k, judging from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5azoHPU6udA video there is an impact effect so it must be a bad problem with my game or computer

I have a friend who for the longest time never saw the weapon effects of wave cannons (an update changed it)...he tended to build fleets mostly of enforcers and carriers, playing the game with a fleet that never seemed to shoot anything...

whats the point of using fleets, i find them troublesome when ships get sorted into fleets that i dont want them to be in

I completely agree with you; this is why I don't use fleets.

If you create a fleet for each unit type (a LRF fleet, a flak fleet, a carrier fleet, etc) then units will automatically join their respective fleet...this is useful in that you can tell LRF to focus fire on a cap, tell carriers to kite and stay out of the battle, and position garda's around the LRFs or caps that are under fire from enemy SC...it's not great, but it does have it's uses...hard to do well though on faster speed in MP...

what should be the beginning lab setup for advent

if i build 2 harmoney temples at my homeworld, i need to get another planet (preferably 2) to get 3 hostility temples and illuminators...plus i try to save a slot at my homeworld for a trade port later on

ive tried 3 harmonies and no hostility to get the colonization and trade upgrades fast, and ive tried to go three hostility to get illuminators quickly, not sure which is better

ive found that at the 2 hostility level repair bays and defense vessles can be useful but carriers are just too expensive to get so i only research them relatively late in the game

oh and when is a good time to buy weapon/armor/shield upgrades

It depends on your nearby planets and your game speed...in general though, you really shouldn't rush trade as advent unless you are an eco player, and you are better off not rushing illuminators....in fact, I wouldn't even bother with them until you have at least three planets...

My general belief on logistics in the early game is that you do not buy a logistics upgrade.  Build two labs on your homeworld, then wait until you've colonized some planets to build more.  Advent is probably going to want to get two of each operational pretty quickly, but aside from that your priorities are based on your position.

Fast trade isn't necessarily bad, but ensure the enemy is a safe distance away.  For fast trade, I'd build two civic labs on my homeworld.  I'd send a colony frigate to the nearest asteroid and my progenitor (definitely lead progen for discount) to the nearest ice/volcanic.  I'd then scuttle my capital shipyard.  I'd build my third civic lab on the ice/volcanic, then set up a string of three trade ports.  Because you've skimped on logistics upgrades, you can afford your trade sooner and get that income rolling.

but when do you rebuild the capital factory to get the second cap?

what is the point of microphasing aura? its supposed to teleport any friendly strike craft within the radius to a more advantageous location, but the enemy can just turn around and keep shooting them...?

Hate to give you the obvious answer, but it's true:  When you're ready to build the second capital ship.

Generally it's a good idea to scuttle your capital shipyard in two cases.  The first is if the enemy is really far away and you need to use the logistics space, and the second is if the enemy is really close and you need to use the logistics space.  If the enemy is very close, you won't have much time to set up your labs and factories, so freeing up that logistic slot is critical.  If the enemy is very far away, you'll probably want to rebuild the capital shipyard closer to the front lines anyways.

If you're using hold ground, then yes this is true.  If not, strike craft moving at full speed get a lot of benefit from this, lining up for attacks that would otherwise be impossible to make and evading attacks that would otherwise be impossible to avoid.

Very subtle ability, but definitely not useless.

so is it a good idea to get microphasing aura on my second skirantra, while reserving the first one for scramble bombers and repair cloud?

when should i usually build a second capital ship? i find that it's difficult to wait for the resources to accumulate while i am trying to colonize, develop planets, and build frigates and structures

which is better to build in the late game, assailants or enforcers

similarly, should i have more overseers or subverters, subverters aoe disable ability is cool but its so expensive to research the prototype and the ability...

the optimized construction upgrade (4%/8% ship and structure cost decrease) does not appear to stack with enslaved labor, i had both levels of labor and getting optimized construction didn't seem to decrease the price of ships

Very much so; it's difficult to save up for a second capital ship early on, and it requires some very careful penny-pinching to pull off.  You have to find little scraps of money you can save at every turn, and then push out that capital ship and put it to work immediately.  If you can level it up quickly enough, two capital ships can give you a big advantage in battle, but this is a risky gambit since an enemy who puts that money into economy or fleet can overpower you in the short-term.

Depends on several factors.  Generally assailants have more firepower (those awesome phase missiles) while enforcers have more durability.  If you can keep bombers out of the picture with the Kortul's jam weapons, then enforcers become very good.  Overall, you won't be disappointed with either unit.

Subverters are one of the most awesome units in the game.  They do come very late in the game, and that makes them quite expensive, but they're well worth your time.  As for a precise mix, it really depends on what you're doing.  One is a strictly defensive unit, the other is a strictly offensive unit.  You do want both, but it depends on what kind of flavour you want for your fleet as to which one you prioritize.

Enslaved labour lowers credit cost, optimized construction lowers metal/crystal cost.

This is really only useful if you're trade-spamming and need to buy most of your resources from the black market.  If you're still selling to the black market, don't bother with this tech.

speaking of subverters, how would you counter them? this is hypothetical since ive seen the ai use large numbers of subverters but doesnt use distortion field that often, im sure it would have killed me if it did though

Subverters are quite difficult to counter if they're used well.  Obviously if you can just kill them with strike craft from a distance, or charge them with light frigates and bring them down, that's preferable.  However, a good player will back up his subverters with a balanced fleet.  There simply isn't an easy way to get at them.

Light frigates upgraded to bring down their antimatter reserves can be very helpful, and any defensive support cruisers that can buy you time to bring down the subverters are well worth the effort.  Otherwise, your only real option is to try to keep your fleet spread out so the subverters don't get too many targets inside their area of effect.  This is most challenging for Advent since you want to keep your fleet close together to benefit from a Progenitor/Guardian combo, but for TEC it isn't that hard.

Back in Vanilla (when I was a noob) I had a Vasari AI use subverters with distortion to amazing effect.

I was playing as Advent and it was late game so I was seriously teched/fleeted up. I was so eager to smash some Vasari skulls together and jumped a 1500+ supply fleet to where I knew their fleet was. I was expecting a bit of a slaughter and... I got one... but not on the side I expected. I couldn't understand why so many of my fleet weren't doing anything. All those glorious illuminators (on their dazzlingly bugged throne) were just sitting there! My caps looked like they had decided to have a bit of a picnic and had invited all the peaceful Crusaders for a bloody tea party.

Luckily when I was playing my early games I usually saved it before leaping into a game deciding contest so I was able to reassess. For the rest of that game I rarely attacked a grav well that had over 10 subverters stationed in it.

when do you build a third capital ship and what should it be

i used to go halcyon-progenitor-rapture but i read that the halcyon is generally better than the rapture, now im not sure

Halcyon-Progen-Halcyon or Halcyon-Halcyon-Progen or Progen-Halcyon-Halcyon, basically rinse and repeat Halcyons and Progenitors (think 'spam' in the spam-baked beans-spam skit in Monty Python). Rapture is pretty good but for the concentration aura to be effective I believe you need the drone hosts close to the Rapture. Vengeance is really only useful on a Radiance with Animosity running. On the other hand a high level Revelation can be devastating as you spam Reverie and can lock down two caps almost continuously. Radiance is a one trick pony (though detonate antimatter is a good trick). Still in my first six caps (if I get that many) it is often three Halcyons + 2 progenitors. Progenitors rock with guardian shield bubbles. Moreover, malice when used with ruthlessness can be very very good.

The Rapture is definitely the best support capital ship in the game (not saying much; the other support-type capital ships suck), and it has some great abilities.  The Progenitor and Halcyon are definitely better overall, but as a third capital ship a Rapture is a great choice. 

I personally think Vertigo is the most underrated ability in the game.  Extremely dangerous if you can level this guy up, since it's going to more than half the damage of the affected enemies.

when is a good time to get culture?

i find that i usually come to a point in the game where i realize that i don't have any culture and hastily try to build it

Darvin3, I've also run into the problem with ships on the empire tree not maintaining the normal order. I found that this was due to activating/deactivating a mod without a restart of sins. The mod I was running was the Equilibrium mod. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the heads up; that probably explains it.

Well, if your opponent gets culture operational, you'd better plan on getting it soon, yourself.  It's sometimes viable to try and kill the enemy culture generators or station capital ships to resist enemy culture, but those are short-term solutions to a long-term problem.

Other than that, it's really about picking a time when you have some spare money to spend.  Unless you're Advent, culture can be really inconvenient to get and it's easy to let it slide completely.  It's just about finding a time and place where you can afford to pay for it. 

Updated RAting for CS:

1) Skirantra

2) Progenitor

3) Halcyon

4) Kortul

5) Rapture

6)Sova

7) Akkan

8) Jarrasul

9) Radiance

10) Marza

11) Antorak

12) Vulkoras

13) Dunov

14) Revelation

15) Kol

What's the best way for advent to implement culture? drop culture centers or go to the SB upgrade? does this mean heavy shield upgrades as well (guardians are common, but progress further?), or does that have no effect on shield mitigation? any point to offensively grabbing culture centers w/o the same tier tech upgrade (other than possibly making opponent spend money on countering it)?