7 Days, Now What? Your Guide to the Second Week

[Quasar]

Well you've all survived thus far, congratulations. The following is intended to assist individuals who have finished with the various "10 astros in 7 days" guides and are wondering how to proceed. The following assumes you have 10 bases with level 2 ion turrets and 200 fighters. This may have taken you more than 7 days, if so, that's OK, just read this when you are ready. This is not to be considered gospel, just a point in the right direction.

If you started at the same time as the other members of your galaxy, you will find a wealth of farms lying about you, farms that have probably been eligible for attack for some time. Note: a "farm" is a base you should pillage and perhaps (if the player doesn't fight back) occupy long term. Remember that the protection rules recently changed: you cannot attack bases belonging to players 10 levels below you (see the developer's log on these forums for more info). However, chances are that there will be numerous targets available to you at this stage in the game. Send scouts or corvettes to the sectors around you and look through them as well as your home sectors. Some bases will be completely undefended and can be conquered with a scout (known as a "scout tap") others will have 100 or less fleet and crappy defenses like laser turrets. BLOW 'EM UP! You won't need anything bigger than destroyers to wipe out a dozen bases and make thousands of credits. Those of you who are ahead of the game may have cruisers, you can hit bases with missile turrets using these, and make greater profit. Remember, the economy of the base you are attacking, as well as the player's treasury, determines your pillage income, so go for higher econ bases or bases that belong to people you know have been inactive for awhile (and thus have larger treasuries). Use battle calculators to figure your losses if you are unsure of a base's profitability. This farming process should be continual, make hits daily while you work on what is below.

Some combat basics before we continue:

At most points in the game, fighters and cruisers provide the best ratio against balanced fleets with many unit types. Always fill all available hanger space with fighters, and bring along at least 1 carrier load for each five cruisers (more is better, but no one ever has enough carriers...). When facing fleets made up almost entirely of fighters, w/o turret backup, "shieldrape" with heavy cruisers, if you have them. Later on, you can "shieldrape" destroyers and below using battleships. Use recyclers to pick up derbs, which are given out hourly at 30 minutes past the hour. When attacking players you know to be active, time the attack for 20-25 minutes past the hour, get the derbs a few minutes later and get out. Don't leave large fleets sitting around overnight exposed, especially in war time.

However, during much of your second week, the targets you will be hitting won't be defended by very many shielded units or defenses (maybe some ion turrets). In this case, a bunch of carriers for fighter dropping your target accompanied by destroyers for taking out the shielded defenses/units is a better fleet combo than the cruiser/fighter fleets you will probably use later. For more indepth discussion, see combat guides.

If you are upgraded, you can get more bases. Free players ignore this discussion. Before building base 11, it is optimal to do two things if you want to get the most bang for each buck you invest in your empire. First, construct such that all your bases have 14 MR, 10 Robotic Factories, 5 Nanite Factories, and six Economic Centers. Essentially, each eco point you pay for should cost up to 200 credits-ish maximum. Second, get four trade routes on all your bases. After doing this, halt construction and buy base 11. If you have questions about what astro to get, look at TUM's Astro Guide, in this tutorial sub-forum, which covers the subject thorougly. Remember to get moons, not planets, if you are upgraded and (like most players) you believe several prings will be necessary in defending your bases later. If you don't have 3 research bases, its time to get the third. After getting base 11, your money allocation should be as follows whenever you are not saving for big purchases:
construction - continual
research - continual
production - as much as possible with the available money. If you are attacking often, you probably can produce at 2/3 of capacity. Why am I not telling you to prioritize fleet? The answer is that you are still in the expansion phase of your empire, even if protection is over. Unless you are under heavy assault or your guild is at war, focusing on growth now will pay off with bigger armadas later.

What to research: Research allows you to build better stuff. Here's the stuff you should be aiming for, in order: cruisers (if you don't already have them) heavy cruisers, carriers, photon turrets, orbital bases, battleships, android factories, jump gates (only if you are upgraded and are ahead in tech. If not, let guildmates get JGs) disruptor turrets, deflection shields, prings, pshields. In each case research the prerequisite techs as spelled out in the tech tables. These will unlock other things that I'm not troubling myself to mention as well. You should already be able to get nanites, econ centers, and terraforming; if not, get those first. You may get some things out of order if you are researching at max capacity on three bases, thats OK. Remember to keep building labs before you need them - start work on the 16 labs required for photon tech immediately. Notice that I do NOT mention dreadnoughts. These are floating derb piles that some idiots try to get really early. The tech path up to them is enormous, and while it is useful to have them, prioritize pring research over dreadnoughts. Prings provide the closest thing to safety in this game; research only what you need and you'll be able to build them within 2 months.

Back to the game. Your goal should be to get photons before day 14. After that, you should be pursuing another round of construction and then base 12. After each eco point you build costs 400 creds or more to build, buying base 12 becomes optimal. Save your cash and buy it.

A note about defenses: don't overbuild them. Proper defense is always relative to how many threats are out there. If you're in a guild that has locked down your galaxy, then skimping a bit is ok. Why? Because sometimes it's better to invest credits in your empire instead of in defenses that you don't really need anyway. Just make sure you have enough to prevent some random noob from whacking your base. Of course, if your situation is more scary, then defend yourself accordingly.

Meanwhile, construction should be continuing. You should focus on economics when constructing. The first priority: more trade routes. You should be up to 2 per base after 7 days, those of you who are fast may have 3. During the second week, aim for four trades per base as discussed above. Remember, unique trades boost your econ, and the econ of the lower econ base in the trade is the biggest factor in determining trade value. It is probably too early to spend cash on long distance routes, so go for around 400ish distance on your well-developed bases, and any distance on your less valuable bases. Research planets need labs, production bases need shipyards. After the first seven days, your production bases should have at least 10 (for cruisers), get them up to 12 (carriers, HCs). Everything else, excluding crystal moons, should get up to 10 in week two. Remember, when you have a question about what to buy, divide benefit (eco bonus, production capacity bonus, etc) by cost (right now, this means credits). Cost, for free players, also includes area. Later on, energy and area, in addition to credits, become big concerns for all players, upgraded or not.

A word on guilds: If you started in a new server in a new galaxy, you may have joined the first guild that offered to take you in or the first one in your area that you noticed. This is fine, but in the early stages of the game some guilds fall apart or become consigned to perpetual mediocrity while others grow and triumph. Obviously the latter sort is preferable. Do not consider yourself tied to the guild you joined on day 0 just because you are trading with a few of their players or are chatting on their boards. Guilds likely to succeed will exhibit several of the following traits: a willingness to kick inactive players or blatantly incompetent players (note: you might fear that this means you. If you are reading and following guides, it probably doesn't), some centralization in player base (everyone is located in nearby galaxies, in the same set -00s, 10s, 20s, etc), leaders (note the plural: if one man runs the ship, things could go to hell when he's gone) whose accounts demonstrate knowledge of the game, and an ability to coordinate in wartime. Obviously this is not an in-depth discussion of guilds, nor do I intend to touch of some heated debate on what makes a good guild. I'm only attempting to steer you toward a group that will give you a good gaming experience.

This should take you through the second week. Before we go, two quick things: If you are upgraded try to get base 13 before the end of the month. Keep looking at what makes the most sense investment-wise when choosing to buy bases. If each eco point you buy on existing bases is more expensive (including area/population/energy costs) than the eco that could be acquired by simply buying and building on a new base, then it means that you should buy a new base rather than continuing to construct on your existing ones. Do not delay base building too long--the players that dominate don't. Also, start revising your trade routes after this period (see "How to Build Your Trade Empire" for more info).

This represents just a few ideas, not everything you need to know. The game is enormously complicated, it would take volumes to to thoroughly cover AE. I hope it is helpful. *flameshield powered up!*

Edit 10/5/08: Snaplinks references removed, combat section made consistent with new protection rules, guild paragraph added.

Edit 1/10/09: 2nd to last paragraph added.

Edit 6/10/09: After the first few days of Gamma I've updated the combat section, taking out emphasis on cruiser/carrier fleets.

Edit 12/04/10: Changed advice on when to build base 11. Previously the guide had told people to build it too early. Removed advice to build command centers and changed advice on defenses.

Edit 24/06/11: Changed advice on bases 12-13.

[Flyboy]

Its good, but maybe put it in the Tutorial & Guide section?

[Alucard]

Its good, but maybe put it in the Tutorial & Guide section?

He can't, a mod has to move it.

[shoko-koko]

if someone got 10+ bases after the first 7 days , and planing on staying free acount , i would say build labs on all bases after you have 10 SYs ( 12 for prod bases )
3-4 bases to lvl 22 , the rest to 16-18
this way when you go and pillage ppl, you can research any tech you can afford .
you can get to rings fairly quick reletive to those who just use 3-4 bases for tech

i did in alpha 11 bases in 7 days and rings before day 60 and level 30 ( which some ppl got rings before day 50 , but they are more addicted then me )

[Bobman]

a really good thread, but what about those who didn't start with a treasure trove of players surrouding them?

[Quasar]

Well, if you are starting in a new server, or in a new galaxy set on an old server, that won't be a problem. If not there may be a dearth of farms, in which case you make what hits you can while focusing on building up your econ and defenses.

I would advise starting accounts only in new galaxy sets / servers. Some disagree with me, because those conditions are chaotic, but such chaos provides great opportunity for he who is prepared.

[saamanika]

This is pretty helpful for one like me who has just started and have a distributed econ, construction, research, and fleet without proper focus on anything.

Thanks a zillion and keep up the good work with updates as you grow.

[Famyen]

What is Snaplinks?

I have searched Wikipedia and Mozilla.com without finding any info on it.

/Famy

[aSp]

What is Snaplinks?

I have searched Wikipedia and Mozilla.com without finding any info on it.

/Famy

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4336" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it doesn't work on FF3 though

[Quasar]

What is Snaplinks?

I have searched Wikipedia and Mozilla.com without finding any info on it.

/Famy

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4336" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it doesn't work on FF3 though

Try this site: http://www.dom93.altervista.org/wp/?page_id=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. They have a version which should work on firefox 3. It does for me anyway, and I *think* that's where I found it.

Also, some unfortunate political happenings caused me to leave Epsilon awhile ago. I still play on my original account in Delta, you can find me there (ingame Pulsar) if you need anything.

[TrueJustice]

Listen to him I did

[Xaman]

Try this site: http://www.dom93.altervista.org/wp/?page_id=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. They have a version which should work on firefox 3. It does for me anyway, and I *think* that's where I found it.

Thanks, I was looking for that.

[Ex_E]

Isnt Snap Links now Forbiden to USe ? Gives u an Advantage over others

[Im Good Not God]

Isnt Snap Links now Forbiden to USe ? Gives u an Advantage over others

I don't think so.

[TimNeilson]

Isnt Snap Links now Forbiden to USe ? Gives u an Advantage over others

I don't think so.

they just changed the TOS so that it is.