Things I wish I had known/understood earlier.

  • Set up your game for easy ? Pick three factions and Resistance, this gives you tutorial tips and enjoyable flavor text. Easiest difficulty is Cinematic – +2 to most missions; No Alien Hate cap; and possibly other hidden benefits. You will play with the Aliens, the Servants, and your faction Resistance.
  • Persuasion among your first two councilors – 9 is possible, 8 is really good, 7 is okay. Your first one is the same as the country you, the actual person, live in. The second one is a wildcard. It’s helpful if they belong to “a good country”, especially one that has good orgs tied to it.
  • Game loading takes forever on my system – 1:23. However, “Save and Reload” works with this game.
  • Being over your control point cap has a penalty – earn less Influence. If you (like me) end up with more of it than you can spend just go over. Be aware you also can be “Cracked Down” easier as well.
  • There’s no such thing as too much science (so far). Or Control Points.
  • I tend to accumulate too much influence, and Ops. Boost and Mission Control (MC) really are fantastically useful.
  • You can merge nations. Sometimes you need research but the European Union is available immediately. Target France, then Europe, then USA.
  • Do not attempt to turn a hellhole country into a useful place. It isn’t worth the time.
  • Then again, turn a hellhole into a paradise and enjoy the process, but it won’t help you win the game.
  • There are a massive number of technologies, and I don’t really get what they all do. The rumor is to go after a single type of drive – if you can figure that out, you’re doing better than me.
  • The non-obvious critical techs are the “Missions” – get them all. Mission to the Moon, Mission to Mars, etc. These unlock the path the Kuiper Belt which is the path to winning the game.
  • Space resources allow you to build bases ridiculously fast compared to Earth-bound manufacturing. So get the resources fast. Hit the Moon immediately once it is available.
  • Your ships DO NOT cost resources to keep, just MC. Your mining bases, and floating platforms, do cost. So, strangely, a ship is sort of cheaper than a space station.
  • I have never found better power tech than solar panels and fission piles. Probably exists but not easy to reach. Also, never found the fabled “Covert Operations” project for your sixth councilor.
  • Other important technologies are Advanced Chemical Rocketry, High Thrust Probes (50% faster probes), Outpost Core (Build outposts on moons/asteroids/planets)
  • The story is important. You unlock the path to victory via the Story. The Resistance story :
    • Easy things happen at the beginning
    • Alien Abductions
    • Research various Xenology things
    • Kill an Alien Councilor
    • Do an Autopsy (research)
    • Detain an Alien Councilor
    • Research communication
  • At some point prior to the “last” purple mission, make sure you have wiped out aliens and other aligned factions so that you have at least 25% of the ships in the solar system.
  • Win the game by having > 25% of the ships, moving a councilor with the Janus org to the Kuiper belt, and assigning him to the “win the game” misson.

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