AI War "Tip of the Day" -- What do you wish you'd known?

[mindloss]

Figure out about how many turrets you think you'll need. Multiply this number by 5-10.

[Trandrin]

Go into the stat menu and look at the objective tab. Clicking on any of the objectives and it will center your camera onto that specific point of interest. Never knew this until recently. 

[mindloss]

When playing with Spire Civilian Leaders on, you don't have to control the system the leader is in to get the -3 benefit; it is sufficient to take out the AI in the system. This way, you won't "own" the leader and it won't become an AI target.

[Silver]

Did you know you can select the availability of many additional ship types when starting a new campaign? The vast majority of ships are locked by default so newer players don't get overwhelmed.

[Ragnarok]

Research and Build Advanced Warp Sensors in your border systems. When a wave is approaching that system, the wormhole that is staging the assault will chance its color, giving you time to fortify the correct position.

[zoutzakje]

Research and Build Advanced Warp Sensors in your border systems. When a wave is approaching that system, the wormhole that is staging the assault will chance its color, giving you time to fortify the correct position.

note that logistics command stations also have that ability. I believe Sentinel Frigate ships have it too.

[Faulty Logic]

Engineer mkIIIs can build new defences anywhere in your empire, essentially instantly.
Spirecraft Jumpships can redeploy starships anywhere in your empire, essentially instantly.
These are especially useful in the middle of an attack.
Riot Control Starships can be adapted to many situations, but are most valuable dealing with huge waves of small ships.
When stuck: consider warheads.
AI Progress is to be feared. This number makes almost every aspect of the game more difficult, particularly enemy reinforments and wave sizes.
Hack carefully.

[Diazo]

Hmmm.

Not so much gameplay tips but strategy advice:

1) Don't forget about the niche units.

Missile Frigates ruining your day? The AI unlocked a bonus ship that fires Missiles? Unlock those counter-missile turrets and laugh at them.

That resource node next to a hostile warp point and being destroyed every 2 minutes? Get the Harvest Shields and upgrade it so it does not get destroyed again.

 It is worth you time to take 5 minutes, pause the game and just read through everything you can build. There is nothing 'hidden', everything you can build shows in the build menus, it is just grayed out until you research them.

2) You've only lost once you lose your Home Command Station.

Several of my early games I would end up losing half my empire to the AI but my mobile fleet would catch up and destroy the AIs forces before they could finish my Home Command station off. I would then go "I can't rebuild this in time" and start a new game.

Now I know better, after killing off an AI's attack you (usually) have 5-10 minutes of free time to rebuild which gives you quite a large window to recover and go on to win the game.

In other words, everything is expendable no matter what it costs, as long as you don't lose your Home Command Station you can still win the game.

[Ragnarok]

I'm wondering, why are we noobies writing these wishes / tips if they never show up

[keith.lamothe]

I'm wondering, why are we noobies writing these wishes / tips if they never show up

You know, you have a point

One of the last phases of a new official release is updating the tutorial (I've updated it to reflect some changes as I made them, but it needs more attention than that for an official), and there's been a number of tips I've had to replace as they became irrelevant.  During the tutorial work we can pare out any other obsolete tips and bring in the various gems that have come up in this thread since the last time

[x4000]

You know, we need to get Josh on updating these, rather than you, Keith.  That would really help out a lot, I think!

[keith.lamothe]

You know, we need to get Josh on updating these, rather than you, Keith.  That would really help out a lot, I think!

Yea, for one thing, Josh actually knows how to be on the ball!

[x4000]

 

[Mánagarmr]

Heh, good point there. But I seem to remember some new tips making it in. For instance, I saw a new one yesterday that touched on a new mechanic that wasn't there before.

[Zanthra]

Spirecraft Attritioners are extremely powerful defense units.

At ship cap:
MK1 1500hp/s
MK2 2400hp/s
MK3 2700hp/s
MK4 2400hp/s
MK5 1500hp/s

Multiply by 10 to get what they will kill in 10 seconds, 100 to kill what they can kill in a little over a minute and a half.

This is not limited by number the way lightning turrets are, so a wave of 1500 enemy ships with 400,000 hitpoints will die to a full cap in 40 seconds.  Move them into position for high level counteratack waves, exogalactic waves, or CPAs and your turrets will be much happier.