Welcome!

My first question is if you have played a true 4X game before?

You see Sins is a 4X game at heart, it is just in a continuous time mode, what most call RTS. Just to clarify 4X stand for Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate and this is what you do in Sins in that order. It plays much more like a standard turnbased 4X than a general RTS game. Yeah you can rush and do all usual RTS things if you like, it's just harder and not as effective. I'm telling you this so that you'll not try to play it as most RTS games.

I remember the same thing as you with my first combat. Try it again and do it like this: Build a capital ship factory and a capital ship, the first is free. Build a capital ship that can colonise. Build two scouts and set them on auto exploring by right clicking the icon for that on their command bar. Clear some asteroids with your cap (Short for Capital ship.), colonise and build them up. Return to your home planet with your cap, build all the frigates you can and create a fleet with them and your capital ship. Set your fleet so that all your ships jump at the same time and go attack a planet.

Now is where you can make the combat go faster. Instead of just letting them fight by themselves give them orders. A common tactic in the start is to click your fleet, have all ships attack siege frigates, colonise the planet when they're dead and then mop up.

For a more effective combat strategy target the neutral enemy ships in this order: LRM Frigates, Light Frigates, Siege Frigates, heavy Cruisers and Flak Frigates. Then go and colonise the planet.

It depends on the planet. If it doesn't have Heavy Cruisers kill the Siege frigates, colonise and then mop up in the order I wrote. Otherwise kill them all first. Well you can leave the Flak frigates for after you've colonised, they don't do much damage to your ships, they're just hard to kill.

Oh and I assume you know to build your resource mines, planet population and that stuff.

Edit: I forgot one thing. This being a 4X it's very slow in the beginning, much more than in standard RTS games. Though it will speed up as your resources start to get up to speed to the point where it's actually as fast as standard RTS or faster because you have much more to manage here than in them.

Heh Timmaigh. Sounds like you fall in the same trap as me sometimes.

-Hm. I'm low on Crystal income and have some spare so I'll invest in a better tech there. While I'm at it I'll do some metal too. Could use some more credits so more population tech it is!

-Hum de doo now the resources and credits are rolling! Though I could use some more. One more economy tech cant hurt.

-Eh. Hard to find room for military labs. Some will do. I'll research some ship design while I'm building a OMG Awesome economy.

-OMG Where did the giant enemy armada come from!

If you are a fan of "modern RTSs" (the ones advertizing five minute rushes while the TV commercials are running) you won't have much fun with Sins. In the aspect of empire-building and diplomacy Sins is a lot closer to the Anno series or Civilisation than to C&C or Starcraft. Having grown up with RA and Total Annihilation I had to adjust some at first, but found this kind of gamestyle to be lots of fun aswell (I've also become a big Anno fan around the same time I discovered Sins. Coincidence? ).

Btw, while the setup-phase in Sins is a lot slower than in smaller scale RTSs the mid and lategame can still be quite frantic and demanding, depending on your opponent. Most important is the ablility to distribute attention and resources over multiple "battlefields" (or gravitywells) effectively, which is quite challenging and enjoyable. The slower earlygame also gives players some time to research, and since every player likes to put the focus in different techs you end up with very different scenarios when finally facing them, which I like a lot.

(And ending games quickly is possible in Sins, too. Rushing for the enemy homeworld is fully possible in smaller games, you don't neccesarily have to take over all planets around you before you strike. But just like in other RTS games it is quite risky, you might end up sacrificing your fleet and most of your resources leaving your broke and defenseless).

Yes the tutorials stink. A proper connected tutorial would be great. Maybe tell part of the story around the factions in it. One day in some remote Trader space sector the first Vasari ships appear. TEC forces investigate, get attacked, retreat, eco up, build defenses. Then the Advent send over their culture, TECs need to set up a broadcast center. Some fighting, first offense then defense, everyone sends an envoy and the player gets to form a ceasefire. Yay, most features explained in one go and no silly one-planet-sandbox-level and a popup telling you "build structure here".

Am I the only Sins fan here that started his gaming career with turnbased strategy games? And see the connection it have with grand oldies like Master of Orion and more recent Space Empires? Because I think that it's there Sins have it's roots and if you want to get into it as a new player that is a good starting point. If you have played them or something similar that is. So IMHO as strange as it sounds I think referring to TBS (Turn based Strategy games.) is the most accurate way to describe Sins.

End rant.

Yeah, I suppose i wanted to say, its not ONLY about combat, did not mean to imply the combat is worthless or something. My bad. 

I also came from a TBS background:

• Alpha Centauri (SMAC/X)
• Civilization 3/4/5 (All expansions)
• Total War (Shogun I & II, Rome + BI, Medieval II + Kingdoms, Empire)
• Galactic Civiliztions II (All expansions)

I really don't think Sins is comparable to any of these games, and yet, despite being a very heavy TBS player, I absolutely love Sins and it is the only true RTS game that I enjoy...

So while I don't think you can call Sins a TBS, I have to say there is something strangely peculiar with Sins that makes it very appealing to someone with a TBS background....

I dare say it's because it's not about frantically clicking units, abilities and maxing your build order so you can get out units faster that your opponent.

Sins is a 4X in continuous time and the focus with it is 4X not time. Which I think is the key. It's not fast until you start throwing around multiple fleets and by that time you're mostly more or less set with researches and economy building. Also your fleets can manage tolerable on their own so you can toss a fleet at an enemy and then concentrate on something else for a while without getting a catastrophe.

Have you tried the Kohan games from Timegate Studios? They are very different from Sins but I've found they are similar with Sins by the fact that they attract TBS players even though they are in continuous time. If you do try them get Kohan: Ahrimans Gift. That is probably the game I've played the most ever. It's a masterpiece.

Well that's Advent. They live and die by buffs and abilities.

Been there done that and I got stressed out and lost the Fun. So Now I just use autocast. What I lose in battle management I usually get back in managing my empire. But you already know that I recon.

Edit: Strange. Why did that quote fail? Bug report!

Awesome responses folks. I am very impressed with the community. You guys are a class act, thanks.

I actually come from Alpha Centauri, Ascendancy, MOO, MOO2 and 3 and am very familiar with the 4x game type. Granted, I haven't played one in quite some time and going into Sins thinking it was an RTS like Homeworld I had missed expectations.

I now have recalibrated and am going into Trinity and giving things a whirl.

So many good suggestions here I want to thank all of you for them. think you've earned another fellow player to the ranks.

give me some time to learn as it appears there's a fairly steep curve to ascend.

Cheers

Chris

Yes the learning curve is very steep but it is also short, a few days of gameplay should get you comfortable with all the basics. I would suggest that you learn the game from the Tek perspective due to their early strong economy and also because they are human and I feel the most intuitive, then Vasari and finally the Advent due their weak early game compared to the other two even though you may possibly end up enjoying the Advent the most.