Like the title says, any tips for some one playing their first few games of Alpa Centauri?

I won my first game today, and personally I found it okay to just dive in on a randomized standard planet map. I am playing it on the easiest difficulty at the moment as I am still learning the ins and outs of the game.

In the early game I try to expand as much as I can, and when I put down a new base the first thing I usually do is build a former, and then another colony and then recycling tanks. I usually got a free scout with each base and in the early game on easy that was enough to defend my base.

I tended not to focus on combat research in the early game as no one seems to be hostile that early. I don't build too many military units either because that ends up costing upkeep or something, I can't remember what it's called. Only once someone has declared a vendetta on me I start building some combat units according to the threat.

On the easiest difficulty I found it kind of easy to just research a lot of things in peace, usually I am able to keep everyone friendly, though there is usually one or two factions that decide they want to fight me. I usually have trouble with the Believers.

I believe the manual says to just dive in and use the in game tours for the first couple of games, and then if you want more in depth information then read it. I tried watching a let's play but each video was around 40 mins long and I have a bandwidth cap and didn't want to use all of my usage really quickly!

Don't worry about losing... losing is fun! You can learn from your mistakes.

That's all, I'm sorry if the tips aren't that great, I have only just started playing myself, after not really playing any Civ games in the past. This is my first Civ style game.

A more advanced tip, but one that's still very useful to know early on, is to make use of supply crawlers to increase the mineral output of your bases. Supply crawlers are units that you can build that you then park on a tile, and they deliver one type of resource from that tile (minerals, nutrients, or energy) to the base that produced the crawler. A big thing to note about this is that the crawler doesn't have to be parked on a tile within the workable space for the base. So if there's a rocky section with a minerals bonus sitting outside the workable area for your base, place a mine on it, then park a crawler there for a whopping 7 minerals each turn for the base that produced the crawler. Another nice benefit of crawlers is that squares worked by them don't count towards eco-damage for bases, so once you get the technology you can construct boreholes outside the workable areas for your bases then park crawlers on them, reaping the mineral or energy bonuses without the eco-damage that normally makes boreholes a non-starter.

And speaking of eco-damage, this is an important topic that it normally takes people a little while to figure out the significance of. In the bottom left corner of a base screen you'll seen a number for the eco-damage associated with the base (you'd prefer this number to be 0). The higher the number, the greater chance that fungus blooms will destroy your improvements around the base, usually accompanied by the appearance of mind worms that will then attack the base. This can prove a serious annoyance (especially if it starts happening every few turns), so it's definitely worth it to build structures to reduce the eco-damage caused by each base. Things that factor into the eco-damage caused by a base are population, the number of tiles worked, and what kind of improvements are present on the tiles worked (things like mines and boreholes cause much more eco-damage than farms and solar collectors; forests help reduce eco-damage).

And speaking of improvements, the sheer number available can prove a bit daunting when you first start. One of my favorite ways to go is to use forests as much as possible, as they provide a good balance of resources (which improves as you research various technologies and build certain base facilities), are available quite early, and actually reduce the eco-damage the base causes. They can't be built on rocky areas, though, but these areas are better suited for mines (which you can then park a crawler on). Going full forest will leave you a bit short on nutrients at the beginning, though, as each forest initially only produces one nutrient resource, so I'll supplement this at each base with one or two tiles that contains a farm and a condenser, preferably built on a square that already has a nutrient resource bonus (and if you build The Weather Paradigm secret project you'll have access to condensers much earlier than you otherwise would). Heh, everyone has trouble with the Believers. Best to just completely wipe them out the moment they declare vendetta on you (and assume they will, so have some forces near any shared borders).

Thank you guys very much, i just fired up a new game! wish me luck lol

Good luck! My first win was a diplomatic one, I was elected planetary governor or whatever it is. I became friends with a lot of factions, and paid them in research or credits to vote for me. It seemed a bit of a cheap win though. It was probably so easy because I played on citizen difficulty!

Hmm, dont worry about inefficency 'pop-up' that you have too much cities - the penalty for each extra city is light one - only 1 extra red citizen in one city per one extra city, since new city will soon have 5 or 6 workers, you will soon be in surplus (the more cities the better, but that will give you more micromanagement).

- build cities, dont stay with 3 or 4 cities just to build bank or unit - building path for a new city - garnisson unit -> recycler tank(+1 to each resource in city tile) -> new city builder is a nice path.

- try to check what you will get from building new facility in city - does +50% energy will give me ENOUGH energy to sustain that bank that will cost me 2 energy each turn (so there is no point in building it if it doesnt give me profit) or do I need barracks and naval yard in each of my city (they will give you veteran status to new units - but will you build more than 1 or 2 units in that city ?)

-try experimenting in workshop - its nice to use default units in first/second playthrough, but soon you will learn that having super/mega/uber unit with max attack/armor/move is costly, so it might be wise to use specific units for specific missions - garrison cheap infantry to guard cities ; fast/attack max/1 armor rover for attacking ; max defense units to act as mobile base for you attackers

- dont stack too much you units during attack, when the units lose all other units on the tile will be hit for like 10% (so there is no point in putting more than 4/5 fighting units on tile)

- dont be afraid of building unit above your maintance limit (setted by you policy), each unit above your maintance limit will cost you 1 crystal from that base - if base is already producing 27 or 28 crystals, than loosing that one crystal might not hurt you badly - and the unit might give you edge during battle. And you can always reattach unit to be supplied by other city (so your crystal-rich-producing town will crank up tons of unit, that will ride to your pure-crystal towns that didnt met your unit maintance limit - to be ressuplied from there)

- on easier difficulites you can aim for ALL secret projects (just to see the movies), later try to think - 'do I really need this effect - maybe i should build THE other project and leave that to computer'

- crawler trick with crystals is an extra - im not using it even on highest difficulty

- you can speed up building secret projects with your crawlers - when you move your supply crawler into the city where SP is build you will be asked to dissmantle crawler and refund 100% of his crystal cost into SP - thats like building SP with 2 or more cities - and you can always build extra crawlers for future rushing SP - 1 turn building for 'Sky academy' hell yeah

Find the monsoon jungle and settle in ASAP! +1 nutrient at every square + cloning vats = lol China.

Build the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm and the Weather Paradigm. Those two are really good.

Edit: I just realized I necro'ed an older topic. Sorry.

Talents are created by facilities and energy allocated to psych (2 energies make one worker into a talent). Bases must have size of 5 before you can make a specialist. Specialists don't gather resources outside the base but increase Lab, Economy and/or Psych. Drones don't work or produce anything.

Each citizen requires 2 nutrients per turn.

Military units moved into a base act as police to end a drone riot.

If a base with a secret project is captured then the secret project and any ongoing benefits from it become the possession of the capturing faction.

Stockpile Energy – if the base is not building anything this will make the base convert minerals into energy for your energy reserve.

If faction police rating is less than 2 (pacifist), then a unit placed outside of the base’s own territory will make a drone at the home base (represented by peace symbol).

Support rating determines the number of units a base can support for free.

The three “secret” technologies (Secrets of the Human Brain, Secrets of Alpha Centauri, and Secrets of Creation) give a free tech advance to the first faction that discovers it. The Secret Project Universal Translator gives 2 tech advances to the faction that discovers it. The Network Backbone and Supercollider greatly enhances your tech output.

Artillery Fire is a good way to soften up a native before attacking with a normal unit.

Supply Crawlers can be sent to a base working on a Secret Project and disassembled, contributing minerals to the Secret Project.

A unit can change its Home Base to help reduce maintenance cost at the base that constructed it.

Moral
Very Green/Hatching
Green/Larval Mass +12.5%
Disciplined/Pre-Boil +25.0%
Hardened/Boil +37.5%
Veteran/Mature Boil +50.0%
Commando/Great Boil +62.5%
Elite/Demon Boil +75.0%

A defending unit with a faster movement will disengage at 50% damage.
An attacker with ECM prevents a defender from disengaging.
Naval and units with artillery are able to use the (F) Long Range Fire command.
Interceptors attack other air units at twice normal offensive power and land and sea units at half normal power.
To attack needlejets in flight a unit must have the SAM special ability.
A unit “on Alert” will automatically attack enemy units that come within it's movement range.

Bonuses
Bunker & Base: +25% defense and no collateral
Units within 2 squares of sensor: +25% defense
Mobile units in smooth or rolling terrain: +25% offense
Rocky terrain: +50% defense
Fungus: +50% defense, unless attacker is native, then native gets +50% offense
Smooth or Rolling terrain: +50% defense against artillery
The attacking unit gets a 3 to 2 advantage in psi combat when the defending unit is a land unit. A faction's units gain a +10% psi attack bonus for each positive level of their Planet rating.

The workshop is really worth it.

2 builds I always go for are Police Garrison Units (double the pacification for the same upkeep) and roving anti worm units (1-1-2 , but bonus to attack and defend vs psi).