There is a post in here somewhere that gives a basic opening moves template.

One of the things that stuck with me where the 1st few moves.

Build a capital ship yard so you can get your one free capital ship, build a hostility research station and get a point in repair, and get your population maxed out.
From that point I try to get some more research stations up and capture the closest asteroid.

I haven't played a mp game yet as I have yet to beat the AI on normal let alone try and beat another human LOL. I haven't crashed the economy code yet but I'm trying to figure it out slow but sure.
Hope this helps.

The AI will often send a message to everyone when their bounty goes up. It doesn't mean they actually know who did it... although I suppose we can't rule out AI making a guess the same way as human players might do.

You can see this easily if you place bounty on _two_ AI players at the start of the game. Not much, just 250 or 500Cr. The idea is to make it cheaper for the top bounty player to spend money on the second player in the list than to put money on you. That will usually keep the pirates off your back without spending much money, and perhaps even drain your opponents funds if they start a bidding war between the AI.


As for first moves, I would recommend starting with a couple of scouts and a colony ship (so it can charge the antimatter). Then civil research stations to unlock the planet-type research so you can colonise the best local planets. At around the same time build 7-10 basic attack frigates to conquer the nearest worlds. Then start working on either trade or weapons (trade if things are going OK, weapons if you are uncomfortably close to war).

Early use of the black market to buy and sell materials is very useful for a fast start. If one resource is going to be scarce throughout the game it might as well be you getting in on the ground floor buying it cheap. You can also put some surplus materials up for sale (not the instant sell, the other set of buttons). You can retrieve the materials if you want them back before they sell and it provides a good way to link your economy to your enemy's - if they buy materials for a big war fleet you will get the money to expand your own.

As for the "missions"... mostly you aren't expected to comply. The AI is just trying to influence your behaviour and doesn't always necessarily want you to actually succeed and get the reward. If you want an AI ally though, earmark some metal and crystal very early on for the "please give me something" missions. If you get going with that fast enough you can get genuine alliances. If you wait too long then the "Destroy X" missions come out and it is much harder to make an alliance using those. If you already got at least a ceasefire from doing the gift missions though, the destruction missions can take you the rest of the way.