Alrighty then.... Suppose I might as well add my two cents... At the start, what I prefer to do: I immediately go for the three-bar mine north of the colony. This mine gets destroyed by the volcano, but so long as you preserve the cargo trucks, its worth getting. Immediately bulldoze a path to it, and be careful! Don't let your trucks get caught in the lava path! Do NOT let your metals pile up, build an extra smelter or two, if necessary (After the next part). Then,
I get a residence kit built immediately. Once thats done, I start the standard lab and load the residence into the convec and build it. I keep building them until the lab is done (I build a max of 4, and idle the ones I don't need later on.) When lab is done and built, I promptly get a Nursery and University up first. THEN medical centers. Two medical centers is enough, just keep one idled. So long as you have your colony demand under 100%, you should be fine. Bring the extra buildings back online as necessary. Additionally, the extra buildings serve as a kind of "extra colonist dump". The idea, is to keep your unemployed colonists busy. Too many idle colonists hurts morale. So always keep reserching, and put extra workers into training into becomeing scientists, or keep a few extra buildings around to pump them into.
DO NOT RESERCH : Leisure studies, Metals Reclaimnation. These techs add more morale buildings to the mix. Having them reserched while not building these buildings will hurt your morale! Do NOT reserch these techs unless you are willing and have the resources to build and run their related buildings. While the GORF is not technically a morale building, having it reserched does affect morale. I think DIRTs might as well, not sure though. Hooman can probobly varify that when he has time...
After the required morale buildings are up, get Metallurgy (for better mineral yield) and then Cybernetic Teleoperation, then get a Vehicle factory up. Pop up two smelters no more then 3 squares from the mine to your South West. Get a Robo-miner, and another cargo truck, and have them get mining. Two trucks per smelter. Once that is done, get an Advanced Lab built. Space it at least 3 squares from your colony. (If anything destroys it, its taking everything around it within that distance down with it. To save your colony, build it AWAY!) After thats done, start getting Laser reserched and then Mobile Weapons Platform in the advanced lab. Start pumping out lasers. Don't stop pumping them out. Continue to grow your colony and reserch. Get Rare ore Processing, and then Railguns and EMP, and start building these.
After you've got those, you may wish to start tubeing south. There is usually a mine down there, it may be common or rare. If its a 3 bar common, exploit it immediately. Two smelters to it and you can run 2 vehicle factories pumping out tanks CONSTANTLY. If its a rare mine, get it ASAP, and start pumping out Thor's Hammer and EMP lynx like mad. Consider getting Acid Weaponry as well. Its great for those pesky spiders and scorpions, and groups of Lynx. Just whatch where its shooting, or you can damage your own units. If the southern mine is Common, you have a 2nd option for rare. Get Geothermal Power and Vulcanology (After Seismology) and reserch Megma Refining (its in the adv. lab) Then exploit the megma vent at the very direct south of your starting location. You can't miss it, its the one that has the red blob of lava popping up and down from it. Don't worry, it will never erupt. Its mine will however, explode with as much damage as an Adv. Lab, so you'll want to space your smelters away and bulldoze a path to it. After all that is done, you can go and get Tigers. Once you've got the tech for it, you can start exclusively pumping out Thor and EMP tigers.
Then, you have to worry about EMP missiles from Plymouth, but these arn't too big of a deal. Reserch Spaceport, then get Meteor-Whatch Observatory, and build the Observatory. Get High-Energy Ray-Composite Projecter. Build the Meteor defenses. Place one beside the Observatory, and a few around the perimiter of your colony. To roughly gauge its range, its about a full screen distance on 1024x768 resoultion screen. Or roughly about 20 square radious. (You can figure that out by looking at the bottom left corner and counting as you move your mouse from a central location) Meteor defenses will take down most EMP missiles that threaten your colony.
I'm going to upload a completed version of Eden Starship 1. You'll see what I mean and did. Basically an example.
Note you do NOT need multiple nurseries or universities, I built extras becuase I can. Also, the nurseries are off because I was letting the colony shrink... Too many people.
Example Colony GameALSO NOTE: DISABLED buildings hurt morale! However, there is no penalty to IDLING them. Always either reassign colonists to bring the building back online, or IDLE it.
