Workers


Welcome to the Discovery Age! Your empire is now a booming baby Troy. Primitive? Pshaw. We're gonna get primal up in the hizzy until the magic light bulbs tell us to stop.

This first age can be a bit tedious at times, but has a certain quaint charm that you'll never discover (pun intended) because you'll be rushing out of here.

I'm going to give it to you straight right now and sum up much of what will be said below: move on to the next age ASAP! How best should you do that? Let's delve into the delightfully droll details of the Discovery Age and dance through it!


"Just started the game? Wondering what you should do first and how to do it? I don't blame you, UWars is a complicated game, and here I will attempt to guide you through the first steps to becoming a top player.

First thing to do is read the Wiki! It holds all the basic information you need to know to start really playing this game!

Now that you know everything about everything about the facts of the game, I will guide you through your first couple of days in this game.

Overall Goal: Reach the third age.

Step one: Get fifty workers

Why do I need all my workers? Because the key to advancing ages and gaining worth is to pull in as many resources as you can. Here is how you should go about getting all your workers:

First tick you should build as many workers as you can, that's the most important thing. Then, build four farms so you can get more food ASAP. Now its just a waiting game, wait until you're farms and workers are done, make sure you are always using all your workers, and explore to find more farms so you can make more workers faster.

-Every time you get >25 food make another worker!
-If at anytime during this you have 300 gold, build a school and you can skip step two!


Step two: Get a School.

If your workers have already provided you with 300 gold, you can build it right away. As soon as it is built put 14 workers on learning, it is important that you only have 14, not 15. The 15th won't contribute because each worker gives .5 knowledge, and that extra .5 gets rounded down!


Step three: Build a University.

1. Research both Electricity and Higher Education.
2. Get 700 gold and build the University.


Step four: Wait! (Or you can build some attack dogs while you're at it.)

Now that you have almost everything you need to advance to the next age, you just need to wait for enough of that most precious resource


Step five: Simple

Advance! ^-^"

Rounds
There are a few things you should know. First of all, Universe Wars is played in rounds. You can find the round number you are currently at by looking in your Internet Browser's URL address bar. It should look like this;

This example show that you are playing in round 7.

http://www.uwars.com/round7/game.php?&cmd=

Rounds begin about every four (4) months or less and last for three (3) months, completely starting anew each time with some small and/or large changes. Round 4 will end on January 12 2008 and at that time the winners will be determined by their Worth [see item (G)]. Then, a period of time will pass when the round will actually continue with frantic, exciting new rules and no aim to win necessarily, just an opportunity to play for fun.

When the next Round begins, you will start over completely: the only remnants from the last Round being the experience you gained and your Commander Name [see item (F)]. The Empire Name you chose can be reclaimed if no one else has taken it before you, or you can choose a new one. Some new rules will be implemented, and everyone needs to determine what aspects of the game remain the same and what aspects have changed; necessitating a change in strategy or playstyle.

We will be using an image as our reference point to learn about what our "My Empire" page can tell us.
Click here to open up a new window of the image we'll be using as our learning tool. ~~ It's big, so give it time to load. Also, make sure to enlarge it if you need to do so.
ONLY READ ABOUT THOSE THINGS WHICH YOU DO NOT YET UNDERSTAND; IT WILL TAKE TOO LONG TO TRY TO READ IT ALL.

A) Tab Bar: Use this to navigate the main pages through which you build your empire. These pages will be discussed in their own sections.

B) Mail Link/Alert: This link takes you straight to your inbox; the number tells you how many new messages you have waiting for you. When you reach 300 messages, the number next to the link will read [FULL] instead of any specific number. You can also send mail, which I will mention how to most easily do later.

When you first begin the game, you will have a generic message awaiting you from...you...welcoming yourself to the game...weird...

C) News Room: This is the link to your News Room, where any and all updates to the status of your empire are listed. The number next to the link tells you how many new items are listed in your News. To learn what kind of items appear in the News Room, simply click the News link whenever a number above zero (0) appears.

D) Bookmarks: If you are a Plus Player (a 30-day status earned by paying $5 US), then you can save other people's empire pages for quick reference. Click here for an example of the type of page that gets bookmarked. The mail button? That's that easy way of sending mail I was talking about above. Click it and write your message, then just click send. :)

E) Tick Counter: An important timekeeper, this tells you how much time is left until the next tick passes. Plus Players have 10 minute-ticks, whilst non-Plus or regular players have 15 minute ticks. Ticks are based on the universal game clock (L). Ticks for all Plus players occur when the game clock minutes are :00, :10, :20, :30, :40 and :50 and ticks for non-Plus players occur when the game clock minutes are :00, :15, :30 and :45.

F) Commander Name and Planet Coordinates: The first just lists your Commander Name so you know you are playing on your account and not someone else's. (FYI, It is illegal to personally own or play on multiple accounts.) Click on your name to be taken your empire page (not to be confused with your "My Empire" page, it resembles the one from the example in (D) above).

The Planet Coordinates [1:1]-[xx:20] tell you 1. your galaxy [x:y], then 2. your planet number within that galaxy [x:y]. There are 20 members on every planet, 20 planets in every galaxy, and an unlimited number of galaxies determined only by the player base. Because it would ruin the balance of the system, empires are never deleted or removed from galaxies... ever. Go ahead, try and be the first, tough guy.

G) Worth: This is your empire's amount of Worth, updated frequently but not instantaneously. Click on it for a description; the top three players with the highest Worth at the end of the round are considered the winners.

H) Your Rank: This tells where your Worth falls in comparison to every other empire in the game.

I) Graph Button: Move your mouse over this to be informed of your recent progress through the ranks; click it to launch a graph detailing your Worth over the last 24 hours (updated every hour).

J) Resources: Quick information on your Land and Workers (the format is Unused/Total); below that is a list of how much of each resource you currently have available. This list is updated each tick or as you use these items.

K) Tokens: This tells you how many tokens you have. Click "earn" to enter a rather highly un-recommended list of possible ways to earn them, or click use to enter a page which will allow you to use 1 token to simulate a tick for your empire instantly. Tokens can also be purchased or received with Plus accounts; they are considered highly valuable and rare. You can use a maximum of 20 tokens per day.

L) Game Clock: All your News reports will be listed according to this clock, and your ticks will be set to it either on the :15, :30, :45 and :00 if you are non-Plus, or on the :10, :20, :30, :40, :50 and :00 if you are a Plus Player. All Game Clocks read the same time for every empire at any given moment in UWars and players usually simply call this Game Time (GT). It is a very helpful reference point.

M) Other Navigation: Unlike the Navigation Bar (A) at the top, these navigation buttons do not necessarily have much to do with your empire directly. They are rather self-explanatory and seeing each one for yourself is recommended, as is frequenting the forums to socialize, ask questions and learn new things.

N) Your Plus status/Tick Time: Yup, that's about it. Beneath it is a number that tells you how many people are currently online playing or have been within the last fifteen minutes..

O) TWG Vote: Click this link and vote often (once each day) for free land. If you increase your Explore Skill Rank, you will get an additional +110 Land for each Rank on top of the automatic +100 Land.

P) Age Information: Your current age and what you need to accomplish to advance to the next age. Advancing ages opens up numerous new options and the process takes 25 ticks to complete advancement into the next age once initiated. ←Use this time to save up for the new features the next age will offer or finish taking care of things in the current age that you feel you need to address.

Q) Empire Leaders: These characters give you information about different aspects of your empire. Only the first two will be available at first, but the other two will soon show up. They will each take to a different page from the Navigation Bar (A) if you click on one of them.

A Red background means they are unhappy, a Blue background means they are neutral/satisfied/not planning to kill you in your sleep and a Green background means they are ecstatic and think you are the coolest!!!!

R) Land: I find it self-explanatory, but if you disagree, then ask away about it on the Questions Board. I will be there to laugh at you, most likely..

S) This information tells you: 1) how much of any resource you will receive the next tick; 2) whether or not weather is positively affecting something, negatively affecting it, or not affecting it at all; 3) what, if any, Skill Rank Bonuses you are receiving (listed under the resource to which its bonus is being applied) and 4) the number of resource deposits you have obtained through exploring.

T) Civil: Much to talk about here, so let's break it up a little.

Max Population
This number is solely determined by the number Houses you have built. Each House increases Max Population by five (5).

Population
This is the number of people in your empire, consisting of 1) Workers, 2) Workers that are currently in the 4-tick process of being trained and 3) your free population, or freeloaders.

No military entity ever counts toward the population, and since training military entities usually requires using free population, you can actually lower your population temporarily by training them as military.
Free Population (or Freeloaders)
This population is completely unused and can be done with as you please, so long as you can find use for them--they are used/required to train more Workers and build military Units, Tanks and Aircraft. Be careful, as they require Food to upkeep each tick, the dangers of such will be discussed immediately below.

Free Population enter and remain in your empire automatically if the conditions are right: 1) Max Population allows for more Population to arrive, 2) Food is in Surplus (discussed below) and 3) Power Usage is under 100% (also discussed below).

Food Consumed Per Tick
For every member of your total population, 1 Food will be consumed each tick.

The surplus tells you how much your Food stored will change the next tick; your Food will never go into the negatives. Please understand that having a negative surplus does not necessarily affect your population growth rate, but i will diminish your Food that you own if you have any listed in your resources (J).
NOTE: Though Workers, being a part of the total population, will consume Food if it is there, they do not need Food to survive and will never die or stop being Workers.

Silo Room/Usage
This tells you how much Food you can store. Any additional Food will either just not come in or will be lost the next tick. The usage bar tells you the percentage your current amount of Food listed in (J) uses of your total silo storage room. We will discuss increasing silo storage later, but if you want to know now... well, you just build more silos under the "Construct" page.

This is what determines whether or not free population will grow/remain at max or decrease/remain at zero (0). Simply have more Food in your possession than there is population and the population will grow/remain at max the next tick. Otherwise, it will decrease/remain at zero next tick. The surplus will affect how much Food you have the next tick, meaning that you may need to keep on eye on it if you are trying to maintain your freeloaders.

Power
Once you research electricity, the option (and need) to construct Coal Power Plants will appear. They will produce +30 each, and as you progress through the game, more efficient power plants will become available for construction. Ensure that you maintain operations well below 100%, just to be safe, since operating above 100% can limit resource bonuses received and will prevent any new free population from entering your empire.

U) Military: Your Military Forces and the amount of space they are using in either Barracks (Units), Tank Storage (Tanks) or Hangars (Aircraft). This page is actually quite helpful for one key reason: your military page updates only with those troops that have already been completed training and are available for use, while this section updates immediately, including even those troops being trained. If you ever notice a discrepancy between the numbers, that is most likely why.

V) Workers: Click "[change] to update your Workers and how they will affect your resources next tick--listed on (S). The maximum number of Workers you can have assigned to something is determined by the number of resource buildings you have successfully constructed--except for Learning, which just has two stages. Note that you should never utilize all 15 Learners, as the game hates odd people and odd numbers, and it will only increase your Knowledge per tick for each increment of 2 Workers assigned to Learn.

W) Train Workers: Clicking on this link will open up a box that allows you to train additional workers for the listed cost.
The conditions to train more Workers are threefold: 1) you must have enough free population available to train the number of Workers you're requesting; 2) you must not exceed your maximum number of allotted Workers for your age (50 throughout the Discovery Age); and 3) you must have the food available to pay for each new Worker according to their individual cost. If any of these conditions are not met, then your order will receive an error message. It will take four ticks to finish training any Workers you pay to train.

X) Time/Season/Weather: Let's break it down again.

Time
The time listed here is mostly inconsequential, except for one detail: Knowledge rate. Yes, your Knowledge gained per tick is affected by the time of day listed here. If you want to adjust your Workers according to the most efficient time of day, go right ahead, or just leave all fourteen (14) Learning 24/7. (Remember not to bother bumping it up to 15 Workers because odd numbers are evil in Learning.) One hour on this clock takes fifteen (15) minutes in real life to pass--though I am unsure if the time is less for Plus Players and their fancy 10 minute ticks.

Season/Weather
The season is merely an indicator of what kind of weather you might expect, but it is that weather specifically that is of interest.

If one type of weather remains long enough, then it becomes "extreme weather," like you might see on the Discovery Channel (which has also yet to be discovered in the Discovery Age, though the Weather Channel has apparently shown up already). All extreme weather is bad for all resources--Hurricanes, Blizzards (not the player, the weather) and Droughts are extreme weather conditions. The only good type of extreme weather is "Very Nice" weather, which gives you a phenomenal 50% increase to all resource production.

Otherwise, normal weather affects things as follows (if a resource is not mentioned, then the weather in question has a neutral effect on it): Snowy: Good for Iron and Knowledge, but bad for Food and Gold.Hot: Good for Food and Gold, but bad for Iron and Knowledge.Rainy: Good for Wood, but bad for Oil.Windy: Good for Oil, but bad for Wood.Stormy: Bad for everything, but not as bad as extreme weather.Nice: Good for everything, but not as good asVery Nice--note that a certain small amount of each resource must be produced to resource "Nice" bonuses. One (1) Worker on Wood will not be enough for Wood to qualify for the additional weather bonus.

Y) Current Market Values: This tells you exactly what it says and is rapidly updated. We will go deeper into the Market, how to trade, and some trading strategies later on in this tutorial.

Z) Skills: (Nunchuck skills not included.) Skill Ranks give you a percentage increase to your production rates. They can be purchased with Knowledge, as described below, and randomly earned by just using the skills. This means that to increase Learning, just have Workers Learning. Keep in mind, however, that the more Workers are assigned to a task, the more likely you are to increase in Rank. Skill Ranks affect your primary resources according to RedMage's chart below:


Knowledge rates increase even higher for each Skill Rank, Exploring Skill Rank effects are relatively unknown beyond helping you to get more land and resource nodes (and increasing the Land you get from TWG votes, too), and Mercantile Skill rank gives you +1% Trading Efficiency for every single level up to 20--we will discuss this one further under the "Market" Page Tutorial section. And, yes, all Skill Ranks max at 20.

A2) Buy Skill Rank: To purchase a Skill Rank with Knowledge, click this link to enter Dr. Bartholomew's store of sorts. It's instantaneous, but expensive. Many would advise against buying them altogether, and nearly all would advise against buying them before you have finished researching everything you want to research in the game. I would, however, consider investing some Knowledge in a couple Explore Skill Ranks sometime in the Modern Age or early on in the Advanced Age.

B2) Project Tabs: See how your various projects are progressing and what they are by clicking on these tabs to view each type of list's various items. Cancel the construction of buildings, training of troops, and more by clicking the "[x]" on the right of any project. You will often be refunded any Land and free population used fully but be penalized in other resources by the percentage of ticks that remained for the project to reach completion.

In other words, if you spend 100 Hold and use 10 Land to build 10 of something, and if that something takes 5 ticks to finish building, then canceling right away will give you a full refund of 10 Land and 100 Gold, canceling after one (1) tick will give you an 80% refund of 80 Gold and full refund of 10 Land, canceling after two ticks will give you a 60% refund of 60 Gold and a full refund of 10 Land, and so on until the project is just plain done.

C2) Planet Leader's Message: You have a Planet leader most likely, and if you do not have one yet, you will very soon (it could be you!). The planet leader has a few nominal abilities, one of which is to post a message like this one for all on his planet of 20 members to see, whether they want to see it or not...
I will go into how to become your planet's leader (dictator) later on, under "Galaxy," but for now you know where these messages from "TheFartingEmpire" are coming from and why you are receiving them.

Exploring is the primary method you'll use to gain land, besides TWG voting, and it is the only way to gain more resource nodes. Resources nodes are Farming Lands, Gold Deposits, Iron Deposits, Forests, and Oil Wells, and these determine how many of each type of resource building you can construct. Remember earlier that if we wanted to put more Workers on something, I said that we'd have to build more resource buildings? Well, resource nodes are one of the major requirements to constructing more resource buildings.

The number of each node you find varies, and the amount of free land you find beyond that also varies. If you choose to explore with only one Worker, however, you are still basically guaranteed one block of free land and one resource node of some kind.

The more Workers you send out to explore and the higher your Explore Skill Rank, the more free land and resources nodes you can find while exploring also goes up. In fact, sending 200 Workers is more than twice as effective as sending 100 Workers, so keep that in mind when exploring.

And do not expect to find more than one resource node when sending ten (10) or fewer Explorers, though it is possible to do so. Additionally, even massive exploring expeditions can produce only a single node though the free land gained will be much, much higher.

Exploring has a certain cost in both Gold and Food per Worker you choose to send, and any Workers you send exploring cannot be used for any other task until they complete their journey of six ticks. And yes, they still use Food for upkeep somehow while they're gone.

Last thing: you will not find any Oil Deposits (called Oil Wells on the "Construct" page) until you research Seismic Surveying. Once you do, however, you will find Oil Deposits while exploring just as you do any other resource node.

Fun Facts about Exploring!
There are currently no fun facts about exploring. Have fun.

Here I will go over with you some the buildings in the Discovery Age. We will be building from the Tech Tree to help bring things together. (I helped make that, too. )

To construct something, you must first have enough resources to complete your order. You will either enter in the number of that item you would like constructed (this applies to non-unique structures) or you will simply click "Build" (this applies to unique structures).

If you click "Build," then one of that structure is purchased and construction begins, and you will never be able to tear down or build another of that building.

If you enter in any numbers, then you will purchase the chosen number of each type of building--as long as you have the resources to pay for each and every one purchased. You will be able to construct more later or tear them down, should you choose to do so, by clicking on the "Demolish" tab just under and to the right of Bruce's boots and entering in the number of each item you wish to demolish.

*A "unique" building is any building of which you can only construct one (1). Non-unique buildings can be constructed in any number, limited only by your land and wallet--Discover card hasn't been discovered yet, sorry.

Key: Building

Research

School

Build your School as soon as you can do so. You cannot gain any of the important resource "Knowledge" until you build a School and place Workers on Learning. You will need Knowledge to begin researching, which is the key to progressing through the game and gaining new options. Do not forget to go to your "My Empire" and assign as many Workers as you can spare to Learning.

The class of '08 is only 15 Workers large, but if you know what's good for you, you'll convince the 15[sup]th[/sup] one to drop out and become a Miner. Also, there's nothing wrong with encouraging your students play hooky every now and then if you can make use of their slave labor for a while, particularly during the night hours, when their Learning is drastically lower. Send 'em off exploring for a spell; they need to see the world before they spend "years" in School.

Required to build: N/A

University

The University allows you to research a number of new things, and it is also a requirement for age advancement. Since Seismic Surveying is highly useful and since you cannot research it until you have built your University, try to build your University quickly.

Required to build: Electricity and Higher Education

Market

This will be addressed in detail in the "Market" Page Tutorial section. To summarize for now, the Market lets you begin buying and selling resources on the Market.

Required to build: Trade

Siege Factory

The Siege Factory lets you build Artillery and Heavy Artillery. Heavy Artillery, though much more expensive than training Units, is one of the best troops for military building. To get help deciding which kind of military build is best for you, see the forthcoming "Military Handbook."

Required to build: Armed Forces

Machine Factory

The Machine Factory lets you build Light Tanks, but more importantly, it lets you research Warfare and construct Tank Storage to house your tanks.

Required to build: Armoured Vehicles

Airfield

The Airfield opens up numerous options, and as a necessary precursor to both a Command Centre and a Space Centre, it is a very useful building in that regard.

Additionally, this building allows you to build Jet Fighters and Helicopters, as well as to construct Hangars to hold your aircraft.

Required to build: Flight

Command Centre

Required to build: Warfare

Farms

For every Farm you have, you may assign one (1) Worker to the task of Farming in order to produce more Food.

Required to build: 1 Farming Land per Farm being constructed

Gold Mine

For every Gold Mine you have, you may assign two (2) Workers to the task of Gold Mining in order to produce more Gold. Each Gold Mine Worker produces 2 Gold at the most basic level of production.

Required to build: 1 Gold Deposit per Gold Mine being constructed

Lumber Yard

For every Lumber Yard you have, you may assign two (2) Workers to the task of Wood Chopping in order to produce more Wood. Each Wood Chopper produces 2 Wood at the most basic level of production.

Required to build: 1 Forest per Lumber Yard being constructed

Iron Mine

For every Iron Mine you have, you may assign two (2) Workers to the task of Iron Mining in order to produce more Iron. Each Iron Mine Worker produces 2 Iron at the most basic level of production.

Required to build: 1 Iron Deposit per Iron Mine being constructed

Oil Wells

For every Oil Well you have, you may assign one (1) Worker to the task of Oil Pumping in order to produce more Oil. Each Oil Well Worker produces 5 Oil at the most basic level of production.

Required to build: 1 Oil Deposit per Oil Well being constructed and Seismic Surveying

Silos

Silos are very important. For every Silo you successfully construct, you may hold 100 more Food than you could before. If you try to produce or purchase more Food than your Silos have room to hold, then all excess Food will be lost the next tick.

I would recommend building up to between 16,000 and 40,000 Silo Storage space (160-400 Silos) by the time you advance to the next age. If you build even more, then that's fine, but you are not likely to experience a great need for such a large amount of storage space just yet.

Required to build: N/A

Houses

Houses hold your Workers and free population. Each House you construct will increase your Max Population by five (5). If you need free population to train Workers or military but have no free population because your Workers alone are equal to your Max Population, then construct more Houses. Ten (10) Houses should be sufficient if you do not build your military during this age, as Workers will be the only population that concerns you.

Required to build: N/A

Coal and Gas Power Plants
Coal Plants give you +30 additional power to use per plant, while Gas Plants--being the most cost efficient Power Plants in the game--give you +70 power per plant. Gas Plants are obviously a better choice once you have the option.

Cargo Warehouses

You cannot trade on the Market without constructing at least one Cargo Warehouse. Each Cargo Warehouse allows you to buy or sell (or any combination of the two) 5,000 of any resources at a time. You can trade less if you like, but you cannot trade more without constructing more Cargo Warehouses. With just one, you could trade 1 Oil 5,000 times, trade 5,000 Food 1 time, trade 2,000 Iron one time and then 3,000 Wood the next... you get the idea.

After three ticks pass, any trades "clear" and you can reuse your Cargo Warehouse space once again. Build one of these right away after you finish construction of your Market. It is not uncommon to have thousands and thousands of these by the time you near the completion of a Round.

Required to build: Market

Required to build: Electricity or Seismic Surveying, respectively

Barracks

Barracks hold a type of military force called Units. Each Barracks holds 30 Units. You cannot train any Units without at least one Barracks.

Required to build: Armed Forces

Tank Storage

Tank Storage holds a type of military force called Tanks. Each Tanks Storage holds 10 Tanks. You cannot build any Tanks without at least one Tank Storage.

Required to build: Machine Factory

Hangars

Hangars hold a type of military force called Aircraft. Each Hangar holds 10 Aircraft. You cannot build any Aircraft without at least one Hangar.

Required to build: Flight

Pointless Defensive Structures of the Discovery Age

They are: Guard Tower, Bunker, and Flak Cannon.

Do not build them, as they do not work properly. Next Round (Round 5), if there are Defensive Structures, they may work, but these do not work--so don't use 'em! Each also requires a specific unique building to construct, but let's be honest: it doesn't matter. Just ignore them, but you may want to research Defensive Capabilities sometime anyway for its other benefits.

Required to build: Defensive Capabilities

Shine, Nerds, Shine! School is cool again now that you've actually built one. :p Now all you need is the popular girl, some shame, and zany hijinks to make it just like real life... or an 80's movie. Let's leave the Breakfast Club Behind and see what kind of Revenge those Nerds have been researching!

Click on a research option to view its description, then, if you have enough Knowledge stored away, you can begin researching something if you decide to do so.

(Note: I have ordered them in the exact order in which I recommend you research them. The underlined entries are those that are highly-recommended to research before the next age or are necessary to research before the next age. In the end, however, I suggest you do whatever seems the most fun to you.)

Electricity

Electricity is necessary for viewing your power usage, building Coal Power Plants, and constructing a University. Before you research Electricity, you do not need to be under 100% power usage for new free population to enter your empire, but afterward you must be under 100% power usage to receive any free population.

Required to research: N/A

Higher Education

Allows you to construct a University.

Required to research: N/A

Diplomacy

Allows you to research Trade in this age and Communications in the next age.

Required to research: N/A

Seismic Surveying

This research will allow you to construct Gas Power Plants and find Oil Deposits when exploring.

Required to research: University

Trade

Allows you to build a Market.

Required to research: Diplomacy

Scientific Methods

Allows you to construct a Research Facility in the next age. Consider researching this during the 25 tick waiting period to advance to the next age.

Required to research: University

Shaft Mining

Researching this gives a +15% bonus to Iron and Gold Mining production.

Required to research: University

Plowing Techniques

Researching this gives a +15% bonus to Food production.

Required to research: University

Hand Saw

Researching this gives a +15% bonus to Wood Chopping production.

Required to research: University

Armed Forces

Allows you to build Barracks and a Siege Factory, as well as research Defensive Capabilities or Armoured Vehicles.

Required to research: N/A

Flight

Allows you to Construct Hangars and build Jet Fighters and Helicopters.

Required to research: Armed Forces

Armoured Vehicles

Allows you to construct Tank Storage and build Light Tanks.

Required to research: Armed Forces

Warfare

Allow you to construct a Command Centre.

Required to research: Machine Factory and Airfield

In Universe Wars, wars happen. Being ready comes from building an effective military to fit your playstyle. What exactly will that look like? Well, you'll first have to discover your playstyle, then you'll be able to figure it out on your own. ;)

Attacking

To attack an empire, you must first build a Command Centre. At first, you will only be able to attack one of the 19 other empires on your planet, but during the next age you can gain the ability to attack one of the 139 other empires in your galaxy. In the final age, you can gain the ability to attack anyone in the universe.

Of course, that's purely in terms of distance. There are other restrictions on whom you are allowed to attack. You also may not attack an empire if its total Worth is less than 50% of your own Worth, though you can attack an empire regardless of how much bigger it is than you are. This means that if your Worth is 1,000, you may not attack any empire under 500 Worth.

You will also find yourself unable to initiate attacks on another empire if you are both in the same alliance.

If your attack is allowed, then all attacking forces and all defending forces will be compared, losses will occur, and either the defender will win (nothing happens) or the attacker will win (the attacker steals a percentage of resources determined by how powerful their victory was).

Attackers take a certain amount of time to reach their destination, and in that time the force sent to attack will not participate in the defense of the "home" empire if it is attacked while they are away. These attacks can be canceled, however, before they are halfway to their destination, but thereafter cannot be recalled.

Defending

When you are attacked, you will automatically defend the tick that the attack occurs. If you are in an alliance, however, there is a sort of "joint defense" where other alliance members send you some of their army to temporarily add it to yours in defense of your empire.

Unlike attacking jointly, defending armies sent to an empire remain for twelve ticks with no option to return early, and so long as the defense was sent even just one second before the attack lands, the defending army will take part in the battle. The defending army will participate in every battle that occurs while they are at the target empire.

Motherships

You have five (5) Motherships and always will. Every time you send an army to defend or attack, it uses a Mothership. You may not send attacks or defense without a Mothership, but Motherships return with the army that was sent on them.

Joint Attacks and Sending Defense

If you are in an alliance with someone (or many someones) who can attack the same empire as you, then you are permitted to launch "joint attacks," which effectively let you join your armies together for this one attack to from one larger army. Any number of allies are permitted to join in on the attack if they meet the requirements to attack the target empire, but all attackers must join the attack within the same tick if they want to join an attack.

Battles

Losses get exponentially less the more you outnumber your foe, and they get exponentially worse as your foe outnumbers you. Thus, if you lose thousands and thousands of troops, only to see that your enemy has lost little or nothing, then know that you have not been cheated, just ridiculously outnumbered . Counter this by getting more people to join you for defense/attacks.

Units

Attack Dogs are your best bet Unit-wise for now, for reasons of cost, ease to train, and the fact that no free population is required to train them. Attack Dogs are the only military force that does not require free population to train. You may even stick with these pups throughout the game due to the ease in training mass quantities of them.

Tanks

The three tanks are not very popular, but Heavy Artillery is highly "Worth Efficient." ←This means that it gives you high attack power while contributing little to your overall Worth. Why is this significant? It's significant because only empires twice as large as your Worth or smaller can attack you, meaning that the more bang you have in your Worth, the more likely you are to successfully attack and defend against other empires.

Aircraft

Neither of these choices (Jet Fighters or Helicopters) are particularly ideal, but if it will really make you overflow with glee, then go ahead and build a few aeroplanes.

Hey there, Money-Bags! So you've decided that you have what it takes to make a profit on the Market, eh? What...? You haven't decided that? You don't know how to even use the Market? Oh... my bad. Well then, let me give you the skinny on the bull.

Trading Efficiency

Here's one of the biggest things to understand about the Market: the only things limiting you are your Cargo Warehouse space and your Trading Efficiency. Your Trade Efficiency starts out at 50% and increases +1% for each Mercantile Skill Rank you purchase or earn (I and most everyone would advise [u]earning[/u] every one of these ranks and doing so as quickly as possible).

Since all Skill Ranks max at 20, that means you can add an additional +20% to your Trade Efficiency, and with two buildings in later ages that offer +15% Trading Efficiency each, you will eventually be able to trade with 100% efficiency. Once you can do this, you can trade for profit on the Market by buying low and selling high--just make sure you have the Cargo Warehouse space for all your transactions, lest you be left with something you don't want for three ticks until its value has declined.

Of the four commodities to trade, Oil tends to be the most steady and valuable, while Wood and Iron are the easiest and most preferable with which to actually trade. Food is dangerous to buy too much of, since you must have the Silo room for it or you will lose your investment.

When Do I Advance?
The question of advancement is a burning and important one, so let's go over the priorities you should have taken care of before even considering advancement to The Modern Age.

Resources

The cost to train your Workers is about to increase eightfold, and since you're going to want to train all 150 new Workers ASAP, having as much as Food as possible before advancing should be a priority among your resources. 30,000 Food or more is your goal, but 10,000 can get the job done until you get more Food. Less than that and you will find yourself waiting to reach the 200 Worker mark, which only limits you in the meantime.

Exploring

Make sure you have done some exploring before advancing, as things are only going to get more expensive in the next age--exploring included. Get some Oil and Gold Deposits as well as Farming Lands, and make sure to build on them.

Constructing

I already mentioned that I thought your Silo Storage should be around 30,000 preferably, but are other considerations as well, like whether or not you have completed a Market yet.

Cargo Warehouse space should reflect either your trading needs, your trade size to advance a Skill Rank, or both. Never get caught unable to trade when you really need to, and avoid wasting trades that could have been increased a little for a potential Skill Rank increase.

Do not forget to monitor your Houses closely in order to avoid needless free population, but begin construction on some as you near the completion of the 25-tick advancement process. This will allow you to have free population at the ready to train as new Workers.

Research

I already highlighted my suggested research, in order: Electricity, Higher Education, Diplomacy (If you have not yet completed a University), Seismic Surveying (if you have the option to research this before diplomacy, then do it), and Trade. Then, during your 25-tick advancement period, save up Knowledge and begin researching Scientific Methods.

Military

Most individuals will not need much military strength before advancing, but some planets and galaxies prove more hostile at times than others. If you need to build a military to survive, then by all means build the best military you can muster at this point. Even if you'd prefer to wait for different troops to come later, consider just training some Attack Dogs in the meantime to help you defend yourself.

Now best of luck to you throughout this fun and in-depth game! Enjoy yourself, and don't take anything too seriously. Success comes and goes rapidly in this universe, so don't get frustrated. Just keep at it and keep learning. Welcome to Universe Wars.