Few questions from a brand new Noob.

[Antmf]

Hey guys, just started playing and doing the campaign tutorial after completing the others. Loving the depth of this game although the learning curve is kind of steep for me. Any who, when i attack a planet do or should i destroy all the enemy in area before killing their cap ship? And why is it that sometimes my ships are moving so slow when i am trying to take over a planet? Some of my ships crawl and i dont understand why. Also the guardian posts that have like 500K hp do I need to kill them too before taking out the AI cap ship and if so how? They almost seem as though they cant be killed. And what should be my first few upgrades. Thanks guys...

[Diazo]

Welcome to the game and the forums. 

As for your questions:

1) To destroy all ships or not before destroying the Command Station (cap ship).
This can go either way. Enemy ships have two states, "Guard" and "Loose". Ships that are Guarding are tied to something, usually a guard post or the command station. Ships that are Loose are considered "Threat" and show in the Threat counter at the top center of the screen.

Ships that are Threat (usually just called Threat) move towards your empire and attack when they feel it is a good time to. They do take into account how powerful your forces are on the other side of the wormhole before attacking so they may attack or may wait on the AI side of the wormhole for more ships before attacking.

When you destroy the Command station, all enemy ships in the system loose themselves and become Threat. (If there are still guardposts alive the ships in Guard mode at those post may turn into Threat or may stay in Guard mode.) So  you have do make a judgement call, are your defences in your own system strong enough to hold against all the enemy ships left in the system turning into Threat and attacking your system?

2) Ships moving slow.
There are two things that slow ships down, Engine Damage and Gravity Effects.

If you mouse-over a ship moving slow you should see in yellow a "Speed Reduced to: xx" number that indicates a ship is being slowed. If the engine health is not at full it is engine damage and the ship needs repairs to move at full speed.

However, it sounds like you are running into a Gravity effect such as from a Gravity Turret so you have to find the unit emiting the gravity effect and destroy it.

Note that your own Command Stations give a speed bonus to ships in the same system so ships in an enemy system will move slower then in your own system as a general rule.

3) There are two types of guard posts that make the Command Station invulnerable and have to be destroyed before the Command Station can be attacked. Command Station Shield Guard Posts and Counter Attack Guard posts are the two.

If you mouse-over the Command Station it will have an "External Invicibility: 1x" line showing how many Guard Posts are providing invulnerability to the Command Station.

Note that the Warp Gate does not get the invulnerability, you can destroy a system's warp gate while the Command Station is invulnerable.

4) Upgrades.
This will vary from player to player depending on how things go.

My personal opinion is Bombers Mk II and Fighters Mk II are a good starting point. The Harvester Upgrades never hurt as they give more resources but they don't increase your combat power so that is a personal preference you'll have to decide on.

Hope that helps.

D.

[Hearteater]

Why are your ships moving slow?
There are many reasons ships might be moving slowly.
1) Your Command Stations give you a speed boost in your own systems
2) If your ships are taking engine damage, some of them will start to lag behind.  An Engineer can repair this damage, but in enemy territory, it is often better to just scrap them once they are basically immobilized.
3) Some ships have a Gravity effect that reduces the speed of all enemy ships near them.
4) Some systems have a structure, called a Gravity Drill which reduces the speed of everything in the system.
5) If you use group move (hold down G when giving movement orders) all your ships move at the speed of the slowest ship.  You can tell if you've done this because your ships are bordered in teal.

What order should I destroy stuff in an enemy system?
This really depends a lot on what you have, what they have, how much time you have, and a ton of other factors.  Learning how to take out each system, which systems you should take out in the first place, and the huge number of creative methods of dealing with problems is a huge part of the game.  That being said, here are some things to keep in mind:

On enemy ships:
1) You'll notice some enemy ships are "dark" and just sit quietly around Guard Posts.  These are "sleeping" or "dormant" ships and they only wake up if you get close to them.  Once they wake up, they are permanently awake for the rest of the game (there are a few exceptions to this, mainly if you wake them up with scouts they go back to sleep).
2) If you bring a huge force into a system, sometimes it wakes up all the enemy ships.  They will either fight or retreat (or both).  If they retreat, they will be grouping up with either awakened AI ships to attack you when you are weak.
3) If you kill the AI Command Station, all the enemy ships wake up.

On Guard Posts:
1) There are many types of guard posts.  Most are not very powerful themselves, but some have effects you need to be careful of.  A small group of Bombers can destroy most in seconds (there are exceptions of course).  Pause the game and read each Guard Post's tool tip carefully.  Don't worry too much about the guns or health of the Guard Posts.  It is the special abilities that are a danger.
2) Enemy ships appear at Guard Posts, so clear out Guard Posts to near the warp point you are entering through to give yourself room to maneuver.
3) Some Guard Posts provide the AI Command Station with an Invulnerability Shield.  This is an orange shield you can see if you zoom in on it.  The tool tip fort the Command Station will have a line at the top telling you how many things are giving it Invulnerability.  You must kill them all before you can harm the Command Station.

Should I kill the Command Station before Guard Posts?
Once you've killed any Guard Posts that grant Invulnerability to the Command Station, you can destroy the Command Station if you like.  This will release all the enemy ships, but it will also stop new ships from appearing as reinforcements in the system (sometimes other AI units still allow reinforcements to appear, the AI Eye being a notable one).  This makes it much easier to clear the system, especially if you need to take some time to do it because there won't constantly be more ships appearing to defend it.

[Martyn van Buren]

My personal opinion is Bombers Mk II and Fighters Mk II are a good starting point. The Harvester Upgrades never hurt as they give more resources but they don't increase your combat power so that is a personal preference you'll have to decide on.

For OP: economic upgrades are definitely a very good starting point, and one that lots of advanced players (including original developer Chris) say they go for right at the start.  You certainly don't have to but if you feel like you need more resources it's a good move.