How to resist the temptation to capture all those planets

[Sinewave]

This is my third game.
I haven't beaten this game yet.
I get these galaxies that are like spider webs. There are so few choke points.
My past experience has consisted of a great deal of flying fleets up and down connected wormhole systems to maintain defense.

It's SO tempting to just capture every crappy system until I have 3-4 choke points.

Why not...

To do that I would have some 30 systems under my control by the time I capture the first AI home system. I'd have to capture some 8 or so more to capture the next one.

Can it be done?

[Orelius]

Well, it depends on what difficulty and AI types you're playing against; some tend to get incredibly nasty at high AIPs.  On higher difficulties, you tend not to have the luxury of being able to capture a system easily

[Sinewave]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. Earlier games, my Strategy game and RTS experience had me thinking 6/7 no problem.

I decided I should win once, so I'm on a 5/6 game.

[Histidine]

If you feel the need to capture them to be able to move around without running into enemy checkpoints every 5 meters (ever play Far Cry 2? That was the worst), you can do two things:

* Neuter the planet: kill all non-wormhole guard posts. This keeps the guard population on the planet down.
* Use transports to move your fleet around; they're very fast, hard to kill, and easy to replace.

If it goes deeper than that, well, you can always nuke the planet. That removes any reason to capture it

[Kahuna]

How to resist the temptation to capture all those planets

Play on 10/10 difficulty. Then you will have no choice. If you capture too many planets you will die.

[Toranth]

How to resist the temptation to capture all those planets

Play on 10/10 difficulty. Then you will have no choice. If you capture too many planets you will die.

10/10 difficulty not required, but otherwise I agree.  Once you've died a few times because the AIP got too high, you'll begin to remember to avoid capture.
Also, try playing on smaller maps.  120 stars looks fun, but for a new player, it can be much harder than a 40 star map.

Finally, if you read some of the games in the After Action Reports section, you'll see some examples of what system people capture (and usually why, as well).  Good solid examples like that can go far in improving your game.

[Sinewave]

Thanks everyone! I made a save game as a fall back. I decided to capture a group of 5 or so systems that will eliminate the need to waste turrets, and further went in and neutered several systems. This brings my whipping planets down to about 3. Now I think I'm ready for the attack. I'm at about 220 AIP. Hopefully I can survive going up to 300 or more to get to both homeworlds.

[ZaneWolfe]

Actually you can use the fact that you take a ton of planets to your advantage. Play the FS plotline. You will NEED all those worlds. And assuming you can survive the exos, you don't even need to care about the AIP. AI Waves will be meaningless because none of your worlds will be within reach of them. Reinforcements stop getting stronger at 200 AIP or so, and the Strategic Reserve is a set force. Only the Exo attacks can kill you once you get a full city up. Add in the Z-Traitor for additional defenses for your front lines. The FS fleet that you can build at 4 Cities is almost capable of simply pushing right down the AIs throats and carving a path to victory on its own. And it only gets stronger. At 5 Cities, with the special addon that you can build at that point, you nearly triple the combat strength of the FS Fleet. And the Cities become even stronger as well.

So as I said, stop worrying about taking too many worlds, and get bigger toys to defend them. Because trust me, once the Golems and H/Ks come at you in 2-3 digit numbers, you are going to want every possible toy you can throw at the AI.

Second note, DO NOT TURN ON SHOWDOWN DURING A FS GAME. Unless you never go beyond the 3rd signal. Once you get a City up the Showdown increases dramatically, and it only gets worse as you get more Cities. I finished my 4th try, diff 8/8, and I am outright cheating. I've got enough K to unlock ANYTHING I get. I have 300% economy. I have a nearly invincible Shadow Battleship. I have 8 Cities worth of FS badassery. I have Golems, Spirecraft, and every possible Z-Traitor toy I can want on my front lines. (Maze Map lets me only have to watch TWO chokepoints) And to top it off, I have 2 HWs, so I can double my caps on almost everything. I was dead 15 minutes  or so into the Showdown.

[TechSY730]

Second note, DO NOT TURN ON SHOWDOWN DURING A FS GAME. Unless you never go beyond the 3rd signal. Once you get a City up the Showdown increases dramatically, and it only gets worse as you get more Cities. I finished my 4th try, diff 8/8, and I am outright cheating. I've got enough K to unlock ANYTHING I get. I have 300% economy. I have a nearly invincible Shadow Battleship. I have 8 Cities worth of FS badassery. I have Golems, Spirecraft, and every possible Z-Traitor toy I can want on my front lines. (Maze Map lets me only have to watch TWO chokepoints) And to top it off, I have 2 HWs, so I can double my caps on almost everything. I was dead 15 minutes  or so into the Showdown.

That's just the AI's way of saying it loves you.

[ZaneWolfe]

That's just the AI's way of saying it loves you.

When I am playing on Ultra Low caps and the MOTHERSHIPS number in triple digits, the AI is showing me WAY TOO MUCH LOVE.

[tadrinth]

There are a small number of ways that a planet behind a chokepoint can be a problem.

If enough ships build up there, some of the ships may attack other systems (border aggression).  You can stop this by periodically clearing them out, or better yet by killing guardposts.  The Bouncer AI type makes this easier to do.  If you REALLY want a system to not accumulate ships, you can put turrets in it using a mobile builder. Keep an engineer or a minifort in there with them, plus a remains rebuilder, and the reinforcements will suicide into the turrets.  You probably need Mark V turrets (and thus Core Turret Controllers, and thus Vengeance of the Machine enabled) for that strategy to work well.

Ships in the system could be pulled into CPAs.  Same solution as above.

Waves and exos can spawn at warp gates.  Kill all the warp gates (and eyes, and special forces guard posts, and anything else taht acts as a warp gate) behind your chokes.

If you can't establish chokes, you'll want Mark V turrets on any planets exposed to non-neutered enemy planets, if possible.  Possibly miniforts, which are always available. 

If you neuter everything behind your lines, neuter everything adjacent to your planets, and keep some defenses distributed around, you should only need to pull your fleet back for CPAs, counterattacks, and exos.  CPAs don't happen that often, counterattacks are triggered, and exos are only there if you turn them on.  So, you hopefully shouldn't have to shuttle your fleet around all that often.

It may be worth keeping a separate defensive fleet. Fast and especially teleporting ships are good for roaming defense. 

Your ships move 2x as fast in friendly systems, and even faster than that if you have logistics command stations.  Try to capture systems so that your fleet can get around mostly through friendly systems when defending.

Loading the slowest ships into transports is really helpful.