I was playing one of the mods and I can see the Imperial expanding at a much faster rate than I do. Then I happen to intercept one of their fleet (we arrived at the planet about the same time) and all it had is an imperial shuttle. Is that all it take for the AI to take over a planet?
Yes, and so it is for you.
Basically, all you have to do is send a trooper to every neutral planet, land him, then send him off to the next planet.
Rins and repeat.
Meanwhile, build some forces to secure some of the planets you have "captured". You won't be able to secure every planet you capture, so choose the most relevant for you first.
Plus ai is a processor and can give multiple orders at one time where you can only give one.
There is also the chance that you went into the space map that has that tutorial shuttle. I find that that map is horrible, since it makes people start in the wrong spot, and the forces are also wrong.
I find the AI usually spreads out with a proper force, instead of the human idea of spending a lone unit to take over a planet..
You probably won't be able to do this in the full game since you'll need a sizeable army to defeat pirate factions. These freebie planets will be limited to the ones which favor your side.
ya, doesnt make much sense that a single squad of stormtroopers can take over an entire world lol
Easiest way (I've found so far) to secure a planet at the beginning of the game;
Land a troop to capture then build a light factory and keep going to advanced factory. As far as the demo goes plus the mods i've used this gives you a great defense in the early game. Example;
You capped a planet and built all the factories and move on. The planet gets attacked. You start with vehicles from all factories. i.e. Empire, you'll start with 4 at-st 3 heavy tanks (forget what they are called) and one at-at. More than enough to defend against an early opponent seeing as the at-at can also drop 2 troops to cap the checkpoints. It's easy, affordable and it will work for the early portion of the game. After you get more setup and your opponent does you'll have to make better defenses of course.