The following question applies to the single-player map, Gaia Cresent.
With normal default player settings, the Gaia Cresent map spawns you on a pop. 10 world with a -.7 to -2.2 (yes, negative) tax rate. The starting credit amount of 3000 disappears really fast if you don't jump on building up your planet fast. After some trial and error, I found if I immediately grab 2 planet population upgrades (to get the planet to pop. 100), queue up a capital ship factory, then quickly sell the remaining starting stores of metal and crystal, then I have just enough cash left over to buy the extractors for the starting asteroids.
After all those start-up contortions, I still only end up with either a small negative cash flow of -.4 (if I spawned on a -2.2 planet) to +.5 or so (for a -.7 start planet). Basically I can buy no ships other than to make the freebie first capital ship. Since a low or negative cash rate means a constant zero cash level , all I can do is sell the slowly accumulating minerals on the black market to raise cash for a scout ship or two within the first 10 min of the game.
With this map there are only desolate planets (arctic, volcanic, desert, asteroid) nearby. All planet nodes have the usual fleet of pirate squatters. So if I were to colonize any spots nearby, I would be immediately be saddled with another huge negative cash flow, -2.2 or so, possibly ending up with a -4.4 cash flow, and a constant zero cash level.
After sending the scouts out, when I found the AI planet I noticed that with only a pop of 30 (one planet upgrade), the AI had a tax rate of +2.2 compared to my -.7 or +.5. Moreover, the mineral accumulation rate from my 1 planet is really low, so there is no way I can get more than a cap ship and 1-2 ships by the time of the first pirate attack. (And likewise, I can forget about trying to outbid the AI for control of the pirates).
Question: How are you supposed to get started here? I see no way since the negative cash flow keeps you from stockpiling cash by selling minerals, and worse, the mineral accumulation rate is so low, black market cash is pretty meager also.
About all I can manage are 2 guns in addition to the free cap ship and scout before the first pirate strike. Since several structures inevitably get wiped out in a raid, I can't rebuild...and it just keeps going downhill. I can't expand, because I can't afford to get the research to colonize desolate planets, and shouldn't anyway since I have no positive cash flow to get the upgrades for them anyway. Any colonization would just increase my negative cash flow. The only fertile planets are about 4-5 nodes away, so my cap ship would probably be fairly beat up by the time it got there, then have to fight 15 heavy cruisers, LRMs, frigates, etc... Any hints on how to get survive an AI here that has a 4 to 1 tax advantage on normal settings?
(Note: although I was playing TEC, feel free to use Vasari or Advent perspective if you think they would be better civs for this map.)
