Haven't got a clue what I'm doing

well the first thing you should do in every game is build some base structors on your first planet and some scouts to auto explore the region

next i usually build my mothership and a small support fleet of light frigets (about 5-10) and colonize near by planets

after that get a few planet upgrades and researh the colonization techs (ice and volcanic) from there it really depends on the situation

btw there are usually ttec ships guarding uncolonized planets

basicly you have to take a small fleet of ships and take them out before colonizing it

and pirates at some uncolonizable ones

first cap is always free unless your game is messed up (dont know about what happens with quick start)

colonization ships colonize planets and capture astroids (which should be written in the tooltip display of the build windoww when you hover over it)

deselecting the froget or clicking somewhere else helps

Also the TEC colony frigate does the job of capturing extractors at uncolonisable gravity wells. Scouts do it for Vasari, I think its the colony frigate for Advent, can't remember, but it is 1 of those 2 ships.

Hmmm, so you're saying that I should have just forced the rogue TEC AI out of the next world and put some stuff there? I'll do that (he just seems to have Cobalts. Hell of a lot easier to handle than the scary-looking stuff I'm seeing in the asteroids... it looks like the bloomin' Covenant armada).

How does one capture stuff?

EDIT: Just read your post. Bleh, I think I know what I did wrong - I attacked to early. I had a Colony frigate back at my homeworld that I could have used

Bah, I'll chalk this up as a learning experience and try another map

try it with out the quick start

Eh?

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. I've been playing for 4 or 5 months and I'm still learning stuff. I guess there is just to many things to put in the tutorial, but people are always willing to help out on this forum. The depth of this game is really quite impressive.

Quick start is an option you can use when starting a new game. IT gives you the extractors already built on your starting planet plus a capital ship factoy on game start. When starting a new game theres a button for it in game options.

in the game options before starting a game theres a quick start option

when you play with out it basicly you start with nothing but a homeplanet and you have to build starting structures and fleet from scratch

doing it this way always build all extractors and a cap ship factory first

then a small supply of scouts and your free cap

Yeah, I noticed. Reminds me of the GPG forums

I'm stoked for TEC fleets. I really like their mechwarrior-style tech. I've noticed they get some beam upgrades, for the Kol and the Argonev - are they new in Entrenchment? I had a quick look in Sins before I bought entrenchment and I don't remember them.

I'll take note of Quick Start, I think I'll switch it off.

No, the beams where in original Sins for the "Kol". The starbases are all new plus the anti structure cruisers "Ogrov" for TEC and "Solanus Adjudicator" for Advent. The Vasari have thier anti structure ability in thier SB. The deffence platforms have some extra weapons and mines are also part of Entrenchment.

I personally LOVE the TEC, just guns, guns, and more guns.  Your first Capitol ship is free, no matter what race you are.  All you need to do is build a capitol ship factory at your home world (I'm sure you noticed that you get a frigate factory free at startup).  Personally, I fill the first 100 fleet credits this way, 1 capitol ship (I usually go for the Akkan-class Battle Cruiser because of the colonize ability and the ion beam), 1 Colony frigate, 2 scout frigates (each of these has the ability to auto-explore.  you find this in the lower right hand corner of the screen, a button that has a magnifying glass. Right click this button to toggle the auto-casting of this ability.  they spawn with it off), and finally 8 Cobalt light frigates.  This fleet is enought to handle any of the default rebels on fresh planets.

As for the camera following random ships, the default setting of the game is to zoom to the cursor.  If there is any object (ie. ship building, planet) under the cursor, the camera will lock onto it.  If you find this to annoying, you can turn it off in the options menu.

Personally, I'm a bit of a defense nut.  After I colonize about four systems I fully upgrade them before moving on.  I also fully build up each new system that I capture and colonize before advancing too.

I recomend building defense structures where they can protect each other as well as the logistical structures.  There is a range ring that appears when you place the structure, but you can also see this again by pressing the 'alt' button.

Don't worry about the learning curve.  I played for several weeks before figuring most of the stuff out.  Use the forums.  They are a great place to have questions answered.

Hope you enjoy the game!

I have to admit, the Akkan is not normally my first choice. It's not bad, just doesn't have the sheer tactical use of a Kol. It's also meat if that damn Advent biyatch sends his Radiance over. Not so when my Kol is in the vicinity

I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it. Got my first Marza out the door an hour ago. Christened it the TDN Orion. Combined with my Kol (TDN Excalibur) it's making short work of enemy attacks. Hell, my Kol is getting big and fat eating too many Destras

I'm liking the Starbases too. I stuffed one on my frontier, called it Giza ( ) and it's doing a fine job defending my space. Currently my plans on the table include a Sova carrier, and some more Cobalts, then I'm going to dish out some pwnage on these pirates who are grinding my gears. Bloody chavs

Sounds like things are coming together.  As for pirates, it's always a good investment to spend credits on bounty to get them to attack you opponents.  If nothing else, it keeps them occupied while you build your own fleet and defences.  I also find researching and building the heacy cruiser is one of the best investments in the game.  It eats frigates and most other cruisers for lunch.

Happy gaming!

For the TEC, don't forget the Hoshikos -- repair is nice.  So is a pair of Dunovs if you have the cap ship slots -- a pair, because they can't do the shield restore on themselves, but they can on each other. 

The pirates may be somewhat nasty initially (because early on you probably only have a single capital ship and maybe a few other frigates, and which may be involved elsewhere) but don't really scale to the endgame, particularly against a heavily upgraded starbase.    If they keep coming against a particular system, you might as well use that as a training ground -- park exactly one capital ship there, and it'll get full XP regardless of any other defenses.   The pirates will cheerfully participate in your live-fire exercises so long as the bounty on you is the highest.

Your first capital is free (:

It makes clearing out the small militia at nearby planets much easier in early game. I didn't realize this for several games when I started out.

Also - are replays fixed in 1.01? I keep seeing that they go from broken to fixed just about every other patch. If they work now, one of us could post a basic replay to help him out.

Free? What, free as in no fleet allowance, or free as in no cost whatsoever? I'll have to test that for myself....

No resource cost for the first capital ship.

I'd be happy to play an online game with you against AI so i can help you out and tell you what you might be forgetting, etc. If you're interested just PM me. Itd be my pleasure to help a new player, and that pretty much goes for anyone who need help.

Lol same it took me quite a few games to handle it, the first game of mine was dismal, i managed to build my first cap a marza, then like a dozen of so scouts but din't remember how to jump so i was stuck at my homeworld and the pirates kept attacking me, i managed, and i was wtf, how do i increase my supply then i figured out how and everything i know started from there, in any case, experiment, the worst you get is that you lose a few planets and quite a few ships, well, maybe a few round, but keep playing...

The learning curve is a touch steeper than casual games to be sure ... but more than worth it!