Great game...but....a few questions

from Sins Forums

I just got Trinity a few days ago - and I don't know how I missed this when it first came out. It's a great game. In the Diplomacy chapter -  I started out on easy with a small map. For a while, expansion and research was going well.  Then when I got my seventh colony, the enemy comes out of nowhere with massive fleets loaded with cruisers and advanced capital ships - I mean MASSIVE fleets with what seemed like fifty to sixty ships a pop. He took two of my colonies in five minutes and my fleet had all of about 12 ships in it that were thoroughly destroyed.

I really like the game but this was a buzzkill last night. Is the AI cheating? Did I not expand fast enough? How did he manage such a hellacious fleet in so short a time? Also the enemy never paid attention to me until I built my second broadcast complex that broadened my culture net. Is this what set him off? lol

5,521 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Were the pirates active or inactive?  If they were active, were you attacked by pirates?  The pirates are heavily overpowered on the Diplomacy expansion so most people play with them set to off.  Their ships are more powerful and stronger than yours and there's a lot of them.

If your attacker was the Easy level AI then it sounds like you needed to spend fewer resources on expansion and economic development and more on building a larger fleet.  If you only had 12 ships and 7 planets, it sounds like your fleet was either much too small or you built all capital ships.  Also, try not to build more than 1 or 2 capital ships when you are just starting out.  Instead of building lots of capital ships and starbases, just build hordes of Long Range Frigates (LRM, Illuminator, or Assailant depending on your race)

Here's a replay of a 5 on 5 game with 9 pros and 1 new player (Coriolis).  (We played it over Ironclad Online a couple nights ago.)  If you study how the pros do it, you might be able to improve and learn the game faster:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/405557

 

 

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Hmm, was it a pirate fleet that attacked you? They don't have capital ships but they can have some nasty cruisers. While you are learning the game I'd play with them off.

Its really hard to say if that's unusual or not without knowing how long that game was. After the first hour yes that is certainly possible. Slow expansion and over researching is a common problem for new players, so that is quite likely your problem.

Hard AI and above do cheat. I'm afraid Easy AI is either the same or has a resource penalty compared to you. Also I don't think culture has anything to do with the AI attack patterns.

 

If you'd like to get a feel for Sins without that "buzzkill", you can play a map without any AI players at all. That way you can get some practice colonizing and learning what each tech/research does before fighting for real. If you want to get a bit of military experience too you can leave the pirates on (just remember to turn them off again when playing for real), they may win a battle but they won't attack more than one planet per raid, and you always know when they are coming.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Sounds like you made the mistakes that I did starting out. It's easy to get into colonization mode early in the game but before I know it here comes the opponent AI with a couple of caps and 20 to 25 light frigates.

Starting out I like to get about 3 or 4 planets where the phase lanes form a 4 sided polygon. My early 100 fleet supply can get around and defend those. After that it's time to build up the fleet to 250 supply and create a couple of fleets. I use my fleets to either expand out in two directions or use one to defend and one to expand.

Build defences in the outer planets. The AI is much less likely to attack planets that have gauss cannons built in them. If I want to fill up a choke point I load up with gauss cannons and 2 or 3 repair platforms. If I stick a garrison fleet in there also it will be a very hard nut to crack for the AI.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Pirates are balanced against veteran players; I'd advise keeping them off until you can beat at least the hard difficulty.  Beyond that, the key is to keep pacing and find the right balance of fleet size, expansion, economic investment, and technology.  Most beginners tend to over-emphasize tech and economics, and under-emphasize fleet size.

A good way to get a feel for early-game combat is to load up a small map (Close Encounters would be perfect) and try executing a basic rush strategy.  As TEC, build two military labs and research the "Javelis LRM" unit.  Choose the "Sova Carrier" as your first capital ship.  Demolish your capital shipyard once you finish building your Sova and replace it with a second frigate factory.  Capture the nearby asteroid and ignore the larger planets, and launch a direct offensive against the enemy once you have about 20 frigates.  Keep a constant stream of reinforcements heading towards the front lines.  This should give you a good taste of combat and how quickly you can field units.  Although a human player will beat this if you don't diversify with other unit types, the lower difficulty AI's will just get crushed by this efficient rush.