win sooner.

play online.

It's the FFA setting.... Make teams, and then you will see some large fleets, within 2 hours for sure.

Have fun, and welcome to the game

Not so sure about this one really but if you're up for a SC2 style click fest then sure. Advanced tactics such as flanking, decoying, macro and micro managing your ships and their abilities as well as fleet composition and what goes where can be had on larger maps with harder AI opponents (to a point). Online offers some of this but at the fastest game setting more often then not.

SivCorp is right as well about setting teams at least 2 AI on a team for starters). You will see them start to attack your planets from different locations, trying to draw off your fleet from one planet to another and when you jump, the other AI swoops in to attack the planet you just left, etc etc. You can see this on longer games with FFA though the alliances there are more fragile. A good suggestion is to start some AI on teams with each other but leave the teams unlocked.

Well yes of course the tactics aren't on the level that you'd see in SC2 - but SC2 could be quite accurately reclassified as real time tactics. However, despite the fact that tactics are not the focus of sins I have certainly been beaten in the past by  better players based on superior tactics. Certainly if you are a front liner with a paucity of ships and planets you have time to micro a great deal more - and indeed you are wise to, since each ship can mean so much in those situations. Certainly I'd rather be the player that can use more advanced tactics at will should I need to.

I find your comment about fleet composition odd, the choice of ships you use is one of the key determinants in victory online.

The point I was trying to make is that on easier AI settings you can get away with spamming one or two types of units and not worry so much about the individual fleet makup and the tactics that are available because of this. When you ramp up the difficulty setting it forces you to consider your fleet make-up (again, to a point) more carefully and often makes it harder to spam one or two ships. Because of this you need to consider more advanced tactics, an understanding of dps, anti-matter usages from abilities etc.

Playing against a real person, regardless of the game settings is the ultimate test of these skills.

An Excessive amount of resources means you are having a macro problem. Which means you a) need to build more expensive units or build more frigate factories.

nzmx I find you to be very boring indeed-so if normal difficulty is too easy for you then what do you think you should do you ignorant *** ** ** *****?

Beating the normal ai and saying the game is too easy is evidence you were dropped when you were a baby...

edit:

as for everyone else--make it a habbit as joke to your self to set the difficulty to the hardest level and see how long you survive--its hilarious how you die the first couple of times--from there lower it-then again--and ofcourse try learn everything you can.

I set vicious ai after my first week and laughed my head off at the fleet that came for me--im a wanted fugitive but i didn't deserve that kind of punishment

Edit:

And don't forget to choose aggressor ai! Thats the best part--oh this ai spanks noobs--i love it-my cousin got a spanking for 3 months on hard-i did absolutely nothing to help him because i simply said you must learn to stand up for yourself you ignorant  *etc*

RiddleKing - noun: 1) a troll on the SoaSE forums that is not to be taken seriously under any circumstances  2) a source of entertainment that is to be enjoyed, not trifled with

Play as Vasari Rebels, build only 15 Antoraks and a Colony frigate, and conquer the galaxy. There's a challenge right there.

Seriously though, try online. It's a lot more fun!