Lacuna reduex

I have decided to come back and give Lacuna another go-around. Hopefully, since I have a better understanding of the game, and having experienced the pros / cons I may be able to get something more worthwhile from it. Also, it has been several months since last being on; I'm hoping the issues and complaints of things have been addressed, and that, being a game that tags an ever expanding experience, that new things have been added.

1. I am NOT going to saturate my game play with various accounts to generate more alliance members. Although fun at first, it became tiresome.

2. I do not plan on stepping out of the isolationist status until my constructs are at what I determine to be a high enough level. Even though I feel I did damn well with things before, I think I could manage things a wee bit differently... and better... this time.

SO, with that said, if anyone wishes to join me in this, I am going by the name Ex Obscurum. I will not feel let down or disappointed if no one goes back to Lacuna, I understand.

Ya know, I had forgotten I went back to Lacuna. I didn't remember until I made an account today

Umbra Ianuam, for any who might be interested. Went to the wiki and read that they've done A LOT of changes; for example, you are only allowed 10 SAWs on a planet. It even goes to say that if you had more than that before the change took effect, your total defense would still only equal 10.

That does seem a bit harsh; look at how many I once had on a planet! I'm certain there's probably a reason for this, but I haven't gotten that far in the wiki.

Taking things at a nice pace right now; I was able to get all my buildings to level 8 before the Tranponder went away; that makes for a hefty start, doesn't it?

For the sake of argument, don't bother with taking this thread out of limbo just yet. I want to see how long I can play before I get bored of it again... this will probably become a dead thread (again) before too long.

Just colonized my fourth planet, and I was all prepared for the long grind of building happiness and resources and and and.

Boy, was I ever surprised by what I found!

On this planet, I have the following artifacts (and their purpose as follows)...

1 Algea Pond - 4640 food per hour
1 Geo Thermal Vent - 11,148 power an hour
1 Ravine - stores 288,300 waste
1 Volcano - 11,159 ore per hour
1 Interdimensional Rift - stores 58,000 of each resource
1 Kalavian Ruins - 5,600 happiness per hour
1 Natural Spring - 11,532 water per hour
1 Crashed Ship Site - increases all the stats of any ship I build by 5%

My resource storage will be full in just over 5 days (about 61,500 per resource), and my waste in... heheheheh... 3628 days! I don't know what I'll produce on this planet, but whatever it is, it'll be grand!

-EDIT-

I'm decided that this new planet will house my university. it sucks that I'll be having to make one from scratch again and build it back up, but I reasoned that with so many resources flowing forth from the planet, and knowing just how much crap I need to upgrade higher end structures like the university, this planet would be ideal to do so.

As it is, I'll have one planet strictly for the university, one for building ships (that planet has a resource profile of 500 for each ore type), one for building spies (has crap for resources), and then one for happiness and colonizations (my capital). I figure I need at least one more to make more ships; that way I can at least start in creating a fleet.

And for completion sake, if anyone wants to try this game (again or for the first time), follow this link; not only will you get to the game, but you'll do me the added favor of giving me in-game points. Oh, and your home world will be somewhere near one of my planets, which would make things easier as well.

https://us1.lacunaexpanse.com/#referral=6be9394c-e726-3d34-b14a-18202008d249

Was just awarded 50 Halls of Verbansk due to my "Dear Santa" entry in the Lacuna forums. For those wondering, a Hall of Verbansk is as follows, the image taken straight from the Lacuna Expanse wiki...



Essentially what this means is that I can upgrade those really cool structures on the planet mentioned in an earlier post... and never be wanting for anything! Mwa-hahahahahaha!

Archaeology Ministry

Can't say I remember much about the AM before, back when 'crunch and I were playing this. Couldn't even tell you if I even built one before. {just remembered, I did} This time around, I have built one, one for each colony. Why so many?

Back in the day, an AM would allow you to build an excavator class ship, and would go through 10,000 of a particular ore type to find glyphs, plans, or artifacts (at the cost of that ore, and 6 hours of time). But now, there is a third thing it does, and this is a good thing: the AM runs in the background, sifting through your ore, and can automatically detect plans and glyphs for free.

For free?!

For free!

Oh sure, you can still use the 10,000 of a specific ore to find that specific glyph, plan or artifact. Fact is, the only way for you to find an artifact is to use this option (or build an excavator). But now, with hourly reports and an automatic sifting, this is one of those buildings you cannot afford to not build!

In one month, not even that when you consider when I first built my first AM, I have found a total of 11 plans and about 30 glyphs. My AMs are leveled at 1, 1, 3, and 6. AM level doesn't mean anything, as one of my level 1 AMs has found the same number of glyphs as the level 6... same with the plans; the level 1s have found plans just as frequent as the level 6.

I've found that going from my AM to check my glyphs, and then to the Lacuna wiki to look up glyph recipes, back and forth like that, is a hassle. I went and printed off the recipe list, but the grid doesn't print, and I didn't want to print in color and waste all that ink.

So I did the next best thing! Surprised no one else has done this yet... a printable listing! And now, I put my hard work out there for you; granted, it's a picture of the list, but I would believe you can simply open the image in a new tab, then download or print it off yourself. Brilliant, huh?

**Guess I wasn't too brilliant after all... the mineral HAROGEN should read HALITE.

Just wanted to say that I've gone and constructed embassies on all my colony worlds to increase (or decrease, case may be) shipment times between them. And, as an added benefit, because an embassy has been made, I am now leading a small one person alliance.

So, with that said, if anyone wants to come back or try this game out, follow the link below; your initial world will be placed near one of mine; don't know if it'd be in the same star system or not, but you'll be close. And, when you are ready to leave the isolationist group, feel free to let me know, and I'll send you an invite to join my ranks... or, if you prefer to make your own, that's fine too.

https://us1.lacunaexpanse.com/#referral=6be9394c-e726-3d34-b14a-18202008d249

This here's a two-fold post.

One. Someone has decided to launch... something... at me. Three incoming ships total, travel time remaining 5 days 9 hours.

At that speed, I'm thinking scows, or thuds. Either way, they pose no threat. I already have 10 level seven SAWs in place, five drones in the hanger, and a slew of fighters being constructed at the moment. If they somehow manage to get through, I have more than enough storage for waste (lessons learned) and enough plots without having to worry (31 remain open).

Fact is, remember how I mentioned I'm making each planet perform a specific role? This one's being designed to safeguard this particular system. I'm the only occupier, and with the SAWs set up, I'm going to be the only one, as SAWs still shoot down colonizing vessels. I picked this system pretty carefully, having sent scanners to all the planets; the entire system was once occupied by one empire, they decided to blow themselves up, and left many wonderful toys in their wake (constructed plans or artifacts don't get removed upon empire destruction).

Two. Some advice for anyone who may decide to come back.

Atmospheric Evaporators. Don't know exactly how useful these are. I mean, they are great for producing water, but you have to be damned careful, for if you exceed the water rating of your planet, you will begin to produce a negative amount of water (it sucks the moisture out of your air). Simply degrading the evaporator a level or two will not help, you have to totally destroy that building and wait and wait and wait for your water levels to return to normal before even considering to rebuild it.

Seekers. when you begin to build up your planet(s), you'll hopefully have a shipyard constructed (it is part of the tutorial). Open the menu for the yard, go to build ships and click the all option. This gives you a list of every ship type in the game. Scroll through this list and check out each ship of the seeker type. Seekers are akin to homing missiles, and will only strike that particular building. When you build those buildings, my advice is to make sure you don't build anything near them, as the explosion does carry with it splash damage; it may not destory any constructs adjacent to it, but they will be damaged.

Three placebos. What the hell. Over five days to get to me, five days of advanced prepping and building, even to the point of building key relic structures. That's how I know they were placebos... my drones didn't fire off, no messages about the SAWs having shot down anything, no battle report, and, most importantly, I have the Citadel, which gives me a free ship of the same type that was destroyed; nothing was gained.

Cowards.

Reworking some planets here. When I colonize, I like to have at least two planets within a system, as to provide better support in defense. Sadly, I have two planets which are the sole colonies within two separate systems, with which I will be eliminating soon.

The really screwed up part? One is my home world (has level 12 capitol), the other contains the university (level 18).

With the planet that I recently colonized, I'm planning on making that into my new center of knowledge, as its previous occupier has so graciously left behind his relics; that planet is producing 65K of each resource, in addition to several other artifacts which would prove useful (this used to be his home world). I very well may make this into the capitol as well, haven't decided yet.

Anyway, currently in the process of moving all my plans, glyphs, and resources. Should take a fair amount of time, I suppose. I could just forget about the resources... oh, and I will be also destroying the relics I've built, so as not to allow another player to gain them; I know, how can I claim the workings of another if I myself will deny that same benefit?

...

I'm just an ass that way, I suppose.

EDIT

You cannot abandon a home world. That's fine... my home world will now be the center of happiness, allowing me to send forth colony ships. I've destroyed as many buildings as I can and will be rebuilding this planet from scratch; the former colony containing the university is no more.

Want to join in on the action? Click on this link, become an in-game friend, and you'll have a planet near one of mine.

https://us1.lacunaexpanse.com/#referral=6be9394c-e726-3d34-b14a-18202008d249

Today I want to take a moment and detail the strategy plan that I use in Lacuna Expanse, in the hopes that maybe someone might see this and either think it’s a good plan, or think of a way in which it can be improved.

Early on in the game, I believed that having it so that each planet was responsible for one thing was a good thing… and it was, at that time. In the early stages, it was good to diversify, as resources were limited, and having a single goal for each planet helped alleviate those concerns. However, as expansion continued, that plan quickly fell to the wayside: having a single planet produce spies or ships to cover all worlds held was just not logistically sound.

I have always liked the idea of having more than one planet in each system; this not only prevents you from being utterly surrounded by a competing empire, but permits you to fully support your own with defensive capabilities such as the SAW system and fighters / drones (also, on a more personal note, limiting your species to just one orbit has many disadvantages, which should only be tried by players more experienced than I). By expanding on this idea, you’ll find you can have a self-sustaining structure within each system you control.

What follows then is a listing of what I have done, or am currently in the process of doing. The key to everything, as you will see, is focus.

Empire Home World – This is probably the one time you can have a single planet within a system, at least up to a certain point. As this is the first world you will occupy, chances are it’ll also be the one with which you develop the most. If you follow the tutorial (and why wouldn’t you?), you’ll see your plots will be quickly taken away as you build more and more. All I can say is, once you have colonized your second world, stop upgrading on this world; this planet will be so over-whelmed with a wide variety of structures, not only will you fail at trying to figure out what to upgrade next, but your resources will be drastically reduced to the point where you won’t be able to upgrade anything. You could focus on this being a strictly university planet, but what I have found to work better is that the home world be the planet that generates your happiness: let this be the planet that you send forth the colonizing ships. Focus on happiness: build the apartments and upgrade them like there’s no tomorrow. Maintain such structures such as Mission Command and the Entertainment district (although these aren’t essential). As a must, have five different food sources, since every time you upgrade or build something new, you’ll gain happiness. And, when you can, as soon as you can, build a Capitol; this prevents spies from causing all sorts of problems on your world, and generates happiness. Build and upgrade SAWs (shoots incoming hostile craft) and upgrade your spaceport (not only does it act as a harbor for your vessels, but also the higher its level, the better it can detect incoming ships). Build an Intelligence Ministry so you can build the Security Station, and once you build the Station, destroy the Ministry; upgrade the Station (the higher the upgrade, the better it can detect cloaked ships). On any available plot, plant parks or even craft some artifact structures to produce happiness (I forget what that structure is called)… by using up all your plots, an enemy cannot utilize Thuds or that vessel that eats away your resources. And, whatever you do, don’t construct an Archeology Ministry here: that just gives foreign spies something to steal. Remember, the key here is to produce as much happiness as you can, as quickly as you can! And, if you develop it along these lines, it will, for the most part, be safe from other alliances or empires. Oh, don’t forget the Observatory and shipyard (you do need to build probes and colony ships after all).

Here you can see what I've done so far with my happiness generation; right now, just with these buildings, I'm producing about 95,000 happiness an hour; this will be increasing rather soon




University World – Almost like the Home World set-up, but instead of happiness, you’re trying to upgrade your university quickly. The main structures for this are the University, Development Ministry, and the Oversight Ministry; the university so you can unlock new structures, development so you can have a chain of structures to be built at once, and the oversight so you can build quicker. In upgrading the university, you will go through resources like there’s no tomorrow, but if you do this right, you will be producing resources, and have your storage units maxed out, even before the university has completed its upgrade. Myself, with this build, I wouldn’t worry about foreign spies, especially since the university will be generating so much happiness that you needn’t worry about a mutiny or insurrection, and, by limiting on what structures to build, you won’t have to worry about Seekers (pesky target lock missiles that destroy specific structures). Build and upgrade SAWs to act as a defense against hostile incoming ships, and if you want (although not really necessary) build the Security Station. I would also go ahead and build the spaceport / shipyard combo to produce drones, but if you are using the strategy used here, it really won’t be necessary.

With this, because I've been working on this strategy, I now have the ability to make a world sized ocean, which you can see a part of here.




Ship World – One part of the dual-protection strategy, here you will be focusing on ship building. Do not build an observatory, as you don’t need it (only really need one, and that’s on the Home World). The shipyard (where ships are built) and spaceport (where ships are stored) are the main essentials, but you’ll also want to build four other structures: Munitions Lab (increases attack capability), Cloaking Lab (increases defense capability), Propulsion Lab (increases the speed of your ships) and Pilot Training. Each of these four structures unlocks different ship types, depending on the level of that structure. One other important structure here would be the Ore Refinery; build this, upgrade this, as it will be your friend… you need gold, and a lot of it, to further upgrade the Pilot Training Center. Additionally, build and upgrade SAWs for defense, and upgrade the Trade Ministry. Why? The higher the Trade Ministry, the greater the storage capacity of your transports: you’ll need to transport your vessels (drones or fighters) to your neighboring world in order for them to be stationed there. You could just “send” fighters to the other world, and that’s fine, just make sure they can get there fast enough; keep in mind they’ll come back to their originating world. A high spaceport and Security Station would also be a good idea.

Here is one example of a ship world in action. Nothing really to show, or tell for that matter. Oh wait, yes there is: all of the ship creation buildings are between level 12 and 15, and the SAWs are at eight. Also, the circular structure in the middle left side? Artifact building: absorbs damage from any ship that manages to get through my defenses.




Spy World – One part of the dual-protection strategy, here you will be focusing on spy training. The three main structures are the Intelligence Ministry, Security Station, and Espionage something-or-another; these three allow for the training of spies, control how many you can have, and safeguards against foreign spies. Just as with the ships, there are four additional structures that can be used for your spies: Intel, Mayhem, Theft, and… and… don’t know off-hand. Training in these will increase particular stats for the spies trained; note that this is offensive training, whereas increasing the main three increases defensive! A fifth, optional, structure would be the Mercenary Guild, where you can buy and sell spies. Build a spaceport and shipyard in order to produce spy pods and spy shuttles, if and only if you plan on infiltrating a different empire (I’d suggest building a cloaking lab in addition, if this is what you want to do). However, as the focus so far is to support your own, forget about the spy vessels. Have the Ship World construct a barge, and transport one point of resources to the Spy World (make sure to check the “stay at planet” box within the push tab). A barge will carry a lot of spies, and since you are sending them to an allied planet, it won’t be shot down. Click on the space view, click on the Ship World (or other allied planet of your choice), and towards the right of the read-out it will say Send Spies. Click that, check how many spies you want to send, hit send, select the barge, and away you go. The Spy World still controls those spies, so you will want to select their mission type once they’ve arrived. And yes, build SAWs. Keep in mind that the Security Station robs you of happiness: you will want to counter that.

An example of a spy world. The three main buildings are leveled between 13 and 15, whereas the four optional ones are hovering at five. The two buildings in the lower left are artifact structures: the one surrounded by the lake allows me to spy on someone's planet without being detected, and the bottom one simply gives me details and informationon a particular species.




See how well this works out? For Spy World, you have three main structures and five optional for a total of eight; for the Ship World, you have three main, and up to four optional, for a total of seven. This doesn’t count support structures. Altogether, this would account for 15 buildings, about half of your available plots (I suppose one third would make more sense). Factor in the resource generators, storage, SAWs, waste control… by dividing up the focus, you will have more available plots, allowing for more resource production, which would allow for higher upgraded levels! I was fortunate enough to land three colony worlds within one system, so I have a University, Ship, and Spy World in it, which allows me freedom on the University World to just focus on upgrading the university.

Now, a few things that aren’t so much related to the dual system strategy, but rather relates to a better empire.

Trade Ministry. Build them on the planets that produce the most resources. Upgrade this building; the higher the upgrade, the better the transports. From within the Trade Ministry you can “push” resources, waste, glyphs, or plans to another colony; this may not be important now, but it will eventually come in handy.

Embassy. Build one on EACH planet you control. You may not be wanting to form yet another alliance, but the embassy allows you to perform alliance specific abilities, such as automatic transfer of resources. This structure is also key in creating the Space Station.

Seekers. As I had mentioned earlier, this are missiles that target specific buildings. When they hit that structure, depending on the level of seeker being used, it causes splash damage to neighboring buildings. To prevent collateral damage, go to your shipyard, change the build arrow from Now to All, and scroll through the ship list so you can see what all seeker types there are. Build those structures away from other buildings. Simple, huh?

Every time I think I may be done, I go and do something that keeps me in. Currently, I have founded a new colony, one which is geared towards Research and Development... at the current university level, my R&D planet is just upgrading the Gas Giant Lab.

In other news, it seems my idea of dual systems, with one focused on fighter construction and the other on spy training, works rather well.

With my university gradually hitting the 20th level mark, and with the founding of a dedicated R&D world, I'd have to say things are shaping rather nicely.

This is kind of an older update, as the latest colony world was founded a while back. This one is strictly a research and development world: gas giant lab, terraforming lab, genetics lab. A given is that there would also be a security station (to send foreign spies for experimentation), and a shipyard / spaceport to build and launch lab-specific ships.

In one of the above posts, I mentioned how my capital world was generating roughly 95K of happiness an hour. Pfft. It's now at 250K an hour, which I also plan on increasing with the use of Halls (upgrading a key ancient happiness generator).

All told, I have nine worlds now, and current stand at 40 million away from settling a tenth; I'm hoping to have something set-up on a gas giant, or maybe even within an orbit I cannot normally live on... but the plots per level for the labs is so limiting. If I do that, it would have to be a planet within a central location, and just go crazy with spaceports so I can have a central base of operations to launch defenses.

OR, there's always finding an other rainbow planet. A rainbow planet, for those that might not know, is a planet that generates every type of mineral resource. With this, I could build a dedicated colony to construct and service a space station. Granted, a space station would prove more effective if I had a working alliance...

Let's see, what other updates were there? Oh, some fellow tried an assault on my home world. He launched 102 vessels at me; sadly, they were mainly Placebo craft and empty scows; my forces held him off. Silly bastard.

In just over three days time, I shall be the proud owner of a new Junkhenge. Yay!

Everything else is going rather well. 10 colonies now; one university, one happiness (home planet), one research and development, one space station creator / supplier, three spy centers and three ship builders. Due to limitations on colony settlement, a couple of these planets will have to work double duty... maybe. The R&D and the SS colonies will also be constructing ships and (perhaps) spies, only so far until I get a high enough gas lab or terraforming platform made.

Just for shits and giggles, here's my empire so far:



The binary systems are self explanatory: one shipyard and one espionage center. The system with three planets has a shipyard, an espionage center, and the univesity. The single one in the system that has a shield over the sun is my home planet, and the two single ones are R&D and SS.

One of you reading this may be wondering what's up with the shield and face over the system's suns. Those are owned systems, meaning they fall under the jurisdiction of an alliance that has a space station (nearby, of a space station in general I have no idea). Siezed... I have no idea. I should look that information up on the wiki. Anyway, as an example, the system with a face: I colonized those two planets before there was a face, and when I went to colonize a third, I was told that only members of the -------------- alliance could colonize these worlds. Same with my home planet's system. There was an occupied planet there, but the player self destructed; went to colonize a second world and couldn't. However, the two that are labeled "Seized" I was able to colonize.

Huh. I just noticed that I don't share a system with anyone anymore. Time to send forth mining platforms and excavators, yes?

It takes A LOT of resources to build up a university past level 20. Even more so when trying to take it to level 22. Can't imagine what the requirements are for levels beyond that!

I'm currently in the process of building up my resources so I can level up to 22. Luckily I've been producing many a Halls of Vrbansk plans (if you recall an earlier post, these upgrade certain buildings / landmarks). Fact of the matter is, the planet I have my university on doesn't contain a single resource generating structure... everything that is producing a resource is either a waste recycler of a specific type or a plan / artifact structure.

Also, am I ever glad I saved my essentia! By going into the Subspace Transporter and clicking on Available Trades, you'll find many good deals from other players. For me, I've been purchasing group packages of level 6 plans (about 10 plans per package) for four essential!

Sure wish others would join me though. I know! Click on the link below!

https://us1.lacunaexpanse.com/#referral=6be9394c-e726-3d34-b14a-18202008d249

My strategy for creating specialist colonies worked wonders: I've been able to upgrade those specific buildings to level 16+. Though certainly not as high as higher level players, I believe that, for the time being, this covers my needs. On to Phase II.

(Actually, there really wasn't a Phase I or Phase II. I've just gotten bored with the build times.)

With my acquiring level 6 plans for resources, I've been able to triple my resource output, and with many of the planets having 5 - 20 plots remaining, I've decided that a little extra protection wouldn't hurt. I've taken to building espionage and ship structures on the opposite planets, with the exception of the spy training centers. Once I get those buildings up to level 10+, I believe the next phase will be in generating happiness and in expanding / leveling up the various embassies.

Well this is certainly new...  a new layout / design for writing posts?  Oooh, fancy 

Anyway, just wanted to take a quick moment and say I've abandoned two colonies; they weren't getting me anywhere, and were rather limited on resource production.  In turn, a recently launched probe has detected a system containing several rainbow class planets (a rainbow planet has a mineral count of 500 for every mineral type.  One of the planets, located within a zone I can populate, has 63 available plots and a water count of 10,397; luckily for me, by abandoning those two colonies, I am able to colonize this one right away!

My vessel lands in just over three hours.

In continuation as to what has become not so much an account of what I am doing but rather a how to / examples of, I bring to you the next installment.

High Level University.

There really is no way around this.  When leveling up your university, you are going to be screwed for resources.  Oh sure, it may make sense to keep your university on your home world so that you can take advantage of the Capital building and in turn the Stockpile (stockpile allows you to build resource buildings beyond level 20, but can only be built on planet with a capital, and a capital can only be built on your homeworld)... but at the same time, this will hinder your growth.  You'll need to raise the level of the Stockpile by three levels for every one level of a resource building above 20; in other words, to make a level 21 mine, you need a level three stockpile... level 22 / level 6, and so on.  You also need a level ten Capital in order to build the stockpile.

With everything you have to build in order to build something else, you are going to run out of waste storage, and you'll be collecting garbage at an unbelievable rate.  Your colony will be drowning in waste, you will lose happiness.

My suggestion, and one that is working pretty well so far, is to have a separate planet to act as your university world.

When you first get this colony, you will need to build the following:

1.  Three food sources.  You need a minimum of three high yield producing food sources; avoid the Malcud Fungus Farm and Algae Cropper if at all possible.  Sure, they eat away at your waste, but the amount of food produced does not justify the cost, and the amount of waste consumed is low.  If you have less than three food sources, every time you build something (including upgrades) you will lose happiness!

2.  A level five mine.  This is essential so that you can then build an ore refinery; a refinery increases your ore output.  Once you have produced your refinery, you can destroy the mine; the refinery will still be there, and can still be upgraded.

3.  Individual waste recyclers.  I'm talking about waste energy plant, waste digester, and the water reclamation plant.  Avoid using the Waste Treatment Center... and here's why.  A level 15 Waste Treatment Center consumes 21,252 waste per hour (depending on your race's stats, and I have a level 5 for Environment) while producing 6398 ore, 6320 water, and 6320 energy per hour; it produces less than what it consumes.  Compare that to a level 15 waste digester (-11,088 waste / +18,609 ore per hour), level 15 water reclamation (-23,562 waste / +28,275 water) and the waste plant (-21,252 waste / +23,252 energy).  An individual waste recycler will consume nearly the same amount of waste while producing more of that particular resource.

Want an other example?  Let us compare the waste recyclers to the buildings that produce those resources.  A level 15 mine will produce +26,011 ore an hour AND 2,310 waste, versus the digester's +18,609 ore.  A level 15 water production plant produces +44,352, versus the reclamation of 28,275.  And finally, a level 15 singularity produces +213,907 energy an hour versus the waste's 23,252.  So yes, a resource producer will produce more of the resource than a waste recycler.

But you also have to be careful.  The production plants also consume a high amount of other resources to produce those specific resources.  For example, that level 15 water production plant consumes 18,480 ore an hour as well as 18,480 in energy (the other resource plants are considerably less in their consumption).  It may be prudent to produce on of each facility... but there is another way, a more favorable way...

4.  Plans.  These will be more favorable to you in the long run, if you have the patience.  They only take seconds to build, do not occupy a plot, and will produce more than enough of what you need (without consuming other resources or producing waste).There are six plus plans that will be essential to you, but three plus that are required: Volcano (ore), Natural Spring (water), Geo Thermal Vent (energy), and the "plus" (being the food plans specific to your planet).  The optional plans are the Ravine (waste storage) and the Interdimensional Rift (resource storage).  The downside to this is that it take a certain number of Halls of Vrbansk to upgrade them (one Hall for each level of structure plus one additional Hall).

If you are fortunate, you would not have spent your essentia while playing the game.  Build a Subspace Transporter (I believe one was awarded to you for the tutorial... if not, just build it).  Open the Available Trades tab, and on the pull down menu scroll to the PLANS section.  If you are lucky (and you will be), someone will be selling plans at level five or level six within one gift package; all the plans you need, and then some!  The usual rate is about five essentia, plus one essentia for the transaction, but it is worth it.  Trust me.  Push those plans to your university world if needed, and build away!  Note: if you already have a ravine or whatever on your planet, it will have to be destroyed in order to build the better one.

In continuation of using the Water Production Plant as the example:  it produces +44,352 water an hour while consuming an exorbitant amount of other resources AND produces +3,696 waste an hour.  In comparison, a level nine Natural Spring produces +159,917 water an hour!  +247,871 at level ten!  A level seven Volcano produces +107,079 ore an hour and a level eight Geo Thermal Vent produces +99,713 in energy an hour.

Like I said, the difficult part will be upgrading these, but if you can get the "starter pack" from the Supspace Transport, you are good to go.  Keep your eye on your glyph production and combine to make your Halls!  Note: it is easier to transport a glyph than it is a plan.  A glyph only weighs 100 pouns, whereas a plan weighs 10,000.  BUT...  if you do not have an Archaeology Ministry on your destination world, the glyph will be lost!  A plan does not need a building in order to be stored.

5.  Support structures.  An Archaeology Ministry is greatly needed.  Not only will it find new glyphs automatically every hour (success dependent on its level), but it is needed in order for you to transport glyphs to that world (it stores them).  A Spaceport is also required; without it, any incoming ships will be turned away, as they do not have a place to land to unload their cargo.  A level one Spaceport is all you really need, but the higher the Archaeology Ministry, the better.

6.  A university.  This really goes against saying.  Why make a planet dedicated to leveling up a university if you don't have a university?

Now then, here is a case as to why I prefer waste recyclers compared to normal production plants.  A level 21 university will produce +166,574 waste an hour, a level 22 will produce +258,190.  If you do not have an adequate waste removal system in place, you will drown!  If you just stick to these key buildings, you can handle any amount of waste, while producing the resources you need.  Remember, you are not producing anything else: you are not making spies or space craft, all you are doing is maintaining the university.  Produce what you need!

As you can see by this image, I may be producing a lot of resources, but I am consuming a great deal more.  Once I upgrade, I am going to need to create a massive amount of Halls.  Luckily for me, I also have a good number of waste recyclers and 20 plots still available to use.



7. The last bit you need to carry out a successful university upgrading campaign is storage. I have seven storage structures all together... one of each resource specific storage unit, two distribution centers, and one Interdimensional Rift. My storage units are at level 22, and each holds 11.5 million units of that resource (except water, that one holds 11.9 million). A level 19 Distribution Center (you can only have two per planet) holds 2.3 million of EACH resource type. A level seven Interdimensional Rift only holds 804,000 of each resource, but at level eight it holds 1.25 million (and just takes off from there).

Buildings you really don't need.

1. After a point, you really don't need a Development Ministry anymore (the building that allows you to build several buildings at once). It just gets to a point where your build times are just so high that it really doesn't pay to prepare for a week's worth of builds. Just check in once or twice a day.

2. Oversight Ministry. Again, at some point does it really make a difference if you are building for a day and a half versus building for two?

3. Everything else. Really. As long as you stick to the "buddy system" of having two or more planets within the same star system, you're good.

Optional Buildings.

Having optional buildings kind of defeats the need for a "Buildings you don't need: everything else", doesn't it? Well guess what, you might want to take advantage of your university's level!

1. A Security Ministry. A Security Ministry will detect cloaked ships approaching your planet. Normally this isn't an issue, but enemy spies have the ability to steal plans. You don't want your hard fought Halls stolen, do you? But, then again, if you have a planet that is producing spies, make a whole bunch and send them to the university world and set them on counter-espionage.

2. Ship yard and Observatory. You may want to make a colony ship. I'm producing +164,892 happiness an hour. This isn't anywhere near what my home world is producing, but it is good enough. Let's say your home world just colonized its eighth planet; you need over 290 million happiness for your ninth. Oh look, your university has that! Also, you may be tempted to produce a high number of drones to help repel any inbound attack; just keep in mind that you need your resources for your university!

3. Any plan buildings. As long as it is a plan, it doesn't require incoming resources for maintenance. Why not give your planet more protection, happiness, or a beach? Key plans would be Gratch's Gauntlet (distracts incoming spies for an amount of time equal to its level), and the Citadel of Knope (takes damage inflicted by enemy craft onto itself, equal to its level).

4. SAWs. I love SAWs and have them on every planet, including this one, although I am prepared to destroy them if needed. With a limit of ten SAWs per planet, and the fact that SAWs will defend any friendly planet within that system, the university world is pretty much protected.

...

There, I believe I have completed the University section of this. Hope this helps.

I've finally brought my university to level 22, thus granting me the Waste Exchanger, a device that combines the Waste Treatment Center, the Waste Recycling Center, and in part the Waste Sequestration Well. This building will greatly effect waste management, and here's how.

Keeping in mind that the one I have is only currently at level 4, it is already surpassing a Recycling Center leveled at 6. It can recycle 350,000 waste at 7,000 per hour, as compared to the Recycling Center's 105,000 waste at 1,935 per hour. The Exchanger can store 3,128 while a level 3 Well can hold 2,332. And for production?

A level 5 Exchanger consumers 1,558 in waste an hour, while producing 490 each in ore, water, and electricity. A level 7 Treatment Center consumes 638 waste an hour while producing only 189 each of ore, water, and electricity. An Exchanger is double that of the Treatment Center at a lower level!

Then there's the waste specific generators. Level 6 Digester produces 356 ore an hour while consuming 215 waste; Level 6 Reclamation produces 547 water while consuming 456 waste, and a level 6 Energy Plant produces 454 energy while consuming 411 waste. Combined, that is 1,223 waste an hour converted to an average of 452 resources each. Again, the Exchanger consumes more, produces more. And you have one plot used instead of three!

I am very much curious as to how this will preform at level 15 (can be built higher on planet with stockpile).

Downside. This is a tier two building. As such, you are only allowed two on each planet. Another downside is the build time. With a level 11 Oversight Ministry building, it is going to take 2 hours 30 minutes to go from level 4 to level 5.

But this structure is going to be worth it. In essence, one building will replace five (the three waste specific, one recycler, one treatment), freeing up a lot of space for your densely populated worlds. And this is important for when you build up your university: a level 22 university will produce 268,190 in waste an hour... a level 23 will produce 400,194 an hour!

It's a shame you have to wait so long in order to get this wonderful building... but once you have it, wow!

Interest in the game is starting to decline. Don't know how much longer I'll be playing; I've noticed that I am on once, maybe twice a day now, while I completely forgot to go on yesterday. I think it has something to do with my build times (more on that in a bit). I'm hoping to settle a gas giant before I quit, as I have 5 plans for the Gas Giant Settlement Platform leveled out at 31. I figure that that would be the planet to supply my space station. Okay, so I still have goals in mind, and yeah, it might be a while before I quit... just need to do something!

I've gone from each planet holding a specific role (which does work wonders) to each planet producing both spacecraft and spies. Some things I've noticed about getting upper / mid level, which may prove of interest for future players...

Unless you plan on invading other empires, there is no need for a Cloaking Lab. Also, once you reach the point where your builds take 17+ hours to complete, there is no real reason to hold onto your Development Ministry.

...

That's it! This game rapidly becomes a grind, where you are forced to do something over and over and over before you can do something. That's why I'm starting to have difficulties coming back! I need one or two of you to come over and start playing to I can attack... err, what I meant was deploy spies... no no no, that's not it... ahh, so I can help you grow! Yeah, that's it, to help you grow. I can offer you protection, and resources!

Gas Giants

Founded my first gas giant yesterday, and all I can say is huh.  Allow me to help you along, dear reader, with what you can expect.

First of all, you are going to need a Gas Giant Lab constructed.  This lab permits you to build a Gas Giant Settlement Platform at one level higher than your lab.  In other words, if your lab is a level 9, you will build a level 9+1 ship.  That's right, a level 9+1, not a 10... and here's why.  The +1 designates the plot the vessel will be occupying when it is built on the gas giant, the 9 designates how many plots you then have to build stuff on.  Naturally, the higher the lab the more plots you will have readily available.  You could also build settlement platform after settlement platform, but why waste the resources when you can easily get level 30+1 settlement platform plans from the trade market?

Secondly, you want to make sure that you have a readily available supply of resource generating plans.  Remember, plans do not occupy a plot when built, and that goes for gas giants as well!  However, do not send them right away to the Gas Giant (more on this in a bit).

You must send a colony ship to the gas giant first; a minute or so later, send forth a Gas Giant Settlement Platform that you built.  Do not send a transport carrying plans!  Only the colony ship, followed by the settlement platform!  Also, give yourself enough time before bed to work on your colony once it is founded...  just a bit of warning.  In other words, make sure your colony ship and settlement platform arrive early in the morning, so you have a while to work on it!

When your colony ship lands, your available plots will be -1.  This makes for some rather unhappy people.  You will also be generating a massive amount of waste, which makes your people even unhappier.  Want to hear something better?  That settlement platform is now a plan, available on the gas giant... but, unlike most plans, this doesn't take the 15 seconds to build, oh no.  My level 8+1 platform took 9 hours 50 minutes.  I did not know this beforehand, I thought it was going to be a typical plan build (my mistake).  So, at 11:05p last night, I logged on to see what the damage was.  Let's just say it was not pretty.

With only nine plots to work with, my selection was few while the needs were high.  Three different food sources would stop my happiness from dropping anymore; a waste sequestration well to store the ever increasing amount of waste (and halt pollution); a waste exchanger to not only reduce waste being produced, but to increase resources being generated; a space port (this was the first thing I built); and an entertainment district to help get the happiness flowing.  Yes, this is only seven plots even though I had eight from the settlement platform, but remember I started off at -1.  After building up the well and exchanger as best I could, I called it a night.

*For the record, I was producing about 5000 waste an hour and had a negative happiness of only -50... but once you go from collecting waste to producing pollution, watch out!  Woke up this morning with a -11K happiness and 14K of waste (with well being full).

Now here is where the plans come in handy!  Before calling it a night, I sent two transports carrying plans to this new colony, knowing they'd be there when I got up / arrived at work.  I built a volcano, a geo thermal vent, natural spring, algea pond, amalgus meadow, malcud field, and a ravine; this took care of all my resource needs.  The second transport allowed me to build a Citadel of Knope, a Crashed Space Ship, Pantheon of Hagness, a Temple of the Drajilites, an Oracle of Anid, a Library of Jith, Gratch's Gauntlet, and an Interdimensional Rift.  All these plans (plus one level 30+1 gas giant settlement platform plan) only costs, depending on who is selling them, 5 essential within the trade tab of the Trade Ministry!  And, let it be known that the resource generating plans are at level 6!

With plans (and some planning), you can have a fully operational gas giant colony world!  Just keep in mind to have some time aside to work on it once the platform is finished being constructed, or else you will be in a world of hurt.

{EDIT}

When building a settlement platform, be aware of the waste being produced.  A base plan will say that it's waste is, I believe, about 110 waste an hour...  however, a level 9 plan produces 3665 waste an hour.  If you were able to build a ravine and a waste exchanger, this won't be much of a problem, but it will seriously hamper your happiness when it is first build upon colonization.  I can't wait to see what happens with a level 30 plan (which take 15 days to build!).

And here, a quick snap shot of my gas giant colony so far.  If you have any questions as to what the buildings are, just let me know.  Not too bad for having only 17 plots to work with, huh?  35 structures, and as soon as the mine levels up to 5 I can build my ore refinery.  I won't have any available plots at that point, but that won't be a problem: level up my waste exchanger, destroy the individual waste recyclers, and I'll have three plots open for whatever.  At that point I should be able to build the three level 30 settlement platforms.

Who, who pray tell is Eshliker? Received an in-game message saying one of my friends has joined... so who be the brave soul to try this game once again?

 

That would be me..