A solid begining strategy

from Sins Forums

Hi; I've been looking at many comments made by players about general strategies. I have continuously tried to adapt my tactics from turtling,but when I do that; I can last three rounds against the AI, and then he brings in bombers and capitals and creams me in seconds (yes my starbase gets P*wned...and then when I tried offensively expanding my colonies, I either run out of resources battling it out with the pirates on every world or over extend myself leaving me vulnerable at multiple points. Generally; I play against a hard AI. Any advice would be appreciated; thanks. Should I be concentrating on just churning out ships? (I only ever build one factory per planet) or maybe less on tech?

10,010 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Without further details, I can't say for certain what your problem is.  I do know that the AI (particularly with unlocked teams) will often gang-beat the human player, and this might be your problem.  The first pirate raid is dangerous, but after that they're just plain annoying.

I can only guess at what your problem is.  If you think you're getting too much tech, then you're probably right.  Beginners do tend to try to whip through the tech tree.  The tech tree isn't meant to be completed, so doin't even try to.  Pick selected technologies that you need and go with those, don't tech for the sake of teching.

So, here is some generic advice:

  • Ensure you purchase the necessary population infrastructure upgrades on new planets.  They will have a considerable "upkeep" cost until then, crippling your economy.
  • Don't build trade ports too early.  They are very expensive and can take 20-30 minutes to actually pay for themselves.  Especially early game, there are much better investments of time and money.
  • Your best defense is always a good fleet that can move to any planet that's under attack.  Static defenses on their own are little more than a delay tactic to buy time for your fleet to arrive.
  • The best static defense is the repair bay.  You build them in pairs so they can repair each other, and also build any starbases nearby them.  It's completely silly to build a starbase then not have repair bays to support it.  In addition to helping your fleet defend, you can also retreat injured units or capital ships to be healed. 
  • Don't build very many light frigates at the start of the game.  Instead, build military labs to access higher level units like long range frigates, flak frigates, and carriers.  It's foolish to build huge swarms of a single unit type, but even moreso you want to fill out your fleet with stronger unit types early on.  The light frigate is fairly weak.

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Practice.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting CoBBQ, reply 2
Practice.
End of CoBBQ's quote

Well, reading up on the forums for advice is a great way to learn.  Once you've learned about some tips and techniques, you can go back to practice them, but you need to know where your mistakes lie first.  The AI itself makes so many blatant errors that it's a very poor example. 

Anyways, that's what I did; came to these forums, read a bunch of advice from the resident gurus, then went online after practicing these techniques in singleplayer.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

thanks. I have been killing the tech tree. I'll see what happens when I don't do that as much.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

 

Maybe think "Fleet fleet fleet".

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

I usually make 3-4 civilian and military research structures (through the first 30-60 min of game) and then forget about them until i hav a solid fleet and lots of cash, and then i start making upgrades. just something to consider.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Hi. I've finally put the AI on a standstill...knocked out the pirate base and conquered it...and built a nova cannon...your suggestions helped guys; thanks a bunch :).