I can't win

[darkling235]

I can NOT figure out how to play this game. I was expecting something like civilization or alpha centauri but the AI is just brutal. Before I get halfway through the game, another civilization always kills me. In 2304 I have an 8 planet empire and a 179 ship fleet with a power of 10k. The civilization next to me has 13 planets and effortlessly fields a fleet of 29k. And that's not even its only fleet! It's not even a fallen empire. All the other civilizations are stronger than me.

I've built double the ships my naval rating allows trying to stave this off but the other civilization just crushes me. The only way I even made it this far was by constantly making backup save files and trying to bribe the other civilization into not crushing me a few turns before he declared war. I've been upgrading my ships with new reactors, shields and a variety of weapons on each ship. I put the best weapons and defenses in every slot. I even tried to balance my fleet with many many tiny ships for each battlecruiser as the articles suggest but I don't even manage to kill anything in the enemy fleet before I'm scrap.

I've never made it through ONE of these play throughs. No matter how I try to play the other civilizations just eat me alive and there's nothing I can do about it. It seems like the AI is just cheating. How can it possibly make all those ships that both outnumber me and have better gear? There;s no way a 29k fleet is inside its naval rank. The game feels broken. As soon as a civlization declares war on me I'm toast.

[EleventhStar]

for 100 years into the game 29k isn't a crazy number for the AI to have.

what is your mineral income?

[Rusty Gamer]

Have you tried playing on an easier level? There is an option to make the AI less agressive too.

[darkling235]

229 produced each month
-43 trade expenses (bribes not to crush me)
-111 ship expenses (way over naval rating)
-63 Consume goods

21.72 minerals a month net

[Paragon]

...21 minerals a month in 2304? Boi you need more industry. Don't go over naval rating unless you really need to. Try for NAPs or DPs if you can.

Are you playing a smaller map? 29k fleet power in 2300 is also not a whole lot, even for AI. 29k can also be easily sustained with a few planets, given good starports and decent tech.

Overall I would recomend really piling on the industry and tech early game, neglecting naval expansion. This will give you a far more solid mid game. Unless you play a small map or tons of AI, you shouldn't get warred. The AI will almost always do this, unless its an ultra-militant personality.

I'm not sure whats going on that 10k is pushing your fleet cap, but you need more planets, pops, and better starports ASAP. Either that or your tech is really crap.

You should also make sure your empire isn't too poorly designed too. But you can usually make even a bad empire succeed with the right investments.

[darkling235]

I have it set on 'normal' which ironically seems to be the easiest difficulty and the AI aggressiveness on low. I still can't get through the game

[EleventhStar]

22 minerals per month is way to low. even building a corvette will take you the better part of a year that way.

with 8 planets don't be afraid to devote 2 or 3 of them purely to mineral production.

[darkling235]

I was focusing more on energy than minerals. I have over 10K energy which I thought was good since I tend to run short of it. For most of the game I had good minerals until I had to give most of it away on bribing the AI

[Mindset]

The AI is an apathtic bastard that will go any lenghts to screw you over...

Want to defend youself? *BAM* 80+K Fleet at your doorstep!
Want jump drives? *BAM* Unbidden invasion!
Want a dyson sphere that you spent over 100,000 F@#%ING MINERALS ON?! *BAM* AWAKENED XENO-F@#%ING-PHOBIC EMPIRE RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO YOUR F@#%ING HOME PLANET!!!!!!!

It's times like these that I use the ungodly power of the mystical "~" key and DELETE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE F#%@ING PIECES OF SH#T FROM F#%@ING EXISTANCE AND BATHE THEM ALL IN THE WRATH OF A F@%#ING 100,000K FLEET OF ANNIALATION!!!!!!

...
...
...
...sorry, I blacked out. What was I saying?

[Serafine]

It takes a few runs to get decent at the game.
If you have synthetic dawn try the machine intelligence, I found it particularly beginner friendly (at the beginning you have to build your pops manually which is a bit annoying but they don't need food which is nice and allows you to build a lot of mineral and power plants, plus they aren't affected by happiness at all).
Also making sectors helps a lot as the sector AI is actually rather competent economy-wise.

Don't forget to UPGRADE your fleet frequently. Getting the right techs also plays a big part (bigger ships are always good).
And spam colony ships at the very early game until you run out of influence, getting 2-3 colonies up as early as possible is really really important (and starports with solar arrays).

p.s. I also really really recommend a mod that gives you automatic exploration from the start because having to order around all your science vessels manually is INCREDIBLY annoying.

[Sir Fanny de Derriere]

Honestly, just expect to get your ass handed to you for a while until you learn more of the game.

Some tips for you though

- make allies with your neighbors or at least try to limit their negative view of you if alliance or a non-aggression pact isn't possible
- prioritize energy orbital sites over everything else in the very first part of a new game so you can supply power to mining sites
- after a little bit of power harvesting has been done... build as many mining sites as you can on planets in the early game until you can afford building more orbital mining
- prioritize research in increasing mineral and power yields
- always have a comparable fleet size and technology level to that of the nearest AI empires
- towards the mid game you need to have already established an alliance with a strong AI empire or aggressive AI empires will target you since you're isolated.

[Paragon]

Energy isn't that useful. Just earn enough to stay afloat and late (emphasis on LATER) game terraforming. Minerals are where it's at. Energy can also be bought rather cheaply mid game from the AI too.

[Shakybill]

The AI in this game goes pretty hard, but try and keep all resources n a high production (yet balanced) level.

Some personal tips;
- Always adjust your fleets to your goal/ enemy; if your enemy has high shields, use mass drivers, if your enemy has high armor, use lasers, if your enemy DOES NOT have point defense systems, use missiles, torpedos, or strike craft.
- Forget about cruisers, use battleships (General weapon craft, aircraft, and XL weapons), destroyers (for point defense systems), and corvettes (as torpedo boats)
- Get alot of and focus early on into research of all varieties.
- Never focus soley on economic or military tech, keep it balanced.
- Hoard rare resources
- For the AI, try and get them to give you research agreements, and active sensor links, but not you give them such.
- Watch Youtube videos on this game, they are very helpful.

[zdesert]

for perspective. my current 3 planet empire in the early game is punping out 120 minerals a month with a full fleet... and i feel mineral starved.... now i am a slaver race with the strong trait so i have a double mineral boost and i did nab a lovely mineral rich planet off the bat so i have more mineral wealth than most this early. but by any measure 22 mineral income is sad.

minerals win games. with enough minerals you can do just about anything

use diplomacy to keep your neighbours from smushing u

attack someone early if you can swing it and take there capitol

just build enough energy to pay for your expansion, unspent energy floating around helps no one. eventually you will pivot and focus more on energy. basicly you always want to be spending your resources. Spent resources make you stronger, saved resources are a waste.

the same is true for buildings. dont build buildings on empty planet slots. if there is not pop in the space then you spent resources to build a building which may or may not be used in the future. those resources would be better spent doing anything of value right now.

i invest everything i can into minerals, becuase everything from expansion, to military, to planet upgrades, to space defenses needs minerals.... and needs alot more minerals than energy....

resurch is great but you cant focus on all three branches early. you just dont have the resources. small empires have a reasurch boost and everyone starts out small so double down, enact the reasurch edict and focus on one branch and nab some decent tech. i focus military becuase i like to rush the first neighbour i find which supercharges my economy nicely (2 homeworlds are an unbeatable early boost). dont waste energy or minerals on early tech labs. it is tempting but no matter what tech you get or how useful it could be... the time between spending the resources on the tech building and actualy finding a decent tech and then reasurching it and then upgradeing/implimenting it into your empire is just TOOO long. in the early game those resources could have bought you a extra corvett or two which themselves could have helped win you a whole planet, which could be covered with free prebuilt tech labs and a slave race to operate them...

[Nolo Contendere]

Originally posted by zdesert:

for perspective. my current 3 planet empire in the early game is punping out 120 minerals a month with a full fleet... and i feel mineral starved.... now i am a slaver race with the strong trait so i have a double mineral boost and i did nab a lovely mineral rich planet off the bat so i have more mineral wealth than most this early. but by any measure 22 mineral income is sad.

so like.....am i supposed to feel inadequate with my 12 planet empire having only 292 minerals/month?

[SnusHead]

Originally posted by darkling235:

229 produced each month
-43 trade expenses (bribes not to crush me)
-111 ship expenses (way over naval rating)
-63 Consume goods

21.72 minerals a month net

holy crap that's scant.
what are you building on your planets?