what setting you playing at?
here is what I have done to make it fun:
- Ive made a map of 8 players 40 planets with 1 pirate planet with lots of lane access and lots of neutrals guarding the planets.
- next I keep upping the difficulty to where I find it very challenging
So - here is what I do
first just figure out what race you think you will enjoy the most; if I remember right Ive played the loyalist TEC - mainly for the titan and the gun platforms (upgraded really pack a punch).
Next depends if you go for a quick start or a regular start; either way I get 2 scout ships and scout all around. I make a coloney capital ship and proceed to take out the nearest easy planet (usually an asteroid); and then I work on purchasing a kol capitial ship to help with aquiring the next hardest/nearest planet.
Now it all depends on the difficulty but the higher difficulty it is the harder you will have to defend; youll be making gun platforms and other things to attempt to stop mutiple enemies from attacking you. And most attack you if they see you as weak.
My usual objective is to strive for 3-5 systems and then build them up; usually I get 4 but on harder difficuties Im usually stuck with 3 and I proceed to build them up with defenses etc ... having my eye on a particular tech so building up either military or econ structures.
Now all people play differently but I usually just focus on building capital ships at least for the first 1/2 of the game.
Using repair platforms and gun platforms is a good way to defend your planet while you build up. I tend not to use starbases till late game ... unless I play vasari.
Mid game I seem to be sending my main fleet from one planet to the next mearly defending the constant attacks; while trying to rebuild my planets and defenses. It gets hard when its 2-3 enemies attacking me; 2 enemies is doable - when its 3 then its probably game over for me.
As far as the titan goes - usually get him up late mid game. Pretty expensive; and you want some ships to guard him since he moves quite slow.
Late midgame I figure out what planet of planets I want and proceed to do my best to take em one at a time ... I usually get to a point in the game where no one can stop me and then I quit ... or I get to a point where I will be eventually wipped out (this is usually in the begginning so I my game usually ends early).
hope this helps
