Pirates, WTF!?

[andonsage]

Let's see... I'm 200 turns into a Normal AI game, playing the Orthin. I've got 4 planets colonized, and I'm being hit on two sides by Pirates. One fleet heading to me is comprised of 3 Battleships, 1 Heavy Cruiser, 1 Missile Cruiser, and 2 Destroyers. My one fleet of 3 Destroyers was wiped out by 2 Light Cruisers a couple turns before. The best ship I can make is a Heavy Cruiser, and I have one under construction (can't build more due to metal consumption). WTF? Is this normal, or did I get screwed?

I've got two farms, and one each of market, factory, mines, and research center on two planets. Third planet has same except only one farm due to one less building slot. I had been building up 4th planet when the 2 L. Cruisers hit it

HTH can I fight off that Battleship pirate fleet, or even have been prepared for it?

[sven4669]

Originally posted by andonsage:

HTH can I fight off that Battleship pirate fleet, or even have been prepared for it?

The big pirate raiding fleets should be pretty rare -- they're intended to be a 'disaster', and not necessarily one that you'll be able to keep your colonies safe from in the early game.

If you're getting multiple incoming pirate fleets at the same time, you're either incredibly unlucky, or the game has a bug. If you'd go into the options pane and hit 'upload game logs', that would help me check to see if this is, indeed, a bug, or just very bad luck.

[Sarissofoi]

4 planetes on 200 turn. Good Lord.
Expand.
Are you playing humans?

[andonsage]

sven4669: I was able to buy off the huge pirate raiding fleet, and it disappeared. i guess that's working as intended.

Sarissofoi: It was year 1200, is that 200 turns or 100 turns? I don't remember the starting year. I'm playing the Orthin.

In any case, I had to build military ships to fight off the pirates (they started with destroyers and moved on to light cruisers), suspending building any colony ships for expansion.

[unkn0wnx]

Only played for a few days. I found that human pirates are usually pretty weak. Some Gremak pirates can be a bit too strong; they can alter the balance of a game. I would like to see them weakend a bit. Pirates should build cruisers but don't have access to Battleships. I would think pirates should be annoyance and not a big threat.

[Pherdnut]

Pay those huge pirate fleets off or let them raid. They go away after that. I don't think they can actually destroy a colony based on like 3 dreadnoughts + others not completely nuking a very young colony during one impossible game.

Here's some early game tips:

Don't try to rush big ships. They cost too much in the early game. Human light cruisers are fantastic for the price and they build fast. I don't build a lot of HCs. They're too slow (but check out the human assault transports, especially with powered armor doubling crew for capturing). The HC you start with as humans can handle 6 harpies (with some risk if you have no other ships) if you move about 80% towards them on the first turn to get first strike. With rapid fire lasers and duranimum armor (acquired just before improved factories) that HC is an absolute beast.

All you need in the early game is lots of small ships with missiles or, if human, some light cruisers with boarding pods with your heavy cruiser acting as a PD shield.

Don't run out of minerals. Mines are cheap. Build one on every new colony when your factory is done and scrap it later if you need the space and have plenty of minerals.

Also, don't run out $. Keep up with your trade route fleets and build a market on every colony. Just a few turns of below-max trade fleets adds up to a lot of burned revenue. The place you want to be at for growth to really get cranking is being able to buy out a factory for every new colony.

My general research strategy for all races in the early game is:

1, Improved farms (humans start with those)
2. Guidance Systems (and/or boarding pods if human, and magazine bays if Phidi/Yoral)
3. Markets (Phidi start with markets)
4. Superconductors to improved labs and then improved mines/factories.

Once you have all the level 2 buildings, you're generally at about mid-game and should have maybe 4-8 colonies on a huge map. Or like 20 if you're playing the Phidi at this time.

[Prof. von Calamity]

andonsage:


It is all too easy for your industrial might (and through it, your navy) to stagnate due to insufficient metal supply. Here's my advice on how to avoid that specific crisis. Of course, your baby empire will have several other needs to attend to in the early game; it's up to you to adapt the timing of the following events to whatever else you also need to be improving. Onward.....



Whenever possible, make certain that you prioritize research of the early-game technology called "Industrial Automation", which allows you to construct Level Two mines. Those will produce more metal than the game's default/starting mines. I could be mistaken, but I think that the science progression for this is:

Superconductors --> Nanocomputers --> Industrial Automation

Even more importantly, that same I.A. tech permits you to set up Mining as a planet-wide production default activity into the indefinite future! It is a metal bonus above the nominal mine production and it's worth the effort.

** The above tech is only three steps up the research tree, so attain it as quickly as possible in the early game as your other necessary activities will allow. **



Parallel to the above, you also should be creating multiple specialized mining-only colonies forfull efficiency. There are situations (usually involving other empires and what sort of worlds are within your colony-ships' reach) where generalized colony designs are a temporary necessity, but outside of that do TRY not to scatter one or two mines on every new colony you start.

Instead, concentrate them so that you can maximize production according to the following advice. Specialized worlds outperform generalist worlds because the ongoing/default activities in the production queue add a lot more product in the long run. The very same advice goes for labs-only science worlds where you leave the queue on "research", and so on for market/cash-creation worlds.

Select low-tier junk worlds with poor biomes for your mining centers; any map has plenty to choose from. Just be sure not to accidentally colonize one with a mineral status of Ultra Poor! :P Ultra Rich is very rare, but make sure to look for it anyhow; it's worth the time spent. The great majority of your mining-world candidates will be only "normal/average" mineral status; expect it and plan ahead.

Start by buying-out a single Factory on such a world. I hope you also have a pool of civilian transports in trade service, because you will need several of them to help kick-start these mining colonies by transferring a ferw units of surplus population to them from older, fully-established worlds of yours.

Once the new people have arrived, fill the planetary improvement slots with nothing but mines. Max out that colony; DO NOT build any other structures except mines!

After that is done, switch your new mining world's production queue to Mining and leave it alone. That world will now be generating an extra 33% metal output every turn.



SPECIAL NOTE-- Remember that you cannot get this special planet-wide metal bonus unless you have unlocked Industrial Automation first. When you have numerous specialized mining-only worlds, this bonus truly adds up across your empire. But you have to research it.

Good luck with your empire-building! :)

[Kjas]

Pirate fleets and being attacked for no reason by other empires (we need more land and yours will do fine) are alot of the fun of the game. Don't wish it away. When you finally blow up their home base after turns of struggle, it is a real nice feeling. The other major challenge of the game is metal if they make it easier to get it will ruin a great game. If the game seems too tough play as the space dinosaurs.