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

[Buttons840]

"Don't underestimate certain ship specials."

How insightful.

Here's my tip:  "Build ships."

I used to give this tip to other players in Sins of a Solar Empire multiplayer.  "You should try building some ships."  But they never would, and pretty soon they'd get steamrolled.  You see, a large number of even the weakest ship is better than no ships at all.

[Collic]

Consider keeping a small cache of warheads in your home system or other critical planets (such as those with mark IV factories). Using these carries an AIP penalty but if the situation is serious enough they can help turn the tide of battle for you. It's generally better to increase AIP than to lose a critical production facility or your home world to a determined AI assault. You may not have time to build them before a large wave or cpa arrives.

Maintaining a stockpile does mean they could be detonated without your consent, though...

If that's used it may need a few lines cut out I should think, but I think it's a nice risk versus reward tip

[Frozen Critical]

A warhead stockpile a day keeps the AI away

i Suppose that's what you are aiming for?

[Lancefighter]

If an item says "+AIP If killed - AI ONLY", that means its perfectly safe to scrap it after you capture it, if you dont like the effects

[Ozymandiaz]

Getting swarmed by large ammounts of small units? E.g. Neinzulships.

Grav turrets and AOE weapons like beam turrets is a nice counter.

[DakaSha]

"AI Eyes also count as warp gates.. Duh"

[Vinraith]

"AI Eyes also count as warp gates.. Duh"

Along those lines:

*Any AI structure with the trait "Warp Gate - Full" allows the AI to bring reinforcements to the system as well as launch waves against neighboring worlds. These include warp gates and AI Eyes. Any structure with the trait "Warp Gate- Reinforce Only" allows the AI to bring reinforcements to the system, but not launch waves. These include Spec Forces posts and Barracks.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Here's a "Tip". 

Capturing the Nenzul cockroaches with Leech starships then turning it on the Ai's Home Base = Instant Win.   

King

[Sarnian]

Another tip: Place at least 3-6 Spider turrets in each of the systems you own, spaced in a ring around the very edge of the area you're allowed to build in. These have saved my bacon more times than I can remember by knocking out the engines of attacking ships, leaving them isolated and hopefully out of range of anything important.

[zebramatt]

Another tip: Place at least 3-6 Spider turrets in each of the systems you own, spaced in a ring around the very edge of the area you're allowed to build in. These have saved my bacon more times than I can remember by knocking out the engines of attacking ships, leaving them isolated and hopefully out of range of anything important.

Now that's a good tip!

[Nypyren]

Tip:

If you tell your ships to fire on a specific target, that type of ship becomes their preferred target.  However, if you want to *clear* their preferred target, give your ships the 'stop' order (default hotkey: End)

[Heavens]

An eminent member told me this could be a tip of the day, so I'll post it here.

This could seem like a basic thing you can find in the manual but i personally press these commands thousands of times in a campaign, and "drag boxing" can be a liability if you inadvertently do it twice or press [Ctrl] at the same time (leading to FF/Rally posts/Engineers leaving their intended position).

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"If you need to select more than all Military units in the planet, like MRS/Engineers/Scouts/Mobile Builders/Transport Ships/Force Fields etc, you have to [Ctrl+,] to select all Military Ships idle or not then [Shift + Left Click] on the Support Ships/Structures you need -on the Planet Summary- to add them to your selection (For instance, to select your forces and include Mobile Repair Stations).


On the other hand you can also [Ctrl+,] then [Alt + Left Click] on the Military Ships -on the Planet Summary- you want to remove from your selection (For instance when you want to separate your main force from specific ships you want to send after or will use for other purposes like Raid/Bomber/Siege Starships etc)."
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When used to it, it doesn't take more than 3 seconds of manipulation.

[Kron]

I'm not sure if this is still true, but I remember playing an AI War game a long time ago and then realizing that Advanced Research Stations can move.

This was a facepalm moment for me because the system was under attack and I'd abandoned it to enemy forces. If I knew I could fly it around other planets I'd have been using it as the flagship of my science vessel fleet!

[Salamander]

Do you have cloaked enemy ships in your systems that even tachyon warheads can't find? Take a fleet of ships to an adjacent system and then detonate an EMP warhead in the offending system! Once the nefarious enemy is revealed (the EMP shuts their cloaks off among other things), bring the aforementioned ships back to mop the little gits up. I had Red Cossack laughing in vent the other night when I cleaned out 3 systems of cloaked Raptors this way. 

[Mithror]

I had this happen to me in a game. I just couldn't find them and they didn't attack me, so I asked on irc what to do about it. I ended up replacing my logistical station with a military station, killing them and then rebuilding my logistical station