ComradeYakov

I haven't played in a while, MP especially. Last time I played, bombers were gods, and Vas bombers were the king of bombers. Is this still the case, or have bombers been balanced so that the 5 skirantra rush is no longer an insti-win for a Vas player? Can fighters actually counter them now? Also, are caps still more or less big fat targets, or have they been buffed/ lrf+bombers nerfed to the point where they're a viable part of one's strategy? I remember tha

Dude, don't start out trying to beat vicious AIs. They're, well, vicious. Insane production bonuses, cheat for resources, all that stuff. Start out with normal (or even easy) and work your way up beating one at a time. Once you can beat hard/unfairs 1v1, try going against two or three, either unlocked or teamed against you. But vicious are, arguably, a bigger threat early in the game than humans are, just because it takes time for human intelligence to turn the tide, but the AIs start off wit

If you're trying to use them against bombers, yeah, they suck. They absolutely destroy fighters, though. You'll need about 1 flack for every 1-2 fighter squads, but that will totally destroy the fighter squads; they won't hardly be able to launch. And the flack can still do other stuff while the carriers are useless.

Just a fyi, there isn't a "main singleplayer component" in the sense of a campaign or a set of maps to beat. There is only skirmish. TEC is probably the easiest to learn, as they require the least micromanagement, and have both the easiest economy to get rolling, and the best economy overall. As far as I'm concerned, no, it's not worth it just for single player. Not that the AI isn't reasonably challenging (I've yet to best the Vicious AI, though

You come back to/keep playing sins... I've played a number of games lately, and the only smurfs I've found have been self-identifying smurfs. If the teams were unfair, it was only because people jumped right into them, or else because we had no real good way to balance the teams. 2v2s, 3v3s are certainly still doable, even if 4v4s, 5v5s are a little scarce.

Itharus - Although the repair cloud heal doesn't stack directly, having multiple caps allows you to continuously use the ability without having to wait (as long) for cooldowns/AM regen.

You need to expand quickly, not slowly. That's your problem. Because planets are your chief source of resources, you need to move quicly to claim as many as you can. Pick the colonizer cap for your race, support it with 5 scouts (set to auto-attack) and 4-5 light frigates, and go grab planets. Get the roids, and get ice and volcanics. Grab the terrans and deserts, too - but be careful, their militias are much stronger. Civilization is turn-based strategy. RTS is real ti

In terms of the online community, it depends on the people. Usually, if you're willing to self identify as a newbie (so they know you're not a smurf - a vet under a new name, often trying to stack teams) and are willing to communicate with your allies, most people will be ok with a newbie. Also, there are more new players out there, now, so it's easier for new players to integrate.

colby_wolf - Your antivirus software/firewalls may be blocking it. I know I have Symantec, and I have to disable it in order to play regular or entrench online.

I wouldn't mind rushing with LF (Light frigates, Skirmisher, Cobalt, or Disciple) on anything where you're more than two jumps from the enemy. I'm not sure I'd try it on less than one. Especially against vasari, they'll almost certainly have LRF, which butcher LF. By the time you can rush over more than two jumps, they'll also have 2-3 planets, including their homeworld. Maybe 4, if they're doing fast colonize. While you focus on clearing out the HW, they'll set up factories and spam a ton of

Subverters also have an area of effect disable, which is accounting for the numerical disparity (6 subs for 20 Enforcers). Actually, if it took him 6 subs to hit 20 enforcers, you either have your enforcers spread out, or he's bad at using subs. Since you said he was an AI, it's probably the latter.

Lol. You would be, except the prof who taught my con Law class would mention Judge Wopner from time to time.

Well, there's a topic killer... dang.

Are you playing diplomacy with pirates, JJ? Because reports are pretty much unanimous that the way they've changed pirates made them over powered, not weak and pathetic like they used to be.

Yeah, it's pretty well known that pirates are ridiculously powerful. I think (hope?) the devs know it, too. Not much you can do until they decide to fix it, except play without pirates.

The key in repulse is that it allows Illums to defeat HCs. While the range of repulse is about the same, if not slightly more than that of the illums, once you establish a perimiter with repulse, you maneuver your illums into maximal firing position. I've only used it once or twice, so I don't know if it's possible to get them into range with their sidebeams - it probably depends on how spread out the HCs are. Since HCs are supposed to counter LRF, it's a really nasty trick to drop on somebod

I don't know how much an issue they are for new players. I think for most pros, it's not a matter of them being easy experience - they're just annoying to deal with. The vets want to fight each other directly, through a battle of production, micro, and strategic positioning, without dealing with outbidding each other for the pirates, or dealing with periodic pirate raids. Thus, I doubt this would have any effect on them being off for pros games.

If people can join your game, but aren't, I'm guessing there's an issue with the map or the kind of game you want to play. Locked team games are most popular, and very few people want to play with pirates on. People usually prefer the fastest game settings available, though with diplomacy, there may be a lot of "fast" speed holdouts. With larger games, people usually prefer single-star to multi-star maps. Also, most of the MP community isn't interested in fighting the AI - they want all PvP.

In terms of credits v. the other two resources, you don't need to prioritize one over the other. Try to get as much as possible of all of them. However, later in the game you will find that it's a lot easier to gain credits than the other resources, as trade ports are far more efficient and far more productive than refineries. In that respect, yes, creds can be most valuable, as it is generally (I believe, haven't done the math myself) better to build a good trade chain and buy resources (lat

Maybe I'm just not getting them in the right places.

How does that work with a "few" subs? My experience has been one sub can only knock out one ship at a time. Am I missing something, or are you working with a very loose definition of "a few?" Yeah, Vas definitely takes the most micro, between subs and overseers, plus cap abilities. (There may be something I'm forgetting - I've just started playing with vas). Advent have a lot of channeling and AoE abilities, making them a lot easier to micro. Just switch between guardia

I would start in the strategy section of the forums. Read about basic game mechanics, basic strategies, and especially units. Find out what units counter what units, what support cruisers have what abilities, what cap ship abilities do, etc. Or you can just play around. Reserach random stuff, look at the ship descriptions, and try to figure out how stuff works. Either way.

What you encountered are the defensive militia that are randomly generated at each planet. They aren't controlled by your AI opponents- they just stay there and attack anything that comes in. Btw, congrats on getting the game. Any chance you'll be joining us for MP (after you practice up a bit?)

Yeah, pretty much. Like I said, wasn't as bad. Was still kind of annoying, but not enough to warrent a post here. The second time was flat out deliberate, as I remember.

The other time was the game immediately before that, and he didn't do it quite as badly. Just wouldn't answer when me (his only remaining teamate) and the entire other team were calling on him to toss it in. Once I finally got sick of it and quit, the game ended soon after.