Please help a new player

Here's what I've got so far

from Sins Forums

Howdy,

After reading a lot of positive reviews about this game I picked it up this afternoon.  I've played it for about 5 hrs now and would love any feedback you might have to help me improve.  I played through the tutorials and after struggling a bit with the camera controls I think I've got to the point where I've got a very rudimentary handle on the game.  I've got one game going right now on a small map vs. 1 normal AI and I've got control of 4 planets and have a pretty large military force and am preparing to expand further.

Anyways, here's how I approach the game so far and any tips would be appreciated (I'm currently downloading some replays to try and learn more):

-First thing my builders do is mine the resources in my home planet.  My shipyard starts with a scout asap and I send my scout out to the closest planets to see what they are.  I see if I have volcanic or ice planets nearby and, if so, I immediately work toward unlocking the appropriate tech so I can colonize them. 

-Then I build about 3 military ships to defend myself and help scout nearby planets and stuff while I build tech buildings and my command-shipyard.  The first cap ship that I build is the one that has the colonize ability.

-Once I have my cap ship and about 3-6 military ships I go conquer the closest and easiest planet/asteroid to get access to some more resources.  Priorities here are getting mines up on the resources and also to get more research labs in place so I can access the trading post technology. 

-Meanwhile I am building a few more ships (no military tech buildings yet) to defend against the inevitable pirate attacks (I try and put a bounty on my opponent but I still seem to get attacked). 

-In terms of economic techs I tech what seems to make sense (I'm still learning the tech tree) and I tech the expand-your-military-force-and-cap-ship techs when I hit the limits.  I am fairly sporadic still in terms of teching as I'm not sure really what to research and when really.

-The only other things I've really done are build some turret defenses and develop my planets' upgrades, especially the one that cuts down on maintenace or whatever.  Once I get a large enough military force my goal becomes to expand outward further toward my enemy.

And that's where I'm at so far, it should give you a sense of how I play the game--oh, I forgot to mention I play with the alien race that is on the run from the secret enemy (probably to be revealed in an xpac?).  They seem cool.

If you have any advice on opening builds and research priorities as well as general gameplay suggestions that would be appreciated.  In the meantime I will continue reading on these forums and I am downloading some games to watch.

thx!

strategy
4,695 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
These are what I think. I play single-player only right now (no internet at home because I live in a very rural area :)).

I can tell you it's not a good idea to immediately research more logistics just because you hit the cap. You should do it when you NEED the ships. At least that's what I do and it seems to make sense.

I like to let the pirates attack me. They're full of delicious XP for my cap ship :).

I have heard not to research the +% metal and +% crystal techs until you have a fairly sizeable empire because the money spent will only garner a tiny increase and that money could have been used to get a new planet with a very large increase.

Definitely I think you should not build any defenses other than maybe a pair of repair platforms with overlapping areas of effect early on. Your fleet should be able to handle most anything that comes along.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I like the Vasari, but I can never win as them.

I don't see that you upgrade the planets, so make sure to upgrade their infrastructure so they are no longer liabilities. The planet development screen is where you do it, and you can also upgrade other things like number of tactical buildings. Since it is your main credit income, you must be sure to keep up on it.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Shoot, I forgot that. Right, upgrade the planet infrastructure to the max and I think you might want to research whatever civ tech lets you increase that max further for Terran worlds as soon as possible. I wouldn't say you should do it before grabbing a nearby neutral planet of some kind but you should have an asteroid as a neighbor at least on random maps I think. I usually grab that asteroid and then max out the Terran planet research before learning to live on volcanic or ice worlds if possible. But then I play as TEC so it might make a difference.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I start by making 1 colonizer cap and as many of the base ship as I can(cobalts for TEC, I didn't learn the names in Vasari or Advent) and throwing up the extractors. I make a scout or 2 and set them to explore. Then I start expanding, keeping the fleet close until I can mount a good D of some turrets and later hangars. I start tech with focus towards fleet and cap ships, the colonization techs, and the trade tech in civilian, and then the jump detection, and if the map is big, long range jumps. When I do military, I upgrade the strength of guns first. If the map is large, I try to hold sole posession of a system with my human allies. This provides a safe haven to retreat to if things go bad abroad. As Vasari, I will make the phase nodes and then work towards the dark fleet reinforcements (dont know the name) This is about as far as I've gone with techs. Also, big fleet = god if you can support it.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
You probably don't want to do the research to increase the population limit right away. Especially if you're Vasari or TEC, you can get long range missle ships (LRM) easily (one millitary lab for Vasari, two for TEC). Those ships are a great compliment for your early fleet and help out quite a lot.

The most important thing is to upgrade your planets so they don't lose money, which is one upgrade for an Asteroid and two for a Planet. You don't need to max it out right away. Terran planets have four upgrades, but it takes quite a while for the population to grow that large. Get the first two, then come back later and get more (once the population caps).

I think you've actually got the right idea for the most part. :) If you are keen on building defenses, research repair platforms (or the equivalent). They make any other defenses (and defending ships) vastly more powerful.