Old player returning to game with a few questions

ok, so first of all, it really depends on who you are, TEC, Vasari, or Advent. Since i don't know i will try to be universal in my advice. Crystal is very important early game, so if you are willing to put out the credits, buy 100 when the game starts. Yes, get your cap ship out IMMEDIATELY, and make sure you have the crystal to build it, and remember to build the extractors on the asteroids over your home planet right away, build the colony cap, then scuttle the factory (you need the resources, you don't need the factory, and you need the slots). As far as asteroids, only do it if you NEED the logistic slots, or all other planets are too heavily fortified by the militias to take control, and if you have the resources, upgrade new colony civilian infrastructure ASAP to get away from the underdevelopment tax. I can't answer too much more unless you tell me your prefered race. 

1) Most people play with Entrenchment "quick start" which changes the opening game a lot since you begin with extractors and cap ship factory.  As such, I can't speak too much on how strategies have changed for normal start.

2) You buy what you need from the black market.  Obviously you minimize your use, but if you need crystals you buy crystals.

3) For first cap, the colonizer remains a popular choice, but the carrier caps are now highly favoured as rushing capital ships (they now have 3 squads at level 1 as well as stronger abilities).  The Kortul and Marza stand out as the only "battleship" and "siege" class capital ships that are good on the rush.

4) yup, roids and neutrals are your top priority at the start of the game.

As for unit types, there are a few to be aware of.  The scout is one of them; it's very popular currently as a core combat unit.  It wasn't buffed or anything, it's more that players have suddenly realized that the unit they've been dismissing as an explorer is actually a very easily spammable combat unit that rocks against LRF in particular (just about any other unit type will slaughter them, though).  The last patch also buffed light frigates, so especially for Advent and TEC those are popular now.

He doesn't have Entrenchment

And i actually withdraw my statement about ignoring asteroids, but only early game

I know; I'm more remarking that there are few people who could tell you the latest normal start builds.  Most people play quick-start now.

maybe this is a stupid question, but how do you get v1.18? I only have the original and only have updated to v1.05 and thats the highest i've found...

where did you get that update?

You need to download a program called impulse, create account and register your CD key. It will then update Sins to the latest version for you (and its a lot better than 1.05).

All updates are distributed by Impulse now. You can grab it at:

http://www.impulsedriven.com/

edit: Whoops! Someone beat me to it...

thanks guys for the impulse info

What about for TEC? Is it worthwhile to rush tradeports, or is that something that can wait until I have 4+ planets?

hey minwanabi,

don't you ever rush tradeports. Investment is far better put into a second colony-cap IF you have the room to expand. Else: FLEET is what makes the game go round.

Just get some planets first if you can, and keep scouting against your opponent!

4 planets would be the minimum before you consider trade, and that's if you're in the pocket.

If you're on the front lines, it can probably wait until after heavies are on the field and your fleet is mostly mature.

Hey minwanabi. Maybe you remember me. Maybe you don't. I remember you though, and boy has this game changed, at least online.

Going tradeports very very early if there's an enemy next to you gets you killed, and people are reeeeally rushing nowadays. Before you had time to react. Now there is no time. You have to be quick on your feet. People are smarter, the game is faster. Basically imagine the first 10 minutes where all you did was scout, bought infrastructure for your homeworld (prebought with quickstart), and built your mines is gone. You can now hit people hard and early,

so back to your most recent point. Tradeports gets you killed if somoene's next to you. With the current pace of the game, the best investment is now a fleet that is used to get planets. The more planets you have, the more money you're going to have. Getting structures that produce money is just too big a risk in the first 30 minutes unless you have allies on both sides of you.

Yeah Amish... ICO has changed a lot. There was once a point when someone who rushed would almost always win. Then people got onto that, and now EVERYONE does it. It kinda... takes the fun out of it, I mean, sure, eight hour games were tedious, but it was kinda fun to build a huge fleet and fight against the enemy's fleet over the star, and then just barely winning and then attacking their homeworld and winning. Now, it's bland. You know that 90% of people are going to spam LRFs in the first 15 minutes. Sure, people get more sleep, but it just isn't as good, IMO. Besides, nowadays w/ Entrenchment, you can't exploit the early advantage against a Vasari anymore, they just build a SB and attack you with 15 assailants in the first TEN MINUTES.   But of course if you are able to survive that (pretty hard on small maps, THEN you MIGHT have a chance.

Anyway, yeah, stay away from TPs until you have a fleet to defend it (at least 4 or 5 planets, or 20 into a game, whichever one comes later, and, trust me, online, the 4 or 5 should come first, otherwise, you're dead in a small or medium map.)  

I do remember you RA - nice to see some of the older players around. I always loved TEC back then, still getting the hang  of it now before I hit MP. Thanks for the advice everyone!