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.

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.)

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

-Exile

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?

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?

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.