Wrath89

I really suspect that it isn't supposed to be this hard...

[quote who="Thoumsin" reply="4" id="3029508"]I believe you... so Devs, if you read this, be sure to add a "Forum" button on the main menu of Rebellion...[/quote] For God's sake, this!

[quote who="wiesehano" reply="58" id="3029548"]Well, do you have more information of this kind? I'd need those. I play the game for a long time. Nevertheless, I think at this time I'd lose against nearly everyone of you. [/quote] Here you go. This is part of the multiplayer strategy guide I have - it's not all that relevant to single-player because the AI is too stupid to use ships effectively (just spam LRF or bombers to kill AI). Each ship has an armor type and a

It depends on how many and what sort of planets you have. In the end, if you'll be fighting a long war of attrition, you'll definitely want to fill out all leftover slots with trade ports (or, rarely, refineries). When I get trade in the first place I try to build my starting trade chain using only the default logistics slots, without upgrading. After that I get the (cheapest) logistics upgrade on asteroids, which gives me 2 more slots for trade cheaply. Then I can upgrade a s

And neutral extractors can service up to 4 refineries, also, unlike the usual 3. But due to planet arrangements, getting that last slot on the neutrals used is rarely useful given the opportunity cost (a trade port).

Building a refinery per planet as a rule of thumb is definitely not an efficient use of your funds...

[quote who="carnun" reply="37" id="3029418"]I'm mostly a vasari player but what about starting with flak to slow the LRF down long enough start spamming illum?[/quote] You'll be incredibly weak to capital ships if you start with flak instead of Illums or Disciples. 2 carrier caps bombing your front line world when you don't have Disciples or Illum means you lose the planet, plus a good amount of investment into the planet. [quote]I always want to try and get discip

I usually take the asteroid with my colony frigate alone (necessitating a turret) - and if I stay in the Ice/Volc gravity well for longer than absolutely necessary that slows my expansion and makes my cap take more damage. Light frigates and flak frigates are simply too durable and relatively weak for them to be worth waiting for my cap to kill, especially when my cap can simply move on at the cost of only leaving a single scout behind, kiting indefinitely to draw off the militia. The

[quote who="Seleuceia" reply="10" id="3029352"]I've seen TEC eco players plop a trade port on their HW before they even have their 3rd planet, so I started doing it myself (as eco player only), and honestly I found it to be a pretty solid strategy...I think the biggest reason why this strategy works is that there is nothing else to invest those resources in.... If you really are an eco player, then you will want to avoid fleet upgrades (even the first one) like the p

Desyncs are quite rare. It's only happened to me once, a couple months ago, and I play a LOT. On the other hand, minidumps create serious problems. Minis aren't that common, but when they happen they often completely ruin a game (at least in the common 5v5 on ICO).

[quote who="DirtySanchezz" reply="6" id="3029305"]If you guys are really having a problem, try logging onto Ironclad Online (the "Ironclad Online") button and just play over ICO.[/quote] This.

[quote who="Seleuceia" reply="47" id="3029359"]Furthermore, I believe all ships will actually spawn at the frigate factory you constructed first, independent of which factory within the gravity well you give construction orders to (IIRC, this even applies to TEC SBs with factories on them)....if I'm wrong on this, someone please correct me because this is a mechanic I don't fully understand (as in, why they would do this other than for simplicity's sake)....[/quote] I

[quote who="DahrAmahr" reply="44" id="3029164"]One more thing I've discovered. Seems to me that building more than one shipyard on one planet is pointless. It doesn't mean 2 ships are being build simultanously and it doesn't make 1 ship being build twice as fast. It seems that it's just a waste of slots (figured it out after building 4 factories on a border planet hoping that it will allow me to mass frigates and support cruizers at an increased rate but it didn't)[/quote]

An hour for taking an asteroid and the other planet? Ouch. I recommend focusing on frigates instead of capital ships in the early-game. Frigates provide a lot more firepower for their cost than do capital ships.

You need to learn to colonize planets as fast as possible. In random small, that's one of the keys to winning. Try this: when you warp to a new planet with militia, priority target the siege frigates, and then colonize. Build a single turret (Gauss Defense Platform if you're TEC) and then warp your entire fleet out to the next planet. This can save you multiple minutes - the turret will take care of light frigates, flak frigates, and a Heavy Cruiser if there's one. (if the

[quote who="Draakjacht" reply="134" id="3029060"]Going for a strong, late game race with phase missiles that kick ass? Yeah, imagine that.[/quote] Don't forget the 1-tier Assailants and the SB on your HW 4 minutes into the game.

[quote who="GoaFan77" reply="132" id="3029036"]I don't really want to put a lot of extra rules on the first game (besides the stacked teams), and as people can usually pick whatever race they want I think that's what they should do. If all the pros pick Vasari or something than so be it.[/quote] Which they will. Except Auq, who'll go random. That's my guess, at least.

[quote who="carnun" reply="21" id="3028998"]I think they really need to deal with the presence of smurfs (i.e. experts posing as newbies). I think this can be really damaging to the learning experience of new players. Tying player names to their Stardock account or just not allowing multiple player names would really help. Might get a byproduct of people not acting like complete morons at the same time since they can't just change their name.[/quote] The devs have stated that ther

It's not happening.

Most importantly: "BuildModuleTactical"

[quote who="JA_394" reply="11" id="3028918"]Do the DT guys understand this? They've got some bad attitudes...[/quote] Yes. [quote]Besides, I know if I go online, I'll wind up playing... which I don't want to do... that's the competitor I am. Then despite my hatred, I'll probably get hooked on it, then I'll realize I don't have as much time as I need to actively get on there, and then I'll cry...[/quote] .... .......

[quote who="JA_394" reply="9" id="3028911"]Someone made a post the other day about helping the newer players instead of doing the above... was after that star guy trashed me for giving my opinion.[/quote] If you give your opinion without knowing how things actually are on ICO, I can't say I blame him much. Seriously, it takes 20 seconds to log onto ICO. Idle in chat or in game chat lobbies if you want. You'll find that most players are nice enough. I, for one, very rar

JA, if you ever actually played online, especially nowadays, you'd find that troublemakers on Sins are few and far between. Nearly everyone's nice enough as long as you have some idea of what you're doing and aren't completely clueless. Even then, there are quite a few new players online due to Steam. Trash-talking etc is quite rare, as are exploits.

[quote who="Angryrabbit88" reply="3" id="3028900"]thanks wrath89 that was good info. I logged into the chat channel and there was only 1 other person there. on the join game option there was only one game. Is this the norm as far as online population?[/quote] All of the online action is on the Diplomacy server. Right now there are 107 players online and 10 people in the lobby. The ordinary Sins and Entrenchment servers rarely have anyone on.

If you're playing a multistar map you shouldn't be surprised that games take a really long time and that the AI takes a very long time to attack. If you're looking for an actual challenge, seriously, consider playing against opponents who actually have a halfway decent sense of strategy - that is, against humans. The AI falls to the same stupid predictable strategies every time and never learns, even with ridiculous income/research advantages :(