TE3K
This page is a resource for Tiny Empires 3000 information.
Starting TE3K: I’ve put together a new page of advice for beginning Tiny Empires 3000 players, entitled Your First Twenty Ships: Starting Out in Tiny Empires 3000.
Val’s Musings
There are some interesting features in place that have no direct analogue in standard Tiny Empires. So far I’ve noticed:
- You start with one ship, and the act of joining a guild gets you a second.
- You can’t give someone a ship until they have at least four.
- Colonies appear to kick in at the 50 acre (Trader) level, but require a minimum personal acre count as well.
Colonies
Colonies promise to be an interesting feature, They are reminiscent of citizens is Federation-enhanced standard TE, but some of the mechanics are very different.
My first colony is an orbital laboratory that I bought with 70-something ships, 31 personal, for around 450,000 cr. I was offered three choices: a terrestrial planetoid, a mining planetoid, or the lab. The purchase added 100 credits per ship to my fleet efficiency and decreases the amount I pay in handling disasters. The lab started with 1000 colonists and a capacity of 2000.
I received a second colony offer at 250 total and 52 personal ships, but did not at that time have the 8+ million credits needed. I have the cash now, and hope to have more to report soon. UPDATE: I acquired the second colony some time later, but wound up paying 18 million for my volcanic moon (capacity 6000).
Buying a colony opens up the possibility of disasters, much like buying a Federation HUD in the original game. There appear to be three disaster types: a Hand of Anarchy pirate attack, a corruption scandal, and a disease outbreak. Each has the same four option types as Federation HUD TE: do nothing, spend a little, spend a lot, or do “research” by spending double (or a bit more).
I am also noticing a trickle effect of colonists moving in periodically from other places. The relationship between these and any actions I take has yet to be determined.
The Mysterious Black Diamond Vessel
This is the trader-analogue in TE3K. I have encountered it once. His price seems close to 2.5x current ship price; this would be on par with the Trader. The result was at first tricky. I got a “One of your ships is worth much more than normal” message. And it is literally true — one of my ships had such value. It was the third one I sold. The offers came at normalish intervals (about 3x per year), not every month. The selling price was always “It might be worth something.” My first two sold at normal prices — something of a loss. The third one sold for 8x normal ship price for a tidy profit, and no further offers appeared in this form.
Trader Bart Baramm caught the vessel at the same time, and it took him two hours of selling at every shot to get a price of around 20x normal. At first he was buying and selling on the same turn, then focused later on just buying. We both think that a buy/sell may postpone the successful conclusion of the deal but need more data.
