Gameplay tips

General discussion for the game Anacreon
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Hussell
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abundant > major > minor > trace > none

Abundant deposits produce twice as much as major deposits, which produce twice as much as minor deposits, which produce two-and-a-half times as much as trace deposits. If you can manage it, you should never designate a world with minor or trace deposits as a resource extractor for that resource. You should also never waste a world with abundant deposits by not designating it as a resource extractor.
Hussell
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The cost of almost anything in Anacreon can be measured by how much industry is needed to produce 1 per watch, plus the amount of resources which are consumed. For example, one Reliant-class transport is produced per watch per 200 industry, and costs 2 trillum, 2 hexacarbide, and 0 chronimium.

Resource extraction itself can be measured this way, once you account for deposit abundance. The table below lists the amount of industry needed to produce 1 resource per watch. For example, a world with abundant trillum deposits will produce 2 trillum per industry devoted to trillum extraction.

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          trillum   hexacarbide   chronimium
abundant     0.5        4.5           24
major        1          9             48
minor        2         18             96
trace        5         45            240
Hexacarbide foundries consume 1 trillum per hexacarbide produced, and chronimium processors consume 2 trillum per chronimium produced. Trillum extractors don't require any other resources.
Hussell
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If you want to conquer the galaxy, you need a lot of ships. To build a lot of ships, you must maximize the industrial capacity of your planets. Important factors affecting industrial capacity include efficiency, population, tech level, and specialization.

Efficiency goes down significantly when a planet is conquered (~1/4), rebels against the empire (~2/3), or its designation is changed (~1/5). It goes up slowly but steadily over the course of days and weeks. The only thing you can do here is avoid decreasing the efficiency as much as possible. Plan ahead as much as you can, so you won't have to change a planet's designation twice. That said, don't hesitate to change the designation if it'll let you build more ships in the end.

Industrial capacity is directly proportional to population, so always build habitat structures if you can! Unfortunately, it can take up to a week to build all the habitat structures for a planet.

Tech level has two (well, three really) effects on industrial capacity: first, tech level affects the population cap. This varies depending on the type of planet, but most types max out around level 7 (biotech) or 8 (antimatter) and decrease as tech level goes higher. The major exception to this is desert planets, which have no habitat structures and max out at tech 5 (spacefaring). The second effect of tech level is to increase the industrial capacity of your population. A billion people at tech 10 can operate more industry than a billion people at tech 9. Even after the population caps start decreasing, a fully populated planet usually has more industrial capacity at higher tech levels.

Here's the most important thing: specialization. Comparing a planet using 50% of its capacity on trillum extraction and 50% on consumer goods to a planet using 100% on consumer goods (importing 100% of its trillum) reveals that the 100% world produces significantly more than double the consumer goods the 50/50 world produces. The lesson is simple: devote as much industrial capacity to one thing as possible. Import everything else! However, this doesn't mean you should import all your organic food from one planet and durable goods from another: only designation-level industries benefit from specialization. This also means that producing more than one type of spaceship at a time won't harm your shipyards.

Complications abound. As tech level increases, planets demand more consumer goods per unit population. I haven't yet managed to quantify this effect, but it obviously decreases the ship-building capacity of higher-tech empires, possibly enough to make a lower-tech empire more efficient. Defense installations can't be imported, but you risk rebellion if you don't build enough defenses on a world. My strategy so far is to build the minimum necessary defenses and rely on increased ship production to protect my planets. Etc.
george moromisato
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This is totally awesome. You are right that high tech worlds consume enough additional goods that a mid-tech empire is viable. This is part of the game design and I intend to fiddle with the numbers to keep it that way.

That is, it should be possible for a high-production mid tech empire to compete against a high tech empire.
Hussell
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I'm getting a bit tired of writing out resource names, so I'm proposing to write unit costs like this:

<unit name> <industry> <trillum>/<hexacarbide>/<chronimium> + <components>

Reliant-class jumptransport 200 2/2/0 + light jumpdrive
Megathere-class starcruiser 10000 80/200/50 + Grond launcher, X9 reactor

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organic food  0.04 0.00/0/0
durable goods 0.10 0.04/0/0
luxuries      1.50 0.10/0/0

air filters           0.05 0.00/0/0
radiation shielding   0.06 0.01/0/0
life support supplies 0.07 0.01/0/0
radiation meds        0.08 0.01/0/0
<industry> is the amount needed to produce 1 thing per watch. Example: 100 industry will produce 100/0.08=1250 radiation meds and consume 1250*0.01=12.5 trillum every watch.

Tomorrow: table of the costs of everything in the game.
Hussell
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Ground units

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infantry brigade          250 0/0/0
imperial guard brigade    500 0/0/0
light armored vehicle     400 1/10/0
armored infantry brigade  500 0/0/0 + light armored vehicle
exoarmor                 6500 5/10/10
exotroop brigade         2500 0/0/0 + exoarmor
Jumpships

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Vanguard-class explorer       95 1/0.5/0
light jumpdrive               72 8/0/0
Reliant-class jumptransport  200 2/2/0   + light jumpdrive
Stinger-class jumpship       210 2/2/0   + light jumpdrive
heavy jumpdrive              220 12/2/0
light missile launcher       120 8/2/0
Adamant-class jumpcruiser    210 4/5/0   + heavy jumpdrive, light missile launcher
Helion-class explorer        120 5/0.5/1
advanced jumpdrive           200 10/2/5
Warphant-class jumptransport 200 5/10/5  + advanced jumpdrive
Eldritch-class jumpship      200 5/5/7.5 + advanced jumpdrive
graviton launcher            100 5/3/5
Undine-class jumpcruiser     250 5/6/10  + advanced jumpdrive, graviton launcher
Starships

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Sirius-class gunship          525 8/10/0
Minotaur-class gunship        600 12/10/8
positron lancer               580 20/5/0
S100 reactor                 1120 30/10/0
Defiance-class starfrigate   5000 40/50/0   + positron lancer, S100 reactor
Basilisk cannon               620 10/3/6
R50 reactor                  1200 35/12/10
Gorgos-class starfrigate     5200 50/75/20  + Basilisk cannon, R50 reactor
heavy missile launcher        620 4/5/1
N8 reactor                   2000 50/20/5
Victory-class starcruiser    9325 60/150/10 + heavy missile launcher, N8 reactor
Grond launcher               1000 20/5/10
X9 reactor                   2500 30/5/20
Megathere-class starcruiser 10000 80/200/50 + Grond launcher, X9 reactor
Defenses

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GDM silo                   25 0.2/0/0
HEL cannon                 40 0.5/2/0
autocannon satellite       70 2/1/0
hypersonic missile site    70 2/10/0
armored satellite         265 4/12/0.5
plasma tower              440 10/20/2
heavy missile launcher    620 4/5/1 (built at starship components autofac)
Titan-class battlestation 560 15/40/2 + heavy missile launcher
Numbers are up-to-date as of Alpha 4.
starxplor
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I have lately been going for the mid level tech route, only bring starship planets up to 8 and all others at 6 or 7 depending on chromium and luxury needs of the local area.

I have been experimenting with different levels of specialization, and have found a single abundant trilliam and single abundant hexcarbide planet can easily support 2-3 starship planets as well as 1-2 consumer goods planets, depending on tech levels sizes and general habitability. I seem to have run into Chromium as the primary limiting factor, with one abundant planet being able to supply roughly 2 starship planets, if none of them have chromium requiring defenses.

As for not wasting planets with heavy resources, this includes the non-hostile world classes as well. An earth-like or ocean planet doesnt need to spend any production on flare sheilds or air filters and such, so has that little bit extra to squeeze out of efficient production.
Hussell
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You may not yet have spotted the place on the interface where you can get some information on the capabilities of defenses. Here's what I've seen:

GDM silo
nuclear warhead: D:32 R:10
armor: 16

HEL cannon
HEL cannon: D:10 R:10
armor: 20

autocannon satellite
x-ray laser cannon: D:16 R:10
armor: 16

hypersonic missile site
H2 interceptor: D:20 R:20
armor: 50

armored satellite
H5 interceptor: D:30 R:10
armor: 130

plasma tower
plasma lancer T13: D:50 R:10
armor: 250

Titan-class battlestation
Sekron-50 missile: D:120 R:10
armor: 500

Note that hypervelocity missiles are the only type with a range advantage. Note also that the HEL cannons, autocannon satellites, and plasma towers are the only types unaffected by missile defense. In theory, a large enough group of Stinger jumpships can destroy the defenses of any planet lacking those three, without taking any damage.

It should be possible to work out what the power rating of each type is by careful observation of how the defense values change as a planet produces new defenses, but I haven't yet mustered the fortitude to collect those observations.
Hussell
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If Anacreon 2 is any guide, the types and frequencies of planets are going to vary from scenario to scenario, but for now we just have one scenario to play with. There appear to be 10 types of planets: Barren, Desert, Earth-like, Fiery, Greenhouse, Ocean, Primordial, Transuranic, Underground, and Volcanic. Transuranics appear to be quite rare, while the others seem to appear at roughly equal frequencies at first glance.

Earth-like, Ocean, and Underground worlds are the most habitable. They are the only ones which can build planetary arcologies, habitats which require antimatter-level technology and 4 days of building time. Desert worlds are unique in being unable to build any habitat structures, making them much smaller at high tech levels. The other six types all require some industry be used to build supplies necessary to make living there possible: air filters, radiation shielding, life support supplies, or radiation meds.

Each type of world seems to have a different distribution of resource deposits:

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low = trace or minor
med = minor or major
high = major or abundant

            trillum hexacarbide chronimium
Barren        low     high        none
Desert        high    med         none
Earth-like    med     med         none
Fiery         high    low         low
Greenhouse    low     low         high
Ocean         low     low         low
Primordial    med     none        med
Transuranic   med     med         med
Underground   low     high        none
Volcanic      med     low         med
The above should be treated as a rough approximation: I've encountered a small number of worlds that have unusual resource deposits, such as an Earth-like world with abundant hexacarbide, and an Ocean world with major chronimium deposits.

So far, I haven't noticed any world types being better at any industry than any other world type, aside from the resource levels affecting resource extraction.

If you think of Earth-like worlds as the "sweet-spot" worlds where everything is just right, you can classify some of the other worlds based on how they've gone wrong. Deserts have too little water, Oceans have too much. Greenhouse worlds have too much atmosphere, Barren worlds have none. Volcanic worlds have too much tectonic activity, Underground worlds presumably have very little. This suggests a few additional world types could be added: Fiery worlds are too hot, potentially there could be Icy worlds (Tundra worlds?) which are too cold. Primordial worlds are too young, potentially there could be Ancient worlds (Cinders? Husks?) which are too old. Primordial worlds are the only ones with no hexacarbide, Ancient worlds could be the only ones with no trillum.
whaleduck
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I thought this might be nice to bring up. Imperial Guard Brigades have twice the power of a regular infantry brigade. Armored infantry brigades are two-and-a-half times the power of Imperial Guard Brigades. Exotroop brigades are 9.6 times more powerful than Armored infantry brigades. So:

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Brigade Type       | Power
-------------------------------
Standard infantry | 1
Armored infantry  | 5
Imperial Guards   | 2
Exotroop          | 48

CaleyM
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I have a tech 6 Desert planet that does not make any special supplies.
CaleyM
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Fiery : radiation shielding
Volcanic : air filter
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