Eco. Stategy pleas!!!!!!!!!!

Start by setting your abilities with at least +10% econ. Then, during the game, always keep an eye on your economy with relation to your economic output. I usually research one higher econ tech than my current factory tech. This will always keep you more to the positive side of economic equation.

I usually try to keep my economy either positive or less than -100BC per turn negative. This means keeping a close eye on your sliders.

Good luck.

Thanks but if anyone ealse thinks they have a better idea pleas say so

1) Don't take or colonize too many planets than you can handle. I start off with far 3- 4 planets with 8+ or better quality.

2) On large or bigger maps I build additional 2-3 surveyor ships to get those 1,000 credit anomalies.

3) I lower tax rate to have 100% moral or happiness so my population will increase at 2x for a few turns (5-10 turns). Thus population in my capital and new colonies grow faster.

4) I research economy techs to upgrade economy buildings. I always have at least 1 economy building and a maximum of 3 per planet.

5) When my social or factory output is good I usually build a economic center on my capital...because usually it has the highest population. I only build economic center if I can build it in 12 weeks or less.

6)I don't build any military ships until someone declare war on me, or when I'm am almost finish with planetary invasion tech. Or I when I sense I can take control of potential enemy's airspace...keeping an opponent economy down by destroying his mining bases.

7)New planets whether colonizing or conquering is a huge upkeep. I'm selective in which enemy plants I conquer first. I pick the ones with high social and military output. I don't even brother conquering enemy planets with quality less than 7. If it is a low quality planet that is annoying and constantly building ships, I take over and destroy the planet/colony making it uninhabitable. Therefore, taking over the planet is a big blow to the enemy.

8) I usually take a cargo stuff it with sensors and call it a radar/sensor ship. To detect enemy/foreign ship movements. It cheaper to build one warfleet and 2-3 sensor ships than 2-3 warfleets.

9) If I can't afford to take control of an enemy planet, I rather make it uninhabitable so it hurts enemy's economy. (Less population, less tax money).

10) I exploit the DA's spying system...because with one spy you can take a look at what structures ALL enemy planet have. Sometimes, you don't even have to discover where the all the enemy planet's are...next click the next button. THat's why I like the old spying system better.

So usually, the AI thinks I'm the weakest race at the beginning...with no military ships orbiting planets, only control of a handful of planets.

Once you research planetary invasion...use your troop transport to transfer populations of max out planets to new colonies, newly conquered planets in need of people.

Search through the old threads, this topic has been done to death in more threads than I have the time to link to.

Good luck,
- Wyndstar

This is my strategy:

1) At the very start of the game, set tax rat to 40%, this puts your economy in the green at the very start, while keeping your morale at a decent level, I also buy an entertainment network as an added precaution, it's cheap too.

2) Constantly check your production bar, if you're ahead of the game, set it to zero so you get a couple 100 credits per turn for a max of 10 turns, this especially works if you're Terran or another race with strong diplomacy, then you can more easily get the techs you didn't research for those turns.

3) Keep military at a manageable size, too small, you won't live long enough to have an economy, too large, and your economy crashes.

4) DO NOT RUSH BUY EVERTHING! I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH!

5) Only rush buy a few colony ships to get your empire running, then, on each planet, rush buy one factory so as to pump up your production, then get some econ. buildings going.

I follow this strategy, and it works pretty well, if it doesn't work for you, then tweak it a little bit.

build lots of farms and raise taxes

Set up a couple of planets as cash cows. Load them up with (seudo) banks, farms and happiness buildings. Don't produce anything and the planet wont have much in terms of cost. If you can't stand losing out on a planet load of production then throw on some research facilities.

focus your abilities on economy, morale and population growth.

make sensors an early research priority. then build several cargo hulls with ion engines, life support and a survey module; you'll get more anomolies at a faster rate, from which will come money.

plan to run in the negative at first. don't create a build queue on every planet you colonize, only those you feel will be important in the early game (generally PQ 10 or higher, or any planet with a +700% research or production tile).

try to keep your approval at 100% while you've still got young colonies. they'll grow much faster.

in many games i like to research trade early, and build my econ cap on my HW. it helps slow your deficit spending a bit.

your economy will improve as your population grows. usually you'll recover in time, and the real issue is that you've got wars to fight before then. if you're totally drowning in a sea of AI madness, turn the difficulty down a notch until you've got the hang of it at that level.

finally, you might need to do some reading on these forums. there are many great threads detailing a number of specific things you can try, but my feeling is that the most seasoned players aren't especially eager to answer someone who just makes a blanket request for strategies. don't get me wrong, the players on these forums are some of the friendliest you'll find on any gaming site, but the truth is managing your economy is complicated. outlining everything you can do to be a master isn't something anyone's really inclined to do--and without knowing exactly what things you might be doing wrong, it's hard to offer good advice.

try the AAR section; there are some great, almost turn-by-turn reports from some of the more seasoned players. the strategy sections is also an obvious choice. you can also try to solicit yourself into a metaverse empire, where you'll likely be able to learn in a less public area from a smaller number of players (who'll also have a reason to want you to be better!).

good luck, and cheers

PS: a lot of that advice was for larger maps with lots of planets per player. things are very different on smaller, more crowded maps.