Just completed the showdown involving the Split storyline. That was one crazy firefight. 2 fully stocked Raptors and 10 Rattlesnakes. It was glorious. I've also learnt a lot about fleet management and combat groups.
Also do not build massive complexes. Only 1 production type per station and build supply lines.
I disagree with this. You just end up with a long messy list of stations. Its more efficient to have a few larger complexes. I'd have hundreds of factories in that list.
Advantage of plonking a defence platform right on a gate, set your ships to defend the station, they'll effectively camp the gate.
Yup, thats what I've done with the impending Xenon invasion. Nothing gets through.
I concur with Panos over complexes; having built a couple of minor ones and then a major one yesterday, the larger ones take a long time! The only advantage is that the large complexes show up as only one station no matter how many different wares they produce so it clutters the screen less, also large complexes look pretty cool.
Thats why you have a few on the go at a time. You'll need a few to cover the 5 jump radius around them. I have 6 main complexes feeding into the main factions, its much neater. Its efficient too - for a long time you'll only just have enough money to keep them all building and you'll only just have enough wares in the universe too. Once you have surplus money/resources you've reached your peak factory building anyway.
Some shots from the last few days:
https://i.~ibb.co~/6gGLBbp/20200427102713-1.jpg
https://i.~ibb.co~/crWVn7M/20200427103840-1.jpg
https://i.~ibb.co~/x1QvxQH/20200425102609-1.jpg
https://i.~ibb.co~/ZhjZPfw/20200426000630-1.jpg
https://i.~ibb.co~/BT1wNjj/20200427102944-1.jpg
https://i.~ibb.co~/KG5rFb3/20200427103317-1.jpg
https://i.~ibb.co~/thWPvT6/20200422232949-1.jpg
This was one of my complexes at about half it's size:
https://i.~ibb.co~/rdhzpxw/20200417215754-1.jpg