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* In the ship build window, when you choose a planet to build on, the
shipyard and factory capacity of that planet will be shown next to the
factory and shipyard capacity needed for the ship you're building. If the
shipyard and factory capacity is less than that of the ship you are
building, it will take more than one turn to build. Moral: Shop around for
planets to build things on.
* After the initial turn you'll have very little money left over. You'll
want to immediately hike your tax rate to 15-20%. You always want to pump
up technology. I devote 1/4-1/3 of my surplus to technology. I hold off
allocating anything to espionage until I actually encounter another race.
If population is getting to be a problem I increase social spending. This
also has the benefit of allowing me to increase taxes even higher, but
decreases the productivity of your factories and shipyards. I always
allocate 100% to fleet and 100%-200% to colonies depending on how fast I
want them to grow.
* Alternate between high and low tax levels. Once you've built an
adequate number of ships for current needs, stop building ships
altogether, and concentrate on Research & Development until your
technology levels have gone up by about four to six in each category
(weapons and shields particularly). When you're ready to replace the worst
of your ships, bring the tax rate down and replace a whole class. Then
crank the rate back up. A reasonably productive homeworld can build a
fair-sized squadron in three turns with a low tax rate.
shipyard and factory capacity of that planet will be shown next to the
factory and shipyard capacity needed for the ship you're building. If the
shipyard and factory capacity is less than that of the ship you are
building, it will take more than one turn to build. Moral: Shop around for
planets to build things on.
* After the initial turn you'll have very little money left over. You'll
want to immediately hike your tax rate to 15-20%. You always want to pump
up technology. I devote 1/4-1/3 of my surplus to technology. I hold off
allocating anything to espionage until I actually encounter another race.
If population is getting to be a problem I increase social spending. This
also has the benefit of allowing me to increase taxes even higher, but
decreases the productivity of your factories and shipyards. I always
allocate 100% to fleet and 100%-200% to colonies depending on how fast I
want them to grow.
* Alternate between high and low tax levels. Once you've built an
adequate number of ships for current needs, stop building ships
altogether, and concentrate on Research & Development until your
technology levels have gone up by about four to six in each category
(weapons and shields particularly). When you're ready to replace the worst
of your ships, bring the tax rate down and replace a whole class. Then
crank the rate back up. A reasonably productive homeworld can build a
fair-sized squadron in three turns with a low tax rate.