The same lack of Titanium happened to me in a small young galaxy with max normal AI's (I was trying to have a go with diplomacy and actually use trade routes.)

Enemy ships were mostly using laser spam so I geared research towards shields with some missiles to counter. If lack of titanium means no cruisers or torpedos for now, then battleships can save you as they can soak up the damage while your destroyers lay on the hurt. Play a little more defensively until your military catches up to the point where your fleets can take on thiers with few losses, then press the advantage and attack.

I rarely bother with missiles, except as an occasional after thought anyway. They take to long to fire. My beam ships destroy missile ships BEFORE they can even launch %90+ of the time. For the few times the do manage to launch, well, that is what counter batteries are for. Once I have beams, I never look at kinetics and rarely missiles.



Tho you do have to also watch what some of your defense mods are. Some of the shields use titanium too.

AngleWyrm wrote:
Build destoyers. If you have access to Hyperium, go with beam weapons...

JarodCain wrote:
Never underestimate the potential of the Destroyer Swarm. It is cheap, horrible, and mean.

-J-

davea wrote:
Lack of a resource is an excellent reason to start a war.

Totally, agree with the above, especially, if you lack important strategic resources. Aggro is in only setting for your empire. Fight for the resource. Fight for it FAST.



I have had a few close calls, where going aggressive and sieging systems for strategic resources has won me the game. The result is not only you gaining this resource, it is also denying your opponent. They will be irrate, but chances are this was their only source or you deny them monopoly. All of this means they become less of a threat.



********************

AngleWyrm wrote:
...If you really don't like the strategic implications of limited resources, then you can set Resources to High in the galaxy setup screen when you start a new game.

Failing in the face of adversity is fun sometimes--character building even.

Lacking strategic resources nearby is not a reason to restart a game; it just a reason to change your play style--for this game anyway. BANG! BANG! PEWPEW! BOOM!

titanium helps you get things 1 tier earlier, essentially, applies to the missiles, and the titanium ship hull( which is a botu the same as the one unlocked 1 tier after, but doesnt need titanium)



so it's not required at all, but yes it can be a significant setback at certain stages, take my cvurrent game as example, i had titanium on my eaarlier ship designs, now i have battelships, and about to get dreadnoughts, i dont even need any for my designs, only things i need are hexaferum and and hyperium(which i dont have so had to concede on that module)

Just use kinetics, and take it from the A.I. all the A.I. will do is use it to kill you.

I like the forced strategy of having to deal with random access to resources.

davea wrote:
Lack of a resource is an excellent reason to start a war.

This is my opinion. If to much Titanium is there than it is noting other than iron and makes nothing special.

Lack of a resource is an excellent reason to start a war.

kokonite wrote:
I usually have the same issue with Titanium and Hyperium, but for some reason the AI homeworld always get both of them.



I had a couple of games with the map that only has one wormhole and the galaxy is splited in half, 4 players (don't remember the name...) and on my side there was only one Titanium and it was on the Sophon Homeworld...

I've sorta had this issue on another map, Spiral-2 large with 6 players. NONE of the star systems within the first 4 jumps of my home system had any Titanium. While I'm ok with building a destroyer swarm, I prefer a more diverse fleet, so this bummed me out.

I usually have the same issue with Titanium and Hyperium, but for some reason the AI homeworld always get both of them.



I had a couple of games with the map that only has one wormhole and the galaxy is splited in half, 4 players (don't remember the name...) and on my side there was only one Titanium and it was on the Sophon Homeworld...

I think its nice to not have every resource everytime early.

Because its part of a strategy game to deal with what you have and what not.

I have tried maybe three games now where I have no planets with Titanium, even with 6-8 systems colonized. I get wiped out by factions who have torpedoes, which I can't seem to get. And I can't even build cruisers. What to do in such cases?

Deurlaus wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't titanium only required for the first torpedo tech? If you really want missiles can't you just research the second torpedo tech? The costs will be higher to get there of course... I've played several games and I've never played a game where I don't have 5+ titanium, hyperium with my first dozen systems (games on normal resources, less planets).

Pretty much this..You can try and trade for it, if you have the correct relations and some other resources to trade, or just declare war on the nearest guy with Titanium and beeline for the system that has it.

Never underestimate the potential of the Destroyer Swarm. It is cheap, horrible, and mean.

-J-

AngleWyrm wrote:
Build destoyers. If you have access to Hyperium, go with beam weapons.



If you really don't like the strategic implications of limited resources, then you can set Resources to High in the galaxy setup screen when you start a new game.

Pretty much this. It is pretty straight forward to work around any strategic resource shortage.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't titanium only required for the first torpedo tech? If you really want missiles can't you just research the second torpedo tech? The costs will be higher to get there of course... I've played several games and I've never played a game where I don't have 5+ titanium, hyperium with my first dozen systems (games on normal resources, less planets).

Fenrakk101 wrote:
Try to trade for them. If you can't then just build bigger fleets with bigger, beefier weapons until you find some.

I generally try to spread as fast as possible when I start the game, so I have ~16 systems before I even unlock access to Titanium. Beyond that, you'll need to work a bit for it.

16 systems? Titanium is unlocked by one of the first techs I research (n-way fusion, cost 60(!)), which also unlocks heavy industrial refineries. Note that this was changed by patch 0.30.3 .

However, even before that it was unlocked by a tier 2 tech which also upgraded your industrial plants.... not sure how to get 16 systems before this.

It is indeed the best tactic to try to gear your research towards the resources that you are able to get. Try to keep track of the resources available to you and adjust your research towards that.

Try to trade for them. If you can't then just build bigger fleets with bigger, beefier weapons until you find some.

I generally try to spread as fast as possible when I start the game, so I have ~16 systems before I even unlock access to Titanium. Beyond that, you'll need to work a bit for it.

I usually go with the one above. Other times I crawl up on the floor, crying.