Originally
posted by
mazooka:
Hello and welcome to earth! This is the best on-line game I've ever played, and has very advanced options which aren't all easy to figure out. Small changes in your strategy can make quite a difference. That's why this thread is here, to allow for you to ask any quetion you have. There is also a more advanced strategy FAQ thread. It is important for you to read the second and following posts in this thread, as they will provide you with a short guide through the game.
If you have any questions, just create a forum name in the main forum window by pressing the 'register' button and feel free to ask. Most strategy board posters will be eager to answer your questions.
General game concepts:
- Turns: These are what it is all about. The best way to play this game efficiently is to be careful with spending turns. For every 40/25 minutes (depending on the game server) in real life time, you will be granted a turn.
- Your military: This is your most obvious way of getting things done in-game. If you want to: take down another player, help your allies out, get more land or defend yourself. you will mostly have to use your army. You can produce your own or buy one, which depends on your strategy.
- Land is the way to provide an income for yourself. There are different buildings to put on your land. Construction sites are the most important buildings, as they are very costly, but will help you a great deal. Though they may seem a waste of turns at first, they will help you save a lot of them in the long run. For a good build strategy see with 'strategies'
- Tech: Technology is a way of boosting your income without having to increase your land, which may make other players eager to attack you, since they also want more land. You can either produce or buy technology. Some, for example weapons tech are of very good use to every strategy, others are beneficial for specialised playing styles only, ie a 'casher'.
- Allies: These are also an important key to success. If you are a great player but you have lousy allies, this will hold you back! Sometimes it is wise to switch allies, but beware former allies can become enemies or people that offer you an alliance can just want you to open up a 'slot' so they can attack you more easily. The alliance page has slots of different types, two defensive alliance slots, three offense all slots, three technological alliance slots two intel and two trade slots. The defense allies boost your defense up to 100% (depending on their military), the bonus for offense allies is more limited, but also worth it. Research allies give you a share of your allies technological researches, intelligence allies help you in defense from enemy spy operations and trade pacts are just 'empty' alliances, they only ensure peace between you and someone else and enable the foreign aid function (for which you need a formal link to the other player). Make sure your alliances are worth it, because they cost you money!
- Tech: Technology is, for example, a way of boosting your income without having to increase your land, which may make other players eager to attack you, since they also want more land. These are beneficial for specialised playing styles mostly, ie business and residential tech for a 'casher'. Some other techs , for example weapons tech or SDI tech are of very good use to every strategy.
You can either produce technology in research labs or buy it.
- Spy operations: These are used for two purposes. To learn about you opponents country or to sabotage your opponent in it's ways. Well, there's always the 'steal technology' operation, but it is hardly ever used
Now for one of the key concepts of the game! Specialisation:
You should focus on one type production, depending on your strategy/government/tech prices.
For example, one of the easiest strats to learn is the communist industrialis, you are a communism, you only build industrial sites (and construction sites) and you buy mainly industrial tech. This is to take full benefit from the communist +25% military production bonus.
You can also become a casher, where you only build enterprises and residences (and construction sites, everyone needs those), buy mainly business and residential tech and your government will be a republic (for the +15% per capita income bonus) or democracy (for the higher tech level)
How to grab for beginners:
It is best to grab people really low on your scoresheet, who are big in land, but low on (defensive) military units, you may want to spy them and check their news, if they attack a lot, they won't have as much defense as people who do not attack. If they have been in attack the last 24 hours, without having re-attacked themselves, don't bother grabbing them, they won't pay off a lot of land anymore
However, if you want 'bottomfeed' you should look for targets through the 'search' option, give in random numbers/letters and check the news for the found countries. You could also find a smaller person then you, and offer him 'protection' against others if he sends you through HIS scoresheet every day, providing you with juicy targets.
There are other ways of grabbing, but they are a LOT harder (to explain as well, so I'm bailing out) and you'll have plenty of fun experimenting
with 'bottomfeeding'.
By courtesy of Dolphin:
'DI, I would add ...
Etiquette
While most Earth players are friendly and polite, there is a minority that will insult you and/or attack you just because you are new. You can minimize bad interactions by following a few informal rules.
- Landgrabs are part of this game. Expect to have them done on you and expect to do them on other people. Topfeeding (attacking people much larger than you) tends to make enemies the quickest. Bottomfeeding (attacking people much smaller than you) tends to annoy some people, and midfeeding (attacking people around your size) tends to annoy people the least.
- Special attacks (anything besides SS or PS, including any destructive spy operations) are regarded as hostile acts. Missle-based retaliation, in particular, invites more attacks.
- Messaging random people in the game is a good way to make new friends and get helpful tips. Pestering people who don't respond immediately is a good way to get attacked repeatedly by the person you've annoyed and all his friends. In particular, the people in the top 10 likely have all their alliances filled and have many friends in the game. Asking them for alliances is a low-probability proposition, and pretending you know one of them when you don't is a quick way to make powerful enemies.'
divusiulius
Member Sun Jan 10 07:45:31
By courtesy of Starlight, this will help new players from Utopia out a lot:
'the ideal tax rate is almost always 35%
DPA & OPA arent important, its your networth per land that will make people to choose to hit you or not hit you
you'll want to build many construction sites early on, and while in protection you'll want to sell food or military on your private market to finance your buildings
you dont really need any military until turn 175 because you can store up 75 turns before leaving protection at turn 100
go to a strat site (look in one of the sticky threads in this forum for a few decent ones) and look at some 100 turn startups if you want to know how to use the first 100 turns
a troop has a strength of 1 on offense and 1 on defense
a jet has a strength of 2 on offense and 0 on defense
a turret has a strength of 0 on offense and 2 on defense
a tank has a strength of 4 on offense and 4 on defense
Enterprise Zones
Per Capita Income (PCI) 22.5 * (1 - Taxrate) * (1 + (Networth/Land)/90000) * (1 + 2 * Ent/Land) * BusTech * GvtPCI
each 1% of enterprise zones gives you a 2% bonus to max PCI
meaning 10% enterprise zones gives a 20% PCI boost 45% enterprise zones gives a 90% PCI boost
Residences
Maximum Population 2 * (6 * Land) * (1 - 0.95 * Tax) * (1 + 2 * Res/Land) * ResTech
each 1% of residences gives you a 2% bonus to max population
meaning 10% residences gives a 20% max pop boost, 45% residences gives a 90% max pop boost
for total income
10% enterprise zones & 10% residences combine to give a
1.2*1.2=1.44 or a 44% boost to income
45% enterprise zones & 45% residences combine to give a 1.9*1.9-3.61 or a 261% boost to income
enterprise zones and residences are more effective when they occupy a higher percentage of your land
research labs
0.34 * Labs * (1 - (1 - Labs/Land)/2) + 3
1000 labs on 1100 acres gives 327 tpt
1000 labs on 1500 acres gives 283 tpt
research labs are also a percentage dependant building, meaning they are more productive when they occupy a higher percentage of your land
military bases
BaseUnitCost * GvtMilCost * MilTech * (1 - 0.23333 * MilBases/Land)
this is for military costs on your private market
military bases are also a percentage dependant building, meaning they are more effective when they occupy a higher percentage of your land
they also have no production, and are generally only used for the dropping of stockpiles at the end of the set
Farms
Food Production (Farms * 5.3 + EmptyAcres * 0.4) * GvtFood * AgrTech
farms produce 5.3 bushels, multipled by your tech and government bonus
they are not a percentage dependant building, however the effectiveness of your agricultural tech is based on how much land you have, not how many farms you have, so if you mix farms with other buildings, you'll need to spend a whole lot more on agricultural tech
Oil rigs
Oil production is 2 barrels per rig unless you are a fascist
Its also not a percentage dependant building, and doesnt need tech either
However in most places oil rigs are the most inefficient use of land, and oil prices tend to be low
For oiler to work, you want oil prices in the $250-$350 range
Industrial complexes
Industrial Production at 100% of a given unit
Troops: Ind * (Troop% * 1.88) * IndTech * Ind
EE Patron