Smacksim

No timer, but hover over the ability to see the times. They do go up as you level the Colonize ability. I think it starts at 240 or 360 seconds. In the early game there is no sense waiting till you have resources or levels to colonize. You need the mines and logistics spots more than you need to maximize the benefits. But in mid game it certainly is worthwhile to have stockpiled resources. As soon as the ability kicks in, you'll see the price drop, then queue up all the upgrades you'll want on t

[quote]There's times when a planet is DIRECTLY beneath another planet. I really really hate that as it makes it nearly impossible to click on anything in the lower planet's grav well.[/quote] Had that happen. Its annoying, but makes for an interesting tactical variation otherwise, because the phase lanes work much differently between the vertically aligned planets.

Some of the Cap Ship abilities are a bit ambiguous in this regard. Do we have definitive answers?

It hurts your economy directly. But there is no ongoing fee, if that is what you mean?

.1 cred / second more, per link in the chain. Length = 5, each trade port will make 1.5. Refineries, I don't know. I think it's a percent increase in each mine's output, but not sure.

Makes for a quick way to satisfy diplomacy requests involving civic structures too. Or in a pinch, tactical structures.

That is a better [I]modus operandi[/I], empirecitizen, for sure. Thanks for the addition/correction.

Concerning diplomacy with the AI. Send Pirates when you can afford them, to your next victim, or perhaps 2 victims down the road. Don't bid up slowly. Bid all at once > 1500 ( Don't give metal, crystal, or cash, to anyone, unless y

In multi-star maps remember to consider the star as a point of entry. And sometimes the AI gets clever with wormhole attacks behind your lines as well, but those are pretty hard to counter. Generally, on a 3-star large random map vs. AI I try to have only 2 planets defended in the early-mid game. Sometimes this means expanding in certain directions and skipping others till later. Its worth it.

Interesting tactic. The kind of ability I tend to ignore, but you're right to try to get a use out of it. I played a random map the other night where there were no Ice planets for some reason in my starting star system. Lots of cash --> scout armada? Could be worth it in some situations.

You can't field much of a fleet without a strong economy. Then again, you can't build a strong economy without 'convincing' planets to join your cause. You get a lot more mileage from adding planets than researching economics though, except trade ports and colonize all planets abilities. Multiplayer and single player are very different. The AI will not: cruise around your choke points to 'inner worlds', build much of an economy, build varied fleets, build much in the way of planetary de

Pirates DO jump stars. I've had it happen when most of their fleet was occupied with the last raid, so reinforcements came to complete the new raid (large random map, 3 stars). As to the second question, I think you should try it with many pirates and let us know what happens. I suspect that only a normal amount of pirates will come. They seem fairly organized between systems to me.