Also the TEC colony frigate does the job of capturing extractors at uncolonisable gravity wells. Scouts do it for Vasari, I think its the colony frigate for Advent, can't remember, but it is 1 of those 2 ships.

try it with out the quick start

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. I've been playing for 4 or 5 months and I'm still learning stuff. I guess there is just to many things to put in the tutorial, but people are always willing to help out on this forum. The depth of this game is really quite impressive.

Quick start is an option you can use when starting a new game. IT gives you the extractors already built on your starting planet plus a capital ship factoy on game start. When starting a new game theres a button for it in game options.

Yeah, I noticed. Reminds me of the GPG forums

I'm stoked for TEC fleets. I really like their mechwarrior-style tech. I've noticed they get some beam upgrades, for the Kol and the Argonev - are they new in Entrenchment? I had a quick look in Sins before I bought entrenchment and I don't remember them.

I'll take note of Quick Start, I think I'll switch it off.

I personally LOVE the TEC, just guns, guns, and more guns.  Your first Capitol ship is free, no matter what race you are.  All you need to do is build a capitol ship factory at your home world (I'm sure you noticed that you get a frigate factory free at startup).  Personally, I fill the first 100 fleet credits this way, 1 capitol ship (I usually go for the Akkan-class Battle Cruiser because of the colonize ability and the ion beam), 1 Colony frigate, 2 scout frigates (each of these has the ability to auto-explore.  you find this in the lower right hand corner of the screen, a button that has a magnifying glass. Right click this button to toggle the auto-casting of this ability.  they spawn with it off), and finally 8 Cobalt light frigates.  This fleet is enought to handle any of the default rebels on fresh planets.

As for the camera following random ships, the default setting of the game is to zoom to the cursor.  If there is any object (ie. ship building, planet) under the cursor, the camera will lock onto it.  If you find this to annoying, you can turn it off in the options menu.

Personally, I'm a bit of a defense nut.  After I colonize about four systems I fully upgrade them before moving on.  I also fully build up each new system that I capture and colonize before advancing too.

I recomend building defense structures where they can protect each other as well as the logistical structures.  There is a range ring that appears when you place the structure, but you can also see this again by pressing the 'alt' button.

Don't worry about the learning curve.  I played for several weeks before figuring most of the stuff out.  Use the forums.  They are a great place to have questions answered.

Hope you enjoy the game!

Sounds like things are coming together.  As for pirates, it's always a good investment to spend credits on bounty to get them to attack you opponents.  If nothing else, it keeps them occupied while you build your own fleet and defences.  I also find researching and building the heacy cruiser is one of the best investments in the game.  It eats frigates and most other cruisers for lunch.

Happy gaming!

Your first capital is free (:

It makes clearing out the small militia at nearby planets much easier in early game. I didn't realize this for several games when I started out.

Also - are replays fixed in 1.01? I keep seeing that they go from broken to fixed just about every other patch. If they work now, one of us could post a basic replay to help him out.

No resource cost for the first capital ship.

Lol same it took me quite a few games to handle it, the first game of mine was dismal, i managed to build my first cap a marza, then like a dozen of so scouts but din't remember how to jump so i was stuck at my homeworld and the pirates kept attacking me, i managed, and i was wtf, how do i increase my supply then i figured out how and everything i know started from there, in any case, experiment, the worst you get is that you lose a few planets and quite a few ships, well, maybe a few round, but keep playing...