NEWBIES DEADLY SINS IN GB

What are the worst and most lethal mistakes a newbie player might do
while trying to survive among more experienced players?

 * Remember destruction.
   You need des if you want to shoot a gun. Destroyer with 15 guns is
   totally useless if it doesn't have any destruction to shoot. When you
   build mine of missile in factory it's still empty and you have to LOAD
   DESTRUCTION in. Empty missiles/mines will not do any damage.

 * Don't overestimate the value of victory/powerlist.
   Even if you are above someone else in victory list it doesn't mean
   that you are more powerful for sure. There is lot of things that
   affects your standings in that list. Jovian players will usually take
   early leads because they have lot of population and a large
   homeplanet. Deserters tends to take the last seats, since they are
   very poor in population. Still deserter might be more powerful (with
   the highest resource depository and good production rate) than that list
   leading jovian. Vic list begins to show some true information
   somewhere after update 30. But it will NOT EVER reach the status of
   absolute truth.

 * Don't sit on your resources.
   Key words are explore and expand. It is lot easier to take over empty
   planet than 10 updates later try to kick another player out from
   there.

 * Inhabit all compatible sectors, even if population can't survive on them.
   When you find a empty planet, all sector efficiencies are 0. That means
   low fertility sectors (like desert, mountain) can't feed your people
   (^pop = 0). But if you inhabit that sector anyway, it's efficiency and
   perhaps even fertility will rise. Second generation most likely will
   survive now. If you just sit and wait, you can be sure that someone
   else comes and takes it. (NOTE: compatible sectors only).

 * Remember cargo room.
   Most ships have some damage when they come out from factory. And they
   need loaded resources to repair. If you modify all cargo space out,
   your ships won't ever repair themselves. And believe me.. 50% damaged
   destroyer or light carrier IS USELESS. (NOTE: In GB 5.0 HUT this is
   not important since ship repair can use planetary stockpile, but it's
   in GB 5.0 HUT only).

 * The FIRST step of the game is to spend all your
   APs to colonize the compatible sectors on your home planet. (You will
   probably own your whole home planet before you get the 50r for a
   factory)

 * It is (almost) never a good idea to build default ships.
   Modify some parts smaller and some parts larger depending on what you
   intend to do with the ship. Knowing exactly what to modify takes
   experience. Important: the default shuttle has 2 hangar space. Get rid
   of it. You shouldn't use a shuttle with hangar space for exploration.

 * Sending shuttles to every system within 50K is probably a good idea.
   They will typically arrive before you reach hyperdrive (with a techie
   race). If you are playing a morph, the suggested distance may be a bit
   larger. There may still be empty planets available by the time your
   shuttles arrive. Empty planets are much easier to colonize than full
   ones.

 * Do not underestimate the power of domes.
   On anything but a jovian planet (or possibly an airless or ice
   homeworld), you can even consider to put one dome on every sector.

 * Note that you can start repairing factories before you
   have the technology for them (with the exception of "discoveries" like
   hyperdrive, crystals, lasers, and CEWs). This means most ships can be
   designed for higher tech than you currently have. (If not playing a
   collective IQ race, this is *at least* 3*IQ+current tech if factories
   are built with 75% damage); (with a collective IQ race, just look at
   your tech gain last update and multiply by 3. Your tech in 3 updates
   will be higher than this unless your race is rapidly being destroyed.)

 * Don't build quarries.
   If resource depository is not infinite quarry will be just a waste of
   resources. And it is bad investment even if depository is infinite.

 * Take 100% sector preferences. Less than 40% preferences are almost
   useless. They will not produce resources quickly enough to have any use
   for you. And resos are what you need to build ships and enlarge your
   empire. So it's much MUCH better to have 2-3 100% sectortypes than 5-6
   less than 40% sectortypes.