Stellaris: Can't build up a big enough fleet

[Mazianni]

I've just got this game, and I love it. However, I have one main problem.

I'm awful.

I can't seem to build up a big enough fleet early-game, and then the star accord of something decides the border friction was too much and moves in their fleet (with twice the power of mine) to trash my systems and capture my empire.

I've read a bunch of guides, I've tried making different specialized ships with missiles/lasers/projectile weapons, and still again and again an annoying neighbour comes along and destroys me. I'd be grateful for any advice.

[XistenZ]

Is your problem you can't afford more ships? Energy running out from maintenance? Or that your fleet cap is too low? The cap is dependent mainly from pops and starports. You can also build more ships than the cap says, it just costs more maintenance.
Assigning an admiral to the fleet helps a lot.

Don't ignore diplomacy, trade with your neighbours to mitigate the effects of borderfriction. Mutual rivalries can help (I think).

[Mazianni]

It's usually that I can't afford more ships. Even with grand fleet, multiple spaceports and an admiral, I just run out of minerals.

[XistenZ]

Colonize more planets, specialize them for minerals :)

[Mazianni]

Ok, I'll give that a try.
Thanks!

[Marcos_DS]

Also, a defensive pact or two helps too. I usually keep don't use my fleet limit for the first 50 years if i manage to get 2 defensive pacts and put everyting in (peaceful) growth.

[Hasu]

I had this problem on the harder difficulties. Did you raise the difficulty?

[Mazianni]

Nah, it's on normal. I'm playing as the UN of E though, and I seem to be doing fine, apart from a power credit shortage.

[Mazianni]

Nope. Apparently I'm dead again. Any tips?

[Zero Strike]

Originally posted by Sarcasmal:

Nope. Apparently I'm dead again. Any tips?

Can u tell us in detail what u ve done in your recent run ? =)

[Mazianni]

So, I decided 'I'm gonna be friendly and be the United Nations of Earth, make friends with everyone, etc; etc; (then purge them later)'. But there's a bunch of spiritual nutjobs nearby who don't like me because I'm an 'egalitarian rabble'. They make friends with a nearby empire, crush my fleets, and reduce me to nothing. Could I please have some advice? Something tells me I'm not doing this right :/

[XistenZ]

Even if you get obliterated it doesn't necessarily mean you've done anything wrong. If indeed you're surrounded by empires who unconditionally want to see you gone and they all share this sentiment, well... what to do? Some times you just can't win simply because of bad luck.

Previous tips still apply, colonize ALL the planets, maximize minerals, spaceports everywhere, massproduce ships (make sure to customize them, auto is crap).

Do you use the "naked corvette" strat?That's no longer viable, you should use all ships. (I do it easy by making increments of 1 battleship, 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers and 8 corvettes. It probably makes more sense to have fewer corvettes tbh but I like how the numbers play out lol)

[Mazianni]

I don't use the naked corvette strat, but thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try. Here we go.

[Exarch_Alpha]

There is a crapton of stuff you can do. Since you are a newbie, remove or decrease advanced AI starts. Use civics and traits that increase minerals. Go prosperity tradition - it´s actually pretty damn good for a first choice, as it decreases colony ship costs.

Use frontier outposts in specific places. However always have influence gain at +1, don´t spam outposts. Aim for them to be replaced by terraformed planets ASAP.

[Mazianni]

Ok, I'll try and go prosperity.
Thanks for the advice!

[firestar587]

im a new player as well and im doing a run where im doing pertty good but how does the ai have so many systems like even non pasfist ones (yes ik how they work they get more core systems) but iv seen a empire get 7 systems and 9 total plants in about 25 years if i tryed that as my empire i would get a ton of penaltys