Sandbox

[lando005]

Hello all, I've started a few threads here I thought I would try to centralize myself a bit. I'm still a beginner with distant worlds but I think I'm getting the hang of it, I have all the expansions and I'm using only a few mods (extended and resource) and as implied in the title I'm a sandbox style player. I thought this might be a good place for like minded players to discuss their games and play styles. I'm really hoping to lean from your view points to become a better player, and I'm applying your tips to the current game I just started (hopefully I wont have to make any tweeks with the game editor)

[lando005]

For starters I'd like to talk about empire expansion. Since I'm more of a defensive player when I develope the ability to colonize I try to do it one world at a time, I usually wont make plans to expand to another colony until my newest one has all of its defenses in place, the reason being if I try to expand too fast I cant be sure I can protect all my assets. with my other games I found myself surrounded on all sides by my neighbors, any suggestions?

[elanaagain]

Yes, its a balancing act. Yes, your caution is well founded. However, another valid consideration is possession of the maximum number of quality planets. Grab a planet even if the pirates are going to feast on it. Eventually you will get around to clearing them out and bringing the colony into the mainstream of your empire's life. You have claimed it - preempting other great powers from grabbing it without declaring war on you. The down side is that establishing a colony you can't currently protect and develop does expose it to other great powers invading the weak target. Trade off, getting possession vs. exposure to hostile great powers.

[lando005]

Galactic expansion isn't a top priority for me, I'm not looking to own a huge chunk of space, but I dont want to be bottle necked either. I usually keep a fleet in orbit of the planet until the defense network is in place, I think I may have to change up the build order to put a defence base up first instead of a space port but then I run into a resource shortage

[Starke]

ORIGINAL: lando005
I think I may have to change up the build order to put a defence base up first instead of a space port but then I run into a resource shortage

Always remember that the designs are completely modifiable, it's easy to design a Small Spaceport designed to be built first at very low-pop colonies, for example by taking off the research labs, optimizing the number of reactors-to-weapons, hab modules/life support-to-shields, etc. Once the colony has grown you can add the labs back and/or whatever other equipment you want by retrofitting/upgrading.

Same is true of the defensive base, except they're even simpler as they aren't expected to build or refuel ships, transfer cargo, etc.

[Plant]

You just have to judge it. But your play style is your playstyle, it sounds like you want to make sure that none of your planets will ever suffer an attack, which will cramp any expansion you have planned. If you see a desirable planet, your best bet is to immediately lauch a colonisation ship at it before anybody rival empire can claim it.

In the end, you have to either change your playstyle if you want to be able to expand properly.

[lando005]

I just gain colonization tech and launched two colony ships this morning. I've only explored a hand full of systems in this game so far but right now there's no one in sight. There's a thrid world within range but I figured I would wait until the other ships reach before heading for that one.

[Plant]

Well, if you just gained colonisation tech and only explored a handful of systems, then you obviously haven't developed an expansion style yet, as you aren't in that stage of the gameplay yet. Or you haven't built enough exploration ships.

[lando005]

When I was talking about my play style I was refering to my past games, I have a nasty habbit aof starting and then restarting the game because I keep wanting to add little tweeks to the settings and I like them all to be in place at the start of a game rather than add them on mid way. So now with this new game I have everything in place and hopefully I wont feel the need to tweek any more.

[feelotraveller]

The question I would be asking is - how small a fleet is viable as a defence force? at a particular stage of the game. If it is early and you have not met other empires this means a fleet to see off a normalish pirate raid or deal with any monsters in the colony system. Then I would be figuring out how many of these fleets I need/can support at once.

Personally I send two or three frigates to escort colony ships and serve as the initial system defence force. The limitation for me early game is getting the colony ships produced.

[lando005]

The question for me is not size but range. Even though right now I have the resources to do so, it would be impractical for me to build a fleet for every system. So instead I have my fleet range right now to protect "nearby systems" but I'm not exactly sure how far away a system would have to be to fall outside that coverage zone.

[Starke]

I leave the majority of my colonies undefended tbh, and they never get raided. The ones that do get raided or are very exposed targets (on the edge of my empire) get a few ships. Early game this can be as many as eight of my max size ships when there are still pirates crawling everywhere, once things get under control I assign only four.

[lando005]

What about defensive bases?. Right now it seems like I could have taken a less agressive stance to expansion. I have about 5-6 colonies now and none of my neghbors seem to be making a move. This game is playing out very differently.

[Starke]

I prefer ships because new colonies will have a very slow construction speed and materials have to be shipped in - ships can be flown in from your homeworld.

Congrats on being first into space, at least in your area - watch out though, some races can be very quick to expand once they get the tech (Teekans come to mind based on my most recent game). Also remember that you have to actually check a given system to see if an empire has expanded into that system - the most reliable way to see how many colonies an empire has is the diplomacy screen, which always gives the exact number, though not the locations.

[lando005]

I have another general question. I want to try to keep all of my assets protected but with no control over the private sector my trasports and resource stations are sometimes left open to attack. I've tried to curtail my civilian sector's expanse by limiting the fuel cells on my civ ships (normally about 1 fuel cell) but they still end up far outside to protective range of my military forces. So then I started thinking, maybe I shouldn't give these ships hyper drives that would confine them to the system they are in and I know that would probably hurt my economy badly but I cant think of another way to try and control their range.

[Icemania]

Difficult to comment as I tend to expand as quickly as resources/defence allow. My private ships are much faster than the default designs so I don't loose very many. I ensure ships are in place to defend mining bases as soon as they are strong enough to reasonably defend against pirates. Early game it's protection agreements (but cancelled whenever they aren't needed). My mining bases are often being upgraded so less ships needed as the game progresses.

[lando005]

I try not to contribute to the pirates, just makes it that much harder for me to deal with them later on. The only other option I see right now is to extend the range of my fleets which I dont want to do since I can only support a limited number right now and I dont want to risk them being caught out of position for a raid on my prime worlds.

[Icemania]

Protection agreements that are quickly cancelled contribute very little to the pirates. It's either that or let them raid and destroy your efforts.

I'm quite happy for my civilian ships to go wherever they want and loose very few each game. Ensure you research Enhanced Construction et al early, that really helps get those custom designed civilians to a better speed fairly quickly. If you use the defaults, well good luck!

With fleets, have a look at the Pirate Facilities thread e.g. set range to system etc.

[lando005]

I was just in that thread commenting on the concept of mines. Is there no real definate range with the "nearby systems" setting?

[Icemania]

Whatever the range of "nearby systems" is, it's far too late to defend against raids, so I never use it. Again, if you set to range to the system you are in, then attack posture, they should go after anything hostile in-system, but as this doesn't seem to work perfectly, I do it manually.