just started playing, could use a few tips, specifically about pirate harassment - check me out

whats the word forum - i was just lookin for a little input to steer me in the right direction - here's my scenario

i just started into Sins for the first time last night, and i was pretty blown away - amazing game from what I've seen so far.

I'm a strat game novice, and while i had a blast learning and messin around with the game, i wasn't very effective.

I started out playing a straight up 1 v 1 game vs an easy computer opponent (i played as the "human" race, not sure of their name). I expanded a bit, spending most of my research points on military items (upgrading to new ship types, gun/hull strength, etc). While i didn't know sh*t about it, the allure of the Nexus Cannon (i believe that's what it was called) drove most of my upgrade decisions. I colonized 4 planets, and had 3 capital ships in my fleet at the height of my strength.

My main issue throughout was pirate harassment, which i found extremely frustrating - to the degree that it felt i was battling 2 on 1. All the while i was building towards the Nexus cannon (and expanding a bit), i was constantly harassed by mini pirate fleets. I usually had a few defenses per planet (2 to 3 gauss platforms and a hanger). I guess that was inadequate, because i constantly had to uproot my clumped together fleet to travel back across my 4 planet stretch to take care of a not all that mighty threat. The pirate harassment would be just enough to keep my resources down and distract me from focusing on my main opponent.

just a few questions/thoughts i had about my situation:

Are the pirates equally harassing my opponent, and is the level of pirate harassment per team linked to the "bounty" feature in the black market section? - i.e. - could i buy my way out of dealing with the pirates altogether.

also - is it pretty SOP to keep a reasonable spread of ships across ur system for a more responsive defense? i packed my fleet together to provide the best offensive punch, but stretching my self so thin other places seemed like a big problem, and required constant backtracking of the entire fleet to deal with threats

- metal (or lack there of) also seemed to be a pain in the ass - i may not have expand enough to ensure adequate resources - is there a "reasonable" empire size u try to shoot for - i.e. was my 4 planet "empire" laughable?
should i have researched some of the civilian stuff to boost my resource gathering rates?

anyway, that's the end of my long winded post/inquiry about my first play though - sorry for the length, but theres just so much goin on in that damn game.

i figure its a situation in which there's nowhere near one answer as to how to approach the game, but i was just looking for some basic input

more than anything else - how to i get rid of those DAMN pirates...

any input would be much appreciated

-- Sins novice

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Toss down some regeneration bays or whatever they are called for your race.

I generally put down three regen platforms with their circle of influence overlapping, then about 9 defense platforms strategically placed to both be in the regen platforms sphere of influence and also where they protect the best from whatever phase lane(s) enter the gravity well.

That usually handles whatever they want to throw at me, I will sometimes just park a low level capital ship with that setup to level it up for free.

Alternatively, you can simply increase the bounty on another empire so the pirates won't attack you. When you hear 'Pirates are forming a raid' click on the black market icon, then pirates. You can put bids on other empires so the pirates go hunt them. Keep an eye on that screen from time to time, as while the pirate fleet is building someone else can outbid you. (there is a timer in the pirate progress bar at the bottom that tells you how long until the raid)

Also just some advice, but you shouldn't just focus on the war skill tree, though attractive you can do better getting your economy going with empire based skills earlier on, then once you have a lot of money and troops then invest more heavily in the war tree and knock it out with your extra money / loot. I found this works out better in the end as you aren't short on money to research + have an army.

Good luck in game, it's a lot of fun the better you get with it and the better you understand it through playing.

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The Novalith is an end game weapon, not something you should be teching to. Putting all your resources into developing it when you have only 4 planets is not a good idea and had you used that $$$ to bribe pirates or prepare a proper defense you would have likely had no problem.

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thanks for the replies - from the bit of reading ive done on the boards here, it seems like establishing a solid economic base is pretty important

thanks for the specific defense tip as well Napalm, ill have to check that out

to Carbon: i guess i was out of wack with my early game priorities, but the Novalith sounded to damn cool. The ultimate frustration was that after i spent 3.5 hours working towards it, an invasion rolled in and took out a military lab just as the cannon was coming online, and it all went downhill from there. I never got a chance to actually fire it. Mad pissed i was.

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