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General Discussion / Re: [SPOILERS] What is the fastest way to finish the story line?
« on: March 27, 2024, 12:58:31 PM »Allows you to disengage most fights, and those you can't just run foe the top of the map at full speed.That doesn't sound any different to my Dram experience.
It mostly only matters against Pather fleets with fast SO frigates or if you play with mods, some mod factions. Or if you are not using a Safety Override Dram since a basic Dram can be caught by most d-mod pirates fleets with some frigates.
From my experience, the ability to disengage without if fight is a comparison of your slowest speed, or your slowest burn speed ship to the enemy's fast speed or fastest burn speed. Oddly enough, a Bulk Transport skill + civilian Dram (so no SO fallback) at burn speed 11 can disengage from most frigate fleets, while a Militarized Dram with Navigation skill at burn speed 11 can't. Not sure what the interaction there is. In any case, for a speed run of the campaign, I'd almost always pick Navigation first for transverse jump ability from the very start, which has me leaning towards the Hound, personally.
I attach two pictures of trying to disengage from the exact same opposing fleet to explain why. An SO + UI Hound can do disengage and then leave without a fight, while the SO + UI Dram cannot and is forced into a retreat combat. Essentially, if a Pirate fleet includes an Overdriven Hound (one of the target variants) or it is a Pather fleet with sufficiently fast frigates generally, means the SO + UI Dram can be caught, or at least forced to the battle map. And an Overdriven Hound is speed 280 vs the Dram's 245. It is admittedly a small sub-set of the game space, and Pather usually let you pay credits to be on your way, but as someone who has played a lot of early game on Iron man, I've at least regretted the Dram choice once. And again, can matter more if mods are present.
I also happen to like the interaction of Rugged Construction, disengaging only costing 10% CR and 1.5 supplies (instead of 20% CR and 2 supplies) so I can chain escape, larger cargo bay and more crew which means I can take advantage of serendipitous salvage opportunities a bit better.
You don't really have to get away from things, as long as you've completed the objective. In fact, if your mission takes you to outer worlds, it might be quicker to intentionally sink your ships and emerge back in core worlds.
For me, it is more likely a hostile small frigate fleet patrolling the core I accidently land on while transverse jumping that gets me. Or speeding through a slipstream into an ambush I can't react fast enough at 2x speed.
As for taking the fast way back from the black, getting destroyed also hits your accumulated credits somewhat, and is also precluded if you hit up some salvage opportunities while out in the black, which may or may not matter depending on why you are speed running the gate storyline in the first place.