...can some of you have empires with 100,000,000 colonists already? This is a fourfold increase from what some of you had YESTERDAY. You couldn't GROW colonists that fast (they don't breed at the rate of 300% per day!) and you'd have to already have very large hulls to ferry in that many purchased colonists. I've been VERY efficient with my turns thus far...making lots of money on trades and doing strategic upgrades to my ship with an eye towards building up my populations quickly. And I have nowhere near 100,000,000 and won't for quite some time. Granted, I'm a day or so behind everyone but still! Is there some aspect of this game I don't know about?
1200 turns? Assuming half of those 100,000,000 colonists were purchased, that's 50,000,000 colonists. At $5/head. That's $250,000,000. With a level 17 hull, you can carry about 100,000 colonists. You'd need about, say, $150,000,000, to get a level 17 hull. You'd have to upgrade your hull, because if you could only transport 10,000 or so colonists at a time, it would take 5000 trips to ferry them in. And no one's had anywhere near 5000 turns (assuming one turn per trip, itself an unrealistic idea--because just buying the colonists takes one turn). Moving 50,000,000 colonists with a level 17 hull would take 500 trips. So, to get your level 17 hull must've taken no more than 700 turns. If the hull upgrade costs $150,000,000 (a low-ball estimate) and the colonists cost $250,000,000 and assuming that you spend no money on other upgrades or colonization, that means you averaged about $570,000 PER TURN (not per trip---per turn!) right out of the gate. Elwood's a very savvy player so I wouldn't put it past him. But it's hard for me to imagine how anyone could stockpile this much money this quickly!
Also factor in that there is likely a need to upgrade the Engines to ~ lvl 17 or so in order to negate the need to Warping everywhere or burning too many turns in RealSpace. So there is added cost in both Credits and turns there. Now, I imagine that since he has planets, Elwood has also has put some credits into upgrading Beams/Shields/CPU/Torp Launchers. Either that or he's got some prime undefended planets somewhere! So I also am finding the math a little difficult to believe.
You're assuming I did this with no outside help from my friends. Remember towards the end of last game, when I was giving away money? Some very kind people are doing the same.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Very well, then. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being a dumbass scrapin' for pennies when there was some better way to scoop up $100 bills.
Solo I'm at 80 million, and I fucked around some thinking that level 14 engines actually meant something this game and wasted ~400 turns, plus I'm not nearly as efficient as I should have been. I think, without outside help, it should be possible to hit 100 million colonists in 2000 turns without too much of a hassle if you played everything exactly right. Remember something though, there's a HUGE difference starting with a 1 hull and starting with a 10 hull - and the price of a level 10 hull is nothing to someone who's spent 1000 turns in the game.
Also has to be said that Elwood's Good/Evil score suggests he has successfully attacked evil players. Taking back a few worlds from someone like coughspitBaileyMk2coughspit would up the number of colonists quite quickly - this is how Bailey got to 25 million colonists ahead of everyone else, IIRC.
Fair enough. Scuttlebutt had it that you were only the first to reach 25 million colonists because you captured other players' worlds. Hence, I assumed that anyone retaking those worlds would have an equal increase in population.
Indeed. I took my worlds back. I think I'd be somewhere near Elwood if I hadn't been one of the four players the ISA took out on the first day.
Dunno for sure, but my turns haven't been exactly wasted- based on the (few) other players I've encountered thus far I have one of the heaviest warships in the game. I'm probably wrong, though...
I figure the BEST you could do is find adjoining systems (with existing warp links) that allow you to trade ore and goods, trade like crazy, and upgrade your hull as you go to make more money. I've done that (well, I did upgrade engines, too) and I'm still lagging. After more than 2000 turns, I'm not even remotely close to 100,000,000 colonists.
Don't even bother to upgrade engines while using warp links except with the chump change left over from bumping your hull. Hull is the *only* thing to upgrade until its high, with a huge hull you can haul not only goods but also lots of little breeders for your slav...errrr colony worlds.
