Scientific is good if you find a starting location with large fields of low water tiles and some similar field of some other resource like iron, silicon or oxygen ice. Because of the way power production works so well with adjacancy bonuses you'll mostly favor solar power for that, so high ground is a plus, but starting locations very near geothermal vents can also be very attractive. Robotic gets a bit of an additional edge when water is scarce, though that's a bit less relevant than you'd think and I often find myself mass producing food as robots regardless cause it just tends to get very profitable lategame. Placing power production in the center will allow you to make a clump of production that both has very high adjacancy bonuses and is diversified in what it produces (allthough admittably it is very vulnerable to emp). You get your main edge from the generalised adjacancy bonuses, so you'll want a location with lots of ground around your HQ, so you can build a huge clump of production structures connected to your HQ, eliminating the need for unneccessary shipping. Robotic, similar to expansive, is good as a default option when nothing else is especially good. Lowered fuel costs add up quickly in the awkwardly spread out case, and lowered steel costs for buildings and more claims adds up quickly in general. This will allow you to get a head start on HQ upgrades, allowing you to claim a lot of things before others are able to.Įxpansive is very good when resources are spread out awkwardly around the map, or just in general as a default option whenever nothing else is especially good. Reason for this is that silicon/carbon respectively replace steel for HQ upgrades for these factions, and mining them is significantly faster than producing steel. Nomad and Scavenger HQ:s seem very good if you find a starting spot with plentiful access to silicon/carbon respectively as well as aluminum nearby.

I'm no expert, mostly played single player skirmishes, though I have done that quite a bit so I have some ideas.

Offworld trading company best faction