Guides: Rich dad, Poor dad
As promised we'll be publishing some of the best guides we have had submitted for the AE Guide contest ahead of the deadline, maybe you'll get some good idea's from them? Please see the first I thought I'd share, Rich dad, Poor dad by xJudicatorx.
The purpose of this guide is to show players the difference between good players and bad ones. It is not a matter of skill or effort as there are skilled players who put a lot of effort into being a farm and there are worthless players who barely check in on the game and stay in the top 200 without even trying. The first step to becoming better is learning just how much you still need to improve and how easy it can be.
This guide will be laid out in the following style
Topic:
Farm view:
Farmer view:
Summary:
And now on to the good stuff!
E-hono(u)r
Farm view: Most poor players seem to feel that any time they are attacked it is dishonorable. Taking trades, stealing debris, killing outpost ships - they seem to think that these are acts of war when they absolutely are not.
Farmer view: Most good players in this game truly do have a sense of honor - they will keep their word on pacts, pay people back who they had to borrow from, follow through on promises. But they aren't hindered by other people's silly rules.
Summary: Being honorable is not the same thing as being nice. People respect someone honorable and they walk all over someone who won't fight back because of "unwritten" rules. For more information on this, I highly recommend this read: Dave Sirlin's "Playing to Win"
Bases
Farm view: I will take one astro for research, one just for economy, one for production, and WOW! that one looks cool!
Farmer view: There is a determinable best base - and I want each of my bases to be one of those. If I can't get the best type, I'll settle for second best.
Summary: Choosing bases is important because you can get better results out of the same amount of credits. this ties into Fleet and Economy very closely.
Fleet
Farm view: Fleet is really cool and I'll get some whenever I'm not busy doing something else.
Farmer view: Fleet is the best route to increasing my credits and defending my bases, so I'll make as much of it as possible as quickly as possible.
Summary: There is no point to increasing capacity if you aren't always producing fleet - no point to increasing your economy if you won't be spending it on fleet. Fleet is the be all and end all in this game, so get a lot of it.
Defenses
Farm view: If I'm unprofitable, no one will bother to hit me so I'd better spend most of my money on that.
Farmer view: I wish someone would attack me so I could find their fleet and derb it.
Summary: Defenses are handy for when you're offline or just don't want to bother watching your scanners, but mostly aren't necessary if your fleet is around. As long as you have enough that no one can sneak up on you, you can spend those credits on other things.
Economy
Farm view: I'd better keep my economy low or someone will attack my base.
Farmer view: If I have lots of economy, I'll have more credits to build fleet with and even if someone hits my base, I'll still have more than I would have had if I'd kept it low.
Summary: A strong economy powers a strong empire. If you are keeping it low in order to avoid being profitable, you are hurting yourself more than anyone else.
Fleet specs
Farm view: I'll need a little bit of everything so that I can face every threat.
Farmer view: I'll get outstanding ratios with this spec and I have guildmates to cover my weaknesses.
Summary: The more different types of fleet you have, the weaker each of them will be. If you spread yourself to thin, instead of being able to face any threat, you won't have enough of any particular thing to do the job right.
Map location
Farm view: If I put all of my bases in the same system or region, they'll all be able to support each other easily.
Farmer view: Each base is worth another region I have scanners on and if I get attacked, it will take work to find all of my bases.
Summary: Your bases can't support each other if they all get occed within 30 minutes of each other. Spread them out enough that you get good scanner coverage but not so much that you can't get there quickly from a good jumpgate.
Level protection
Farm view: As long as I stay below level X, noone can attack me.
Farmer view: I'll get as high level as I can and other people can worry about being protected from ME.
Summary: While there is a point to staying below level 30 until rings are up if you are starting a year late, it's not necessary when you start on a level playing field. You'll be higher level by getting level 40 and being perma-occed than you are by staying level 29 for months.
Game experience
Farm view: I've played Alpha/Beta/some other awesome server since forever. Therefore, I MUST know more about the game than anyone else.
Farmer view: I'd better learn all I can about the game as it is NOW because tactics are still changing rapidly.
Summary: Some of the best players on Juno started playing half-way through Ixion. Some of the worst players have been playing Alpha since day 1. Being older doesn't matter if you aren't learning anything during that time.
Command Centers
Farm view: More command centers means more defenses so the more the better.
Farmer view: Command centers are the only structure in the game that gives absolutely no benefit, so I want to have just barely enough to hold all occupations.
Summary: Seriously, a crystal mine on a craters gives you more value than a command center that isn't holding an occupation. Putting 10 or 20 on each base is so costly in terms of area and population that you could double your production rate by disbanding them.
I'd like each of you to take a look at how you play this game. If you are doing a ton of damage to yourself in order to avoid being hurt by someone else, they'll go find someone else to farm and you've only hurt yourself. Play to win, not to avoid losing.
Story sent by xJudicatorx for the Community Guide Contest.