Well I find it cheap that the Tec can ally itself with the Pirates, so i can't place bounties on them anymore, and the AI likes to issue missions to pirates constantly, so that my planets get harassed all the time. by the way, is it just me or does the AI focus a lot more on culture than in pre-Diplomacy Sins? They tend to build a lot of culture structures.

Well I don't see the point of mind controlling enemy ships, such as in the late game in my situation, i have to fend off enemy Titans accompanied by enemy Cap ships, so I don't see the point/get the oppertunity to go and find enemy frigates to control, since i need the Titan in battle, And even if I get some enemy frigates? What do I do with them?

Edit: how does the enemy AI level their Titan so quickly? I destroyed one a few moments ago and after a few minutes of recieving the message that they've built a new one, I see it being level 3~5 already.

Titans don't lose levels when they are destroyed. Its been complained about, but really losing a titan isn't a big deal if you're defenses aren't breached already and you have the resources to rebuild it.

Capturing ships can be quite useful, but you're right currently titans, capitalships and corvettes are the key units. Hopefully that will be balanced out more as both advent titans do best with fleet support.

Really the pirates aren't very important. The AI thing is an issue but as a human player you probably shouldn't be issuing any bounties, they aren't a good use of money.

I'm really considering quitting this game, as of now, I contantly get harassed by pirate fleets over 40 ships per fleet, I get enemy titan with 6 capital ships attacking my planet, and I have 2 or 3 repair platforms. I can kill hard enemies easily on Diplomacy here, but the way Rebellion Beta throws enemies at me is ridiculous. I'm losing planets because i cant defend from pirates and enemy fleets which seems to level way faster than i do.

uhm that starbase is actually upgraded. I don't know why it doesn't show on the map. All planets I had, did have fully upgraded starbases, hangar bays, 2 or 3 repair bays. Still Im getting pirates even i have 0 bounty on me and the enemy had more, and I even get attacked 3 times within 12 minutes by different pirate fleets.

You're right about the empire though, I shouldn't have taken the desert and volcanic on the right, and I should've taken the Desert left of the magnetic cloud.

I've yet to see one go throw 3 turrets, 2 repair platforms, 1 hangar bay and a trade port... it just takes a while.

I shall have another run later this, week armed with your advice, hopefully I'll do better, thanks All!

Small followup question: Is the culture from Advent Loyalist really more powerful than other factions? Mapbe I've played the faction the wrong way, but the AI seems just to build a lot of culture centers to stall my culture. Tec Rebels get pirate allegiance, and a very powerful Titan, Tec Loyalist a very good defensive Titan and the ability to dig in well. All that Advent Loyalist get is culture and mind control?

That seems a little unbalanced to me since culture can be stalled and I don't really know how to put the mind control thing to good use.

That is a big empire. At that point of the game, seeing other players be pretty much active, i would say, you have too many planets, its actually to your detriment, because no way you can defend that (unless you are Vasari with phase stabilisers). 

There seems to be no pattern to what planets did you choose to colonise, it seems pretty random, with many loose ends. No wonder you find it difficult. 

A few odd things happened in that game:

My advent loyalist titan recieved hull damage while still having plenty of shieldpoints left. There were no Corvettes involved in that battle. What's are other ships/abilities which can bypass shields?

Also when selecting the titan to attack an enemy structure/vessel, instead of a red line it displays the green arrow.

I see, im still not really convinced about culture, though, I have two planets having 3 and 2 culture structures, while the enemy who has 2 planets both connected to my planets with only 2 on the one and 1 structure on the other, and yet his culture isnt dropping.

Even as Tec or Vasari you can push back the culture from two or three culture centers with just one of your own. Well you cannot push it back, but you are able to keep your allegiance from dropping.

Also, the more phase lines you have going away from your planet the less "power" your culture has when trying to push onto another planet, as the culture distributes equally to all outgoing lanes. This means in your case with the 3 culture centers each enemy planet only recieves the "power" of 1.5 culture centers.

I hope I explained that right, that's how I picked it up in another thread.

The AI can post pirate missions; players can always disable pirates in the Game Options if they find them too difficult.

Thanks guys, that culture information is certainly helpful. So if i understand correctly its best to build a few communion centers at planets which has fewest phase lanes.

Edit: I have a planet with 78.0 culture, then I captured another one next to it and the culture remains at 2.5 at the new planet? shouldn't 78 be divided by 3?