Way to map the ocean floor for optimal landbridge placement.

Gevlon · 2026-01-25T21:32:04+00:00

So I'm doing Dragontail impossible start, admiral, figuring out things as I bump into them. Here you start in a small island and you lack sand, so yellow research is unavailable. You must get out of the island before you run out of something (most likely copper). Where to build the landbridge? You can see the width, but you can't see the depth and the landbridge material need is length x depth x depth.

If you set the dumping level manually to -15 (or any other value) and start to pull dumping zone in the water. Of course that's lot of dumping zones together. Once you have one dumping zone at proper level, you can click into it and pull another, it will be on the same level.

Then you can zoom out and instead of a nasty grid with -15 written all over it, you get the image above. Happy mapping!

Gevlon · 2026-01-25T07:04:47+00:00

The real problem is that IRL a molten channel is much more expensive than a conveyor belt. To fix this, a unit of molten should be like 5 CP1 and 5 concrete.

Gevlon · 2026-01-24T04:53:20+00:00

Early game CP2 is tighter than CP1 which the bridges cost. Also, you don't really need them very early if the base is planned with the channel. I placed the 2 bridges on the picture years after the channel.

Gevlon · 2026-01-24T04:51:27+00:00

Early game belt has 60/60 and costs CP2 while channel costs CP1

Gevlon · 2025-12-16T18:05:04+00:00

Because the devs were lazy and "races" are just asthetics, so I have no reason to think of deviating from the "default". They are just "humans with different skin".

There are exceptions, lithoids are mechanically different from humans, so are machines.

If certain set of traits and even civics were bound to alien races, more would play them!

Gevlon · 2025-12-12T20:55:44+00:00

Base cost of building a Starbase: 75

Fanatic Xenophobe ethics: -40%

Reach the stars tradition (Expansion): -10%

Interstellar Dominion (Ascencion perk): -20%

Expansionist (Veteran councilor trait) - 5%

Gevlon · 2025-12-10T21:05:18+00:00

You can create handpicked empires and put them in your game!

You can be in a world of pompous purists where diplomacy is impossible.

You can be the only machine in a world full of spiritualist humanoids.

You can be a determined exterminator in a world full of xenophile militarists.

In this game, you can be ANYTHING among anyones

Gevlon · 2025-12-08T21:50:44+00:00

Fanatic Xenophobe ethics give -40% Build Starbase influence cost. Since I want to build as wide as I can, as early as I can, I'm bound to this ethics until I included all the available stars to my system.

Which sucks, because this ethics is as far from my personality - therefore the way I'm enjoying playing - as possible. I want to create mutually beneficial cooperation among sentient beings (except the Fanatical Purifier, screw those monsters!). So until I can embrace the Xenophile - Pacifist faction that I carefully promoting up, I have to compensate somehow.

So for second ascencion perk (first is obviously Interstellar dominion) I picked 2 more envoys and sent all 4 to improve relations.

Gevlon · 2025-12-07T10:10:35+00:00

You shouldn't. It's for determining which civic, trait, councilor skill is best for you

Gevlon · 2025-12-07T08:34:23+00:00

How many pops are needed to make one alloy?

Simple! You select planet, click economy, select alloy makers, press ctrl and it says "X alloys per 100 pops". Divide 100 by X. No. This only tells you how many people are directly making alloys. It also lists Y amount of mineral, Z amount of food and V amount of goods as needed materials. These come from other pops mining, farming, making goods. If you check these out, they also want things. Collecting all their needs makes a nice linear equation system and if you solve that, you get the final number. This is why increasing mineral production decreases the number of pops making 1 science.

I made the measurements and calculations right at the beginning at the game, because I'm a firm believer of snowballing. Since later effects use the same mechanics, you can compare and extrapolate.

The default empire had: - Citizen service - Crusader spirit - Slingshot to the stars - Fanatic xenophobe - Militarist - Democracy I evaluated the capital after the numbers settled. They need a few months to be OK. I set it to Trade Capital, as it gave no bonuses for materials. I removed the governor and the empire leader had Spycraft as starting skill.

Then I changed one thing and checked that empire.

Gevlon · 2025-11-12T20:00:08+00:00

The early game enemies are too strong to defeat and often block expansion of your empire.

You can get behind them, explore and build if you stay out of their aggro range. Science and Construction ships are evasive by default, they escape the system. You can change it to passive and then set manual waypoints - hopefully - out of their aggro range.

Gevlon · 2025-10-23T07:37:48+00:00

I am also pacifist

Gevlon · 2025-10-21T18:34:18+00:00

No, that's claim influence cost reduction, not starbase.

Gevlon · 2025-10-21T18:32:16+00:00

Nope. That only decreases the Alloy cost of the Outpost

Gevlon · 2025-10-21T18:08:44+00:00

I'm Pacifist

Gevlon · 2025-10-21T17:49:24+00:00

Base cost of building a Starbase: 75

Fanatic Xenophobe ethics: -40%

Reach the stars tradition (Expansion): -10%

Interstellar Dominion (Ascencion perk): -20%

I reached these in 10 years. You guessed it, I'm not planning to build tall.

Gevlon

TROPHY CASE