noob questions

1. Economy. Crystal first, then metal. A couple scout ships. Then, it depends on what you want to do, but building a cap factory is important. Your first cap ship is free. Then expand, but not too far. Find choke points and defend.

2. What you see is what you get. To your list there are the fighter/bombers and trade or refinery ships.

3. Yep.

By , don't expand too far, what do you mean? How far is too far? how many planets I guess I should say

Depends on ammount and how hard the enemies are,i don't like going more then 3 phase jumps away from my home world at beggining of the game,not only will it be harder to defend,but because your so far...your allegiance, and thus your income will be lower there.

Typically,i colonize 4-6 planets(number depends on game settings,and wether or not these are roids or actual planets),but never far enough that your within 1 or 2 phase jumps from the enemy.

If your battles are going too slow, hit the "+" key to speed up the time. I think you need the second patch for this though.

I would also try starting with a CAP ship that has a colonize ability. That makes things easier in the beginning. I'd also play maps without pirates for a while until you get a better idea of how to play the game. To novice players, this game can seem to have a very steep learning curve at first.

I've playing for two weeks or so and i don't play any games on easy anymore, however, all attempts at playing a Hard AI opponent ended in total failure. So, I'm still learning too. Check out the posts here, experienced players give great tips all the time. Enjoy!

Check out this post, which asked and answered a lot of those questions:
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?forumid=404&aid=300077

read the manual thoroughly, you'll get a pretty good idea on how to start, the ships and their capabilities, as well as your enemies' weaknesses.

Since you are new to the game, start with the small maps. So, too far would be more than three or four planets. That'll be your foundation. Once you have your trade going nicely (TEC), your culture influence flowing (Advent) or overall kickass power growing (Vasari) then you should branch out to more planets.

Its worth noting that faster game speeds can be accomplished using smaller maps, set to fast speed, with high resources and fast research. Its not going to magically turn your matches into 10 minute clickfests, but it will greatly accelerate the pacing.

about defences...those gauss cannons dont seem to shoot far...i started building hangars w/ fighters instead : they seem to have a lot more reach to catch ships that try to avoid the cannons...would i be OK to do this : no gauss, all tac slots filled with hangars? if i do that, what is the best ratio of fighters & bombers? ive tried no gauss, only hangars w/ only fighters, and it « seemed » to work...

a totallee n00b n00bette

Well I have been playing the game almost nonstop for 24 hours (not something I can normally do but hey been play GalCiv and GalCiv II for so long I had to give this one a complete run through) and I would suggest still using Gauss Guns. A good mix I have found is two or three hanger, best is three, and the rest of the tac slots being filled with Gauss Guns. I did this playing advent and when the Pirate AI decided to get tactical and go the extra two phase jumps to assault me there I pretty much decimated them. Of course with also 15 gauss guns forming walls around where they entered it was hard for them to get around the sheer destruction pouring out from the weapons.

Also on the question of good fighter/bomber mix. I would suggest for ever two fighters one bomber in the beginning. You are not facing alot of cruisers initially so bombers aren't as effective. Once you do begin fighting alot of cruisers I tend to see them bringing fighters/bombers as well. Fighters kill bombers so to protect your assets I would suggest having the weapons to take them out.

But this is off limited experience and someone else might have better ideas and/or tactics that they know works.

V

ok..another problem i have been having is my fleet being on a planet about 2 jumps away from my homeplanet, and my home plannet gets attacked... what should i do so i dont have to spend 2-3 minutes just to get my fleet to a planet to defend it? Will gauss cannons and hangers defend planets themselves?

yes they will....and their placement can make or break a defense sometimes

Lol is this the Havoc that play dota ?

what would be the ideal placement for gaussies and hangars defending a homeworld ??

Hangars should be anywhere, really. The fighters/bombers are fast enough to get to most places. The hangars themselves, though, should be within range of a repair platform (which is more important than the defenses themselves, imho).

The Gauss cannons and the other types (platforms from here on out), though, should be set up near jump points. Meaning, the enemy can only come into your gravity well at certain areas along the phase lanes. They can't jump to the backside of your planet. So, placing your platforms where the enemy is likely to jump in makes the most sense. Obviously, you want some overlap in their firing range to maximize damage.

I prefer to put mine pretty close to the planet and (if I can) within the range of a repair platform. The reason I put them close to the planet is that ships moving inward in a gravity well move faster then when they try to leave a gravity well. So, if you have them pretty far out, they don't get to do as much damage. I let my fighters take care of the far reaches.

Also, keep in mind that pirates go straight for trade and refinery platforms. I use them as bait to run straight into my defenses.

Oh, and I rarely defend my homeworld. I find choke points and defend them. My homeworld only get a couple of defenses and I upgrade it later in game when I have the extra money. Your homeworld should be tucked away nice and safe while your outer planets get to take the brunt of any attack.

no im not the havoc in dota , but thanks for the concern lol... so about the fleet, should i just have one big fleet with all my ships? Or just have several fleets defending planets? And what ships should a fleet consist of? Please be specific with the names, im not good with abbreviations in sins

any suggestions?

Diversity. That's my suggestion.

The answers to your questions have too many variables. First and foremost, what race are you playing? Then comes, what size map, single player or multi, what's the ai's race and so on. Too many variables.

Really, the best suggestion is to just play. I started on easy and had a pretty easy go of the game. Normal presented a bit more of a challenge, but not on small maps. I moved to larger maps and the ai tends to destroy me even on normal (I hate missions). We can talk this game to death, but playing is the best way to learn.

amen