cant win

Every planet has neutral "militia" surrounding it. They cannot attack you, only defend the planet they are at. Your free capital ship should be able to destroy all of them, save perhaps the ones guarding desert to terran worlds. Asteroids only have 1 light frigate and one siege frigate guarding them, so you should at least be able to colonize these.

This certainly relates to your problems. If you lasted 8 hours with just your home world you did very well. Decent players should be able to colonize the adjacent few planets in about 10 minutes. Early on you should problem spend most of your efforts expanding as fast as you can until you eventually encounter your enemy (save on very small maps were you start right next to each other). If you have quick start on, you first build orders should be for a colony capitalship, possibly a few extra scouts depending on the size of the map, and then the rest light frigates for the rest of your supply, which should be enough to overwhelm all but the strongest militia forces.

When you colonize your planets, first thing you should do is upgrade the infrastructure (the one that increase population, 1 upgrade for asteroids 2 for everything else) so you don't get negative tax income. Then always build the extractors. These will be your main money makers early one.

If you have nearby ice and volcanic worlds, build two civic labs so you can research the techs needed to colonize them. Otherwise most of your early research should be in the military section, getting repair platforms and new ship designs like Long Range Frigates.

One last tip of advice, if you are still having difficulty you can play the game without any AI players. If you have pirates off this means nothing will attack you (or you can leave them on to get a bit of combat experience), so you will be free to expand at your own pace. You can then get a feel for what all the ships and research does.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask if you are still having trouble.

Cliff,

If you have any questions or are still having trouble feel free to ask.  I know there are many people here that will gladly help you out.  I have a lot of experience with the single and coop style play so I'll help if I can as well.

These aren't pirates, these are militia.  Unlike pirates, militia will only ever defend and will never leave their home gravity well.  Most planets have few enough militia that a lone capital ship can defeat them with ease.  Some of the larger militia forces can be difficult to deal with, but these are few and far between so you should be able to avoid them early-on and only engage them once your fleet is mature.  No militia force qualifies as "massive".  Truly massive fleets in this game have hundreds of frigates. 

It should be noted that the militia have no allegiance; they will attack the AI just as readily as they will attack you.

The only map where the enemy starts within a single jump range is "Point Blank".  If you're playing on the random small map, there is no possibility that the enemy is this close.  The closest I've ever seen an opponent on random small is four jumps away.  I suspect what you're looking at are the militia.  They have no structures, their planet is uncolonized, and they have greyed out decals rather than the coloured insignias of player factions. 

This just doesn't sound right.  Check back and look what's actually there; if it's 5-10 frigates, these are just regular militia, and it's perfectly normal.  Go and fight them, they won't put up credible resistance against a capital ship.

If these really are more than small forces (more than 20 frigates) then I need to see a screenshot or a replay, because something weird is happening.

Unsurprising; a one-planet empire is good for an all-in rush and not much else.  If you don't grow your empire early on, you're not going to be competitive 30-minutes in, forget about 8-hours in. 

You can purchase a logistics planetary upgrade from the planetary upgrade menu.  This can raise the number of structures a planet can support (only to a certain point, though).  Normally, though, it's much easier just to kill off the militia and build new structures on the newly acquired worlds.

Generally speaking, after two hours anything is possible.  Your opponent controlled the entire map, so even with the "easy difficulty" penalty the AI receives, it could still reach maximum-sized fleets and all research.

Think something is wrong with the game. In the manual it says about starbases and minefields but i cant find them in the game. Nothing in the tech tree about them. It only mentions them in the intro and on the box nowhere else. My cap cant beat the miltia their to powerful. Just tried another game this time playing as advent. I sent my cap and 4 frigates into the well next to mine and got wiped out. Plus everytime i take my cap away from my start planet the AI fleet invades. Its why i cant expand. I only lasted 5 mins on the last game. My fleet got wiped out by militia and the AI fleet had 5 caps and about 100 other ships. I sent a scout to their planet as soon as i started the  game. They already had 2 caps and 4 research stations. I was still building the extractors. Ive also noticed playing on random i always get the same map and always tec against tec. i played point blank and its the same map that random always gives me. I think my PC might have something to do with it though. I had a couple of games that didnt work the way they should on my old PC. When that PC packed up i was given a replacement as it was only 6 months old. The other games worked perfect on the replacment. So maybe im having the same prob with this game not working on the PC as it should. This game is nowhere near as big or complex to what i usually play so it should be easier for me to play lol. Im not going to give up though Unlike i did with 1 paradox game that is full of bugs even after 4 patches and an expansion.

Oh it was an asteriod i tried to colonize. Dont know what ships they had but their were about 30 militia. Thats why i got wiped out. Going to try some maps that r not the random ones to see if thats any diff. Tried the 1st 2 small maps but still got wiped out. tried 1 med and 1 large map still cant expand. Im always next to an enemy planet who can expand and build ships a lot faster than i can. 1 game they took 6 of the 7 planets before i could even get to the 1st 1. So something is screwed up somewhere lol.

Point Blank is not a Random Map. You have to select the one that says Random Small. Trust me, no militia around an asteroid can destroy a capital ship. Only a terran or desert planet might be able to do that.

If you really think your computer is the problem you could upload a screen shot of these tough militia, but I doubt that its that.

Also I recommend turning on the quick start option so you don't have to build your starting extractors or capital ship factory.

Starbases and mines have their own tech tree, below the military tree. It uses military labs to decide what you can research though.

edit: Well that certainly does sound strange. Definitely upload a screenshot then. To use the in game function assign it in the key binding to any key besides print screen, for some reason that doesn't work.

On certain maps including the random ones (methinks) there exist planets that are colonized by independed sub-factions. Those planets need to be bombarded to colonize, they usually have hangars and a significantly larger defense force.

You should watch out for those just as you would not attempt to colonize a terran planet with 3 kodiaks defending it, using a lonely level one cap.

I don't see how you could possibly encounter militia numbering more than maybe 12 ships (the heaviest defended Deserts/Terrans could have this number). Asteroids (not dead ones) only have two militia ships at the start - one Light Frigate and one Siege Frigate. Leaving your capital and frigates on auto-attack for the smaller planets should not cause any problems.

AFAIK, neutral colonies do not appear on the Random maps, but you can get them to appear if you use the in-game map generator and increase the chance of neutral colonies appearing.

Point Blank should be the only map where your enemy's homeworld is one jump away from yours.

We need to see a replay, or at very least a screenshot.  What you're saying doesn't make any sense. 

The ai is cheating lol. just attacked an asteriod and wiped out their fleet and all the structors. They sent another fleet in. As soon as they got their they recolonized and build extractors frigate and battleship factories within a second of arriving and were building frigates and battleships instantly. Within 1 min of them arriving they built 30 frigates and 4 battleships. I was diong well at the time. I had 2 terran planets and 3 asteriods. 1 i took off the AI. the 1 i was fighting over i was unable to colonize. For some reason it wouldnt let me but it let the AI.

Easy AI does not cheat, in fact it has a handicap. Some planets (Ice and Volcanic) require research to colonize, while any planet can become uncolonizable if it has been effected by the enemies culture (as shown by colored lines on the phase lanes, you can get rid of the culture by stationing a Capital Ship in orbit for a while or destroying your enemies' culture centers).

I cant post screen shots or replays as i dont have broadband. Its been down for 4 weeks and dont know why. So having to use a pay as u go dongle. Its not fast enough and it takes to much data allowance to upload. Think win 7 SP1 disabled the TCP/IP protocol driver and i cant get it working again.

The only way I see what you are saying is that you played against vicuous or cruel AI.

There are some tutorials in the game. How to attack (don't remember exactly). Did you play them to learn basics. If not I suggest you to do so. 

Also you can watch reply of your own game by going to 

SINGLE PLAYER -> WATCH GAME -> SINGLE PLAYER AUTO SAVE ( you need to change to this) 

While you are watching you can change player and speed with which you are watching

Try to do what AI does to learn.....

Convert the screenshot to a JPG.  It shouldn't exceed 100 KB.  If you can load this web page, you can upload a JPG.

Replays usually vary between 1-4 MB, and if you compress them that should take you under 100 KB (I just tested a few, and got exceptional compression ratios).  Again, if you can load this web page you should have no problem with replays.

At this point, what you're saying does not make sense to us.  We need to see what you're seeing to reconcile what's going on.  A replay is preferable, but we need at very least a screenshot.

About how long does it take for you to send out ships to attack the neutral militia? We've had several players spend way too long building things and upgrading their homeworld and by the time they get onto taking a nearby asteroid, the AI has already acquired several planets and is bearing down on the player.

I build my cap and max out my frigates before going to other planets. If i just send a scout and cap they get destroyed. Did just win a game using centrifuge map though. But only had 1 AI player instead of 2. I found the starbase and minefields. There not in sins but r in entrenchment. It doesnt say in the manual they r only in entrenchment though. Ive also got a big poster size research tree for all techs, But the defence tree is not on there so another reason i couldnt find them lol. The manual only has info on how to play sins not entrenchment or diplomacy.  When i send my 1st scout out as soon as i biuld it the AI already has half the planets before ive even had a chance to colonize 1 planet even if i do do it straight away. The way i won the centrifuge map was by not colonizing any planets till i had a big enough fleet to defend them. It took me 6hrs 19mins to win using that method. It would of been faster but i stopped short of taking the last planet so i could research everything to see what it does lol. All the AI had left was an asteriod so were no threat to my 10 caps. They didnt have any caps left so if they tried to attack 1 of my planets i just sent my entire fleet in and chased them away. All they could build was frigates. This game is the same as 1 i had on my zx spectrum in the 80's just better graphics. Ive also got a simular game on my phone. But that game is a lot bigger than sins. It covers the entire galaxy in a single player game not just a solar system or 2. But it lacks the colonize bit. U just go searching for solar systems and take on missions to earn credits to update ur 1 and only ship. Been playing that game for 4 hrs a day every day for the last 4 years and still only halfway through the game lol.

Using up all 100 fleet supply at the beginning before even sending ships out puts you at a huge disadvantage. Scouts are cheap - if they get destroyed, replace them. The intel they provide is far more valuable than the ~200 credits you're putting into each one.

One capital ship, even the support ones, should not be getting killed by the neutral militia unless you are throwing them at Deserts/Terrans with 3 Kodiaks.

If, by the time you send out one scout, the AI has half the system, you're spending way too much time staying at your homeworld. Right on start, you need to be exploring and colonizing (minutes is the pace that you want to be at, not hours). The sooner you can claim planets, the more credits and resources you have to work with.

Small maps can be won in less than 1 hour. In the 6 hours 19 minutes you spend clearing Centrifuge, others can clear out a multi-system scenario.

And use paragraphs.

How much time do you spend at building ships at the start of the game?

I usually build my cap, one colony frigate and then use the rest of my fleet supply for light frigates. When the ships have been built I send them away to the nearest planet right away.

And that works just fine, even though you must expect to lose one or two light frigates unless it's an asteroid.

Well if you try sending explorers out to the distant planets I'm sure you can find one that isn't so heavily defended. The shis you see are scouts. These scouts usually appear in larger levels so you may want to try playing a map like 'Point Blank' because I never see any scouts there.

Just an idea to get you a jump start on building your fleet early in the game. I am a new player to this game and discovered a way change the amount of credits, metal and crystal I can start each game with. Go into  game folder and open the Galaxy folder. In that folder find the file for the map you are playing and open the file with Notepad. Look for the section that says playercount and then look for these "startingcredits". "startingmetal", startingcrystal".

It should look like this:

startingCredits 3000
 startingMetal 800
 startingCrystal 250

Now change them to 99999 each and save the file. Now restart your game and as soon as you have your shipyard for Captital Ships build one of each capital ship. Now open the research tree and click open the logistics menu and immeadiately start upgrading training and supply for your ships. This should give you an advantage over strong militia factions in the game. Make sure to copy and save the orginal unchanged file to another folder in case you need to to replace it. I havent experimented wiith this resource cheat yet but I do believe you can put up to 999999 for each starting credit, metal and crystal without any problem.

This worked for me.