Need some basic help...

I'm unsure of how you set the "flagship" for fleets.  I do know that it doesn't matter which unit is the flagship, however.

 

How you choose to set up your fleets is up to you.  The AI will generally do a competent job of management, but a player can always manually manage for better results.  I personally do not use fleets at all.

When you select multiple ships, you'll notice a "sub-selected" ship whose white circle on the screen (or white box in the Empire Tree on the left side) is brighter than those of the other ships. That will end up being your fleet leader if you create a fleet with those selected ships. I believe you can change the sub-selected ship by pressing Tab and Shift+Tab.

1  Select all of the ships in your fleet.

2  Note which ship has the brighter outline.

3  If that ship is not your cap ship, hold SHIFT and click that icon, then click it again.

4  The first ship in the sequence, always your highest level Cap ship, will now be your sub-selected unit.

5  Make your fleet.  Your primary Cap ship is now Flagship.

6  Play Vasari.  (lol.  Couldn't help myself)

Edit-  If you want a ship in the middle of the list to be Cap, select all ships to be in the fleet, then deselect every ship in front of that one on the list, and reselect them, then make the fleet.

-Exile

The way I set up the Cap ship to be the flagship is select the Cap ship by itself. Make it a fleet by itself.  Then select all other ships and move them to the fleet icon. They auto join the fleet.  As a side note where I am building ships I set the wave point for that planet to be the fleet icon.  That way the ships auto travel to my fleet to join. (Be careful though the ships will take most direct route so you may lose them to pirate base or enemy before they reach you.)

Thank you much for your replies.  Another problem I seem to be having is managing my scouts.  How can i quickly go to them?  Do you manage them from the empire tab?  I normally have been leaving them on auto explore, but this is not going to viable I think for multiplayer.. I am going to need specific intel.  So I need a better way of managing them.

Also, can someone plz explain what posters are referring to when they talk about "starbases"?  Are these some sort of new structure that has been added with patch?  Or is it in the tech tree and I'm just not seeing it?  Thanks!

During the early stages of the game, you can find your scouts by zooming out.  Any planet you have sight of is probably due to the fact that you have a scout there.  You can also label them with control groups (ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc) if you like.

Expansion pack.  It is purchased through impulse.

Darvin covered that pretty well.  Starbases are a new "Capitol Structure"  For lack of a better term.  I highly recomend spending the $10 on the expansion download.  However, it is download only, so you ned some sort of Bank/Credit Card to do so.

A side note on the scout thing, i generally don't worry too much about i, since they do a decent job on their own without too much micro.  My suggestion is to set 6-0 on your number pad to your scouts if you're having trouble with them..  (I never have more than 5 at any point, except extremely late game)  Also, the long button above the empire tree (I forget what it's called) is very useful for this if you want to find all your Capitols, Frigates, Factories, Scouts, W/E else u need that is shown.  It will select every item of the type you choose on that list.

Mathguru, You can 'pin' a scout (select scout, then click the pin button at the top) to get it to appear on the empire tree. 

Starbases are included in the Entrenchment expansion pack.  Its only 10 bucks, available online for download only.  It includes Starbases, mines, 1 new ship for each race, and several enhancement in a new defense tree.  Well worth it.

Quick advice making groups using ctrl is a better idea than making fleets atleast in my opinion cuz it allows u to make sub groups in groups making micro easier. Also play vasari

Starbases are only in the expansion entrenchment which is available on impulse. and will be followed by the currently being beta tested diplomacy

Edit:Sage vas dont get a new ship. the new frig for destroying structures, as their starbase acts as the anti structure ship

Altaux-  Vasari do get a new ship, it's the Minelayer.

Thank you for the continued replies, they have really helped me.  I bought Entrenchment, but now I'm having to relearn the tech tree... not that different but still... even playing against the computer, you have to make decisions in real time about research, so i need to know the tech tree by heart.  Sometimes I feel like I'm haphazardly researching stuff... like I feel like I need to get 2 civic labs up right off the bat so I can get trade ports... but when I do that it means some of my basic mil upgrades come later... like hull plating, lasers, etc.  I just need to keep playing to get a better feel for it.  Any thoughts would be great on what the generic starting path would be... (I know you have to be adaptive more so when playing humans).

Also, any thoughts on the types of gameplay that the AI does depending on the "type"?  Like Economist, Fortifyer, Agressive, Researcher?  I've been mostly playing against Econ, thinking that would give ME more time to pussyfoot around and figure the game out while at least keeping it on normal or hard.  Oh by the way, I'm playing as TEC right now... once I master that race, I will move on to another.

You can pause the game while viewing the tech tree (or anything else for that matter).  Just press the "pause" button on your keyboard while you familiarize yourself with the tech tree.

Common for beginners.  We all did it when we were starting out.  You'll eventually get a sense for which situations each technology is useful in.  Experienced players generally get very few technologies (mostly unit prototypes), instead focusing on the ones that will best help them in their current situation.

Don't rush into trade.  They're great late game, but early game they're a complete waste of time and money.  Colonizing new planets is a way better economic investment.  People underestimate what a few extractors on a newly conquered planet are worth; they forget that every time they go to the black market to buy crystal or metal they're usually paying 450-500 credits for 100 of the resource.  A new planet with three extractors is worth more than building two new trade ports, but costs much less.

Long-term: it's the planets you control, not the infrastructure you build on them, that count.  If I control 8 planets and you control 5, it doesn't matter if you have trade ports.  It's going to be a hard fight for every planet you want to capture, whereas I can easily build trade at any time I like.  Your priority is to secure an empire early game, and you're digging your own grave if you compromise your early-game expansion.

More importantly, get advanced unit types and repair bays.  I can't stress the importance of repair bays enough.  Other important units to get are the Hoshiko support cruiser and Javelis LRM.  The basic armour and health upgrades are pretty good, but the others are a tad expensive and you're better off building more units than getting extra damage.

Scout before you build your labs to find out how far away the enemy is and what planets are nearby.  The reason for civic labs early game is to access ice/volcanics, so these are what you're paying attention to.  If the enemy is far away or there are many ice/volcanics between the two of you, go for two civics.  Otherwise, go for military.  You can always pick up the other technologies at a later point in time, but almost always you want two of each type of lab.

They all play roughly the same, they just have slightly different preferences in terms of units and structures.  They all tend to over-spend on defense and under-spend on military and military technology.

 

 

 

 

Darvin, you're my hero.  Thank you so much for that response.  That is a ton of great info that I'll be putting to use.  So basically what I'm going to be doing is forgetting trade ports early game.  I'll be concentrating on expanding with my colony cap and a few light frigates, while building a secondary defense fleet to fend off the pirates (and maybe even an early enemy advance).  What do you guys think about fulfilling missions?  Sometimes going out of my way to do that early in the game doesn't seem practical... but should i do it anyway?  Also... my games are taking HOURS to play... cuz basically I think I'm pretty much turtling and fending off stuff while I tech up... and then busting out.  Is this pretty much how it's done at least against the comp?  I know against humans turtling not usually viable... cuz you will be harassing me early on with low tech frigates and stuff.

In unlocked-team FFA games with multiple AI players, you will notice that they tend to (and almost invariably) ally with each other, usually forming two large alliances pitted against each other. Staying in one place and playing a mostly defensive game could mean one alliance may defeat the other and when you're the last target to go after, it certainly will not be easy trying to hold off the combined fleets of 2, 3, or 4 AI players.

If you keep expanding at the expense of one AI, usually you will make a few other AIs happy as they always issue missions against each other, often asking you to attack their allies or whom they percieve is their greatest competitor.

The first raid is a little dangerous, but after that pirates are actually a benefit.  Have a capital ship on defense duty and pirates will level up it. 

Against multiple comps, this is pretty much how you have to do it.  They tend to be opportunists who will attack voraciously if your fleet is away from home.  Also they over-spend on defense to begin with, which makes it easy to play a long-term hand and crush them later.

Harass? No, I'll probe for a weakness in your defensive line, break through, then destroy your empire from the inside.  I'll leave your defenses for last.  And if I don't find a weak spot (unlikely, since I scout vigorously) I will instead focus on building a long-term economic advantage by acquiring more planets then crush you later as that allows.

Turtling has its place, but usually it means you're conceding that you cannot win against the opposition near you and are depending on allies to save the day.

My bad i forgot all about mines senile moment

Edit: doing missions isnt neccesary unless you want to stall an all to eventual AI team up against you. if u have entrench u can jus put a starbase and a cap in a grav well that you think pirates wil focus on and get some quick levels on ur cap.

Starbase isn't necessary for this.  If you're just xp hunting, your cap will rape the pirates.  Drop 2-3 turrets into the mix if you're really that concerned, or you intend to take raid after raid after raid until you reach lvl 6+.  It's cheaper, and not overkill.  I also suggest placing a hangar defense with 1 bomber/1 fighter squadron at EVERY planet you own, after the first pirate raid, as the AI is siege-happy, and while they're easy to kill, it's a bother to split your fleet or move it to kill them.  A ring of turrets around each planet is also good if you do the spacing properly, but that's a bit later in the game, unless you're going all-defense.  (For a ring of turrets to be effective, place each turret so it just barely covers the turret to its left and right, otherwise siege frigs will get into the gap and bomb the hell out of you.)

Early game, i get Hangar defense first, and split between fortifying/researching my homeworld, and expanding outwards, taking every planet that links to home immediately.  As to research, i am an adaptive researcher, taking what the game demands of me, but as a rule, i reseach Probe with TEC as soon as i can, so Arcovas can reveal a planet for an extended time after they leave.  % Scouts are recomended, along with your Cap of choice, a Protev if said Cap is not Akkan or racial equivalent, and as many Cobalts as you can build.  It's not even really out of the question to research 1st tier fleet upgrade right out of the gate if you wish, but it will be an immediate economical handicap, and i do not recomend going beyond tier 3 without trade ports and refineries unless victory is assured.

As to missons, i never ever fail the give resources missions, as sometimes i get lucky enough to bring an ai up above 50% so i can get a cease fire and maybe more.  Beyond that though, i rarely do the others unless they don't stray far from my plan.  Like say, if i am trying to decide which opponent to attack, and one offers a mission against the other, it generally tips the scale.

Hoshikos have been mentioned, but do not underestimate the Cielo Command Cruiser.  It's the closest thing to a Guardian either of the non-advent races has, and while not in the same class, is still a better defense than hoshiko at first, because it replenishes shields on your ships by 2.5 per second if i remember right.  Also, it is capable of increasing damage against enemy ships, so if you manage your Cielos properly, you'll be able to build a few less ships and get a few more upgrades.  Or build the same number of ships and walk right over your opponents, if you have the credits for it.  I'm not saying don't build Hokos, but don't rely too much on them either.  As to repair bays, i don't use them.  I build a Starbase and research the resupply upgrade on them instead.  I also use them to replace whatever other buildings i can to save logistics and tactical slots for other things, depending on their location in the star system.

:ninja:-Exile

A single capital ship with repair bays will deal with virtually any raid size.  I played a game not too long ago with pirates on, and it's magical to watch the levels effortlessly come in.

Okay, so this is where I am right now in my prep for going into online multiplayer.  I'm playing against 3 "hard" AIs on the Medium map Tempest.  I don't know if you guys know that map, but basically each player gets a spiral of planets that go towards the star in the middle.  A couple of things... first of all, I have NOT finished a game against the AI yet because, even though I may have wiped out all the other players, the one AI left will NOT surrender, no matter how hopeless it is for them.  And I don't want to spend the time doing a forgone conclusion.  I mean... pretty much if I make it through their first couple of rushes and build starbases at my chokepoints, it's over... it just will take a couple of hours, which is stupid.  That's beside the point of my post though...

1.  I need some help with terminology:  what is "pocket"?  Is that your starting worlds?  I see that term thrown about.  Also, what is "LRF"?  Is that "long range frigate"?  Like for TEC, the Javeline?

2.  Also, like I said, I don't know if you guys are familier with that map, but this is how I've been playing:  In the first couple of minutes of the game, I build refineries, construct 3 scouts and send them on auto explore (yes i know you have to micro in PvP), build a cap ship factory, make a small fleet of 6 cobalt frigates (what's their abreviation... I don't think those are LRFs, right?), construct an Akkan, send my 6 cobalts to the nearest asteroid to clear out the locals thre, send my Akkan to the desert planet at the same time to kill off the locals and colonize, construct a colony ship to colonize the asteroid, send my 6 frigs to the NEXT asteroid to clear out natives, colonize asteroid and also colonize desert (i do this after Akkan takes out siege locals, leaving several hostiles on that planet), then dispatch colony ship to 2nd asteroid to colonize.  I'm now 10 min in the game and 3 colonies, 2 of which are producing, the desert only producing with my free refinery because I can't build yet as the locals are still up.  I'm also in the process of making another 6 cobalts, building 1 mil and 1 civ, doing research on repair platforms, spybots for the scouts, taking out remaining resistance at desert (it's now on its way to lvl 3 civ structure).  At 15 min or so, I'm preparing to fulfill a destroy structure mission if possible, and at THAT point... i'm reacting.  I'll either build another cap ship, shoring up defenses (only using repair platforms) to fend off the first waves of incursions and pirates... and from there I just keep trying to expand, start building my trade ports, teching up, etc.  What do you guys think of those first 15 min though?

Sounds quite good to me, but couldn't you have done this faster than in 15 minutes? I'm not sure as I never time my games.

I'm estimating... but it might actually be lower.  The whole game though can take several HOURS... which is kinda crazy... cuz at some point my victory or defeat is a forgone conclusion and the AI should surrender.  Drives me nuts.  But you think the all around beginning strat is pretty sound?  The idea that I have is that I should colonize as many planets as I can reasonably defend as quickly as possible to get a good econ base from which to fleet up... can you also talk to me about the terminology question I asked?

LRF is, as you've guessed, long range frigate. If I'm not mistaken, a player is in the "pocket" if he/she has allies on either side of him/her (that is, has no opponent immediately adjacent to their start position).

This is very common, unfortunately.  The AI just doesn't know when to quit... and a result when it does quit it seems unnecessarily arbitrary.  You can increase the game speed (press the += button) to quickly run through the clean-up phase if you like.


1) the "pocket" refers to a player whose start location is isolated from enemies.  This usually means that the opponent has to go through one of your allies to get to you, meaning you don't need a fleet.  However, sometimes the map randoms in such a way that the distance between you and your nearest opponent is absolutely massive, and so long as you're cautious not to let him get a staging base nearby you're safe as well.

LRF stands for long range frigate (Javelis, Assailant, Illuminator), LF stands for light frigate (Cobalt, Disciple, Skirmisher), SC stands for strike craft (fighters/bombers), HC stands for heavy cruiser (Kodiak, Destra, Enforcer)


I think you mean extractors.  Refineries are an entirely different type of building.  You can safely ignore refineries in most cases; I almost never use them.

As for your approach to colonization, I think it's fine.  You really need only 3 or 4 cobalts to take on the asteroids, but there's nothing wrong with overkill.  The biggest risk you run (mostly in multiplayer; I doubt the AI's would do this aggressively) is if one of your hostile neighbours decided to rush you via those asteroids.

I'm trying out the scouts vs. LF thing for the colony rush myself, and--at least as Advent, on normal fleet size setting--Disciples just work better.  The reason is the Steal Antimatter ability.  Ignoring the metal cost, Disciples and Scouts cost virtually the same (you certainly start with enough metal); but then when you have all those Disciples anyway, might as well research Steal Antimatter.  They're auto-casting it on opposing colony ships.  Sweet!  I'm making the metal back by stealing neutral asteroids.

Mileage may vary with TEC.  But still, Sabotage Reactor is similar to Steal Antimatter in that it denies the other guy from using his ability.  I know for a fact it that it does vary on Small fleet setting--the scouts work out a lot better there, because they only use up 2 supply.  They knock off the Siege frigs.