Aeson
Posts: 784
Joined: 8/30/2013
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1. What is a good number of computer opponents per 100 stars? I normally play on an 8x8 grid – 700 start with 11 opponents.
Whatever you find fun is a good number of opponents per 100 stars. There's no set answer to this as it's a matter of preference, and regardless you'll also have to take into account the star distribution and the frequency of habitable planets and independents.
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2. Docking bays – Any reason for putting those on a war ship?
None that I'm aware of.
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3. Expansion strategy. It seems like the only real way to do this in the beginning is to take independent colonies. Is there a good way to manage expansion vs. economy? It seems if you expand too rapidly your economy could crash.
Invading independent colonies is the most economically viable method of expansion. It is nevertheless completely feasible to only expand with colonization ships while settling only on uninhabited worlds, at least until you get to the point where you cannot found completely new colonies. It's slower, but it's not impossible.
Regardless of how you're expanding, the important things to keep an eye on are the state cashflow, the state cash on hand, and the bonus income (note that bonus income around the time that you settle a new world is likely to be abnormally high, as the private sector typically purchases several freighters around the same time that a new colony is settled). If the state cashflow and bonus income together are not sufficient to keep the state cash on hand stable (or, better, increasing), you're probably expanding too quickly; similarly, if the state cash on hand is skyrocketing, you can probably stand to increase your expansion rate or build up your fleet a bit more, or add to the empire's infrastructure by way of mines, research stations, new spaceports, colony facilities, or additional construction ships (though you really don't need as many of these as the computer generally wants you to build).
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4. Economy – Any good tips on getting a strong early economy going?
5. Tips – Any general tips you guys use, especially on a Hard game?
Keep taxes low on low-population planets. If you have any maximum-population planets, consider significantly upping the tax rate there to encourage migration to new colonies while boosting your state cashflow, but don't overtax your empire either - the private sector gets whatever colony revenue isn't taken up as taxes to use to pay the maintenance costs of the freighters, passenger ships, mining vessels, and mining stations of your empire, and will be unable to buy new ships if it runs out of money, and may start scrapping ships if it goes into debt.
Don't build the huge space navy that the computer asks you for, unless you have something to use it for like beating down powerful pirate factions. Pay off pirates as little as possible, as even the cheap protection agreements can pay for a size 200-300 or so warship's maintenance or a couple units of infantry. Don't build too many space stations too quickly (especially not spaceports - lots of spaceports early on makes your empire more likely to suffer from shortages). Be proactive about pirate removal - attack hidden bases when you find them (as long as you have at least 5 infantry units to make the attack, or more if your infantry units come from the species with weak troops), hunt down pirate stations, constructors, and resupply ships, and do your best to destroy, capture, or severely damage their warships.
Use the expansion planner to make certain you have at least one source of each of the strategic resources; certain resources, such as steel, chromium, polymer, and carbon fiber, are more important and could do with several sources, and it almost never hurts to build a gas mine over a fuel source (caslon for the early to mid game, hydrogen for the mid to late game). From the mid-game onwards, you can help reduce the likelihood of fuel shortages by using both fuel types for your merchant marine and space navy (though a single design should never use both fuel types, and a single fleet which requires both fuel types can be a pain to refuel as the fleet will only want to refuel at a location which can supply both types of fuel). Smuggling missions can get you through an occasional shortage, but these provide the pirate factions with the funds to keep their ships up and running or to expand their fleets and add hidden bases, so try not to use these too heavily (once you have trace scanners, though, these offer a way to bait pirate freighters into range of a spaceport that can kill them, so you can also try using these to cripple a pirate faction's freighter fleet).
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Tips and Advice needed please - 
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