Gaia Cresent - Poor Planet Start

from Sins Forums

The following question applies to the single-player map, Gaia Cresent.

With normal default player settings, the Gaia Cresent map spawns you on a pop. 10 world with a -.7 to -2.2 (yes, negative) tax rate.  The starting credit amount of 3000 disappears really fast if you don't jump on building up your planet fast.  After some trial and error, I found if I immediately grab 2 planet population upgrades (to get the planet to pop. 100), queue up a capital ship factory, then quickly sell the remaining starting stores of metal and crystal, then I have just enough cash left over to buy the extractors for the starting asteroids.

After all those start-up contortions, I still only end up with either a small negative cash flow of -.4 (if I spawned on a -2.2 planet) to +.5 or so (for a -.7 start planet).   Basically I can buy no ships other than to make the freebie first capital ship.   Since a low or negative cash rate means a constant zero cash level , all I can do is sell the slowly accumulating minerals on the black market to raise cash for a scout ship or two within the first 10 min of the game.

With this map there are only desolate planets (arctic, volcanic, desert, asteroid) nearby.  All planet nodes have the usual fleet of pirate squatters.  So if I were to colonize any spots nearby, I would be immediately be saddled with another huge negative cash flow, -2.2 or so, possibly ending up with a -4.4 cash flow, and a constant zero cash level.

After sending the scouts out, when I found the AI planet I noticed that with only a pop of 30 (one planet upgrade), the AI had a tax rate of +2.2 compared to my -.7 or +.5.   Moreover, the mineral accumulation rate from my 1 planet is really low, so there is no way I can get more than a cap ship and 1-2 ships by the time of the first pirate attack.  (And likewise, I can forget about trying to outbid the AI for control of the pirates).

Question:  How are you supposed to get started here?  I see no way since the negative cash flow keeps you from stockpiling cash by selling minerals, and worse, the mineral accumulation rate is so low, black market cash is pretty meager also. 

About all I can manage are 2 guns in addition to the free cap ship and scout before the first pirate strike.  Since several structures inevitably get wiped out in a raid, I can't rebuild...and it just keeps going downhill.  I can't expand, because I can't afford to get the research to colonize desolate planets, and shouldn't anyway since I have no positive cash flow to get the upgrades for them anyway.  Any colonization would just increase my negative cash flow.  The only fertile planets are about 4-5 nodes away, so my cap ship would probably be fairly beat up by the time it got there, then have to fight 15 heavy cruisers, LRMs, frigates, etc...  Any hints on how to get survive an AI here that has a 4 to 1 tax advantage on normal settings?

 (Note: although I was playing TEC, feel free to use Vasari or Advent perspective if you think they would be better civs for this map.)

 

 

strategy
3,382 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
it took me a couple of restarts to figure this one out but the biggest and easiest to thing to overlook is that your planet is not your home planet. try and make it your homeplanet as soon as you safely possible. this will boost your allegiance up to 100% and you will make money faster. the planet starts with 25% allegiance.

if i remember correctly, i immediatley made it my home planet and built the free cap ship to stem the pirate attacks i couldn't afford to buy out.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks, I just noticed the "Home Planet" was not set for this map, - I didn't realize the massive impact lacking that upgrade had on tax income. Even so, because you have to blow so much of your starting cash on upgrading the planet first, the game gets going very slowly on this map. However, I think I ended up buying every single pirate run against the AI after that. I ended up doing much better than on most maps because it forced both the AI and myself to go slow. I just went civic development all the way until the end.
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I also did a lot of trial and error.

Yep, immediate step one is make the planet your capitol, and sink the rest of your cash into one infrastructure upgrade while building a few other things concurrently to empty out your cash. That way you stop losing credits, since you can't go into the negative. Yes, you'll have to wait for income to do your next purchase, but if you were smart with your purchases, they were things you'd have needed anyways. Get an asteroid, possibly another planet. Do not take what you cannot immediately pump a bunch of defenses into and hold. And don't fall for those stupid siege frig raids! Have anti-light armor defenses.

If it's against the AI, first focus on making credits, dont bother with resource upgrades. Crystals too hard to focus on(unless you manage to bag an ice planet), and metal just isn't needed very much yet. Black market can be utilized in a pinch. Rely on turrets + repair station + a cap ship to defend yourself via a choke point. You should be just fine with that for now.

By the time other AI empires are ready to threaten you, your econ should be quite healthy, and you'll be capable of pumping out the ships or defenses you need. An efficient Econ focus will keep the startup time within acceptable time.

Against players... No clue.