I don't know if the AI targets closer things or not, but at the very least it seems like the hoho's should stay in the back and heal
Hoshikos have LOADS of hit points and a relatively low cost. They're excellent damage sinks and you probably want them to come under attack to take pressure off your real damage-dealers, like the LRM.
I guess that means one hoho is trying to do all of the healing, and when it runs out the others start. That doesn't seem efficient at all.
I'm not 100% sure on how this one works, you'd have to do some more experimentation. Because the hoshiko is a smaller unit, I'm not particularly concerned if one or two get depleted, though.
In multiplayer do good TEC players micro all of their hoho's?
While I can't speak for everyone, the hoshiko is a unit I don't typically micro. I find it's generally more worth your time to focus your attention on capital ships and damage-dealing units. Knocking out the primary damage dealers effectively neuters a fleet, so this is the primary goal of any fleet battle.
if I end up taking the game to the "late game" and have the demo bot upgrade the hoho's seem to want to use that more than to heal. Do people skip that upgrade? or just turn it off? or should I micro that?
Demo-bots can be very effective against HC-based fleets. Unfortunately, it will drain your hoshikos dry in a heartbeat. I find that TEC needs to shore up their own firepower more than anything late-game, so I skip it personally to focus on more damage output.
Anyways, I've read a little about the basics, and I keep a 1-4 or 1-5 ratio when I'm making a fleet. I think I read that off of the forums here, so hopefully this isn't already answered somewhere else. Any tips?
That's roughly the sweet spot.
until you invest in all of these economic upgrades the TEC might as well have the exact same econ as the advent or vasari with the exception of their cheaper yet weaker ships
Untrue - you have the Akkan. When this puppy colonizes a planet, you get a free extractor (a modest 250 credit value) plus a temporary 33% bonus to extraction rates. This bonus can be reinvested into further economic or colonial growth, or directly into military to fuel one vicious rush. This is definitely superior to the modest 15% planetary upgrade discount Advent gets, and puts the Vasari's paltry 20% build speed bonus to shame.
An example is at the start of the game (Tier 1) you can increase gold extraction, or upgrade planet population on terran planets.
Generally speaking, the cheaper upgrades are superior just by virtue of being cheaper. The cost for a T1 upgrade is 400 credits 25 crystal. With a 4:1 conversion of crystal, that's about 500 effective credits. A T2 tech costs you 600 credits, 50 metal, and 100 crystal. A 4:1 conversion here means it costs you 1200 effective credits. So a second level technology is effectively twice as expensive as a first level one.
This means that anything that's at the first tech level is very good just by virtue of its low cost. So TEC does have an edge here due to a nice selection of low-cost techs. Increased metal production, terran population, and armor/hull are definitely some of your top picks on the tech tree (after the "gimmes" of ice/volcanic colonization and repair platforms, of course)
Along the same lines... Hull? Armour? Shields? I personally research mine in that order, but I really can't back that up besides it being a personal guess.
As TEC, never bother with shield upgrades. Hull gains the benefit of both shield mitigation and armor, while shields only gain the benefit of shield mitigation. This means that one point of hull actually goes further than one point of shields. However, it gets even worse for TEC, since they have the best armor upgrades and some of the highest hull values on any ships (so they gain more from this %-based upgrade) while the lowest shield values of any ships (so very little from the shield upgrade's %-based benefit). All things considered, this is one of the last techs you will research, presuming you get around to it.
TEC gets a lot of mileage out of their hull and armour upgrades, though as you phase into late-game damage becomes much more important since knocking out Vasari subverters within seconds is absolutely critical, and you won't have a chance of getting through a battleball without copious amounts of firepower.
