Ive got pirates turned off but there is massive pirate fleets on every planet i explore
These aren't pirates, these are militia. Unlike pirates, militia will only ever defend and will never leave their home gravity well. Most planets have few enough militia that a lone capital ship can defeat them with ease. Some of the larger militia forces can be difficult to deal with, but these are few and far between so you should be able to avoid them early-on and only engage them once your fleet is mature. No militia force qualifies as "massive". Truly massive fleets in this game have hundreds of frigates.
It should be noted that the militia have no allegiance; they will attack the AI just as readily as they will attack you.
Tried small medium and large maps. On the small and medium maps the enemy is always on the planet next to mine and always have at least 10 ships right from the start.
The only map where the enemy starts within a single jump range is "Point Blank". If you're playing on the random small map, there is no possibility that the enemy is this close. The closest I've ever seen an opponent on random small is four jumps away. I suspect what you're looking at are the militia. They have no structures, their planet is uncolonized, and they have greyed out decals rather than the coloured insignias of player factions.
In most games i only have 2 routes off my starting point 1 way has a fleet of loads of pirates the other the enemy faction with loads of ships
This just doesn't sound right. Check back and look what's actually there; if it's 5-10 frigates, these are just regular militia, and it's perfectly normal. Go and fight them, they won't put up credible resistance against a capital ship.
If these really are more than small forces (more than 20 frigates) then I need to see a screenshot or a replay, because something weird is happening.
Just surrenderd from a game i was playing for 8 hrs after my fleet and planet got wiped out. Could only build 1 of each research stations as i didnt have the space for more and only 1 metal and 1 crystal asteriod
Unsurprising; a one-planet empire is good for an all-in rush and not much else. If you don't grow your empire early on, you're not going to be competitive 30-minutes in, forget about 8-hours in.
You can purchase a logistics planetary upgrade from the planetary upgrade menu. This can raise the number of structures a planet can support (only to a certain point, though). Normally, though, it's much easier just to kill off the militia and build new structures on the newly acquired worlds.
My cap and frigates managed to hold out for awhile as the AI was only sending in small fleets but then they sent in a massive fleet with 6 caps and hundreds of fighters.
Generally speaking, after two hours anything is possible. Your opponent controlled the entire map, so even with the "easy difficulty" penalty the AI receives, it could still reach maximum-sized fleets and all research.
