getting started in a game

In SP, it's always a good idea to build a few scouts early and set them on auto-explore.

I also build a capital ship factory and a crystal extractor first (since you start with 2 construction ships, these two will be built first), then the rest of the extractors.

You generally want to expand quickly so that you have more resource income, just be sure to upgrade your colonies' infrastructure quickly, otherwise they are a money drain - so just make sure you don't over expand. Crystal is your main limit in the early game, so you just need to make sure you have near enough to do the infrastructure upgrades as soon as you colonize.

Getting a good economy in SP is I would say more important early on than a military, your first capital ship is free and it can clear the militia around most neutral planets to make room for your colonies.

I always build 2 civic research stations as quickly as I can if there are ice/volcanics nearby - getting an ice planet early will help your crystal income incredibly, and will allow you to progress much faster up the research tree, they just need the 2-lab research to allow colonization.

Depending on the race you play (I recommend TEC, they easily have the best economy), getting trade ports up is also a great help, especially if you're short on ore/crystal since you can use credits to buy your resources off the black market. Vasari get trade ports much later, so it's harder to start off with them.

This is a pretty general overview, but I hope it helps a bit

Thanks so much! I'm gonna try this right now and see how it goes. Also, what does the research more logistcis actually do?

Do you mean the Fleet Logistics research? That's for getting more ships and capital ships - you're limited to 75/100/125 fleet points depending on how you have your game options set (default is 100), and it goes up to 2000 with research.

Hmm, that could be it. but i thought there was something where you can add more resources near your planet.

I'm not sure what you mean. The number of resource asteroids can't change. There is research to increase rate of extraction, later there's research to unlock orbital refineries that further help.

Planets can also upgrade their logistics and tactical slots to be able to hold more of the corresponding structures in their grav wells, as well as giving you more constructors.

Does either one of those hit the mark of what you were wondering about?

I think the 2nd one you mentioned is it. I should probably play the game more to understand it better. Thanks!

Don't give yourself too much to worry about at once in your first few games Try a small map with an easy AI (you have the option to make pirates inactive also, they can be frustrating for new players), so you can get the hang of how the game plays

For the pirates, all you need to do is raise the bounty for your opponent right? because I haven't had any problems with them yet

Or kill them, yes

haha yes thats what I do, thanks!!

One breakthough realization for me early on is that you get your first capital ship *free* (I didn't read the manual).

So always build a cap ship factory early and claim your cap ship, with which you can solo many neutral planets (other than neutral terran worlds which will require a dozen or so frigates too).

quick and dirty start up guide

1. buy 100 crystal from the black market, use this to purchase a population infrastructure upgrade on your home planet. this will greatly increase your available income throughout the game and is very important.

2. queue up logistics structures on your home planet in the following order: capital ship factory, crystal extractor, metal extractor, metal extractor

3. queue up ship production in the following order: capital ship (whichever you like, but the colonizer ship or a battleship is recommended), 2x scouts, 1x colony frigate (skip this one if you picked the colonizer cap ship)

4. once your scouts are built send each down a different phase lane (there are usually 2, and sometime 3 lanes on your home world). once the lane is selected right-click the auto-explore option for that ship (in the lower right, in its command icons box) so the scout will continue exploring unsupervised.

5. one of the adjacent planets will definitely be a colonizable asteroid with one crystal, one metal, and guarded by one siege frigate and one light frigate. send your capital ship here immediately when it is completed. this will be your first colony.

its up to you after that!

if im trying to rush my opponent i'll probably use the cap ship to take out the militia around only the nearby asteroids and only colonize those. i'll then rush to 1 military lab (if vasari) or 2 labs (if tec) and begin to attack my opponent with Long Range Frigates (the Assailant or Javelis).

if its a larger map and i'm expecting the game to last >1 hour i make it a priority to get up to 3 civilian labs as quickly as possible so I can develop a strong economy . colonizing at least 1 ice planet is almost mandatory for strong economic development. if i'm TEC i'll try to get Trade Ports set up as quickly as possible, if Vasari go with Matter Processor instead. Getting a couple of Culture buildings built is pretty important too as it will greatly increase income on worlds distant from your home planet, and will also protect you from hostile culture and provide military advantages with later research.

thanks!

I appreciate the good advice given in this post.
I there a "General Guide to Noobs" or "Things
the Manual doesn't Tell You?" anywhere?
For example:
The Pirate bidding thing. Do you simply keep
returning to that screen and up the ante every
few minutes or what?
Capitol ships: How do you increase the number you can
have?
Things like that.
Thanks!

Andredoob: here are answers to the questions you just asked

1. As far as I know there isn't a single general guide for noobs anywhere but these forums have some pretty valuable posts. The single most valuable thing you should learn and commit to memory is the chart of damage vs. armor types. Alot of people don't understand how this works and it leads them to make bad decisions about which ships to build and send into battle.

Here is a link to that guide.

2. Pirate Bidding: its generally not a good idea to place any bounty on someone ahead of time of the pirate raid launching. when the pirate raid timer reaches zero there will be 30-90 seconds (its random) before the raid launches, this is the time to do your bidding. its common to get involved in a last minute pirate bidding war at this time so i like to save up some money to be able to win these bidding wars when they occur. try not to start any major construction projects or research going into a pirate bidding session, if you lose the bidding war (and you probably will since you just spent all your cash) and have pirates launched on you they might just destroy your project.

3. Capital Ships and Fleet Logistics: the maximum number of cap ships you can command is determined by your available cap ship crews. you can acquire additional crews by researching it in your Fleet Logistics research tab on the research screen. Similarly, you need to research more Fleet Supply points in order to field a larger number of any kind of ships. Be careful though, each time you research more fleet supply your economy is penalized by an additional 9% or so. You won't be able to efficiently increase your fleet size before you've developed a larger economy.

I don't think memorizing a damage chart is necessary. If you have the time, go for it but reading posts and in game descriptions will give you a good enough idea about what counters what.

Thank you very much! That was quite helpful.