Patches and other questions

That's the way it is, yes. Diplomacy builds on Entrenchment and includes all of the content it did, plus the additional Diplomacy content.

As far as updates, you simply need to register the game(s) in impulse and hit the update button. It will bring them up to current with no worrying about cumulative patching, etc.

Diplomacy is the same thing as Trinity. It's named Trinity to emphasize the fact that it includes all 3 parts (diplomacy, entrenchment, and original Sins). So yes, you're supposed to be able to build starbases in Diplomacy.

Diplomacy includes everything from the original game and Entrenchment. Entrenchment includes everything from the original game.

With regards to updating: did you buy online via Impulse? If so, you'd have automatically downloaded the latest version. Else, there's still a big button on the main menu that says something like "check for updates" - just use that and go from there.

Good beginning tips?

When colonizing, always make sure to upgrade the planet's infrastructure until you aren't making negative income, else you'll lose a significant number credits every second due to planet underdevelopment.

If you're playing against the AI (which you should if you're just learning), the most-used strategy which nearly always guarantees a win is the choke-point-starbase strategy. Once your scouts have explored most of the map (which shouldn't be more than a few minutes into the game), your first priority over everything else should be getting a starbase up at the choke point(s). That will virtually immunize you from attacks by the AI because, when attacking, they'll send their entire fleet into range of the starbase, which will proceed to pulverize them. (Make sure to eventually upgrade the starbase's hull and weapons though - it's not completely invulnerable) An starbase is usually enough to fight off nearly any fleet from any AI, up to Cruel or Vicious (which you probably won't be taking on soon). Make sure you research and build either repair bays or repair cruisers to repair the starbase, though.

Once you have a starbase up you can explore the game much more leisurely, look at the different types of units, etc. I also recommend starting with pirates off (they can be devastating to newbies or the unprepared) and with locked teams.

Ahh I didnt see that button for the patch, Guess I was so excited to check the game out that I looked straight at single player!! Thanks.

Locked teams doesnt let them break alliances right?? Also, I know in diplomacy it says you can give missions (With the upgrades diplomatically) and then give them attack missions as such, but one of the upgrades said you can ask for credits and crystal just like they do and I couldnt figure out how to do it, the only missions it would let me offer were attack planets and ships missions, even though I had the upgrade.

And as far as the pirates go, I just always made sure I offered more credits on the table to keep them on someone else.

I knew starbases were king, but I had this nasty habit of dropping a starbase at EVERY planet I colonized

I think my problem was I didnt scout enough, I'd always stagnate at about 5 planets in because thats as far as Id scout, then Id see the phase lane lines coming off my outer most planet, realize I can get hit from the side, so I build a starbase and as much defense there as I could, Im going to try to colonize as fast as possible now as well as scout and see how that goes.

Any other strategies as far as economy goes?? I mean I do level my Civillian up all the way asap when I colonize, then logistical and tactical slots as needed, then I explore, I almost never ever have emergency facilities though.

And more opinions, strategies, or other tips would be great if anyone has them!

Casey

PS: This game is ADDICTING already, even though I get crushed.

Vanilla is the base game. Entrenchment adds many defensive enhancements, and Diplomacy adds on top of the Entrenchment additions, changes to the diplomacy system. Trinity is just SoaSE with Entrenchment and Diplomacy packaged together.

The games are patched separately through Impulse.

TEC are definitely the best faction for learning how to play and Point Blank is a good scenario for beginners.

The best opening capital ship depends on the distance from the enemy, if you are going to be encountering the enemy very soon, a carrier capital ship is your best bet, and if you are far from the enemy, the colony capital ship is the preferred choice.

A useful tactic to use to know is to send an unescorted colony frigate (Protev Colony Frigate for the TEC) to colonize the neighboring asteroid, immediately build a defense platform (Gauss Defense Platform for the TEC) right beside the asteroid in front of where the militia's Krosov Siege Frigate will engage the asteroid from, so the turret engages when it finishes, and jump out with the colony frigate. This trick only works in Entrenchment and Diplomacy, because the siege frigate will reposition itself shortly after the turret starts building.

Make sure you are doing your Civilian Infrastructure improvements on newly acquired worlds. A key to success for the TEC is to field a force of Javelis LRM Frigates asap.

Yeah, with locked teams, whatever teams you specify during game set-up are permanent: each team will always be at war with every other team, and the alliance is unbreakable.

As for asking for donations: someone in some other thread said that the AI has to research the ability to give credits and resources before you can send them a mission to donate credits or resources.

If you can keep on top of it, pirates can provide a great hindrance to early-game non-hard AIs and give you more breathing time for expansion and colonization before you have to fight.

One expensive, inefficient, but hassle-free way to solve this is to have 3 scouts or so go exploring (right-click their Explore ability) and they'll automatically scout out unknown gravity wells. One scout will almost surely die to the pirate planet, but the other two will probably be able to map the rest of the star system for you, without any micromanagement on your part.

The better players scout manually, but if you're busy with other commands, having scouts auto-explore is one solution.

Colonizing as fast as possible (correction: colonizing a choke point close to the enemy as fast as possible) is a key to winning. The better players can colonize a new planet every 3 minutes or so, from the start of the game up until they have 5-6 planets.

Your scouts should always be exploring - they should never be idle. (Unless you have a scout mob for the purposes of fighting, which I'm not going to go into now) Civilian infrastructure increases the planet's population cap: unless you're getting close to the current population cap, there's no point in upgrading it (except of course to stop planet underdevelopment from sucking your income away).

Needing to increase logistical and tactical slots is usually rare in the beginning of the game. Often you can colonize fast enough that slot upgrades to planets you already have are unnecessary.

Well I'll definately work on using those tactics instead, from what I understand, a good player should be able to beat just about every AI?? I think I'm going to work on single player for a while before I take things online, maybe wait for rebellion to come out as well  Thanks for the tips and any more ya have keep em comin, Ill post back up here when I have some battles and such.

For 1v1 at least, yes. It's less doable on larger maps due to the (likely) many routes available to attack from, but still possible.

Well maybe not Vicious and Cruel AI. Those get such a big resource cheat you basically have to exploit every tactical weakness the AI has by spamming Starbases and the like. They can be defeated but the tactics you need to use to do so really don't help you in online play.

Exploiting the AI's failing make any level a cakewalk for experienced players, really. Taking on several Vicious AIs at once can be done without much trouble when you learn how to defeat it.