Matrix Games Forums

I admit I’m pretty overwhelmed by DW, despite having read the manual and a good deal in these forums and the Galactopedia… I keep beginning games on small galaxy maps and throwing up my hands in confusion after about an hour… There’s so much to keep track of… Don’t get me wrong – I like the depth and the complexity, but am having lots of trouble managing it --

Can anyone offer help on striking a good balance between what to Automate and what to Control Manually?

One thing that really has me pulling out my hair is how to manage my military ships. I would really like to automate responding to the initial pirate raids… This appears much harder than it should be. I usually begin my taking all my military ships OFF auto-control, and setting them to respond to system-wide threats. However, it seems that once they respond to a pirate raid, they immediately RESET to ‘attack nearby targets.’ Is there any way to prevent this re-setting??

(Also, is there a way to *prevent* newly-built military ships from being set to "automated" as the default??)

I really like the ‘have AI suggest course of action’ settings in the Game Options. This is a very welcome feature. However, I often have the feeling that by having most things set to automated, I’m not actually *doing* anything besides watching the galaxy go by. Then the pirates start raiding, and I find myself at a loss to get the best (i.e. closest) military ships to respond, especially since I keep finding the ships I originally set to “respond to system-wide threats” have been reset to “respond to nearby targets” (argh!) --

I didn't really learn how the game works until I put everything on manual! Even if you do that for just an hour or so, you'll get a better idea of how things fit together. Maybe play a sandbox game for a short bit, with few or no pirates and generous starting conditions. Then you can always go back to AI suggestions -- though I haven't.

With regard to the newly-built military ships being on auto mode, what I usually do is as soon I order a ship from a space port, I close the window and click the Ships tab at the bottom of the screen. Check the right box (whether military, transport, etc.) and the full list of already built and planned to be/being built ships (in red colour I think) is all there. It is easier to manage not completed yet ships from right there. What really helps to organise your ships without having to wait for your ships' construction to be completed, is to organize them into fleets whether existing or new. Ships tab is useful indeed. I usually manage all of my military elements myself and this ships menu is the one I use quite often.

I'm relatively new to the game myself, but here is what seems to work for me...
 
As with any realtime game, sit with your finger on the space bar and by default your eye on the message screen - pause if anything happens in which you need to intervene.
 
Enable the AI to suggest builds, unless you are cash-strapped (I haven't been so far) build what it suggests, leave escorts & frigates automated.  Some experiences players recommend overbuilding these ship types (wrt the numbers recommended by your AI advisors).
 
Manually manage construction ships vs your current resource needs when you are small, them automate them when you are big.
 
Once you get past the point where destroyers are your battle line, form destroyer squadrons (I use 4 per squadron) as quick reaction forces & sprinkle them around your empire.  If an alert about a pirate or monster attack comes in, unless the local escort/frigate lot clearly have the strength to handle it alone, grab the nearest destroyer squadron & send it in like the cavalry.  It should be able to handle most solo monsters or pirate attacks.  Multiple-monster-infested goodie sites and pirate bases will require a battle fleet, of course.
 
Your civilian ships may range far afield of your "borders" and get into trouble.  I let that be their watch-out, and don't send help way out there if they run into pirates & monsters.

The key to this game is to DARE to lean back and trust the ai assistance [:D]
I always play with everything on manual but ship design, troop recruiting, fleet formation and colony tax rate on automatic. Attacks aganst empires, agent missions and ship building on suggest.
ALL my ships are automated, its just a far too big game to micro all of it, or even some of it! (and I'm used to playing Zerg lol)

This allows me to play as if i was the monarch of the empire, with little subjects doing the dirtywork and calculating what i need (lol[:D]).
Basically i just look at where to colonize, bully my enemies with diplomacy, trade techs and junk, and sometimes accept / sometimes decline the build suggestions (i usually accept if i personally think its a good idea).

Then once the empire starts getting even bigger, i may prepare things for my plans. If i plan to play the game very military, i'll manually queue up 40-60 frigates or whatever, that usually lets the ai-suggest realize that "oh shi, alot of ships, i dont need to ask for anything now", to get off my back [;)]
Aaaand... Thats it i think. I'm really enjoying those settings, its perfect for my playstyle. I also tried microing everything and trying to wrap my head around everything at first (you so badly want to KNOW EVERYTHING), but the way i learnt was to just WATCH how the ai played, when it suggested me to build something i thought about it, "why does it want more ships and construction ships? ah because my income sucks and we need more materials".

And yep, i even have the construction ships automated from the start. I find they do a pretty damn good job choosing what you need, even resort bases at the endgame.
The only time i may manually control one (who becomes my "private" builder) is when i know what i want, and build 3 or more research bases for that particular research area.


Simply put, dont be afraid to trust the AI, its actually pretty surprisingly good.
And the reason i keep ALL ships on auto is because while they may have trouble defending everything at the start, once you get sufficent numbers there will be escorts for most of your bases.
Also, one thing i personally had to un-learn from previous games, DONT freak out just because you loose a few things. You almost gotta tune out the "YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!!!" messages, because in this game it isnt as vital as in other games.
If you loose a gas mining station to pirates, it aint a big deal, your automated constructors will queue up another one and your escorts will eventually hunt them down.

And the great thing about "attack enemies: suggest" is that as soon as your scouts find the pirate bases, the ai forms a fleet and pops up asking if it mey attack the pirate base. All you gotta do is hit Yes and go make coffee XD
I used to try to micro every fleet and get huge headaches as some of the ships got out of fuel etc etc. Now i just learnt to not give a fuck, just give them a big "prepare and attack here when ready, i dont care" order. [:D]
I basically treat my ships like Fire and Forget missiles lol, works quite well.
Definetly cant play this game as any other game.

I've found the warnings a whole new level of annoying once I went to max critters + pirates...
What I've learned...
1) Bugger all, but that alarm never turns off.  I do want to hear about other empires attacking me, and critters, but I seem to not have options to specify which attack types to ignore...
2) Military Dictatorship sucks when it comes to suggesting building ships.  If it says I need to build one of something, I gotta look at my current stock in that ship type and double it -- Some government types suggest too few ships, so you may actually be handicapping yourself with the Technocracy, Mercantile guild, etc...  Rule of thumb, if you have over a million in wealth, your navy is too small. 
3) If you have a weapon that can let a fleeing merchant kill stuff in a short encounter, pack it on the merchant (Shaktur Firestorm FTW) -- They will actually kill escorts in the early-mid game this way, letting a small navy focus on the bigger fish.
4) Income is your best defence against losses.  If it gets broke, you can always build another.
5) Numbers is your next best defense against losses.  If you have one escort in a system, it may die going up against that pirate frigate.  If you have 3 in a system, the pirate frigate may die.
//Torrenal

welcome to the jungle, Torrenal [:D]

Here is how I set mine up:

Diplomacy = Manual
Shipbuilding = Manual
Spying = Suggest
Colonizing = Manual
War and attacks = manual
Trade Sanctions/agreements = manual

Fleet control is manual

Now then, when I build ships, I generally won't put escorts or frigates in a fleet, the AI does a fine job using those ships to patrol and intercept pirates. My Destroyers and larger go into 1 or 2 fleets, 3 at most that I use to invade other empires.

This works out well for me.

Thanks for the great advice everyone -- it's definitely helpful.  Interesting that there are some very different philosophies about game-style here.  I guess the fact that you can play DW in such different ways -- mostly automated or mostly manual -- attests to the strength of this game.
 
@Baleur -- i really need to take your 'don't freak out about every attack' advice to heart -- something about all those 'pirate raid' alarms gets me all panicky!  I seem to have had the idea that if I lose some mining bases early on to pirate raids, that I've screwed up badly & should probably start over.  I'm going to resist this temptation next time.

ORIGINAL: sandman2575

@Baleur -- i really need to take your 'don't freak out about every attack' advice to heart -- something about all those 'pirate raid' alarms gets me all panicky!  I seem to have had the idea that if I lose some mining bases early on to pirate raids, that I've screwed up badly & should probably start over.  I'm going to resist this temptation next time.

Be carefull I read somewhere that with each successful attack they got money, making them stronger and more problematic.

ORIGINAL: sandman2575

Thanks for the great advice everyone -- it's definitely helpful.  Interesting that there are some very different philosophies about game-style here.  I guess the fact that you can play DW in such different ways -- mostly automated or mostly manual -- attests to the strength of this game.

@Baleur -- i really need to take your 'don't freak out about every attack' advice to heart -- something about all those 'pirate raid' alarms gets me all panicky!  I seem to have had the idea that if I lose some mining bases early on to pirate raids, that I've screwed up badly & should probably start over.  I'm going to resist this temptation next time.

I would definately build a dozen or so escorts and frigates if I were you and leave them automated and out of fleets so they can help with those pirate attacks. Until you colonize your second system, 4 should be sufficient. At the second one colonized, add another 4, then with the third, another 4. After that just judge it based on the level of attacks you get...and resist the urge to overbuild military ships. The AI is pretty efficient at managing the patrol fleets and dealing with the pirates when you give it a decent set of ships to work with.

Also, upgun your escorts and frigates as soon as possible. I generally go with 4 lasers and a torpedo, along with upping the shields to 2 on escorts. Frigates I go with 5 lasers and a torpedo (until you can build ships over 230). Speed is good too, if you can get them to 45+ on speed, they'll be more effective cause they can catch pirates and outrun what they can't outgun.

ORIGINAL: b0mber

ORIGINAL: sandman2575

@Baleur -- i really need to take your 'don't freak out about every attack' advice to heart -- something about all those 'pirate raid' alarms gets me all panicky!  I seem to have had the idea that if I lose some mining bases early on to pirate raids, that I've screwed up badly & should probably start over.  I'm going to resist this temptation next time.

Be carefull I read somewhere that with each successful attack they got money, making them stronger and more problematic.

They do get more powerful with each successful attack, but the alarms go off at the beginning of an attack, whether you will win or lose. I personally customize my mining stations with 3 lasers and 3 torpedoes, so they rarely lose a minor encounter. Just have to be aware of these things.

I actually hope that they add a "ship destroyed" notification, seems at least as important as the "under attack" notification...