Is the jump to Hard difficulty supposed to be this, well, hard?

from Sins Forums

I am a Sins noob.  Just bought it with the Steam summer sale.  I played a couple of real small maps on Normal just to get a feel for the game and then played a medium size map (think it was 26 planets or so and 1 star) on Normal and it seemed too easy.  I'm not sure if the other factions were destroying each other or what but I expanded to 6 or so planets, held my two chokepoints, and once I had what I thought was a nice sized fleet I headed out and basically steam rolled from planet to planet destroying everything.  Now I wanted to step my game up to Hard difficulty and am playing on the massive random map (I think 80+ planets and 3 stars with 7 other players) and I am seriously getting my teeth kicked in.  Twice now I have started as Vasari Rebels (was TEC on my normal playthroughs) and twice now I have been double teamed by enemy Titan's within what couldn't have been more than an hour and half into the game.  Is that normal?  I even had a Starbase at each chokepoint this last game but it didn't help much at all against the Titan's.  So I guess before I start writing a novel I should get to the point and ask my questions...

1.  Is it normal for AI to coordinate attacks and have Titan's an hour and a half into the match on Hard?  Both attempts so far on Hard I was attacked at the same time by two different factions each with a Titan.

 

2.  How far do you expand initially?  I know it depends on your layout cause you want chokepoints but it doesnt make sense to me that I could only expand to 6 planets before running into enemy planets on either side in a 80+ planet, 3 star, 8 faction map.

 

3.  Should I be ignoring everything but the most essential tech early on?  I seem to always be out of money but I feel like I'm wasting time if I'm not currently researching something.

 

4.  Where should I be fleetwise an hour and half into the game?  I had 3 Capitals, 20+ long range missle frigates, 10 or so light frigates, 10 flak frigates and 2 Starbases and was just annihilated by Titan's.  User error or are Titan's really thjat powerful?

 

5.  I seem to have real issues against fighter craft and bombers.  I alt click my flak frigates and shift left click on all the fighters and instead of quickly dominating them (which to me would make sense using the counter and having 10 flak frigates firing on 10 or so fighters) it takes forever for them to destroy just one fighter.  WTF is going on!

 

PS .... Just checked the save game and it was 1hr 9min into the game and I have two Titan's destroying my starbases .... this can't be normal can it?  

13,964 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

REPOST, I suggest actually reading the forums before you make a thread of which we had a similar one a month ago or so.

 

Solution: play on smaller maps against normal, or play against 2 of them allied against you. If you can defeat 2 normals, well, you will be able to kill Hard AI.

Or play against Hard 1v1, why a 8 player game for the first time against hard? and you are surprised it wasnt easy....

 

Try playing not FFA, seriously. This will prohibit you getting in a 2 front attack (why does everyone likes FFA, I don't understand, I always get in 2 front wars and I hate it)

1. AI titan, easy to do, even under one hour without major fighting everyone can build a titan who knows how to play good, and Hard gets a resource bonus.

2. Expansion, as far as you can, try to take the biggest territory possible, and remember, AI never skips your frontline worlds so the backward ones are in safety. Best to take the worlds limiting ai movement into your inner empire, chokepoints, even if it is closer to the AI than to you.

3. why asking if you already know the answer? ;) if it helps, don't research anything else than USEFUL ship types (= corvettes, long range, maybe flak, later if you have a big fleet carriers and repair cruiser) and some economy research, try to be first in fleet and if you are, strengthen defenses and build trade everywhere, constantly check your fleets relative strentgh. If you have a good number of trade ports get a titan out, AI is dead if you have your titan. And spamming Orkulus on your borders is not a dead idea, just don't waste too much resourses on them, by defending periferial worlds that will never be attacked.

I had 3 Capitals, 20+ long range missle frigates, 10 or so light frigates, 10 flak frigates and 2 Starbases and was just annihilated by Titan's. User error or are Titan's really thjat powerful?

Big mistake, that fleet is so small a human would steamroll you even with the fleet he has 20 minutes into the game. And yes, titans are powerful, but even a medium sized frigate fleet kills most of them easily. A big fleet consists of a titan, 1-2 capital ships (for maximizing their XP gain, more capital ships slower leveling), and 100+ frigates, accompanied by ~20-30 light carriers and some repair cruisers. Against AI you can have some heavy cruisers as well, against humans they suck.

5. ... Flak attacks individual fighters, so no surprise SQUADRONS don't fall right after getting a single hit. They do kill fighters effectively, but they take time, otherwise fighters would be (even more..) useless. You should have some fighters too, and bombers, bombers can easily kill structures, capital ships and titans. And heavy cruisers. And whjile flak attacks bombers, it takes much time to kill those as flak has a penalty in damage against them, fighters are better, though still too slow to kill them in time. You can have anti-strike craft capital ships if opponent has superiority, Halcyon, Kortul, or Kol.

 

Maybe you are right in that Hard is a too big step from normal, and the Vicious and Cruel levels are useless when Unfair puts up a real challenge even for good players, BUT! Hard is not hard once you know how to play. I can kill Hard on medium or even small maps without building a starbase at all..

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

It's something that will come with time but you should definitely start with the small random 1v1 map. Lots of room between you and the AI.

Honestly, you can beat the Hard AI without any research, you just need to build a zillion Light Frigates so you are probably wasting a bit on Research. Having said that, I would obviously recommend Research (specifically Light Carriers - if you only get one research this is the one.

In all my games against the Hard AI the only ones that make Titans are the ones I'm not attacking, so what I'm saying is, don't sit back. If he's building a Titan then he has spent over 10 000 credits (and thousands of metal and crystal)in Research and construction. If you convert that money into Light Frigates and fleet research your fleet would be large enough to overwhelm him in any battle. If, instead, you lazily sit back and colonize planets without applying a bit of pressure to his frontline worlds then he's going to build a Titan and SuperWeapons and soon your empire will be under siege on the frontline while your empire is gutted from the inside out by the SuperWeapon(s).

Hope the above helps.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks Turchany and WOEaintME.  

 

I went to FFA against all hard opponents because FFA against normal was way too easy.  I guess with all those difficulty settings, I thought the jump to Hard would have been more minor than it was.  Also, I'm going for a huge system/FFA because I guess I was trying to recreate some of my best gaming experiences in Total War series.  Good advice though on holding off on FFA like that.  It seems every game I try, I get attacked by two AI at the exact same time.  

 

In the middle of a 1 vs 1 on hard difficulty now and it is crazy how quickly they send fleets at me ... I guess the AI doesnt enjoy sitting back and building up.