So the only way is up?

[towerbooks3192]

I have been trying to scale the heights and steep learning curve of the game but I can't even get past the tutorial. So far I got no interesting actions coming up in a game against 2 lvl 6 AIs. I was wondering if I would continue the game just trying to capture planets while keeping a look at the AI progress, will there be more actions to do and ships to unlock?

I got some questions though:

I remember playing with a steam version + one of the expansions that gives you a champion. I played the GOG version (I reckon they released a complete one with destroyer of worlds?) but there is no starting champion. What am I doing wrong?

How do you deal with leech ships? I can't seem to kill them with my towers.

How useful are riot ships?

How should I know when defenses on a system is enough? I always try to ensure I got some turrets to cover the wormholes.

I don't know the quantity of ships that I should FRD or use on my main attacking fleet, any tips?

Any tips on which planets to prioritise? As of the moment I always pick the less risky with the highest metal though I do not know when I should take or skip a planet?

Can the time constraints of the game be removed? Will I be able to play it as a pausable 4x?

[Aklyon]

I don't have the most detailed advice, but first, the champ. Do you have Ancient Shadows enabled in the lobby? And are you setting yourself to 'normal' or 'normal+champion'?

Attack with (preferably reclaim-immune) ships with a bonus to leech ships' hull type, or with turrets with similar bonuses.

Riot starships can be quite helpful, or not too helpful besides having a sheild to tank damage, depending on how you outfit their modules.

If you aren't sure how many turrets to use and have lots of available energy, build all of your per-planet turrets to defend your imprtant things, and forcefield wormholes that lead to less defended systems.

If you're confident in your defenses, bring all your ships along. After all, they can pull back if you can get back.

You need a purpose to take planets (and thus AIP) after you sort out your immediate surroundings in the beginning. Is there an ARS you like? Could be worth the new ships. Advanced factories or starship constructors? Either hack them or take-and-hold the planet for their usefulness. Fabricators are also nice. Turret controllers, maybe? Perhaps free the dyson sphere planet and let it bother the AI a bit. Useful chokepoint planets for defensive enplacements, and so on.

Define 'time constraints'. Do you have auto-aip enabled, or something else? A normal game without any of the minor factions or plots that have those kind of effects (like auto-aip, or spire civ leaders, or one of the shark plot options) is limited only by how far you push the AIP. Eventually you will push it too high, but that happens by you making it so, not by a time limit pushing things ever forward. (or if you try to hack too far into negative HaP, which will draw much more direct doom) Pause is entirely usable for commands.

[Yavaun]

1) You have to set yourself to "Normal + Champion" in the lobby (you can change this setting when loading a game too).

2) You have to understand the armor types and immunities you face. Leech ships are immune to missles and sniper shots (so sniper, spider, missle and MLRS turrets cannot attack them) and they've got heavy armor which means needler and laser turrets will deal increased damage to them. You have to figure this out for every ship and structure in the current game and play your strengths.

3) Riot ships are a good addition to expand an already strong fleet / defense. They are support ships though so you should get something to be supported in the first place.

4) As long as you have spare energy there is no harm in placing all (highest available tier) turrets on every planet with hostile wormholes.  Make sure to understand where the AI ships go and place your turrets so they're in range of that path for as long as possible or cover it's destination.

5) Keep your fleet together. Use transports and space time manipulators if you need to fall back and save a raided planet. There are dedicated raid, kite, defensive or otherwise special ships which should be controlled seperately but you should be able to recognize them.

6) Take any planet:

• adjacent to your Homeworld
• that is a chokepoint
• that is protected by a choke point
• you are confident about defending it and it has a fabricator you want
• you are confident about defending it and it provides supply to where you need it

• Hack, neutralize or ignore anything else.

Bonus hint: Use Human Raid Starships and/or your champion to destroy orbital mass drivers, ion cannons and eyes before you bring your fleet to a planet.

[towerbooks3192]

Wait..add champions when loading the game? How? I managed to get stuck  with 2 lvl 3 systems blocking my path. I managed to capture one with an advance research lab and it game me MLRS. research-wise, I managed to unlock the spire and zenith starships, and I had level 3 fighters and bombers. I am torn between going for the lvl 3 system with a fabricator and another one without it. I am worried about the huge cannon though.

[Aklyon]

Orbital Mass Drivers can be dangerous, yes. But ion cannons are not a huge deal usually unless mk3 or better ones show up, since they don't kill starships and you can rush them with everything else if you need to.

For adding champs midgame (assuming you had Ancient Shadows enabled), just go to Manage Players in the esc menu. However, if there are no nebulas placed and you do not have Alt-Champ Progress enabled, you cannot upgrade it. Knowledge you had before adding the champ with alt-champ enabled will not count towards upgrading it either.

Also, you can upload your save to here if you want someone to look at it directly for advice.

[towerbooks3192]

Orbital Mass Drivers can be dangerous, yes. But ion cannons are not a huge deal usually unless mk3 or better ones show up, since they don't kill starships and you can rush them with everything else if you need to.

For adding champs midgame (assuming you had Ancient Shadows enabled), just go to Manage Players in the esc menu. However, if there are no nebulas placed and you do not have Alt-Champ Progress enabled, you cannot upgrade it. Knowledge you had before adding the champ with alt-champ enabled will not count towards upgrading it either.

Also, you can upload your save to here if you want someone to look at it directly for advice.

Wait, How can I upload it? and where do I find the saves? Ok, I guess I can try to upload it. I would want some feed back to my overall progress and direction since the game is just so huge and I don't even know where to start.

[Aklyon]

Look in the additional options part of the post editor page, attachments are in there.

Saves are in (I think) your AI War: Fleet Command install directory, which you can find for nonsteam installs by rightclicking the shortcut and going to open file location. For steam you go to 'view local content' in your rightclick instead.

[towerbooks3192]

Ok. I try to attach my save. I would like some feedback on my progress, in general what I have been doing right or any tips. I would like feedback based only on the planets I have scouted so far so as not to spoil me but then again it will be grateful for any feedback and advice on how to proceed onwards.

I would also like to know if there is some spreadsheet or something that has the info about hull types, what it is weak to and gun types?

[Yavaun]

Orbital Mass Drivers can be dangerous, yes. But ion cannons are not a huge deal usually unless mk3 or better ones show up, since they don't kill starships and you can rush them with everything else if you need to.

For adding champs midgame (assuming you had Ancient Shadows enabled), just go to Manage Players in the esc menu. However, if there are no nebulas placed and you do not have Alt-Champ Progress enabled, you cannot upgrade it. Knowledge you had before adding the champ with alt-champ enabled will not count towards upgrading it either.

Also, you can upload your save to here if you want someone to look at it directly for advice.

I enabled champion for a running match last week and nebulas spawned retroactively. Dunno if three is any setting to prevent that which OP might have checked, though.

[Yavaun]

I would also like to know if there is some spreadsheet or something that has the info about hull types, what it is weak to and gun types?

Every ship and turret has all the necessary information in it's tooltip. You can scroll through the planetary overview with F1 (reset back to default with Shift+F1). One of the tabs displays all units you could possibly encounter in the current match.

[Aklyon]

I enabled champion for a running match last week and nebulas spawned retroactively. Dunno if three is any setting to prevent that which OP might have checked, though.

Aha, sounds like the sort of thing they would've fixed. I hadn't played non-altchampchamp in ages, good to know!

[towerbooks3192]

Tried to make a few progress. I have a few questions:

What does AI barracks do?

What do threats mean?

Does multiplier means that it is the weakness of those kind of hull?

What do threats mean?

If the AI will attack me, will it always give a wave warning or not?

[NickAragua]

AI Barracks is used to store a large pile of inactive AI ships. When an AI controlled planet has a lot of ships, ones in excess of 1000(?) get piled into barracks and sit still until you clear the system of existing active ships.

"Threat" is a group of AI controlled ships that aren't tied to a particular planet - normally AI ships just stay on their own planets or patrol around, but threat ships have no such restriction. They'll fly around and gather in groups and then attack unannounced when they feel there's a weak point in your defenses.

Your description of multiplier is correct.

The AI won't always warn you. There are several types of "waves", which are announced and have an arrival timer. The nastiest is "cross planet attacks", which will basically turn some ridiculous number of AI ships into "threat". Also, as mentioned before, "threat" ships will clump up and then bumrush you, usually when you mount an all-out attack or when you're already at the end of your rope repelling an AI wave.

Edit:
Also, yes, you can pause the game and issue orders while paused.