Cyclometh

20 planets? That's less than 1/4 of the size of the map I'm playing on now. I'm advancing, but slooooowly. Everyone else is smaller than me but can field a maxed fleet too. I can't grow any larger as it just becomes a resource drain trying to play whackamole with frontier systems. My fleets are set up well enough and my tech advanced enough that I've destroyed 2 enemy fleets of the same size without losing anything but a frigate. (one of them has finally caught on to the milita

You can research a "Warning System" that tells you when enemy ships are jumping to your systems. Quite handy.

xBa1x: There has to be a happy medium somewhere between the impossible disadvantage and the inevitable stalemate.

This is a great discussion, btw. I've gained some good insights into other strategies I can apply, so regardless of anything else, that's awesome. :)

[quote]Cyclo : Depends on Shield mitigation, I forgot that mechanic somewhat encourages small fleets. [/quote] Good point. Maybe there's other ways to encourage smaller fleets without mucking about with the cap?

[quote] Just an example, If they did fleet caps like they did in the beta: Of course there is more of a colony rush, because without more planets than your enemy, you cannot field as large of a fleet as him. So lets say you get 3 planets and he gets 6 planets. Well, now, whats the point of playing anymore if right off the bat he can field twice as big a fleet. Its a game, and it has to be fun for both players, and the losing player has to feel like the have a

[quote] A fleet twice the size won't cut through the defenses in half the time, making it simpler to capture a truly massive fleet like that and just grind it to meat. There's a point where it's not really useful to have more ships in a fleet, but rather more useful to have *more* fleets, which is the real crux of the problem. With the exception of travel time, a fleet twice as big cuts through defenses in *less* than half of the time. [/

[quote] It doesn't really scale linearly like that. If you have a fleet of size X, then it doesn't follow that a fleet of size X*2 will take twice as long to defeat, assuming you bring X*2 forces as well. I'd just like to be able to field fleets of approximately the same size in more places than I currently can to supplement the hard-locked static defenses. If both forces are double in size, the battle will last approximately the same d

[quote] It's simply impractical to be able to defend in wide-open Huge maps with few or no chokepoints. You can defend but never advance, or you can advance but only if you lose other planets. That's where strategy come in. You can't have your cake and eat it too. At least with the AI and when I have a huge empire it's no big deal to loses a few planet if I can wipe out an AI player (at least destroy it's capital) as this is much closer to victory than gain a few mor

[quote]I like the Fleet % system because it requires a little more strategy. It like in chess you have to be careful when you move a pawn since they can't move backward , the same with increasing your fleet size as the cost can't be reversed. [/quote] I think the % system is a little strange, because as someone pointed out, it's a percentage of what you earn, which depending on your economy could be wildly different on a per-point basis. Seems like a Kol Battleship should take about the

[quote] While an effective strategy, it's really kind of boring, takes for EVER, and isn't much fun. I'd prefer on a really big map to have a higher fleet cap so I could coordinate my defense better while still having a viable offense. Yet increasing the fleet size in reality only makes your small number fleets larger so to make defense even weaker. Also as some players here noted sometimes it better to sacrifice a few planets to focus on wip

[quote] It's taken two days of play sessions to push my way into 3 planets, because I simply can't defend all the places they attack. Raising the fleet cap would only make this problem worse. Let's say the fleet cap raises by 50%, so then you have 50% more defenders at all your planets. But.. the Enemy force is also 50% bigger, so your odds of winning are exactly the same (less actually, because your defenses count for less with more units) [/quote]<b

The issue as I see it is that the cap isn't any larger for larger maps or more systems. Consider the analogy of a piece of toast and some butter. What if you have 4 pieces of toast- you'd want more butter to cover them all with just the right amount of saturated fatty goodness. But you now have four pieces of toast and only one pat of butter. You can try to divide it, but then you just have sucky toast with not enough butter. You could put it on one piece and enjoy that but th

Only if we can build space stations on planets that don't have moons. So when someone phase jumps in, they say "That's no moon..." /here all week.

Yup, this is definitely an issue. Not sure if it's Vista-specific. I run Vista x64 Ultimate edition and no screenshots are ever created. I assume Ironclad/Stardock are aware of this issue, but if not it should be put into the 1.03 patch if practical.

[quote] I don't like how the AI continually will band together in 3 or 4 on 1 against me, but never goes after each other. I've yet to see an AI player eliminated by anyone but me. Did you try "locked teams" + one A.I. per separate team in the game setup ? [/quote] No, I wanted a FFA but what happens is the AI always bands together vs me in 3 and 4 vs 1. I have yet to see the AI actually fire a shot at each other.

I want to threaten the AI, and if they reject me, follow it up with a shot to the nose (3 novaliths at a single planet), followed by another threat. I don't like how the AI continually will band together in 3 or 4 on 1 against me, but never goes after each other. I've yet to see an AI player eliminated by anyone but me.

For fun, build lots of novalith cannons and turn them on autocast. ;)

I usually go for capitals; they're the biggest investment and hurt the most to lose. Microing a fleet to go after flak frigates would be a nightmare anyway. :) However, it gives me an idea- we should be able to set general target priorities for a fleet. Something that would be the same for all races, so just general classifications of target priority. It would have to be coded so that it would give non-exclusive priority; it'd suck to have a higher-pri target clear acr

Pirates are great in MP maps. Make lots and lots of credits and send them after your opponents. It's fun and rewarding! ;) And never leave a planet undefended, build active and passive defenses as quickly as you can reasonably accomplish it. It slows them down long enough for your fleet(s) to arrive and put the hurt out.

Same here. Found the folder, but no screenshots.

Build your economy and grab resources at first, it helps. Lots of credits is an excellent way to keep the others off your back by pumping bounty, and it gives you the opportunity to start working on upgrading your planets- it's not just defenses, it's the planets themselves, especially population and emergency facilities. re pirates: I love it when the enemy sends a big f**-off capship fleet, I repel them and put 5K bounty on them and don't hear from them again for half an hour. :D

[quote] Been playing a Huge Random with 9 AI opponents for a few days now. At first I was annoyed by how badly turrets suck. Then I found that with a combination of as many hangars as I could cram into a system, a repair station or two, and a planetary shield makes the difference. Obviously, I'm playing TEC. You should try Advent. 3 Squadrons per hangar (but increased tactical slot cost) and research upgrades that boost all bomber and fighter squadron

Been playing a Huge Random with 9 AI opponents for a few days now. At first I was annoyed by how badly turrets suck. Then I found that with a combination of as many hangars as I could cram into a system, a repair station or two, and a planetary shield makes the difference. Obviously, I'm playing TEC. My front line systems have withstood attacks from 3 massive, multiple capship fleets from 3 different AI opponents arriving on multiple phase lanes within 1-2 minutes of each other, when my

Dammit, and I bought mine a few days ago. I doubt they'd like it if I went back with an open and empty box just to take a snap. :D