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Unread 8 Jun 2008, 05:39   #1
Ultimate Newbie
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Generic Startup Guide (Mk 2)

"It's Time."

Introduction
Finally, I am writing to update the Generic Startup Guide, which has seen glorious service for many for years. However, new developments in the game has meant that its time for the whole thing to be revamped so new players arent confused by Engineering and other things.

Thus; the purpose of this thread is still the same. It is meant to be the resource to direct new players to in order to assist them in learning how to start their planets in the best way. There are specific strategies and race-dependent issues at play, however, and these will be acknowledged. Essentially, this guide will outline the best basic way to get your planet going, without specific or technical moves such as "rushing for battleships".

So, where to start?
1. Seek Help!!
You've found this thread, that's excellent. Feel free to post a reply below or to read other people's replies. Talk to people in your galaxy! I cannot over stress how important talking to people is! Post a message on your Galaxy Forum (in-game, click FORUM link), or send a message to your galaxymates, particularly your Galaxy Commander (GC, he's blue on your Galaxy page), and talk to them! Ask for their help!

IRC is critically important for communication in Planetarion, and is where most of the action is - politics, galaxy and alliance co-ordination and participation, organised attacks and defence etc, and it is also where friendships are made as part of the "Planetarion Community". If you dont join IRC, then you are probably missing the point of PA completely. Click here for a guide on how to join IRC.

Furthermore, Planetarion once again has Quests to help new Players get a handle of things. Have a look at that thread for what they are and how to complete them! .

2. Population
It is generally agreed that priority should be given towards Mining, Research and Construction during the protection period, however the particular emphasis on each one depends on a number of factors, including race, government, overall strategy and personal preference.

I personally play as Xandathrii alot, thus i have fast construction but very slow research, and i often select the Unification government (higher Mining, fast construction and slow production, low security) and I will discuss what I do normally however take note that this will change on your race etc, so refine my technique to what is best for you.

Distributing your Population
There are a number of "Population Calculators" out there, which will help you determine the best distribution of your population. Essentially, you want to assign the minimum number of people to get your research or construction out the fastest, with the remainder going on Mining.

For Example:
Mining: 25%
Research: 42%
Construction: 33%

This results in me (Xan, Unification) to complete the first research (Heavy Cargo Transfers I) in 11 ticks, and the first construction (Research Lab) in 6 ticks. Your race and government might change this outcome.

Note that if i had 43% or higher on Research, my first research would still complete in 11 ticks, so there is little point in assigning more.

How did i work this out? Well, you can be sophisticated and use a population calculator (though these might not be updated with the latest information each round), or you can simply play in-game. Go to the Population page, set some stuff, and click on your Research and/or your Construction page to see how long they take. Once you have those done the fastest, assign the rest to Mining.

Mining is important as that gives you more resources to initiative asteroids sooner. We'll get to that later!

3. Research
The Research page is where your planet develops technology in a number of "branches". These are largely obvious, however there are definitely some things that are good to do early, and other things that can wait.

I suggest researching items in the following order. Feel free to post your opinions on this order below, and this list might get edited and/or differences for other races might be more clearly defined.

1) Heavy Cargo Transfers 1
2) HCT 2
3) Fighter Class Hulls
4) Infrastructure Upgrade
5) Frigate Class Hulls or Advanced Core Extraction [Protection usually ends here]
6) HCT 3
7) Warpgate

The idea behind this is the following; When you initiate asteroids, you must have the technology to actually mine them. You can initiate asteroids very quickly at the start due to large mining bonuses, so you need to spend all your early time on researching HCT. Also, you are quite limited in the number Constructions your planet can maintain initially, so you dont have long Construction idle time, do the Infrastructure Upgrade early so that it will finish on or before your 10th construction (which is around tick 60-70). Then, having access to ships before protection ends (Tick 72 or day three) is important, hence Fighter Class Hulls. Different races have different requirements! Please check to see if your race has Astropods in their Fighter or Corvette class ships - if not, you'll need to concentrate on Frigate Class Hulls as soon as possible!

4. Construction
Similar to Research, your Constructions give your planet the necessary infrastructure in order to function. Here is a suggested list of starting constructions;
1) Research Laboratory.
2) Refinery (These come as Metal, Crystal or Eonium Refineries. Choose which is best suited to your race, eg Terran = M, Cathaar&Eitraides = C, Zikonian = E, Xandathrii are equal).
3) Refinery
4) Refinery
5) Light Factory
6) Research Lab
7) Security Centre [Around here, Protection ends]
8) Wave Amplifier
9) Medium Factory
etc.

Research Labs significantly speed up your research, so building those during the very early stages of the round is usually a good thing. Otherwise, the important thing to be doing during protection is to initiate as many Asteroids as possible, which cost resources - Refineries are excellent returns on investment during the opening stages of the game and help you off to a fast start. The Light factory is so you can build Fighter/Corvette ships (and complete a Quest), however for your Race having a Medium factory might be more important.

5. Initiate Asteroids
Initiating Asteroids is critically important during the early stages of Planetarion. They get more expensive the more you have of them, however during protection you should be trying to initiate as many as you can, and once protection is over then you venture out into space and attack other people for their asteroids.

Go to the Mining page. There, you will be able to initiate asteroids. Each race has a different emphasis on the resources; Terran ships are very Metal heavy, so initiate as many roids of all types as you can afford, but focus on Metal (you will be mining more Metal as you will be Constructing Metal Refineries). Cathaar and Eitraides use more Crystal. Zikonians use more Eonium, and Xandathrii are split exactly equally, so equal numbers of asteroids is a good idea.

You will be able to afford to initiate asteroids every tick or two during the first day. Obviously, to do this, you need to be active and online to do it properly. Hardcore people never "miss a tick" of their protection period so they have the strongest start, however being this active is not critical to doing well - it helps though. So, make sure you come online and init roids as often as you can!

6. Quests
There are a number of Tick 0 Quests that you can do before the ticks even start. These give you asteroids, resources and XP. It would make very good sense to use those resources to immediately initiate more asteroids so you can earn more income for longer.

The details regarding quests are discussed at greater length in that thread.

7.Discussion Questions

Right, some questions to other players.
What do you think of the suggestions above?
How do you start off your planet, if you're race x with y government?
Do you try to complete the Quests? If so, where in the scheme of things?
If you are "rushing for battleships", what do you choose?
If you are a Scanner, what do you choose?
__________________
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Last edited by Appocomaster; 26 Aug 2008 at 14:31.
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