Turn off quickstart. You'd be amazed how much differently the game plays.
I've heard many newer players say they don't like the rush mentality of the online scene. This is fair in my opinion. Sometimes, it feels like you get rushed before the game even begins.
If you'd like to slow the game down a bit, at least in the first 15-20 minutes, the answer is simple. Turn off quickstart.
This is 100% correct. Thanks for posting this up!
Most of the online crowd want to get in as many games as they can, which is okay as far as I am concerned.
It is also possible to mix and match research rates to ship speed rates etc on top of having the Quick Start on or off. There are many ways to tailor the game play speed and balance which determines when certain power curves and play styles become available.
Personally I like to play (when I have time) on Normal ship speed settings with the Research and Culture boosted up to fast settings which does make for a longer and slower game. Since DPS does not change and ship speed has been reduced it makes strategic placement of your combat vessels and how you choose to defend and expand your empire much more significant. On normal ship speed settings, you can't just hop from one side of your empire to the other to defend it as easily.
I said that to say this, the game settings are very customizable to allow for anyone to setup the game they want to play, whether it be a 5v5 that takes 30 minutes or a 6 player FFA that takes 4 hours. In this way any single player/LAN party fan can ease themselves into multi-player and vice-versa.
chainging income speed from faster to, basicly anything else, really really changes how the game is played. YOu will find yourself having to be much more cost conscious and cost effective at lower income speeds, even if everything else is left at faster.
I feel micro is more rewarded at lower income speeds too, because at lower income speeds, every ship counts.
Another option is to play custom maps that are designed in such a way so that rushing is not possible (opposing team is 7 jumps away, etc.).
Or have a less filled map....do a 4v4 on a huge random (normally for 5v5s), or a 3v3 on a large random (normally for 4v4s)...
FYI--I wear bifocals, am partially color blind and have astigmatism in one eye (since early childhood for me).
On my bright LCD screen it's incredibly hard to stare down through layers of moving, tiny, colored objects on a multicolored background and then zoom in and out and shift my view back and forth repeatedly and catch all the small details.
I'm sure lesser hand-eye co-ordination, poor quality monitors, slow gpu's and cpu's plus local lag can aggravate others just as much.
"Fast 3v3 and 5v5" isn't as fair or fun a game for those of us in this position and is something for others to consider.
new players should get used to the speed... Having quickstart off means that the rush i'm building will take 2-3 minutes longer then it would with quickstart enabled.
Having quickstart on helps new players because it limits the amount of terrible early decisions they could make, because a few good decisions have already been made.
Considering new players would be far slower without quickstart at anything in game, the goodplayers will have a large fleet on their doorstep while they are building their first 5 cobalts.
New players are at a disadvantage with quickstart. They should learn the pace of the game, get comfortable with it, and then they can really enjoy multiplayer.
Lower cost settings is a much better way to slow down the game for everyone. Yet even better, slower ship speeds really changes how the game is played, turning it more into a chess match as reinforcements aren't nearly so available.
There are pros and cons to this statement. Sometimes those mistakes are what help new players learn, especially when they realize the gravity of those mistakes. Not saying there is anything wrong with quickstart at all, just something to consider in certain circumstances.
This changes the strategy severely as DPS stays the same ... but you can't rush from one side of your empire to the other and back again.
I played with slow ship speeds once...I would never ever put myself through that again unless I was Vasari, it was a truly awful experience....
Not sure what you're thinking, I found it incredibly awesome and continue on a regular basis to find it an absolute blast when our LAN group plays. It puts a LOT more emphasis on thinking ahead on fleet placement, reactionary strategy, and puts a lot more importance on which ships get built at which time because not only does it take ages to respond to a threat on a border world but it also takes ages to rebuild a fleet that was improperly placed and decimated.
Definitely more chess based and you have to think 7 steps ahead of your opponent and hope it pays off. You can't just react to his fleet composition, you have to anticipate, prepare, and hedge your bets.
I'm thinking slow speed just makes bomber spam and corvette rushing even more the defacto strategy and Vasari even more OP....add on the fact that I don't want a single game to last 20 hours...not exactly what I'd call enjoyable...
I know at least 6 other people other than myself that would beg to differ and do call it enjoyable. I'm just pointing out that there are people that enjoy the nuances of each game setting. Playing on slow and normal settings across the board is a legitimate way to enjoy this game and the fact that playing on those settings forces a player to change their strategy for managing an ever expanding empire is in my opinion a different feel to playing on fastest everything.
Everybody has their own game play settings that they enjoy and each has their pros and cons depending on what style of game play an individual likes. Simple as that.
I don't understand how slow or normal speed would change any strategies at all. It would all just happen....slower. It would make the micro and decision making much much easier as you'd have more time to think and react. It would essentially make the game much easier, but much longer. It's no different than chess vs. speed chess. Same rules, just one is more challenging mentally than the other as you have to think and react much quicker. Ofc it's totally legit for people to want that extra breathing room and play at a more relaxed pace but I don't see how the strategy would change at all.
Gamespeed changes strategy significantly...
For one, not all variables scale the same...as an example, there is a 75% difference between the income levels on "slow" and "faster"...however, there is only a 40% difference between the build speed rates on "slow" and "faster"...because of this, when playing on faster speed you will find that units are more expendable and the double/triple frigate factory is a standard strategy for early game frontliners...
Many of the combat mechanics (ex: DPS) do not change with gamespeed...however, ship speeds (both phase jumping and normal travel) do change with game speed....you will find that on faster game speeds, surprise/flank attacks are much easier to deal with: the enemy fleet does the same DPS, but you can get your fleet their faster and build up defensive forces in a pinch much easier...
Specifically to what I said to Boshimi earlier, because DPS is the same regardless of game speed, slower game speeds make bombers/corvettes more important (because it takes longer to catch fleets or get across a gravity well)...
It's not just a slower game, it truly is a different game...things like when to get trade, when to get your 2nd cap, when to retreat your cap, what units to build, importance of scouting, etc. all depend on the game speed...
I personally like normal speed the best because it makes the game more relaxed but also more of a deep-thinking strategy game...slow speed though is just unbearable for me, mainly because phase stabilizers and bombers utterly dominate the game so much more than they do on the other game speeds....
Oh interesting...I did not know that. I assumed everything would be the same % slower. It still doesn't appeal to me though - too glacial a pace for so few decisions would become boring for me.
To each there own! For our LAN group we kick back with some beer and enjoy the day away.
You may have more time, but people will play the same, you still don't really prevent rushing by gimping everyone at the start, it would just be considered a rush from that resource setting. It doesn't give you any extra time to really prepare, in terms of build times and resources, just more mentally.
@ seleucia
exactly, the vasari are extremely OP on slow ship speed settings. That's why fastest ship speeds in multiplayer is a MUST, or else you will just be facing an unbeatable vasari opponent.
I would disagree on this at least from the perspective of our LAN group. On any given day Vasari, Advent, or TEC has a decent chance. Keep in mind though we play HUGE single star maps so there is a lot of room for fleet positioning and strategy. We haven't played on the smaller maps since perhaps entrenchment where it made it easier to dig in at a few choke points.
Huge maps should benefit Vasari even more...
I am le confuze...
In our group we find the TEC players can outproduce the other factions, especially the vasari with ease on the slower settings which makes early expansion and therefore economy setup easier for the TEC. In general we also find that rushes are harder to pull off due to the slower ship speeds with the rushing player often being scouted many jumps away. Also, once the rushing player arrives, it is nearly impossible to escape without severe harassment due again to the slow ship speeds and the unchanged DPS values. One other item of note is that balance of strike-craft seems to drift more in the favor of a well setup defender if similar numbers are present, mostly due to the anti-matter loss of the incoming ships and anti-strike craft vessels that are on defense also have more time to shoot down incoming strike-craft before they are engaged by incoming enemy vessels.
Even with phase gates during late game, and yes the Vasari to pack a punch once they get farther along their research tree (though it takes forever on slow settings, painfully slow for the Vasari which slows them down even more compared to the other races), the Vasari are still a few clusters of beefed up ships that are getting swarmed by cheaper more easily replaced enemy ships, especially if the enemy is TEC.
Just some thoughts from our LAN group's perspective.
Rushing in this game is pretty slow anyway, I haven't had any problems with it. With other RTS titles, early rushes are about 50% of why not to bother playing online.
Rushing is a risk, and a good player can counter any rush with the right tools. TEC and vasari defend against advent rushes with a starbase and repair structures. Granted this might gimp your early game something horrible, that is why it is always better to build your own fleet to counter.
Advent early game fleets are actually countered by quickly building a fleet of flak (to kill corvettes) and then once corvettes have been thinned a bit you spam lrm. The longer the enemy stays in the gravity well under these conditions, the greater their loss. A good player will attempt to stalemate at this point, and you must take the risk to not scout ahead of a jump, as a quick persue will often result in a strong victory, and a lot of times result in killing the opponents capital ship.
You should have at least 2-3 factories at your HW, and you will want to build at least 2 repair structures. Yet, in the end you will repulse the advent attack unless they have a ton of neutrals and/or feed.
When you are put on the defensive, you should still fight for any neutrals they have, and just because you are strong defensively, never forget that you can still attack. Sometimes long protracted fights are won because you sent in 20 corvettes to harass their HW, and they bring their whole fleet to support.
Only works if they are dumb and spam only corvettes first...even then, they can outrun your flak, limiting your ability to defend multiple gravity wells...unless you are getting lots of feed and they are getting none, you're almost always better off simply trying to outnumber them with your own LFs+corvettes....
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