SC

Bird's Blitz Tips

Index

  1. General Tips for the Beginner
  2. Opening
  3. Middle Game
  4. End Game
  5. Pop Trick

General Tips for the Beginner

I initially wrote this section in 1996. I've updated it often as I learned to play better (I last looked at this page Jan. 26, 1999). I took many of my recent observations and put them in the Quick Overview Section.
Many players asked that Blitz Tips remain available since many players were able to get their first nuke by using ideas listed here.

  1. Steady Building:
    You can build at a steady rate, keeping your tech maintenance at 1.00 or higher (left side of Info Menu, left side of Build Menu) on each build. Or you can overbuild. There's art to overbuilding, in that you need to know when to do it.
    By keeping your tech maintenance at 1.00 or higher each turn, especially early in a game, you can explore, colonize and defend against most enemies while advancing quickly to the next BR (Battle Readiness, Battle Rating) level. Going below 1.00 means your ships will not be at full strength AFTER the build. Overbuilding, say taking your tech maintenance down to .500 or so, will cut down on your tech development. And your ships will not be at full strength after the build.

  2. First Move:
    However, using the example of a .500 overbuild, as you move your ships - without building anything more and not losing any systems by nuke - these ships will be at full strength on the update. Trust me.
    The advantage to this is that you can build, say, two science and two colonies to start a game. No one is going to find your home world as you do so at VERY start of game. On the next update, send your science out. They will be at full strength as they land on adjoining systems. Your colonies will be full strength, too. You might want to then revert back to the steady building method for a few turns, so that all ships made and cruising will be at full strength. There's nothing worse than being less than full strength, losing a science to another empire's science ship and then watch that science ship advance, finding your home world or maybe even nuking a system.
    If you start with the ultimate conservative start, only building two science at the start followed by maybe one colony and such, and you run into an aggressive, overbuilding enemy, you will have a tought time.
  3. Builder Planets:
    If you have a planet that reaches a population of 50 or more it's called a builder planet.
    You can change the desired population for a planet at the System Menu. I will set pop to 52. When you build a colony on a planet, it's population goes down by 1 for each colony ship you build. If you go below 50, and you want to build more ships on that system, you will have to cancel the build of the colony ships, build the other ships and then go back and build the colony ships. You get the ships you want but it takes more time, something that is valuable in a blitz game. So I just set my systems to 52 or so, allowing me to build two colony ships without worry.
    Some servers, currently v2.8.xxx, allow for the pop trick, explained in the Overview section.Builders are extremely nice in that you can build closer to your enemy. In version 2.9, where you can't use the pop trick, I sometimes will use a stargate early to get ships to the front faster than my foe, protect a planet that I would like to become a builder, and attack my foe. I will dismantle the stargate later, after getting a builder, since gates keep your tech from advancing very fast.
    To make my agriculture ratio a little better, and to have enough ag to create a builder, I might set the population of one of my colonized systems to 1. All the ag on that system will be available for making a builder elsewhere.
    I have never found an advantage to raising my home world population and not letting population grow on my colonies. This is because if pop is higher than your maximum resource, then you will not be getting any more economy. I think this is one of the worst traits of beginner players. However, there are times when you want a builder on a system with less tha ideal resources near a front. You can "borrow" ag from other systems, pop trick and it's a builder. But doing so could lower your maximum possible economy because a system or systems might not be near maximum on pop compared to resources.

  4. Terraforming:
    Any planet you colonize that has agriculture lower than either fuel or mineral can be terraformed. How much depends on the difference. If you have agriculture of 30 on a system and fuel is 50 and mineral is 40, than you could use a BR2 terraformer to add 20 units (50-30-20) of agriculture to the system. This would be important since if you have agriculture of 50 this system could become a builder using ag already on the system.
  5. Communicate
    Some people love to agitate others by not saying anything during a game. Others yack a lot. As you get better, you can find your allies fast with a simple broadcasts of "hello" or "hi." Your friends will recognize your empire name and get back to you.

  6. Allies are great:
    It's difficult to win in large, non-blood games by playing alone. I try to find an experienced player with which to ally. And I, for one, stay allied except in rare circumstances - my ally leaves, plays alone and doesn't support, allies with all other players in effort to get a win but can't help anyone else in their fight. If you're not sure you want to share a win with someone, stay at trade. There also are games where truce to alliance are forbidden. No one can back stab in these games.
    If you find an empire not willing to go to alliance, realize they probably will move off trade and back to war to nuke you. It happens, believe me. And staying at trade is as good as shouting it out to you that trade is nice, but nuking you will be nicer.
    Trade is beneficial in that both players receive a 10-percent boost in economy. Of course, if an ally is nuked, you will lose 10-percent of your agriculture and economy. Beware, this could cause a planet to go below population of 50 and not longer be a builder. Opening
  7. Update One:
    I like building three or four science ships at the start of a game. I used to build but two science ships, which often were taken out by the better players who had more science ships. I also build a colony or two and an attack to protect the colonies. The amount varies according to how many systems are available in the game. The more systems, the more I overbuild at the start knowing no one will encounter my ships for a couple turns. I will be in trouble if someone finds my ships early, when they are not at full strength.
  8. New Player:
    I wait until someone enters the game then quickly check the map to see if there is a new link. If there is a new link, I will for sure send one of my science ships in that direction.
  9. Update Two:
    Send out sciences and let all my ships get healthier. I will not build this update.
  10. Update Three:
    If I really did a big overbuild, I will have to sit out this update, too. Otherwise, I might build two attacks, or one colony, one science ship or one terraformer. It depends on what kind of map I find and how close I am to my enemy. The two attacks will be added protection. The colony could be used to steal a system from a foe - everyone is given the same amount of systems to colonize. If you take one more than what the game gave you, you have stolen a system. Perfectly OK since everyone has the same chance at getting systems. You might think twice of doing it, though, if you are allied and your ally could use that system to reach the front quicker. Having an ally nearby is very reassuring.
  11. Update Four:
    If I built two attacks, I will probably now build either a colony or a terraformer, depending if there is an extra system available or if I need to terraformer in order to have enough agriculture to
    pop trick. I like to use my early colonies to go as far as they can before colonizing. I can always colonize close to home later.
  12. Update Five:
    Perhaps rest, perhaps make another science, perhaps make a terraformer, perhaps make an attack for more protection. If you go to alliance with your neighboring empire, you may not even have to build any attacks. If you don't need to protect your planets, dismantle the attacks and let your ally protect you for a turn or so. This will allow you to advance in tech faster. I feel the ally who is furthest from the front should rest a turn or two at times to build tech faster, since they may have to build ships further from the front. By the time they get to the front, the enemy will have reached the same tech level and the fight will at least be even.
  13. Explore:
    Sometimes you can anticipate when another player is about to move a science or attacker to your system. Exploring is important. You need to see as far as you can so that you can anticipate when an attack is coming. If you see the enemy coming soon enough, you can match the enemy's number of ships to protect your systems.

    Middle Game

  14. Attack Points:
    Try to find a weak and strong link. As in chess, you want to control the middle of the board/universe. In SC, you want to control the link that leads to your world AND leads to another player's world. Sometimes these are called bottlenecks.
  15. Diplomacy
    Making friends in an alliance game is important. But too many alliances spoils the fun. You can't protect an ally if you are also aligned with his enemy.
  16. Overbuilding:
    Overbuilding is an important tool in the game. As in poker, you have to know when to use it, when not to use it.
    The idea behind overbuilding is to create a large fleet that will be at full strength by the time it reaches its target. Sending out one ship at a time will build tech, but it can't stop a single, large fleet. I may overbuild at BR2, but only once. It's a quick transition in many games from BR2 to BR3, and you don't want to be caught short when your enemy reaches a higher BR level. Normally, the fun begins at BR3.
    On tech advancements, I often will use terraformer at the start. If I can successfully get a pop trick, I will be ahead in economy and won't have to worry too much about having to build a minefield for protect. So my next tech use will be a minesweep for a possible quick, early nuke.
    If I fall behind in economy, then I will keep in reserve the ability to build minefields and satelites. When i do build a minefield, I build a BR1. This saves tech and works just as well as a bigger minefield, which are the last ship to die in a battle according to the original builders of the game.
    You will need a minesweep against all but the lamest players. Any player who has played a few games knows that an attack force without a minesweep can be taken out with a minefield. There's nothing sweeter than taking out a huge fleet with a BR1 minefield while your own fleet continues on its merry way, nuking as it goes.
  17. Limit Overbuilds
    I try to limit how many times I overbuild. It's nice to reach the next ship strength before a foe. Also, when that fleet attacks other ships, don't build more ships. Let the update get your ships back to full strength. Learn to estimate when your ships will go from weak to strong, so that you can move into a system as the ships reach their maximum force.

    End Game

  18. Minesweeps:
    As I've already said, you will need a minesweep (or two or three minesweeps depending on how much economy everyone has) to take out a foe. Sometimes you can send in a bunch of attacks first, if there is no minefield present. An enemy then might feel, hey, I can just build a minefield. That's OK if you are sending in a minesweep onto the home world on the next move. A sweep doesn't have to be included in the main wave if your foe doesn't have a minefield in place. But if a minefield is present, then you must send in a fleet protected by a minesweep. The advantage of leaving a minesweep behind is that it can't be destroyed in the initial attack. I sometimes will advance a single ship to the system I want to nuke next. I can set the ship to nuke while moving in the rest of my fleet, which will protect that single ship.
  19. Diary:
    Keep a diary of players you've met to one side. You can look up players and see how you did against them the last time you met them. Some players play each game differently. Others play the exact same way, no matter what. Some players like to align with everyone, others like to play to the death, taking no allies. If you play a lot in games that allow for allies, this could be a valuable tool. It might even help in grudge games, with no alliances allowed, in that you will know how a certain player plays.

Pop Secret Revealed

Besides knowing when to overbuild, the next most important tactic in Stellar Crisis is the secretive Pop Trick. Shssssssh, here's how it works:

The idea is to use agriculture from your home world and other systems to create builders, systems of population of 50 or more, by manipulating agriculture ratio. You can only have a population equal to your total agriculture. (The game actually will let you go one person higher than total agriculture.)

[Added 10-7-99] Of note, ratios used by Stellar Crisis are not perfect. In rare cases, you can come up short on a pop trick, not quite reaching 50 people on a system.

The game, in order to not divide by zero, adds a tenth (.1) to both the numerator and denominator when working with population increments. When you have a lot of agriculture, this does not affect your final results. But when working with only a few systems, you need a bit more agriculture to pull off a successful pop trick. Read on and we'll go through this by the CORRECT numbers.

Let's look at the easiest example using a home world and two systems that have been colonized. You will need - maybe write this down somewhere - a total of 201 units of agriculture to pull a pop trick. That will give you two outer systems as builders and a home world of 99 (The home world will be a perfect 100 on one more update).

A builder is a system of 50 or more population where you can build ships. You will be able to build ships on the system to attack or protect.

After you have found you have enough agriculture for a pop trick, you need to decide if conditions are ripe for a trick. You do not want anyone landing on one of your systems for at least one turn into the pop trick, and better yet for two turns. If you can not see adjacent systems to a system you want to pop trick, you might consider waiting until you can. Of course, gutsy players go for it anyway.

Once you decide it's safe to pop trick - no enemies near and there's enough agriculture - you will need to create an agriculture ratio that will turn your just-colonized systems into builders. The most common example is going to the System Menu and changing your home world to a population of 2 and each of your systems to 1 each. This is sometimes notarized as a ratio of 2-1-1. This gives a total population of 4.

You also will have to dismantle ALL of your ships. That's right, all of them. With this ratio, you will have a total of four units of fuel available (2+1+1=4) in the middle of your pop trick. You can see at the Ship Build Chart that it takes 12 units of fuel to maintain a BR1 science ship.

If you keep a science ship and it's not destroyed on the first turn of your pop trick, you will go very negative in your tech level. You need a level of 1.00 to build a BR1 ship. You might successfully pull off the pop trick, but anyone landing on your home world or systems will be able to nuke them without a fight because you won't be able to build anything for defense.

On the update, reset your home world to 100 and your other two systems to 50 each. Again, assuming we had total agriculture of 201, the computation would be: (Total Ag + .1)/(Total Pop + .1) = (201 + .1)/(4 + .1)=201.1/4.1=49.04878. The number 49.04878 is your agriculture ratio. The game multiplies the agriculture ratio, 49.04878, by the number of people on a system.

Then the game adds one to the population and makes the number an integer, a whole number. (No, the game does not round up like most people to the closest integer). Since the game rounds up, you will have a population of 50 on each of your systems and 99 on you home world on the update.

If you had only 200 total agriculture, and used the 2-1-1 ratio, you would have ended up with a total agriculture ratio of 48.80487 (200.1/4.1=48.80487). This would be rounded to 49, but that's one short of 50 for each of your outer systems.

It's a rare case to have exactly 200 agriculture to pull a pop trick. But sometimes, when trying a trick with a lot of systems, it would be wise to keep a few extra agriculture units available to overcome the game's odd way of determining agriculture ratios.

The amount of ag available if pop tricking a home world and only one system (2-1) will need to be 152 total agriculture. (152.1/3.1=49.06451).

Later you can learn to pop as a system is colonized, anticipating how much pop your colony will give you (BR1=1, BR2=4, BR3=9, etc.).

So what do you do if you 152 total agriculture between your home world and TWO outer systems? And you want builders, NOW! Well, change the ratio! Set your home world to 1 along with your systems. You might write that as 1-1-1. On the update, you will have two builders and a home world with population of 50. Hey, you got your builders. If you need to terraform, do so fast so that your home world can get back to full strength of 100 people. This will add economy, too.

Let's look at ratio one more time. Consider you know your population on a system will be 4 on an update. And you have the 201+ ag with three systems (hw and two others). What would the ratio be to create builders and get our home world to 100? It would be 8-4-4. This gives total fuel of 16. (Actual computation would be, with just 200 agriculture, a ratio of 200.1/16.1=12.42857. Multiply the ag ratio of 12.42857 by the 4 people on a system and, at the end of the pop trick, you will have a population of 49.71428. The game will round that up to 50).

A side benefit of popping with more people is having more fuel available. Take the example above, with a total of 16 fuel or agriculture available. That is exactly how much fuel it takes to maintain a BR2 science ship.

Dismantling ALL your ships every time you pop trick means your tech will advance for one turn at the maximum allowed in a game. Sometimes, though, it's worth being able to sacrifice some tech advancement to be able to keep a ship, such as a science ship, moving to see more of the game, to attack or even to protect a system.

Hey, what happens later in the game, say at the magical BR3 stage? You will be colonizing with BR3 ships. You could change your home world to 18 and planets to 9 each to create builders. You would have enough fuel to keep many ships in play. You don't always have to create builders. Remember, it's all about ratio.

Say I have a system I don't need to make into a builder, one with only agriculture of 30 or so. Using BR3 ships, I could set this system to about half of what a builder will need. While the home world might be 18 and a system that will be a builder could be set at 9, this lower agriculture system might be set to 4 or 5 or even 1.

You will note after the first update in pop tricking at the Info Menu you can find the ag ratio. You can tell if the pop will be successful simply by multiplying the ratio times how much pop you are leaving on a system. With BR3 ships, which create pop of 9, you will need a ratio close to six (6x9=54) to create a builder. If our smaller system had been set to 5, it would be 30 on the update (6x5=30).

Once you figure out ratios, you are on your way to popping at any time in a game. Remember, you must have enough agriculture to create builders. I always allow a few extra agriculture units to cover the game's fib factor when multiplying.

Now, if you understand the ratio deal, you can pop trick while keeping ships moving, too!! Anyone who has tried setting hw=2 and systems=1 knows that having even one ship not dismantled sends your tech advancement backwards.

If you pop with more population, you can keep ships moving, perhaps even attacking. The secret is looking at fuel usage. If you set your population levels below fuel usage (lower right corner of info menu) then you will lose tech advancement.

I don't know why it works, but when you get to pop of 13 or more, you generally can keep quite a few ships moving while popping. Say you had two systems and your home world. That would be something like 13+13+26=52. Look at the (A HREF="SC.build.chart.html">build chart, you see how many ships you can build with fuel usage of 52. Quite a few, eh?

It's been pointed out to me by BigB that some systems have more minerals, fuel and agriculture on them than others. Say you have a system with 70 fuel. If that system had a population of 70, you would get the full economic benefit of the system. On the other hand, if you make a system with little resources a builder, you won't gain any economy at all. You will benefit only because you have a builder somewhere. Again, this is a big advantage. Much cheaper to be able to build on a planet than having to use a star gate to get ships to the front.

Some players use the pop trick as they colonize, not waiting. This gives your foe less of a chance to react to the pop trick. There is nothing worse than lowering a system (especially your home world) to less than 50 and have someone land on it. They will nuke you without challenge.

Sometimes you can spot a pop trick before it starts by seeing someone set population levels real low on a system at the System Menu. I sometimes think that if the game programmers have made builds invisible, they might want to make population changes on systems invisible for a turn, too.

You can tell the pop trick is occurring after the first update by noting a empire's loss of economy at the Diplomacy Menu. If you see a big drop in economy it's too late to do anything about the pop trick. If you think someone is going to pop (watch that System Menu) and you have a ship adjacent to the system, move it in. You may land with his system undefended (Unless I'm playing, and I will have ships floating around because I wait to pop later while keeping ships moving).

Also consider:
red arrow In a techno blitz (tech advances at 4.00), I've found I can keep a BR1 science ship floating around without hurting my tech advancement too bad even using a ratio of 2-1-1.
red arrow Versions 2.9 and 3.0 of the game offer games where tech ratio is limited, meaning you can't have nice ratios of 50 to make builders. So pop tricking does not work in such games or only in a limited way. (For instance, with a tech ratio of 1.5 you could pop trick with pop of 1.5 x 33.33=50).
red arrow Play with the pop trick. Other players create ratios that allow only certain systems to be builders and others to be at lower levels.

Let me know some time if any of this makes sense or helps. Good Luck. BoP


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