Is this game too hard for me?

You didn't. You just need to keep practicing. No one really gets this game the first time. Your methods are sound. Just need to practice which will speed you up. Before you know it, you will be eating up 9 vicious for breakfast every morning.

That doesn't quite sound right at all Polar-eX. Have you confirmed that you have the game settings setup correctly? The only way I could see that happening is that you have something configured incorrectly.

You need to learn to colonize planets as fast as possible. In random small, that's one of the keys to winning.

Try this: when you warp to a new planet with militia, priority target the siege frigates, and then colonize. Build a single turret (Gauss Defense Platform if you're TEC) and then warp your entire fleet out to the next planet. This can save you multiple minutes - the turret will take care of light frigates, flak frigates, and a Heavy Cruiser if there's one. (if there's more than one HC you need 2 turrets)

If you want to use this kind of strategy (it's a very good one to use), I recommend using scouts instead if light frigates; scouts are much more effective against siege frigates for their resource and supply cost.

Warning: LRM frigates outrange turrets, so after you warp out the first time, you may want to then warp in 2 or so scouts to kill the LRM attacking your turret from a safe distance.

Also, do you know about the solo-colony-frigate-to-asteroid trick? You can colonize an asteroid and keep it, with only a puny colony frigate and no backup. The trick is to warp in, colonize, build a turret **as close to the asteroid as possible** in between the planet and the enemy siege frigate and then have the colony warp out. The turret will nearly always destroy the siege frigate before it can bomb out the planet.

Given this strategy, if you see that your capital ship is going in one direction off your homeworld and there's an asteroid in the other direction, build a colony frigate as soon as possible (stop building scouts for the moment) to get the asteroid (and the income from the asteroid) as quickly as possible.

A player skilled at this sort of colony cap / scout strategy can take 5 planets by 10 minutes or so, depending on the map. The AI usually takes like 4 or so minutes to take over a new planet: this should give you much more territory.

If you're having severe difficulties you might want to post a replay (located in the folder

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Record-MultiPlayer

and sorted by date)

so we can help you.

Make sure that you're developing your planets out of the red ASAP and building extractors quickly as well.

Usually two planet upgrades will give you positive cash flow and population growth (asteroids will only require 1 to be maxed out).

Many thanks for the tips and advices. As i understand im "too slow" with colonizing planets.I have to colonize quick leaving the colonized planet with light defence and hop on to the next.

looking at yesterday: It took me about 1 hour to setup my homeplanet, a astroid and an Iceplanet. By then i had two capital ships and about 20 light frigates (10 for each capital ship). The enemy attacked my Ice planet with very nasty stuff. Three capital ships and loads of other small nasty  stuff. My capital ship was gone within 1 minute (allthough he had shields en fighters).So i sent in my second squad from my homeplanet. Idem dito. I was frustrated so i went to bed

Okay, im gonna try it again. this time i will multitask. I let you know how it went.

Grtz, PolareX

An hour for taking an asteroid and the other planet? Ouch.

I recommend focusing on frigates instead of capital ships in the early-game. Frigates provide a lot more firepower for their cost than do capital ships.

Out of curiosity, what speed are you on?  This makes a big difference, as some things (mainly turreting and setting up early trade) don't work too well on slow or normal, but work fantastically on faster....

As another note, I'd be wary of statements like "have x number of planets by y number of minutes"...it's not that these people aren't accurate with their claims, they just are probably ICO veterans who are always playing on faster...not only are they extremely good, but you obviously can't compete which such feats on slower game speeds.....

So, if you are on normal game speed, naturally your rate of expansion will be significantly slower....just keep that in mind when you take advice that is optimized for faster speed...it is usually great advice, but it might not work out as well as you'd hope on normal speed...

Though I wouldn't do any of these things until you've captured as many neutral planets as possible.

I just dont like games were i have to rush. This afternoon i gave it another try, following up some advice i got from you all. I just hopped from 1 planet to the other. Within about 20 minutes i had 3 planets and an astroid belt. Excited as i was i went over to the next planet with a capital Colonization ship (which was free) and about 20 light frigates. Apperently the enemy thought differently about me taking their planet. I lost all my frigates and retreated with my capital ship. At that moment i didnt have any resources left (especially money), to build quickly a new army. The enemy came and shouted: "Veni Vidi Vici".I'll keep trying. Its just hard to learn the basics and how to divide the starting resources.

I've seen TEC eco players plop a trade port on their HW before they even have their 3rd planet, so I started doing it myself (as eco player only), and honestly I found it to be a pretty solid strategy...I think the biggest reason why this strategy works is that there is nothing else  to invest those resources in....

If you really are an eco player, then you will want to avoid fleet upgrades (even the first one) like the plague...and if you can't invest in any more ships, there honestly is not a whole lot you can do with your resources...I mean, your expansion is limited by how fast your scouts + turrets can wipe out militia (and remember, you aren't building more ships to expand faster)...you could invest in technology, but trade ports will pay themselves off faster than those metal/crystal techs...terran pop upgrades may be a good idea but that's about it...

By the time an eco player would really even consider a fleet upgrade, they probably will also need to start feeding players, and having your trade network up and running (even if it's only 3-4 nodes) will benefit you more in the long run....

Turrets I'll agree with you on....probably won't be till the 4th planet or so before you'll want to turret planets...

Well if you're in the eco slot then yes I could see you wanting to do that. If I'm trying to play at my best though with an enemy next door I rarely have a surplus of resources to be able to put into trade ports.

You don't have to rush to attack the opposing player, but you do have to rush to take neutral planets ASAP. Your economy, logistics, research... everything is reliant on planets. Think of them like cities in a game like Rise of Nations, except you can't build your own. Once you've gotten all the neutral (and thus easy to colonize) planets, then you can start building up trade, culture, a defenses if you wish.

Also, how large is your fleet? You should max out your starting fleet supply by the time you attack your second planet and by 20 minutes should probably get the first supply upgrade and possibly a second capital ship. The easy AI actually has a resource handicap so you are certainly capable of building just as many ships as it can.

If you are really finding this frustrating, you may want to try a game without any AI players on a medium or so map just so you can practice with expanding and building up your empire without competition. Leave the pirates on for a bit of combat experience too.

You can also try playing a 2 v 2 game where you have a normal AI ally that might be able to take some of the pressure off you.

Wow, I completely forgot the context of this thread....yeah, in general building trade that early is a bad idea...if you are playing eco in a 1 v 1 well....either you're a god at this game or your opponent is a coward....

In FFA or 2v2s, I generally go for trade once I have 4 planets...but to be honest I don't really know what the experts do since strategy for 5v5 games on ICO is quite different and I haven't seen many games other than 5v5s where vets are playing.... 

Even when I'm TEC I often have problems getting trade that early because I'm so focused on researching colonization, building scouts, and most importantly, colonizing new planets (colonization is EXPENSIVE). Planet development alone for a full-size planet costs 1000/300/200 or so, I think... then add 750~ for extractors. Turrets are quite expensive too (mostly in terms of resources), although I've found a way to colonize but avoid building them until much later in the game.

Although planets cost more and pay off less than trade ports in the first 20 minutes or so, I usually try to colonize as fast as possible when I'm eco if my allied flanks are skilled. I do this because there is a serious limit to how fast you can colonize, but if you have the funds you can build up as many trade ports on as many planets as you want, almost immediately.

That said, trade ports ASAP (or no ports at all) are a better idea when someone on the flank or suicide spot is facing a significantly more skilled player, or if someone on the flank is within distance of wiping out an enemy homeworld if they get a bit more feed.

You say to wait a while before building turrets... but every (unnecessary) second you spend fighting off the somewhat weak Cobalt militia or the practically harmless flak means more damage taken by your cap (more time it has to stay out of action once it becomes heavily damaged).

If you're eco you probably shouldn't fleet up to even the first researchable fleet supply unless a nearby ally on the flank is utterly incapable of defending himself, even with feed.

If you're playing a 1v1 on the standard random small, trade (especially early trade) is nearly ESSENTIAL unless one of the players is extremely skilled at rushing. This is because player spawn points are relatively far apart (usually).

In a 5v5 trade is pretty uncommon except in the eco slot simply because a player on the flank has to invest a ton into their fleet or risk being overwhelmed. If you have the spare funds though and if you're in a stalemate (or simply spawn far away from your adjacent enemy), trade ports on the flank can be a help.

I don't think you're going to need a turret to deal with your 2nd and 3rd planets (which generally are the asteroid and ice/volcanic right next to your HW)....maybe if you are in a rough starting position where the only nearby planets have huge militias, then I might see you needing turrets that early...but otherwise, those first two planets are generally pretty easy to nab without any turrets...2-4 LFs + scouts can deal with anything short of HCs, and if you are lucky to have a string of asteroids near you, then you certainly won't need to waste time with turrets on those...

Maybe my definition of "early" is different than yours...when I think early trade, I'm thinking when you have just your HW or maybe one other planet....I just don't see it to your benefit to go for trade at that point, even with lots of room....I'd rather fleet up so I have 3 expansion fronts and extra colony ships to grab neutrals, and once I hit around 4-5 planets, then setup trade simultaneously on all my planets....

Eco players won't fleet up, which makes having a 3rd expansion front more difficult...it's possible but often the AM regen rate alone on colony ships can really stop you up, which is why in that case (and only that case) would I go for trade before even getting my 3rd planet....

I usually take the asteroid with my colony frigate alone (necessitating a turret) - and if I stay in the Ice/Volc gravity well for longer than absolutely necessary that slows my expansion and makes my cap take more damage. Light frigates and flak frigates are simply too durable and relatively weak for them to be worth waiting for my cap to kill, especially when my cap can simply move on at the cost of only leaving a single scout behind, kiting indefinitely to draw off the militia.

The cost for delaying your capital for ship for 3? minutes is significantly more than the cost of a turret (or a single scout, if you do what I do). IMO.

Like I said, I similarly don't get trade until a while into the game, but mainly because I don't have the funds and am playing Vasari (4-lab trade).

Extra expansion fleets can be useful... against the AI, at least, but the investment into something like that instead of into trade or into military can be fatal against humans.

When I'm in eco or 1v1 I always use a colony cap which means AM is rarely an issue. (I should have clarified that at the start)

I usually send the colony frigate to the asteroid as well....but, I send two scouts and an LF to wipe out the krosov (using the colony ship as additional firepower)...once the krosov is gone, I make sure the pirate LF has less health than my LF, then tell the scouts to go off and doing something else...either that is scouting, or dealing with krosovs elsewhere...

I'm guessing that you don't do this because you play Vasari, who's LFs suck and whose scouts are too valuable and should be out nabbing neutrals...

The Akkan/Prog then goes to the ice/volcanic (unless I have a 2nd asteroid), and how many scouts/LFs go with it depends on how many flak and krosovs are present...usually I find that I can have the colony cap stay around for a minute or so to do a little extra damage, but I don't keep it there to finish off the ships entirely...I'd personally rather use scouts and LFs than a turret simply because the turret is a sunk cost while the frigates can go to other planets....

I'd say it depends on how the phase lanes work out....if you can get your multiple fleets to converge in time for rushing or defending against a rush, then I don't think it really hurts you....it's risky sometimes, no doubt, but it can work, especially in those 1v1s with lots of room...the nice thing too is that the colony ship for your 3rd expansion is probably going to be a necessity anyway to get far flung neutrals...

I do too but that's not the ship that is a concern...it's the colony frigates that are real troublesome, and I find having only one is a severe limitation to expansion...even if I stick to two expansion fronts, I still usually build a 2nd colony frigate simply so I can have that front (the one without the colony cap) continually moving...one colony frigate, and AM regen is a huge limiting factor...

If you fon't like rush, play on bigger map or make your custom map... by example, i have my own huge random multistar map... 10 star with a single player, no wormhole and 2 pirate base ( training ground )... + 10 star with no player, wormhole and 1 pirate base... until player have research the jump between star, your only problem is pirates and build a strong economy/defense...  but once the jump between star is researched, huge space battle begin...

Myself, i first build a few scout for explore... knowing where are the more interesting planet is great for plan colonize... knowing where are chook point is usefull for build a empire that you can easily protect... knowing where is your ennemy if the best way for no fall in a trap... knowing the shape of your star system is the only way for build the longuest trade post chain possible...

Once scouting begin, i build the first free capital, the colony one and begin jump only to planet that i can already colonize... once i colonize, i always upgrade the planet until the income move from red ( loose money ) to green ( generate money )... very early colony phase is made only with a single capital who can handle militie...

I begin some research to, i like very much the Hosiko... once i have research them, i build 2 of them who join the capital ship. if you have already colonize some planet, pretty sure that militia have somehow already damaged your capitalship... Hosiko will repair it allowing faster jump from one planet to a other ( don't need to wait for long repair before jump )... why min 2 Hosiko... well, it is the only way for repair each other since Hosiko cannot repair itself...

Beware, the capital+Hosiko work very good against AI because AI focus his attack on the capital ship... a online player will try to flank your capital and destroy the Hosiko first... Strategie for single player or online player are very different... 
 

 

You want a multistar map as player that doesnt like to rush. Use the map designer to make one. I believe the game manual( in your sins folder) will tell you what all the sliders are for. This will allow you to create maps that are more suited for your playstyle. Later on when you want to add some variety and do some new things you can download galaxy forge and really customize your maps( its pretty easy to use) and even add mods to enhance the game( i use Maelstrom Mod myself because it gives a ton of extra planet types, new ship class, and 3 new races and its pretty balanced).

But if you are more into the building an empire and then fighting an enemy taking and defending planets, etc then you want to start with a multi star map. I usually add a couple of stars and about  dozen or so planets around them  that have no playable NPC enemies and then put 1 playable NPC enemy per star so they have room to build an empire.

Starting out build a colony cap and some light frigates. I go for the long range frigate ASAP.Especially if you play Tec because the range is longer than defense guns so they can safely hit defense guns.Research wise you want the first research to go towards colonize Ice and Volcanic( you always get an asteroid and either an Ice or Volcanic on either side of you so i wait to see which one  that planet is). Colonize these 3 planets. Dont worry about upgrading your home planet at all.

Always build mines right away  and upgrade the planet pop fully so you get no tax penalty and you get the income from pop. If you need to upgrade for a research structure go ahead and do that but keep the upgrades to a min for now.Focus research on things that increase your economy specifically such as mining bonuses and population bonuses.

Go hit your next planet( this would be the 3rd you colonized yourself)  and repeat. Try to upgrade weapons, armor, and shields a little bit a long the way.

Train for another capital ship and build  either a battleship or the siege cap add this to your fleet. I run a group of 5 caps and about 10 LR frigs and i can pretty much take out any colony easily even pirate bases. So this is your goal. Dont worry about the fleet supply penalty to much just make enough supply to get all your caps and your 10 frigs.

Keep going around taking planets, upgrading pop to full and building mines. Leave the planets sit after that. Your wanting to build an economy up. Keep your research focused on  actual economic techs and on weapons/armor, shields, and HP and skip the rest for now. Build 1 Research structure per ice, volcanic,asteroid, and 2 for terran or desert until you have 8 of each.

Keep going and exploring your system. Within an hour you should have 5-10 planets.If you made it to  planet that is linked to the star good. If not make your way that way. I leave a scout parked at the star( the race i typically play does not get the advance warning like TEC does). Try to explore  the system as fast as possible( even if you use scouts just to see what it has in it).

You want to find you a choke point preferrably coming off the star with no other access points to the systems you own. This really depends on the phase lane chance set on the map. But you want a system that the enemy has to come through to get to your other systems. This is going to be your front line of defense for now.

This system fully upgrade the planet, its better if its a desert but a terran is the second best here. Build 1 cap factory and 2  frig factories( at least) hugging your planet on the side you expect the enemy to come from. Build 2 hangers apart from each other( one on each side but close to "front"). If you can build a starbase( i think that is a diplomacy thing)  build one out front that covers your ship factories with weapon range. Upgrade fully. Place weapon turrets mainly  in front between the direction  you expect the enemy to come and your planet.  Make sure the turrets can cover each other in range. I lay them on pretty thick up front and  put just enough around the planet that they can cover the planet for any siege frigs that decide to bomb it while im busy fighting.

Once you set this system up.Build 4 more starbase constructors and send them to the sun. Build 4 starbase at the sun. I build by the phase lane in a square formation so they concentrate firepower. Also if you havent starbase tech should be fully upgraded by now. Upgrade the bases. and build an equal amount of fighters and bombers per base( on the planets my planet hangers build all fighters and my starbase does a 50/50 split).

Now you have two lines of defense setup. The star should always be a priority for starbases. Any planets that would lead in to your empire ( i typically do one for each phase lane from the star) needs to be set up this way. So you want to do this first and secure your empire/system.

You will also want to move your home planet closer to the sun so you get better alligence and thus better economic returns. I usually make my defensive planet home and if it is threatened and i question if i can win i move it

Once your secure NOW you want to build up your empire. Go around a build up the planets you conquered,  conquer any left in the system. Build up logistics and defense. Always group you defenses together on the side the enemy is most likely to come from( the side that is more direct route from the star usually) build starbase at at every planet. I always set my systems up using the same defensive layout.

When you move to a new star and take new systems do the same thing but start with starbases. Send your fleet and  constructors ( i keep a defense fleet handy too by this point usually a small group of caps that can either restore shield or hull). But now you set each system up completely as you take it over. Dont  forget to add lots of culture structures throughout your empire.

You will find that this becomes really easy this way on easy. Soon you will be playing on vicious with multiple enemies tag teaming you  and pirates, etc.

I'm just going to throw this out there cause I like the idea, but have you considered a much bigger map? I mean, if there's just one other enemy, his focus is on you alone and a small system leaves you two toe to toe. So to buy you some time (after all, you're trying to learn the mechanics, not become an instant pro), maybe go with one or two players (no teams and locked) in a medium system. This gives you more time to get a feel for civ building and you can test the affect of certain upgrades on pirates. Not to mention the AIs spend some time on each other.

It also doesn't hurt to change the AI difficulty as the game progresses...you can start the AI on, say, normal difficulty level...save the game, exit to the main menu, then load that game again...the setup screen will actually allow you to change (among other things) the AI difficulty for each player....

It's usually better to up the AI as the game progresses and things start getting easy than to downgrade them when things get too rough...

If thing are really too much hard, start the game with "Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy Dev.exe"... mainly used by mod devs for testing purpose... but can be used for easy your learning process... more info at http://soase.weebly.com/developer-exes.html

What capital ship are you building? My recommendation is not building the colonization cap ship but rather one that can do more damage initially, perhaps the battleship or the planetary bomber and then use a colony ship as the colonizer instead. Also, you might also not want to do too much fleet research until you have several planets ready to go. If you are playing Tech, it is recommended that you don't do military research but rather civilian research get up to 3 civ research labs, once you have the 3rd lab ditch all of your research and focus on getting the tradeport. Like it was said above, even if you just have the HW, plop one down. Make sure you are putting one down in each of the planets you are holding.

You could just get the first cap ship though. Although the debate should be whether it should be either the Mazra (or equivalent) or Akkan (or equivalent) or even the Kol (or equivalent), carrier pretty much useless unless you already have a fleet ready, support makes total sense although you might still want an aggressive cap instead. Also there is also how you are spending the capital ship points. Spend on techs that either increasing your damage capacity, like in the Mazra I would go for either radiation bomb, or the incendiary bullets. Don't bother increasing your ship's level, you are bound to get a level or two if you just attack default ships in a new planet.

Uh, what?  The carriers are fairly potent stand-alone forces with superb firepower from their strike craft.  Certainly you must be cautious around an enemy fleet with an unsupported carrier, but they're rip through militia.  The Kol is a joke against militia; it has durability but its damage output is a fraction of a Sova equipped with missile platforms (seriously, three bomber squadrons alone does as much damage as level 1 Kol).  The carriers may look like they have poor defenses, but their defense is a good offense; kill anything that moves before it can deal serious damage.  Against anything but the largest militia forces, a level 1 Sova with all bombers and missile platforms will prevail.  Not only that, but it wins its battles considerably faster, while the Kol is still chugging it out by attrition.

Dunov makes no sense as an opener.  Its damage output is abysmal and its abilities don't even begin to shine until you're level 5 with one of them maxed out and with higher antimatter regeneration.  The opener choices for TEC are Akkan, Sova, and Marza, and if we're talking competitive multiplayer you can forget about Marza.

Strongly disagree with this.  If you want more damage, you should build combat frigates.  Capital ships offer cool special abilities, and abilities that offer only damage either need to be very powerful (like the Sova's missile platforms) or they just aren't worth getting at all.  I find the carriers are the only capital ships with respectable combat abilities (with the possible except of Kortul).  Incendiary Shells in particular is horrible and you should never invest points in it, and my opinion is that all Marza's should specialize in raze planet and radiation bomb.

Ah...fine memories of modding are coming back....

Lots of great advice in this thread. Why do not the devs or someone on this forum make an instructional video that teaches the same things? I myself would but I do not have the horsepower to run fraps.