The Pause Button
The game can be paused. Better yet, you can continue to place a multitude of commands, move orders, and queue up research and ships during the pause in action. Use the pause/break on your actual keyboard. It is located in the upper right-hand corner of the keyboard. If you are giving commands and nothing seems to be happening, you may have forgotten to unpause. The fact that the game is paused is announced initially on the screen but then disappears and no further visual reminder is given.
Even on easy setting, the TEC, for example, will be building Novalith Cannons that can destroy your home world from afar. You might consider pausing the game if you have “X” tens of thousands of credits in your account. Find a way to spend some of it before continuing.
For example, at the beginning of the game, you can deconstruct one of the extra Frigate Factories, queue up your first Capital Ship, eight Cobalt Light Frigates, a colony ship, start researching a Civic Research Station, and set the scouts on auto-explore all while having the game paused.
Choose TEC Loyalists To Learn
Play your first game as TEC, preferably TEC Loyalist. When choosing, for example, the Tiny-Random map, that doesn’t mean your race and class have to be random. A random race, however, is the default choice. Choose TEC Loyalist before you begin. TEC is straight forward when it comes to just building the big guns, then going and blowing things up. It doesn’t depend quite as heavily on special abilities. This game has a steep-enough learning curve that it helps to focus on the basics to begin with. One more note. The default is “normal random.” You can change this to “easy random.”
Plus, eventually, you will get the Novalith Cannon, which can destroy the enemy’s home world without even sending a fleet into the area.
Disable Pirates
Game Option - Pirates - Change the default setting from Active to Inactive. You definitely don't want Pirates the first play-through. They are extremely disruptive to learning the game play mechanics and getting a feel for things. They will attack about once every 15 minutes.
Likewise, you won’t have to worry about bribery to influence the pirates to attack the other players or having them attack you.
Note: There will still be a Pirate planet on the map, but they won’t leave their planet area to attack you. BUT you can attack them with your Capital Ships and Titan to help level them up. Some players prefer Pirates as they help level up their Capital Ships.
Focus On Economy
On easy setting, the enemy is not aggressive at all. Focus on your economy and colonization. There are plenty of research categories (on the very top of the HUD) under the Civilian category that will speed up production. Basically, everything under the Industry section of Civilian Research is good to go. Notice that some research categories have more than one level available to research.
Civilian Infrastructure, Civilian Infrastructure, Civilian Infrastructure
Develop Planet is a special green icon on the Action Bar in the lower right-hand side of the screen.
I initially had the initial impression that “all” Develop Planet subcategories increased revenue. Not true.
There are some very important categories under Develop Planet.
Some increase defense and logistic slots available. Some increase planet health so the planet can survive enemy bombardment for a longer period of time.
If you want to explore for artifacts, have at it.
But what is the most critical is Civilian Infrastructure up at the top left. Civilian Infrastructure allows for higher populations, thus higher taxes, thus higher revenue. If you do not upgrade Civilian Infrastructure, this is what happens.
You will have negative income on the planet. You cannot win even on easy if you don't have your planets producing income.
Your home planet is already upgraded with four levels of Civilian Infrastructure. Don't expect this on other planets. It won't happen. The home planet is the only time a gravity well is already producing income for you.
If you lose a planet and have to recolonize it, you will have to redo all of the upgrades of Civilian Infrastructure or you will, again, have negative income.
NOTE: Are you sure you have Civilian Infrastructure (or any other upgrade) maxed out? Maybe not. The icon may be grayed out, but that may just mean you are currently short on materials to implement the next stage.
On this and many other upgrades, you may see displayed a small credit, metal or crystal icon in the bottom left corner to indicate what is still needed before the next level is available. If there is a solid gray triangle in the lower left corner, this indicates no further upgrades are possible.
Build At Least Two Civic Research Stations ASAP
You will need two Civic Research Stations to do Tier 2 research. You will need three Civic Research Stations to do Tier 3 research, etc. The same with Military Labs. You would need eight Civic Research Stations to access all civilian research. You would need eight Military Labs to access all military research. For the right price, that is. Why should you build two Civic Research Stations first? You will need Level 2 Civil Research to capture different types of planets to colonize. That's a pretty good reason!
Note: Some planets require Level 3 research
The Pip
The pip is the little "reticle" divided into four sections around your planet in Galaxy View. When placing the cursor on the bottom left of the pip, all of your structures will appear on the InfoCard to the right.
If the cursor is placed on the upper left of the pip, all of the friendly ships in the gravity well will be shown on the InfoCard.
If there is no pip around a planet, it means you have no current intel on the planet.
If the upper right part of the pip appears, this will show enemy ships and the lower right pip will show enemy structures.
Multiple hash marks inside a pip indicate a larger number of units or structures.
Viewing pips is a great way to stay up to date on battlefield conditions and can give a quick overview of your empire.
In Galaxy View, just scan the pips to figure out where you have any ships stationed.
Just got an alert that one of your planets is being attacked? Take a quick look at the upper right quadrant of the pip in Galaxy view to see which enemy ships are present. If it is just a scouting vessel, consider it a false alarm and go about your business.
You can also monitor the actual battle by just viewing the information in the pip. Hover your mouse over the upper left portion of the pip to continually monitor your ships' health. Although your similar ships will be stacked, it is still a great way to monitor if it is time to retreat or press forward.
The pip is also handy when first entering an enemy gravity well. Scan to see if there are any hidden Starbases hiding in the darkness of space, as they sometimes blend into a dark background.
The pip is also helpful given the fact that when first starting the game, you will not be familiar with all of the icons representing the different oribiting structures. A quick view of the pip will tell you exactly what they are in English (or the language of your choice) on the InfoCard versus viewing the representative images in planet view.
Another use: When making your initial push to colonize as many planets as possible before meeting resistance, you can quickly view when the upper right pip disappears, indicating the planet militia is no longer present. Your non-colonizing ships can then quickly zip to the next sector.
Quick note: The sideways "traffic cones" on the side of the planet shown above indicates it is your home planet.
Choose Faction Icon
This may be a minor point, but to me it adds a lot of enjoyment to the game.
I don't find it pleasant viewing dark purple icons against the darkness of space. There is not much of a contrast.
Before starting the game, it is possible to choose both a different icon and a different color for that icon - preferably a brighter or light-colored one.
You can do this for the opponent factions as well.
Change Speed Of Game
Somehow I first missed this when I started playing. At the very center bottom above the picture icon of the current unit/structure chosen, you will see a small plus and minus sign. You can use these to speed up and slow down the game.
Stacking On The Empire Tree
Don’t stack your units on the Empire Tree. Unstack them. The Stack toggle is near the top left of your screen next to the search function. It is the icon with the yellow square on top of the lighter-colored squares.
By doing this, you can view individual ships instead of a composite of all ships of one type. You can then micromanage your ships more efficiently, retreating them out of battle when they are damaged.
In the picture above, although difficult to see, you can monitor the health of the ship currently being attacked. Although not very noticeable, there is a light red background given on the Empire Tree for ships currently being attacked. You can order this unit to then retreat and fight another day.
Retreat Command
The Retreat command is out of sight and, therefore, can be out of mind.
When selecting one of your ships that is damaged, it is possible to scroll out to Galaxy View, then right click on a safe planet to get the ship to safety. But this is a bit slower that the retreat command.
First, highlight the ship that is being attacked. That can easily done on the Empire Tree. Much easier than on the actual battlefield.
What lies behind the pointy finger? The Retreat command!
After selecting the ship, you will see an icon with a pointing finger, also know as the Tactics Management icon. Hiding behind this pointing finger is the Retreat Command. Click on the pointy finger, then Retreat. Your ship will automatically start heading off to a safe gravity well.
The Retreat flag.
Social Specialization - Important!
Want to double your planet income?
Upgrade your home world with all six levels of Social Specialization. This will increase your population and will double your income from the planet.
Specifically, for TEC, your home world income will increase from 12.6 to 24.7.
(These numbers will be slightly different for different races.)
This is huge! This credit increase is equivalent to colonizing about six or so asteroids and/or less populous planets.
I initially thought this huge amount of income was due to the fact that the home world gave a population credit bonus, but this is not the case.
When I had the opportunity to fully upgrade a secondary Terran planet will all six levels of Social Specialization, I also received the equivalent amount of income.
Terran planets have a naturally high population count. It's much higher than, let's say, Volcanic planets - which actually kind of makes sense.
As mentioned above, with an initial Terran population of 280, you will receive 12.6 tax credits per second. That is much better than, for example, a dwarf planet with a population of 50 and total tax credits of 1.3 credits per second.
Warning. Be a bit patient. It takes a long time to build up your population. Hover your mouse over the planet icon at the bottom center of the screen and you can watch your tax income and population slowly increase in unison.
With six levels of Social Specialization available, getting more expensive as you go along, you may want to wait until your population is about to max out under the current level before purchasing the next one. This money management aspect will be more important at harder levels of the game.
Remember that this slows down ship production, so you may want to build another Frigate and Capital Ship Factory on another planet closer to the front. If you do, don't forget to deconstruct your home world factories.
Display Name Of Planets - Alt Key
Holding down the Alt key will display the names of the planets in Galaxy View. Very handy for planet management!
Logistics Capacity Is Limited
If you can't seem to squeeze everything you want to put into your Logistics Capacity slots, you are not doing anything wrong. They are just limited.
Sacrifices and choices will just have to be made.
Quick reminder: Your home world still has one more Logistics Capacity upgrade that can be made.
To quickly find open Logistics Capacity, you can use the Search bar at the top left of the screen.
Hover your mouse over the Logistical Slots sub-icon under Search and you will be shown a list of planets with Logistic Capacity upgrades available to be bought or actual open slots ready to be used.
If you actually click on Logistical Slots, you can then tab through the different planets available.
More on this later, but as you tab through, the main screen won't change to a view of the current planet, but the Empire Tree icon will be jumping around.
When the planet view didn't initially change, I just thought this search function was glitchy and gave up on it for a while. Don't do that.
If you want to actually view the planet with the open logistical capacity, click on Search, then Logistical Slots, THEN on the planet icon on the bottom center of the screen. (You may have to scroll in to Planet View.)
To see the next planet (if you are still in the search mode) you have to hit Tab, THEN the planet icon again.
It's a bit funky but doable.
Zoom To Cursor
Did you hear rumors you can scroll to cursor but it's just not working for you?
Pretty irritating, isn't it?
The reason for this is that the toggle has been set to Don't Zoom to Cursor.
Why anyone would want that, I don't know.
The toggle for Zoom to Cursor is located on the top of the screen, just to the right of the Menu icon.
Galaxy View To Planet View - Caps Lock Key
I have been holding back.
You don't have to scroll in and out to get from Planet View to Galaxy View and vice versa.
The way to immediately jump from one view to the other is with the Caps Lock key.
This is a great time saver, but there is one issue that needs to be overcome.
You are going to jump to the very center of your screen. If there is just open space there, you will just be jumping to a view of an empty part of the solar system.
It is first necessary to center the view on the planet you want to zoom in on.
There are two ways to do this.
One way is to double click on the planet.
But you may prefer to center the view by a single click on the select planet and then click on the planetary icon on the bottom center of the screen.
THEN hit Caps Lock.
Choose All Similar Ships - Alt Key
That's simple enough. Use the Alt Key to select all similar ships as the one you are currently using.
Plenty of uses for this. You can use this to highlight both scouts at the beginning of the game to set them both on auto-explore.
What I have been utilizing this for lately is for carrier Capital Ships. They have a tendency to get too close to the action and take on more damage than necessary. Carriers captains getting too close to Titans? A complete dereliction of duty!
It helps to select all of them with the Alt key, then hot key them so they can be constantly dragged away from the action.
Scout - Autocast Enabled
Two initial scout ships are provided when you begin the game.
Set them to auto-Explore the region. This ability is turned on by RIGHT clicking the Explore icon of the scout ship. (The icon looks like a magnifying glass.)
Just LEFT clicking on Explore will take the scout to the next planet and then the Explore command expires. The scout ship will sit there and be blown away by the resident planetary militia. The RIGHT click turns on the "autocast" feature, which will keep the scout continuously jumping from planet to planet.
You can tell the autocast is on because there will be an arrow going around and around within the Explore icon.
The Novalith Cannon, available to TEC Loyalists, can only attack planets that have been explored, so it’s important to have the entire map explored at least once.
Your First Capital Ship - Akkan Battlecruiser - And Colonizing
Your first Capital Ship is free on the default Quick Start setting. This should be immediately built.
Choose the Akkan Battlecruiser.
Notice that it has the Colonize ability. Use your “one” Ability point to choose the Colonize ability.
You will notice after you choose the Colonize ability, that icon will have a swirling arrow going around and around. As mentioned above with the Scout's Explore autocast feature, this means any available planets will be “automatically” colonized.
To be more precise, the planet will be automatically colonized if you are close enough to the planet, if you have 90 antimatter in reserve AND if you have researched colonization for that planet type.
Later in the game, you may not be able to colonize a planet because enemy culture is too high or bombardment radiation is too high. A message on the planet's InfoCard will inform you of these facts.
You can disable the Colonize function (by right clicking on the icon) to have more control over your antimatter and when you choose to colonize the planet.
If you have not destroyed the Siege Frigates of the planet's militia, they may destroy your planet while it still has low health. You will then have wasted time, antimatter and any Develop Planet upgrades that you have already purchased.
There will be autocast available on other abilities that you upgrade your Capital Ships with.
You may want to disable autocast on these so that you save your Akkan Battlecruiser's antimatter solely for colonizing planets quickly. Your call.
Disabling your Akkan Battlecruiser's special abilities may also slow down your battles with planet militia. It is pretty easy just to stay away from the center of the gravity well until you are ready to colonize.
Purchase Next Level - Upgrading Capital Ships
Through battles, your ships will slowly upgrade and become more powerful.
There is a shortcut to get the process started.
After choosing your Colonize ability, all of the other abilities will be grayed out, indicating they are not available.
But if you click on the "blue star" Tactics Management icon, you will see the purple Purchase Next Level icon still available.
Immediately buy two upgrades to level up your Capital Ship/Akkan Battlecruiser to Level 3. Only the first two levels of upgrades on Capital Ships can be bought, so buy them now or lose this opportunity.
If you have already fought a few battles, the upgrade cost will be discounted.
You can notice your new level by hovering your mouse over the bottom center portrait of your ship. Your Akkan Battlecruiser will now have a big giant 3 in the upper right of the InfoCard.
You can also view how much experience you have accumulated by viewing the InfoCard.
After you reach Level 3, you can choose the second level of Colonize. This second level of Colonize will give increased production of resources for a limited period of time on newly colonized planets and automatically set up a metal and crystal mine, I believe. Your call.
NOTE: if Capital Ship upgrades are available and not yet assigned, a white plus sign will appear on the Capital Ship icon of the Empire Tree. If there is a squadron available to be deployed on your Capital Ship, a white carat will be displayed on the same Capital Ship icon.
Don't Lose Capital Ships - Manage Ships With Empire Tree
This is jumping ahead a bit, and a bit generic, but when I was first playing, it seemed important enough to write down.
Don’t lose your Capital Ships in battle.
Besides the Titan, your Capital Ships are the only ships that level up. Monitor your Capital Ships closely on the Empire Tree while in battle.
On the Empire Tree, the Capital Ships are the first listed in the ship section, so it is pretty easy to monitor their health.
Once you notice their hull is at about 50-percent strength, it's time to retreat. Of course, take into account the distance they are from the edge of the gravity well and the intensity of the battle.
Click on the icon of the Capital Ship on the Empire Tree that is being attacked and have the ship retreat to a safer location on the same planet or phase jump to completely leave the fray.
Note that the big blue portion of the ship's icon on the Empire Tree denotes antimatter - NOT shields and NOT hull strength.
The shield strength is denoted to the right of the hull strength in a smaller portion and is barely visible. Just assume shields are as good as gone when the hull starts rapidly deteriorating.
Automatic Upgrade Of Capital Ships
I never thought to add to my gaming itinerary to see what happens when you "right click" on icons versus a regular left click.
That's why I never figured out this command until now.
If you want your Capital Ships to automatically assign their upgrade points, "right click" on the Ability Management (blue star) icon. The swirling arrow that now appears on the Ability Management icon demonstrates your points will now be auto-assigned.
Planet Militia
Each neutral planet you encounter will have a small enemy presence considered planet militia. These are not your main AI opponent.
A neutral planet has an “orange star” icon in the center of it. That means it has not been colonized by a rival faction.
Different planet types will have different levels of militia defense. Asteroids will have small fleets and the different planet types will have larger militias. After a while, you will be able to figure out how many ships to throw at a planet type to overcome the militia. A few frigates accompanying your Akkan Capital Ship will speed up the process of destroying the hostile forces and then colonizing the planet. If a rival AI has occupied the planet already, you must “destroy the planet” before you can colonize it.
Diplomacy
You don’t need to learn Diplomacy to win your first game on easy – or medium or hard. But it certainly helps on hard level. See my Diplomacy guide for much more on the issue.
Trade Ports - Important
With the steep learning curve, it may be tempting to ignore messing with Trade Ports, but you need them.
There are two main categories of income - taxes from planets' population and Trade Ports.
Trade ports provide a ton of income. You need to have them.
You must initially research the ability to build Trade Ports.
To build Trade Ports, you must first research Orbital Commerce.
You will need two Civilian Research Facilities so you can research Tier 2 Orbital Commerce under the Industry subcategory.
Then build a Trade Port on each planet you colonize. The longer the trade route, the more income you will receive.
A really neat function of the HUD is to hover your mouse over your Credits in the top right of the screen and you will see a thick white line showing your longest trade route. This will help ensure you didn’t forget a Trade Port on one planet.
As you hover the cursor over the Credits icon, the InfoCard will be shown in the bottom right reflecting trade income for each planet. As the trade route gets longer, the amount received from each planet will continue to grow.
Building multiple Trade Ports on planets will incrementally increase your trade income.
For example, 1.6 trade income for a planet will increase to 3.2 with a second trading post.
It's a shame that logistic spots are in such short supply.
Note: Later in the game, logistic spots will be needed for Broadcast Centers to protect your empire from encroaching culture.
Note: On harder levels, you may want to expand your empire a bit before coming back and filling in your logistic spots with Trade Ports.
Search Function - Ships
Use the Search feature in the far upper left of the HUD to find different ships and facilities on the map.
The interface is not necessarily intuitive.
There are three ship types you can search for. Well, actually, four. Capital Ships, Scouts, Colony Ships and Envoys.
(You won't need to deal with Envoys until you start utilizing the Diplomacy aspects of the game.)
If you just hover over the icon of the Search-ship category, the info card in the bottom right will reflect the number of ships in your fleet, their composite health and shield strength.
If you hover your mouse over Capital Ships, you will not only be told the information listed above, but the types of Capital ships that are in your fleet.
If no ships of that type have been produced or they have all been destroyed, “None found” will be displayed as you hover over that category.
Maybe it’s time to queue up a few more Scouts.
If you actually click on the Search-ship category, all planets that have Capital ships in the gravity well will have a white notch in the pip on the top left of the gravity well.
If you actually click on/select Search-ship category and then right click a location, all of the ships of that type will go to that location. This is very handy if gathering all of your Capital Ships for a major assault.
If a ship type is selected in the Search menu, your screen WILL NOT jump to the location of any of the ships. For the longest time, I thought: Okay. The Search function is glitchy and not working. It is working. It’s just, as mentioned, not very intuitive.
Although your main screen has not changed to the location of, let’s say, one of your Capital Ships, the Empire Tree on the left of the screen will have one of the Capital Ships highlighted.
Information on this particular ship will also now be displayed in the lower right HUD.
You can now use the tab key to scroll through your different Capital Ships, and the Empire Tree will jump around and highlight the next Capital Ship, but the main screen will STILL not show the actual location of the ship.
BUT by using the Tab key to scroll through your Capital Ships, it is easy to find ships that do not have their upgrade points assigned and upgrade them -- all without ever having a direct view of your Capital Ships.
Funky.
This is a bit different. When first selecting Search-Capital Ships, the lower right HUD will display ALL fighters/bombers NOT ASSIGNED and now available to ALL OF your Capital Ships. Assign away!
Want to actually jump to the location of one of your Capital Ships? Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Just click on the bottom center portrait and you will jump to where your ship is located. If you are in “Galaxy View,” either scroll in or tap Caps Lock to zoom in to Planet View.
So if you wanted to view the actual location of all of your Capital Ships, it’s a dance of keyboard commands as follows:
Initially:
Search-Capital Ships
To view the first Capital Ship selected, hit center bottom picture icon.
Next Capital Ships:
Tab-then center bottom icon.
Tab-then center bottom icon.
Tab-then center bottom icon.
You get the point now. But it took me a month to figure that out . Geesh.
This is another way to handle the search and tab scenario.
After choosing, for example, Search-Capital Ships, hover your mouse over the center bottom icon of the ship and hold it there. Don’t click on it! You will see the large InfoCard for the current ship to the right, including its current actions, such as attacking an enemy frigate. Keep hovering your mouse over the bottom center ship icon – don’t move it – while repeatedly hitting the tab key. You can then quickly view the stats of your entire Capital Ship fleet.
Very informative!
Search Function - Factories
Hovering your mouse over Factories in the Search function will display a list of planets that have Factories on them.
Actually choosing/clicking on this category does nothing, that I can figure out.
And by “Factories,” that includes Frigate Factories, Capital Ship Factories and Titan Foundries.
This is a quick way to figure out the best place to queue up ships when you are far away from your home world.
Search Function - Starbases
Using the Search function for Starbases is similar to that of the different ship types - not very intuitive.
Hovering your mouse over Starbases on the search menu will tell you the number of Starbases you have and their overall health and shield status.
Unlike Factories, it DOES NOT tell you which planets they are located on.
Again, choosing Starbases on the search menu will not cause the main screen to jump to any of your Starbases but “one” of your Starbases will be highlighted on the Empire Tree and can be upgraded with the icons on the bottom right without actually viewing the Starbase.
Again, by tabbing through the Starbases, you can upgrade all of your Starbases in this way without actually viewing them.
Again, if you want to look at the actual Starbase chosen on the Empire Tree as you are tabbing through, click on the photo icon on the center bottom of your screen.
Search Function - Planet Upgrades And Artifacts
There will probably be Planet Upgrades on each planet that you won't find it necessary to utilize, so this category is not that helpful.
Artifacts are not considered a "major" component of the game and are just there to make things just a bit more interesting. I personally never explore for artifacts unless trying to obtain an Achievement.
Search Function - Logistical Slots And Asteroids
Searching for Logistical Slots is presently one of my favorite search features.
Hovering the mouse over this category will display a list of planets you own with open logistic slots.
As mentioned before, they are in short supply, especially on smaller maps, so finding that one logistical slot you overlooked is extremely useful.
On this feature, you can also Tab through the planets and implement the logistical upgrades.
The Asteroids search function is also quite useful.
While hovering your mouse over this category, it will list planets with resources that have not been mined.
At first, I also thought this function was not working. Sometimes it is necessary to hover the mouse over the TOP portion of the icon to get it to work.
Deconstruct Frigate Factory - Home Planet
Ships, factories and even planets can be deconstructed by clicking on the Deconstruct tab on the very bottom center of the screen under the portrait screen.
At the very beginning of the game, two Frigate Factories are furnished. Two were provided as a sort of AI fix by the developers. By deconstructing one of these factories, it will open up valuable Logistic Slots.
Two Frigate Factories will cause ships to be produced more rapidly, so you may want to deconstruct the factory after the initial 100 units worth of Fleet Supply are produced.
Rally Point
Just one more thing to learn, but it's a good thing: Rally Points.
Rally points can be set within a gravity well in Planet View or on a different planet in Galaxy View.
Click on the factory or the actual planet, then the yellow globular Set Rally Point icon, then on the location you want your ships to go to after construction.
In Planet View, again, click on the planet of production, then the Set Rally Point icon, then the planet you desire as the rally point.
You can confirm you have done this correctly by noticing the thicker line form from the initial planet to the rally point planet and a small flag underneath and to the right of the cursor.
As you click on the rally point planet, it may begin to throb orange for a short amount of time.
If you notice the path is through the Sun or the Pirate Planet, you may want to choose an alternative placement.
if the rally point has previously been set on a different planet and you want to have the ships rally in the same gravity well as the factory, you can choose that planet, then the Set Rally Point icon, then just click on the same planet again.
There is only one rally point per planet. The last rally point set for a Frigate Factory, Capital Ship Factory or for the planet as a whole will determine the rally location for all ships.
Insufficent Fleet Capacity - No Logistics Slots Available Message
The Akkan Battlecruiser icon -- or any other ship -- icon may be lit, indicating it is available and ready to be built. But then after clicking to build the vessel, you immediately get the "Insufficient Fleet Capacity" message. This does not mean you did not build your ship successfully. It means you cannot build "another" ship at that time. That can be a bit confusing.
Similarly, you may see the "No Logistic Slots Available" after clicking to build a Civic Research Facility. You are successfully building the structure, but building a secondary one at that moment is not possible.
How To Increase Fleet Supply
I know. I know. But there are people out on the Internet searching for the answer.
How do you increase Fleet Supply from the initial 100 units available? This is accomplished under the Research menu at the top center of the screen, under Fleet Logistics. DO NOT -- repeat, DO NOT increase fleet size until later in the game when you are ready to take on the main enemy opponent.
Every time you increase Fleet Supply by a level, your tax rate will increase by 9 percent across the board on all credits, metal and crystal.
Note: On the “hard” setting, it is necessary to increase Fleet Supply and the number of Capital Ships available at an uncomfortably early time period. It will be necessary to immediately and more aggressively expand your military presence and set your territory boundaries before the Huns coming knocking.
Fleet Movement And Pips - Confirmation Of Moves
In Galaxy View, click on the fleet portion of the planet’s pip and then right click on another planet to get all ships to phase jump to the planet.
This is a great way to quickly get all available fleet to a particular region.
There are a few nuances of moving ships by utilizing the pips.
Sometimes you click on the pip, then another planet and you have this sound effect that just exemplifies that no ships are going to phase jump.
What happened?
When you click on the pip, not all ship categories are highlighted.
Colony ships are not initially highlighted. Neither are the Raloz Heavy Constructors that are utilized to construct Starbases. Neither are scout ships.
A category of ships that cannot phase jump on their own are the Fighters and Bombers that emanate from your ships. If these happen to be highlighted, they cannot phase jump on their own so the command will not be implemented.
The ships designated in white lettering are the ships that are ready to receive the phase jump command. If you want your colony ship to move but not your other ships, keep clicking on the pip until the colony ship is in white letters, then move it to the other planet.
The same with your main fleet or your Raloz Heavy Constructor.
The portrait at the bottom center of the screen will help demonstrate if you have highlighted the proper category of ships.
If you are not sure the phase jump command was implemented, look for an additional blue line next to the phase jump line. This means the command was properly received. If you cannot see the blue line, you might need to zoom in further to see it.
Seven Things You Can Always Be Working On
This is a somewhat generic tip, but I think it makes sense to bring it up. There are multiple areas of activity/improvement that can be constantly worked on. At the beginning, they all kind of blur together. These are some of the distinct categories that can be constantly upgraded, improved or expanded as the game continues.
Research - At the center top of the HUD, there are myriads of research topics. Research, research, research.
Scouting - I guess that can be considered an "upgrade" of your knowledge base.
Colonizing – Taking your colonizing ship(s) and expanding your empire as quickly as possible.
Develop Planet – This is the green icon that is shown when a planet is chosen.
Building Logistic and Tactical Structures
Building a network of Trade Ports – This is actually a subcategory of “Building Logistic Structures,” but it’s important enough to be its own category.
Building a fleet.
Keeping Track Of Research Centers And Current Research
Losing track of how many Civic and Military Research Centers you have?
Hover the mouse over the Research icon at the top center of the screen and the number of Research Centers will be shown on the InfoCard to the bottom right.
The numbers shown will include both existing structures and those that have been queued up but not yet completed.
Simultaneous research can be conducted in the different research categories.
Again, hovering your mouse over the Research icon, the InfoCard will display what research is currently being conducted in, for example, Military, Defense, Civilian and Fleet Logistics, with each category being separated by just a bit of a space.
If the Research icon is lit and pulsing, that means you have current research ongoing.
Once you are inside the Research category, you can also tell by the highlighted portion of the background how many labs have currently been completed, but will not include those currently being built.
BUT actual icons will be lit up reflecting what research is available "after" the current research labs are completed outside of the highlighted background area.
Research can be queued up before the research lab is completed, but won't commence until after the lab is completed.
Notice the background is highlighted for the first two research tiers. Some icons are lit in the third tier because a third weapons research lab is currently being built.
Fighters And Bombers
What do Hangers, Starbases, Carriers, some Capital Ships and Titans all have in common?
They can all produce and maintain fleets of fighters and bombers.
None of these ships, though, will "automatically" produce the fighters and bombers. It must be done manually.
On Hangers, the fleet can be immediately queued up while the structure is being built.
On Starbases, Carriers, Capital Ships and Titans, they must be queued up manually AFTER either being constructed or the upgrade is obtained.
Keep an eye on the Empire Tree. If there are white carats anywhere on there, you have fighters and bombers not being utilized.
It's very embarrassing to take a fleet of Carriers into battle without any fighters and bombers to assist in the fight. Rookie mistake!!
The fighter and bomber icons will display with three ships in them versus one.
The icons vary per race, but the fighter icons generically appear leaner in appearance, like a jet fighter.
The "fatter" bomber icons are more reminiscent of a B-52 bomber.
It is also possible to hover your mouse over the fighter/bomber icons on the Empire Tree and that will display whether they are bombers or fighters.
Fighters can be viewed as defensive units as they have high damage bonuses versus bombers.
Bombers are great at picking apart the heavier ships, from moderate-sized Freighters to Capital Ships to Titans. Bombers are also more efficient at attacking structures.
You can change the mix between fighters and bombers at any time. Deselect fighters or bombers with right clicks to open up new slots.
When on the offensive against larger targets, think bombers.
When on the defensive against large fleets of bombers, think fighters.
If a large fleet of carriers is attacking your Starbase with bombers, adjust the mix to have more fighters until you have decimated their bombers. THEN readjust to have more bombers to attack the heavy ships/Titans that are attacking your position.
Fighters are also more effective at attacking long-range frigates and siege frigates. It's a bit of process getting the names and icons in your head for quicker combat decisions, but very satisfying once you do.
Traveling To The Sun
You can travel to the sun but this will damage ships with weak armor. In games with multiple star systems, this is how you will move from system to system.
Traveling To Another Sun, Wormholes And Phase Tunneling
For the TEC to travel to another star system, it is first necessary to research Civil - subcategory Engineering - Tier 4 Long Range Jumps.
Go to your own star. It is not necessary to travel to the center of it. The periphery works just fine.
Scroll out to Galaxy View so that you can see the other star system. After selecting your ships (hopefully using the pip) then right click on the sun you wish to travel to.
Traveling through wormholes is just a bit different.
First research Civil - subcategory Engineering - Tier 5 Wormhole Navigation. Once your ships are in the gravity well of the wormhole, RIGHT click on the center of the wormhole. Who knows where you will end up?
When playing Vasari, direct phase travel between two planets that both have Phase Stabilizer structures works more like traveling from sun to sun. After researching the prerequisite technology, select your ships then RIGHT click on the other planet that has a Phase Stabilizer structure.
NOTE: The Kostura Cannon can temporarily create the equivalent of a Phase Stabilizer on an enemy planet.
Three More Things To Add To The Itinerary
The next three “pointers” involve Starbases, Titans and Super Weapons.
Soon you will be in a routine of colonizing and developing your planets and fleet. You can get in a nice little routine and feel pretty darn comfortable.
BUT it's time to expand your horizons and add three more endeavors that will rock your world and destroy your opponent's.
It is not that complicated to achieve the following three items, but you must follow a number of distinct steps.
1. Raloz Heavy Constructors - Starbases
What comes first? The Raloz Heavy Constructor or the Starbase?
Answer: The Raloz Heavy Constructor.
A much easier answer than some more abstract existential questions.
Starbases are the quintessential defensive structure. After building three or four Capital Ships and establishing how far you can push your borders with nominal resistance, it's time to start adding Starbases to the front line.
Build three Military Laboratories.
Research Defense Tier 3 - Raloz Prototype.
Go to your Frigate Factory and build the Raloz Heavy Constructor.
If you haven’t done so already, you will probably need to increase Fleet Supply by going to Research - Fleet Logistics.
Deploy the Raloz Heavy Constructor to the location you want and deploy into a Starbase.
One Starbase per planet. The exception to this is that TEC Loyalists can research Tier 8 Twin Fortresses to allow two Starbases per gravity well.
Here are a few more pointers about Starbases.
Research Tier 3 Defense - Deep Space Trade to allow Starbases to be upgraded and made a part of your trade route.
Research Tier 4 Defense – Auxiliary Government to allow Starbases to be upgraded to prevent the loss of your planet from bombardment. In other words, when your planet reaches zero health from being attacked by a Novalith Cannon, you will not lose ownership of the planet and have to recolonize it. The health of the planet and population will both slowly increase on their own.
If you feel the deployment of the Starbase is going to see heavy action, it is worth investing in the expensive upgrades available. If it is just a “precautionary” placement, you may want to save your funds for other areas of development.
If your Starbase is placed in an area you expect to be a Maginot line of defense, you may not want to make it a part of your trade route. There are only eight upgrades allowed per Starbase, and you may want to use every single one of them for defense.
But even with all eight slots utlized for defense, you can make your Starbases even more impenetrable.
Researching Tier 6 Defense – Unbreachable Hull, Levels 1 and 2, is the equivalent of giving the Starbase a ninth and tenth upgrade. This increases maximum hull strength from 13,500 to 19,575. That’s a good thing!
Don’t forget that you must manually deploy your fighters and bombers if you add hangars to the Starbase. If you see a white carat on the Empire Tree, you need to take care of this ASAP.
Researching Defense Tier 6– Improved Destabilization could be considered an eleventh upgrade. This will cause all ships leaving the gravity well where a Starbase is located to suffer additional damage.
Researching Defense Tier 7 – Advanced Fire Control could be considered a twelfth upgrade. This allows the Starbase to output more damage and engage more ships at once.
Researching Defense Tier 8 - Twin Fortresses allows for two Starbases per gravity well. With two fully upgraded Starbases, you can pretty much kick back and watch the fireworks.
Of course, there are exceptions to this. A leveled-up Vasari Titan with a backup fleet is pretty darn potent.
A few other notes:
Raloz Heavy Constructors take up Fleet Supply. Starbases don't.
You can have multiple Raloz Heavy Constructors built at the same time.
Starbases DO NOT protect against loss of planet from culture.
When playing against TEC, it may be necessary to place a Starbase with the Auxiliary Government upgrade on most of your planets. The TEC's Novalith Cannon can cause your planets' health and population to go to zero even far beyond the front lines.
With the Starbase in place, you may still have a planet that is totally decimated, BUT it will slowly recover population and health.
2. Titans
On harder levels, making a beeline to creating a Titan is a winning strategy.
Besides fielding three or four capital ships and necessary Starbases to hold your front line, place the rest of your warfare energy on getting your Titan up and running ASAP.
These behemoths are like Capital Ships on steroids. Once leveled up, they can become unstoppable.
Research Ankylon Tier 1 through Ankylon Tier 4 under Military Research.
Go to Tactical Structures and build a Titan Factory. If you don’t have enough slots available, go to the green Develop Planet icon and then invest in Tactical Capacity.
Go to the Titan Factory and build the Titan.
The research is not “that expensive.” It takes 2,800 credits, 300 metal and 550 crystals, comparable to one Capital Ship. Plus you only need four Military Research facilities to accomplish the research, which can be done reasonably early in the game.
Of course, the Titan Foundry and the Titan itself are a bit expensive, but well worth it. The Titan is a true game changer. It’s great to have the research done once you realize, oh, I have the credits available to get this thing rolling..
You can start building your Titan Foundry before all four levels of Ankylon research is completed.
3. Super Weapon - Novalith Cannon
The Novalith Cannon is not the only Super Weapon in the Sins universe, but it is arguably the most powerful.
The Advent's Delivery Engine delivers missiles full of corrupting culture.
The Vasari's Super Weapon does 1,200 in damage to enemy structures and temporarily stops production.
Yeah. Whatever.
The Novalith Cannon blasts enemy planets with radiation that can bring a planet's population and health down to zero. It will cause your enemies to lose ownership of said planets and uninhabitable until the radiation abates. It will disrupt their trade routes and destroy their tax base.
That really sucks for them.
This is one great reason that TEC Loyalists are a great faction to learn Sins with. TEC Rebels also have access to the Novalith Cannon, but it is Tier 8 and eleven levels of research must be completed before researching the actual Novalith.
Steps for building the Novalith Cannon for TEC Loyalists:
Research Military –Experimental Designs Tier 6 – Novalith Prototype.
Go to Tactical Structures after opening up 18 tactical slots and build the Novalith Cannon. That’s it.
Wait for it to power up to 300 antimatter. If autocast is enabled, it will fire automatically at enemy planets. This only affects explored planets. If you sent out your Scouts early in the game, this won’t be an issue.
If your Scouts didn't quite make all the rounds, consider utilizing one of your Capital Ships to take a quick, nonstop tour through unexplored quadrants.
With the Novalith, the game can be won without actually utilizing your fleet to attack the enemy's home world.
You can build multiple Novalith Cannons.
Fighting Enemy Culture
Enemy culture lowers allegiance. If your allegiance reaches zero on a planet, you lose control of the planet.
This is a big deal. Enemy culture can be the sole reason you lose the war despite having all other factors under control.
The best defense is a good offense when it comes to culture. On your border worlds, precious logistical slots need to be utilized with Broadcast Centers.
In other words, when you reach the front and battles start to take place, start thinking Broadcast Centers versus Trade Ports.
Before placing Broadcast Centers, it is first necessary to go to Research - Civilian - subcategory Policy Tier 3 and research Interstellar Networks.
When first placing Broadcast Centers, nothing appears to happen. It's like, what a waste of space.
Not true. Be patient. After a while, you will see your factor's colored lines start to grow outward from your planet along the phase lanes. The more Broadcast Centers you place, the quicker they will grow and the more culture you will exert.
Experience sometimes is the best teacher. Play a game without placing Broadcast Centers and see what happens. On extended games, you can be locked out of planets once owned and it will be a bear getting them back.
Capital Ships help decrease enemy culture on planets they occupy.
Additional research can also be done to counteract enemy culture and improve your own outreach.
Follow the lines of research started with Interstellar Networks to have an "offensive" defense against enemy culture:
* Addictive Consumerism Levels 1 and 2
* Critical Mass Levels 1 and 2
* Cultural Monopolization Levels 1 and 2
There are other types of research in this "cultural" category, but these are the ones that will help keep the tide of culture going in a favorable direction -- that is, in YOUR direction.
Advent - Culture On Steroids
When you think Advent, think Culture with a capital C.
Advent have strong cultural bonuses and they use it as a weapon.
All the warnings previously given about culture, multiply that by...let's say 9.83.
The Advent's Super Weapon is the Deliverance Engine. It shoots out bursts of contaminating culture than can bring your allegiance to zero and cause you to lose planets in areas way past the front lines.
Because of this, Broadcast Centers should be placed throughout your planets. All of the phase lines connecting your planets should reflect the thick colored line of your empire's superior culture.
It's not just their Deliverance Engine, though. Your planets on the front are also at risk from the spread of culture from their own super-charged Media Hubs.
When playing Advent, make a special point of checking the current allegiance on each planet. Monitoring is now more important.
Sometimes even three Broadcast Centers on a planet are not enough to prevent its loss. Backup Broadcast Centers on adjacent planets are helpful and possibly necessary.
When playing Advent, consider moving your home world closer to the front to boost allegiance in contested areas.
As mentioned already, it is now doubly important to do your own cultural research to prop up your defensive cultural stand.
Raids to destroy Media Hubs on adjacent planets will also help.
Covering your eyes and going, "La, la, la, I can't see you" will not.
And, again, parking a Capital Ship or two on a frontier planet away from the action may be a good stop-gap measure.
When the Deliverance Engine shoots off its missile, this can be physically seen in Galaxy mode. From here, you can figure out on which planet it is located and consider a raiding party.
TEC - Bombardment On Steroids
When you are playing against TEC, think planet bombardment. Think radiation.
If you learned Sins playing as TEC, you happily shot your Novalith Cannon into the depths of space to planets that were only known by past intelligence reports. Sure, you noticed the planets in Galaxy View. The destruction wreaked upon these far-away worlds by your Novalith Cannon was realized on an intellectual level, but it wasn't up close and personal. You slept well at night knowing you were just doing your job.
But when you are on the receiving end, it become a much more visceral experience. It becomes real. You see your planet's health withering away. You see your populace becoming extinct. And it would be so jaded to think it's just about the tax revenue. Really jaded.
(Pssst. It's about the tax revenue.)
BUT there is good news. There are ways to lessen the impact of the Novalith Cannon.
Under Develop Planet on the action bar, upgrade each individual planet with Emergency Facilities. This will give that particular planet extra units of health and will be able to withstand planetary bombardment for a longer period of time.
There is also research that can be done to reduce the impact of bombardment.
Defense research, Tier 5 Planetary Shields unlocks Shield Generators, which lessen the impact of bombardment.
Defense research, Tier 5 Superior Planetary Shields Levels 1 and 2 increase the efficiency of the Shield Generators.
There is one more research subject hiding on the bottom row of Civilian Research. Tier 5 Catastrophe Recovery improves your planets' rebuild rate after bombardment.
There is an audio announcement given when a Novalith Cannon is fired. You can then visually see the missile heading toward your planet on Galaxy View, giving away the actual position of the Novalith Cannon. Consider a raiding party to take out this threat.
Vasari - Titan On Steroids
There are a number of interesting features that make Vasari an intriguing race to play. BUT this section deals with the terror of actually dealing with a ravaging leveled-up Vasari Titan. A Level 10 Titan can be basically unstoppable even with your own Titan and full fleet at bay. It can suck antimatter from your Frigates for shield repair, so that Frigates become basically useless in a battle against it.
The best way to deal with this is not to allow the Vasari Titan to level up. That may be easier said than done, but don't seek the Titan out in early game for a big duel unless you feel strongly that you can really get them on the run afterwards.
Defeating an enemy Titan may be a Pyrrhic victory. The Vasari will just rebuild a new one which will be more powerful than when it started the battle that resulted in its demise. The enemy Titan got all the benefit of leveling up during the last epic fight and is going to return at its previous maximum strength.
If you are in a position to rush forward and destroy the Titan Foundry, so much the better. Then be on the lookout for any Titan Foundries being rebuilt.
If fighting a powerful Vasari Titan, try to do it defensively where you have a leveled-up Starbase (or two if you are TEC) to help in the conflict. Utilize Capital Ships that can't be consumed for shield repair and use carriers that can keep their distance while bombers eat away at its flesh.
Researching Civilian - subcategory Engineering - Tier 2 Basic PSIDAR and Tier 5 Advance PSIDAR will help you keep tabs on the enemy Titan. Try to choose battles where the Titan IS NOT.
Making Credits On The Black Market
By this point, you have probably figured out the basics of the Black Market.
On the upper right part of the screen, you can buy metal and crystal needed on the Black Market at full market price.
You can also sell your excess metal and crystal at half price to the Black Market.
You will most likely be selling excess metal and buying much-needed crystal for your research upgrades.
This is all pretty straight-forward.
BUT there is an extra "trick" to where you can get practically full price for excess metal and crystal you want to sell on the Black Market.
Find the Pirate icon on the top of the screen. After clicking on it, you will find a hidden secondary Black Market system.
From here, you can offer to sell your commodities for a higher percentage than the default 50 percent offered on the main screen.
There are a bunch of confusing numbers and icon on this interface, but only pay attention to the bottom four icons to the left and right of "Place on Market."
"Place on Market" is not an icon and it cannot be selected or clicked on. When you leave the screen and go back to play, any resources put up for sale are automatically "Placed on Market."
The sale does not happen instantaneously, so right off the bat, you can't be sure if you set up the sale of your resources the right way or not.
It's confusing.
Under some circumstances, your resources may never sell.
So that's even more confusing when trying to learn the system.
Let's assume you want to sell some metal and let's assume you only have one opponent.
Select the bottom far left icon with the yellow star on it and notice the Offer Price - Market Price Percentage on the InfoCard to the right.
Keep clicking until the Offer Price is equivalent to 98% of the market price. If you want to lower the offer price, right click on this icon.
Since you have no competition, if your opponent buys metal, you will receive the 98%. If you have more than one opponent, you will probably get under-priced and won't sell anything.
Next: Go to the Offer Amount tab and put in, let's say, 500 metal. Don't go crazy and put in 5,000 right away as I don't believe you can get this metal back if it doesn't sell.
Be patient, go about your game and check in later to see if any of the metal has sold. If it has, that's great. You are now in a position to practically double the credits you earn on selling metal.
At this point, go ahead and up the ante and raise the Offer Amount to 1,000 or 2,000 units, leaving the Offer Price alone, and don't worry about it for a while. If you are flush with metal, put in even more.
If you have more than one opponent, it is confusing to know if the number reflected in Offer Amount is yours or reflects that of other factions.
Note: The opposing faction will not get a discount from buying your resources. They are just given to the Black Market, who then marks it up to a full 100 percent.
LEV Construction Frigates
LEV Construction Frigates – These frigates are automatically built/supplied when a planet is colonized and are present on your home world when you start the game. They are utilized to construct whatever structures you desire to build in the gravity well. You can move them around, if you want to. Sometimes they park right in front of your factory and you wind up clicking on the LEV Construction Frigate as opposed to the actual factory. It's a bit irritating.
If LEV Construction Frigates are destroyed by enemy forces, new ones will be built, but this will delay construction. It may not be possible to add defenses in the middle of some attacks because of Construction Frigate destruction.
If you locate these Construction Frigates, you can build a structure close to where they are presently located to speed up the construction process.
LEV Construction Frigates cannot leave the planetary system they are in. But don’t worry about accidentally highlighting these ships on a group select. They will not be selected and hold up your grouped ships from phasing out of orbit.
Extra Logistic Slots - Development Mandate
Last but not least...
The learning curve continues. That's part of what makes this such a great game.
After writing basically this entire guide, I just discovered a hidden gem.
Hiding on the very bottom of the Civilian Research tree, covered up by the InfoCard that is constantly popping up, is the Development Mandate research category.
After researching this, you will receive four extra Logistic Slots on each planet and asteroid you own, large and small!
It's a beautiful -- yet sinful -- Solar Empire we play in.
Enjoy!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=447919377
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