Planets are useful for a couple of things.
Research
Production
defense
Build them accordingly.
Early in the game it might be usefull to have a couple of general purpose
planets.
Get away from this as early as you can since it is highly inefficent.
Early in the game you would be better off with more research. And in
fact how you should determine the mix is how much production do I need?
And not build more then that.
Other considerations.
Choke points. These should have a defense station and a production planet
with a orbital dock for rapid refits.
Terminal points for red-jump-lanes both ends should have orbital docks.
Every odd numbered system should have a orbital dock.
Defense stations should be the smaller planets, since all they need are
tractor beams and perhaps a little production to repair damaged screens.
When you build one of these start by filling the little rock with
factories/mega-factories. Don't bother to leave room for other things.
Since what you need is for this system to have 2-3 screens and 7-8 whoppers.
Once that is done remove the factories one at a time to make room for
tractor beams (and an observation station if you have room, usefull for
target selection). You want more then one tractor beam since you will
use them first. And keep any intruder ships from causing mischief or from
escaping. Since you have several of them and they can fire 3 times a
piece, you can easily fill even a small world up with enough to trap an
entire fleet (once they run out of fuel, you can turn your guns on them).
Other planets should all have planetary and surface shields to aid the
defense stations keep the faster foes from getting to the surface. They
can have whoppers/missles as well, but you should consider that a luxury
item and only use it if your defense tech is low and your defense planets
are unable to keep them at bay.
Research Planets: I mainly use campus' since they give the highest research
points, and for this planet type, that's all I care about. Remember the
quicker you get this type of planet going, the quicker you'll get to play
with the fun high-tech toys.
Production planets: on Blue squares I put Engineer's since while they
make use of the research bonus, they also provide some of the needed
production.
All planets: remove all housing and properity items as soon as you get
automation (robotic control). This allows some staggeringly powerful
planets.
Ships:
With the right technology you can do some interesting things.
My current favorite tech items are the Brunswick Device, the Lane
Destabalizer and the accutron. I think they'll soon be yours as well.
Ship types I use.
Battle Ship
Troop Carrier
Fuel Depot/Portable Space Dock
Fast Scout
Long Scout
RailRoad / Transporter
System Defense Boats (good use for obsolete hull sizes)
Colonizers
First a few things I noticed on ships, if you've got a better idea please
post them, and e-mail me if you get the chance.
There is no point in exceding the maximum energy in a ship. Once the
yellow bar stops moving, adding more powerplants (nanotwhirlers, etc) is
pointless. Don't put too many "impulse" engines in either. I find 2 is
all I need once I have the faster engines and 1 engine will do for support
ships. This is enough to go from corner to corner quickly. Remember to
use the 'circle-arrow' gadget on the top of the screen to get the slower
ships into the jump lanes with the faster ones so they will all show up at
the same time.
When you go to build a ship, ask yourself this question: What is this vessel
supposed to do? That will make it much easier to design it.
TRANSPORTER Ship:
The Lane-Destabalizer is a wonderful gadget. Once you get it, no ship
except for scouts need anything more then 1 jump engine. Before I get
this device, I typically put 4-5 jump engines in most of the HUGE ships,
except for System-Defense-Boats which don't need any at all.
The TRANSPORTER (dubbed StarWays RailRoad by a friend who I showed it to).
You take a HUGE hull fill it with Lane-Destablizers (with maybe 1 screen,
1 jump engine (more when you first get this tech), 1 gun, and enough
energy (typically 2-3 nanotwhirlers depending on how far apart the star
lanes are). You place them on every 3rd system, and be sure you build a
orbital dock in the system you place them in, since they will require
frequent refitting). The advantage? Take the following example a-b-c-d-e
You wish to move a fleet from system 'a' to system 'e' you have
TRANSPORTERS in systems 'b' & 'd' send the fleet into the jump lane from
a to b, fire the lane destabalizer from system 'b' into that starlane next
system the fleet is in system 'b', move the fleet to the b-c starlane fire
a lane destabalizer from 'b' into the b-c starlane. Next turn the fleet
is in system 'c' move them to the c-d starlane, and the TRANSPORT ship in
'd' takes over. So the entire trip takes only 4 days no matter how long
the jump lanes are, even if they are RED-Lanes. So your other ships can
free up alot of spaces for more interesting devices.
FUEL DEPOT Ship:
This ship requires the device to beam energy across a distance. The maximum
in powerplants (7 nanotwhirlers). Auto-Repair, the "absorb damage from
another ship" device, lots of hyper-fuels, and possibly scanners. It
should only have 1 jump engine and 1 impulse engine.
This ship will make your BATTLE SHIPS more efficent since they won't need
to carry as much fuel, or auto-repair or scanners. In other words it
makes other ships do their jobs better.
LONG SCOUT:
This ship is designed to take off on it's own and not see a friend for a
very long time. So it should have auto-repair, the maximum in powerplants,
2+ impulse engines, several scanners, the xray device (greatly enhances
your scanners), and a whole bunch of jump engines. I typically put at
least 5 in there (if the hull is huge). This vessel is to map out the
galaxy for you as quickly as possible and give you feed back as to what
the computer ships look like so you can prepare for them.
FAST SCOUTS:
These are slightly different. They are mainly used for a rapid recon
when you are on the attack and come to several jumplanes and are unsure
which one will lead to more of your foes colonies.
For these I bring them to the front via TRANSPORTERS and then send them
off with 'yellow' jump engines. These are used up one per jump, so have
several of them per ship and also include a conventional jumpe engine so
they can 'walk' home. When you are on the attack speed can make the
difference between an easy victory and a long grueling fight. It is
sometimes usefull for these to also carry a lane blocker in case they
stumble across a fleet you don't think you can easily beat, this will buy
you time to build a few new ships.
TROOP CARRIER:
Should be obvious. They exist so your other ships can be more specialized
and not waste precious space with 3-6 ground troops.
BTW: don't use the ground 'bombs' on a planet you intend to own, since they
really make a mess of it.
BATTLE SHIP:
The most usefull devices here are: Brunswick, replenisher, accutron, and
possibly a tractor beam and/or a gravitational toy. It's generally more
usefull to have only 4-6 guns and plenty of replenishers. Since each
replenisher allows all your guns to fire again, and your FUEL DEPOT is
beaming you more energy. In combat first use the brunswick's on opposing
ships. This makes them dead in the water, so even if they are superior
in tech, it does them no good.
Screens that work require energy. If they have fergzt devices (the gun that
requires no energy) besure you use your accutron to kill him at a distance.
The replenisher also replenishes your brunswick and tractor beams, so you
can use this to first incapacitate all ships and later kill them. This is
best. Since you should have plenty of space to hold replenishers.
These ships are designed to operate with a fleet and on the attack.
The BRUNSWICK also keeps them from using those really annoying special
devices.
SYSTEM DEFENSE BOAT:
Same as a battle ship, except they need more energy and should likely have
a few hyperfuels and a auto-repair since they are designed to operate on
their own in defense of your systems.
And so they can't rely on a FUEL DEPOT to feed it energy and absorb it's
damage.
COLONIZER:
Typically will follow a fleet around and make empty systems and very choice
planets part of your empire.
