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[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

you will heavily consume bliss when lacking energy

But isn't that a percentage? So it really wouldn't matter how much or little extra you have.

[Freeshadow]

yeah but you have a bliss base need too
when your bliss is lower you get another penalties

[Crusader]

Wow, it costs insane amounts to go past level 5.

[Abtacha]

I'm on there as well, name's Abtacha.

[Iphinome]

I'm adding all of you to my allies as I can afford it.

As for the alliance gifts, energy to the higher level allies you need it, bucks to the lower level ones a few thousand is nothing to the higher levels making 200k a turn, bliss to the middle level so you can burn it off raising your levels, military, eh to anyone I miss with the other stuff. I'm trying to hit everyone with the same number of gifts but still place them where they'll do the most good.

[Freeshadow]

and as soon as somebody is lvl 9+ population and foodis welcome (hint!)
it allows to use the surge points for reactors and adding population in small steps.
before the toriums it was just a fight keeping up with energy needs.
from 9 on recovery and raising (worth being called so) really begins
and adding allies above 20 isn't cheap
I hope I spread the gifts well...

[travger]

Next cycle I'll be the happy owner of several thorium reactors!!!
Then I can again afford to spend some bucks for adding allies. Lately it's been only gifts.

[bgalbrecht]

At levels 7 and 8, it really makes sense to have a lot of radiation shields at your current level, they give you 1350 and 1650 energy for surge. I just leveled up, and it will take at least another day for me to level up again. The Thorium reactors will give me double the energy of the radiation shields at the next level, so I'll be replacing them when I can.

[travger]

Level 6 reactor town gives 2000 energy, level 7 gives 2500. Plus bucks. Just needs careful planning - where to place it, which pieces to sacrifice and which to move out of the way. I should have started thinking about it around level 5 or 6.

[koland]

Originally Posted by travger

Level 6 reactor town gives 2000 energy, level 7 gives 2500. Plus bucks. Just needs careful planning - where to place it, which pieces to sacrifice and which to move out of the way. I should have started thinking about it around level 5 or 6.

Unfortunately, you need to look at it as adding population without as much of an energy hit (since at level 6, you still need 4x the energy given to add due to the population increase.

As an alternative, you must surround it with enough population resources to drain that away, PLUS either move them away (big financial hit) or sacrifice them every time you upgrade.

[ATDrake]

Those Open Pit Coal Mines keep getting worse with every level upgrade. Still only 30 Bucks per cycle income, and they've downgraded from a yield of 150 to 225 to 300 Energy, going from 150 to a mere 100 per surge point.

I'm just going to let the one I did upgrade as a trial sit for long enough to recoup some of the costs and then it's getting sold.

I'm currently gifting Bucks and Energy primarily to the lower levels, Bliss to anyone who's said they're low, Population to the higher-ups, and Food and Military a bit randomly.

I figure the change in the coal mine yield makes it harder for the low-level people to get energy, and they have to focus on surging that instead of the Bucks-yielding stuff for most cycles, so every bit helps.

Probably one of the tricks is to keep population low until you've got reasonably reliable high-yield Energy sources, and build up most of the other stuff to accomodate for the multiplying effect of their * Population needs at higher levels. And sell-and-rebuy most stuff instead of just moving it, since the cost of moving goes up exponentially with each level.

[Lemurion]

I'm at level 11 and I rarely surge anything except energy. Most of my income comes from population (about 580k/cycle) so all I really have to do is keep enough energy that I'm not bleeding Bliss too quickly.

[travger]

@koland - that's what I meant with 'careful planning'. Everything I got from later projects was scrutinized, if it had high bucks per cycle and unwanted resource then I tried to place it close to the square where I wanted it to stay later (after reactor upgrade). Or next to the reactor I already had upgraded.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I'm at level 11 and I rarely surge anything except energy. Most of my income comes from population (about 580k/cycle) so all I really have to do is keep enough energy that I'm not bleeding Bliss too quickly.

I'm doing the same. Should get to 12 later today (either that or add an ally, but they have become so expensive that I may never go past 20).

Helped family member set up a freehold - even with poor coal mines (now left in the dust and no doubt an environmental disaster site), he quickly gained levels and by concentrating on population above all, has quickly built income to the point of a level every other turn or so (and almost all surges are for energy, of course, just like mine).

So long as you keep food above starvation, you can let energy lag behind and bleed off excess bliss created by purchases.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by koland

I'm doing the same. Should get to 12 later today (either that or add an ally, but they have become so expensive that I may never go past 20).

Helped family member set up a freehold - even with poor coal mines (now left in the dust and no doubt an environmental disaster site), he quickly gained levels and by concentrating on population above all, has quickly built income to the point of a level every other turn or so (and almost all surges are for energy, of course, just like mine).

So long as you keep food above starvation, you can let energy lag behind and bleed off excess bliss created by purchases.

My only catch is that I was relying on gifts for Military, and then got hit with a Rogue Agent when I had over 3 million in cash - damn that can suck a lot of Military, so I think I'm going to be building Military and energy for a bit.

I'm not sure if I'm going to go too far on Alliances myself, I have 20 and could do more - but I agree that it stops being cost-effective after a bit.