Arcology At Start

[General Karthos]

So this is something I'm trying as an experiment. I'm playing one of the harder starts with an "Oligarch" leader, and the first thing I'm doing even in my first dome is building an Arcology for my first two groups of Martian Settlers. This frees up a significant amount of space in the first dome, as I'm not spending two triangles of it on habitats, But it does mean bringing along a few engineers and setting up a polymer building outside the dome right from the start.

It also requires metal right from the start, since there's no way any prefab stirling gennies you have are going to be enough, and you need metal for solar panels or for machine parts for turbines, so you have to be fairly lucky right off the bat to go this approach. Surface metal is okay, but you're going to need a sub-surface source before too long. (This doomed my first try at this, as I was unable to find a single metal deposit anywhere on the map before my ability to maintain power fell too far and all my colonists died.)

It's high risk, high reward though. Your arcology can house 32 colonists. That's almost three full loads (add in the single habitation that takes up three hexes, and you have the full load for the third. There will probably be some children. You can build a nursery and houses for them when they grow up and you're still way better off in your first dome than you would be otherwise.

This is a risky one, because starting as an Oligarch has only the benefit of the immediate unlock of the Arcology tech and the extra production of fuel. Extra so since I'm playing as one of the nations with only one rocket to start (in this case Japan, for that automatic metal mine), and I'm playing with long rocket flights.

So far it has failed once, but it's going quite well so far in my second and third (simultaneous) attempts at it.

 

[Promethian]

This was the first strategy I tried back in the release version. Arcology is probably the strongest spire for small domes and its a big gain early game. You seem to be a little too afraid of its costs though. This is not a high risk, high reward strategy. Its a massively powerful strategy that requires you to click an extra time on the cheapest resource once or twice in the early game.

It changes nothing about the early game set up beyond making it. Set up housing, food and services. Deliver people. Wait for founder phase to end. Deliver more people, most of whom will work a rare metals mine. Start gradually working towards self sufficiency with the rare metal sales.

 

[General Karthos]

This was the first strategy I tried back in the release version. Arcology is probably the strongest spire for small domes and its a big gain early game. You seem to be a little too afraid of its costs though. This is not a high risk, high reward strategy. Its a massively powerful strategy that requires you to click an extra time on the cheapest resource once or twice in the early game.

It changes nothing about the early game set up beyond making it. Set up housing, food and services. Deliver people. Wait for founder phase to end. Deliver more people, most of whom will work a rare metals mine. Start gradually working towards self sufficiency with the rare metal sales.

Maybe I see it as high risk high reward because my first map screwed me hardcore. No metal mines common or rare at all anywhere within a three sector radius of my start area. Plenty of concrete, way more than I could possibly need, and plenty of water (four water deposits in one sector!) and a couple of vistas. It did teach me that you have to place your first dome with discipline. In my most recent start, I managed to place my first dome within range of one high quality standard metal deposit and within range of one high quality rare metal deposit and one very high quality rare metal deposit. So once I get my second load of colonists in, I should start making money. Maybe enough to buy a second rocket.

Also, recall, because of the game rules I mentioned (long flights), I've currently only got one rocket, and it takes it three times as long to go from Earth to Mars and from Mars to Earth. (Furthermore, I'm not allowed to import food from Earth, although that should not be a problem under any circumstances.) At the moment, I'm not having any huge problems related to the start, but I am currently experiencing a sandstorm, and there's a meteor storm headed in at the same time. (Neither one is particularly high on the disaster probabilities... just bad luck on that timing.)

 

[MylilPwny]

make sure you trade concrete for food early on by adjusting the trade amount to 20. That will start trading sooner, atleast in my last two starts.

 

[SillySMS]

An arcology start is going to take a little bit more in the way of supplies from Earth, but I wouldn't call it high risk except possibly for the hardest sponsors. A side benefit is that the increased comfort will speed up getting out of the Founder phase, though probably not as powerful as the Ecologist's Hanging Gardens.

Also, wind turbines are a big help, especially once you have an MPF going and a good plateau to build on.