase the amount of mines u can build, as that 10 u start with won't be reached as fast as the 50 roids limit.

And things are still bound to change so it might be better to wait till the beta is over before posting a final guide, since there is still a week left in which everything could change

[Tactitus]

Wow; it's almost like having a manual.

Originally posted by Wandows
And things are still bound to change so it might be better to wait till the beta is over before posting a final guide, since there is still a week left in which everything could change

It's something to read, anyway. Plus there's plenty of time to update it before ticks start. At least it might prevent a few players from screwing up their Engineering priorities.

[Cochese]

Why do you suggest researching planetary mining instead of tactics, the 'ship' branch, travel time, or even asteroid mining? Planetary mining is about the last thing people should be researching (next to covert ops) especially at the start.

Since you gain far more score from attacking than anything else (Covert ops give you **** all score, and are ultimately a useless novelty/annoyance) you'd logically want to get bigger/better ships, faster ETA's, and more effective tactics (which vastly improve combat results in both ships/structures destroyed and roids captured) instead of building up a gaggle of planetary mines.

Personally, I think Planetary Mines are best used to supplement roid income and offset imbalanced roid ratios. Yes, roids are less important...but when destroying structures gains far more score than stealing roids, I'd not want to invest heavily in immovable infrastructure that can be lost in such a manner to vastly increase the attacker's score...and vastly decrease my own.

[Gerbie]

Tnx for the information. I still have no idea whether I will like this new game.

If I understand it correctly then aiming for score is useless. Just play old style tactics (get as big as possible) and you will get some score along the way. Later in the round when there is more score to be devided as battles get bigger you will be able to grow in score and can move your focus to that part of the game.

If this theory that early in the game increasing value outweighs the aim to increase score (on a short term notice) then the question should be which tactic gives you the best return in terms of resources. Ofc I don't have a clue on that as I did not play the beta, so have no figures/experience on that.

[Gayle29uk]

Originally posted by Ultimate Newbie
[PS: If anyone wants to update that last little bit on ships - feel free - i've kinda missed whats been going on recently other than there being an additional class]

The fourth class is Battleships, each race has 1 and 3 of them target FI meaning Xan need to make good use of their early advantage cos once BA are commonplace they will need significant amounts of Dragonflies to avoid being the late round target for half the universe.

[Cochese]

Well, you have to figure "how much can I make off of roids in the 8-10 ticks it takes to build a mine?". The mines are a known factor: you get 1k per mine, per tick. So after you've got one, you're kicking out 2k of whatever resource you build a mine for (you get 1k for 'base' mining) which adds up to 16-20k (depending on build time) in resources while your 2nd mine builds. How many roids is that worth? Etc, etc.

I'm horrible with math so I won't attempt to figure that out...but I'm sure there are intelligent people around here who can, and will

It's also hard to put a "resource" value on it, though it is important, because you also have to consider other things you need to be building, and how constructing mines instead will change your planet's development.

My main point was, it takes 8-10 ticks to build a mine...so by the time you hit your limit of 10, that's 80-100 ticks. Is researching Planetary Mining right off the bat really necessary if you have that much time between you and the limit? I don't think it is, because you have to factor in other constructions.

Go for something more useful, and do 'Planetary Mining II' when you have a break in your research.

[Browolf]

- Click 'Research' – select 'Planetary Mining II (temp)' [grey box, second from top]. This allows you to construct more than 10 mines (and up to 25)

there's no good reason why you should do this. It's highly unlikely you would have 10 mines by the time you got out of protection.

Whilst roids are not what they used to be, whilst in protection you want as many as possible and them all being mined, so you have the resources avaliable to build ships when the time comes.

If you dont do Cargo transfers first and second a point will come when you are initiating roids that arent being mined. I know this cos i kept forgetting to do the second one.

- Eonium Production is Imperative. Having a lot of E around is vital

no it isnt. unless you are zikonian.
Of the 4 races, 3 are weighted towards specific resources.
Metal for terrans, crystal for cathaar, eonium for zikonian.

Building mines is a useful way, later, to help get your desired weighting. As a terran tho, I've still ended up having to convert millions of eonium into metal, Even with 10x as many metal mines as e ones.


y'know i'm not sure it's a good idea to make a guide when u arent in possession of the full facts. People will just get confused.


~browolf

[Ultimate Newbie]

I wanted to post this like a week ago, but the forums were having silly problems which made it difficult. Thus:

Originally posted by Browolf
no it isnt. unless you are zikonian.
Of the 4 races, 3 are weighted towards specific resources.
Metal for terrans, crystal for cathaar, eonium for zikonian.

I meant by that statement that you need to produce significantly more E than you used to in R9.5 etc - if you ignore your E production (like i did the first time around), then you just sit around with nothing to do. With E being between 20 and 50% of each ship's cost, i think this warrants a statement that you'll need to keep an eye on your E production.

Originally posted by Cochese
Why do you suggest researching planetary mining instead of tactics, the 'ship' branch, travel time, or even asteroid mining? Planetary mining is about the last thing people should be researching (next to covert ops) especially at the start.

Strangely enough, i found that i grew the fastest using that method, though i grant that this is probably because the roid init formula was quite steep at that stage (so having more than 30-40 roids of each type was foolish, end even then it took a while to get that many). Furthermore, as your first reseach its only 8 ticks or somesuch - its not a significant amount.

I question the need to begin researching tactics first - with 48 or 72 ticks of protection its not likely that you'll need high levels of tactical prowess right from the outset, particulary when you cannot launch your ships.

the 'ship' branch, i grant you, would be useful for Terrans in particular, who have to get as much ship tech as soon as they can. however, for other races i also question the need for doing this research first. you do not need to have a vast fleet in tick 12.

You've got me on Asteroid mining though - presumably roids have increased in importance since my departure?

Btw: if you are attacked, then having roids or mines doesnt really matter if you have to flee - with the exception of, if you have more mines, then you have less roids, and thus your enemy can capture fewer and subsequently cannot grow as fast. At the time of writing, it was extremely difficult to kill a mine, but roids were being captured (granted, not many, but still).

:nv:

[Al_zz]

Basically you need to keep up the tech tree for roids. It is fairly vital that you do not get at lot of roids you cannot mine any more. Since attacking will generally get you roids (and the score for stealing them) you need to keep researching the roids mining tech regularly.

Building refineries is a good way to suppliment your income. Certainly everybody should build at least ten but probably most will build 25 mines or so. Mines are steady easy income however every mine build gets more expensive with constructions increasing in price every time you build one. After 25 mines the price seems too expensive for all except scan planets or defensive players who do not gain roids from attacks.

A good first construction to build is the research lab. Build only one as that one has most effect on research times.

Also consider that each race seems to have a natural bonus priority setting for some kind of game feature like research or construction. I however forgot which each race had. With engineering you could enhance that natural bonus or compensate the other game aspects. This seems to be the preferred option so far as allthough bonusses are incremental they are not linear

hAl

[Chax]

Originally posted by Al_zz
A good first construction to build is the research lab. Build only one as that one has most effect on research times.

If you have time for two constructions before your first research is finished your first one should be a mine so that you get that extra income during the time your building the research lab afterward, a lab that will be ready in time for research number two.

[Gerbie]

Originally posted by Al_zz
Basically you need to keep up the tech tree for roids. It is fairly vital that you do not get at lot of roids you cannot mine any more. Since attacking will generally get you roids (and the score for stealing them) you need to keep researching the roids mining tech regularly.

Building refineries is a good way to suppliment your income. Certainly everybody should build at least ten but probably most will build 25 mines or so. Mines are steady easy income however every mine build gets more expensive with constructions increasing in price every time you build one. After 25 mines the price seems too expensive for all except scan planets or defensive players who do not gain roids from attacks.

A good first construction to build is the research lab. Build only one as that one has most effect on research times.

Also consider that each race seems to have a natural bonus priority setting for some kind of game feature like research or construction. I however forgot which each race had. With engineering you could enhance that natural bonus or compensate the other game aspects. This seems to be the preferred option so far as allthough bonusses are incremental they are not linear

hAl

Your strategy involves building a lot of buildings. If other structures (other than the research lab) also become less effective when more other buildings exist, then this might not be the wisest strategy. However since we don't have the formula's...

If you fear your structures might get destroyed it might be wiser not to build too many of them. Personally I stopped building mines after I found out about the research lab formula. I have only one of each factory. If it gets destroyed I'm forced to build other ships untill I can rebuild it.
Less structures mean:
- cheaper to build new structures if needed;
- research labs work more efficient;
- less structures to have destroyed (less risk of having them destroyed???);
- ships make up a larger part of your value, making you a less attractive target;
- no structure's value means you can attack smaller targets and get more score for each attack.