I suck at this game... help!

I'm making a very humble plea to my fellow backers here. Ever since the AI could tell the difference between its *** and a hole in the ground, I haven't been able to beat it (except when there's water involved, which seems to confuse the AI to no end). I think I just have a hard time balancing micro and macro--I always seem to be outnumbered. Are there any posts or articles out there that might help me? Any advice you can give? (How many fabbers do you have going at once? How many factories? How well do you defend new, far-flung extractors?) Thanks.

I expand rather aggressively. Keep factories near your choke points to supply each front rather than one central base that just makes a pile in the middle. ZaphodX mentioned having one factory that is always making fabbers, I started doing this and realise that you need lots of fabbers all the time. I prefer bot fabbers as they are more effecient.
My favorite build order against ai:
commander makes 2metal, 2 power, 1 more metal if its within a few seconds walking distance otherwise bot factory.
Once the bot factory is started, queue up 25 fabber bots. (this factory will then make more indefinately)
when commander is done, have him on a massive amount of energy, (like 10-12 to start)
The first bot that comes out of the factory should be sent to start making metal on all of the nearby extra metal points. (at least 5 depending on distance)
The next fabber off the press gets queued on 2 more bot factories and 2 vehicle factories
The one after that should probably assist the guy working on metal extraction.
The next 3 fabbers built should do the following tasks, the order is up to what you think you need but all 3 roles need to be filled with the next 3 bots:
-1 bot to assist the factory builder
-1 bot to assist the commander building energy
-1 bot to start on defense.
For the defenses. I like to space out a large square around my base, have the range so the rings overlap a little, predict your next build location so that it is semi secure but not too far that ur fabber is too alone. I start with the missile turrets as they do both anti air and ground.

From here on is dependent on how the game is playing out by this point.
Keep acquiring metal, and when those first 4 factories are done get a few air factories, then start a bunch of tank and bot factories elsewhere.
Make more energy.
I like to stay t1 for a decent amount of time, you will need to get your commander assisting some bots on an adv factory just so you can squeeze out some advanced fabbers and start getting large amounts of power and the ability to upgrade your metal extraction to adv.

Throughout the game you want to start adding fabbers to assist factories when your econ looks decent. I just add them a few at a time. You will be able to have armies ready to go only minutes after you just sent a wave to its doom.

Also, keep the fabbers that are on defense busy too. keep upgrading, keep expanding. Harrass the ai too, dont let them build too much, scout them out. prevent them from building artillery, catapults, and obviously nukes.

This game is a heck of a lot more about macro than micro. For every second spent microing, spend 20 macroing.

Check out the PA Matches tutorials section: http://pamatches.com/tutorials/

Also PA Matches has lots of gameplay so you can learn from some of the best PA players out there.

As was mentioned, this game is all about macro. You gotta get good at multi tasking. Constantly expand and constantly attack.

Always always expand. Gain more map control and always improve your economy.

Copy brians strategy for 1v1. If you can get some decent early raiding in you'll completely cramp the AIs style and easily win in under 10 minutes.

It's also worth pointing out (As one of my own major weaknesses) that overproduction can be a major crippling factor too. I sometimes end up trying too hard to build ALL the things and only succeed in failing horribly. Do your best to never have your power in the red/negatives as this will halve your metal income/build speed. Each actively building engineer and factory will cost energy and this can mount up real fast.

If you are interested in numbers such as "how many factories, how many pgens, how many mex) you can check out PA Stats as well. There are some good games recorded on it that show you how much stuff "good" players have at what minute of the game and with what they started out at the start of the game.
See i.e.:
http://www.nanodesu.info/pastats/chart?gameId=12102
http://www.nanodesu.info/pastats/chart?gameId=12061
http://www.nanodesu.info/pastats/chart?gameId=12052

Especially note the slider at the bottom to see what units they had at what time.

Agreed. I think that is why having a factory that just pumps out fabbers is so useful, better to waste a little econ on a constant supply that can be easily found than to pick a busy fabber and give him more tasks. Once that first little careful startup is complete the game switches over to controlling large chunks of army rather than nit picking units.
I find that my unit mix is not created by picking individuals and sending, and more about the factories creating certain ratios of units with the waypoints meeting at the defensive lines.

Usually each line would have about 5 factories feeding a "trailmix" of units. Seems alot easier to control the army composition with the build orders.

Thanks for all the responses. I'm realizing now that in addition to strategy and tactics, I could use some help with some basic mechanics of the game. I watched a couple of videos, and in one someone was talking to a teammate about needing energy for an attack with levelers, which surprised me. I thought energy was just for building things and keeping radar coverage up. Also, I'm not sure exactly how a resource shortfall affects production. If I'm running a metal and/or energy deficit, I've been assuming that adding more fabbers won't get anything done faster; is that true? Is there a resource that explains exactly how everything actually works?

there is, im trying to find it for you. I am curious myself to see it in full accuracy. I'll say a few things though:

-energy is consumed per shot on defense and artillery. So if your in the negative for energy, it takes longer for your defense to charge up and fire a shot. So energy surplus=maximum rate of fire
This also means that attacking an opponents energy is a very effective way to hurt their defenses.
-Metal extractors use energy, low energy rate means the efficiency of metal goes down too.
-radar will consume energy while it is on. it will shut off when you hit about -1000 energy i beleive. You can also turn them off with the "consume, conserve" buttons on the right side of the ui
-bots are more effiecient fabbers, the air fabbers are the least but they can fly so that is the trade-off.

I like to look at the two resource numbers like this:

If you see a resource in negative, you are not borrowing the resource, you are instead having what is available being distributed around based on number of fabbers and their consumption/ build rate values.
When you see that you are at -1000 energy, you have a demand of 1000 energy to achieve max efficiency of all of your units.



oh. found the mega thread.
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/planetary-annihilations-economy-system.44173/


Keep in mind this is old so its relevance varies..Also the last 20 pages of it is most likely just flaming heh..


These two quotes I find especially relevant

"

• When either resource is drained, the remainder will be evenly split between all units and structures trying to use that resource.
• When your energy is drained, the amount of energy builders use is prorated. The metal output is also reduced via that prorated amount. "

multitasking... hmmm i would count myself as in intermediate

The advice you've got so far is pretty damn solid. The only thing I can add is once your economy is full for both metal and energy start to use it. The best thing to do is get ahead of your opponent and then make sure you stay ahead. You destroy a factory then you build one or get more Mex or energy.

Probably needed energy for radar coverage to utilise the range of levellers.

What I am finding useful atm to get the hang of this style of RTS is gimping the AI's econ rate.

right now I am upto 0.7. Yes I am that bad that I can only win a 1:1 vs the AI with its econ limited to 0.7 of what mine would be with its resources BUT it has allowed me to adjust my rts style to the expand expand expand type

Build pelters. Win games.

You could also consider handicapping yourself and the AI to get more of a fair fight but a slower paced game. What many players have a hard time understanding in PA is that you don't want to maintain a much higher amount of metal income than you use because then you're just wasting metal. Instead, you should always have your metal income anywhere between 90% and 105% (download the economic efficiency mod to see what your efficiency is). If you maintain a positive economy at full storage then all of the metal that goes over is being wasted. Always expand and claim more mexes to grow the max number of factories you can use. Good players will often have 6 factories up within the first minute and a half. Keep that in mind.
If Energy is low, build energy.
If Metal is low, build mexes.
If resources are positive, build factories until a resource is negative, at which point build more of that resource until resources are positive again. After that, repeat this step.

If you find yourself having too few fabbers, dedicate a factory to building them. Bot fabbers are best, and air are worst.

Every factory should always be making things. If one isn't, make it so that it is. Use a mod to increase the number of units per click if needed.

As you get adjusted to the workings of the game, you can gradually increase the eco rate until you're at the standard resource pacing.

That's impossible, but I like the principal.

Good players have their first factory up within the first minute and a half.

The economic rules are pretty simple:
1) Always spend your metal. If you have a surplus you're doing it wrong.
2) Always deny enemy metal. If he has an undefended extractor you're doing it wrong.
3) Always expand your metal. If there's an empty metal point on the map you're doing it wrong.
4) Don't run out of energy. PA uses absurd ratios for its resources to confound everything for no particular reason, but generally you want 100 energy for every unit of metal. Every extractor requires at least 1 matching generator, and usually more.

Currently the strongest units are pelters, bombers, and nukes. Spam. Win.

Ortikon has it right. The first few minutes really are the hardest part of the game. Once you get those down, you can macro your way to your hearts content, with surprise attacks, flanks, and bum rushes at defensive lines. Its fun

The only other part of the game that really takes some serious focus is orbital, and that's changing.

What everyone has said is mostly true. The only thing I would change is bobucles, otherwise being absolutely right, that the six ways players usually win games are nukes/artillery/t2bombers/t2tanks/t1rushandmass/orbital. All win games. I have watched players lose to all of those, artillery creeping, bomber sniping, leveler leveling, double nuking, having enemy t1 pour over a base like gravy, and a simple orbital laser snipe.

Anyway, my only suggestions, are http://pamatches.com/tutorials and UI mods. There is actually a UI mod for build speed, it tells you your build speed percent based on how negative your economy is. It is a good way to know when you are building at half speed LITERALLY so you can stop and simply get more resources. I would download PA Mod Manager myself, I did it and never regreted it. It gives me good insight how hopeful it is that this stuff eventually becomes a default vanilla UI display.