Beam Defense Platforms - Too Many?

To destroy your platforms, click on the orange line beneath their icon when you have them selected. That'll scuttle them, which will refund part of their purchase price.

As for the pirates, most newbies would be well advised to leave them off while they learn the ropes.

What version do you have?

Not entirely sure what Version I have.   I can find out when I get home tonight, but I would presume it is whatever the Latest Version is, as I bought the Trinity Package online from Impulse and just did the digital download from there.  I will presume that this forces the user to have the latest and most updated version?

As for those pirates...

I kinda don't have a choice other then to fight them off, they always show up almost right away, and they always arrive with a large fleet of well over a dozen ships and they never arrive from the Phase Lanes...

So unless my own Fleet is there to fight them off, then they start destroying my orbital structures and move in on the planet, and my Beam Platforms, though numerous, just can't get the job done by themselves...

So my first thought has always been.. "Defend the planet!" .. keep the fleet close! haha.

I eill experiment with that scuttling option on the Platforms when I get home, see if that gives me the option to put up Hanger Defenses and other structures that will allow me to not have to keep my Fleet of ships so close all the time...

Wait... they aren't arriving from Phase Lanes?

Do you have any more details, like the names of the invading ships, how many of each, what color they are, and how much damage a single one does?

ok did i understand you right, NOT from the phase lane?????

It sounds like Vasrii pirates, I hope not.....IAnd i thought i had the newest version]

I hope you are mistaken.

Vasari pirates do not exist.

All "pirates" are from the neutral Pirate faction.

KthuthratepKha, I strongly suggest turning Pirates off until you're relatively skilled at the game. Pirates are quite difficult to fight off at the beginning, especially for those new to the game. I really don't see why Pirates are even on by default given how much they unbalance the game, at least in the very beginning.

Even those who are skilled who play multiplayer never play with pirates on. Don't hesitate to turn them off without looking back.

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That said, if you can expand quickly (are quite skilled), you should be able to have a decent number of planets by the time of the first pirate raid (15 minutes in, 6 or 7 or more planets) - at which point the pirates can usually be fought off easily with a few repair platforms and a few turrets, and perhaps a capital ship.

But if you want my advice... just turn them off. Permanently. Or at least until you consider yourself a good player.

You almost certainly are.  These things are notoriously pricey and the bane of many beginners.  You need to be out expanding your empire early on.

Strongly recommend turning off pirates when you're learning the game.  The game's got a steep enough learning curve as it is.

I've heard reports of this before, but never been able to reproduce it.  Keep in mind that you cannot see enemies that are using phase lanes unless you've researched the appropriate upgrades.  If you use scouts, though, you should be able to see them coming as they move from one gravity well to the next.  If you're certainly they're just appearing spontaneously out of nowhere, providing a replay could determine if this is a bug or not.

Hangers and turrets are poor investments.  In smaller quantities, these structures won't deter any serious threat and you'll get way better value out of a mid-sized fleet left on defensive duty.  In larger quantities... just go with a starbase.  A repair platform nearby will make the installation virtually impregnable to everything except a dedicated attacker. 

Your best defense - particularly against pirates and the AI, is to set up blockades on all your front worlds so they have no way to reach your inner worlds.  Don't bother wasting precious money defending worlds that may never actually see a fight,

Oh I am finding them quite easy to defeat.

They show up in Grey Colored ships, baring a Skull for an emblem... maybe that's what they always look like but as I said this is my first experience with the game.

My Game Version according to Impulse is v1.32, dated 8/16/2011...

And correct, they are not arriving from the Phase Lanes... either that or these Phase Lanes must have a very Wide field of entry... if, looking at my Planet and its Gravity Well as though it were a Clock...

Then I have a Phase Lane at about 3 minutes past 3 O'clock, and one at around 9 O'Clock...

The Pirates are arriving at the point that would correspond with 1 O'Clock... According to my Map, they are based from a single planet, surrounded by the opposing Empire that I'm supposed to be defeated, but not doing very well at... as that one now has all planets except mine, and the Pirates.   The Pirates Planet is situated so that they would have to pass through 4 other planets to reach mine, in a zip zag route along the phase lanes of those planets...

But instead, they're always coming at me from the 1 O'clock position, no where near any of my own phase lanes.

I'll see if I can get some replays of this occurring at some point as I do have the game saved and can load it up and have it happen...

Until then, I may start a new game on a new map with the pirates turned off!

I appreciate all the advise everyone here has given!

Phase lanes do have a pretty wide margin. It's something like 30 degrees in either direction from the center. The pirates may seem to be arriving from nowhere, but they aren't. Get the phase lane prediction tech and you'll be able to see exactly where they're coming from while they're on route.

And if the enemy player has all other planets except your homeworld... you're probably already lost, unless you're extremely good at turtling.

Pirates slow down your early expansion (fighting and colonizing other planets) way too much, even as a good player. That's why I'd turn them off.

You should be expanding faster.  Build Capital shipyard first and foremost, and construct a colonizing cap ship right away (the mothership in your case that looks like a big fish fin).  Once that cap is complete scuttle the factory to get back some of those resources.  This one cap ship should be able to colonize at least 2 planets for you all on its own with no support (just make sure to kill any siege frigates in the militia before you colonize).  At that point, you can easily afford a few extra frigates if you haven't built them yet.  Leave those frigates at the planet closest to the pirates home base and if the pirates attack you should be able to bring your cap ship back to help defend before losing to much.  If you want to add in a beam platform or 2 at that planet too for good measure it's not a terrible thing, but place them close to the planet itself so that you frigates can kill siege frigates while being protected by the turrets.

If you're ready to build frigates, build scouts. They're the best for killing siege frigate militia, which are the only ships you REALLY need to kill.

If you're planning on fighting pirates, I highly suggest building turrets (and repair structures) instead of stationing frigates there: turrets do a whole lot more damage and have tons of hull and armor, although they don't have shield mitigation. Unless I have a huge mass of frigates defending (impractical in the early-game), any frigates I have at the attacked planet generally just do little damage and then die. If you really want to use frigates (LRF probably?) it's probably a good idea to send them in only after pirates have started attacking your cap or your turrets.

For the initial raid at least, I've found that you rarely need more than 3 turrets and a repair platform. That's a much better investment than in fragile frigates or an expensive and rare capital ship.

Defense Guns are best used as follows:

Group your civilian structures together and near the planet as much as possible. Then put repair platforms and guns around the structures. Pirates and AI will try to attack the civ structures but have to fight off the guns to do it.  Usually I can protect my planet and my labs/trade etc with 2 repair and 4-5 guns. This is the most you would ever need to delay until your fleet arrives

Don't they automatically target the combat structures, no matter where they are in the gravity well? (Except for the pirate types which go after trade ships)

That's what I've seen on Diplomacy, at least.

I believe it's AI level dependent. Most times when I play with Pirates they just attack the closest structure or ship when they first phase in. Though I have noticed they will chase down merchant ships and colony ships first.

The Corsairs go after the closest combat structure first, the Reapers follow the Corsairs while gunning down SC, the Rogues and Cutthroats go after Trade and Refinery ships. All of this is dependent on if  there is a colony ship present.

They completely ignore starbases, though...