what's happening

Unless you are playing at the very highest difficulty, I assure the AI is not god. Unless you put up a replay I have no idea what you are doing wrong, but I would guess you are not expanding fast enough early on. This is indeed a strategy game, but there are many wrong strategies that may not be obvious to people used to other strategy games. Chief among them are building lots of capital ships and turtling early game. Anyways, I encourage you to either describe your strategy/tactics or upload a replay so we can see exactly what you are doing wrong.

I suppose this means that Darvin will be along soon, with detailed instructions on how to defeat the AI on any level in five minutes while speed-reading War and Peace in the original Russian.

Sometimes I miss Leisure Suit Vasari with his demands for Skirantra buffs and tons and tons of girlfriends.  Although considering what he did to multiplayer balance for nearly a year and counting, perhaps not.  Be reassured that the game is very officially not intended for multiplayer at present.

What does 'while enemy forces pour in quite disproportionate to the information that is actually given' actually mean?  I imagine it means you don't scout?  Scout.  Also, this game differs from games where it is easy to turtle, because the amount of resources gained depends on the planets you conquer, rather than the number of gatherers you build.  So if you try to stay on 2-3 planets/asteroids and tech up you will be defeated.  You need at least half the map to try that. 

 

Thanks for your replies. Here is one strategy I used to the best of my memory. upg. civ infra. Built a capital ship factory and q'd KOL with five fighters. Bought four scout ships and had them on auto explore. Built a further metal mine and purchased 100 crystal. Fully upg. KOL ship. 4 repair platforms and 4 gauss. Bought one Marzat and upg. and one colony ship. Researched shields and officer training. Expanded to one adjacent asteroid and killed the enemy and placed my KOL ship on it. Upg. the asteroid. Expanded to a volcanic planet and eventually killed the non-player enemy at huge expense of resources and ships. The enemy player then invaded my capital planet with forces quite at odds to the info revealed by the scouts because the conditions now present on my capital planet meant I had no other resources, devices or fighting forces to defeat them. As soon as I could build a gauss or a fighting frigate, the enemy player just poured in infinite forces. My Armani suit was totally dishevelled. I had to begin again. The AI set the rules and then goes on to break them. I am a chess player. I know the rules. I don't expect my opponent, if he is losing, to whack me with a knuckle duster and claim he has won the chess game. On another strategy, it may have been possible to defeat the enemy player when it invaded, but this would have blown me into the stone age, when I would in effect be starting the game again. It does get boring when no firm progress can be made according to the set rules. The balance is disproportionate in favour of the enemy AI. Whilst there may be no surefire strategy, it is important for fun to at least get a grip on the game and feel you are actually competing on a level playing field and progressing, and not have an atomic bomb dropped on you when you are still throwing hand grenades. I have played on the simplest scenario, no pirates, both players on tec with the enemy player on easy economy.

you need more frigates early on, you cannot live using only capital ships

What you have done there is to cripple your own economy by spending your early income on defensive structures that won't be used for a long time, as well as leave your fleet dawdling at your home planet.  There are no RTS games that I am aware of where you could win like that.

You need to grab more resources earlier.  No player of any experience would do anything but build all the home metal and crystal extractors first, if they began on normal start.  Then you should capture all the extractors you can as cheaply as possible, which normally means any asteroid you can get your hands on.  One capital ship can defeat the forces at any asteroid as soon as it is built, and also the forces at any planet with only 6-8 militia ships.  It even gains experience from doing this. 

Extractors are most important for your early income, though your home infrastructure upgrade is also valuable.  You should ensure that you upgrade the infrasructure on captured planets and asteroids to the extent that you don't lose income, though.  Later you should build trade ports.  Even on easy economy, if the AI owns a dozen gravwells to your home, asteroid and volcanic, it will win.  You need to take more of the map earlier and get a bigger income of credits and resources.

Which of the forum guides have you been examining, so that we can see if they should be removed?  Can you link to them?  It doesn't seem that you've got a basic grasp of the game yet.  It is rather more fun than your experience of it so far.

Hm... first thing I notice is your mention of building a Kol with "five fighters". Last I checked, the Kol has a maximum strike craft squadron capacity of two, and that's at level 9 or 10. If you intended to say five strike craft (not squadrons), then that will make more sense, since the TEC Bombers come in squadrons of five (Fighters in squadrons of six). Kols don't get squadrons until level 2 or 3, but I notice you maxed out purchaseable levels anyway.

Repair bays are a good defensive investment. The Gauss platforms, however, are only good for further slowing down a dedicated attacking force - the Bays will extend their longevity, but against a large enough attacking force, they won't do much damage before being destroyed.

Having a second capital ship before you have even colonized your first planet (aside from your HW) is a huge red flag. For one, you're missing out on a lot of income had you made colonization your first priority at the start of the game - the earlier you grab planets and their asteroids, the earlier they can start providing credits and resources. In terms of damage for cost, frigates are a far better investment than capital ships - the primary reason to build capitals is to make use of their abilities, not their damage.

Research can make or break you. Certainly, researching new ship prototypes is often worth pursuing provided circumstances are favourable. Researching too much, however, will mean you will fall behind militarily and any quality advantage you have is quickly overwhelmed by a sufficient numerical advantage. Shield research for the TEC is more of a "nice to have" rather than a "must have" given that TEC shields are the lowest when comparing to the ships of the other two factions. Hull/shield research is only worthwhile when you have enough ships around to benefit from the research - if you have five Cobalts (say 600 hull each), it is more worthwhile to build a 6th Cobalt (600 more hull) rather than increasing the hull of your existing Cobalts by 5% (which is 150 more hull).

Conquering the neutral militia at the start of the game should not be difficult at all - often a single capital ship can clear all but the most heavily defended Terran/Desert planets (if there are more Heavy Cruisers and/or LRFs than usual).

Keep in mind your intel for a particular gravity well is only accurate as of the time you last had a ship in there (with the exception of abilities like Probe, etc.). It could be the case that the AI had been building a fleet while your scouts were moving around elsewhere. It's also entirely possible the AI's ships were moving in phase space, where they can't be seen unless you have detection research.

As far as the early game is concerned, long range frigates (the Javelis for TEC) is the best value for your resources - they have 150% damage to light frigates and have the second best damage multiplier against capital ships along with Bombers (the multiplier is 75%, the only better one is capital ship damage with a 100% multiplier).

read this thread.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/374670

 

There are also some replays of skilled players playing skillfully around on the web, watch them, and watch how suddenly unfair ai seem easy.

Thanks for your help and the thread. The fighter frigates I referred to were the Cobalt frigates and not the KOL squadron. The first strategy I used was one suggested on the sinsofasolarempire single player forum which was dashed almost from the beginning, probably because in making even detailed recommendations in a game like this, many other factors have to be counted in. With your suggestions in mind I will go away and play a few more games and see if I can improve. I will try to note what strategy I use and at what point I am overwhelmed by the enemy player. Will get back.

Did you buy Trinity and if so, are you playing the "Diplomacy" version of the game?  If so, then you should set Pirates to "false" (play with pirates off).  The pirates are severely overpowered in the Diplomacy expansion and they'll only frustrate you at this point.

Present and accounted for!

 

Your biggest issue was expanding too slowly and primarily picking late-game technologies and upgrades.  Do not bother upgrading your capital ships (let them gain experience naturally from battles) and avoid using the Kol until the late-game.   Shield upgrades are a very poor selection as TEC; probably one of the very last techs you'd ever bother to research as this faction, not to mention that techs of this cost-level are generally inappropriate for empires with only two or three planets.

The civilian population upgrade was a good move, so was scouting.  For capital ship, I'd recommend either the Sova Carrier or the Akkan Battlecruiser as your opener, and you could also lead Marza if you like.  Start expanding quickly, targeting planets with weaker militia.  For technology, you want repair platforms and the ability to colonize ice/volcanic planets as early as possible.  From there, you want to get your military rolling, and that usually means units like the Javelis LRM, Garda Flak Frigate, and Hoshiko Support Cruiser.  The Javelis in particular is a hard counter to the "light frigate" type units that you build at the start of the game, and lower-difficulty AI's can usually be beaten just by massing this one unit type.

 

Even in the original game, they're an annoyance and distraction that is not conductive to learning how to play.

Thanks again for your responses. I am playing the Trinity edition, but only the original Sins at the moment. No matter what I try, with all your recommendations, I am defeated. On the first game today in exactly half an hour and on the second in exactly one hour, the game decides to terminate the player. The next game will be two hours when the same scenario will occur. The two games I played were 1v1, no pirates, tec with the enemy player on either hard or easy economy. I expanded quickly onto a volcanic planet and two asteroids, all fully upgraded. At this point I was invaded by the enemy player from nowhere ( once on a map with no jump lines and once on a map with jump lines but no sign of them being used by the enemy player). No enemy player ship (Class Marauders, Class Evac., Karrastra, Skirmishers) was even destroyed and was five planets away from my Capital Planet originally. I poured Javelises and Cobalts into the battle, with lots of hangars and repair platforms, all to no effect. Against the enemy player no fully upgraded Capital Ship last more than a few seconds before it is destroyed. The same will happen if another one is built, in order to balance out the incoming resources. I only used one or at teh most two Capital Ships in any game. They are weak. Anyway, the game had decided at a specific time to end, and so it did. I may last two hours next time and three or four hours in the games after that, but it will end. It may decide, after playing it numerous times to offer a victory, but not based on any particular strategy. This is not a strategy game. If anyone thinks differently, then I would like to see their winning strategy on the small map.

Which map is this, by the way? If it is one of the small maps, you aren't given a lot of room to expand until you meet an AI player.

Phase jump detection research is available to all three factions: TEC and Advent get them at Civilian Tiers 2 and 5, Vasari at Civilian 1, 4, and 8. First level of detection gives you the ability to see enemy vessels performing a phase jump towards one of your planets (notably, colony frigates do not generate a visual/audio warning, but are still detected). Without any detection, you have no clue there are hostile ships coming at you until they exit phase space.

Economy AI, as its name suggests, will focus on building trade ports, upgrading Civilian Infrastructure, and such. While it is true it has less emphasis on ship construction, it gains resources faster, and thus, has the ability to produce more ships at a faster rate when it does decide it needs to go conquistador for more planets/resources to build its economy. Aggressor AI may actually be an easier AI to go against - this AI will definitely attack you earlier, but it often begins with waves of light frigates, which will get chewed up by long range frigates. Given time, it will research new ship types to throw at you, but usually at a later time than other AI types.

Early in the game, all that is necessary in terms of planet development is enough Civilian Infrastructure to allow the planet to generate positive income (1 CI for Asteroids, 2 CI for planets). Other upgrades can wait, or may not be necessary (it is often more worthwhile to capture another planet for logistics slots, and tactical slots only for planets that are front line/choke points).

Thanks for your suggestions. This is the first small map listed on single player Sins. It is still the case that, no matter what I try, the game will end at a certain time with the enemy player invading my planets with infinite forces without even one of their ships being destroyed in the process. I have just played it again and it ended punctually in two hours with the enemy player invading my planet, despite the fact I had two planets, my Capital Planet and a volcanic planet rolling in the resources, but this time allowed me to succeed in a small defeat before the two hours were up when the game ended with an en masse invasion of greatly superior forces. Even if I see the forces coming, there is no way I can prepare for the invasion, as the game has decided to end. If I play the game again and again, it will probably allow a victory eventually, not dependent on any strategy.

What RTS games have you played before this?

While there may be RTS games that send out forces in timed waves in the manner you have indicated, this game is not one of them.  Also, you need to take at least half the map to be rolling in resources compared to the AI, not a couple of asteroids and a volcanic.  When we say expand quickly, we mean defeat the militia and move straight on to the next planet or asteroid.  Build at least 30 Javelis LRF before the enemy attacks in any numbers.  Then build up to a total force of about 60, plus your capital ship.

Of course, we could all be frauds, who cannot defeat even the easy AI in random 1v1s.  Common sense should tell you that isn't remotely likely.  But then again, why would I write that- unless there was something to hide?    

I recorded this today in a 1v1 TEC versus Vasari Unfair Economist in Vanilla (1.191). Let me know if you have issues watching it. Even though it has resource cheets, the AI invests in a lot of useless research and modules and does a poor job of colonizing. The AI also tends to get stymied if you have a choke point in that they tend not to attack if they think your fleet might beat theirs. In this case you either need to advance or perform a ruse by moving your fleet to an adjacent well. The AI is also not very smart as they could have destroyed my Akkan as it was fleeing but instead broke away to attack my LRM's. The AI lost after they fled the initial battle as it was limited to the four planets it had taken (The AI should have won the initial battle but it does a poor job prioritizing targets).

I let my Akkan continue to colonize the remaining neutral worlds while my main fleet pressed on the AI. It finally gave up when I decided to destroy it's capital ships on his home planet. I would say this is plenty of strategy with this game. Some require you to think ahead about where you want the initial conflict to be (which is impacted by random maps). Others, have to do with understanding counters and techs and when it makes sense to get them. In a small map like this I don't do a lot of research except for what I consider necessary technology and research to win the map.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5790092/Temp/AutoRecord-11241021.record

Thanks again. I was unable to open the .record file, as I don't know what the file extension is.

I have played a lot of RTS games with some success such as C+C and, more recently, Dragon Age Origins first on normal and then hard difficulty. I had a grip on these games after the first few sessions. When I said resources were pouring in, I meant relatively, with 12000-15000 credits and between 5000 and 7000 metal and crystal each. I am not saying anyone is a fraud. What I am saying is this game is not won on strategy, but the time spent on playing it. How do you account for the time spent on this game doubling each time it is played, and terminating at exactly the right time? Why in my last battle were no enemy player ships destroyed? When I matched Javelises against Javelises, my ships were destroyed in seconds with no harm done to the enemy players ships. Even with my superior ships fighting against the AI inferior ships, I lost, because the game had decided on time to terminate it at any cost. Did you win on a small map after a few games? I doubt it, you had to serve your time like everyone else before the game decides you can win. I am off to play a few more games. Will report back.

ok, you need to downloadthe file and put it in your replay directory. Then choose watch replay in your single player menu. If your not sure of the location open the options menu in sins then go to mods and click the show mod path. The directory containing the mod path will also have the replay folders.

On easy you should be able to pick 1 cap.Then get a colony ship if you didnt get akkan.Now send you cap to asteroid colo it.PUt 2 civic labs down and move on to next planet colo it.Only civ research you should do is researching colonize for ice or vol.Soon as you can afford put 2 mil labs down and get javs.Have your hw rally set to your cap and q up 2 javs and keep 2 q up at all times for the rest of game.All the while you are colonizing without stopping.If you get free time inbetween research trade ports(and build some to increase credits).Timing is key with this game.If your fleet is idle then your losing.If your money is idle your losing.Try to keep all your money spent .If your hw frig factory cant keep up then build another frig factory closer to the frontlines.If your cap is getting damaged move it to the edge and jump it to safety before it dies and build repair bay and repair it then send it back.Sova is best fighting cap ship.Get missile for 1st ability to easily clear any militia.Then get buff for your fighters.Max these 2 out.

An hour is a relatively long period of time, even in this game.  Generally speaking, an opponent that's been given that long to build up could have anything.  This is not a rush by any means, and a large conventional fleet by this point is typical.  You need to speed this up a bit more; I typically am capturing planets at a rate of one every 3 minutes in the early-game, which means I usually have around 6 planets within the first 15 minutes.  You don't need to move that fast to beat the normal AI, but it should give you an idea of the kinds of speeds that are possible.



Hard has a small resource cheat, easy has a small resource penalty.  Losing to hard is no big deal when you're beginning, but losing to easy indicates that you have a fundamental issue with your approach, and need to look at your speed and spending priorities.


You only need to buy the civilian population upgrades (and for ice/terran/desert planets, you only need two of them).  The other upgrades are "nice to have" but usually unnecessary, and buying them all is exorbitantly expensive.

This on its own would bankrupt you and cripple your early expansion.



You cannot "see" enemies on phase lanes without the appropriate research, and even then the warning you get is so short that the research isn't worth your time.  You need proactive intelligence so you see the incoming enemy fleet before they arrive.  I assure you they are not coming out of nowhere, and you can even watch the replay and see the enemy build up and attack.



Without knowing the number of units involved, I can't comment much, but from the sounds of things you were outnumbered significantly by heavy units.



Given the units you've described, massed Javelis would be your best response.  Skirmishers and capital ships in particular are no match for a large bulk of Javelis.  The AI didn't have Enforcers, Carriers, or Sentinels, so there's really no reason to use anything else.  A steady trickle of units won't do much, though.  You need to step back and regroup into a larger force, sacrificing planets if need be.  Preferably you'd want those units before he arrives.



The "on the dot" factor is probably a fluke.  I can tell you from experience that timing is NOT a forte of the AI.  When I do my speedruns (typically my opening attack is 10-20 minutes into the game) I have the AI down for the count long before the one-hour mark, and I prey on the AI's terrible timing to throw off its defenses and pin it down before it can establish itself.


As for replays, this is your path:
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Record-Singleplayer

AppData is a hidden folder; you'll need to reveal it from folder options.

I've got an old replay I uploaded for someone else with similar issues as you: http://www.filefront.com/15978297/Comp%20Stomp%2003-30-10.record

This is unfair difficulty completely and utterly beaten in 70 minutes.  You'll notice that the serious fighting started around the 30-minute mark, and from that point onwards I was hitting hard on two fronts while bolstering my economic, tech, and fleet composition.  Towards the end I accidentally built too many Iconus Guardians; didn't have enough firepower and the final battle dragged on a little long as a result.

Thanks for your detailed advice. I will play another couple of games with this in mind and report back. I am still not convinced this game is dependent on what strategy is used, as there is much contradictory ( one might say pick 'n' mix ) advice out there on how to win, not because there are various routes to success (on the small map) but because it depends mostly on how often it is played. I have played other RTS games on hard and even nightmare difficult and, of course, have been defeated. But using the same strategy time and time again, the game eventually concedes defeat. The mathematical algorithms used seem to ensure a matching or equalisation process occurs with a variable which, if hit a few times, can produce the desired result.  Kasparov was defeated by the computer because it was capable of processing masses of data from chess records every second. On the other hand Kasparov did defeat the computer because he had imagination, which the computer does not. In my last game but one of Sins I was allowed one defeat of the enemy player, the next game two defeats and in my game last night (the last one) I was allowed three defeats --- using the same strategies and advice given on this site--- until the AI terminated the game with a ridiculous mass of forces and with a ridiculously high status. How am I expected to anticipate the enemy player when I cannot research the ability to 'see' him until later in the game? I watched one map where the enemy player was six jump lines away, then suddenly he appears as my neighbour and annihilates me. Anyway, I will play another couple of game and see what happens. Perhaps this time I will be allowed four defeats of the enemy player before it annihilates me!! Zombie: I put your recorded game in the Sins single player, but when I came to watch it, it reported 'invalid file type.' Darvin: filefront reports an error. I am using the Trinity edition of Sins (patched) on XP Pro.

When watching a replay, either watch with the "All Visible" box checked off or watch from the viewpoint of the AI (click on the faction name above the speed setting until you're viewing as the AI). Otherwise all you see is what you would have seen yourself in-game.

Probably one of the clues that you are falling behind is the rankings visible to the right of the portrait window on the bottom of the screen (when nothing is selected). The top number denotes your position in the Empire Rankings (based on colonized planets, research completed, and % of galaxy culture), the middle your position in the Military Rankings (based on fleet supply used, number of tactical structures/Starbases/Mines, and the number and levels of active capital ships), the bottom being the Economy Rankings (based on credit, metal, and crystal income rates). Pay particular attention to the military rankings - if you rank as number 2 for fleet supply used, that is an indication that the AI player is most likely currently fielding a larger fleet than you are. Hover over each number to see the rankings for each sub-category. Other indications could be the Economy Rankings - if you know the AI has a larger total population and extractors and you somehow are ranked 1st in Economy, that is a strong indication the AI has invested in increasing its fleet supply (which results in a larger upkeep percentage, but permits for a larger fleet).

This is such an improbable thread that I have come to the conclusion that it must be some form of deadpan humour.  Dragon Age Origins is an RTS?  'The mathematical algorithms used seem to ensure a matching or equalisation process occurs with a variable'? 

There is an extent to which by helping one new player we can help all new players who read the thread, but this thread is absurd, and isn't even titled appropriately, which is probably just as well.  The concept used in the first post, that the game randomly decides whether to end based on intervals of half an hour, is just risible.

Scouting does not involve setting four scouts to auto-explore the map, or expensive research.  First locate your opponent, then determine how much they have expanded and where their fleet is.  Maintain awareness of where their fleet is.  Often scouting is easier on a random 1v1 as they tend to choke at the sun and perhaps one other gravwell, so you only need to set scouts to watch those two areas to get guaranteed advance warning of any aggressive enemy moves. 

Good scouting often- or almost always- implies a good player, but you don't seem to understand what the very basics of the concept are.  Should we explain what a 'choke' is?  Have you watched replays of your own games, to understand what is happening in them?

Please provide a replay of you playing an easy AI, so that we can see you playing the game, rather than just spouting about it as if you had never played.

Thanks again. InfiniteVoid: noted what you said and will play again with this mind I hope this evening.

DesConnor: Reporting for duty Sir. Your quite right about Dragon Age Origins, though tactics are important and resources. Other RTS games I have played would be Homeworld, Heroes of War, Supreme Commander etc. Have just played my eighth game and, yes, the Armageddon arrived at exactly twice the time the previous game had taken and, yes, this time I was allowed to defeat the enemy player four times, when previously it was three, then two and then once, as it is programmed to. This was the easiest game to play as it becomes incrementally easier to play each time, even with the same strategy. My strategy (very roughly) in the early game is to expand quickly on reduced research maintaining only one, sometimes two, capital ships which I use to invade non-enemy player planets. On the choke points at the phase lines, I put mines, Javelises together with repair platforms and situate the rest close to the centre of the planet. I usually fully upgrade a planet where this has a direct threat from the enemy player, but not planets which have to be reached via my other planets. I usually make one, later sometimes two, upgrades on officer training and fleet capacity. I usually buy metal or crystal if I am short. Once the Aramageddon arrives I know there is nothing I can do about it, because the enemy is infinitely producings forces and in many cases none of their ships are even being harmed, still less destroyed. They are popping up from nowhere. You say not to put scouts on autoexplore, something I learned in the third game, though the first advice I had from this site was to do exactly that in the early game, to reveal the map presumably. Before I invade a planet, I usually send a scout to reveal what the current situation is. This is not usually any help against the enemy player, as it usually fights with forces far in excess than what has been revealed. After I had defeated the enemy player once on my planet and sent a scout, it still had the same number of forces on the invading planet. Something happened in this game I have not seen before. My capital ship when fighting actually returned to my capital planet where there were repair platforms, even though I had not instructed it to do this. It was a sensible move and helpful for a short time. I have seen this in other RTS games where, no matter what instructions have been given, the forces take on a life of their own. All present and correct. 

Dude, I can ASSURE you it does not work like clockwork. The computer is not programmed to kill you with indestructible ships that come from nowhere at a particular time. Post a replay so we can see the proof of these un-killable ships that presumably double in number during phase jumps.

Well, if you are using mines, it is not more a vanilla sins game like you have wrote... mines is a entrenchment features...

Now, about strategy, there is several ways to win... you need to find your own tactic who is compatible with your play style...

In my own case, i am more a research/economy guy... maybe having only 4-5 planet forming a line ( cluster are bad for trade )... with only 1 capital ship but being number one in research/economy... somebody attack, i can produce a bunch of ship everywhere for defend... some research allow to have a bigger firing range... in case of encounter between two similar ship where yours have a bigger firing range can allow you to kill the other without being it...

You play TEC and build to much repair platform... my personal opinion is that the main weapons for the TEC, after the strong economic is the Hosiko... work like a repair platform but it is mobile... one repair platform surrounded by orbital structure seem great but can repair only one object at the time... a few hosiko with your fleet can make wonder...

Sins is a very complicate game with a complex learning curve... same today, after 3 years play, i discover new things ( mainly by digging in the entity code )...

In very little map, don't loose time for build mines, for make non needed research... remember that the best defense is a good offense... use the first 30 minutes for build your economy and make some critical research... build a fleet and attack the enemy... keep the battle on his ground... a good idea is to destroy his research lab if you don't plan to directly invade the enemy planet, once lab are destroy, the upgrade researched by the enemy become non active... easy way to send a enemy to the stone age... if the enemy have a long line of planet, it create a huge income bonus... attack a planet in the middle of the line... never upgrade fleet point to fast, it kill your economy too...

There is 1000's of tip and trick... some will work with your play style, some will not... one of a other map can request different strategy...

About the pirate, i keep them on... i have never a big fleet, have only good research and strong economy... so, i use the pirate for attack my enemy ( and friend too ) ...

Buy metal or crystal is really a bad idea... to much expensive... colonize resource asteroid find in neutral gravity wheel... that your scout have discover... since you are playing entrenchment, build a starbase with the trade upgrade in some of these gravity wheel without planet for extend you trade line...

Well, i can go on for several page... point is this game is great and you need a lot of time for master it... other have advice you to use reply... if allow you to see everything who have happen from each side and see your mistake... before looking at reply from other, take a look at your own reply...

I have followed some of your esteemed members (high karma) detailed advice, but all failed.

By the way, high karma don't mean that somebody is a good player... by example, the majority of my karma is related to 3D modeling topic or computer related topic.... i have 100's of playing hours but mainly with mod ( who fully change the gameplay )... maybe tomorrow, there will be somebody with 0 karma who will post a reply who past perfectly wit your own style of play...