Nu Planets Turn Progress Guide

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2973 days, 2 hours, 48 minutes ago
View bondservant's profile
bondservant
Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
Every NU Planets game is different.  Different players.  Different setup.  Different circumstances.  Nevertheless, as I play each of my Nu games, I compare my system scorecard to a Turn Progress Guide that I have created to help me determine if I am on track to achieve my primary Nu game objectives.

As I start each game, I remind myself that my primary objectives are to have fun, be flexible, and to team up with one or two other players to win the game.  I know I will need a certain number of planets, starbases and ships to win, so I have developed a Turn Progress Guide for my personal use (see below).  It is for when I play the Crystals race, but I alter it slightly and use it for other races I play as well.  For example, I increased my Military Score expectations for the games where I am playing the Robots or Colonies.  And I increased my expectations for the number of starbases and ships when I played the Lizards.  

This is not a race guide or a guide on how to develop your economy, diplomacy, or military strategy.  If you have questions wanting details on how to play the Crystal race or how to develop your diplomacy, feel free to go to Donovan's VGA Planets website; I have short guides in the Raceguides and Strategy sections that are specific to each of those topics.  In fact, as most Nu players know, there are numerous guides there that cover most aspects of the game.  It is a great resource site.  It provides great reading material from your mobile phone whenever you have to wait in a line for a few minutes and you would like to make productive use of your time.  And lately, a new Wiki resource is emerging at vgaplanets.org too.

Below is simply a guide I use to measure how well I am progressing in a Nu Planets game, based on the basic measures that are provided in the game data scorecard.  Note:  this Turn Progress Guide are general guidelines.  I will lower my expectations if I know 1) I am in a game with lots of high-level talent, or 2) I start a game late or in a poor position, or 3) I am in a game where my ally drops and my enemies have their good friend join the game as my ally's replacement to help them with their war against me and my other ally (e.g. Colony 6 System).  Conversely, I will raise my expectations if it looks like most of my opponents are not very good or if they drop the game completely and no replacement takes their place.  Finally, this guide is for expectations of a VGA Planets veteran.  If you are new to Nu Planets, please adjust your progress expectations significantly for your first game and then each new game you play you can adjust your progress expectations upwards until you meet or exceed this guide.

Bond's Crystal Confederation Turn Progress Guide

Turn 1.  Start with 1 Planet  ..  1 Starbase  ..  1 Ship.
Time to assess the layout of the planets around me.  How many are connected to my homeworld without having to expose myself in space?  How many are good sources of income and/or resources?  Which ones would make a good future starbase?  What order of colonization should I choose to optimize my expansion?  It is also time (now not later) to begin to reach out to the other players in the game to determine who is near me and who might make a good ally.

Turn 10.  Goal is to have 15 Planets .. 1 Starbase .. 10 Ships.  Military Score 10K.
By now I should have colonized all planets near me and begun to explore clusters further away.  I should have identified the right planet to build my second starbase.  I should have already begun to bring resources and MCs back to my home planet so I continuously build quality ships.   I should have identified where I will get the duranium to build my first Merlin.  And I should be communicating with several players by now, including someone that may end up becoming my ally.

Turn 20.  Goal is 35 Planets .. 3 Starbases .. 30 Ships.  Military Score 40K.
By now I should have secured my main base of operations -- my home cluster and some key clusters nearby.  I should have built my second starbase by turn 15 and third starbase by turn 20 (both with natives).  I should have a Merlin at my home planet and/or at a nearby Bovinoid planet.  I should have started laying small web minefields around all my planets, no matter their importance.  And I should have communicated with nearly all players by now, including multiple conversations with the two-four players located closest to me.  I should have determined who my friends and foes will likely be, including potential foes not located near me but needing to be slowed down soon so that I can later win instead of them.

Turn 30.  Goal is 45 Planets .. 7 Starbases .. 75 Ships.  Military Score 160K.
Normally, in only a few turns the ship limit will be reached.  So my primary focus should be making sure I churn out some nice ships while I still have the opportunity to build a ship at each of my starbases every turn.  In order to have the number of ships I desire to dominate later in the game, I should have 2-4 more starbases than most other players by this time.  But that also means I likely would have sacrificed colonizing planets far from my homeworld, so that my ships could be nearby working to build up factories/mines at my planets and feed my starbases with ample resources/MCs, including fuel, to do all of this movement.  Especially since a large portion of my ships moving resources should be Emeralds -- because I will want them to truly serve me as my Battlecruisers later in my game, but they should be serving me well as freighters at this juncture of the game.  That takes fuel mined from planets and at least one Refinery ship as well.

At this point in time, I also step back to assess what kind of game this is likely to be.  By now, depending on the level and dedication of my allies and opponents, my game could just be getting started with up to 100 turns still remaining (eight more months) or it could likely end early and already be half over (only 10 more weeks).

Turn 40.  Goal is 55 Planets .. 10 Starbases .. 100 Ships.  Military Score 300K.
Game is in full swing.  What I will do from now until the end of the game, whenever that may be, completely depends on the circumstances around me.  I will further develop my planets.  I will build more starbases and queue quality ships in each one of them.  I will work closely with my ally(ies) to secure new areas of the galaxy.  I will defend our planets vigorously and/or slowly capture enemy ships and planets.  I will remain flexible.  I will have fun.

Turn 50.  Goal is 65 Planets .. 15 Starbases .. 105 Ships.  Military Score 400K.

Turn 60.  Goal is 75 Planets .. 20 Starbases .. 110 Ships.  Military Score 500K.

Turn 70.  Goal is 85 Planets .. 25 Starbases .. 120 Ships.  Military Score 650K.

Turn 80.  Goal is 90 Planets .. 30 Starbases .. 130 Ships.  Military Score 750K.

Turn 90.  Goal is 95 Planets .. 35 Starbases .. 140 Ships.  Military Score 900K.

Turn 100.  Goal is 100 Planets .. 40 Starbases .. 150 Ships.  Military Score 1,000K.


Good fortunes and good gaming,

Bondservant
2973 days, 1 hours, 58 minutes ago
View deadeye's profile
deadeye
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
good article bond. Now please write one on what to do when you start out in a position , (say as the cyborg) with no native planets nearby ,and when you try to expand , the ROBOTS (read BOND) jump all over you , along with 4 other races. :) just joking you a little :) its been a very interesting game.
2973 days, 0 hours, 21 minutes ago
View capnkill's profile
capnkill
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
Does it really matter that much for the Borg?  I mean, in that scenario isn't your goal to just get as many probes out into the universe as you can before you get run over by your mean neighbors?

Then you just wait, patiently, and eventually you will return to get bloody vengeance for your untimely eviction :)


2969 days, 18 hours, 41 minutes ago
View veldan's profile
veldan
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
Just as an exercise I thought I would use Bondservants guide to test my playing.  It's not a bad quick snapshot guide.  And typically I found that if I was struggling on some aspect, I was off the mark, but if I got everything humming along I was able to quickly recover any lost ground.

Challenger 5 - Colonies
Turn 10 - up in planets, everything else on target
Turn 20 - behind on planets, starbases, and ships (was dealing with a very poor Duranium distribution which was keeping me from building any torps, or beams that were not x-rays)
Turn 30 - behind on planets, starbases and ships (mineral shortages resolved through a Merlin build campaign.  Battle Fleet ready to roll.  In upper left hand corner of tim map, so not many planets to colonize)
Turn 40 - behind on planets, ahead on bases and ships.  (Ship limit hit on turn 40, Concentrated on building as many ships and bases as possible from turn 30 to 40 to take advantage of others not building anything.  If 20 ships got built ina turn my alliance would build 15 of them)
Turn 50 - behind on planets, ahead on bases and ships (made good use of priority builds to churn out nothing but Cobols and Patriots, and started getting Virgo's in the queue prior to a base building.
Turn 60 - On target for planets, ahead on bases, and ships (Continued crawling the queue to the point where where many normal builds were Virgos)

Indy System - Robots
Turn 10 - on target for bases, ships, and planets
Turn 20 - behind on planets, ahead on bases, behind on ships (Experienced serious Tritanium and Neutronium Shortage that hampered movement.  Could really only turtle up and not expand much.  Concentrated on building Merlins and Refineries at key areas to allow ship traffic to move)
Turn 30 - behind on planets, bases, and ships (Neutronium deficiency becomes epidemic.. freighters are barely moving, bases are barely pushing out useful ships... but they do manage to.  Merlins are keeping mineral supplies up, but demands of ship construction is keeping fuel refineries idle.)
Turn 40 - behind on planets, ahead on bases, ahead on ships (Manage to eek out some lucky frieghter hauls to key bases to get the right balance of Merlins and Refineries prior to ship limit to allow continued fleet expansion, as well as fuel production)
Turn (almost 50) - on target for planets, ahead on bases, ahead on ships.  Struggles of previous 20 turns have finished.  Some mineral shortages throughout empire, but will be resolved shortly.  Now able to move boatloads of Colonists off Homeworld into conquered territory.  Robotic steam roller is ready for action.

Overall, this highlights my weaknesses in the early/mid game from turn 15 to turn 30 where I just can't expand satisfactorily or build enough bases or ships quickly enough.  I am able to build pretty heavily in the 30's which overcomes my losses from turn 15 to 30, but as more players on Nu become proficient, we will start having the earlier ship limit games in the 20's.  Which I am sorely ill-prepared for at this point in time.  There's a few other lessons I've taken from this, but those are serious flaws in my overall play that I don't need spelled out here.

Thanks for the rough guide Bond.
2969 days, 13 hours, 26 minutes ago
View thin lizzy's profile
thin lizzy
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply

interesting point... and looks quite suitable for the crystalline, as far as i can estimate from watching other crystal players.

what i especially like about this chart is that you always keep the main aim of your play in sight.. many people get stuck in micro-decisions and loose the overall point of view.. and of course being ahead of goals all the time makes one confident..



2968 days, 2 hours, 30 minutes ago
View capnkill's profile
capnkill
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
Best thing about this game is that it is always different, so you always set out to do something at the start and then all of a sudden events out of your control present themselves and you have to shift your strategy on the fly. 

Great stuff though, one of the things I always manage to screw up, is getting minerals back to my HW in the beginning stages of the game.  Oh well, live and learn.
2967 days, 23 hours, 58 minutes ago
View sirius113's profile
sirius113
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
Looks ok for me till turn 30. But after Turn 30, it really depends on the other players.
Versus good players, you have less ships and vs weak players you have much more planets and ships xD
2967 days, 20 hours, 41 minutes ago
View donaldworrell's profile
donaldworrell
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
capnkill working toward building a merlin should be your goal.  once that is in place you just need a few mediom frieghters hauling supplies to produce all the minerals your homeworld will need.   

also some thing that must beclearly understood is the need to determine what planets you must control.  As you look around on the first turn you should have 3 to 5 planets out away from your homeworld that you point to and say i need to control those planets.  Then get there fast.
2967 days, 6 hours, 21 minutes ago
View capnkill's profile
capnkill
RE: Nu Planets Turn Progress GuideWrite Reply
Generally my first Merlin goes to the first quality Bovi I find, but yes if I can manage it before the ship limit I'll try to get a Merlin over the HW, although if there's a Bovi like 3 turns away, I might prefer to stick it there and then just ship the minerals over.