I feel like all my games ends up feeling the same, the replay-ability isnt really there.I know not all games are made to be played for hundreds of hours but SoSe2 feels a little short in that apartment.

Maybe the subfactions are to similar? I feel like I play all my games pretty much in the same way / order.

What do you guys think?

I seen people beating it "just fine" before it. But now it feels like economy is taking too long for catch up as credits are much more tied to pop and everything.

I am not hating or dooming i am just asking if it is doable now. Because it takes ages now to put up Garrisons and get proper economy going.

How do you guys play it?/Kick start so you can handle first waves? Since economy changes.

Thank you.

Also i am suprised Devs did not updated the scenario accordingly, at least thats what i found in my google search. Also most of the guides how to kickstart etc. are year old. So with all the changes and updates from what i saw it was much easier to start.

To preface, I typically don't like playing these games in multiplayer because they are so long. I usually prefer quicker RTS games like StarCraft 2 (I am Masters there). But the game was becoming a bit stale to play against AI, and inspired by that post from yesterday, I decided to do a "quick" multiplayer match last night. It was a 1v1 on a small map with ~20 planets. I chose my favourite race, TEC Primacy, against a player who was playing random. In the end, it became a complete mirror matchup on a map with no pirates. Just to preface, I don't know any meta in this game. I typically play TEC Primacy, rushing T5 eco on large maps. In 1v1, I can take out the Nightmare AI. But AI is AI; players are different.

It was an interesting match. I was playing as usual - prioritising economy and research. Getting every single useful research early on, such as +5% damage, +10% mining, etc. My opponent instead rushed pirate ships, skipping pretty much most other research (except for trade ports, extractors, and necessary colonisation options). The map layout was such that we both had 3-4 nearby planets, an "inner rim" with 2-3 planets right between our own nearby planets, and the "outer rim" with 10 more planets scattered asymmetrically. I took nearby planets and tried to go for the outer rim. The opponent instead rushed the inner rim, took one of my asteroids, and started sieging the last asteroid next to my capital. Mind you, his fleet supply was around 250 thanks to the quick pirates, while mine barely reached 100. I had to dash back with my main fleet, get help from the pirates, and defend the final asteroid on my capital's doorstep. It worked successfully, forcing him to retreat, not without losing both of his capital ships. However, my counter-attack failed, so I was forced to retreat. What followed was a long stalemate at the border between the two asteroids. He had a superior fleet at all times (typically x1.5-2 larger than mine) with a superior economy thanks to the inner rim planets. I only had better research, trying to get all useful upgrades (+armour, +damage, +eco, +HP, etc.) and more capital ships as he kept losing them. While he skipped most of the research, mostly rushing bigger fleet upgrades and exotic refineries. He had a large armada of heavy cruisers, dozens of Harckas, with some Percherons. I had a hard time countering them.

At some point during the stalemate, we both got starbases on the respective asteroids, but I split my forces, taking over the outer rim, including two of his planets, and securing a key location there with another starbase. He simultaneously tried to do another push towards my asteroid, which resulted in further trades, prolonging the stalemate. I had trouble killing his dozens of Harckas, but he couldn't do much with them either. Eventually, I rushed a Titan and kept up with research, while he focused on getting maxed out on 2000 supply. During the final battle, he pushed the key outer rim planet. Nine Kol battleships, dozens of Harckas and Percherons, with a few lighter ships, pushed my starbase. On my side, I reinforced with only 1500 supply of different ships, 4-5 capital ships, the Titan, a scatter of Harckas, Kalevs, Javelins, and Percherons. Thanks to my phase jump inhibitor, it turned into a bloodbath. Capital ships went down so fast on both sides, but even though my fleet was smaller, the proximity to my starbase and the Titan backbone allowed me to destroy the fleet despite the huge losses. At this point, the opponent GG'd out.

That was such a nice adrenaline rush during the whole match, especially at the end. I am not sure I want to play it again because it took over 2 hours of IRL time. But I was also confused by his strategies. He clearly knows the meta more than me, though he didn't split his fleet well enough, allowing me to establish a foothold on the outer rim planets. He significantly delayed a lot of the research that grants +% to armour and damage. Is it not good enough? For capital ships, he skipped most of the ship items, while I was getting armour kits and those bombs early on. Harckas seemed to be good, so I have no idea how to counter them. Yet I won, and that was very satisfying.