Sigh... I am really bad at tactical combat, I get massacred by the AI all the time.
EDIT: I don't seem to grasp the proper way to utilizing Blazer class ships.
They just aren't working right for me. Whenever I give them an order, regardless of tactics they are assigned, they always fly past the enemy and spend a bunch of time turning around to face them, meanwhile they are getting massacred.
For instance, in recent Zuul fights, whenever our ships converge to attack, his will start firing immediately when it's in range. Mine will close into range, but rather than turning and firing, they'll bump into the enemy ships and just fly around wherever the fuck they want.
What is happening here? Why are my ships being retarded?
I usually auto resolve because I just get better results.
I'll just fly around in my blob of 89 cruisers and hope for the best.
EDIT 2: Zuul completely ruined my shit
Blazer ships or any ship with the heavy, fixed-mount laser line of weapons you want to keep in normal/face target formation and control them manually. Don't change their stances unless you knock an enemy ship way above or below the combat plane, in which case setting your ship to 'pursue' will make them follow enemy ships off the 2d plane of combat.
Also ships will blindly follow your move orders and attack commands don't supercede that, so if you set your ships to move waaaaay past the enemy and then run into enemy ships first, they won't stop unless you give them another move order.
Is there even a point to cease firing with the AI?
It seems to break the treaty as it wants to, and then blames you for breaking it anyway.
Can someone tell me what I can do against Zuul as Morrigi? They simply destroy me.
If I out tech them (which I don't, they usually destroy and salvage from a nearby Liir or Morri) it doesn't matter, their ships are just way better than mine.
If I go into a battle with cruisers, I will lose on average 3 times as many as the zuul player does.
I should probably just turn Zuul off when I play alone. They always, always kill me.
How much should I expand?
I simply can't understand how the AI players are expanding so fast and putting out so many ships and out teching me all at once.
I've played over 30 games so far and I'm still not seeming to get to the point where I can come close to holding my own with normal AI.
I am playing a cloud map, I expanded quickly, took all my local stuff but I've been trying to get my trade network up and tech to cruisers, but I am getting attacked and I am already way out teched and out numbered.
Maybe I need to not play Morrigi...
Is there a mod where I can just watch them play? I want to know what they are building and how much etc.
Make it so I can see all the stars by default?
Ow. Yeah, exanding too fast got a bit pricey when you need to subsidize so many growing colonies until they're out of the red.
Yeah I got owned by this in our big game on Saturday. Kept looking at the rankings thinking damn I better colonize more and then suddenly 2/3 of my budget chart was blue and I was sad.
I simply can't understand how the AI players are expanding so fast and putting out so many ships and out teching me all at once.
I've played over 30 games so far and I'm still not seeming to get to the point where I can come close to holding my own with normal AI.
I am playing a cloud map, I expanded quickly, took all my local stuff but I've been trying to get my trade network up and tech to cruisers, but I am getting attacked and I am already way out teched and out numbered.
Maybe I need to not play Morrigi...
Is there a mod where I can just watch them play? I want to know what they are building and how much etc.
Make it so I can see all the stars by default?
You should never really stop expanding. Even if you're putting too much money into terraforming worlds, you can still be building colony fleets and scout fleets to find colonizable worlds so that once you have the income to spare you can colonize them immediately.
Basically, that early "build nothing but colonizers and colonize everything" phase really shouldn't end until your territory is butting right up against other players on every side.
Also, zuul: Their ships are really flimsy. They have a ton of guns but bad armor. You want high-firepower weapons or Chakkars, armor your ships, and most importantly find out what weapons they're using and research whatever counters it. If they're using heavy ballistics invest in more armor and shields; if they're using beam weapons get reflective coating and energy absorbers and so on; if they're using missiles get more point defense. If you have deflectors, that's a good start; make deflector cruisers with sniper cannons/railguns and similar long-range weapons, AP sniper cannons if you can get AP.
Also if you research plasma cannon, and then research fusion cannon, one of those two weapons should give you something called a fusion projector. Or a plasma projector. Something with 'projector' in the name. Get that and research all the Projectors, they're some of the best heavy weapons in the game against lightly-armored foes. Antimatter/meson projector volleys can oneshot unarmored cruisers.
Zuul also have really shitty point defense (they have the lowest chance to get it and they have bad overall coverage), so using drones and missiles yourself is a good idea.
So I downloaded this and played against the computer once last night. It was being really annoying. Would send fleets to my colonies and sit on them. Every turn there would be a battle and they would spend the whole battle running away from my 10 destroyers and accompanying CNC ships (that was my standard defense fleet at each of my colonies). If I tried autoresolve they would win and destroy the colony.
After four turns in a row of the computer attacking and then running away I turned it off in frustration.
I too, am in love with Hivers. Let us discuss how utterly fun it is to destroy stupid dumb space dolphin/bird cruisers with a single volley from our rail gun cruisers. Or our amazing industrial output, or ability to spam so many colony ships at a single planet even though our colonizers are already among the best.
I too, am in love with Hivers. Let us discuss how utterly fun it is to destroy stupid dumb space dolphin/bird cruisers with a single volley from our rail gun cruisers. Or our amazing industrial output, or ability to spam so many colony ships at a single planet even though our colonizers are already among the best.
Yes, let's!
Hivers, as I play them, have some pretty rigid "phases" they go through. Initial phase I try to spread as far and quickly as I can. Like a Kraken, whatever a Hiver grasps it does not let go of, and if I can put gates on a good number of planets in this phase it usually gives a huge advantage for later. Second phase is when I get habitat and asteroid mining techs. Suddenly the high hazard planets that were not economical to colonize during phase one are being colonized at a rate of one per round as all my money not used for defence is focused on producing habitat colonizer cruisers. Meanwhile all the planets not fit for colonizing are being sucked dry by miners, the ore shipped over to my home planet to make it into a terrifyingly productive shipyard. Finally in phase three, farcasters. You all know what that means.
All in all I think I like phase two the best. I love building my empire, seeing my income go up round for round.
I too, am in love with Hivers. Let us discuss how utterly fun it is to destroy stupid dumb space dolphin/bird cruisers with a single volley from our rail gun cruisers. Or our amazing industrial output, or ability to spam so many colony ships at a single planet even though our colonizers are already among the best.
Yes, let's!
Hivers, as I play them, have some pretty rigid "phases" they go through. Initial phase I try to spread as far and quickly as I can. Like a Kraken, whatever a Hiver grasps it does not let go of, and if I can put gates on a good number of planets in this phase it usually gives a huge advantage for later. Second phase is when I get habitat and asteroid mining techs. Suddenly the high hazard planets that were not economical to colonize during phase one are being colonized at a rate of one per round as all my money not used for defence is focused on producing habitat colonizer cruisers. Meanwhile all the planets not fit for colonizing are being sucked dry by miners, the ore shipped over to my home planet to make it into a terrifyingly productive shipyard. Finally in phase three, farcasters. You all know what that means.
All in all I think I like phase two the best. I love building my empire, seeing my income go up round for round.
I actually like phase 1 a lot. Seeing 20ish fleet lines drawn outwards from your homeworld is just so pretty.
I've been playing the birds a lot recently and I think they certainly have some very tricky phases.
Starting out, before anyone else has point defenses, a drone carrier destroyer is pretty nasty. Especially if you can tech up a laser tech or two. My very early war fleets are just masses of drone carriers. However, this usually causes all your enemies to move dramatically into point defenses. The trick is to use the time it buys to get to cruisers.
Typically, my games go in the following pattern. 150-200 stars, sphere or real galaxy.
1.) Beginning.. scouting.. trying to get a good economy going with low hazard planets, destroyer freighters. Defended by drone carrier destroyers and then later on EMP+Heavy Beam Cruisers.
2.) Fusion era.. never enough money when mega-freighters hit. Build a attack/defense/freighter fleet??? Always a scramble.. I usually end up fighting some serious wars here.. win some planets, loose some planets. As my environment tech comes up.. colonize better worlds.
3.) Anti-matter era.. by this time I have full or nearly full mega-freighter fleets bringing me trade income 2x planetary income. Once A-M hits, it's a quick jump to point absorbers. After that.. fleets of Dreadnaught Point Absorbing Blazar/Barrage go out and wreck everything.
The 2 era is the most fun... You never feel like you have enough money. Every ship is a costly investment. On the other hand.. Birds can turtle a little bit during this phase if they have had good expansion in phase 1. A very fun race to play with a lot of options.
Creediki on
Adapt, Improvise, Overcome
"The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation." - Heinlein
My thought process is always something like: "Damn DE freighter, making only 5k"
I always rush for Mega Freighters in my game and work REALLY hard to get them filling up my trade routes.
Problem is, I'm making freighter cruisers, not armor/blazer cruisers, and that's bad.
Usually I can get a HUGE trade income flowing in, but the AI seems to pick up on this and cleans me out every time.
They don't want to NAP me because it'll just make me several magnitudes more potent once we get some trading going.
I usually research addict race for everyone if it's going to be useful, so they know what's up.
I switch production to armor/beam/whatever cruisers and I just can't get the numbers out in time.
Not to mention that a lot of my IO is tied up in trade, which makes for less ship building.
I know I can change it but then my routes collapse and my income gets the shaft.
It's frustrating, but I really can't remember having THIS much fun losing a game. Maybe Dwarf Fortress.
My thought process is always something like: "Damn DE freighter, making only 5k"
I always rush for Mega Freighters in my game and work REALLY hard to get them filling up my trade routes.
Problem is, I'm making freighter cruisers, not armor/blazer cruisers, and that's bad.
Usually I can get a HUGE trade income flowing in, but the AI seems to pick up on this and cleans me out every time.
They don't want to NAP me because it'll just make me several magnitudes more potent once we get some trading going.
I usually research addict race for everyone if it's going to be useful, so they know what's up.
I switch production to armor/beam/whatever cruisers and I just can't get the numbers out in time.
Not to mention that a lot of my IO is tied up in trade, which makes for less ship building.
I know I can change it but then my routes collapse and my income gets the shaft.
It's frustrating, but I really can't remember having THIS much fun losing a game. Maybe Dwarf Fortress.
I almost never get to the point where those DE freighters are dismantled for new CR megafreighters. The transition to fusion and megafreighters is accompanied by a massive increase in trade routes that would cost tens of millions to fill with CRs.
So basically, you will get your money's worth with the DE freighters, and at the very least they remain useful as you transition to CRs since then you don't have to worry about the establish phase and can swap them out as needed.
Darkchampion3d on
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
Yea, there is a delicious problem playing the birds of needing to build cruiser freighters instead of the shooty shooty ones... Falling behind in the tech race makes this disastrous since not only do you have to replace the ship-of-the line.. but you're now shorting yourself a mega-freighter.
I have found it useful to create a fleet or two to harass my opponents. Offense being the best defense and all. It tends to keep them on the defensive. If I can go in.. do damage.. retreat before ships pop. Destroying a enemy planet is good.. but popping a bunch of destroyers/cruisers every round tends to slow them down as well.. and give m birds some breathing room.
Creediki on
Adapt, Improvise, Overcome
"The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation." - Heinlein
I almost never upgrade/build at all the cruiser freighters. They're always too damn expensive and they replace the "build freighter" button in empire screen and manually building destroyer freighters at crummy worlds is beyond my micromanaging abilities. Also, I don't play stupid dumb birds much.
I too, am in love with Hivers. Let us discuss how utterly fun it is to destroy stupid dumb space dolphin/bird cruisers with a single volley from our rail gun cruisers. Or our amazing industrial output, or ability to spam so many colony ships at a single planet even though our colonizers are already among the best.
Yes, let's!
Hivers, as I play them, have some pretty rigid "phases" they go through. Initial phase I try to spread as far and quickly as I can. Like a Kraken, whatever a Hiver grasps it does not let go of, and if I can put gates on a good number of planets in this phase it usually gives a huge advantage for later. Second phase is when I get habitat and asteroid mining techs. Suddenly the high hazard planets that were not economical to colonize during phase one are being colonized at a rate of one per round as all my money not used for defence is focused on producing habitat colonizer cruisers. Meanwhile all the planets not fit for colonizing are being sucked dry by miners, the ore shipped over to my home planet to make it into a terrifyingly productive shipyard. Finally in phase three, farcasters. You all know what that means.
All in all I think I like phase two the best. I love building my empire, seeing my income go up round for round.
My phases are like Vic's, but I prioritize trade before cruisers or mining. Maybe I should put off on trade next time, but I oh so much enjoy being on top of the economic rating. Which means better tech! Or more colonies! Or more fleets of 50 assault destroyers with some PD and strafe for command section!
Do you other Hivers guard your gates on uncolonizable worlds with "VN Food" too? They're strafe armor fission destroyers with gauss drivers and later on, AP gauss drivers. Blowing up VN ships at uninhabited worlds don't summon VN Berserkers! Hell, I've actually killed Berserkers with VN Food fleets.(With a command cruiser) AP versions of course, non-AP rounds tend to bounce off everything. But then here comes the VN Construct...
firewaterwordSatchitanandaPais Vasco to San FranciscoRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
This game is absurdly addictive. Also, my Hivers got Farcasters last night - so basically I can warp 10ly in any direction from a planet with a gate? Crazy.
So I downloaded this and played against the computer once last night. It was being really annoying. Would send fleets to my colonies and sit on them. Every turn there would be a battle and they would spend the whole battle running away from my 10 destroyers and accompanying CNC ships (that was my standard defense fleet at each of my colonies). If I tried autoresolve they would win and destroy the colony.
After four turns in a row of the computer attacking and then running away I turned it off in frustration.
Am I doing it wrong?
That your fleets are getting ruined in autoresolve by enemies that won't close with you is odd. The computer usually only retreats support ships, like tankers, colonizers, gateships... that kind of thing. What weapons do you have, what weapons does the enemy have, and how many of his ships are present? Oh, and which races are involved?
I was human, they were the furry guys. I didn't recognize their ship types but looked like they had 6-8 of them. I had 10 destroyers with hammerhead+armor+third level drive. Green lasers and a single missile on each destroyer.
That said... I love this game. It is great fun I just have to get more used to it.
I was human, they were the furry guys. I didn't recognize their ship types but looked like they had 6-8 of them. I had 10 destroyers with hammerhead+armor+third level drive. Green lasers and a single missile on each destroyer.
That said... I love this game. It is great fun I just have to get more used to it.
I assume that your copy is updated to the latest version, right? Actually, which expansions do you have? What DL service did you buy it from?
I've had that happen a few times as well with the retreat, and then autoresolve has usually cost me a few ships, but I don't think I've ever been straight plastered. I really hate when the computer does that though, because if you don't pick autoresolve, then you have to sit through 2 minutes of nothing if your ships can't chase down the enemy fleet.
I've had that happen a few times as well with the retreat, and then autoresolve has usually cost me a few ships, but I don't think I've ever been straight plastered. I really hate when the computer does that though, because if you don't pick autoresolve, then you have to sit through 2 minutes of nothing if your ships can't chase down the enemy fleet.
Actually, there's an option to end the battle in the bottom-right. Click on the crossed guns and it changes to a dove. If everybody does it (and if the computer's just retreating, they'll do it immediately) the battle ends immediately.
Also very convenient for Asteroid Monitors and Derelicts, which select the option once you're out of range.
I was human, they were the furry guys. I didn't recognize their ship types but looked like they had 6-8 of them. I had 10 destroyers with hammerhead+armor+third level drive. Green lasers and a single missile on each destroyer.
That said... I love this game. It is great fun I just have to get more used to it.
Third level drive... Do you mean some kind of Pulsed Fission? Fusion? Antimatter? What turn is it? Are we early game or mid-game? If "furry guys" are the Zuul, and we are early game, then I think I know what is going on. They may have a bore ship, which has a ton of hit points, and even their colonizers and such have a decent number of guns. I expect they are armed all with Gauss Guns. While innaccurate in real tactical combat, Autoresolve seems to have fleets close with each other at speed, firing when as they get into range, and then stopping at point plank and slugging it out. No overshooting or chaotic maneuvering, and even turret facing does not seem so important. Gauss Guns do a lot better in auto than in real combat. You could try building your own Gauss Gun destroyers (even in the medium mount) and auto again. Given engine parity, Zuul will be your speed or faster in tactical combat, so you'll need Ocillation Overthrusters (the Pursuit section) to catch them. You might want to avoid missiles, as you can't prevent Zuul from closing to brawl and they don't provide as many bonus hit points or raw damage as other weapons.
I was human, they were the furry guys. I didn't recognize their ship types but looked like they had 6-8 of them. I had 10 destroyers with hammerhead+armor+third level drive. Green lasers and a single missile on each destroyer.
That said... I love this game. It is great fun I just have to get more used to it.
If they were shooting you as they ran away, it's because the computer is smart enough to recognize that you have no point defense and is kiting you with missiles to wear you down. Invest in the Overthrusting tech and build pursuit sections to chase them down.
If they weren't, look in the lower-left. If there's a little dove next to their name then it's a colony fleet which the AI tends to be rather dumb with. Click the little X next to your name and combat will end; just keep doing that until they move the fleet away.
Also, what tech gives you railguns? I don't normally invest heavily in ballistics, but I didn't see it in the ANY tech tree.
I've been fighting basically all of my battles. When might it be a good idea to go for auto-resolve?
And how the hell can an opponent keep pulling me into combat, when I've selected auto-resolve peacefully for several turns, and our fleets are now several light years apart(I fled the planet where I encountered them)?
1. If you horrifically outnumber the enemy, or are using vastly superior weapons (antimatter/meson projectors, for instance)
2. If you're defending a world with more than 95% of your ships present being defense satellites.
3. If you're fighting the Peacekeeper or Locust Hiveworld grand menaces, which tend to get screwed over by autoresolve.
If you're any race except human or zuul, it's possible they have a fleet tailing yours moving at the same speed as you/faster than you. Double-click the fleet and zoom in on them; the only way to see enemy ships pursuing your fleets like that is to be zoomed in on it.
If you're any race except human or zuul, it's possible they have a fleet tailing yours moving at the same speed as you/faster than you. Double-click the fleet and zoom in on them; the only way to see enemy ships pursuing your fleets like that is to be zoomed in on it.
I was Hiver, they were Morrigi. Each time they attack me, they have to actually move into deep space to intercept me right? Their fleet was displayed as being at the planet every time.
I've had that happen a few times as well with the retreat, and then autoresolve has usually cost me a few ships, but I don't think I've ever been straight plastered. I really hate when the computer does that though, because if you don't pick autoresolve, then you have to sit through 2 minutes of nothing if your ships can't chase down the enemy fleet.
Actually, there's an option to end the battle in the bottom-right. Click on the crossed guns and it changes to a dove. If everybody does it (and if the computer's just retreating, they'll do it immediately) the battle ends immediately.
Also very convenient for Asteroid Monitors and Derelicts, which select the option once you're out of range.
If you're any race except human or zuul, it's possible they have a fleet tailing yours moving at the same speed as you/faster than you. Double-click the fleet and zoom in on them; the only way to see enemy ships pursuing your fleets like that is to be zoomed in on it.
I was Hiver, they were Morrigi. Each time they attack me, they have to actually move into deep space to intercept me right? Their fleet was displayed as being at the planet every time.
No, I mean double-click on your fleet, not theirs. They can easily have some ships attached to your fleet tailing it and you'd never know because there's no indicator for it unless you zoom in on your fleet.
Posts
This is why I generally roll with a Dread CnC, one Dread slugger, then assorted Cruisers in my warfleets.
Blazer ships or any ship with the heavy, fixed-mount laser line of weapons you want to keep in normal/face target formation and control them manually. Don't change their stances unless you knock an enemy ship way above or below the combat plane, in which case setting your ship to 'pursue' will make them follow enemy ships off the 2d plane of combat.
Also ships will blindly follow your move orders and attack commands don't supercede that, so if you set your ships to move waaaaay past the enemy and then run into enemy ships first, they won't stop unless you give them another move order.
The manual said something about that, but I can't find out how.
It seems to break the treaty as it wants to, and then blames you for breaking it anyway.
Can someone tell me what I can do against Zuul as Morrigi? They simply destroy me.
If I out tech them (which I don't, they usually destroy and salvage from a nearby Liir or Morri) it doesn't matter, their ships are just way better than mine.
If I go into a battle with cruisers, I will lose on average 3 times as many as the zuul player does.
I should probably just turn Zuul off when I play alone. They always, always kill me.
How much should I expand?
I simply can't understand how the AI players are expanding so fast and putting out so many ships and out teching me all at once.
I've played over 30 games so far and I'm still not seeming to get to the point where I can come close to holding my own with normal AI.
I am playing a cloud map, I expanded quickly, took all my local stuff but I've been trying to get my trade network up and tech to cruisers, but I am getting attacked and I am already way out teched and out numbered.
Maybe I need to not play Morrigi...
Is there a mod where I can just watch them play? I want to know what they are building and how much etc.
Make it so I can see all the stars by default?
The computer tends to cheat espcially at higher levels Endo. As for Morrigi I have no idea how to play them.
Try playing as the Liir or humans Endo. They are generally easier to play as.
Yeah I got owned by this in our big game on Saturday. Kept looking at the rankings thinking damn I better colonize more and then suddenly 2/3 of my budget chart was blue and I was sad.
You should never really stop expanding. Even if you're putting too much money into terraforming worlds, you can still be building colony fleets and scout fleets to find colonizable worlds so that once you have the income to spare you can colonize them immediately.
Basically, that early "build nothing but colonizers and colonize everything" phase really shouldn't end until your territory is butting right up against other players on every side.
Also, zuul: Their ships are really flimsy. They have a ton of guns but bad armor. You want high-firepower weapons or Chakkars, armor your ships, and most importantly find out what weapons they're using and research whatever counters it. If they're using heavy ballistics invest in more armor and shields; if they're using beam weapons get reflective coating and energy absorbers and so on; if they're using missiles get more point defense. If you have deflectors, that's a good start; make deflector cruisers with sniper cannons/railguns and similar long-range weapons, AP sniper cannons if you can get AP.
Also if you research plasma cannon, and then research fusion cannon, one of those two weapons should give you something called a fusion projector. Or a plasma projector. Something with 'projector' in the name. Get that and research all the Projectors, they're some of the best heavy weapons in the game against lightly-armored foes. Antimatter/meson projector volleys can oneshot unarmored cruisers.
Zuul also have really shitty point defense (they have the lowest chance to get it and they have bad overall coverage), so using drones and missiles yourself is a good idea.
After four turns in a row of the computer attacking and then running away I turned it off in frustration.
Am I doing it wrong?
Only slightly less bad than a Zuul.
Yes, let's!
Hivers, as I play them, have some pretty rigid "phases" they go through. Initial phase I try to spread as far and quickly as I can. Like a Kraken, whatever a Hiver grasps it does not let go of, and if I can put gates on a good number of planets in this phase it usually gives a huge advantage for later. Second phase is when I get habitat and asteroid mining techs. Suddenly the high hazard planets that were not economical to colonize during phase one are being colonized at a rate of one per round as all my money not used for defence is focused on producing habitat colonizer cruisers. Meanwhile all the planets not fit for colonizing are being sucked dry by miners, the ore shipped over to my home planet to make it into a terrifyingly productive shipyard. Finally in phase three, farcasters. You all know what that means.
All in all I think I like phase two the best. I love building my empire, seeing my income go up round for round.
I actually like phase 1 a lot. Seeing 20ish fleet lines drawn outwards from your homeworld is just so pretty.
Starting out, before anyone else has point defenses, a drone carrier destroyer is pretty nasty. Especially if you can tech up a laser tech or two. My very early war fleets are just masses of drone carriers. However, this usually causes all your enemies to move dramatically into point defenses. The trick is to use the time it buys to get to cruisers.
Typically, my games go in the following pattern. 150-200 stars, sphere or real galaxy.
1.) Beginning.. scouting.. trying to get a good economy going with low hazard planets, destroyer freighters. Defended by drone carrier destroyers and then later on EMP+Heavy Beam Cruisers.
2.) Fusion era.. never enough money when mega-freighters hit. Build a attack/defense/freighter fleet??? Always a scramble.. I usually end up fighting some serious wars here.. win some planets, loose some planets. As my environment tech comes up.. colonize better worlds.
3.) Anti-matter era.. by this time I have full or nearly full mega-freighter fleets bringing me trade income 2x planetary income. Once A-M hits, it's a quick jump to point absorbers. After that.. fleets of Dreadnaught Point Absorbing Blazar/Barrage go out and wreck everything.
The 2 era is the most fun... You never feel like you have enough money. Every ship is a costly investment. On the other hand.. Birds can turtle a little bit during this phase if they have had good expansion in phase 1. A very fun race to play with a lot of options.
"The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation." - Heinlein
My thought process is always something like: "Damn DE freighter, making only 5k"
I always rush for Mega Freighters in my game and work REALLY hard to get them filling up my trade routes.
Problem is, I'm making freighter cruisers, not armor/blazer cruisers, and that's bad.
Usually I can get a HUGE trade income flowing in, but the AI seems to pick up on this and cleans me out every time.
They don't want to NAP me because it'll just make me several magnitudes more potent once we get some trading going.
I usually research addict race for everyone if it's going to be useful, so they know what's up.
I switch production to armor/beam/whatever cruisers and I just can't get the numbers out in time.
Not to mention that a lot of my IO is tied up in trade, which makes for less ship building.
I know I can change it but then my routes collapse and my income gets the shaft.
It's frustrating, but I really can't remember having THIS much fun losing a game. Maybe Dwarf Fortress.
I almost never get to the point where those DE freighters are dismantled for new CR megafreighters. The transition to fusion and megafreighters is accompanied by a massive increase in trade routes that would cost tens of millions to fill with CRs.
So basically, you will get your money's worth with the DE freighters, and at the very least they remain useful as you transition to CRs since then you don't have to worry about the establish phase and can swap them out as needed.
I have found it useful to create a fleet or two to harass my opponents. Offense being the best defense and all. It tends to keep them on the defensive. If I can go in.. do damage.. retreat before ships pop. Destroying a enemy planet is good.. but popping a bunch of destroyers/cruisers every round tends to slow them down as well.. and give m birds some breathing room.
"The most noble fate a man can endure is to place his own mortal body between his loved home and the war's desolation." - Heinlein
My phases are like Vic's, but I prioritize trade before cruisers or mining. Maybe I should put off on trade next time, but I oh so much enjoy being on top of the economic rating. Which means better tech! Or more colonies! Or more fleets of 50 assault destroyers with some PD and strafe for command section!
Do you other Hivers guard your gates on uncolonizable worlds with "VN Food" too? They're strafe armor fission destroyers with gauss drivers and later on, AP gauss drivers. Blowing up VN ships at uninhabited worlds don't summon VN Berserkers! Hell, I've actually killed Berserkers with VN Food fleets.(With a command cruiser) AP versions of course, non-AP rounds tend to bounce off everything. But then here comes the VN Construct...
This may be entirely based upon the fact that it always attacks the one planet who'se defense fleet does not have a fleet command and control cruiser.
ANY Tech tree
You're a bad person if you don't love hivers. They're the best.
Oh right, the whole genocidal first contact with Earth thing...
That said... I love this game. It is great fun I just have to get more used to it.
I assume that your copy is updated to the latest version, right? Actually, which expansions do you have? What DL service did you buy it from?
Actually, there's an option to end the battle in the bottom-right. Click on the crossed guns and it changes to a dove. If everybody does it (and if the computer's just retreating, they'll do it immediately) the battle ends immediately.
Also very convenient for Asteroid Monitors and Derelicts, which select the option once you're out of range.
If they were shooting you as they ran away, it's because the computer is smart enough to recognize that you have no point defense and is kiting you with missiles to wear you down. Invest in the Overthrusting tech and build pursuit sections to chase them down.
If they weren't, look in the lower-left. If there's a little dove next to their name then it's a colony fleet which the AI tends to be rather dumb with. Click the little X next to your name and combat will end; just keep doing that until they move the fleet away.
Also, what tech gives you railguns? I don't normally invest heavily in ballistics, but I didn't see it in the ANY tech tree.
And how the hell can an opponent keep pulling me into combat, when I've selected auto-resolve peacefully for several turns, and our fleets are now several light years apart(I fled the planet where I encountered them)?
1. If you horrifically outnumber the enemy, or are using vastly superior weapons (antimatter/meson projectors, for instance)
2. If you're defending a world with more than 95% of your ships present being defense satellites.
3. If you're fighting the Peacekeeper or Locust Hiveworld grand menaces, which tend to get screwed over by autoresolve.
If you're any race except human or zuul, it's possible they have a fleet tailing yours moving at the same speed as you/faster than you. Double-click the fleet and zoom in on them; the only way to see enemy ships pursuing your fleets like that is to be zoomed in on it.
I was Hiver, they were Morrigi. Each time they attack me, they have to actually move into deep space to intercept me right? Their fleet was displayed as being at the planet every time.
Oh man, that fixes that then.
No, I mean double-click on your fleet, not theirs. They can easily have some ships attached to your fleet tailing it and you'd never know because there's no indicator for it unless you zoom in on your fleet.