Yeah I tried recording once but it stopped recording after 9 seconds, I'm not sure why. maybe I'm building too many defenses, I should probably focus more on fleets.

This might sound obvious but try fighting less hard AIs than 8 or 10 (as indicated in your point about rank change). It'll probably by easier. Start back at 1v1 then work up again.

Try playing online - then you will REALLY know what it is like to be a punching bag for 3-4 factions You think you have the upper and then someone comes along with a fleet they have been building up while you and the guy you are fighting slug it out...

"perhaps these magically appearing fleets are ones that are sent out on attack runs on other comps and come to the rescue when you start demolishing their home turf."


tommyth3cat is almost certainly right. If it is true that u had more resources than the comp upon destroying their fleet,then their suddenly appearing massive fleet must have been in exsitence prior to your attack and was just preoccupied with another comp. Upon your atack, the comp thought that their homeworld might be lost and recaled their previously offensive fleet to deffend its territory. (the comps main objective is not to win, but to stop you from wining.)

I say screw the AI and come play the real game--online multiplayer. Of course, if after locking the teams you still haven't figured out how to beat the hard AI, you might not do so well online. However, you'll still find plenty of newbies online who want to play other newbies, so give it a try. Wouldn't it be nice to have human teammates you could talk to and coordinate with?

Sorry, that's incorrect.

A smaller example: you vs. AI vs. AI vs. AI. One of the Sins "rules" is that every faction must always have at least one enemy. If you get an ally with one of the three AI's, it *must* have one of the other AI's as its enemy for this law to be true.
----------------------------------
OctopusRex (hies) has it right. Sins is a game where you can EXPECT to lose the occasional base or planet in bigger furballs. It's actually more fun to take back your world from those vile other factions than to just steamroller them outright.

-- Retro

You are aware that there are a couple people that chronicled their 1v9 Hard AI wins on these forums right?
The only thing i can think of is if u're dumb enough not to realize that until you research civilian upgrades on your planets, they are each losing you money instead of gaining it.
From my point of view, you should be getting upset with yourself, not the game.

Phew! Well, it looks like I have a lot of things to respond to!
First of all, I would like to comment on my LAST game after my last post, which was a pre-defined map and 4 player FFA (on hard). It was somewhat too easy. There was a lot of pressure in the first half an hour or so of the game, and then I had one of the factions creeping up on my back (which I could have repelled if I wanted to but I wanted to focus on overrunning this one other faction) but I JUST IN TIME managed to secure a ceasefire that allowed me to focus on one AI and pretty much let me snowball through the rest of tha game (somewhat disappointing considering how much trouble I have with 8 player and 10 player FFA). Ok, so now onto replies.
First of, I would LOVE nothing more than to play online, unfortunately, I can't do that on my campus internet. It's complicated, don't ask, I just can't.
Second of all, I'm not an idiot and some people can be REALLY condescending and patronizing. I understand that in the occasion where I completely surrounded (read: COMPLETELY surrounded) my AI enemy into one planet, they might have ALREADY had had a big fleet, my question is how did they do it even though I was churning out units as fast as I could, and how on earth were they able to churn out TWO more capital ships? I know they didn't have any becuase I had already been to their home planet and was bombing it when I had to pull my units to defend one of my other planets, which is when those two other ships came out of nowhere. I lay some of that blame in defense/research expenses for this.
Third, I understand it's labeled HARD, but games should also SCALE appropiately, it shouldn't be snoringly easy one setting and extremely difficult in the next one up. In all fairness, maybe I just need more practice with multiple player maps.
Fourthly (don't bother telling me it's not a word, don't care), you say people have had 1v9 games? Congratulations to them! I would like to know how seasoned veterans of 4X/RTS games do it and would be very glad to learn. I'm not saying this is a BAD game, I said I ENJOYED it, if you read correctly, I just dont UNDERSTAND all the mechanics because I've never really played any 4X games before.
Lastly, I usually don't spend money on pirate bidding wars because usually, I just don't have to. And in any case, I'm not really all that scared of pirates unless it's early game and I am in a pickle from say, two fronts, and the last thing I need is pirates harassing one of my roids, then yeah, I'll probably freak then.
And no, I don't just "give up" after I lose a battle. I try to efficiently assess whether or not my fleet can take on the incoming fleet, and if not, at the very least I try to asses if I can take down a cap ship or two. When all else fails, retreat to a safe spot and rebuild. I do this until it's CLEAR that I'm in the losing seat and that every other AI is out there gunning for me and I start losing planets left and right.
I appreciate all comments, however some people shouldn't be so rude. I don't think anywhere in my posts I came to complain about the game, I was just expressing my frustration with MY failure. I came here to ask for help, nothing more.
I'm going to try my next game to be 6 players see how well I scale from there from 4 players and hopefully I'll be ready for 8 and 10 player AI's soon.

Kind of off topic, (sorry!) but how the f do people win 1v9 hard ai? Or 10 player FFA? Or locked 1v1^9?

I mean, tactically, it's totally doable. I've tried it before as Vasari, and I made it to the late game with a managable econ and 2-3 very good trapping fleets. Then I tried to fight something, and my Crysis-capable rig simply fell apart. 1-5 fps, I couldn't even micro because most of the commands weren't going through, with all graphical detail on low or disabled. Am I unusual in that response to 9 (I killed one of the comps early) unit cap fleets existing? How can you even stand to play it to resolution?

I just tried my first 1v9 game today, and i know what you mean the problem comes from lack of processing speed/huge number of ships, i would imagine. My CPU is pretty cheap so about 2 hours in it was getting choppy maybe like 17-19fps.

I started up a new game with Small Fleets setting in Game options so that should keep it smooth for longer. I want an epic sized fight for the galaxy but i don't want epic slow fps either. So i can live with smaller fleets, it makes it more interesting without a tidal wave of ships anyway you really gotta be strategic about it.

I'm actually surprised that you slow down then... i have a AMD 64 3500+ 2.2ghz and same ram as you. well now im dying to know what the major factor in the fps drop is in 1v9 games.

I have a quad core and the frames are smooth 60 at the first hour or so of game but start chugging into the 20's later in the agme especially when huge battles are taking place (hundreds of units at a time). I'm surprised you're chugging with a C2D as well, but it could also be background processes like antivirus and such that are bugging you down. Finally, the video card will also have an impact depending on how high your quality settings are/how old your GFX card is. Also, maybe you should try re-strategizing to deal with smaller fleets? Just a thought. Remember that they TOO can't use big fleets, not just you