Quick TEC notes

Turtling doesn't work well online.  You'll get pounded before you get your shell up.

Also, gratuitous saving is useless.  You should never have that much of a credit reserve.  Put it into investments such as trade ports.  Ultimately, all of your income should go straight towards supporting your fleet as you push through the enemy forces.

Oh, and what levels of AI do you play against?

I've come to the point where I can semi-reliably defeat hard AI in a 3-6 man FFA or in teams of 2 with my buddy. Never tested the harder levels yet.

From what you're saying about defensiveness not working out too well, do you think that playing the rebel verson of TEC is a better choice?

The TEC Rebels do tend to be a bit more popular online, but its not really a faction choice. It sounds like you will find the early multiplayer game very rough with your current play style. If you are on the front line of an opponent you can expect to be at least raided by the enemy at the first opportunity, if not get a full out assault on your homeworld in 20 minutes. Vasari players in particular will build a migrator ASAP and attempt to build a starbase at your homeworld while you're off expanding. And human players will go for the kill, not fight at every useless planet you have. It is not feasible to make a "shell" capable of keeping a skilled player out until late game, so you can't just sit back and build up. You will likely be fighting for your life most of the game.

This means its not what AI levels you can defeat that will prepare you most for multiplayer. Its how fast can you expand early on and build up your fleet when needed. I would suggest playing some games trying to attack early and win as fast as possible, rather than go for the invincible build up and economic boom.

That said, your skills at building a giant economy will come in handy if you land in the "eco" slot, that is the two players adjacent to you are on your team. This means you'll face little direct threat early game, and you'll be expect to do one thing: expand quickly and build up your economy. Max out your starting fleet supply early but don't get any more. Once your friends start the real fighting hopefully you'll start to get trade networks up, and you can start "feeding", or sending resources, to allies in the middle of the action. Since you'll have a much smaller fleet (and less upkeep) and an opportunity to expand without any threats, its the eco player's economy that provides the fuel for much of their teams war machine. Eventually you may fleet up a little bit and build a titan to help, but you should try to keep your upkeep low unless a large fleet starts heading into your territory.

@PapaRayRay

Your strengths vs. the AI will mostly max out at just knowing what counters what, which techs to prioritize, what abilities do and when to use them, etc. The biggest difference you will notice is being pressured outside of your comfort zone due to the more cuthroat, adaptive, less predictable human players. Not having enough of a fleet presence early enough is likely to be the most common game ender in making the transition. Second would be not expanding fast enough and getting an econ up, resulting in getting outteched (see: not enough fleet presence + fleet composition). Scouting early and often is also 500% more important than when playing vs. the AI. You need to know where your enemy is and whether he is already preparing to jump on you ASAP. It's hard to say more than that without seeing you play - if you want to post one of your first online forays, I'd be happy to add whatever else I can then.

Alright, I've got a game record uploaded. It's actually my second game, as I forgot to save the first one. The first game didn't have much too it, since all I really did was build an economy and some small entrenchments once I reached the enemy border, and fend off one attack on my space station. After that, the other three players quit within 10 minutes of each other and I won by default.

My second game was a little more interesting. My player is the green shield, DerpyHooves. Now that I think about it though...weren't you there?

http://www.2shared.com/file/0hFbmeGc/AutoSave-22.html

Lol - that's true, I was. Well, here's some feedback:

Start faster - your capital ship sat there for a couple minutes after it was built and you took your time getting some frigates to join it. You need to be off to the first moon or asteroid nearby to colonize as soon as your cap finishes building. You needed more ships as well - you had less than 10 most of the game. Use corvettes, like at least 10-20 to start to help your capital clear and colonize nearby planets faster.

Don't research Titan upgrades that early in the game. Same with the sensor drone stuff. Prioritize getting more ships out and then trade ports up as tech once you have a string of at least three planets. Don't waste money on hanger bays when you aren't there to support them. Avoid making static defenses period if you can. Ships and factories are better.

You floated 5000+ credits and 2-3000 metal and crystal all game. Unless you are saving for a Titan, you should always be spending that. It's doing you no good in the bank. This is basic RTS 101. Give it away to allies in need if you are safe for the time being. It was a bit of a rough game for you to step into and you didn't really get a chance to contribute anything until purple steamrolled you at the end. Watch it again from other player's points of view and see what they were doing instead - how they colonized faster and built larger fleets. Practice expanding faster and building more ships. Try to never let your income get above 1000-200-200 - figure out what you need to spend it on so it doesn't go above that. Planet pop upgrades, trade ports, factories, fleet, the TEC terran research techs. Invest in that stuff the most to start and then take it from there.

I don't suppose you were in the game before that one with me? I didn't save it and I really wanted to as I had some tooth and nail fights vs JameX as Advent Loyalist vs. his Vasari Loyalists. He spammed starbases at me for the 2nd game in a row and this time I managed to get carriers and illuminators out in enough numbers to win in time.

Anyway, stick with it and try refining your opening 20 minutes more. 

Whoops, I uploaded the wrong one. That one was my 3rd game, and yeah I didn't fare nearly as well that time. I was there for the one with you vs JameX (I think), which actually was my second, so if I can figure out how to tell which save file from which I'll upload the right one.

But anyways, thanks on the eco-management. I'm trying to learn to allow myself only a very small "bank", where in single player I usually stock up in the hundreds of thousands in credits. As for feed, well, hopefully I'll be of good use to the more militant members of my team. =P

Yes, please upload that one when you find it. Cheers.

Aha, found the real save locations. Here's that one battle: http://www.2shared.com/file/JS1dvOWe/AutoRecord-08032233.html

Thanks but that was the first one I played vs him where I lost. Killed 2 of his offensively placed SBs but it wasn't enough. It was the next game where I started next to him again and he did the same again but I managed to beat it.