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Author Topic: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?  (Read 4485 times)

NaniByte

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Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« on: August 20, 2019, 09:14:44 AM »

Current status: 800k, 7 hound-class frigates (set up for speed and stealth, no weapons)

Using these ships smuggling drugs is easy, safe, efficient and very boring. All I do is check where to buy drug and where to sell and then I make the trip. Now I want to kill stuff. How would I do that? I have no frame of reference on what ship I need, how many I need, who I can/can't fight, how much money can I make, how much will upkeep cost and will it even be more profitable then smuggling. Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: Thank you all very much for the replies! It seems that my question was not right. I wanted to serve one of the factions not do bounty quests. I just assumed that I need a fleet to take commissions to increase my rep. I guess that I just don't know what I want.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2019, 11:52:59 AM by NaniSore »
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goduranus

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2019, 10:06:07 AM »

I would say wait just a bit more until you have 1 million before you start, cuz you have to buy not only warships, but also lots and lots of fuel, supplies, and crew required by your warships, and also set aside a 200k buffer just in case anything doesn’t work out.

I recommend you start by visiting Persean League markets to look for warships, as the Persean League has the biggest selection of warships across the board, and also Tri-tachyon markets to look for specific hulls.

My personal fleet recommendation is at least 5 Drover destroyers, each with equipped with a Broadsword and a Talon fighter wing.

Nimiety

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2019, 11:34:12 AM »

If you've been screwing around with smiggling for a while all of the personal bounty quests will have leveled up a few times they'll be harder.

That said, two LT cruisers from hegemony space (200-400k), a carrier (200k), two to three destroyers (75k each or so?) and some frigates on overdrive would be able to take out a pirate base easy enough. It won't make as much money as smugglibg though.
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Plantissue

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2019, 10:02:20 AM »

So many innaccuracies in just two replies...

You don't need to wait before you have 1 million before having fun doing bounty missions. People can and do purely bounty quests right from the start with nothing but the two starting frigates. Nevermind 7 Hounds. Get a fuel ship. That way you would have a more comfortable buffer for missions.

Personal bounty quests don't level up depending on smuggling quests. There should be a 40k-60k personal bounty for 4-6 damaged pirate ships available.

You can take out a pirate base with nothing but frigates, as long as it is an incomplete one with just one "section". Apparently they can grow, so try to get them before they grow to 2 or even 3 sections. 7 shieldless hounds probably would cut it though.
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goduranus

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2019, 01:08:28 PM »

Yes.... you can bounty hunt with just two frigate... but!
Bounty quests difficulty ramp up extremely fast. Killing two bounty targets will make enemy cruisers show up, killing 4 bounties will make battleships show up. After doing my 6th bounty I run into bounty fleets with 2 paragons, 2 astrals, 3 dooms, and 20 other ships with lesser significance, which turned to be 7 Herons and tons phase frigates.

If you do not start with at least 800k credits to buy warships, then you'll run into a roadblock around your 4th bounty battle, and will be forced to wait a few game months for bounty difficulty to decay before you can keep going. Although, you can use a lone Afflictor for assassination, then you can bounty hunt with just ~150k, but sometimes only omni shield bounties show up.

Igncom1

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2019, 01:28:35 PM »

Ehh to be honest with you, if we also include system bounties for marauding pirate fleets, you don't really NEED any additional ships. You just have to be really picky about your battles. Otherwise just pick up a solid destroyer like a hammerhead or enforcer to be the anchor to your speedy but largely suicidal hounds.

Hounds can be great when used for hyper aggressive swarm attacks, so much that the luddic path have their own variant as does the hegemony. Armed with a medium mount weapon, great speed and flares for missile defence they can easily punch above their weight in small scale battles and with a great pilot.

If I might make a cheap frigate recommendation? Kite shuttles, or Kite (A)'s if you can find them, armed with a railgun (or just autocannons if that's all you have) and some missiles can be great little shield killers for minimum cost. Arm them with different missile types to try them out with the AI's use of missiles, you might like them or you might not. Swarmer anti-fighter missiles are a good choice for all round duty! https://starsector.fandom.com/wiki/Kite#Base
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Plantissue

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2019, 04:08:27 PM »

Yes.... you can bounty hunt with just two frigate... but!
Bounty quests difficulty ramp up extremely fast. Killing two bounty targets will make enemy cruisers show up, killing 4 bounties will make battleships show up. After doing my 6th bounty I run into bounty fleets with 2 paragons, 2 astrals, 3 dooms, and 20 other ships with lesser significance, which turned to be 7 Herons and tons phase frigates.

If you do not start with at least 800k credits to buy warships, then you'll run into a roadblock around your 4th bounty battle, and will be forced to wait a few game months for bounty difficulty to decay before you can keep going. Although, you can use a lone Afflictor for assassination, then you can bounty hunt with just ~150k, but sometimes only omni shield bounties show up.
With the starting 2 frigates you can purely do bounty to bounty and build up slowly. It's not time per money efficient but that's not what wwe are discussing. It's true bounty progression is somewhat insane. Sometimes you may have to wait a while. It is a problem. Sometimes there are no good targets but there always seems to be that 40k-60k that pops up after a few days.

You simply don't need 1 million credits.
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JasperChwan

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2019, 07:31:28 PM »

Fellow newbie here, I gotta say i took the mercenary start and did exclusively bounties my first play through. I did make money, but my fleet ended up bloating way to big.
 
So yes, you can bounty at anytime but I do think having a cushion of money is good. Dont underestimate how suddenly larger ships in your fleet will start eating away at supplies, fuel and monthly crew costs.

It got so bad for me I mothballed my save, but as stated, im a noob.

800k Seems like enough to me. If i had that I wouldve had the capital to change my fleet up as I needed / not be constantly chasing bounty after bounty.
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StormingKiwi

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Re: Early game I was a smuggler. How to transition to warlord?
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2019, 02:48:34 AM »

Just do something you think a warlord would do, and hey, you're a warlord now.
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Hrothgar

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