UPDATE!! Due to schooling this site has been put on indefinite hold. Please fill free to read up though, or email me if you want to. You have my permission to go ahead and plagiarize or copy any info here for use on your own site. (Though it would be noble of you to reference at least my email if not this web page if you do.)
I'm not a big fan of untried test bed "theory" that claims to know what's right. All the info here was gathered from my own experiences in playing AR in real games against real people. Every AR game I've ever played online has been slow tech. I did this because I wanted to make sure my successes were real. I hope the info I've written out helps anyone wanting or already playing AR. It's what worked for me.
Alternate Reality Strategy Guide
The potential that an AR race can reach if played right is astounding. Do not pay attention to the scoreboard if you are playing AR. An AR race can be the most powerful force in the game without claiming the number one spot in the rankings.
If you want to succeed with AR your entire philosophy and game focus should be not on how many resources you have, but how you use them. Quality over quantity. Better over more. This is the key to playing AR that so many fail to grasp.
"There are two types of people in the world. AR players and non-AR players."
Basic AR Survival Skills
I'll try to list in as few words as possible the basic AR survival skills. These encompass many tactics unique to the AR race themselves. But many are simply strategies at home to any player that just happens to be in an "AR like" position.
- Disregard any preconceived notion about AR not being as powerful. If you go into a game thinking you're going to lose, you will. The idea that AR is weak was obviously spread by people who failed to be successful with them, so figured that no one else could either.
- Ignore all the 25k resources by 2450 propaganda. It does not apply to AR. Most non-AR races that get 25k by 2450 are still pumping anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of it back into building factories still. This amounts to little production actually being put into real things like tech or ships. An AR race on the other hand can put nearly 90 to 100 percent of their overall resources right into real investments. Tech research (energy) are the factories for AR. An AR race with only 10 or 15k in 2450 probably has more actual research and production potential than some hyper producer with 3 times as many resources.
- Avoid war at ANY cost early on. AR races shine through during the mid to late game. Your starter Orbital Forts and empty star base shells are very fragile. A simple squad of determined armed scouts can take down your empire. Be nice to everyone and say hi first. Remember minefields not only serve as a defense, but as a deterrent. When someone sees a minefield they see a major roadblock and all the wasted time it would take to clear it. If they see empty space then they are already plotting your downfall.
- Diplomacy is your best weapon early on. No matter what you say always focus on never making the other person feel bad about themselves. This will make negotiating much easier. Always try to point out what they would have to gain. Surplus germanium from not having to build factories makes a valuable trading commodity early on. If you see an enemy fleet approaching offer an alliance to prevent your death. Point out how your hab range is very odd and co-existing should be no problem since you and him will compete for few of the same planets.
- What your opponents don't know intimidates them. An armed star base or an empty one both look exactly the same if unidentified. Try to keep it this way. When an opponents scanners show an unknown Space Station hull they become undecided on whether to attack. When it shows an Ultra Station the odds are they won't attack. When a Death Star hull is seen they don't even consider that planet a viable target. A Death Star conveys power and technological superiority. It's the best status symbol in the game, use it.
- If near by empires are not committed toward you, try connect them with your survival. Offer to allocate some of your remote miners to do nothing but remote mine for them. Tell them that your planets are serving as human shields between them and an aggressive WM or HE race. Get them to appreciate your successes and sympathize with your losses. Make them feel guilty about doing any harm to you. Be humble and treat them as superior until you are stronger. This creates a twofold effect of making them very receptive to your wishes and luring them into a false sense of security that you can take advantage of later.
- Always try to keep your colonies growing at the fastest rate possible. Remember pop growth slows down when it gets past 25 percent of the max. Graduating star base construction from the Orbital Fort to the Space Dock, then Space Station, Ultra Station and finally Death Star maximizes growth. Of course if you have the potential to jump straight from say a Space Dock to a Death Star without taking forever, do so.
- Maximizing growth rate will also maximize resources. The AR formula for resources shows diminishing returns the more people you have per colony. Doubling your population per planet will not double your resources. An AR empire with 9 million people on three planets will have less resources than one with the same amount of people spread over more worlds.
- Think of something productive for your colonies to do when essential tech is maxed out. When energy, weaps and const reach level 26, as long as you have essential prop, bio and elec, there is no point to research anymore. Use freighters and warp 10 mass drivers to keep every planet stocked on minerals. Every resource point that goes into research during this point in the game is lost potential you can never get back. If you have NRSE and research points still flowing, put it into prop. This will allow you to miniaturize the expensive Interspace-10 engine while at the same time reaching for the extremely efficient and cheap Trans-Star drive.
- If you reach the late game exploit your non-depleting home world to the EXTREME! There is a max mining rate of 4000 per fleet. This is equivalent to 160 Robo-Ultra-Miners no matter what combination of ships you have them on. Just keep your mining fleets split no bigger than this and the limit to how much you can mine every turn on your home world is infinity. How fast you can produce the miners is your only restriction.
"The difference between most PRTs is in the long run. The difference between AR and non-AR races is the equation that determines the size of their fleets as function of time assuming the AR race is taking advantage of their non-depleting home world. A non-AR's fleet size function is a parabola that opens downward. Its starts off small, then gets very big, then soon dwindles away into nothingness. The AR's formula follows the same path up to the late game and then its turns exponential. Each year after that their fleet only gets bigger and bigger faster and faster until no one in the game can stop them."
A Quick Look at LRT's and Two AR Designs
Two Popular Designs
If you are undecided on race design the most important aspect is to design one that matches your playing style.
A tri-immune low growth AR race with a coefficient lower than 10 will have excellent tech by 2450, high resources on very small planets, and an extremely condensed easily defendable area. On the other hand they will grow pointlessly slow after 2450 and will have low resources during the long mid game. The compact and easily defendable territory is countered by the numerous individual planets that need defending. The max attainable resources per world is very high, but it takes a very long time for each world to achieve this. This AR design has the greatest long term potential but a very small chance of actually reaching it.
A one immune 2 narrow high growth AR race can actually surpass many non-AR races in resources early on if played right. Tech will still be good and you will have a smaller number of high value worlds to defend rather than numerous low resource ones. The small number of worlds to defend is countered by how far and spread out they are. Because of the low hab rate good fast scouting from the beginning is critical for survival. It is very easy to quickly get a worlds production to its max. This AR design has good potential and can easily fulfill what its capable of.
"It's obvious that using the right tool for the right job is essential. Turning a battleship into a minelayer is about as effective as turning a frigate into a capital ship. With that in mind one should not be surprised if they fail with AR when their goal is to achieve nothing but pure resources. Despite that it still amazes me how many people hold negative views toward them simply because they played them one game in the exact same method and style they would a non-AR design, then showed poorly because of it."
LRT's
Note that the explanations I've put down are on how they relate to an AR race only. Non-AR designs may have a different approach. Here's a sum up:
IFE - Highly recommended as it helps to minimize transit death. Isn't too crucial for a tri-immune design but very important for a low hab high growth AR race. Their planets will usually be spread out pretty far and Long Hump 6'ing your ships everyhere will take a very long.
TT - Not usually taken by AR. I've heard some talk of a third type of AR race. Some sort of semi hyper producer that utilizes TT. I can't say much beyond that.
ARM - Definitely, but not for the reasons you'd think. Sure the cheaper remote miners are nice, but the weight is even nicer. Non-ARM mining robots all weigh in at 240kt. With the Robo-Ultra-Miner weighing in at 50kt, Midget Miners utilizing them become very mobile. With gates up you can move thousands of miners great distances in a single turn. Crucial if efficiency is your focus and you want to always keep your miners on the worlds with the best concentrations possible.
ISB - Yes and no. Is very essential for high growth AR races. The Space Dock and Ultra Station allow them to maximize their growth rate continuously. A low growth tri-immune can live just fine without it for they are not usually growing fast enough to quickly obsolete their current star base by growing past 25 percent of the max.
GR - I'd say no in this case. You want to be able to focus all your research into energy to max it out first, then direct it toward others.
UR - Nay, the non-depleting home world will easily make up for any lost minerals due to scrapping.
MA - For right now I'd say no. But if a patch is ever released that neutralizes the unlimited home world mining ability, this LRT can actually serve AR much better than any other PRT. I'll explain later.
NRSE - A good compliment to IFE and grav immunity. Some advice though: If you're mass producing Midget Miners don't use the Interspace-10 engine on them. They are so expensive and will make each ship cost up to 50 percent more. Quite a hefty price if you're building thousands of them.
CE - Not really useful. Only hurts you by adding to your AR transit death. The extra prop level doesn't really do much for them either.
OBRM - I've heard people talk of AR races with this LRT. Highly un-recommended unless you have some crazy plan in mind or are always counting on getting the MT Alien Miner. Remember that the AR formula suffers from diminishing returns. Increasing the max population by 10 percent on a Death Star from 3 million to 3.3 million (assuming level 26 energy tech) only increases the max resources available by not even 5 percent. 2,793 resources with 3 million people, 2,929 with 3.3, a mere 136 resource difference. The extra production you then end up getting is not such a bargain for what you paid and is virtually nil compared to the loss of having no decent remote miners.
NAS - Yes and no. A 1 in 21 hab AR race will usually have a spread out empire with many planets in between. Not being able to see if your opponent is massing a fleet right in the middle your own territory could be the death of you. Penetrating scanners aren't so critical for the tri-immune design, as the only unoccupied worlds will usually be ones outside thier territory.
LSP - It would seem to hurt, but it really doesn't. Once again diminishing returns do set in at low pop values. This means the lower your pop the higher your resources per capita will be. So production really won't be hurt that bad if you need a few extra points. Not highly advised if your growth rate is already low.
BET - Mass producing Midget Miners with Fuel Mizer engines could become fanatically cheap later on. I don't know if double the cost for things like Nubians outweighs that benefit though. A judgment call I guess.
RS - Very controversial with AR. At first glance it would seem to compliment their natural high energy tech. RS basically hurts Death Stars but helps fleets. A non-RS maxed out Death Star with Complete Phase Shields and Superlatnium and will have 30,000 shields and 61,500 armor. With RS it turns into 42,000 and 31,500 respectively. If your Death Star is alone this is not good. Against missiles or torpedoes that do half their damage to the armor, a RS Death Star will die sooner. It will run out of armor with it shields still remaining. Of course late in the game Death Stars seem to die fast no matter what when large enough fleets are involved. On the other hand if you're using Nubians with thier natural 5000 dp armor, RS will make you're ships quite superior to that of your enemies. Once again more of a personal choice.
"LRT's are like the toppings on a pizza. You can have many or you can have none. They can make something appealing to one person, and repulsive to another."
Advantages of AR
Constant Fleet Presence
Besides the huge fleets that can be fielded toward the latter stages of the game from the non-depleting home world, this same concept allows for military domination earlier in the match too. If you've played an online game, especially in a large or huge universe you'll notice they all flow with practically the same pattern. There will usually be some minor skirmishes during the beginning as people expand and claim territory. This will be followed up by usually 50 to 80 years of stagnant or even negative fleet growth while people do nothing but lay mines, build factories, and aim for level 24 and greater weaps and const tech. The final phase is usually an all out war that is fed by applying the vast resources and technological breakthroughs that were achieved over the years.
Why is this though? It is because minerals are a finite resource for most races. Meaning that if they were to build an extremely large fleet during the mid game, there is now only that much less building materials available to construct a fleet with when Armageddons and Nubians come out. So basically for a normal race they end up sacrificing the more efficient use of thier minerals by building a fleet during the early stages of the game. AR does not have this problem. Their minerals only get greater with time. This means that while most races are building up factories and attempting to horde as much Ironium as they can. The AR empire can engage in massive fleet buildups very early on without harming future production potential. A non-AR race making good use of the LRT UR can also do this.
This causes problems for most non-AR opponents. Because with one race now building up a fleet they have no choice but to respond or get crushed. So in return they match your arms race by fielding a force just as competitive. This is their downfall. A non-AR race attempting to match the early fleet buildup of an AR one is in a lose-lose situation. By not building up they leave their empire open for attack and conquering. By constructing a large fleet they incur a serious twofold dent. One to their factory infrastructure which damages their overall potential later. And one to their finite mineral stock which is now being depleted to construct inferior ships to what they could've been put toward later.
"A non-AR race is only as strong as their ability to apply knowledge. An AR race is only as strong their ability to apply knowledge. Whoever does it better wins."
Zero Wasted Resources
Another advantage over most non-AR races that an AR empire has is the time and resources it takes to develop new colonies to their max. Even if you look to energy as the AR's factories, they are not factories in the sense similar to a non-AR's factories. If you want to stay competitive in the long run you're going to have to research energy tech anyway. Taking this into account realize that for the average non-AR race with no adjustment to factory settings or cost, it takes them 10,000 resources (1000 factories times a cost of 10) above and beyond researching anything, just to max out their worlds production. Counting tech research as a separate field altogether, it takes an AR race zero. That's 10,000 resources per planet that a non-AR race will never be able to get back. Times that number by 50 or 100 planets and that's quite a bit of lost time and resources that an AR race does not have to incur while most others do.
This same concept can be applied to mines. Once again taking the average non-AR design with no adjustments to mining rate or cost, a good 5,000 resources gets dumped down the drain. 5,000 resources that become 100% useless and cannot be allocated elsewhere when that planet dries up. Relying on remote miners to quarry not only unoccupied worlds, but your own also, literally gives you an infinite return on your investment. Even into the late 2500's there's almost always some world here or there that isn't occupied and still has raw building materials waiting to be extracted. Even if it doesn't there's always your home world. AR remote miners provide such a huge long term benefit for such a small cost.
"The more factories a non-AR race builds, the more resources they get. The more energy the AR researches, the more resources they get. But in the end when building materials run out and there is no longer any essential tech left to research, those factories can not be cashed in. They are sunk costs that can never be recovered. Technology serves you forever, but resources without a use don't. The AR gets the benefit of being able to simultaneously industrialize and research with the same individual output."
Disadvantages of AR
Star Base Residences
Even though the Death Star seems quite a formidable foe, living on star bases is the AR's most severe weakness because of no planetary defenses. If you attack a non-AR's colony and destroy its guarding forces, bombing it can be quite a task. In the latter stages of the game with 95 percent and greater coverage from defenses many turns are sometimes needed to subdue a planet. With AR, when your star base is dead it's over, your whole colony is gone. No other PRT can lose so many resources in such a short time span. Armed Death Stars will hold them off for awhile. Toward the end of the game opponents will usually attack in such large numbers that any star base becomes practically useless. This is why mine laying and intimidation to deter any attacks in the first place are oh so important. Also do not get too hung up on arming every one of your Death Stars to the max. A maxed out Death Star with 128 Armageddon Missiles takes up quite a bit of minerals to build. Minerals that are now fixed in place and can't be moved. Until you can afford it, a better defense is to simply build more ships. Putting 300/500 stargates on all your planets and keeping an effective ship design that's under 300kt around, is another good measure.
One last thing, if you see an enemy fleet headed for you that will obviously win, don't fight a losing battle. Build enough large freighters then evacuate everyone off your planet. Leave a 100 people to man the space station defenses with. Don't worry that your people will die in warp speed. Just remember that an AR's output is based off of their people, not fixed structures. Though AR can lose planets faster than anyone else, they can also relocate and put up new ones just as quick. Say it's the late game and your evacuating a good 2 or 3 million people. Within a few turns you can simply build a new colony elsewhere and then instantly have it up and running with 2000+ resources in no time after you transfer the people over.
"Planetary withdrawals and retreats do not signify cowardice. But sitting by and doing nothing while you wait for a battle to occur that you can not win does signify stupidity."
Early Mining Ability
Until the mid game or so hits, hands down AR is completely horrible at mining. Even though it's free (which is nice) their intrinsic mining ability is very poor. Given time it can shore up enough materials to build an empty star base or so. But much more beyond that, or say a few minelayers and mineral shortages start. This once again plays into the theme of avoiding war early on at all costs. After some decent remote miners come out then AR can start to maintain a constant nice sized fleet. Until that happens they are very vulnerable in a war because they physically can't build enough ships to compete with. A counter to this would be for the AR race to at least make good use of their early tech highs and make the fleets they do have more advanced than that of their competitors. Creating well designed light destroyers with good shields and putting 100/250 stargates at key locations can go a long ways in maximizing the effectiveness of a very small fleet early on.
"Having one warship that is twice as good and can move twice as fast is equivalent to many times that of a standard low tech non-gateable design."
Death In Transit
Interstellar travel kills off colonists being transported at 3 percent per year in warp. There's not much to be said about this except always try to get where you're going as quick as possible and with no delay. This is why I recommend IFE and shun CE.
A low hab AR race with say an 18 percent growth rate will hardly be affected by this transit loss. A tri-immune design with a very low pop base will suffer big time though. Just keep in mind that 2200 colonists is the minimum that you can have without losing any in transit. So if you really don't want to lose anyone, just make your cargo ships colony ships with a fuel tank and don't fill then any higher than 2200 people. This of course costs more. You could buy a much larger freighter for the same price, but the very high fuel/kt cargo ratio in the colony freighters at least lets you move them around really fast. This way you can minimize the overall transit time altogether.
"AR colonists and IS colonists are the exact same. The difference is that IS colonists find warp speed sexually arousing while AR ones find it fatal."
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