Awesome. Ok, now I have something to shoot for. On what turn (date) did you finish? Did you get a lot of bonus tiles? Do you go for taking as many worlds as you can?

Nice. What date did you finish? Did you go for many worlds? I'm curious how you got that score......I apparently suck. I almost always finish April 8th but so far only 49,000.

Just topped it to 71750 Finish date was 8th April. No exra worlds as it just eats up your finances.

Question:

Do you guys take the second planet in you home system at the start of a ZYW game or do you leave it so you can upgrade the colony ship?

I always colonize the secondary.

Sentient species taste better...

I save the game and then take a look at it. If there are no decent bonus tiles i dont bother colonizing it.

 

On a side note i just realised i have posted 12 games today!

Ok, now I am a little weirded out. I have played at least 25 ZYW games and NOT ONCE did the second planet have any tile bonuses.

Does this have to do with changing the homestar maybe? Cuz I dont.

What planetary system are you playing with?  Planets below PQ 6 dont get bonus tiles.

Sentient species taste better...

Altarians homeworld, I think.

I use an Custom race when doing ZYW games. Altarian tech tree. Will that default to their home system?

The use of the secondary puzzles me at the moment. I have had 100K+ games using these following homestars.

Thala (one PQ 15, no secondary)

Iconis (one PQ14 (IIRC), one PQ3 secondary) with and without colonizing the secondary.

Oxor (two PQ8)

Plus i have tried the 3rd homestar planet trick to give me even more choice, mainly with the use of Oxor so you end up starting with 2 PQ 8's and a PQ 10.

Then i would check out each secondary to see if there was a library. Checking secondary's for bonuses and reloading will only benefit you if you use Oxor...or use the 3rd homestar planet trick.

But, I have found no negligable increase in score using any above combonation.

Given enough money all one would need is two library's on your HW and 120K will be knocked over.

It's all about spending as much as possible with out going broke right up to the end of game.

 

What is the third homestar planet trick?

Well i wont spoil the surprise, but start a game playing as the canned terrans, but set your homeworld to Jupiter and see what happens. Sometimes in a ZYW ARC'd race i will have Oxor as the Homestar and Korx IV as the HW. Once you know what this does, you will understand why i would do that.

But, as i said it isn't a make or break for higher scores. Not yet anyway.

I haven't found the extra 10PQ thing to be of any value in any game.  Well, in theory anyway.  I've only tried it twice and then did some theorectical games in my head and couldn't come up with any advantage.  On ZYWs and Mumblers, it can actually drag you down by taking your focus away from the task at hand.

For ZYWs, I find it important to have a secondary planet, but a PQ3 is more than enough to boost the tech.  If you keep your focus on the primary planet, tech and diplomacy, you'll do well.  A little nod to economy can put it over the top as well. 

That being said, there isn't much time in a ZYW to do a lot of anything.  In these games, doing something in a particular order can mean the difference between a 40k and 90k game, all things being equal.  With the subtle changes in each game setup, the optimal order can change each time.

 

So can I assume its best to finish on April 8th with as much possible money you can have?
I usually finish in negative bc ammounts.......not good?

Spending as much as possible without going below -500 at the and would be the best method. If you're cash positive on April 8th, you've left some score on the table.

Hmmmm, that seems odd. I would have thought the opposite we be true, the more money you have the better the score.

Your cash on hand has nothing to do with score, except that over 20k, you take a big econ hit.  It's the economic output that contributes to your econ score, not your actual money.

Sentient species taste better...

The only thing i am waiting for the third planet trick to yeild is 2 library's on the HW and a library on each of the secondary's.

I've come close to seeing that but havent nailed it. Im wondering if the huge boost that 4 library's would give you on turn two could really pump that early game tech score really high and net a huge score, even 120K.

Obviously getting the cash to maintain that spending level would be the trouble, but isn't it always?:P

@Led.

What the guys mean is that if you finish on April 8th with 1300BC (eg) then you could have bought a few more labs or econ structures that would have aided your score, both tech and econ. Having cash in reserve does nothing for your score, but spending that extra cash on buying the econ cap  for instance, will boost your score as that is extra per turn BC you are gaining.

It's all about how much econ you bring in, not what you have. Just the same as its about how much you can spend on tech and for how long.

The combonation of these two is where the score is.

I am yet to determine how much, if at all, population factors into any of the scoring so early in the game. Any one played around with that yet?

Ok, I think I see the light. I was just trying to spend enough (research) to get me the spore in time for an April 8th win and saving the rest.

So, from what you said I should buy as much stuff as I can WITHOUT dropping below -500bc.
I know the main thig said was to get research or econ buildings. What about a influence or manufacturing building if there is a bonus tile?

Don't bother with them. Research structures are the most important. Personally i'm on the fence still with econ structures. I have broke 100K with and without them.

It's all cash and map dependant.

There are many ways to skin a cat...sorry KP.:P

Did you have to alter an XML file for this?

no.

To use say the Altarians and Oxor or Iconia then yes you need to use an ARC race. But to gain the extra homestar planet then as Dys said no.

Just rename your HW to one of the unused planets in your starting system. 

You try it out yet JS?

Bah! Only managed two games today

A small improvement in the record.

Sentient species taste better...