Starting Strategy

THATS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!!

anyway, um geussing you're playing on normal speed-- tht size map will run you 6-8 hours on average you can increase the gamee speed by up to x8(same in the last 10years rts games)

anyway don't get scared about multiplay it'll take you a few single player game to get the basic's and then about 5games in multiplay to get up to speed.

as for pointers, remember to scout, if you know what he has you know what to build.

hi XaviorFist,

A few things to start well:

All of this is happening at the same time, basically as soon as the game loads...

I like to build my capital ship factory first thing, as you get a free capital ship.  I usually go for the colonizing cap, which is really helpful at getting planets quickly.  Make sure you kill any siege ships before you colonize, but you can finish off the rest of the militia after you colonize, since they will focus on your cap and can't hurt the planet.  You don't really need many other ships in the first 5 minutes of play, as your cap can kill neutral ships and colonize their planets just fine...Order of priority in colonization is something like closest 1. Asteroids 2. Deserts 3. Terrans 4. Ice 5. Volcanic 6. Dead asteroids.  The last two will never give you positive income to speak of...   

Build crystal extractors first, then metal.  Crystal will usually be more scarce than metal throughout the game.

You are right to upgrade your planet population ASAP.  This will be your main source of income throughout the game, so upgrade your planets quickly and often after you grab them.  If you don't you can actually end up with negative income...

You want to build ships at least to the first fleet cap as soon as you have colonized your first asteroid.  Keep expanding, but make sure you have a group of 10 frigates or so to back you up in case you get attacked. 

Chose one tree of research, economy or military, to focus on early, and work to get the benefits of that tree before moving to something else (so if you go econ, get trade ports before you go military...if you go military, upgrade to a higher ship type or two before you look at econ)

This should get you beyond 5 planets in 90 minutes, but if you run into trouble let us know

i was wondering about alternative strategies such as building a capital ship as soon as possible. I don't know if anyone here has played Supreme commander but when forged alliance expansion came out the game changed from a turtling game to a rush game. I was thinking things outside teh box that could work and might actually revolutionize the game.

Lol i just had a post as i posted this so the capital ship thing was already taken.

we all build a capshipas soon as we can.

as Ke5trel stated the first 1 is free. build the capship factory and order it to build the colonizer capship-- if you play tec you may wanna get a marza instead and build a colony frig to follow the marza.

as for rushing, that is rather map dependant if ther are more than 5 jumps to the enemy it is no longer a rush and he will most likely have defences/fleet to counter you

and if it is a rush game it is done with 3 scouts that rush and kill your constructors = you wont get a cap ship.(imo this tac is just bad form and just forces every1 to do it and then your at square 1 nyway so plz don't)

small-medium maps focus on military reshearch until you get some prototypes resherachedthen get tradeports

large maps get tradeports first then prototypes

yah, you'll see in online play that everyone has a cap ship first thing...In fact, alot of games end when that free cap is destroyed by one side or the other, because the next one costs too much and losing your 1st cap can often put you too far behind to catch up.  You should see your expansion really speed up when you start building a cap first thing

well ty i think you answered my question and i gladly thank you. SEE THE SMILEYS

Yeah, thats usually my strategy, Colony Cap in the beginning. But, definately sending out a few scounts on auto-pilot, while the cap is being built. A dozen of Tier1 Main-Battle Frigates will last you a good while as escorts for the cap. Escorts are a must (dunno how to escort scouts or put them in scouting fleets), one time I was going for my third planet; one that my scouts so craftily missed, and it turned out to be the Pirate Base at full strength. LOL, I warp in an the first thing that goes through my head is "ohh shit...".

I would say, Asteroids then Terran planets, as you don't have to research like you do for Desert planets, saving you some quick cash. Dead Asteroids, which are econ leeches, are perfect for static-bases and supply choke points. A dead rock that I fixed up with Repair bays and other utilities, allowed my TEC fleets to break the Visari grip on some profitable asteroids by skirmishing.

You're post really sums up what every new-guy needs to know. First couple times I played were utter failures lol.

As soon as you start sell 200 metal and buy 100-200 crystal. This is also important

Doesn't anyone here play quickstrike or anything different from standard build?

The thing that gets me is around the 30 minute mark.  I can typically clean up most maps with all easy opponents.  But I'm running into serious problems with just normal baddies.  I'm trying to step up to Mid size maps with 4 total groups (including yourself).

Typically, I find myself struggling to keep up.  Some how, they are able to build more, study more, and have more capitol ships.  I've been stuck trying to figure out how to cope for this, especially because I turn into a favorite whipping boy for the other teams and it is basically costing me everything just to maintain, and I can hardly do anything else because all my resources are going back to rebuilding my ships after they are destroyed.

Desert planets don't require research. They can be colonized immediately just like asteroids and terran worlds.

@Ke5trel: Volcanic worlds give postive income. Sure, only 3.5x credits Versus asteroids, but they have alot of metal too.

As to alternate strategies, scout rush is the only thing that has a real chance to work on multiplayer (depending on what your definition of "work" is), though against the AI you have more options. Sense the TEC really has a crappy colony frigate compared to the other 2, I say feel free to build whatever cap you want (Marza is the best deal in the current version, but getting a high level kol or dunov early can be useful as well). I've done some crazy starting games, but I can't really recomend them. I found embargo rush amuzing to try on small maps, and any sort of hit and run can be useful if you build your fleet right. However, the standard build is standard for a reason. The real strategy in sins starts after the basics are out of the way.

Ok, I have a question. Lets say you are surrounded by volcanics and ice planets and there is a terran planet/something you wanna colonize beyond it. Do you guys fly through the volcanics or do you stop and kill em so that later reinforcements or w/e don't have to keep dealing with the shenanigans?

This goes along for sneak attacks as well.

colonize the ice world on the way

It all depends really. If its likely to be a contested planet (meaning another player is about as close to it as you are, and he is likely to try to take it eventually), you have two options. One is to just ignore everything and get their asap, colonize it, and get a defense up and wait for him. However, if he does the same thing, you might find yourself stuck between the malitia and his fleet, which is not a good situation. The other option is to colonize a few of the key worlds, then clear a gravity well one jump away from it. Scout it often, and when he arrives to try to take it, you either wait for him to clear the malitia then jump to finish off his weakened forces, or you jump as he is fighting them to try and get him stuck between to hostile forces. He's likely to bring his cap ship, and if you can destroy it here, you will have a big advantage.

If its a large map and it will take players a long time to get to those contested worlds, I say destroy everything on the way, and let a colony ship follow.

For sneak attacks, ignore all malitia forces, as timing is the most important thing for them.

Even though you use Cap ships, the AI loves seige frigates and if they can get by your front line, than they wreak havoc on your income worlds.  They always seem to know how to balance the fighting before they run, unless they use the fighter/bomber strategy.

I recently played a large match where I was cornered by the AI because they all decided to keep asking me to fighting my 1 friend who's on the other size of the galaxy.  So everyone next to me hated me.  I had to stop one fleet and give up a planet at another location.  I found out that the AI doesn't care about cap ships too much even though they balance the numbers game.  6 Cap ships were destroyed, the AI did not run until they started losing Aeria Drone hosts, and they had twice as many ships.  I did eventually obtain a peace treaty allowing me to focus on the other AI and than beat the game.

If you are fustrated with being beaten by AIs all the time with 1 star, than give everyone their own star so you can build an economy.  This leads to a choke point at the star, but sucks if your star is the center of the galaxy.  Have fun, I never get bored of this game.