SteemNova: Working the Technology Tree

The Real Strategy in Strategy Games

It is now the end of week 3 from when I started playing Steem NOVA, a space strategy game based on oGame using the 2 Moons engine.

Welcome Back to Text Based Gaming

At the end of week one, I began to hit The Slow Times on Steem NOVA, which is when you wait around for your resources to build up so that you can build the next building, defense, space ship or technology. At the end of week two, I was admiring Building up my Galaxy, which was really just my Star System, just that the links were a bit confusing.

I might not know everything about oGame and Steem NOVA, so I might post things that are incorrect and I'm willing to learn about things. I don't remember when I lasted played oGame, but I do remember I wasn't very successful at it. There is a fleeting memory of building up my planet and then being attacked to the point that I couldn't defend myself due to using too many solar satellites that were blown out of the sky.

Balancing the right technology with the right buildings is a key strategy of the game.

As you can tell, I am sill relying a lot of solar satellites for my main planet. One way to offset this dependence, beyond building more solar power stations, is to increase technologies that will improve your energy and resource outputs.

As you play, you gain Dark Energy. Dark Energy can be used to get temporary power or to recruit Officials. The first official that you can recruit is the Geologist. The Geologist will increase your resource output by +5% for each level. I upped my Geologist to level 5 first and skipped the Admiral. The reasoning behind this, is due to the Engineer increasing Production of Energy by +5% as well as providing some Attack and Defensive improvement. However, the Engineer only does this while you are in peacetime, so this will help you when you aren't attacking or being attacked.

Later, I will probably go back to getting the Admiral, but I don't need it right now, since I am growing my Star System.

The other method of producing planet based power is to build a Deuterium Power Plant, but that cuts into your Deuterium production. But, if you look back up at the Resource chart and see the Official Bonus for Deuterium, you will notice that I get more from the bonus than the cost of running the power plant. The Dueterium Power Plant doesn't produce as much as the Solar Power Plant per level, but it does help provide that extra energy when needed.

Another technology to improve resource output is Resource Technology, which increases output from mines +2% for every level. If you can get more resources without building more mines, which require more energy, then in reality, you are saving energy. Also, you are producing more Deuterium for the power plant.

Of course, getting to the point where you can do the Research on Resources takes a lot of Technology upgrades.

While reaching Level 8 on Research Lab and Level 5 on Energy Technology doesn't seem like a lot, it takes 100s of thousands of Metal, Crystal and Deuterium to get to those levels. And that is where the real strategy is, deciding which technology you want to aim for and getting the right resources to build and level up in order to get to that technology.

One of the ways that I keep track of where I want to go is by creating a note of my Priorities.

In that note, I put which item, either Research, Building, Defense, etc... that I want to build next and how much resources it would take to build it. Then I put the Technology that I am shooting for, so I know what the end goal is. In some cases, I didn't know what the resource costs were for the next level up, so I would just put the level name and ? for each of the resource amounts.

By having this note, I could go back and check it before I made a decision to build something. Because, when you build something that costs more than 100,000 metal and can only produce that in a day, you don't want to build the wrong thing.

If you are interested in playing Steem NOVA and joining Logic Force: