* In the ship build window, when you choose a planet to build on, the
shipyard and factory capacity of that planet will be shown next to the
factory and shipyard capacity needed for the ship you're building. If
the shipyard and factory capacity is less than that of the ship you
are building, it will take more than one turn to build. Moral: Shop
around for planets to build things on.
* After the initial turn you'll have very little money left over. You'll
want to immediately hike your tax rate to 15-20%. You always want to
pump up technology. I devote 1/4 Ð 1/3 of my surplus to technology. I
hold off allocating anything to espionage until I actually encounter
another race. If population is getting to be a problem I increase
social spending. This also has the benefit of allowing me to increase
taxes even higher, but decreases the productivity of your factories
and shipyards. I always allocate 100% to fleet and 100% Ð 200% to
colonies depending on how fast I want them to grow.
* Alternate between high and low tax levels. Once you've built an
adequate number of ships for current needs, stop building ships
altogether, and concentrate on Research & Development until your
technology levels have gone up by about four to six in each category
(weapons and shields particularly). When you're ready to replace the
worst of your ships, bring the tax rate down and replace a whole
class. Then crank the rate back up. A reasonably productive homeworld
can build a fair-sized squadron in three turns with a low tax rate.
