Jul 7th 2011, 13:47:53
Stop right there...
Before you make another move, just think about what you want to be when you grow up.
1) If you have green fingers, explore lots, build cs, build farms, buy agri tech. Sell the food. Profit!
2) If you're a brainiac, explore a little, build cs, build labs, research then when you've a little money behind you buy jets and grab land instead of exploring. Buy food when you need it. Sell the tech. Profit!
3) If you just like making money, explore lots, build cs, build ent zones and residences in (roughly) equal proportions and buy business and residential techs. You profit every turn so you just have to buy things. This is a bit of a girly strategy because you're shopping lots.
4) If you like making things, explore lots, build cs, build indi complexes and buy industrial tech and food when you need it. Maybe use jets you make to grab land instead of exploring. Sell turrets and jets. Profit!
For 1-3 above, build between 5-10% of total land with industrial complexes and produce spies only.
If you are a brute and want to attack people for their land, then for 1 and 4, you may want to build a few oil rigs, but oil is usually cheap enough that you can buy it on the public market. Generally you don't have to build oil rigs until oil becomes expensive.
If you are a nice person you will just explore in order to gain land. Don't bother with jets if you are a nice person. You don't need them. You'll want mainly turrets and just a few troops and tanks... troops and tanks at about 5-10% of your turrets wouldn't be unreasonable.
The key is to specialise. When you're bigger, and your main tech levels as almost at their maximum, you'll want to buy other techs that don't contribute to your speciality, eg 1 and 4 will buy bus/res and military techs to increase their net revenue.
Have fun.