Researching

I like to research 1-2 extraction increase as it always comes handy and not that much of a cost especially for the TEC.

Never go into defense, only research hangar and repair platforms, and research useful ship types like corvettes, long range, flak, (based on what ships you will need to counter your opponent) and after a while carriers (but only if necessary). If you are doing good ant think can stay alive with collecting enough resoirces for a titan than research everything needed for it.

Trade ports, interesting question, good to have them but investing too much in them can kill you easily, it needs some experience to decide how many trade ports are good in each situation.

You may research damage increase for ships you have, and I like to research some hull upgrades too, but many does not do it saying it does not worth it.. Shield upgrades are most of the times useless.

Basically you are happily enough with having 2 military labs (maybe 3) and as many civilian labs as many is needed for building trade ports.

You shouldnt't be researching much other than these if you want to be efficient, but you may experiment things what is good to have and what not.

He is explicitly asking about multiplayer, in which case I never research extra resource extraction. Definitely any non-Eco player should not research them unless the game is already going your way.

Basically, for the first part of the game (or all of it if you are fighting for your life the whole time), focus on researching only "unlock" techs that give you access to new ships, abilities, and structures. Phase Missiles and possibly the TEC cheaper structures upgrade are the only +% research that is always worth getting anytime, most of the rest should only be researched after you have very large fleets and you are winning your battles (and thus do not have any more ships you could be building without research).

The only real exception to this is if you've hit your fleet cap but do not want to research more fleet supply due to economic reasons. If you have a decent fleet already this can be a good time to tech up, especially relatively good deals like the TEC first tier armor tech, or if you have a large trade network trade income improvements. Early game if you're not under immediate threat of a homeworld attack, getting the tier 1 terran pop upgrade is a decent choice of tech that will pay itself off with interest, but again only if you choose not to upgrade your fleet supply for whatever reason.

I know, I can read thoroughly and understand English.. I never mentioned playing against AI.

It is your opinion that non-eco player should not research it, I have seen SEVERAL good players researching it * , and I did when I played online and I was good, it helped much to have a somewhat stronger economy than your opponent. So if you ask me, it is not lethal for a player to research the first metal increase for TEC as it is not a huge cost (although i researched many times the extraction increases up to 2 civilian labs (first 2 metal and first crystal))... It helped me much against several skilled players as I could stay alive while these researches took effect (they pay their cost back), and after this I was in a favourable position because of the extra income.

Edit: these researches pay their cost back in small time, only some minutes.   *from the replays i watched back of the games I played

Thanks guys, That makes a lot of sense(what both of you were saying), I might try multiplayer soon. So I can get my ass kicked and all... But hey, gotta learn somehow

Sure, that's the only way to actually get better and make your own strategy perfect

One important advice: If your teammate is much better than you, isten to what he says, many new players make the mistake and don't listen to their teammates. This is bad in 2 ways:

1. you are likely doing something wrong that will cause you to lose and your ally knows what is the solution for avoiding total annihilation.

2. Your teammate will feel bad as he wants to help and you don't listen to him.

And one last thing: don't take anything that you read online like it is a written rule that those strategies are the only working stuff. Try absorbing the pro ideas into your gameplay, not just copying what others say, that's not much fun and not really unique. After a while you will start to feel what is good and what is bad.

I'm pretty new too, but I tend to grab Ice, Volcanic, and Corvettes first.  I rarely do the Eco stuff and focus mainly on military, ships in particular.  When I have extra money then I start upgrading ship stats.  Not saying you should follow my advice though. 

On a side note, I'm almost done with part of my new website that will have all of the research trees in them with tooltips.  It's nice to be able to look at them properly outside of the game.

LOL we both forgot to mention the colonization researches so yes, research the ones that you see you have in your vicinity, don't research ice colonization if you don't even see a single ice planet on the whole map, BUT, it is not even necessary to get them, you can be victorious without colonizing hard planets if you have an eco player feeding you or manage to take a planet from the opponent, and putting everything into ship building.

sounds cool but don't exclude alternative strategies too, as researching some points in extraction can be good and I saw many players buying 1-2 or even more points points it, and whispering to everyone that only research the least amount of technologies possible is not the best idea in my opinion (but better than researching too much). But it's your site so up to you

Fair enough, but it was my understanding that resource rate upgrades were not often researched by non-Eco players. As this thread progresses perhaps these other "good players" will be able to weigh in themselves.

That said, for players new to MP not in the Eco slot, I still say they should probably avoid them. As they are new they are unlikely to either A. Have a large enough Empire for such research to pay off quickly or B. Survive long enough for them to pay themselves off. New players should focus on learning the military aspect of MP first for the simple reason is that is what will ultimately kill you.

Try watching some replays, either actual game replays or on youtube. That should give you a decent idea of what to expect, then it is just the mandatory getting your ass kicked while you practice execution (something that everyone but the best players need to do).

I consider colonization techs as an "unlock research", but yes, if you have any ice or volcanics planets near, you'll want to research those fairly quickly (if there aren't any, don't research them until you might colonize one). Definitely Corvettes and the colonization techs will be in your first few techs to gets, but the exact order that you get them will vary on your race and map layout.

Whenever i'm suicide or frontline, I do something very strange. I get 1 frigate factory and 1 civic lab. It lets me enhance my income (population upgrades)and lets me produce ships a lot faster. In eco spot, I go absolutely ballistic and go big or go home. I only research the trees i finish, and after my income is more than 50 cred per second, I research military in case my allies fall (not gonna happen  )

With the exception of very small maps where the enemy is only 2 jumps away you sooner or later will need need at least a few civic labs anyway so building one right on your capital does not hurt. Always research the terran planet population upgrade (if your capital is a terran).

It is cheap and will easily pay itself off within mere minutes.

You dont have to delay colonisation because of it. Just use LF instead of corvettes for your first expansion fleet and later bolster/replace them with your normal fleet.

One thing many people fail to recognize is that economy does scale exponentially in the early stages of the game. Because having more money means lower delay between colonizing and developing planets which in turn means that they will generate more money a lot earlier than those of your enemies.

Also dont ignore the extractor upgrades.... the increase might seem pathetic at first but again, consider the effect over time. In 4 minutes it will make a notable difference.

Now, of course you should not sacrifice fleet for such upgrades... but realistically... there is often an opportunity to fit one of those upgrades in.

For example, you shipyards are already building 10 ships in the queue..... instead of adding ships 11 and 12... resarch ressource upgrades. By the time the queue has hit 2 ships you will have more than enough money to queue up again... so continous production is not affected.

If you cant in early game, make sure that unless you are currently fighting for your very life that you get those upgrades, too.

I saw more than one replay where people are struggling to replace their losses in time..... having 30 % more ressources does help a lot.

Trade while being all powerful can only compensate so much, especially for Advent.

Your Credit to ressource ratio is at best 4.5 and at worst 6.0.

So for every 100 crystal extracted you just saved yourself 500 credits.

Global Unity can be interesting... 10 % more total income is nothing to sneeze at at larger empires.... and assuming you somehow manage to have 8 harmony labs, Allure of the unity can lead to 20 % total income increase..... Advent Rebels may have the Eradica but when it comes to economy... the Advent Loyalists are superior..... which actually suits their theme as being late game juggernauts.

Should I focus on metall or crystal?

The Vasari have an advantage here... they gain both with one resarch. For TEC or Advent it is situational, but unless you have a vulcan or ice planet at your disposal, you should probably start with crystal. Metall is not only easier to come by but as a result is far more rarely bought on the black market, leading to far better prices.

Again, most economic resarches should be done if you have currently ressources to spare. That means either all yards have a nice queue or your fleet capacity limit is reached.

Dont fleet up to early, unless absolutly necessary. If you intend to rush the nearest enemy, feel free to ignore any and all eco upgrades for corvette spam.

Notice however, that should your rush fail, you will be at a considerable disadvantage and quite helpless against a counter strike until your fleet is rebuild. If your rush failed against somebody who put a litte bit more effort in his eco, you can no longer hope to win a war of attrition.

This is why some people cry so loud about Wail..... it ruins their "I build 60 corvettes win button." and boy, you dont want to replace that fleet with a poor eco.

I forgot to include this in my comment, thanks for pointing this out. For the price of 1 cobalt you can make a good economic increase that will pay itself off in some minutes and help you after this to replace losses. If you have extra credits and some crystal I say it is not a huge sacrifice to research something in economy.

I would say if you start with metalit can be good as those researches are much cheaper and will help you build more light frigates, and these are the ships that can bring firepower eraly on to the battlefield and counter corvettes pretty well.

I think you are right after thinking a bit about what you wrote, if he is completely new he shouldn't upgrade anything but the most necessary stuff, and after he is good with military can experiment with some economical things. But still I think putting 400credits and 25 crystal to have a better metal income after a few minutes can be worth it, and you don't even need a huge empire for it, and like ARESIV said, if you have a long build queue you won't be hurt much if you invest some money in your future economy, but it can work for new players not to think even a little about economy as a frontliner.

This is an interesting question I can't decide what to think about. It surely worth it if you play against AI, but against people, I think resource extraction increase is better as it is instant while you need to wait for population to increase. Watching several 5v5-s back I rarely see anyone increasing terran pop, only 1-2 players (sometimes me too), but this is a research what fits in the category when you are likely in a better position than your opponent should you research it due to the longer time needed to pay it's cost back. Maybe I am wrong, but for me the metal increase is better as you can easily get 1 or 2 volcanics nearby and the increase will be quite notable while for a long time you will only have 1 terran planet.

Here's how I view the advent military tree (Rebel here)

Green - Almost always research

Blue - May research part of these depending on what may strategy is. Rarely do I research all Blue. I'll say I rarely build Illuminators right now though I've seen them used effectively. An all corvette/lf/fighter fleet with laser upgrades is very strong.

Purple - These are all nice to haves. The ones I prioritize if I can get them is Subjegators with Heal. I tend to only go down this path if I have a solid ECO and my fleet is mature. Destras are a wild card and depend on a lot of factors whether I build them or not.

Red - I can't remember I research the ones in all red.

Steal antimatter? Advent's only way to harass antimatter (besides Radiance which is a rare lead)

Why does anyone research shields for Advent???? Pretty useless even with Advent hull shield ratio, ONLY IF  you want to get guardians, maybe I am missing something here so can you point that out for me?

Antimatter can be good for increasing carrier cruisers worth and helping Titan and capital ships to use abilities more (if you can keep them alive of course), and it is not a huge cost research (the first one) so i wouldn't put that into the red area (but I know it's a personal preference)

How did you do this colouring? Maybe I will do something similar if i have the tools for it.

If you're playing against TEC or Advent +4% shield mitigation can be useful late game if you have the resources to get it. 

Any image editor more advanced than paint should be able to do it. Just convert the squares to gray scale then colorize.

What early fleets will you be harrassing??? People in MP use Corvettes/LF early game and by the time it transitions to Carrier based fleets your LF will likely be rendered non-existent by Titans.

Tip: If you do research this you should disable auto-cast on the transfer anti-matter if your using the LF to actually fight.

Shield Mitigation still takes affect before shields are damaged. Shields+Hull+Armor is your durability. This isn't a complicated subject.

Useless IMO. Build another carrier. Titans have enough AM without a piddly 10% bump.

It's an opportunity cost thing. If you have the capability to spend resources on a combat research subject would you choose 3rd level laser, Beams or AM (nuff said).

It's an Ogre thing... Layers.

Here's my view of the Advent Rebel Civilian Tree. 

Green - Almost always research

Blue - May research part of these depending on what may strategy is. Rarely do I research all Blue. If I can get my titan out I like the second level Reannimation ability. If wail is legal I always go for it (people are stupid and impatient).

Purple - These are all nice to haves.

Purple/Red - I sometimes get these in certain situations. Augmented defense grid can be nice if your ECO and keeping a low fleet supply. Love cannon can be nice with it's new allegiance buff (probably also low fleet supply).

Yellow - I pretty much only go for if I'm able to be unmolested and can setup an ECO.

Uncolored - Situational - depends on the map and speed settings.

Red - I can't remember I research the ones in all red.

But why researching before hull? From replays I saw someone only researching some shields, I don't think early on that's much of a help.

As it is obvious not against early fleets, I am not stupid I know early on noone will build cruisers.... But if you are transitioning into midgame and see some enemy ships with antimatter, you will make some damage by stealing some antimatter from the MIGHTY SEREVUNS for example.

I get this, good and such, but why getting shields so early? still does not makes sense to me as I think hull is better as it will have full mitigation and armor by the way enemy ships shoot shields down, and 20-40 shield points does not really make a huge difference.

Thanks for the ideas, I have never edited pictures before, sorry if it is a so simple thing that makes me an Ogre for nor knowing it (if I don't ask how should i know the answer?)

You seem to research culture upgrades. Is the small shield mitigation increase worth it on the frontlines where you won't have full effect? And not getting to see incoming ships, many people research it in high priority (although I also don't like to research it, so probably purple for me too)

Others are pretty fair, I think most players have this that way.

Shields are hit after mitigation is applied too. Advent players research shields first usually because it's a pre-req to unlock guardians. And it's actually around 1700 extra shields if you have 40 light frigates.

And, Ogres have layers (google it).

On the blue items, I don't always research those. If I'm fighting in my own culture or feel I can push harder and can afford it I get those upgrades. It's not a set deal. The only things I always research are those in Green or wail if it's allowed.

Oh that's a program? Good to know, it wasn't obvious for me.

Here's my view of the Advent Rebel Defense Tree. 

GreenBlue - Laying down defenses is very situational. If I'm getting Starbase, I'll likely be getting the block colonize too. If I'm building Hangars, it's likely for the shield projection.

Blue - If I can afford Expulsion I'll get it. I may get Protection of the Unity, especially the first level if I'm operating in my culture.

BluePurple - These are all nice to haves. Synergy costs too much in my opinion and comes at a point when tactical defense structures are not as good (i.e. would rather have this tech early). Starbase trade is a nice to have or if it completes a trade lane. Meteor storm if you can pull it off right can be pretty deadly.

Purple - Evangelization Nodes can be good and shouldn't be ruled out, but it's pretty situational and not worth an early investment.

Purple/Red - I sometimes get the last two starbase durability and damage upgrades in certain situations, it's just really rare if your needing to feed to afford stuff like that.

Red - I can't remember when I researched the ones in all red (don't like their mines mechanically speaking, hardened cities is way to high up for a 5% boost, and reverence is not affordable in team games)

This is kinda sad for Diplomacy research.

Are you making these for all the races zombie or just Advent? Regardless if you don't mind, I'd like to include these on my Rebellion Steam Guide.

I might, and I don't care if you use them though the links are temporary right now. And even though I know you know, I figured I'd restate it. This is my view of Research priority in typical competitive team multi-player. 

It would be a good idea to make a new forum post about this here too (and maybe request sticky if it's worth it), to help new players get along with efficient researching. Although needs some discussion as what ZombiesRus5 puts here is personal preference, there may be some things  not everyone agrees about, but it can be a good start even if it's his personal list as it is very close to what good players do online to be the most efficient.

Goa,

I also play VL and highlighted what I feel are techs to prioritize using the same color schemes. One thing that should stand out is how much more I'm willing to research with Vasari than I am with Advent. Basically I think they have much more useful techs or techs that pay off better. 

 Combat Tree: 

While phase missiles are easy, consider the plasma upgrades early if your leaning on Starbases (1st available weapon) as well as their LF. I'd also do hull and armor before I touch shields (if ever).

Vasari Defense Tree:

Why so many yellow? I consider these situational. Some people like mine strategies (I don't). The reintegration techs, rapid deployment and forward shields are debatable. Wormhole is situational. Civilian population doesn't payback well in quick team games. Disruptor nanites is the best turret ability in the game mainly because it's affect is stupidly long. Hangars aren't really for SC. If you get them you'll want phasic trap (dock the strike craft to keep AM for the ability).

Vasari Civilian Tree:

Their economy is so much better because of so many useful techs to research. Metal/Crystal one research path and trade port upgrades. If your in an ECO position you can build a much stronger economy than advent. There's also a few low lying fruits with Terran lockdown and Artificial Longevity that help your early ECO get up to speed (again not front line combat). The Strip path is not as viable in team games now, especially with the extra research added. The first research is still great turning your capital ships into trade ports and if your ECO Shipboard labs is free military labs if you turn Fleet. 

Vasari Diplomacy.

Again 2 main techs. Slave labor you might be able to justify if your ECO going Fleet. The final one, Solitary Path, only works if there is another VL on your team.