As requested, the 18 minute-long wall of text learnings about Space:
Surelyfunke: i am losing interest in the space stage
Surelyfunke: mostly because I am phailing
Surelyfunke: secondly: space is too fucking huge
Pescado: Hey, space is a tough place where wimps eat flaming plasma death.
Pescado: Space is huge! That's the BEST part of space!
Pescado: As everyone knows, space is big!
Surelyfunke: I need more money for fuel!
Pescado: How many games really impress upon you the utter bigness of space?
Pescado: Uh...
Pescado: Beardlyfunke, your homeworld gives free gasohol.
Pescado: Try visiting there for the free repair and refuel sometime.
Surelyfunke: I would take the return ticket straight back for free fuel, but my homesworld is being ravaged by raiders constantly
Pescado: Outside of a fight, I never refuel anywhere else.
Pescado: ....how constantly is "constantly"?
Surelyfunke: a LOT
Pescado: Are we playing the same game?
Surelyfunke: 3 empires are after my homeworld
Pescado: Spodists?
Surelyfunke: one of them is a spodist
Pescado: Those Spodists are an unpleasant lot.
Pescado: Klingons are also somewhat unpleasant at times.
Pescado: But seriously, what did you do to those people to piss them off so badly?
Surelyfunke: nothing
Surelyfunke: oh,
Pescado: If you have an upgraded hull and a minibomb, you can just invade them.
Surelyfunke: I refuse to give in to their extortions
Pescado: Oh, I never give them anything either.
Pescado: Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute.
Surelyfunke: I had over 1.5 milion just now
Pescado: It does help to occasionally give the more unfriendly races a small gift, in advance, though.
Surelyfunke: I think I lost most of it on bad terraforming
Pescado: For only 100K, you get a +50 rel boost on Hard.
Pescado: Spodists are pretty useless, though.
Pescado: Whereas the Force Philosophy Klingons have commercial value.
Pescado: And are thus easier to appease because they'll get a rel bonus for "Trading"...
Pescado: Since you will regularly visit them to buy cheap turrets.
Pescado: They sell the Planetary Uber Turrets for only 375K.
Pescado: MUCH, MUCH LESS!
Pescado: Weapons there are nearly always half-off compared to your own planets.
Surelyfunke: I need uber turrets
Pescado: When you consider that weapons can cost like a million bajillion dollars...
Pescado: Half off is a GOOD DEAL!
Pescado: Basically, never buy domestic.
Pescado: There is always an alien that will sell you nearly anything at about half the price.
Pescado: Not to mention buying from them gives you +trading, which makes them happier with you.
Pescado: Try to do some easy terraforming (don't try to make your terraforming IMPORTANT, just terraform something cheaply and quickly)..
Pescado: So that you can unlock the Megamaid tools, which are free to use..
Pescado: And then heat/coldray next.
Pescado: Once you have atmosphere and temperature tools that only use energy...
Pescado: You can terraform any planet for free.
Pescado: Try to avoid using the one-shot tools as long as you can.
Pescado: In fact, you can jump-start this in the first mission they give you.
Pescado: When you first start, they'll tell you to colonize that one planet (you don't necessarily have to colonize THAT one, since itw ill always be a lame red spice world, and thus produce nothing you can sell for profit)
Pescado: But find some planets nearby that are short on "atmosphere"...
Pescado: And then when the homeworld tells you to terraform...
Pescado: Repeatedly misuse the tools.
Pescado: Don't terraform that planet, or they'll stop giving you a new $1000 atmosphere generator.
Pescado: (As the atmosphere generator costs MUCH MORE if you have to buy it elsewhere, this is a REAL STEAL!)
Pescado: Once you have boosted your "Terra Wrangler" rank up so that you can unlock the Cloud Vacuum and Accumulator...
Pescado: Buy those, and you can raise/lower atmosphere all you want...
Pescado: And can do that to wrangle more planets until you have heatray/coldray.
Pescado: You will also need a big enough cargo bay to hold your 12-18 terraforming samples.
Pescado: It takes 18 terraforming samples to have a package capable of transforming a T0 planet to a T3 planet.
Pescado: 3 of each type of plant, 6 herbivores, 3 carnivores.
Pescado: Each tier requires 1 of each plant, 2 herbivores, and a carnivore.
Pescado: If you can spare 12 cargo bay slots, then you can bump a planet 2 tiers.
Pescado: Once you have both the atmosphere tools and the temperature tools, you can terraform any planet.
Pescado: (There are bonus tools at higher ranks of terra wrangler..
Pescado: Like hot/cold cloud vacuum and hot-accumulator/airconditioner...
Pescado: But those just adjust the atmosphere and temperature simultaneously.
Pescado: Since you can already adjust either one singly using the basic 4-arrow tools...
Pescado: You don't really NEED them.
Pescado: The one-shot versions may be useful if you need them early on, but when you have all 4 basic directional tools that are energy-for-use only...
Pescado: Well, energy is free.
Pescado: You can alwys just refuel at home.
Pescado: Tips on WOAR, on the other hand.
Pescado: You need: At least a minibomb, Some hitpoints, possibly even a shield generator.
Tigerlilley: TEXT WALL BREAK
Pescado: Just run for the planet, pause the game and zoom in as close as it will let you...
Pescado: Unpause to get to the next zoom stage, repeat, until you're on the surface.
Pescado: DIVE! DIVE! DIVE
Pescado: Then just fly over to the enemy city, and BOMB.
Pescado: Until it blows up or they surrender.
Pescado: Repair, refuel, repeat until you have disabled or destroyed all cities.
Pescado: When you then press "Capture"...
Pescado: All enemy ships start to retreat while the colony is yours.
Pescado: But we're not gonna let them just run away, oh, no.
Pescado: Chase them! KILL AS MANY AS YOU CAN BEFORE THEY ESCAPE!
Pescado: beats up Stupidlilley.
Pescado: Sometimes they drop loot when you frag them.
Pescado: then patch up the colony and repeat the process.
Pescado: Remember, fly in low and fast, like a fighter jet avoiding radar.
Pescado: If you go in fast and low, you can be over the enemy city and likely bomb it flat before the turrets even lock on...
Pescado: Allowing you to capture the city with all the turrets intact to be turned against them.
Pescado: Try to drop your bombs such that they open a "hole" in the city hall ring, probably by destroying an entertainment building, as those are cheapest to replace....
Pescado: And then the city should rapidly start to rack up surrender-meter.
Pescado: If you are still alive, you can repair and return without ending the battle, if you are fast.
Pescado: If you die, same story.
Pescado: Remember, Aggressive Cat is Aggressive!
rohina has signed off IRC (Quit: SUDS!).
Pescado: Woah.
Pescado: The Butt was still alive?
Tigerlilley: she was, yes
Tigerlilley: dude
Tigerlilley: you just talked for like, 20minutes straight
Tigerlilley: and I read it all
Tigerlilley: shows how much I get done at work
Tigerlilley: I don't even HAVE THE GAME