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the only thing where auto resolve really sucks are the ground units.

when attacking a planet without static or mobile defenses but a large amount of militia, the auto resolve option will waste your marines against them.

if you take control of the battle personally, you just bomb them from orbit and keep your marine safe.

Nah. My standard late game conquest fleet includes 10 marines and 5 hovertanks and stomps the opposition on autoresolve, usually without losses. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't get very aggressive until late in the game, however, and when I can roll with huge (100+ ship) fleets. I mainly focus on development and expansion for a good 200 or so turns, with the occasional border skirmish.
 
In a small map game this could be more of a concern, granted, you won't have that kind of time to build up.
 
 
 
 

just out of interest: how bad were the games with bad autoresolve?

Sword if the Stars is bad on autoresolve for largely unavoidable reasons. (Numbers don't matter much in that game system since the amount of ships you can bring into combat is limited by command and control tech.)
 
The devs made deliberate design desicions in that game to place the focus of it on starships, not imperial management. So tech, ship design, and combat tactics matter no matter what, and there's a lot of rock, paper, scissors tactical minutiae to consider. Autoresolve cannot handle these nuances.
 
The economic and diplomatic aspects of the game are also...rather basic. Crude, even.
 
It's a great game up to a certain point. And then it just flounders due to time constraints. For those folks more interested in starship fleet combat, that game remains the gold standard. (Or at least midsize fleet combat, since fleet size is inherently limited, and the rest of the fleet is just there for reinforcements in excess of command limits.)
 
If you want to do the actual space empire thing from the imperial rather than starship captain's standpoint, this is the better game. 
 
I'm not sure at this point if it is even possible to design a single game that does both the micro and macro well.
 
Moo3 also had a rather flaky autoresolve. But that game failed on so many levels that it hardly mattered; it would have been a more serious failing if the game actually succeeded at the strategic scale it was supposed to be good at.
 
GalCiv2 I suppose "autoresolves" everything, it doesn't have an actual tactical engine.
 
 

MOO3's autoresolve was dead on arrival because the designers, incuding Alan Emrich, had never heard of Lancaster's Rule that combat power is the square of the numbers involved, all other things being equal. This results in the largest possible fleets, with the latest tech, consistently taking 5-10% losses in attacking planets defended only by planetary bases and a small system defense task force, whereas the same fleet would consistently take no losses under player control, or even under AI control using the tactical display and the Watch command (player watches the AI run his ships).

Given that almost all space battles are one-sided planet-bashing, consisting of a huge fleet against planets without defending starships, this consistent 5-10% loss is crippling in a strategic offensive. I always resolve all my MOO3 planetary attacks on player control. Its auto-resolve is satisfactory only when a large fleet is defending against a small fleet.

My advice when playing the humans is to edit the factions XML file and give yourself 4x the money to start. I know, it's shameful...

And I without shame, did just that. It's wonderful having files to mod. [8D]

Im doing just fine with humies. I have like 95000 kredits and not a single rebellious planet. Diffuculty normal. I almost thought the game was too easy until my war on "kilrathi" changed totally with their spoiling attack on my border planet that totally wiped it out giving them full access to my inner planets. 

Are you doing a lot of trading?

ORIGINAL: LarryP
Are you doing a lot of trading?

I have perhaps 10 missions. Mostly with allies. But I do have lots of good planets with asteroids etc too. I had a good starting place. Even the homeplanet was rich.

If you have 95k credits in the kitty, you're not spending enough. The most I've ever hoarded was 40kish as a warchest, at which point I launch a major war on somebody. (And the money goes fast during wartime.)
 
Don't neglect the border planetary defenses. I spend big bucks on those, myself, and can make a border world a tough nut to crack short of a major assult, no mere spoiling attack will take them out. 50 missiles behind a shield, with a half dozen or more orbitals (Guardians especially are nice) can stop a half assed raiding fleet cold.
 
I also like to build lots of squids and station them on border worlds. Cheap little darlings to maintain.
 
 
 
 

I have fought war against the catrace for like 30 turns now. I have had 5-6 shipyards pumping out ships all that time. I have also built quit a lot of defenses. All planets have minimum of 4 heavy missiles silos and som border ones have up to 16 with orbital lasers. Still my credits just keep growing. Currently I have 120000. At one point they dropped to 90k when I build several mines but I got that money back quick. 

I am now -84000 in the red as the humans. What are you doing that I need to do?[&:]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

Im doing just fine with humies. I have like 95000 kredits and not a single rebellious planet. Diffuculty normal. I almost thought the game was too easy until my war on "kilrathi" changed totally with their spoiling attack on my border planet that totally wiped it out giving them full access to my inner planets. 

ORIGINAL: Titanwarrior89

I am now -84000 in the red as the humans. What are you doing that I need to do?[&:]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

Im doing just fine with humies. I have like 95000 kredits and not a single rebellious planet. Diffuculty normal. I almost thought the game was too easy until my war on "kilrathi" changed totally with their spoiling attack on my border planet that totally wiped it out giving them full access to my inner planets. 

Here som from the top of my head:

1.Dont build anything you dont need
2.Search&Build all level 1 mines, asteroid mines and comet mines
3.Do not build any level 2&3 mines (you most likely dont need them anyways)
4.Do not build security stations or policing stations that cost 200-300 you dont need these either
5.Take no alien planets as captives but simply kill them all and recolonize.
6.Accept all trade missions
7.Give lots of reseach priority to comet/asteroid mines and atmospheric improvements etc that give happyness bonuses
8.Do not transfer people to dead planets until you can create proper atmosphere there
9.Choose carefully what planets you build your shipyards into. You dont really need more than 1 shipyard planet per say 6-7 planets
10.If you build somthing onto a planet make sure the planet can afford it. Make sure no planet costs more money than it makes (except on special occasions i.e during war).

check your finance screen and look at the biggest drains to your economy.

ignore the "Construction" entries under expenses (these are your queued projects).

then eliminate unnecessary facilities, like ground defenses in places where no one can reach you. Delete specialized research stations if you already researched everything in that field.
Check if it's more profitable to remove a mine from a planet in exchange for a higher tax rate. for that, see the planetary details screen to find out about system income and pollution.

even so, with -84k it might take a little while.

oh, you can also scrap your fleet or gift parts of it to your best allies in exchange for money.
trade bad planets to trusted allies for money. trade REALLY bad planets to enemies - or those that will become enemies soon.

Thanks for the feed back Zakhal & Aroddo. I'll try what you guys recommend.

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

ORIGINAL: Titanwarrior89

I am now -84000 in the red as the humans. What are you doing that I need to do?[&:]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

Im doing just fine with humies. I have like 95000 kredits and not a single rebellious planet. Diffuculty normal. I almost thought the game was too easy until my war on "kilrathi" changed totally with their spoiling attack on my border planet that totally wiped it out giving them full access to my inner planets. 

Here som from the top of my head:

1.Dont build anything you dont need
2.Search&Build all level 1 mines, asteroid mines and comet mines
3.Do not build any level 2&3 mines (you most likely dont need them anyways)
4.Do not build security stations or policing stations that cost 200-300 you dont need these either
5.Take no alien planets as captives but simply kill them all and recolonize.
6.Accept all trade missions
7.Give lots of reseach priority to comet/asteroid mines and atmospheric improvements etc that give happyness bonuses
8.Do not transfer people to dead planets until you can create proper atmosphere there
9.Choose carefully what planets you build your shipyards into. You dont really need more than 1 shipyard planet per say 6-7 planets
10.If you build somthing onto a planet make sure the planet can afford it. Make sure no planet costs more money than it makes (except on special occasions i.e during war).

Okie Doe. That helped. I am now 4400 in the green. Thank ya [&o][:)]

ORIGINAL: Aroddo

the key to keep unruly races pacified is to make living conditions good by choosing good planets in the first place and building stuff to improve habitability.
also don't let those planets overcrowd.

eventually you'll have to set taxes to low on some planets, so make sure that other planets generate positive revenue to make up for it.
That means that many planets won't be developed fully despite having lots of building slots free.

also, check your fleet composition. humans in particular have access to inexpensive ships with very low upkeep: the corvette iv. very effective in large numbers and it doesn't require expensive oribtal shipyards to build. fleet maintenance will be one of the largest drain to your economy.

One has to wonder if it may be more prudent to simply use a scorched earth policy rather than try to conquer alien races. Seems you wouldn't have to worry about their happiness that way. [;)]

As far as the ships go, sometimes quantity over quality is a good thing, especially when you can afford a lot of decent ships without having to build an expensive infrastructure to build/maintain them.

Scorched earth is surely faster. Just keep some ark ships (a mother ark is ideal) with your invasion fleet or close by, and some tansports with lots of pop (the excess pop in your empire - in transports they're not rioting or crippling your growth rate  [;)] ).
You don't have to wait 4 turns for the Conquered Relay Station to be built.

but it's tempting to keep a fully developed planet for yourself.
for that reason, i experimented with biological warfare, to get population down without destroying the buildings. then just occupy, shuffle the rest of the living population into a gulag and enjoy the new shiny planet.