I'm new and I have some questions. Help please! =)

[Draco18s]

Wow, even more to discover!  alt+rt click... Some interesting options depending on ones selection. Thanks guys!

There's some really useful ones in there.  I use the auto-gather knowledge (select a science lab) a lot.
Second only to line-placing mines.

[tadrinth]

The AI went crazy after I attacked its homeworld and it wiped me out. q.q

I'm guessing you took down one of the Core Guard Posts, the AI scheduled an Exogalactic Attack, and then you couldn't kill the command center before the Exo launched and killed you?

The "when a core guard post dies, launch a revenge exo" logic has been replaced by logic where:
* When a core guard post on an AI HW drops below 75% health (or dies), that HW schedules an exo 10 minutes from then.
* When that exo launches, another larger exo is scheduled 30 minutes out. Then another still-larger 30-minute one after that, etc.
* If the AI home command station on that planet dies, any of its scheduled assault-provoked exos are cancelled (even if the other AI home command station is still alive).

http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2014/05/ai-war-beta-7029-extermination-protocol.html

That's still a relatively new mechanic.  Previous iterations favored killing homeworlds slowly; now the best thing to do is clear the entire homeworld as fast as possible.  In particular, don't start until you're ready!

[Bud Backer]

On the subject of killing home worlds, the AI Strategic Reserve-

-Does each AI have their own, or is it one pool?
-Does it regenerate over time or once brought to 0 that's it, done?

[Aklyon]

It'll refill if you drain all of it. But its not the quickest thing.

[Toranth]

On the subject of killing home worlds, the AI Strategic Reserve-

-Does each AI have their own, or is it one pool?
-Does it regenerate over time or once brought to 0 that's it, done?

Each AI has its own Reserve.  That AI's reserve will only deploy on planets owned by that AI.  This means you can face 30% of the Reserve of AI 1 on a Core World while moving towards the AI 2 HW, then face the entire 100% Reserve of the other AI, AI 2, on the Homeworld.

Half of each CPA is taken from the Strategic Reserves - This means shortly after a CPA is usually a good time to attack.

[tadrinth]

Each AI has its own Reserve.  That AI's reserve will only deploy on planets owned by that AI.

I think each AI will deploy it's strategic reserve down to 70% to defend the other's HW. 

This means shortly after a CPA is usually a good time to attack.

So very true.  As dangerous as CPAs are, it's better to face the strategic reserve in the form of MkII or MkIII CPA ships smashing into your defenses than to face it in the form of MkV ships on the AI homeworld.  CPAs are initially populated from the SR until it hits 50%, then from defending ships, then from the CPA all the way down to 0%, then it'll loose the Special Forces too if needed. 

I don't think it's always realistic to push the AI into a war of attrition, where it throws its defending ships at you faster than it replenishes them via defensive reinforcements and SR replenishment, but it can be pretty effective.  Neutering alerted planets helps slow the rate of defensive reinforcements if you're aiming for this, and taking out barracks lets you fight the ships inside by themselves instead of as part of a CPA.

[Bastardized]

Previous iterations favored killing homeworlds slowly; now the best thing to do is clear the entire homeworld as fast as possible.  In particular, don't start until you're ready!

Yah, I was planning to destroy the guard posts one by one. The AI had an Eye on the planet and a Riot Control post right by the wormhole, I was quickly getting overwhelmed if I stayed too long. I've tried to send only my best units to destroy something without losing everything, but then I only had weak units to defend. =x

I was probably not as strong as I could have been. I didn't know the game very well early on and I didn't choose the best technologies. I've also lost some fabricators which doesn't help and I have a feeling I've been scammed by the Zenith trader. lol

I doubt I was ready to take on the AI, but my earlier mistakes were making it really tedious to progress. I'm kinda stubborn. Trying my luck against the AI was probably just a way to convince myself to start a new game.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a lot better next time. =)

[Bud Backer]

Previous iterations favored killing homeworlds slowly; now the best thing to do is clear the entire homeworld as fast as possible.  In particular, don't start until you're ready!

Yah, I was planning to destroy the guard posts one by one. The AI had an Eye on the planet and a Riot Control post right by the wormhole, I was quickly getting overwhelmed if I stayed too long. I've tried to send only my best units to destroy something without losing everything, but then I only had weak units to defend. =x

I was probably not as strong as I could have been. I didn't know the game very well early on and I didn't choose the best technologies. I've also lost some fabricators which doesn't help and I have a feeling I've been scammed by the Zenith trader. lol

I doubt I was ready to take on the AI, but my earlier mistakes were making it really tedious to progress. I'm kinda stubborn. Trying my luck against the AI was probably just a way to convince myself to start a new game.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a lot better next time. =)

I've benn running afoul of AI Eyes in my latest game. It seems every 4th planet has one. Damned difficult to deal with if there is also a string fleet presence AND ( in my game) multiple Anti-Starship Arachnid stations. Good lord I lost a lot to take just 1 world. Has to be a better way!!!

[Kahuna]

I doubt I was ready to take on the AI, but my earlier mistakes were making it really tedious to progress. I'm kinda stubborn. Trying my luck against the AI was probably just a way to convince myself to start a new game.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a lot better next time. =)

This is the kind of attitude you need when learning AI War. The best way to learn is to learn from your mistakes. Which you have obviously done. When you die think why did that happen and how can you fix it. Just grind trough the losses till you poop on 10/10 difficulty.

[tadrinth]

Some units are immune to certain AI Eyes.  Parasite Eyes, for example, can't shoot at reclamation-immune units, which includes all starships and some fleet ships. 

I think you can also sabotage hack Eyes.  The AI's response to hacking will also increase the number of ships in the system, which means you can bring in more ships before the Eye comes online. 

The best counter is generally to bring low-cap ship types, though arachnid guard posts might be able to shoot at some of those.  Modules count as ships, so leave the riot starships at home.  Same for enclave starships. 

You can also bring a transport along and shove ships into it as needed to keep the Eye offline. 

Be *very* careful about Plasma Eyes.  They have a very short countdown timer, and their shots travel slow enough that by the time the first shots arrive at your fleet, there may be enough shots in the air to wipe your entire fleet.  These are arguably more dangerous than Nuclear Eyes, which have a very forgiving 30s cooldown before they activate. 

[Aklyon]

Champions are also useful for attacking eyes.

[Draco18s]

Some units are immune to certain AI Eyes.  Parasite Eyes, for example, can't shoot at reclamation-immune units, which includes all starships and some fleet ships. 

Enclave Starships are immune to a surprising number of eyes.
Ion Eye: so what if my drones are instantly killed?
Parasite Eye: drones are immune
Plasma Eye: so what if my drones are one-hit killed?
Threatening Eye: ok, so not immune, but still a very low threat.
Translocating Eye: Lolz, drones move so fast that the translocation is actually the least of their worries (they still swarm the thing).

All that leaves is Raid and Nuclear.

[Aklyon]

Plasma Eyes hitting the enclaves (or NCCs) however, kinda hurts.

[Toranth]

Enclave Starships are immune to a surprising number of eyes.
...
Threatening Eye: ok, so not immune, but still a very low threat.

Actually, I find them to be amongst the most dangerous when using Enclaves.  Nuclear is always the worst, and Raid next, but Enclaves are slow attackers.  Because there is no immediate and obvious response, I've accidentally built up thousands of threat without even realizing it.  It's like triggering a CPA without an announcement.

[DrFranknfurter]

I have a love-hate relationship with the eyes. Each time I'm annoyed by them I think: well actually that made me think. It made me change my plans and tactics... so it did work. It did what it set out to do, I'm just *moderately* inconvenienced. I'm not sure how to make them more fun without making them less 'Oh no!'. And I do love my "Oh no!" moments.

I would like a big warning and obvious countdown timer though. For that and for standard attacks. Say with colour and or font size scaling with relative power of attacker vs defender or some similar metric. So if you're massively overwhelmed the warning looks bigger or generally more scary (within reason). Or if it's a single but scary ship it still warns you by default. Perhaps say something like:
"x ships attacking [planet]. Strength y." With an additional:
"You are Out-gunned/outmatched and/or outnumbered 20:1" (in red, bold and big. Say scaling from default to 2-3x the font size. As your defences fall the warning would get bigger and change to a deeper red as they eventually overwhelm you.)

Also:
"Nuclear eye countdown 30, 29, 28... Remove or disband ships to avert disaster."
In bold, red and a larger font at the top of the screen would be nice. Same as above, get bigger and harder to miss until it almost fills the screen with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Oh dear! I think you've just lost a world there poor chap. Took your eye off the ball, or took your eye off the eye... generally you missed the eye. Consider it a learning experience. 

I've very nearly blown up worlds through simply not paying enough attention on many occasions. Especially with champions, exos, waves, traders, planet-specific hostile unit alerts and hybrid signals all cluttering up the notifications and distracting me from the real threats. Some things need to be clear and loud. Especially for new players, but even for the slightly more experienced players (though I'm personally not much more successful than any new player, I've yet to win 10/10... or 9/9... I'm currently working my way up slowly and I'm only at 8/8. So sad *sniffs* I really need to sit down and finish some games and not get distracted trying new AI types, ships or just playing with new patches or other releases like TLF and Beyond Earth that'll distract me soon enough).