New player looking for some specific tips

[XELANAMYT]

Hi,

I have played a few games so far, all starting in the pre-warp era as Humans, 700 stars, 10x10, expensive research (I like longer games), 20ish other empires. I generally abandoned the games after a few years of getting warp travel and a colony or two as by looking at the various statistics I am top in all categories (apart from firepower as I didn't need many military ships by that point). Anyway, in my latest game I jacked the difficulty up to hard, made the galaxy restless, added a few more pirates etc. Once I contacted about half the empires I found that I was about 3rd in the galaxy so I thought this would be a good game that challenged me a bit.

I expanded out a bit (+2 colonies in another system) and the local empires seemed to be fairly nice to me (even a bug race), however as I progressed I realised that I had underestimated the difficulty for several reason and I think I need a bit more help without making my next game too easy.

1. My immediate neighbours (some Ackdarians) changed government to 'Way of Darkness' some how and then they hated me. I cranked out a bunch of Cruisers in case they declared war, which they did, my firepower was about 800 vs their 1000, so I thought close enough... nope! My ships died really easily even with shields and armour. I finally made peace with them for about half my cash on hand.
2. My finance outgoings are getting worse all the time, even though my 2 other colonies are not costing anything now (as far as I know). I seemed to be in a good position, but with just 10 cruisers and 4 infantry it started dropping really quickly. I have plenty of trade agreements and mines, but it doesn't seem to get much better.
3. I infiltrated an deep cover agent into the Ackdarians and got their galaxy map. They must have loads of explorer ships (compared to my 4) as they had explored more than quadruple the amount of systems as me. Is this normal?
4. I have made pacts with all the pirate factions I have found (part of my money issue I guess) which is about 10 factions in total. How am I meant to defeat them? 3 of them I could take out looking at their firepower, but the others have firepower and ship numbers so high that not even the top empire in the galaxy could easily take one on! There seems to be loads of bases around and I read that you need to assault them to destroy them, I landed troops, but they didn't do anything. How do I get rid of them?
5. Does anyone have some suggestions for good military ship designs throughout the tech tree? Mine seem to be slow, under armed and fragile compared to others.

I have been following Timotheus's "The New Guy Newbie Guide to Fully Non Automatic Manual Play" quite closely, but once I have warp I obviously do something wrong!

If anyone has some answers/comments to help me out it would be most welcomed.

Thanks

[DeadlyShoe]

1.) Firepower is a very crude measure, it only measures the strength of every weapon if it were to fire once. It's more than possible for a slight firepower advantage to disguise a huge advantage in damage per second, weapons range, or shielding. Or less obvious factors like targeting/countermeasures.

3.) It can be. On Hard prewarp the AI is much more able to afford explorers than players are unless things are going really well. There's also the possibility that they traded for map information from another government.

4.) This is likely the root of your money issue, you can look at your empire finance summary and see how much these protection agreements are costing you.

Try to gauge which pirates are actually near you. If they arn't near you, don't pay them off while you're having money issues; pirates far prefer closer targets. Even if they do conduct raids, it might cost you less than paying them off does.

You can also/should also buddy up to a reasonably strong mercenary or smuggler near you and use Defense contracts to help guard vulnerable points.

[XELANAMYT]

Thanks DeadlyShoe.

I thought the pirate protection might be the issue, but I do it as a matter of course, I've never been attacked/raided by pirates so I don't know how bad it can be. I was just expecting to grow enough to start killing them off, but that seems like it will never happen bar a few of the smaller ones (which I have no idea where their bases are!).

Does anyone know the changes between difficulty levels then? I've tried searching, but haven't found much information on the subject.

[DeadlyShoe]

AFAIK mostly it's AI wealth bonuses, and probably happiness.

The danger of pirate raids can range from "Hey, free tech!" to empire-crushing. You should virtually always pay off the first pirate you meet. After that treat it on a case by case bssis. It may be necessary to conduct emergency payoffs if the pirate have found an advanced vessel and it is attacking valuable assets. Response to payoff is instant so you can stop attacks.

Attacking pirate bases is usually a none-starter very early on as space ports are extremely tough targets. Later, increases in combat ability and ship construction tech will make it far more valuable to besiege and destroy even the mightiest pirate havens. Locating then in the first place is best accomplished with long range scanner networks.

[Cauldyth]

• The other issue to keep in mind when comparing firepower is that it also includes static installations like spaceports, mines, etc. that also have weaponry. So if you're at 800 and they're at 1000, it could be that both of you have 600 tied up in spaceports and other installations. As far as your fleets go, it's then 200 versus 400.
• Once I have warp, I usually get a couple dozen explorer ships going. They're not only useful for gaining knowledge of who's around you and how big they are, but they also let you get to ruins before anyone else. The Ackdarians in your game will have found Way of Darkness in ruins, but ruins like that are one-shot deals - you going to visit the same ruin now won't provide you with anything at all. Ruins can also provide cash, tech advances, colony ships with a different race of colonists in it, etc. - but only to the empire that explores them first.
• As DeadlyShoe says, it's almost certainly the protection money that's bankrupting you. Try to limit it to 2-3 pirate factions, if possible. Also note that the amount of protection money can vary wildly, but it's constant once an arrangement is made. So cancelling and then re-creating an arrangement usually results in the price skyrocketing. Ideally, you can hang on to those first cheap arrangements you make in the early game.
• I only do occasional ship design, so can't help much there.

[Tcby]

Are you using corporate nationalism?

[johanwanderer]

Anyway, in my latest game I jacked the difficulty up to hard, made the galaxy restless, added a few more pirates etc.

Each of those option increases the dificulty of the game, so you bumped up the dificulty about 3 notches, not one

1. My immediate neighbours (some Ackdarians) changed government to 'Way of Darkness' some how and then they hated me. I cranked out a bunch of Cruisers in case they declared war, which they did, my firepower was about 800 vs their 1000, so I thought close enough... nope! My ships died really easily even with shields and armour. I finally made peace with them for about half my cash on hand.

800 vs. 1000 is a very rough measure, like the others have said. Not only that, but consider what happens when you have 8 ships vs. 10 ships of the same strength (roughly 800 vs 1000). Their two extra ships might team up with another on one of your ship, killing that quickly. Those 3 then will hunt for their next victim (making it 4-1), killing that even more quickly. And so on. Of course, fleet battles are usually not that cut-and-dry, but you can see how a small advantage may snowball quickly.

2. My finance outgoings are getting worse all the time, even though my 2 other colonies are not costing anything now (as far as I know). I seemed to be in a good position, but with just 10 cruisers and 4 infantry it started dropping really quickly. I have plenty of trade agreements and mines, but it doesn't seem to get much better.

As the other have said, your pirate fees is probably the culprit. Also see this thread about corruptions, etc. (corruption is worse at higher difficulty levels): tm.asp?m=3657462

3. I infiltrated an deep cover agent into the Ackdarians and got their galaxy map. They must have loads of explorer ships (compared to my 4) as they had explored more than quadruple the amount of systems as me. Is this normal?

Yes. 4 exploration ships after getting warp drive is most likely not enough. I usually have at least 10 once I have warp drive. Exploration ships are cheap, and benefits are many, so build lots.

4. I have made pacts with all the pirate factions I have found (part of my money issue I guess) which is about 10 factions in total. How am I meant to defeat them? 3 of them I could take out looking at their firepower, but the others have firepower and ship numbers so high that not even the top empire in the galaxy could easily take one on! There seems to be loads of bases around and I read that you need to assault them to destroy them, I landed troops, but they didn't do anything. How do I get rid of them?

The answer is two-fold. First off, you paying them is how they get big in the first place, so if you can cut that off, they won't be as strong. Always evaluate their threat level before paying them for "protection". At game start, pirates aren't that strong, so build some defense instead of paying them off. They will lose ships trying to attack you, making them even weaker. Obviously, each situation is different. If they show up with insurmountable forces, then by all mean, pay them

Secondly, the Archilles heel of pirates are their constructors and bases. Early game you won't be able to do much with their constructors, but target them when you can anyway. As far as bases go, they are stationary, so go for better range weaponry (obviously require research) and finish them off. It's not that difficult once you get the hang of it. Not all of their ships will be at their base all the time, so also use that to your advantage.

5. Does anyone have some suggestions for good military ship designs throughout the tech tree? Mine seem to be slow, under armed and fragile compared to others.

Slow + Low fire power + Fragile = bad combination
Ship design is always a trade-off. You can probably have any two of the above three and be fine. it's up to you to pick which two. If your weapon is not great, maybe aim for faster ships and dance around them instead. Alternatively, beef up your ship with shields and armors so they last longer. Don't try to design a ship that is all around mediocre.

The key here is to focus your research in certain areas early on. For example, don't research both missiles and torpedoes as they fullfill much of the same roles. Same with rail guns and beams. Pick certain types of weapons and excel at it. Then design your ship around that.

Hope that helps,
-Long.