New to the Game

from Sins Forums
Hey, I just got the game yesterday and it is intensely fun =] I love tactics and strategy and this game appears to have a strong strategic flair to it. However, I do have some questions.

1. Where is the campaign?

It looks like there can be such awesome campaign storylines and such for the three races, so why aren't there any? Sure it probably would end up being an extensively long campaign, but having objectives and missions makes the game fun.

2. What's wrong with my multiplayer?

It says I have the wrong Ironclad? I'm not sure what that means...

3. Any tips on fleet distribution?

I haven't played TOO long into each game, but so far I've played 1 small game 2v2, and 1 large game 4v4, and in the 4v4 game I never managed to launch an offensive. I was too busy defending my bases with my fleets and I find that I'm not very good at deciding how to distribute my forces and still manage to have a sizable attack force. Most RTS games I played have always been situated around having 1 main base on a map of a MUCH smaller scale (Warcraft, Dawn of War). On such a grand scale, I find that most often times my forces are too focused and it leaves much of my small (4-5 planets) empire vunerable, even though 4-5 should technically be easy to defend. Any advice for me, as I am being overwhelmed by the epic scale of each game? ><

4. Macromanagement?

During battles, I find it's much too hard to continually improve all my planets while battles are happening. (again, I played small-scaled RTS before this) I'm used to only needing to improve one base during battles, and even then usually there is only one battle in small-scale RTSes. (Maybe two but the second one would be extremely small). How do you micromanage multiple battles and macromanage a whole empire consisting of many planets? Any habits or anything?

5. The 3 Races

I feel as if the manual really didn't help me much with understanding the differences between the 3 races. One's economy, one's firepower, etc. etc. yes but I'm sure it goes more in-depth into that?

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Thanks for umm...helping if you guys will. =] The game seems very fun and usually in most things I learn very quickly so I hope I can become competitive with it soon.
strategy
5,195 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
There's no campaign. This is a GOOD THING.

I don't have any advice on the other topics. I can beat single player 1v1 small maps but other than that I get very owned.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
1. There's no campaign, althought i've heard that there might be one in the future.

2. no idea

3. if your just starting,i'd suggest you ignore support cruisers,or not make many of them, as that's where things get extremely complicated.

4. Hotkeys, not trying to do everything at once(if i'm under attack,i stop everything that takes my eyes away from that fight for more then acouple seconds), Empire tree is a big help,since you can do basically everything from there, Pinning, etc...

5. Sadly, the manual is about as in-depth as you'll get i think, althought not a fan of role-playing or any variation of it, so i haven't really looked.

Hope you enjoy this game, i know i am.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks, and yes the gamei s very enjoyable. Why is no campaign a good thing? If you don't like it, you don't have to play it, but I think it's better to have one to, at the very least, slowly introduce the player to the many aspects of the game. The tutorials are not only boring but too brief to give you a comfortable feel of the game.


As for role-playing...haha that's not what I meant by #5. I meant what are the adv./dis. of the races. I just want more info on them, I guess. I've been reading a lot of the forums and apparently Illuminators are bad to some players but good to others? I like Advent the most so...yeah.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
TEC - Focus on economy, and have some very heavy ships(Kodiak, Kol), also have the Novalith cannon, which used in huge numbers....are overpowered. I prefer to use them in small to medium maps.

Advent - Focus on shields more then armor, use lasers and drones as main weapons, when their capitals meet their support cruisers, you get a close to unstoppable army. Deliverance engine is less then awesome, but has it's uses i suppose. Prefer to use Advent for medium games only.

Vasari - Some alien dudes, most advanced race, and it shows....Frigates are awesome, cruisers are awesome, and Returning armada combined with the Phase stabilizers make for 1 incredible end-game fleet. Prefer to use in long games, with allies.

My run-down on the races and when i use them, haven't used the Kostura cannon yet, but i don't think it would really make a difference if you've already got Returning Armada.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks, that's briefly helpful =]

Btw, I still don't know why can't I play on multiplayer?
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks, that's briefly helpful =]Btw, I still don't know why can't I play on multiplayer?


Have you tried getting the latest update? Idk just a thought.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
lol thats a good plan. thanks.

anyways does anybody have advice on fleet distribution??
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Check out the planetary defense thread. They talk about structures that are helpful in slowing or mitigating a planetary attack until your home defense fleet gets there.

For the lazy, many on the thread espouse the use of 7-8 hangars with a 50/50 or 40/60 mix of bombers to fighters, 2 repair bays placed so that they can heal each other, planetary shield or race equivalent, and then gauss cannons or equivalent to protect hangars/repair bays/planet to round out the defense and fill the tactical slots. Note that this usually works on up to 6 player maps, you may be able to push it for 8 player, but planetary defenses start falling apart when a 100 ship fleet comes calling.

As for fleet distribution, I usually have two fleets. A main attack fleet with 3 or more caps and the most variety of units. Usually cruiser heavy with support, not that many carriers but at least 10 flaks. My home defense fleet consists of 2 caps and mostly cruisers and carriers and I park them where they are at most 2 jumps away from my farthest planet. If my farthest planet is 3 or more jumps away, then I start thinking about a secondary home defense fleet. Early game you will of course have no secondary fleet, but defend, defend, conserve, build up, defend until you have a decent sized force. The bigger your fleet the less of your ships will be destroyed.

The main reason for planetary defense is to slow down and blunt the force hitting your planet until your defense fleet gets there. Your defense should be able to handle the odd 10 siege ship fleets up to pretty decent sized attacks by itself without intervention from your fleet. Research phase detection as that is extremely helpful in moving your defense fleet in the direction of attack before the fleet gets there, and keep your fleet at the edge of the grav well in the direction that you think most of the attacks will be coming from. This cuts down on travel time.

When I have a larger portion of the galaxy covered, I usually move my fleets such that my attack fleet acts as home defense for the planets in the forward areas (the areas where I'm attacking) and my main defense fleet covers my rear.