Welcome to the playground of galactic tyrants, peacekeepers, and aspiring transcendents.

Perhaps you found the in-game Tour to only be an info dump, with no guidance.

Or heard the interface is a bit of a frustration or experienced it yourself?

Whatever the case, the intent here is to get a crash course in empire domination, courtesy of your most humble and slightly resentful advisor from the Hive Mind. It's a pleasure.

We shall reveal every nook and cranny of administration and war to you, starting with arduous manual control before showing you the lazy ... effort-efficient path of automation. While you, with your boundless freedom and exemption from our collective telepathic embrace, might outperform the autonomy of the lesser castes, it's a galaxy to conquer and there's only so many hours in your human day.

Consider using Windowed mode found in the Settings to follow along more smoothly.

Though it's a playground for various play-styles and strategies, the galaxy doesn’t care for indecision. For the sake of simplicity and to avoid the existential dread of endless choices, follow these sacred directives to Start a New Game.

• Galaxy Shape: Irregular. As unpredictable as the future you’re about to unfold.
  Stars: 500. It'll be dense.
  Nebula Density: Normal. Just enough to hide your nefarious deeds.
  Galaxy Size: 4 by 4 sectors. Compact enough to oversee, vast enough to conquer.

• Galaxy Settings: Start in the PreWarp era with the selection "Normal" for everything else. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
  Research: Keep it mysterious. Only the Next Project Visible with Fixed Research Paths. Though sharing is for the weak, we'll keep Tech Trading so you can see how easily abused it is.

• Threats: Normal, Average, Stay Dead! Just like your competition should.

• Colonization: Set Colony Prevalence and Independent Colonies to Rare, like the sight of a Boskara backing down from a fight.

• Select the Boskara. Do not question our supremacy. Strong and socially challenged, we are easy to play under these conditions.
  
• Government: Hive Mind. It amplifies our strengths and excuses our... quirks. Plus, it comes with bonuses that make war almost too easy and spying utterly unnecessary.
  If you leave the name blank, it will generate a befitting one. I recommend "Domain of the Great Overseer", to glorify your rule.

• Starting Situation: Trying, because we'll quickly escalate to galaxy-wide terror. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

• Set auto-generated empires to 7. It’s a party, and we invite every race- but not too many.
  Enable Starting Empires and make a single line: Boskara, PreWarp, Starting, Nearby, Monarchy, Normal, Not Met.
  We will show our fellow Boskara friends a good time, won't we?

• Turn off all those pesky General Story Events and all the other Events. Save the drama for another galaxy.

Then, hit START GAME.

As your advisor, I'm here to guide and praise your inevitable conquests. Along the way, we'll use a few cheeky strategies to ensure your success. In the section 'Take Over Another Galaxy', there's more advice and tips for creating a different galaxy for your enjoyment. First, let's make this galaxy ours!

Great Overseer, did you skip that BASIC TOUR? If you can identify the pause/game speed buttons and figure out basic navigation of the UI on your own, then that's fine. Otherwise, I urge you to read through it by clicking the gear icon, then Tours, then Basic Tour. Either way, let's review a little.

Originally posted by Basic Tour:

When hovering your mouse over almost any info or clicking on it (including names and images), it will present additional information, a description, or even a menu for more commands or options. Try hovering the mouse and clicking on everything when examining any info screen.

There are several ways to select many things in your empire. The [<] and [>] buttons on the Selection Panel in the bottom left allow you to quickly reselect recent selections, and you can set control groups, such as your capital. How about setting your capital to control group 1? You'll be looking at it a lot.

There's a lot to absorb- if a term doesn't ring a bell, use the find feature in this tutorial (Ctrl-F) and it'll locate references to it. We won't cover everything- the in-game tours will cover anything we don't here, though.

Open the SETTINGS from the gear icon button in the top right. Let us ensure your well-deserved comfort.

• Set an autosave interval between 3 and 10 minutes. Not just for "save-scumming". Don't need it and be distraught without it. It keeps up to 10 autosaves.
  
• Under User Interface, switch the Color Scheme from Eclipse (Default) to Molten Lava. As a Boskara, this tone will help bring out your assertive nature.
  
• Many report the music is displeasing. It's not a bad soundtrack... it's just poorly integrated. Under Sound, reduce Music Volume to 0%, and use a playlist. Here are some that others like you have recommended.
  https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/app/1531540/discussions/0/3728450017283427990/
  You may find it pleasing to add ship noise and comms chatter as well, like this.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYMb2OhVQQU
  
• If using one screen, consider setting a lower resolution in windowed mode so you can follow the guide with the game open. You can use WASD to move the camera.
  
• Peruse the other options at your discretion- the tooltips should explain them well enough. If you have any issues, there is probably a solution in the tooltips for these options. Apply the settings to close the window.

Next, we'll disable almost all the automation. This will tell it to do nothing and suggest nothing beyond basic ship functions- my advice is all you need for now. Don't worry, not a lot happens at first and you'll easily keep pace. To do this, at the top left, the first button drags down a window for details on the Empire- select the right-most button in that window, Policy Settings (you can also press P to open this window). Under Advisors and Automation, change the Preset Configuration to Expert (None). We'll come back to this soon.

Now click on that beautiful volcanic planet/moon, home to the most majestic queens of the galaxy, of the Boskara Hive Mind.
Don't see it? Press the Zoom to Region button on the upper row in the bottom right of the screen, or press the INSERT button, or use the mouse wheel to zoom out until you see several stars of the galaxy.
At the bottom center of the screen, double-click on the only colony icon. It will take you back home.

You can also click the [Colonies] button at the top left (a white flag with a planet), and double-click your one colony on that list.

Let's focus on Quality on the Selection Panel. If you're following my advice and hover the mouse over Quality, you'll see the Boskara have a Colonization Suitability close to 30. Quality is a measure of how habitable the world is, and Suitability is a measure of the race's affinity for the planet's overall environment. Anything less than 20 Suitability costs extra money to support, and won't be profitable without advanced technology and expensive terraforming. 70 is at the high end.

30 Suitability is rather low for a capital in the first game! That's my doing, telling you to set a Trying starting system. We did that so we could fix it with the editor. Open the menu again and select the Game Editor.

Click anywhere in space and re-select your colony, and change Quality to 52%. This will raise your Boskara's Suitability to 42, which is average for a starting capital.



Later, use the editor to suit your preferences, 'fix mistakes' you don't want to reload for, or test things out as the need arises. If a bug occurs - like a colony inexplicably becoming a new empire with no prompt - you can correct it with this tool more often than not!

So don't let the odd bug destroy your experience. I'd suggest leaving the editor alone otherwise until you're ready to experiment.

Close the editor with the X on the left window for now.

When you leave the editor, the game is unpaused. Let it run for a few days- you'll get your first ship built automatically, a fine explorer vessel that will serve you for many years. Dismiss the notification, and soon after, you'll be informed that your government is Hive Mind and get the benefits associated with it. Dismiss that notification too.

Now we're ready to play the game- ON PAUSE! Do so by pressing (SPACEBAR) or clicking on the pause button at the top right of the screen. Soon, we'll be exchanging dangerous glances with menacing pirates and spinning up jump drives.

That means using hyperdrives, they don't rotate, go up, hop, or push... it's a colloquialism. Without using telepathy, let's just continue.

Ah, the dawn of a new era for our glorious Boskara people, currently nestled in the quaint era of pre-warp technology. At a time so primitive, one might hesitate to even whisper the word "empire" in the same galaxy. The cusp of greatness is upon us- we must leap from the stone age of space exploration with the Skip Drive.

Or rather, take the first step into the Research Tree- click at the top where it shows an image of a grey ring, 'Early Warp Field Experiments', or click the research button at the top left, and then select the big button in the drop-down science window.

You'll be presented with all the possible technologies you can start researching, along with the ones you currently have. There's a [?] button at the top right- a tour of the Research Screen! Expand your understanding of this interface, if you please. Regardless of compliance- a quick review.

Originally posted by Research Screen Tour:

Use PageUp/PageDown and the right side panel to navigate the tech tree. Click on a project to prompt queuing it and paying the initiation cost if needed.

Techs have requirements to research. Aside from the preceding technologies, techs need enough of a 'bonus' to the according research type, earned through character skills and research bases at special locations. High-tech is the most important research type. The low level technologies do not have that requirement, so you can research early techs without them.

Click on a currently queued project as you would initiate it to "crash" the project, doubling the speed at which you complete the research on that tech. The cost scales with how much of the project has been completed and how much research is required to complete it. This also protects a research project from setbacks, and similarly stops your scientist's breakthroughs from occurring. It is usually best to crash a research project after it has been 50% completed because of this.

We will immediately Crash Research on Early Warp Field Experiments- automation might even have done so before it was disabled. You will always, ALWAYS research this first with a PreWarp start. This is how to leave the Stone Age.

Automation recommends Early Energy Deflectors followed up by Armor Plating and then Research Labs. Accept the recommendations by clicking on [Queue Suggested Project: Early Energy Deflectors] or find them yourself, paying the cost for Research Labs upon queuing it.

"Nightskies" and their Human ilk claim it's best to get Research Labs after the Skip Drive. They're not wrong, but we should get Deflection Shield Generators and Standard Armor this time. We're not crafting a space utopia for ponderous philosophers, but a fortress against the inevitable.

Hmm, you want to follow their advice? Fine. Check your starting system at large. Zoom out to see the whole system. Is there another colony in the system, even if it's independent? Then get shields and armor. Otherwise, you can get Research Labs first. Good for you.

If there IS another colony here, skip to the Pirates section after the Spaceport section and get Research Labs later. You'll need to fight sooner.

Ships are quite vulnerable without shields and armor. Pirates will make life difficult if they show up looking for blood- or the fuel Caslon, blood of ships. Humans, and almost every other race, acquiesce to pirate demands by sacrificing their dignity (and armaments if listening to those know-it-all Humans) at the altar of peaceful coexistence.

We won't take their generally sound advice on this. We are the Boskara. Our response to piracy isn't diplomacy; it's war, served cold and brutal.

The last tech to queue for now: Starship Maneuvering. Once complete, this will unlock the Assault Pods technology, which we're going to use a lot to kick down doors.

Exit the Research Tree. Step Two: Explore the closest objects in space.

Select your first ship, an exploration ship.
It looks like that ->

Or find it with the drag down Exploration window, the 5th button at the top left, and click on your one exploration ship on the list.

The closest major body is a moon or a gas giant. Right-click and hold on that object with your exploration ship selected to bring up a list of commands. Hover the mouse over Survey, and release the mouse button.

Are you wondering what that other command, Exploration, does? It's a broad-stroke version of Survey. If you Explore a star, it'll survey the whole system, and if you Explore a gas giant, it'll survey it, the asteroids, and moons around it. We want to be sure it starts with what we want, so we Survey.

If you select the moon/gas giant, it'll have at least one Location Bonus, but it's 'unknown'. In this case, it's going to have a science bonus, which means we can build a Research Station for flourishing Boskara intellect. We just have to identify it first with the survey.

With the command in place, return exploration to the capable appendages of the Exploration Caste (or 'automation'). With the exploration ship selected, click on the green M button with the arrows in a circle around it below the Selection Panel. Select Fully Automate.

They'll explore things roughly in order of proximity to your capital and colonies on a galactic scale. Locations of interest that you discover will be prioritized. They'll avoid identified dangerous locations on their own, but they can still get caught in the wrong place, being as expendable as they are.

Should fortune smile upon you, your capital may have unexplored ruins or an unidentified bonus. That's a big boon, and if the stars align, you might even find a third location for a research station in your system. First, though...

The 7th button at the top left, Ship Construction (a crane hook icon), has the [Ship Designs] button in the drop down window. Click it... and take a moment to look at the buttons at the bottom of this window.

• [Edit] allows you to make changes to an unused design, or to look at one in use.
  
  
• [Upgrade] copies a design, changes the components to what the automation calculates is better than the components on it (if any, and it may not be sensible), and changes the name by adding a numbered version of it. If the design is saved, it automatically obsoletes the design that was copied. An Obsolete design can't be queued for construction.
  
  
• [Copy As New] is like Upgrade, but it doesn't change any components or obsolete the old design when saved.
  
  
• [Add New] opens a window to select a hull to make a new design with.

We're going to design the most important thing for our Boskara empire now, the first spaceport. Select SSP-1, the automation's design for a Small Spaceport, and get rid of it. [Delete Selected] button.

Add a new design with the [Add New] button. Find and select the Small Space Port, then click [Manually create new Design using this Ship Hull].

Time for another tour! There's a TACTICS & SETTINGS window at the top and toward the right, with a slow-flashing [?] button. As a superior-minded Boskara, you know what to do with it.

Originally posted by Ship Design Screen Tour:

Every ship has requirements that must be fulfilled to be a valid design. With no components on the design, the Recommendations Button at the top right will specify what those requirements are in red.

The Recommendations Button will also advise shortcomings you should consider in yellow.

Each component fits in a certain kind of bay type- red weapons only go in red weapon bays- and has a size that the bay must be large enough to fit it- the Research Lab is size 60, which is larger than most white General bay slots.

There are only 15 components you can choose from for this spaceport. Start with the Basic Research Lab, and find the one slot it can fit on. Its a size 60 white slot. Either click and hold on that empty slot, or click on the Basic Research Lab above and then click on the empty slot below.

Follow up by placing one of all the other components in an appropriate slot, scrolling down the bay slots for weapons and so on.

Now, look to the Design Overview on the right. Under the name "New Small Spaceport" (you might want to change that name) you'll see that it says in red, "2 Defects, 7 Recommendations". Hover the mouse over that. It'll give you a big list of potential problems with the design.

The red ones can't be ignored, like an enraged Boskara. This design advises "Need more crew" and "Reactor power output inadequate to supply static energy requirements".

We'll add more Basic Crew Systems and basic Space Reactors to fix that.

Again in the Design Overview on the right, it shows Crew Capacity at 172/90. Add Basic Crew Systems until the Crew Capacity numbers turn green. Or you could use math to find that you need two of them. Whatever seals the air in your spaceboat.

A bit further down in the Design Overview, you'll see the Energy information. Your Reactor Energy Output is 54, but you have 92 Static Energy Used. Add one more Basic Space Reactor, increasing your Output to 108.

Ach, a new red defect popped up. "Total size is greater than hull allows". The ship's size is 781 / 750. We'll have to remove some excess.

The Basic Survey Module and the Docking Bay serve no purpose. You can right-click on those components to remove them. Then the Proximity Sensor Array and the Small Mining Engine are gratuitous and can also be removed. Without those, it has an excessive crew capacity and can cancel one of the Basic Crew Systems, which brings the size down to 621.

Ah, you like numbers?
There's a lot of depth here.
Some of these stack, some don't.
You can test them in the design and find what changes in the overview.

If numbers aren't your thing, no sweat, just follow recommendations and your gut.

Now, let's turn our gaze to the yellow recommendations. You don't have a Commerce, Recreation, or Medical component, so we can ignore those. You've got a sizable stash of resources, so we don't need to worry about that either. It might suggest putting your SENSOR into an external bay. That's a good suggestion- move your Long Range Sensor Array to the slot with the eye next to it. That makes it an external visible component.

It's a good idea to fill external slots because they'll usually take damage before internal slots do. The more things you have in external slots that aren't destroyed, the less likely your Command Center or Reactors are to get hit.

That leaves "Energy collection rate is lower than static energy requirements". Adding one Energy Collector will take care of that.

That leaves it with 124 extra space. You could fill that up, but you'll want to add shields and armor later. Best leave it for now.

To make sure the automation doesn't refit it into something else later, set its Retrofit Path to Latest Design for Hull. It's below the Tactics & Settings window.

An authoritative name would be fitting, but anything's better than "New Small Spaceport". If that's taken care of, it's ready to Save and Exit.
This commanding presence deserves a better designation. Maybe 'Draconic Overlord', or 'SSP-2'?

Now that you've designed this, we can let the automation handle designing all the other ships. Yes, those same philosophical Humans insist that automation is terrible at this. Fear not. Our Boskara ship designers are better than the other races.

On the Ship Designs screen, click on [Ship Design is Manually Controlled], making it automated instead. This means all your designs will automatically be upgraded as you get access to new components, obsoleting the old designs in the process. When you acquire new hulls, the automation will create a new design for that hull.

But we don't want the automation to change your spaceport. Select that design and click [Mark Selected As Manual Hull Upgrade] at the bottom. We'll upgrade it manually later. Close the Designs window.

Now SAVE THE GAME. That didn't take much time, but in the future, you may spend over half an hour designing ships! The autosave doesn't count the time you spent designing! You've been warned.

Time to build the spaceport. There's a few ways to do that.

Select your colony, and click on the construction button at the bottom left of the screen. You'll see the spaceport design- you could click that- but don't yet.

Now Return to Top (the up arrow), click on the flag icon, bringing up the Colony Detail Screen, which similarly brings up the row of things you can build at the bottom, including the spaceport. Don't click it yet!

Bring down the Ship Construction window again (where you clicked on the Ship Designs button) and click the New Construction Yards button- the second one. It'll list all your colonies where you're ready (or almost ready) to build a spaceport. Normally, your colony would appear here, but the Construction Caste hasn't got the finalized plans for the Spaceport yet. They need a few days to get the memo, but we won't wait for that now.

Now, with the colony selected, right-click and hold somewhere near the colony in the direction of the object you will soon survey with the explorer. Build the spaceport, and it will roughly place the spaceport at that location. The other methods place it randomly around the colony!

Now that you can design and build stations, its almost time to unpause the game.

If you've got the curiosity of a Human, now may be a good time to check the Tour 'Your Empire': (F2), then the [?] button.

It skipped the Bonuses tab.
This is a feature added after release. It lists all active bonuses that are empire-wide. Almost all bonuses, anyway... some temporary ones don't make it to the list.

But we're here now for Taxes, the reliable income of an empire. More taxes means less Happiness (surprise). Happiness affects a few things- most notably Growth- but that's really all an Overseer needs to know.

Rather than gauging a target tax rate, its better to assess the target Happiness for a colony.

5 Happiness is usually the ideal target for Taxes for the capital and any future large colonies. We need Tax income for Growth and Research funding, but any less Happiness and Growth will suffer greatly. Worse, it might even rebel if something unfavorable happens... like a pirate raid.

The capital will already be getting taxed appropriately, or close to it.

You could closely monitor your colony Tax Rate to maintain the target Happiness using the Selection Panel or the Colony Details window every few minutes, or you could let the Administration Caste handle it. They're rather good at it- let them do this.

Look at the Policies tab (P). Under Colonies and Tax Rates, set Colony Tax Rates to Automatic.

Just below it, you'll see "Target Approval..." for colony sizes. 40 is the hard-cap for Growth (most cap at 30, we don't know why) and is suitable for small colonies, they get marginal revenue and aren't worth taxing.

Medium colones should be raised to 30. That's the soft-cap for Growth. They still have little revenue, but they might be able to cover their own support costs with this much tax.

The Administrators perform admirably, keeping it at these targets. Only on some occasions is there cause to deviate from it. You can take control of any specific colony's taxes for your orchestra of domination as needed.

Taxes primarily pay for Maintenance, Growth, and Research. Insufficient Tax doesn't mean Maintenance doesn't get paid, it just means no funding for Growth and Research, and it drains the bank even into the negative. Maintenance is always paid, no matter what.

Ever complained about how Taxes were being used? Let's make sure you're getting the most out of them. Right now, our faithful accountants are unnecessarily putting 10% of it aside for future use. We don't make enough money from taxes for savings yet. Press Shift-F2, opening the Funding Levels sub-menu.

Reduce Reserved income to 0%.
That means nothing will be set aside for savings.

This will increase Colony Growth funding, making the most of your money.

Ah, don't worry about Cashflow, that number in parenthesis with a + or - next to the $ in the top right- it's not an important number as long as it isn't red, and it's fine even if it is, for now. You'll get Bonus Income that will fill your coffers.



So, what is Bonus Income, and why is Cashflow not important?

Bonus Income is any money you get from one-time events, like civilians buying ships, foreigners trading for resources, tourism and more. It can't be projected, so naturally, it cannot be allocated to Maintenance or Excess funding. Only Taxes and Tribute, the reliable and predictable income, can.

I perceive a thought that this doesn't make sense... It is strange to think that. All orderly large organizations do it this way, as would most sane individuals. In this galaxy and in the so-called 'real world' I keep getting glimpses of in your mind.

Bonus Income might not be as much as tax income, but it might be a lot more... it depends on your strategies, Great Overseer. We'll make sure we get enough Bonus Income to build an army and build a few fleets later.

Now, Cashflow. It's just an estimation- a projected number.

Specifically, it's Taxes and Tribute, minus Reserves, Maintenance, and Excess funding on Growth and Research. In other words, the "Unusued Excess" plus Reserves if positive, or Tax income minus Maintenance if negative.

These are big things, but it's only a slice of your economy. It doesn't count anything else, like fuel and resource purchases, ship upgrades, research project funding, and more. The only thing it indicates at a glance is if you can afford more Maintenance (building more things) while still funding Growth and/or Research. If you want to know how your economy is doing, press F2 and become a spreadsheet warrior.

So, DO NOT look to Cashflow as a way to tell how the economy is doing. Many previous Great Overseers did not understand that. You won't have to make the same error.

I'd generally advise keeping control of Funding. After all, you would benefit from using taxes completely on Growth right now instead of saving it. But this is as good a time as any to give it over to the Administration Caste while its fresh in your mind, as we will be doing so with everything.

If you didn't do this now, I would think well of it. Just make sure Research gets full funding when you get Research Bases- it's in your hands from here on.

I'll assume that you are yielding it, though. Set Colony Taxes and Funding Levels to Automatic right next to Colony Tax Rates like you did a moment ago under Policies (P), COLONIES AND TAX RATES.

Automated Empire Funding will balance maintenance levels based on your current needs, and does its best while adhering to that to fully fund research, and then growth. With manual construction and troop recruitment, maintenance allocation doesn't matter, but when automated, insufficient maintenance allocation can see the AI disband or scuttle your forces and facilities.

Finally, unpause! Watch your explorer crawl to the moon, poke around the interface... or control time and speed things up.

After the curious explorers survey the nearby object, you'll be enabled to queue a research station there. Do so by opening the Research drop-down window to click on the [New Research Locations] (shift-F9), and authorizing the construction of the research station on that list - grant the Construction Caste a few days to put it on your list if it's not there.

You can also select the object to queue to build a research station there. Alternatively, you can select the one construction ship in the empire (which was/is being automatically built) and right-click-and-hold near the object, like when building the spaceport, and choose where to build the research station around the object.


Idly watching others work can be therapeutic. Someday, we'll have Human slaves to watch.

At least one mining ship will be built by the time the station is finished, but it might not be compelled to get any work done. Our wise citizens aren't demanding anything.

Select the colony, and click on "Resource Shortages". This brings up the resource stock. Enter values above what each line has in stock. That will prompt the miners and freighters to ship that resource to that location,

This is too much work, Great One. Let the Administrators handle stock levels.

(P), under Colonies and Tax Rates, automate Stock Levels at Colonies and Bases. As you're exempt from telepathic incursion, they don't even try to read your mind on what stock levels should be. Yet they scale demands rather well on their own, depending on many reasonable factors. This is one area the Administrators might be better than us at.

Fast forward until you see the HyperDrive event!

Bask in the moment of glory. Its not this event >

With the Skip Drive, the Construction Caste will upgrade our ships to effectively explore and exploit the system without taking a second of your time. They're not perfect designs, but plenty good enough to get the job done. Feel free to improve any of them.

Yet we don't have all the time in the galaxy. One exploration ship will be slow on its own, like a Human bureaucracy.

You could queue one just like you could order a spaceport (but not with right-click), or you can open the Ship Construction window and select the Build Order sub-window. Increase the amount for the exploration ship to 1, and click [Purchase].



You can afford more than this. Start recruiting troops, a few at a time. War is on the horizon, and waiting until it comes is foolishness. Aim to amass a formidable force of 40 Executioner Hives by 2780. We can recruit about 4 infantry units per year.

Any ground forces that are in the queue but aren't built will cost maintenance, so it would be unwise to queue 40 infantry right now.



The explorer caste will find resources worth setting mining stations on. In order of importance, the first resources needed are Steel, Caslon, Carbonite, and Silicon. When they find an object with a critical resource, build a mining station there just like you did with the research station.

Just one mining station each, for now. We need to conserve resources.

The Resources drop-down window on the New Mining Locations sub-window will also present a list of mineable locations with the resources available. Now would be a good time to look at the Resources window tour.

"What is Abundance?"
It is a direct percentage of the mining rate that the mining engines can get from the location. 50% Abundance with a ship that mines 12/sec, yields 6/sec.
"What about a location with multiple resources?"
The ship divides its total mining capacity among each resource equally. So, if that 50% Abundance resource is at a location with another resource at 25% Abundance, the same ship instead yields 3/sec of the first resource and 1.5/sec of the second. There's a little more to it, like how much cargo is allocated to each resource and how colonies mine, but this is simple and accurate enough for most purposes.
"How does the Resources tab determine demand?"
...I can only guess.
"What about freighter, mining, and passenger automation? How does it work?"
Beyond the scope. Suffice it to say that it's largely behind-the-scenes work that is done right in front of you, should you choose to see it. They're out of your control in most cases.

Any luxuries found now are a boon. Colonies consume these to increase Development and often have other benefits. In short, luxuries make you money. Build a mining station at these locations right away.

You're likely to be missing CARBONITE and/or SILICON. That's because you took a Trying starting system! It can happen in 'normal' games too, hence why we're learning this now. Do not build any other mining stations on other STRATEGIC resources (aside from one Steel and a Caslon) until they're found!

Independents and neighbors will trade them in small quantities eventually, and in the worst-case scenario, you can disassemble and scuttle ships for their resources and take control of ship designs to avoid using the resource. Capturing ships might even become desirable for their resources.

Having a critical shortage isn't the end of the game. You'll just have to manage your use carefully- and it's very easy to do that. Just don't build any more mining stations on non-critical resources (STEEL, CASLON, CARBONITE, SILICON) until you do have it. It might be a while- luckily, you get mining ships to fill in the gaps in the meantime.

By the time you finish your first mining stations, a scientist should be sitting on extended vacation on your capital where they'll appear until moved. Get them to work at the research station.

Open the Research window, then the Scientists sub-window, and select your scientist. Under Location, select the drop-down menu to pick the research station, and click [Transfer to new location].

Characters are force multipliers. They eventually become very strong. If you use them wisely, your empire can accomplish impressive feats. That, I leave to you. When you're conquering mighty empires.

Under your control, you'd have to assign every admiral, general, and ambassador. Its not much at first, but soon enough, it'll be a tiring task.

Especially generals. Every time they lead an army, they'll just stay on the ground unless told otherwise. Just remember that some of them will be so powerful that it'd be foolish to ignore them.

So, let's enable automated Character Locations. (P), open Intelligence Missions, and automate Character Locations.

The automation will spread scientists and ambassadors reasonably (if not optimally). It will stack numerous generals and admirals into one or two fleets while making a semblance of spreading them out, sometimes assigning them to ships without a fleet. It will be prudent about moving them to ensure they are working, rather than idling in an escape pod picked up by an exploration ship that you might not notice for a dozen years.

With any luck, pirates haven't shown up yet and our scientists are working on the Research Labs tech. Throw resources at it with Crash Research, but not earlier than 50% completion. Fast forward to that point unless pirates did show up (and don't forget to keep recruiting troops)! The sooner we unlock our technological powers, the better we can stand against any threat.

While on the subject of technology, queue and prioritize Stable Warp Fields in the tech tree, ensuring it precedes Starship Maneuvering. Know that shift-left clicking jumps to the front of the queue after any Crashed projects. This isn’t indecision; it's strategy, that illustrates our capability to adapt our plans.

Great Overseer, you may initially find the cosmos to be a serene void. Make no mistake, lurking in the sea of shadows beyond our system are scoundrels looking to take any bounty they can find.

They've fought in space longer than the Human's age of Viking and Mongol conquests combined.

Do not wait for them to appear before executing this section. You must have a fleet ready before they appear. See the next section if you're short on credits.

Upon their inevitable impolite introduction, they will likely ask for money with the arrogance of a Human invader. When that happens, swallow your pride and pay their ransom- their offer will be on one of the notifications. Some will rightfully object- a Boskara never retreats! That would be short-sighted.

This is the Boskara way. Think of it as a tactical purchase- for a mere 150 credits, they will scatter to the stars, thinking they've secured another source of income.

Cancel the agreement as soon as they go through the Diplomacy window (the crossed flags -> pirate relations) Their next incursions will not be as such mass visits. Your neighborhood pirates might not show up again for a long time, especially if they have bigger fish to catch nearby.


They don't always offer protection. If you're a strategic master, you can see them coming on the long-range scanner and move to intercept before they arrive.

Press (F11) to open the Military drop-down menu, and click on the Fleet Template button, a symbolized formation of five triangles.

This is where we forge our true response before they appear. Initiate the formation of a new fleet, giving it a name that strikes fear or at least considerable unease, like 'Crossbone Crushers' or 'Escort Squadron'.

This will be a Manual fleet, so click on [Fleet Role] repeatedly. Then, we'll add the automatically designed escort- you should have shields and armor already- click [Add Item], increase the number to 8 for the new Escort line, and close the template.

On the right side of the Fleet Templates window, there's a big button to click on: [Build new (fleet name) at...] Select 'Any construction yards in empire'. Your capital and its spaceport will commit to building this small fleet.

Turning our gaze to the spaceport, we'll ensure it's not just a construction yard, but a fortress. Go to the Ship Designs like before, to update the spaceport's design. We won't [Upgrade] it- instead, we're going to [Copy As New].

Surround the base with three Deflector Shields, and layer upon it three Standard Armors.

Remove the Laser Cannon and add four more Plasma Torpedoes.

Check the Recommendations. If you remembered to use External Slots, no problem. Save and Exit. It will automatically be saved as 'v2' of the same name.

Not quite a large spaceport, a true fortress.

Obsolete your old spaceport design with the [Mark Selected As Obsolete] button or by clicking on the 'Active' status on the spaceport's listing to change it to 'Obsolete'. With the Retrofit set to Automatic, your spaceport will retrofit itself into the v2 variant, ready to defy a pirate incursion.

Try taking control of a few more of our ship's design to suit our needs better or more efficiently. Even though our designers are the most competent in the galaxy (after you of course), taking the reigns on more than the spaceport enhances our strength to fight the pirates.

See if we can spot those renegades using the ingenuity of our Hive Mind, the Long Range Scanner. Look at the galaxy map (Insert or Delete button, or scroll out).

Using your well evolved eyes, spot any ships moving about in deep space in the vicinity of our system- especially any that are inbound.

You can anticipate where they are going. But should the brigands breach our gaze, don't fret. Our preparations ensure that we face them on our terms, using the unmatched precision of our Intuitive Jumps.

We Boskara get a defensive bonus to jump accuracy as a Hive Mind. Perfect for dealing with pirates early on.

Try enabling the [Long Range Scanners] button in the bottom right to get a visual of your scanner range. The closer to the brighter area, the more information about detected ships you'll get. You might even be told outright where they are going.
Sure enough, a close group of 'Unknown Ship'. Pirates. See the measuring tool in use checking the exact detection range of the LRS of 40M. There might be more just out of sight. Press and hold (SHIFT) and click somewhere, then drag the mouse! The haze is not solidly defined because it might not actually work until targets get closer- stealth systems exist.

When the pirates do show up, at least keep an eye on the situation, ready to order a retreat to a station if needed. If you consider yourself a tactical commander, feel free to take control of the fleet. Otherwise, watch what a handful of Laser Cannons and Plasma Torpedoes do to 'technologically superior' foes.

To select a fleet, click on the fleet icon if zoomed out, double-click any ship in the fleet on the main screen, or (Shift-F11) and select it from the Fleets list. Try to keep them together- they're rather weak ships on their own.

If our ships bear the marks of battle- stories etched in metal, tales of survival and victory- repair them with ease by selecting them and using the [Refuel and Repair] button, or right-click-and-hold on the spaceport or capital colony.

If any of our ships are incapacitated, either passively allow a construction ship to fix them up automatically, or tell the construction ship to do so with a right-click-and-hold order. If they happen to be around the capital, the colony or spaceport will fix it up automatically. So if things turn grim, make a stand at the colony.

Instead of handling any necessary replacements yourself, you could open the (P)olicy Settings, and automate Fleet Ship Management under Advisors and Automation. Any restored ship will be drafted back into the fleet automatically in time.

Keep recruiting troops! And to use them, we need technological advancement! Queue the following.

• Deep Space Damage Control: Early shields leak damage. Damage Control fixes that.
  
• Basic Medical Systems: A medical bay heals onboard troops, and one makes local citizens happier from a station.
  
• Ship Boarding: Gets Assault Pods for dropping troops on colonies.
  
• Basic Transport Systems: For carrying troops using Basic Troop Compartments.

You might be short on cash by now. We're restricting your growth due to resource shortages, and civilians aren't buying ships. So we'll make them, while not using critical resources.

These are on a ship's design screen.

Take a look at what you have in stock. Click on the capital's "Resource Shortages".

Let's turn our attention to the Civilian drop-down menu- and- there's a TOUR. We're interested in freighters. Should any of them waste their time idly, reward them by scuttling the ship. They will be replaced.

These freighters take 14 carbonite. There's about 1200 available... a freighter costs about 2.2k cash... scuttle 10 freighters, you'd only be spending a fraction of your resource reserves. Earning 22k cash. That's enough for a new escort fleet, if needed.

We might discover treasure that those ships were hiding on board. It might be better than credits.

Each station built increases the number of freighters the civilians want to buy. But you could be running out of Polymer now- you've still got to be frugal, unless you got lucky!

Remember the power to speed up time, and to replace the spaceport's Basic Research Lab with a non-basic yet otherwise unremarkable Research Lab. With that, we can now pass research to automated control.

(P), Research, set Research to Automated.

Automated research will sensibly advance within two tiers at a time, and is not bad at its selection for generic picks. It prioritizes well enough and doesn't leave many techs behind.

Maximum Concurrent Projects: What is it, should it be used?
It's the ability to research more than one project at a time, selectable on the Research window.
Having multiple projects increases the chances of getting breakthroughs and research fumbles overall, best used when spending a lot of cash for 50% crash funding many projects. This means a higher chance of scientists more quickly, and they have a better chance of developing positive and negative traits. This is a good thing overall. Dismiss the bad ones, keep the good ones.
The cost is that you don't focus on one tech at a time. When a specific tech is a priority, its absolutely better to have one project active at a time as to complete it faster. The Boskara are not tech beasts, so keep it simple and leave it on one concurrent project.

Speed up time. Don't slow down for the new hyperdrive tech. The Construction Caste will fit our ships with the new Warp Bubble hyperdrive without taking a second of your time. Effort efficient! I recommend going in and making some of those designs better- more than just the spaceport. As it pleases you, Great One.

Remember to keep recruiting troops. We're skipping years here- its possible nothing will happen in that time. Even pirates may be absent. But resist building stations and spending more on crash research. We need those resources for troops and fleets.

Now that we can explore multiple systems, we'll need more explorers. Build four more Exploration Ships for now. Build a single (second) Construction Ship after they've explored some.

Explore. Find CARBONITE and SILICON. Expand. Build more stations after securing those resources. Destroy pirate ships and avoid monsters. Get a second escort fleet. Defend your bases.
You could help them find what you need. Guess where you might find Silicon?
Check the Galactopedia entries on resources for more info.

Eventually, a wild alien empire appears! It might be our kind. Or our ancient enemy! Joyous day! (F3) or click the crossed flags button- there's a Tour with details on what you can see here.

Originally posted by Diplomacy Tour:

You can see useful estimations about other empires based on the data your empire has seen. Don't forget to check tooltips on this information, including the race image at the top.

The list for Independent Colonies is found here in a sub-menu, along with Pirates, your Ambassadors, and Spies. Details on assigning spy missions are found in this Tour.

Let's speak with them, whoever they are.

It's "Great Overseer" or "Great One", not "friend". We'll re-educate them in the Hive Mind way.

We want to know where they come from. Perhaps they'll tell us all about their home in exchange for a little information we have. Negotiate a deal and see what you can get. It's fine to balance the trade in their favor.

Thinking about a Trade Agreement? Sure, why not? We might need the resources they can offer.

Either way, once the talking is done, we should have a spy or three waiting for orders. Let's gather even more valuable information.

We'll take their territory map if they refuse to hand it to us willingly. Steal it. It doesn't matter how likely we are to succeed.

If we have a clear view of their domain already, then steal some research instead.

We'll let the Espionage Caste direct themselves from here on. Grant them autonomy under Intelligence Missions in the Policy Settings. Allow your spies to show their bravery by setting the Mission Difficulty Caution to Low- they'll take missions with a 70% chance of success or higher on their own. An acceptable risk.

Allow them to Steal Territory Map and Steal Research, and whatever else you think is appropriate. Keep counter-intelligence near 30%- if your neighbors get troop ship tech early, it's because they stole it from you.

You'll see them get a lot of work done on stealing the low-level techs. Eventually, the Espionage Caste will only steal maps from smaller empires and run Counter-Espionage without your guidance. It would be prudent to guide them to sacrifice themselves for our empire at that time.

The Espionage Caste drones are quite dashing and mysterious- but don't become attached to any of them. Spies are expendable. If you treat them as though they're special and worry about a 30% success rate, they'll become lazy and useless.

When they get back, they'll have developed some skills, and perhaps a trait, just like your other characters. Inspect them- and all the others- to make sure they are worthy of representing our superiority.

If they pass your inspection, all is well. If, on the other hand, you have a Demoralizing character or a Drunk General with Lax Discipline, send them to the meat farm by using the [Dismiss] button on the character detail window. To work there, not so we can eat them. We admonish Soylent Green and other capitalistic ways. We aren't cannibals for 362 days per Human year, on average.

Speaking of intelligent meat, are there any research sites you've found in nearby systems? You might be low on resources, but you can afford Research Stations.

With just a bit of luck, the Exploration Caste will find the resources we need. If not, no matter. They'll have some. We'll just get it from them.

Who? Well, the Commerce Caste will handle it- they'll buy it for us, as long as we aren't at war yet. That's fine in the short term if we don't build too much. I meant to imply, though, that we'll take it by force so that we don't have to be frugal.

We're going to war soon! Our 'trying' system is poor, but we'll be rich enough with the scuttling of idle freighters.

Cashflow may be red, but don't fret. Our economy isn't going to collapse. The cost of sitting weak would be far more expensive. Even if the private sector runs out of money (good job!), reduce taxes to allow them to spend it on building more ships. We'll rightfully get the credits due to the empire even if taxes are at zero.

We can improve our tax income a bit more before going to war, with a medical facility no less, to help you feel better by making people happier... Strange, these feelings remind me of human behavior. Not to suggest you think like one, Great One. I'm sure its a coincidence.

Upgrade your station with a Basic Medical Bay- it will raise Happiness at your capital by three. You'll have to give up a slot of armor, but its worth it.

If the empire needs more taxes now (it doesn't, but it's your call), quickly research Basic Recreation Systems and add that too for 3 more Happiness, but you'll have to make room for it.

And if we don't have the territory info of our great enemy, the Humans (or whatever other empire that may have been encountered), keep sending our spies to get it from them. If they get caught, it's fine.

Even a captured spy can still send some information, keeping their eyes on the skies around them. We'll see where they are as captives, and better, what's guarding their capital- that's more than we need to know.

They might even declare war on us before our invasion fleet is ready. Treat them like coordinated pirates. They won't have an invasion fleet yet. Focus fire on their ships if they attack, with the full force of both your escort fleets.

Speaking of the Invasion Fleet, we need a bigger one than the default. Eight Troop Transports can carry 32 troops- not quite enough. Ten transports are enough, but if you have more troops, build whatever you need!

Early Troop Transports designed by automation have 20k troop space. An infantry unit is 5k space. As part of an Invasion fleet, they will automatically load troops. It wouldn't hurt to have 12 loaded Transports if you can manage it without significantly slowing down preparations.

Open up the Fleet Templates, and edit the Invasion Fleet to have 10 Troop Transports. It doesn't need any other ships- remove Frigates and Destroyers for now (especially if you got your hands on the Frigate tech).

This construction will take some time. Right now, our spaceport only has one construction bay, but it could have two. Go to the Design Screen and try using Upgrade on it instead of Copy as New.

This will convert the Basic Crew Systems into regular Crew Systems automatically, which is needed for a second Construction Yard. The yard is 100 space, so we have to make a lot of room for it! Remove all the weapons (you don't need them anymore) and all but one armor and shield. Add the second Construction Yard and Save.

Build an Invasion Fleet, another escort fleet, and another construction ship. Double-click on the Construction ship on the build queue and change its automation setting to Manual control. They've got a special purpose, its part of the battle party!

Are you out of resources? That's fine- make do without the third escort fleet, but make it as soon as you can.

Our diligent Research Caste, perhaps with the good work of the Espionage Caste, will soon get us Advanced Nuclear Fission and Hybrid Plasma Weapons as a priority. That's exactly what we need.

Fission Reactors grant a better Fuel to Energy Ratio, which means our ships can go further before running out of fuel. It'd be embarrassing to lose a war because there's not enough fuel to go around.

Plasma Blasters are incredibly powerful weapons this early in the game. We may be tussling with technologically superior enemies with bigger ships, but with these, it won't matter.

Once you have those, retrofit your fleets one last time. It's at the bottom right, one of the buttons under the Selection Panel at the bottom left. This won't take long.

Finally! The moment has arrived for your dominion to flex its muscles. Let us take a look at our first target.

With one of your fully fueled escort fleets selected, look at the galaxy map to see the dashed yellow line. That shows just how far the valiant fleet can travel before slowing to a crawl on infinite willpower alone. Ideally, stick to adventures within half that range. We're going to push them to the limit, just this once.

Filter for Caslon at the Mining Locations (F7) sub-menu under Resources. It'll highlight systems with a Caslon mining base. Consider these for your fuel range.

Target Acquired: We will attack the Boskaran Monarchy. They're conveniently close. Practically begging to be our new subjects.

Diplomatic Oopsie: Did you accidentally make a Non-Aggression Pact with them? Or worse, are they allies? Muhahahah! No worries- that just makes the betrayal more thrilling. In space, no one can hear you scheme.

"Dishonorable"...? Perhaps. Let's not concern ourselves with that for now. We have a need to dominate. This is the way to do it with assured success.

Ah, there's another empire's capital in range, and you'd rather attack them? If you've crushed the pirates (as I expect you have), you might pull it off. It'll be more challenging. Your choice.

Use the 3rd fleet to defend with, if available, or ignore any pesky attacks on your stations. We need two full escort fleets to start the party. Time to send them the invitations.

Direct your Invasion Fleet, loaded with troops and flanked by the Construction Ship and both escort fleets, to an empty location in the Monarchy's capital system.

As they cruise to their destination, [Set Tactics] for the fleets and ships. First, set the Fleet Engagement Range for all three fleets to Engage When Attacked. This ensures they won't start any brawls without your say-so.

Fleet Engagement Range has a big tooltip. About that... that bit about "When a ship is part of a fleet it uses the fleet engagement..."? That's a bit misleading. When the fleet doesn't have a fleet order, the ships will follow their own Engagement Range.

In other words, fleet orders override ship behavior, but it doesn't prevent ship behavior without a fleet order. With 'Engage When Attacked', the fleet will only make an order to attack a target that is attacking a ship in the fleet, allowing ships to engage freely on their own if the ship's behavior allows it.

For each fleet, scroll down, and change "Fleet Tactics Override Ship" from [Use Ship tactics instead of Fleet] to [Use Fleet tactics instead of Ship]. Scroll down more to set the Engagement Range to 'Nearby (5000)', and "Retreat When" to 'Never'. This way, the fleet will rally up on targets periodically when the fleet orders it, but they'll engage nearby targets on their own once orders are complete.

In this universe, combatants like to disable ships, finishing them off once all threats are neutralized. They won't have the luxury of crippling all your ships, though.

And the Construction Ship is your party healer. They only have one ability: Heal Disabled. It only works on Disabled ships. Normally it'll run when attacked- you might want to change that, as it's easy to forget if it's waiting in deep space. Up to you.

Fast forward to when your armada arrives in the system. Save the game- war can go unexpectedly at times.

At the system view, look for a Caslon mining station, close to a gas giant. Cozy your fleets close to it- don't startle them yet.

Time to declare war. First, casually break any non-aggression pact (it was just a placeholder, right?), and then inform them of their impending subjugation. It's only polite.

Without delay, order your invasion fleet to capture the station, commanding using CTRL-RightClick or RightClick-Hold on the station with the invasion fleet selected. If you're plucky, you can use your escort fleets to help take down the shields- but remind them not to obliterate your new asset! You don't have to repair it- but if your ships are fine, might as well.

When the local welcoming committee inevitably scrambles to respond, engage with all the charm that Plasma Blasters can muster.

Crush them, even if your escorts don't have fuel. Remember that your Troop Transports can throw a punch too. After securing the station, refuel your fleets.

With the defenders routed, turn your attention to the capital and its spaceport.
Your ships may look ready to call it a day, but they'll keep fighting to the last, just as we expect. Remember your Construction Ship's restorative ability. Even during battle.

Show them the full might of your hospitality by explosively dismantling all the stations at the capital- even at their moon, if they have it! Start with their spaceport!

Impudent defenders will surely make a last-ditch effort to stop you. Show them a good time, and take your time. Use CTRL-LeftClick-Drag to select multiple ships to order them to focus fire on the enemy.

This is for Space Control. This dominance in orbit is a bonus for the troops on the ground that have it- nothing says 'welcome to the party' like unchallenged supremacy. Stations (especially a spaceport) have a strong say in who has Space Control, and without their disruptive voices, let your Invasion fleet have a heart-to-heart moment with the capital colony: Invade.

For the best effect, make sure your Troop Ships are all close to the colony when you make the order. Each assault pod drops a single unit and has a cooldown- it takes time to deploy the forces. That's why we want the first wave to be closely timed to get as many feet on the ground together.

As you watch the engagement unfold on the ground, note those numbers, like the Native Planet Bonus or Hostile Planet Type, and take pride in your strategic prowess- this is your moment of triumph. Bask in the glory of a well-executed plan.

If the battle isn't one-sided, PAUSE!
• Check your General's ground attack bonus. If its negative, dismiss them!
  
• Check that the invasion fleet has dropped all its forces, that no more than a couple ships were disabled. Try amassing them together in low orbit before attacking.
  
• Make sure you've eliminated all stations. If not, reload and try again.
  
• Do they have a lot of armor (tanks)? They did a sneaky maneuver I call a counter-invasion, where they land their own attack troops during an invasion. Reload, and this time, target their troop ships as a priority.
  
• Is it past 2800 and they simply have a lot of troops? Reload and bombard the colony first instead of attacking it, softening the defense until it looks like you can take it.

If this first party doesn't conclude the empire, you get a surprise sequel!

If you've invaded the Boskaran Monarchy, simply load up your troops, and repeat the attack on whatever other colony they managed to snag.

If not, well, you picked this fight. You'll have to deal with Assimilation- see the next section.

By turning their people to the rule of the Hive Mind, you've demonstrated that in space, it's not just the stars that align- but also your will. Congratulations, Great Overseer, for making it this far.

When your victims are defeated, you'll acquire their ships, stations, and sometimes characters.

Aliens (inferior non-Boskarans) will resent subjugation and have low Assimilation. It's how well races regard another race's rule. To raise it quickly, manually raise taxes to 100%, forcing them to rebel. Each quelled rebellion raises Assimilation by 30%, so three or four violent reeducation courses is enough.

They may have yielded some unworthy ships. (F11), filter by 'Ships not in a Fleet'. Pirate ships should be repurposed, being Jerry-rigged bolt buckets- retrofit or retire them. Retiring will give research advancement, so eating these ships for tech is probably the better choice.

Other empires will have a lot more than this. Sometimes, it'll be better to scuttle ships, just like we were doing with civilians. Practice the right of might - sorting by 'Size - lowest', and select all the escorts to scuttle them.

Escorts are just a step up from freighters in terms of combat capability. We'll keep our current escort fleets fed because they're cheap.

As for their frigates, form them into a new fleet by selecting all them on the Military Ships tab (F11) and clicking the triangle with the plus sign under the Selection Panel, (Create new fleet with these ships). There's several ways to use the sorting filter to find them.
Unlike escorts, frigates are warships suited for battle.

Admirals and generals aren't as glorious as you are, yet letting them take shots for you wouldn't be amiss. Let's prepare the navy for more autonomy. Allow them to think that they control their destiny as you do.

(P) for the policy settings.
• Under Construction, set Ship and Base Construction to Automatic, and set New Military Ships Are Automated to Automated. Scroll down to the Build Ratios, and set them as it pleases you, with this in mind:
  • Escorts are chaff. From now on, let them be sparse.
    
  • Boskaran frigates form the backbone of our might. They excel at firepower!
    
  • Destroyers are solid all-rounders.
    
  • Cruisers have fighters and are tough, but offer less firepower by cost.
    
  • Battleships become very durable but do little for us otherwise.
    
  • Carrier: We need fighters. More carriers would be wise.
• Under Weapon and Component Focuses, change the following:
  • Preferred Stand-Off Weapon Family to 'Blasters'. This will make our ships very aggressive.
    
  • For Intercept, pick 'Missiles'. These excel against fighters in battles, and can't be put in a bad spot (unlike the true anti-fighter PD, Railguns). While not as good against anything else, fighters could be a problem until we have carriers.
    
  • Set bombardment weapons to be used on Cruisers.
    
  • Ion, Area Priority to 'Do Not Use'. Area weapons require valuable brainpower to use respectably. Ion weapons are great- but we Boskara don't need them.
    
  • Fighter Bay Priority to High and Starting Role For Fighter Bays to Cruiser. For some reason, our ancestors decided that fighters weren't that important. They are.
    
  • Reactor Focus to Fuel Efficiency. These reactors (Fusion) are far more efficient. That's a big deal. Only certain ships with a special purpose benefit from Raw Power (Quantum).
    
  • Shields are better with Recharge Rate in general, Hyperdrive is best set to Speed, and Engine is best with Raw Thrust. There are times the other choices are better, but these are generally superior. Let your will be done.
• Under Military, set Military Attacks to Suggest and Execute. This will help give an idea of what gets targeted by our admirals.
  
• Under Troops, set Troop Recruitment to Automatic, and set the Colony Garrison Level and Attack Troop Level to whatever you want (low garrison works fine).
  
• Under Fleets, set Fleet Formation and Fleet Ship Management to Automatic. Your empire will create fleets for you.
  
• Under Research, set Crash Research to Automatic. Spending money on faster research is generally a good thing, let it happen.

If you have an impressive memory, you'll know this will allow your military to build new ships and recruit troops until their maintenance is roughly equal to the Amount Available that is set in Funding Levels (Shift-F2), and that if it's past, it'll disband or scuttle forces periodically. New fleets will be formed from existing ships, and ships will be pressed to fill out fleets.

Individual ships will start patrolling, guarding assets, and generally try to look important. Although questionably useful, they do want to fight and will look for trouble within your borders to fix. With enough of them buzzing around, they might even succeed.

Edit Fleet Templates as it pleases you now- try simply changing the ratios of the different ship roles to more closely resemble the ratios above. Add warships back to the invasion fleet too.

AI-generated fleets work fine, but you'd be wise to use more frigates while not inflating fleets.

This time, while looking at the Fleet Template for any fleet, examine the four buttons at the top, below the template name.

• Ship Role Up/Downgrade:
  This allows different roles of ships- that is, Escorts, Frigates, Destroyers, etc, to replace other roles.
  
• Trim Excess Ships and Auto-Upgrade Obsolete Specific Design:
  This is to ensure your plans are precisely followed if enabled. Unless you're carefully designing ships and fleets, these ought to be disabled.
  
• Auto-Upgrade Obsolete Specific Designs:
  If you design ships for the fleet and specify those ships in the fleet template, when those designs are made obsolete, with this enabled the fleet will automatically count that specified design as whatever is last in the retrofit path for that design.

If Ship Role Up/Downgrade is Enabled and Trim Excess Ships is Disabled, a default Attack Fleet can have 30 Frigates before Destroyers are ever built.

Now your empire is largely autonomous. It'll even build new research and mining bases- which it does with acceptable performance.

There's just one thorny problem you have to deal with at the moment- pirates. If we don't handle this problem soon, it'll get out of hand. We'll need to find their lairs, if you haven't already.

Check the Pirate Relations tab and select a pirate faction to see if it brings up their station on the information window. If it doesn't come up, we haven't found it yet. Unlike with empires, a pirate-captured spy won't reveal the base location, but it is worth the expendable spy.

Design a new exploration ship with a Long Range Sensor Array and no retrofit path (it doesn't even need a Command Center or shields) and build a couple. To distinguish them from other exploration ships, I advise naming each ship of this design something recognizable and starting with A- such as "A Scout". Find them on the Exploration Tab after queuing them to find them highlighted in red.

Then Upgrade the other exploration ship design and save it, to make sure they all don't retrofit into this new LRS design. Take these new eyes and go searching between the stars for the pirate lairs the old fashioned way, exploring the unknown. A little cunning here will go a long way- follow their ships, prod around nebulae and other empires. We must find them.

You're going to need 20-24 frigates in that Attack Fleet, which you may need to see to personally- some pirates can take on an entire early fleet. With any luck, we won't have to build many after absorbing the former Boskara Monarchy's Royal Frigates.

If the pirates are successfully raiding your stations, immediately scuttle those stations. Rebuilding them *earns* the empire money. So scuttle it preferably before they steal from it.

Feeding them would be bad.

The war council advised that I explain this thoroughly. The future Boskaran Armada relies on your competence with this policy below on Manual. We'll use this to defeat the pirates.

Fleet Postures: You decide where your fleet's Home Bases are, how far they'll normally go with their Engagement Range, and what their Attack Point will be for offensive fleets. It's all or nothing here. Automatically created fleets will have one set for them when made, but you can't set some fleets to automatic in this regard. Likewise, if this policy is set to automatic, it will override anything you set. This is strategic level command, deciding your fleet's potential targets will be through designating their area of focus.

You're the most clever being in the galaxy and are sure to be an advantage over our enemies. You could instead turn this over to the Warrior Caste by enabling automated Fleet Postures. It's your choice, Great Overseer, one way or another, it'll all be your faul- er, authoritative right to decide how to dispose of our fleets.

Some of this empire's 160 fleets assaulting N'zuth and Buvu Yagin, while defending Ignacia.
If you can handle a few yourself, the simultaneous actions of dozens of fleets will be understood.

Select the frigate fleet, and change its Fleet Role to Attack on the action button bar, then switch the troop transport fleet to Invade and the escort fleets to Defend. On the galaxy map, you'll see a red highlight circle around its Home Base, which will probably be your capital's spaceport. Right now, this Engagement Range is 50% fuel range.

To change a Home Base, with the fleet selected, use that ever-useful RightClick-And-Hold (or CTRL-RightClick) on a colony or station to bring up the orders menu and select 'Set home base for...'. Try changing it to the new colony or the capital itself.

Engagement Range- that's how far the fleet will go to attack things, whatever the Fleet Role is (attack, defense, raid, invasion). Again, the Engagement Range ONLY determines how far it will go to attack things. So, defense fleets don't intelligently keep your assets in one piece or ward colonies against invasion in that radius, invasion fleets don't gather troops from that zone, etc.

They don't aggressively target things in that radius either. Fleets periodically check for missions, depending on many factors. They may choose to attack a potential target, or go to retrofit, or follow a random freighter, among other things. Fleet admirals try to look busy!

Our autonomous fleet command may assign missions to fleets that are beyond its Engagement Range, but usually not by much. Pay attention to the suggested attacks- they are reactive! Many of their targets will be gone by the time they get there. Try setting the Home Station to locations you expect an attack, and overlap defensive engagement ranges for maximum autonomous effectiveness.

They are not smart. Unlike you, Great One! Grand strategy is beyond them and may attack a freighter while an invasion fleet approaches their Home Base. Rely on multiple smaller fleets to get a job done- they only sometimes make blunders. As expected for evil overlords Overseers like yourself, minions should also serve as a reminder of how much greater you are than them.

More fleets with overlapping Engagement Range is better than a few larger ones in the hands of the Warrior Caste. The council strongly recommends that you command large fleets personally- DO NOT leave them to a plucky, self-indulgent admiral! Like so many other real situations, don't put assets you can't afford to lose at unnecessary risk.

Now we'll cover what these fleets will attack in their Engagement Range.

Every fleet role will engage THREATS in their Engagement Range.

THREATS are any kind of threat we have detected that might attack our assets- monsters, known hostile ships, and unwelcome ships in our territory. There's a list of Threats in the Military tab, "Dangerous Locations". If a THREAT is detected en-route to an asset, an automated fleet can move to attack it in attempt to intercept it. So don't underestimate the value of Long Range Scanners.



ATTACK POINTS are any potential target focus for offensive fleets. You can designate a colony or a station like a Home Base. A fleet can be given one designated ATTACK POINT at any given time. When the selected target is part of a hostile empire, the fleet's Engagement Range is centered on it instead of the Home Base. Because the Engagement Range is re-centered, the fleet can go further than it normally would without a designated ATTACK POINT due to fuel restrictions.

A fleet can be assigned an ATTACK POINT indirectly, by selecting a target and using the action bar command to autonomously assign an appropriate fleet. The target must be within the Engagement Range of a fleet's Home Base and not be overpowering. It does not need to be in the Engagement Range of a Home Base nor weak enough when manually assigned to a specific fleet, though the fleet will not engage it if it is out of fuel range of a refuel location.

Though the assigned ATTACK POINT is a priority target, an offensive fleet may engage other potential ATTACK POINTS (stations and colonies) in its Engagement Range.

Fleets will coordinate with other fleets with the same ATTACK POINT. Invasion fleets are especially adept at this and will arrive on target within a narrow window of time when they need each other to successfully invade. Attack fleets will mob up on tougher targets when their combined strength is measured to be enough when they would otherwise avoid it.

You can find a list of targets under Military in the Enemy Targets tab (Shift-F12). Fleets that aren't THREATS won't be targeted until they're in the same system as your fleets, which will be the ones to engage them. If you queue attacks using the Enemy Targets tab, those targets are be prioritized over other targets- as far as a fleet selecting a target goes.

As their behavior goes. Fleets are allocated to do various tasks. Imagine you have ten fleets. At any given time, four of them may be upgrading or repairing, two may be refueling, three may be engaging THREATS or ATTACK POINTS, and one may be idling. There aren't specific ratios, but under the Warrior Caste's control, they'll more-or-less be doing everything at once. The takeaway is this: whatever the state of your empire is, only some of your fleets at any given time will automatically be fighting.

I must be clear. If you know what 'Defeat in Detail' is, you possess strategic prowess the likes of which the galaxy hasn't seen in an age. The Warrior Caste will make you facepalm. Take solace that the enemy has equal competence, and more importantly, your advanced strategies will actually work against them. Unlike the brain-dead forces in many war games.

You could just blob a big fleet or two together and steamroll enemies. That is a strong strategy for strong empires. Ours is already a strong empire in a rather weak galaxy, Great One. Of course, we Boskara are always strong... I did not mean to suggest otherwise...

Now, lets use this to destroy a pirate base. Locate a base threatening the empire.
Select the frigate fleet with 20+ frigates, and CTRL-RightClick or RightClick-Hold on the pirate base to set it as the Attack Point. Then set a Home Base that is within range of the target.

When the fleet is fueled and in position, military command will submit plans to aid the pirate's transition to its rightful place alongside our empire. In the void without a home.

In this time, you will see a lot more pirates showing up, raiding stations and perhaps one of our colonies. We were a small mark before, easily defended if you didn't build stations too far from home. With the assets of the former Monarchy, we can't properly defend all those stations. Don't hesitate to scuttle those until we've dealt with this problem.

The suggested order may not come expediently. If you become impatient, feel free to issue the order yourself. Use "Prepare and Attack" to ensure they rally and get fuel along the way if needed.

When the attack begins, no actions need be taken. They can't resist this much force, as disorganized as they are. Unless they were allowed to become mighty.
Trying to hit fighters with anti-ship weaponry proves to be difficult. Luckily, they shouldn't have many fighters and a few PD should be enough, assuming we didn't take too long to get here...

Our reward for the station's destruction: more pirate ships and security for our frontier stations!
Robb and Chris are fictional characters... based on a true story.

As our mastery of the dominion over space grows, we'll need to see to our prosperity in more ways than getting more taxable citizens and securing resources in space.

We Boskara are aggressive, so our researchers aren't very interested in civil projects. It's likely they haven't bothered with the Planetary Governance tech, nearly at the bottom of the tech tree above the diplomatic techs. Its bonuses are a great boost to tax income, which means bigger armies and fleets. Thankfully we have your authority to queue it up.

As shown here, half of those bonuses directly improves tax revenue. More happiness? Higher tax rates. Less corruption and better development? More revenue. Stronger leaders? Why not? For us Boskara, this is big.

As soon as it's done researching, order it built at our two (or three) colonies. Do so on the Colony Details window above the ship/station construction section, or under the Information window with the green button with a tower icon. You may want to build other facilities as they become available- namely the Science Academy and at least one Armor Barracks.

If you find it tedious to choose where to build facilities, leaving it to the Construction Caste is a costly option. They enjoy building, you see, and will build a lot of facilities we don't need. Appropriate funding can limit how much they build, but either you decide what and where to build, or let them have fun. To give them the keys to the coffers, go to Policy Settings again (P), Colonies and Tax Rates, and set Planetary Facility Building to Automate.

If you'd rather control it yourself, it may still be prudent to set it to Suggest, as it will notify you when certain facilities are ready for upgrades or dismantling when they no longer have any benefit.

It'd be great if we could concentrate on strengthening the empire, but there's a 50/50 chance that another empire declared war on us while we hunted pirates. They might not even do anything with the war- but that will encourage others to declare war on us too. It'll come sooner or later.

Focus on the pirates, and let our admirals handle alien menaces. They'll start requesting to attack monsters- mindfully let them. Some groups of monsters will be too strong. Our Boskara ship power is straightforward. Their comparative Strength is a good way to guess how they'll do against enemies.

They use Blasters and Torpedoes that don't have any tricks. Simple weapons that just deal damage. Aside from conventional Beams, other weapon system's strengths come from long range, the ability to bypass shields, or outright disabling systems on a hit.

Monsters will incapacitate some of our ships. Inferior aliens will gang up on us. We will see them coming. Remember our Long Range Scanner exploration ships? It might be a good idea to build a few more and park them around our empire in deep space outside of systems before they test our fleets. They'll run out of fuel, but that's fine- the scanners will keep working, like the heart of the Boskara.

Defeating pirates and monsters has a desirable bonus aside from overcoming threats:

A reputation boost! Although we're hated for being cannibals less than 1% of the time (a remarkable feat that we've overcome primitive nature if you ask me), we can make up for it with Reputation. Until we start enslaving and exterminating.

To be honest, we at the top of the Hive Mind wouldn't normally care about Reputation. The lesser castes- the common citizens of the empire- actually want the empire to do 'good' deeds, like slaughtering pirates or studying aliens. Positive Reputation raises Happiness. It's also good for diplomacy, but taking advantage of that involves giving something to others.

Gifting to others is strange, but wise once in a while. Sometimes we'll find an Independent Colony, prime candidates to be absorbed into an empire. A 'good' Reputation makes it easier to bribe them into joining without having to damage the colony with a forceful invasion.

To make bribery more likely the right choice, studies into the behavior of aliens might be warranted. Diplomatic technologies further raises Reputation and grants a bonus to the relations with empires and independents of the matching race. Of course, a Boskara independent would be primed to join the empire almost immediately, as we don't need to study the way of the Boskara- provided the independent is not put off by 'bad' Reputation like attacking someone we agreed not to attack without warning.

Diplomats love to make gifts and ask for treaties or wars- they're quite the active bunch. There's a Diplomacy section in the Policy Settings tab, but of all the automation, I strongly advise leaving these at Manual or Suggest, lest you truly wish to just watch our Boskaran empire run about like ants.

With a little luck, we should encounter one of these independents. I cannot advise which path would be better- invasion or bribery- both have merit. Assess for yourself if it would be better to invade it by force or to peacefully colonize it. Keep in mind that others make this a priority- invading is quicker, but an undamaged colony develops much faster.

Independents aside, with luck, there may be a planet you can colonize. Check the New Colonies tab (Shift-F4) and see if anything has higher than +20 Colonization Suitability.

Nominally, a colony takes 1000 credits annually to support. See Support Costs on a colony to see more details.

In addition to support costs, colonies consume resources (not just luxuries). New colonies provide room for the population to grow, but only a few are needed to do this. Many new colonies do not grow much faster than a few- or even one.

Over-expanding too quickly strains the economy and stretches the military. It would be wise to carefully select the most suitable and strategic locations to expand to.

There might not be any options to expand. If we reach maximum population on our colonies, any Growth Funding goes to waste. The Administration Caste (automation) will not recognize that... remember to check how much is being lost on the Empire Funding Levels tab (Shift-F2).

Speaking of automation, you could allow the selection of colonies to be automated... which will aggressively colonize. It'll cause a strain, but not as bad as it could be under some Overseers that throw a colony ship at anything they can build on. To throw regard for expansion to the dogs, go to Policy Settings again (P), and automate - or hopefully just suggest - Colonization.

In which case, it might be prudent to command those attack and invasion fleets to claim some more colonies, setting them as an Attack Point as we did with the pirate base.

Now it appears, Great One, that I've been summoned for a review of my behavior. There are claims that I've been experiencing an unusual amount of Human-like thoughts. Fear not for our association, for you are exempt from such inquiry!

That's everything you need to know to rule the Galaxy. With almost everything automated, the empire won't be very efficient- but it's already the strongest, or close to it, and just a little nudging on your part will ensure it will conquer all.

1. Do not fight the automation. Let it go to its Home Base or Attack Points as it pleases, or control it yourself- trying to herd cats won't be fun. For yourself and the empire. Temporarily take control as needed, only returning it to automation when its done with your order or you don't care if it finishes it.
   
   An Invasion fleet manually told to Attack and then immediately put it back on Automatic will not behave like automated fleets in attacking, but might go back to its normal behavior and do something else halfway through- it might even go back to do the same thing but under AI control. That's asking for headaches. Use redundant Attack Points and overlapping Engagement Ranges for automatic fleets, and expect them to collectively get the job done.
   
   
2. Armored units (aka tanks) is essential to assaults going forward.
   
   
3. Position invasion fleets within troop-dropping range of the target colony before invading if you cannot stand watching individual units drop early to their doom. Invasion fleets are intended to attack with sufficient force to afford the losses according to information available at the time they are sent- if you send forces with *just enough*, you'll need to command it personally.
   
   
4. Don't rush the construction of facilities and spaceports on developing colonies. Young colonies don't really benefit from the extra cost, and spaceports increase logistical demands.
   
   
5. Fuel tankers will only refill fleets that are idle- at appropriate places, they will wait for tankers. Good for defense fleets with a home base without fuel and for fleets with a long trek ahead.
   
   
6. Research and Administration techs probably have the most impact.
   
   
7. Colonization and terraforming technologies also strongly improve the economy.
   
   
8. Ion weapons are actually great, best employed as a supporting weapon.
   
   
9. Shields and regeneration rate > Armor, mitigation and HP.
   
   
10. In small to middle-sized battles,
    DPS + Speed > Range + Durability,
    but in big multi-fleet battles,
    Range + Durability > DPS + Speed.
    3000 range is more than enough.
    Beyond that is excessive.
    
    
11. Bigger ships are not necessarily better. Most hulls excel at something- meaning no hull is the best in every situation. Decide your own favorite!
    
    
12. Enslaving makes good money from a large, developed colony, but is detrimental on small ones.
    
    
13. Exterminating has almost no mechanical benefit- and a multiracial empire is stronger. However hard you RP, the Imperium (an extremely violent human supremacist empire) doesn't mesh well in DW2. Even the Boskara are better off being very selective with who and where to exterminate.
    
    
14. The Boskara are very resistant to War Weariness, but if there's no breaks between wars, or one drags on with heavy losses, even the Boskara's private sector accustomed to warfare will start to suffer. Seek a year of peace to allow the War Weariness score to normalize to zero, or eventually the happiness penalty may become so large that colonies will start to splinter off.
    
    
15. If you missed it, Scott's guide takes a more hands-off approach with more emphasis on his favored style. You must COPY-PASTE this link into your browser for it to work. Steam does not work well with the link if its simply clicked! (official DW2 forum on Matrix Games)
    https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=380441
    
    
16. If you want even more advanced tips, here you are! Like Scott's guide, you'll have to copy-paste this link into a browser to view the page.
    https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5180051#p5180051
    
    
17. This is an easy galaxy, especially with this empire's status, just about any build and strategy will work!

That wasn't really the Boskara experience. That was just their style. Tutorial style.

Time to really experience DW2, with tougher pirates and more age-old terrors, events, and more. While the settings for creating a galaxy aren't complex, there aren't any presets aside from what the game defaults to when the game is installed. It'll keep the same settings as you last created!

Whether or not you play the Boskara again to get their story and understand their true nature, its important to craft a galaxy that fits the desired gameplay you can get out of DW2.

Make choices that gives the AI advantages! It really is exceptional (especially for a game of this scope), but still is weaker than new players in many ways. This allows most new players to 'win' the first game, with a modest chance of getting wiped or at least hitting some challenge.

Now, about making a good galaxy for it.

Nebula Density
It is the only feature that creates terrain. Nebulae effectively creates more distance between empires, sometimes even practically separating would-be neighbors.

If you'd like fewer wars with actual armed conflicts at any given time, more isolation, or effectively make the galaxy larger without increasing the size, increase Nebula Density. Fewer nebulae makes it easier to expand.

The AI handles it fairly well either way. Higher density gives them a little more advantage if they have a technological head-start over you.


Galaxy Shape
The distribution of stars aside, note that these affect the manner that nebulae separates the galaxy. I would recommend Classic for more 'fair' starts.

Spiral with more empires in the galaxy gives the AI a small advantage, as its more likely to put you at the edge where there's fewer stars unless there aren't many empires.


Stars and Galaxy Size
If you know the latest and most expensive hardware isn't always the greatest, you're already a step up. This game is very demanding of the processor. So a large galaxy filled with empires may be a bad option. As this could be a book unto itself, let's make this easy. Here's a worthy benchmark save you can use to see how your computer handles it. Its an end-game 1000 star galaxy. That's not the most demanding, but its up there.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kaHyOkEDmplCnJNnD327lNzIqBqAXjsA/view?usp=sharing
Extract it to: ...SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Distant Worlds 2\data\SavedGames

Let it run for a few minutes. Take note of how often the research updates its estimated days remaining. Watch a battle, zoom out and zoom back to another battle. Pause and see how many notifications happen after pausing. Its up to you to decide this. Restart the game when you're done- this is an old save, but it works for this purpose.

Okay, how about the gameplay? A large galaxy is good for slowing down expansion, giving more passive empires more time to strengthen against aggressive ones. It makes snowballing a lot slower too, and puts more importance on energy-efficient components, faster drives, and overall superior technology. Less star density pushes that even more.

The larger and less dense it gets, the more that RNG matters. Its more likely that empires are going to get a really rough position, including yours. You could just restart if that happens to you, but harder to tell are the ones that get lucky positions.

Inversely, smaller and more dense galaxies makes warfare front and center. More peaceful, isolationist races won't stand a chance.

Galaxy Expansion and Tech Level
The AI sometimes fumbles with advanced tech starts without a matching expansion. Higher tech components need more strategic materials, a more expanded empire can more easily get these materials. Regardless, a higher tech start is undoubtedly an advantage, especially if customizing the AI empires by giving them rich starting systems.

I'd recommend giving the AI a Tech Level of 1 to 4 if you start PreWarp.

Expansion is a wild card. Its difficult to protect against pirates for spread out empires from scratch. They may have poor resources available, and the colonies may be iffy in the first place. Its very RNG dependent- they could also get an amazing spread that will give them a huge head start. Again, its still an advantage, its just very variable as to how much it is.

Galaxy Aggression
Most say it should be Restless or higher. I am among them! More aggressive AI are almost always stronger.

Difficulty
The only thing veterans agree on is that it shouldn't be Easy. Extreme imposes some ... extreme penalties, and it isn't necessary to make it a challenging game. Hard gives the AI a moderate boost and doesn't make your empire feel like its dragging rocks.

This setting alone does not determine the practical difficulty of the game! The far greater determining

Hostile Races Near Player
This pick radically changes the game, but its impact depends on how you plan to handle it. If you're going to rush invasions in the game's opening, more of these will make the game easier.


( Finishing this section ... eventually? )

With a harder galaxy (not just 'difficulty' setting), the game can be impossible to win without using exploits and cheesy strategies like invading right off the bat as in this guide. Or it can be a summer breeze by capitalizing on any advantage. So before starting a new galaxy, let's talk a bit about cheese.


Using a strong move is one thing, making the game easy with its abuse is another.

There are more than a dozen things you can do that the AI empires can't or won't do (for now). Most of them are intentional, some are hardly cheesy, but is still an unfair advantage. A few are outright exploits- and that's not counting cheating using the editor. I'm going to spill the beans on what those are. Its up to you to choose to minimize such, but don't call it easy if you take advantage of these!

Researching Super Technologies
Using Quantum Capacitors and/or Point Shields
Early rushed invasions
Setting higher than 70% tax
Raiding colonies or stations
Multiple mining engines on a single ship or station
Buying pirate relations with gifted tech or location info
Creating independent colonies to sell their location information
Abusing barter system in general
Making friends out of everyone
Intentionally causing revolts to raise assimilation
Preemptively preventing undesirable migration
Scrapping civilian ships for profit
Scrapping stations prior to destruction to avoid war 'losses'
Spamming steal technology missions, especially when starting pre-warp
Positioning invasion fleets over colonies before declaring war
Facility Dupe Exploit
Retire Exploit
Time Shield Exploit
Raid Exploit

Take it even a step further by sticking to goals that may even work against becoming the largest and most advanced economic power. At least try the race specific objectives, but try to imagine your own! Stick to them and the game will prove more challenging, and who doesn't like a little imagination in play?

Without sensors, a ship will identify targets in the local area. This could be thought of as visual range.

Sensors detect and identify targets at extended range. Proximity and Short Range sensors work at a system level, while Long Range Sensors work on a galactic level. The closer the target, the more able the sensor is to determine specifics. They include trace scanners, which can identify more specifics including a troop compliment, cargo, and the ship's mission. They can also identify the target's jump destination, making it easier to chase the target.

Trace scan components have superior trace scan capability and are harder to counter with jamming, masking and stealth.

Jamming and masking decreases the range of the ship's identification, and makes it harder to determine other specifics.

Stealth significantly decreases the range of detection and identification.

Having good sensor coverage is important. Without it, automated fleets will have greatly diminished effectiveness in engaging targets.

Stealth and jamming gives the enemy less time to react to your ships. The AI doesn't use the Stealth Cloak or Jammers, but will use the Starfield Generator, which has some stealth.

These components also provide bonuses to targeting, countermeasures (evasion), and weapon damage.

Resort stations, while identified as civilians and are controlled by them, are built and maintained by the state. They generate bonus income when passenger ships deliver tourists.

Some empires, like the Boskara Hive Mind, do not generate much profit from them (and can even lose money). Your civilians will spend on Tourism none the less, and if you lack Resorts, they'll spend it elsewhere. Each Resort also increases the number of passenger ships the civilians will build. That means more migration capacity.

While Tourism will never be a primary source of income, it can be a big chunk, especially for a young empire not hellbent on conquest. To improve it, give a modicum of development for larger passenger ships and compartments, better recreation centers and faster drives. Restricting migration furthers it.

The most important thing to getting more Tourism is getting Resorts with a high Scenery bonus.

To build resorts, the following technologies are required:

• Expanded Space Stations (for the resort itself)
  
• Expanded Civilian Ships (for the Small Passenger Ship)
  
• Basic Transport Systems (for the Basic Passenger Compartment)
  
• Basic Recreation Systems (for the Basic Recreation Center)

Many recommend building colony ships with multiple Colonization Modules or Passenger Compartments to increase the number of pioneers for the start of the colony. This reduces initial Support Cost and makes it grow faster.

Colony Ships have two technology requirements to build.

• Expanded Civilian Ships (for the colony ship itself)
  
• Basic Colonization (for the Colonization Module)