best starting path

More or less. Fight a bunch of Unfairs teamed together to get a slightly better idea of the speed of playing online.

Any research you do should be unit prototypes.  Don't bother with economic upgrades, damage upgrades, health upgrades, or shield upgrades.  Get your low-level unit types unlocked and start building a lot of them.  Repair bays are a top priority.

If pirates are active, on a large map, hangar defense is also important.  1 on each planet, all fighters. (Takes out enemy siege, too.)

Only viable on large, where you'll face more than 1 raid.

Keep in mind i have not expierienced the Ironclad Online Multiplayer, only a few local LAN games with a friend, so i don't know many of the common strategies.

I know expierienced players don't generally use siege, but i like to throw a couple AI into the mix when I MP, and they do use them in small number, but continuously.

Typically building hangers on every front-line world is too expensive for the early game.  If you need to defend a distant flank that your fleet can't get to quickly, then they're a good idea.  Otherwise, I find some repair bays and some units nearby that can respond to trouble are your best defense.  When the pirates come knocking, just send a capital ship, and with a few repair bays they will be cleaned up without trouble.

The AI's love of siege frigates is a bit annoying, and you can deal with that either by putting hangers on the threatened worlds or else build scouts (they're cheap and easily spammable) to hunt down any siege frigates that get too close.  I generally have 3 scouts on guard duty for every one siege frigate I expect the enemy to attack with, and it works wonders.

i always rule out scouts for some reason.  (In fact, i hadn't even realized the damage bonuses vs units on any ship until i read it here.)  It definitely sounds like a better way to go, since you could build a decent strike force that you can move around, being cheaper in the long run.  My only complaint is it will take up supply points i desparately need early-game, as i try for a 2nd cap, and therefore must research 1st level fleet increase.

So are you saying that the better online players could defeat several unfair AIs teamed together? Or just that unfairs keep up the pace of the game, closer to online play?

If you're good enough to beat an unfair, then you're ready for online play.  The unfair isn't any more intelligent than the hard, it just cheats more.  So if you add more and more teamed unfair AI's you're learning to beat many very dumb players, rather than one very cunning player (which is what online will be most of the time).  Certainly online players can beat multiple unfairs, but the technique and approach you use is very different to what you do against a player.  I'm far more aggressive against the AI than I would be even against a novice because the AI is more predictable and has some very glaring faults.

thanks for the tip guys. i tried online just for  the heck of it........ completely paniced and froze over . and the player in the game were being VERY mercyful (they could have taken me out LONG time) soooo i'lll keep learning to beat unfairs for now.