Highest I've gotten, been playing a bunch. The pictures to follow are not from this instance.
Would love some more tips! The intent of this post is to see what my game is missing while simultaneously providing tips for others who might be having issue getting this far:
-First things first, play tough. Don't keep going with a galaxy that is failing, that restart button is right there next to music off, make it a quick thing you do. Once you get the hang of making combos out of certain types of planets, you'll find most all of the generated galaxies you come across (with a good opening area) can be connected in such a way that 90% of planets end up at least happy. Happy is good, because if your average happiness goes down it will tank your income.
-For starters, even though green goo goes with a food processor to make algae, which is essential, the processor is not a great place to get that algae from until much later, on when it produces two algae from one goo and you can ship that second algae somewhere else. This is a big part - if you can't make a system that is properly supported very early on you will never have the happiness, money, or tech needed. I see complaints about the game not going on for longer - you have to get the planetary network going quickly, not just happy planets making money, but tech too. Lots of it. mattjamesj mentions a "ruin - ocean - hive" thing that took me way too long to understand. I was breeding goo on the ocean to feed my people, terrible. Get robots to harvest that algae for you! ruin-ocean-hive is really Remnant - Ocean - Earth-like, and the planets need to turn into Scavenge - Algae - Hiveworld. This may not be the case, but I find that the RNG for the planet generator is more forgiving near where the screen is set when the game starts with regards to having this combo.
-Be sparing with your surveys! $3 doesn’t seem like much when you have $100.
-Connection order matters. That early Scavenge - Algae - Hiveworld triangle can be put together in different orders, which results in substantially more or less money your first few turns. I like to algae then hive, then connect them, then scout a bit before the next year happens. Time is precious. There are loads of places where this can matter oh so much. Clicking that year forward button for the $ is not worth it if you could already afford things that would benefit you. It’s easy to put money into something that will cost you and then lose track of how much in game time is passing, plus what kinds of opportunity costs you are losing out on. For a similar reason, when I find a nice-looking candidate planet of the R-O-E starting three from the first two or three scouts’ satellites, I colonize it right away so that I can search around that area. If you see a good combo, stop surveying the universe, build up first to get dat $. Often the first R-O-E combo has a planet in the way, then its restart time. Sometimes you get lucky, I've been happy to find that R-O-E combo occurring in a way that makes a figure eight pattern, in a set of five or more, so everything just connects right up, very nicely. Be careful of your order though! Spend that algae on tech? Oh no! You won't have it for that remnant even though they look like they should be boosting each other for the right amount of commodities. Bringing in outside material remedies the situation. Xenofoods can help in this example.
-Goods/gadgets are huuuuge. Every colony, aka planet that exports humans, doesn't start off wanting them, but they will, once satisfied with algae, and maybe (ocean) minerals or (xeno) chips. Don't you love chips? The cash benefit is big.
-As much as I'm stressing the importance of efficient systems, you would be surprised at what the costs or revenues of planets can be if you aren't going and checking on your planets between making connections. Typically, everything is best not red, at green or better, but if you can get something to upgrade to orange or blue, it’s always worth doing, even if that means making something like a forgeworld to make goods/gadgets for two planets even though that forgeworld doesn't get supplied anything at all... Unhappy planets aren't always a big revenue liability, though they add up quick. The other side is also true, if through leaving a few planets unhappy you get to building orange "prosperous" or blue "rich" planets you can easily be making well over a hundred coin per turn in the early game. Watch your happiness if you go this route! It works in small doses.
-For early tech choices, spacefolding first, or drillbots if there's cause, because excavate is better than mine for mineral worlds if there's a source of robots. Anyway, both of those first, then upgrading xenofoods with slipgates next, though which to do first depends on the situation. I see others who say no to gates, but the slipgates have led to some of my best games. They are crucial for getting really long-distance connections and around strange corners.
Example:
Besides turning the corner, There’s another hiveworld, and a colony, just off to the left. Getting 3 goods from this forgeworld means I can supply all three. Bots mine the minerals, and minerals and bots make the goods. Later, I only need to ship in one more from somewhere else get the third (or fourth?) good.
Here's what that looks like.
Next for my pro-slipgates examples, let's follow the money.
There’s big bank in tourism:
The earth-like is making $10, the jungle is -$1. Then, +$3 to the earth-like once it starts shipping, while the jungle will still be losing money.
No need to supply the forgeworld, but bring the goods over…
The forgeworld is unhappily making $1, the jungle is making $6, the earth-like is now up to $15. It looks like $2 were sent to each planet, but there's more to it, as happiness influences income.
Now we link the other one up:
The jungles are making $6 each, the unhappy forgeworld is generating $4, and the remnant is making $20 now! 4 planets making $12, to $22, to $30. The final state of this corner of the galaxy is in the late game tech section.
Doubling up on slipgates works too! I've made some totally odd daisy chains that absolutely help get goods moving to the right places in a tight group of planets where it looks like an infragate would be the only solution. Best example is getting minerals to two different forgeworlds so one makes chips and the other makes goods/bots. That triangle alone is one thing, then it needs to be oriented in such a way so that the slipways don’t cross on the way out. Wow that was a bunch of pictures.
This section was about tech, right?
I've tried and failed repeatedly with geoharvesting (money from planets) and less so with replication (turn planets into forgeworlds). While I’ve never done trade league, I'm about to, right after I write this. For later tech, I go towards the star creation. Seems like a later game version of geoharvesting but for wildcard commodities.
Here's those tourism jungles supplied with solar power, in case you wanted to see that too:
Sadly, it doesn’t work as the sole source of goods for anything when the planet in question initially needs two goods. Meaning no double solar power. I like helping the tourism worlds with solar after supplying people and goods, not sure if it’s an improvement over sending more goods or people, but it should be! Would really like more info on what’s worked for others in late game tech.
- Finally, labs, labs, labs. You won't get a decent system made without them. Building research stations early on is a big deal. You always need people for them, so those planets that export humans need to be kept extra productive. Making sure that those tech satellites get more than one than one of the same types of non-human input is a much bigger deal. The first good, and it can be anything not human, is worth a +1, the next two are worth +2 each for a max of +5. Getting three extra goods to a research station is tougher than you might think. An ocean set to breed can make a lot of goo, and that goo can go to different food processors and each of those processors can make a separate connection to the lab. Upgrade xenofoods and those processors can provide elsewhere. I’m curious how extensively the people who can get 5 star on tough use food processors.
Jakub great game, thank you for this, love the baking game too btw. Hopefully this thesis of sorts on your game is enough to show my appreciation. My girlfriend got a 480 point cake on level 1 or 2 somehow, my best scores are in the 500s. Anyway, slipways. Very interested in a more robust pc version with galaxy settings and lots more end game stats. Maybe the wormhole can ship $ for goods? :-) For the wimps out there, instead of infinite time, I would prefer infinite money, but still show the income level. The simplicity of this game is part of the charm. An undo button seems sad, how about just highlighting the planets you’ll get from a survey before you let go? Or, only charge for the survey if there is a potential planet getting scanned. Otherwise, there should be hidden things to find. Thanks again.