When I play techer, I get my bpt to my goal (50-55) before I build a single research lab. I have productive buildings (farms, then ICs) for a while as I get to my bpt goal (and I usually leave some of my acres empty while I get the last 10-20 bpt).
The intent was to post that, and then finish my turns and make a bit of a change, but sadly someone hit me before I actually finished playing (the game was still a bit laggy, perhaps from the downtime). :/ The ICs were being torn down from the indy start (I felt I had plenty of spies). They're back up to 100 now from grabs.
My suggestion for bonus point -> turn usage: scale the cost infinitely, so that first turn is 1 point, and the 10th free turn is 10 bonus points. Theoretical limit is, of course, 16 free turns that way (17 if you really push that 22 hour bonus).
Or just limit the number of times you can use it (2 points per turn seems about right), but that's boring. :p
While the turns are obviously better than most of the bonuses, I find they add a new facet to the strategy of optimally using them. I actually changed my startup a bit to take advantage of the exploration bonus (the only really worthwhile one thus far). Though, for the first day or two it's almost difficult to even use all the bonus points effectively.
I finished 26.4M nw because I starved once to lose 500k, and then didn't login before the end to spend the last $ (turrets I had sold for $269) that would have put me back to 27.5/28M. Ill (not rob) was 2nd at 25.5M. You know you can go to "prev reset" on the top players page, right? (took me a while to find it myself, though)
Funny, I thought it was a strategy game, with arenas designed for warring, and those designed for scoring/netting, and some that are kind of fuzzy (i.e. for a mix of both).
