From: saschreu@cs.vu.nl (Schreuder SA)
Subject: Re: Galaxy help needed
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 14:50:30 GMT

In article <C0o93y.E7u@news.cso.uiuc.edu> amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead) writes:
>First, thank you David, for your comments on my analysis of the single
>cruiser vs 30 escorts.  I agree, in any case, the cruiser is screwed
>unless captained by a Kirk.
>
>desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins) writes:
>
>>   transport100   72   0   0   0  27     99     14.55      7.24      99.9
>
>Ok, so if you ever need to send 99.9 of anything, this is your ship...
>But how often is that economical?  I find the close match between 1
>cargo unit to 1 CAP or 1 COL to be a benefit, not a bug.  Once!, I have
>built a large freighter to ply a specific and special MAT route and
>then I decided that it wasn't worth it to haul MAT.

You did produce MAT? I can't see any need to produce MAT, except
to be able to produce more ton's of ship next turns.

If you want to build a mass 100 ship, that will take two turns
on your home planet: 99 the first turn and it will be build the second turn.
But if you produce MAT the first turn it will be still build the second
turn, but the third turn, one is able to build another mass 100 ship,
maybe with a different design. On a planet with Resources below 1 this
gain in mass-production will be even greater.

This is the only reason I see to produce MAT at all.

>You should never
>need to ply a special route in CAP or COL for an indefinite period of
>time.  And I suggest that a greater accomplishment in ship design (in
>general) is to design that ship that will perform well under a variety
>of conditions.

Maybe mix this two strategies: I have designed the following ship
in galaxy 7:
N             D  A   W   S   C
Cargo        20  0   0   0  13

This ship is able to carry 29.9 tons at a rate of 6.35 ly/turn.
This was enough to reach two close-by planets.
I have build one turn, so I have three ships: one to carry COL,
and two to carry CAP.

Because my home-planet is visited every second turn, there will be 20 COL
ready, and enough CAP to carry. The ships will transport 59.8 IND and 160 POP
to the colonies. This is a nice start, and after some turns the planet will be
big enough to build its own defenses and CAP at its own.

When those first two planets were almost filled with POP/IND, I upgraded
my ships to a higher drive-technology, and they were able to reach some
more planets.

I still use the ships, together with some small ships for long-range transport.

Please no remarks about the inefficient way of colonizing: I developped
fully some planets before colonizing new ones. It has a great advantage:
My planets are well guarded, and the planet I started had only 3 planets
within 10 ly distance, so I wasn't able to colonize many planets.
>
>-alan


Another hint: Build at the start some small ships with enough shields
to withstand an attack of 1. I used 6 1 1 6 0 ships.
I sent them around, and they have killed a total mass of 200 or more,
and bombed 10+ planets. I was even able to kill/bomb more, but
I didn't like the idea of being at war with too many people at once.
The result of this is that I have enough planets left to colonize for the first
10+ turns, and that I know all planets around me.

In my opinion are shields at the start of the game more important than weapons:
ships that can't be hurt by other ships will win all wars, while
ships with big guns, but without a good shield are likely to be destroyed
by a fleet of small ships.

Of course Drive is even more important: I have a drive-tech of 3.01 now,
so I am able to build cargo's with speed 20+ and even warships that are
able to reach enemy planets within a turn.

About the hint to have peace with your neighbours: It is nice that one
doesn't need to build warships, but beware: If there isn't any room left
to expand your empire, you have to start a war. A better strategy
is IMHO to bomb planets before one needs them. Be sure you
pick one of your neighbour who isn't able to react because his planets
are too far away from his home-planet. A even better strategy is to
cooperate with some of his other neighbours and share his planets.

Disclamer: It is maybe a good strategy to attack other players, but I am still
as peaceful as I can be. But I will attack anyone who is attacking me!

Sjoerd Schreuder (saschreu@cs.vu.nl)

Zwagonian in Galaxy 7
Newbie    in Galaxy Alpha
Fuzzy     in Galaxy Beta
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm