Well I decided to try it and my Homeworld is a small arid with a small pop. So if I took psionics for my starting sphere it would really suck because of the low pop... Gah. I really wanted to specialize in espionage. Geology or trade would do much better here...
EDIT: Although someone has a monopoly on precious metals for both geology AND trade so that might cramp geology. Man I wish you could randomize your homeworld like 3 times for free like your House.
Editedit: Fuck it. I'll just start with psionics. If it fails it fails. Oh well.
How many people generally end up in a galaxy? Right now I've got less than 30 in mine.
30 seems to be about average.
Tip for you as a psionics player. You have one amazing advantage, even as a minnow, that should help you get sponsorship from larger houses. You can offer the much-vaunted
Psionics Concession, which cuts security costs by 10% to the beneficiary and gives them a +1% chance of success on espionage missions. Each concession you give will kill about 5% of your psionics facility income, but if your agreement is "I want $25,000/month in exchange for this concession" that swiftly becomes irrelevant. Some of the bigger Houses spend a lot on security, so it's a very desirable concession to attain.
Get enough sponsors and you can make your second sphere Covert Ops and wreak havoc around the Galaxy. What Galaxy did you end up in, by the by?
Just started in the transportation sphere; oh god what do I do :/
Find another planet, build transport facility there. Connect to transport facility you already have at your homeworld/starting world.
Sacrifice to your Gods so that the plague does not come to either of those planets.
This helpful wiki may assist, in particular
this page. Find planets that don't already have Transportation facilities there, build a pair of facilities and then construct a route between them. Establish Economy routes between worlds with Poor populations and Luxury routes between worlds with Rich populations (and a smattering of the routes in between for middle of the road worlds). If there's no competition, jack your prices up to Extortionate because you're the only game in town.
I and most veteran players recommend against taking Mercantile and Transport. Most if not all planetary random/negative effects really hurts Mercantile and Transport spheres... almost exclusively. It is a heck of a lot of work for not so great gain. If you insist on taking Mercantile, seriously, I insist you put money up for subscription, cause it opens up some ease of use features for that sphere. You will sorely need it.
I love Mercantile, but it's masochistic and saturates
quickly. I'm close to saturating the core systems of Draco with mercantile routes right now, and I'm the main merchant in the galaxy. Don't get me wrong, my projected income from trading for the month is about 70k, and various expenses about half that, but it's a tortuous sphere once there's serious competition. My House's background is going to demand a shift into Mysticism and then eventually out of Mercantile once it becomes self-sustaining in order to give newer Houses a shot at dominating the galactic market.
Transport is easier than Mercantile, but saturates quickly as well. Geology seems to be the favourite of everyone, so far as I can tell. Agriculture certainly favours new players, but past 50 status it's a pain because of subsidy tax. Under the right conditions, though, it's still quite profitable.
On a related note, I started out a blog similar to someone in Capricorn Galaxy (
House Laurent) following the misadventures and background of
House al-Sabat in Draco. Feel free to follow it, it's a bit of IN-themed fun.