So where to start...

[TigerTC]

No, this isn't your usual noob question. I have DW and am playing through my first full game. I followed most of the startup settings from this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb8WalKPcrc

So far I'm most of the way to victory and I feel like I'm on autopilot, just watching the game, approving missions, and occasionally doing something.

So if I want to start my first completely 100% on-my-own game, what settings should I use? What era? What should I work toward to have more involvement and less of the automation/autopilot (without micromanaging)?

Thanks!

[echo2361]

Go to the 2nd page of the general DW forum and look for a post titled The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual by Timotheus. That will set you well on your way to your own fun manual-controlled game. It really is a great guide. I would link the thread directly but the board is saying I can't even though I've been a member for well over 7 days...

[Aeson]

I would suggest starting a prewarp game and keeping the empire small for a while with as little automation set as possible. Familiarize yourself with the tools for managing your empire, see which aspects you like and don't like to control manually and if and how these things change as your empire expands and develops (for example, I personally like controlling construction ships during the early stages of my empire's expansion, but as the empire grows I tend to start automating the ships, and I do much the same with exploration vessels, although that tends to be less 'as the empire grows' and more 'as the area I've explored expands;' if you start automating either of these, you may want to consider increasing the number of such vessels you have, as what the computer believes should be built/explored and in what order may not agree with your priorities, and having more of them out doing whatever alleviates that to some degree).

The main tools I use to control my empire are the Fleets (for maintaining fleets at full strength and for managing large numbers of fleets, though the menu does lack some features which would have been nice; I suggest standardizing and homogenizing fleet compositions and using a naming scheme to make this easier, since if every Task Force consists of 10 Missile Cruiser Mk.5s, I know what grabbing a somewhat random Task Force is going to get me, and I know that a Task Force with 8 ships needs to be reinforced with 2 new Missile Cruiser Mk.5s and may need repairs), Colonies (for managing tax rates, garrisons, troop recruitment, and facility construction), Ships and Bases (for organizing ships into fleets and for locating ships which are commonly not in fleets, such as Resupply Ships or the occasional Colony Ship), and Construction Yards (for ordering ships from specific locations to avoid issues with having to wait for the ships of a new fleet to collect from wherever the Build Orders menu would have ordered them from, and for avoiding placing orders at locations with construction backlogs or resource shortages) lists, the Designs menu, and the Expansion Planner (for assigning mining station construction missions and occasionally ordering colonization attempts; remember that yellow names indicate that there may be pirates or space monsters at the location while green names indicate that the object is in a system which contains one or more of your existing colonies), which are found in the top center portion of the screen. The Research Locations and Scenic Sites lists available on the left-hand side of the main screen are also useful; the Construction Ships and Exploration Ships lists may be as well, depending on how you end up managing your Construction and Exploration Ships (I personally tend to control both of these early on and then automate the majority later in the game; if you choose to automate these, you may want to build extras since the computer's priorities and yours may not align perfectly, and having more of them doing whatever the computer chooses helps alleviate that issue, though you could alternatively keep a couple under manual control for priority work, or select an automated vessel and override its current orders if you feel the need). The Potential Colonies list on the left side of the screen may also be helpful for assigning colonization missions, as it's a bit easier to see where the potential colony is with respect to what else you have by hovering over the potential colony in that list (which will cause that object to ping on the main map; you'll see yellow circles expand outward on the main map from its location if it's within, or nearly within, your current view area). Regardless, I'd recommend at least taking a look through all of the menus along the top and left edges of the screen to familiarize yourself with what they do and managing your empire manually with these for a while; even if you later decide to automate the things the tools are there to help you with (and thus don't use the tools), knowing what tools are at your disposal and how to use them is always useful.

[RemoteLeg]

You have already played with major automation, so I think you're ready for nil automation. Turn it all off in the Options menu.

Definitely start in the pre-warp era. I would also suggest a large universe and set the pirates to spawn far away from your home planet so you have some breathing room. Hopefully they will annoy other races before yours.
Choose a ring or spiral galaxy shape and start on the outside edge. That way you can cover your back.
You might want to turn off the space creatures too - they can be a pest.
Pick a race that you like and go for a colour that shows up clearly on the galactic map.

These settings should allow you some time to explore your home system and develop warp drive before you meet anybody.
Remember that you don't NEED to kill everybody. Play nice and allow some neighbors refueling rights in your territory and you might make some friends.
Mine a wide variety of resources and good luck!

[Blueinstinct]

Watch larry monte's LP's on how to manage everything.

larry monte


i reccomend to go to your empire policy settings (on the top of the screen in the left segment)and set the shipdesign on automation, but look for the ship classes that can be auto designed seperatly. only let the auto design do civilan ships and bases, constructors, colony ships, resort bases, monitoring stations, and maybe explorers.
in other words, only do the combat ships yourself, this will save you alot of possible mistakes and work.

i also reccomend to auto assign characters for the start.

last but not least, make a design for a spaceport that has wayy less weapons and shields and use it in the begining, it will save you alot of money.

You should know that the civlian sector will pay you for frighters its building in your spaceport so whenever you get a new colony it provides you with alot of income.
use this to reduce your taxrate on your HW so it can grow faster. Once its population is maxed out, max out the taxes.

GL&HF

[TigerTC]

ORIGINAL: echo2361

Go to the 2nd page of the general DW forum and look for a post titled The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual by Timotheus. That will set you well on your way to your own fun manual-controlled game. It really is a great guide. I would link the thread directly but the board is saying I can't even though I've been a member for well over 7 days...

Thanks. EXCELLENT article and exactly what I'm looking for.

[TigerTC]

And thanks to everyone else for the tips and pointers. I can't wait to have some free time (which is rare these days) to dive into this.