This is a very helpful and encouraging thread, but I have my doubts.I'm learning very slowly and also thinking this may not be the game for me, though I've done other RTS's. I'm more interested in exploration of a large map, not combat.What bothers me is that the reviews said it was a slow-paced game, and I see empiresbeing bullt in ten minutes. The ships and researches take only seconds on the slowest setings--it's a click-fest. The advice here says build a cap ship right away--doesn't make senseto me that as you barely start you have the most powerful ship at the beginning?
You only have one though, and it makes sense to me that a small civilization would at least have one powerful warship. But if you look at your fleet supply, you'll see there's a heavy cost to that capital ship, and you won't be building a whole bunch of them right away. And I find it's a fun and challenging balancing act to determine whether to spend my resources on planetary upgrades, research, ship upgrades, increased fleet capacity, etc.
It seems to go fast to me because I'm having a ton of fun, but when I look up at the clock after building up my empire only a little bit and realize a couple hours have passed, then it becomes obvious to me that it's not all that fast in reality (although I admit I use the pause button quite a bit, as I'm still just learning the ins and outs of the game).
I tried to make an empty map, many suns and few opponents, so I could get the feel of it, but I notice on every map every planet is already infested with opponents. Are thesepirates?
As noted, they're just minor players in the galactic scheme of things. Good practice for your fleet.
There's a button to disable pirates?
Yes. It's handy at for the first couple games so you don't have to worry about the added factor of trying to keep them off your butt. After that though, they add a nice bit of spice to the game (good for levelling your cap ships and it adds another tactical factor in your game).
As it is I have to clean out the planetsbefore I can even start. On the map builder I did not notice at first that number of opponents applies to each star system; they expect each star system to be a battlefield.For my money I'd like more stars and fewer enemies, a slow-built empire. A cap ship isa major project, should take hours to build.
While I can see what you're saying, I don't think that would be a good idea, as many games don't last hours and hours (from what I've read). If it takes that long to build a cap ship, then you'd a have a lot of dissatisfied players. People just wouldn't like playing game after game and not being able to get their most powerful ships launched.
I'm no modder (yet), but perhaps it's possible to mod the time required to build the cap ships if you really want to adjust it.
