Game Setup

[filippe999]

Hello Fellow Human Survivors

When setting a game up, is it possible to set which bonus ship type the players will receive? what does double-right clicking does in game setup screen(looby)?

About early game strategy,which kinds of techs i should buy? the techs i normally buy at the beggining are MkIII Econ Cmd Stations and Force Field Generator MkII,should i attack nearby weaker AI planets first? or aim to a specific AI planet where a ARS,DC,SpT and Exp Fabricator? the second one sounds fair and wise,but you can't find these kinds of planets early in the game (unless youre lucky).

My normal strategy to keep losses at a minimum is using full ship cap of all available ships, yes i attack the first planet with 400+ ships, i get starships when I'm have at least 5 planets

[zoutzakje]

hello fellow human survivor (or victim )

First of all, if you want to select your starting bonus ship(s), simply click on one or multiple of the ship icons on the galaxy map in the lobby. Also keep in consideration the numer displayed next to the ship icon (the amount of hostile wormholes bordering that world).

About tech unlocks, that's something that's completely different for every player. I'm probably one of the very few people who play with logistics command stations only, but they work well for me. My advice to you is to go after the valuable targets first. If you can't find any valuable targets first, then take one with a lot of resources for example. Or if your homeworld is bordering a Mk IV world, (try to) take that one out first. You don't want Mk IV worlds to build up forces.

Starships can be quite useful, but they can wreck your economy early game. However, if I have a lot of spare metal or crystal, I usually get some starships that either cost a lot of metal or crystal. To balance it out a bit.
I always wait a while with my first attack as well. I usually build ships (both regular and starships) until I have very little energy left. then I start my first attack.

Hope this helps a bit =)

[Hearteater]

I strongly recommend you avoid selecting more than one planet during game setup at first.  The more planets you have, the more then AI throws at you.  If you do NOT select any planet at all, as you probably discovered, one is randomly picked.

For research, I recommend Gravity Turrets as they make defending against the AI much easier.  Against some enemy ships they are basically mandatory.

[sol_ilya]

I usually study econom station II, gravitation turret, advanced warp sensor and forcefiled II. If AI has stealth ships I learn stealth detector. I study econom III when I got cap of econom station II. I also build at once 1-2 Bomber starships. I do not attack enemy without them. After I build bomber starships I build 1-2 raid straships. I need them if enemy has any Guard post under forcefields.
I also like to have small losses in ships so I am using bomber strarhips for destroying Guard posts. You can see my tactic in assaulting systems in  movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IchcqwyF8c
It is filmed on speed -4 which I usually play my games and you can see fight is not so slow as maybe it sounds on such speed.

If I find a planet with any fabricator, ARS or Z-energy generator in 2 jumps from my Home station I go for it. Else I take neighbours planets to my home station unless I see a neighbour system borders with a IV world which I do not want to alert soon.

[filippe999]

thanks for the tips guys!,so i must have a econ station mkII FF gen mkII and grav turrets,plus stealth tachyon if i'm fighting an AI that uses a lot of slteath ships.
Logistics? really? they give about half you get from econ stations,and halves enemy speed,plus adv warp sensor and a decent armor value,what you look for most in getting log stations?

[Hearteater]

Against enemy stealthed ships:
You have two things that can breaking cloaking for free.  Tachyon Drones are mobile and themselves cloaked.  There ship cap is only 2 though.  I believe they are built from the SUP table.  Scout Starships also break cloaking (and again, are themselves cloaked).  Their ship cap is slightly higher.  You can cover a small number of wormholes with just these units unless the enemy has something with Tachyon Beams (like Tachyon MicroFighters).  So I often find I can wait a little bit before unlocking the Tachyon Turret even against a stealth AI.

Logistics Command Stations:
The speed boosting properties of these are a bit odd and poorly described in their description.  If I recall correctly, they add a fixed amount of extra speed, which is much more beneficial to your slower ships.  So putting them along lanes of travel helps get things like Missile Frigates places much faster.

[Volatar]

I find Logistics stations most useful for frontline systems. The 2x own speed 1/2 enemy speed is very useful when defending. I always put my command stations out of the way under a force field so Military command stations don't provide any benefits.

Away from the frontlines I always use Econ stations. I don't spend Knowledge on Command stations though (must have more flying guns!) so there is always balance between the choices.

[zoutzakje]

exactly. Never underestimate traveling speed in strategy games. Logistic command stations, gravity turrets, zenith time space manipulators, tractor beams... Use them wisely and the enemy will get nowhere fast, while you can rush in your own systems to kill attackers where needed. My economy is always crap yes, but i've noticed I can do just fine if I'm being careful.
Mk II and III logistics always get unlocked eventually in my games.

[keith.lamothe]

I always put my command stations out of the way under a force field so Military command stations don't provide any benefits.

FYI, military stations provide a munitions boost to all friendly units on the planet, and the mkIII military command station provides planet-wide tachyon coverage.

[Volatar]

I always put my command stations out of the way under a force field so Military command stations don't provide any benefits.

FYI, military stations provide a munitions boost to all friendly units on the planet, and the mkIII military command station provides planet-wide tachyon coverage.

Somehow I missed that. 

[Hearteater]

I find Logistics stations most useful for frontline systems. The 2x own speed 1/2 enemy speed is very useful when defending.

If I recall correctly, Logistics don't do x2 speed (or rather, all Command Stations do x2 speed).  They do add a fixed amount of extra speed (which is extremely nice) but it isn't x2.  And the enemy speed reduction does not stack with Gravity Turrets, so when using them a Logistics is actually giving a lot less benefit than a Military CS on the front line.

[zoutzakje]

as you see filippe, everyone has a different opinion about this one
Playstyle is something you need to develope yourself. Try out a whole lot of different settings and find out what you like best =)

as to answer Hearteater. Enemy speed reduction from logistics may not stack with gravity turrets, but you have no idea how often gravity turrets get blown up, especially in high difficulty games. when they do blow up, enemy ships will be affected by the logistics speed reduction again. This gives me quite some more time to deal with attacks than with other command stations (and to repair the gravity turrets before the enemy ships get out of it's range).
No, putting military command stations here and there wouldn't do me much good, considering my playstyle. they give even less resources than logistics.

[Hearteater]

I'm assuming it was just a phrase, but I actually do have a pretty good idea how often Gravity Turrets get killed in high difficulty games .  I was pointing out the lack of stacking because I feel new players especially benefit most when they know why stuff works.  And knowing Logistics doesn't stack with Gravity Turrets is an important consideration, especially for new players who aren't playing in high difficulty games and whose Gravity Turrets are surviving.

[zoutzakje]

true. I started out with economics and military as well now that I think of it.

[Diazo]

One thing that not has been specifically mentioned yet is your question about clicking on planets.

LEFT-click a planet to select it, RIGHT-click to deselect. DOUBLE-click (left or right) does nothing.

A selected planet will fill the ship type with your player color, but it can be hard to see sometimes.

Can you tell it took me quite a long time to figure out how to deselect a planet? 

As for selecting multiple planets, note that most things multiplies. If you select 3 planets, you have 3 times the ship cap but the AI throws 3 times as many ships at you when it attacks.

Also note that losing any home command station loses you the game in single player, unlike multiplayer where each player has to lose a home command station before the game is lost.

D.