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Author Topic: Hit a Rough Patch  (Read 1852 times)

Jo Jo

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Hit a Rough Patch
« on: August 22, 2021, 07:14:46 AM »

Just two days into the game, though I likely have 10 hours or more of YT instruction videos under my belt, and I've read through the "new players" info on the forum as well as the game manual. I started on normal difficulty and did better than I expected until I went to the Galatia academy and tried some of the 30+ light year travel missions. I brought my whole fleet instead of what I believe I should have done which was store everything but one combat ship and a couple of fuel tankers. The fuel costs and the increased density of the warp clouds as you move to the fringe meant warp or subspace travel was more expensive than anticipated and that really ate through my funds. I also have near zero experience with various ships and so I bought a few of them that turned out to be lemons, at least for my playstyle and the current AI, e.g., a combat freighter with short range weapons doesn't hang back like a carrier, and prefers to rush head-long into the enemy firing line. More $$ down the drain, though a good learning experience.

I have a decent starting fleet with lots of fuel and supplies, though I'm struggling in a couple of areas and my financial reserves are low.

1. The Derinkuyu Mining station in Galatia is wonderful. I can dock there with my transponder off and buy from the black market. I try to sneak up and do the same with the military outposts but those are really tough. Once a patrol sees you at the last second, you can dock but you lose access to the black market because "a patrol is looking for you." I assume the core systems are the same in everyone's game and the random parts are the fringe systems? If true, are there any more mining stations like Derinkuyu in the core systems that don't have a patrol? If so, where?

2. Neutral space ports also appear to have patrols. Do I need to dock with my transponder off when I access the black market at those stations as well?

3. Was I correct in assuming that Galatia Academy missions that are 30 light years away are best handled with a skeleton fleet as I mentioned in the intro, assuming they are "find this", or "survey here"?

4. I'm trying to make some good money trading and I'm using the F1 info panel showing the best places to buy and sell. The problem I run into is that most of those are military stations and it's darn near impossible to approach them undetected with a military fast picket orbiting plus another military patrol. I'm aware that making money on the regular market with 30% tariffs both ways is game mechanic designed to prevent endless easy trading. Should I be buying from neutrals on the black market and then selling to pirates? You have to approach the latter in dark mode and through rings or you get pounced on, and it does appear to be easier for me to get to them than the military stations.

5. What's the upside to joining the Hegemony as fighting with them? Is that a good way for a new player to get new ships and make money or it is more lucrative to take the random bounties that show up on the mission list, as long as they are close and don't require a lot of fuel / supplies to locate the target?
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SCC

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2021, 08:12:07 AM »

You can trade on the blackmarket even with the transponder on, you just get minor reputation hits for that and get scanned sometimes, you don't have to sneak in everywhere. And no independent patrols should be checking you for transponders anyway. Besides that, there's also Magec, Mayasura, Al Gebbar and Kumari Kandam where no one should be asking about transponders (though pathers will exort you a lot).
(Are you aware you can switch which market you are in by clicking on the market buttons in the trading menu, the ones saying their names?)

Once a patrol sees you at the last second, you can dock but you lose access to the black market because "a patrol is looking for you."?
Wait, what? I never had that happen. Whenever patrol wants to scan me, the planet won't trade with me at all.

3. Was I correct in assuming that Galatia Academy missions that are 30 light years away are best handled with a skeleton fleet as I mentioned in the intro, assuming they are "find this", or "survey here"?
It's better to take fewer combat ships and more logistic ships, so you can explore more systems in one go. Assuming you want to explore systems along the way and aren't only gunning for the mission objectives...

5. What's the upside to joining the Hegemony as fighting with them? Is that a good way for a new player to get new ships and make money or it is more lucrative to take the random bounties that show up on the mission list, as long as they are close and don't require a lot of fuel / supplies to locate the target?
A faction commission will get you some monthly paycheck (I honestly don't know, I'm averse to taking on commissions), bounty payout for destroying the faction's enemies for any reason, much greater access to their military markets (better ships and weapons) and that faction won't send expeditions at you (please be aware AI Inspections are not expeditions). The downsides are that other factions can become hostile to you at anytime, instantly, and that for every time that happens, your standing with that faction after you resign the commission will be decreased by 10 (so if you get a commission with a faction, it declares war on another faction, then you resign the commmission, your standing with another faction will be returned to what it was previously, minus ten).

intrinsic_parity

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2021, 08:23:00 AM »

1) You don't need to have your transponder off to access the black market. For small volumes of resources, you can pretty much just buy on the black market with transponder on and usually nothing will happen. As long as you don't have any contraband on you, the worst that can happen is you get stopped by a patrol and lose some rep points.
2) Pirates and independents don't care about transponders so you don't need to worry about those patrols. I guess pirates will attack you if you are weak, but once you get a stronger fleet, they will just ignore you or run away.
3) You will definitely save on supplies and fuel if you run a very minimal fleet, and that will probably be helpful for you. Personally, I like to explore the nearby area, so I bring a substantial fleet to hold loot I find, fight stuff, and survey planets. I frequently break even on supplies usually from looting and fighting, especially if I take the skill that reduces supply consumption.
4) I don't trade much so I can't comment on routes or anything like that. I pretty much just sell loot I get from fighting. I think it's worth waiting for shortages caused by raids/fighting though. Often times those event will occupy the patrols and make it much easier to sneak in which is a big plus. Also, I think bar missions are going to be a more reliable way of making money than trying to buy/sell goods. If you are not averse to a bit of piracy (I'm just being like robin hood mom), you can attack trade fleets in hyperspace (with transponder off of course) and get tons of free resources to sell. Particularly fleets with supplies, heavy machinery, and heavy armaments can net you several hundred thousand credits for a relatively easy combat. This will also cause a shortage at the location they were heading to that you can sell the goods you acquired for increased profit. This game is really messed up if you think too much about it.
5) Taking a commission with a faction will give you a monthly stipend (I think it's like 60-80k per month) and better access to military markets. That can be super helpful early on, but it's not going to carry you through the whole game. Other than that, there's not really any benefit to aligning with factions outside of role-play. You can do bounties for anyone while having a commission, they are not mutually exclusive. Bounties can be difficult before you learn the combat system, but it's completely viable to make all your money fighting bounties if you are experienced. Finding a military contact (look for bar missions offering non-pirate bounties) will let you pick you bounty difficulty level which might be helpful for a newer player. I found that the low level bounties from contacts were really far away though, which made them harder early on than normal bounties. I think there's a lot of randomness involved.

For combat and ship selection, I don't think frigate sized combat freighters will do you any favors. Mule is a decent combat ship early on. I think it's better to just use combat ships. Don't be afraid to buy ships on the black market. You can't lose them, the worst things that can happen is you lose some reputation (like 5 or something) and possibly losing contraband if you have some (sell it before you make major black market purchases to avoid that risk). A few high end frigates (tempest scarab omen centurion) or destroyers like hammerhead and medusa will carry you through early game combat. I would say ships like wolf, lasher and enforcer are more tier two combat ships that will be decent but aren't that strong.
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Jo Jo

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2021, 09:01:48 AM »

You can trade on the blackmarket even with the transponder on, you just get minor reputation hits for that and get scanned sometimes, you don't have to sneak in everywhere. And no independent patrols should be checking you for transponders anyway. Besides that, there's also Magec, Mayasura, Al Gebbar and Kumari Kandam where no one should be asking about transponders (though pathers will exort you a lot).
(Are you aware you can switch which market you are in by clicking on the market buttons in the trading menu, the ones saying their names?)
Thanks! I'm going to check out those four places!

Once a patrol sees you at the last second, you can dock but you lose access to the black market because "a patrol is looking for you."?
Wait, what? I never had that happen. Whenever patrol wants to scan me, the planet won't trade with me at all.

[/quote] --LOL! Not an HTML guru and don't know why this worked the first time and not in the second quote. :)

Please see the screen shots below. This is how I have experienced things. I could not get the screenshots to show in the forum preview of this response, so I used Dropbox. Please see the links below.

This is what I see the second a patrol spots you, and I even get the docking warning (screen shot link #2) before the description on the pursuing fleet changes. In other words I see "Friendly. Patrolling." on the tool tip over the fleet, then I dock and get the second message. I'm guessing the patrolling fleet changes their stance during the simulated docking procedure.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l0et469ammtj97g/Screenshot%20%28310%29.png?dl=0

Once they see my ship and change their stance to "pursuing your fleet", then the military stations I have found so far will present you with this message.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp97hpjvsc96hb6/Screenshot%20%28311%29.png?dl=0

3. Was I correct in assuming that Galatia Academy missions that are 30 light years away are best handled with a skeleton fleet as I mentioned in the intro, assuming they are "find this", or "survey here"?
It's better to take fewer combat ships and more logistic ships, so you can explore more systems in one go. Assuming you want to explore systems along the way and aren't only gunning for the mission objectives...
[/quote]
Makes perfect sense. Thanks!

5. What's the upside to joining the Hegemony as fighting with them? Is that a good way for a new player to get new ships and make money or it is more lucrative to take the random bounties that show up on the mission list, as long as they are close and don't require a lot of fuel / supplies to locate the target?
A faction commission will get you some monthly paycheck (I honestly don't know, I'm averse to taking on commissions), bounty payout for destroying the faction's enemies for any reason, much greater access to their military markets (better ships and weapons) and that faction won't send expeditions at you (please be aware AI Inspections are not expeditions). The downsides are that other factions can become hostile to you at anytime, instantly, and that for every time that happens, your standing with that faction after you resign the commission will be decreased by 10 (so if you get a commission with a faction, it declares war on another faction, then you resign the commmission, your standing with another faction will be returned to what it was previously, minus ten).
[/quote]
Good to know. I'm guessing that once your standing reaches a certain point that they start coming after you and won't allow you to dock at their stations?
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SCC

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2021, 09:11:51 AM »

Spoiler
This is your post.
Code
[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338975#msg338975 date=1629648108]
[quote author=SCC link=topic=22541.msg338968#msg338968 date=1629645127]
You can trade on the blackmarket even with the transponder on, you just get minor reputation hits for that and get scanned sometimes, you don't have to sneak in everywhere. And no independent patrols should be checking you for transponders anyway. Besides that, there's also Magec, Mayasura, Al Gebbar and Kumari Kandam where no one should be asking about transponders (though pathers will exort you a lot).
(Are you aware you can switch which market you are in by clicking on the market buttons in the trading menu, the ones saying their names?)
[/quote]
Thanks! I'm going to check out those four places!

[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338964#msg338964 date=1629641686]
Once a patrol sees you at the last second, you can dock but you lose access to the black market because "a patrol is looking for you."?[/quote]
Wait, what? I never had that happen. Whenever patrol wants to scan me, the planet won't trade with me at all.

[/quote] --LOL! Not an HTML guru and don't know why this worked the first time and not in the second quote. :)

Please see the screen shots below. This is how I have experienced things. I could not get the screenshots to show in the forum preview of this response, so I used Dropbox. Please see the links below.

This is what I see the second a patrol spots you, and I even get the docking warning (screen shot link #2) before the description on the pursuing fleet changes. In other words I see "Friendly. Patrolling." on the tool tip over the fleet, then I dock and get the second message. I'm guessing the patrolling fleet changes their stance during the simulated docking procedure.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l0et469ammtj97g/Screenshot%20%28310%29.png?dl=0

Once they see my ship and change their stance to "pursuing your fleet", then the military stations I have found so far will present you with this message.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp97hpjvsc96hb6/Screenshot%20%28311%29.png?dl=0

[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338964#msg338964 date=1629641686]
3. Was I correct in assuming that Galatia Academy missions that are 30 light years away are best handled with a skeleton fleet as I mentioned in the intro, assuming they are "find this", or "survey here"?
[/quote]
It's better to take fewer combat ships and more logistic ships, so you can explore more systems in one go. Assuming you want to explore systems along the way and aren't only gunning for the mission objectives...
[/quote]
Makes perfect sense. Thanks!

[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338964#msg338964 date=1629641686]
5. What's the upside to joining the Hegemony as fighting with them? Is that a good way for a new player to get new ships and make money or it is more lucrative to take the random bounties that show up on the mission list, as long as they are close and don't require a lot of fuel / supplies to locate the target?
[/quote]
A faction commission will get you some monthly paycheck (I honestly don't know, I'm averse to taking on commissions), bounty payout for destroying the faction's enemies for any reason, much greater access to their military markets (better ships and weapons) and that faction won't send expeditions at you (please be aware AI Inspections are not expeditions). The downsides are that other factions can become hostile to you at anytime, instantly, and that for every time that happens, your standing with that faction after you resign the commission will be decreased by 10 (so if you get a commission with a faction, it declares war on another faction, then you resign the commmission, your standing with another faction will be returned to what it was previously, minus ten).
[/quote]
Good to know. I'm guessing that once your standing reaches a certain point that they start coming after you and won't allow you to dock at their stations?
[/quote]
This is the bit I copied and pasted every time I quoted something in your post to mark it's from your post. It's also the first line in the previous code block.
Code
[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338975#msg338975 date=1629648108]
If you get it now, great. If not, it's hardly necessary to do it that way and you can simply use
Code
[quote][/quote]
every time you quote someone. Code blocks on this new forum version is so abominable...
[close]

Once they see my ship and change their stance to "pursuing your fleet", then the military stations I have found so far will present you with this message.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp97hpjvsc96hb6/Screenshot%20%28311%29.png?dl=0
You cannot trade with the station at all now.

Good to know. I'm guessing that once your standing reaches a certain point that they start coming after you and won't allow you to dock at their stations?
Hostilities breaking out is an instant, unpredictable event. It's not "after a certain point", it's whenever the game decides your faction is at war with some other faction, even if you are near the other faction's patrols. It's not very nice, I say.

Jo Jo

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2021, 09:17:06 AM »

1) You don't need to have your transponder off to access the black market. For small volumes of resources, you can pretty much just buy on the black market with transponder on and usually nothing will happen. As long as you don't have any contraband on you, the worst that can happen is you get stopped by a patrol and lose some rep points.
I'm a big spender and a heavy buyer. Can't help myself when I see a deal on heavy machinery.

2) Pirates and independents don't care about transponders so you don't need to worry about those patrols. I guess pirates will attack you if you are weak, but once you get a stronger fleet, they will just ignore you or run away.
Good to know. I'll have to experiment a bit. :)

3) You will definitely save on supplies and fuel if you run a very minimal fleet, and that will probably be helpful for you. Personally, I like to explore the nearby area, so I bring a substantial fleet to hold loot I find, fight stuff, and survey planets. I frequently break even on supplies usually from looting and fighting, especially if I take the skill that reduces supply consumption.
I don't have enough game experience to follow you 100%. I think what you're saying is that you fly around unexplored systems and you discover wrecks, debris fields, and occasionally pirates? Are there any rewards for exploring the nearby planets, besides adding potential colony info to your record?

4) I don't trade much so I can't comment on routes or anything like that. I pretty much just sell loot I get from fighting. I think it's worth waiting for shortages caused by raids/fighting though. Often times those event will occupy the patrols and make it much easier to sneak in which is a big plus. Also, I think bar missions are going to be a more reliable way of making money than trying to buy/sell goods. If you are not averse to a bit of piracy (I'm just being like robin hood mom), you can attack trade fleets in hyperspace (with transponder off of course) and get tons of free resources to sell. Particularly fleets with supplies, heavy machinery, and heavy armaments can net you several hundred thousand credits for a relatively easy combat. This will also cause a shortage at the location they were heading to that you can sell the goods you acquired for increased profit. This game is really messed up if you think too much about it.
Oh, now this is really helpful! I'm starting to understand the transponder connection a bit better. Even if you wipe out a trade fleet heading to a Hegemony world, someone in a life pod will make it out and turn you in. Those sneaky bastards! This little gem really helps some pieces of the game fall into place.


5) Taking a commission with a faction will give you a monthly stipend (I think it's like 60-80k per month) and better access to military markets. That can be super helpful early on, but it's not going to carry you through the whole game. Other than that, there's not really any benefit to aligning with factions outside of role-play. You can do bounties for anyone while having a commission, they are not mutually exclusive. Bounties can be difficult before you learn the combat system, but it's completely viable to make all your money fighting bounties if you are experienced. Finding a military contact (look for bar missions offering non-pirate bounties) will let you pick you bounty difficulty level which might be helpful for a newer player. I found that the low level bounties from contacts were really far away though, which made them harder early on than normal bounties. I think there's a lot of randomness involved.
Thank you. I have very little experience with the bounty system and will certainly experiment with it a bit in the future. Great tips!

For combat and ship selection, I don't think frigate sized combat freighters will do you any favors. Mule is a decent combat ship early on. I think it's better to just use combat ships. Don't be afraid to buy ships on the black market. You can't lose them, the worst things that can happen is you lose some reputation (like 5 or something) and possibly losing contraband if you have some (sell it before you make major black market purchases to avoid that risk). A few high end frigates (tempest scarab omen centurion) or destroyers like hammerhead and medusa will carry you through early game combat. I would say ships like wolf, lasher and enforcer are more tier two combat ships that will be decent but aren't that strong.
All very wise words. I learned that I can fit ships with items purchased on the black market and then leave and be searched without losing them, and as you said the same with black market ships. I also agree that frigates die pretty easily and destroyers are a better investment in terms of survivability. I'm honestly at the point where I'm still collecting weapons each time I stop at a station and although my storage at the station looks pretty decent, so far I have only found one AMB. Still quite slim pickings when I'm fitting my ships.
[/quote]
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Jo Jo

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2021, 09:23:24 AM »

Spoiler
This is your post.
Code
[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338975#msg338975 date=1629648108]
[quote author=SCC link=topic=22541.msg338968#msg338968 date=1629645127]
You can trade on the blackmarket even with the transponder on, you just get minor reputation hits for that and get scanned sometimes, you don't have to sneak in everywhere. And no independent patrols should be checking you for transponders anyway. Besides that, there's also Magec, Mayasura, Al Gebbar and Kumari Kandam where no one should be asking about transponders (though pathers will exort you a lot).
(Are you aware you can switch which market you are in by clicking on the market buttons in the trading menu, the ones saying their names?)
[/quote]
Thanks! I'm going to check out those four places!

[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338964#msg338964 date=1629641686]
Once a patrol sees you at the last second, you can dock but you lose access to the black market because "a patrol is looking for you."?[/quote]
Wait, what? I never had that happen. Whenever patrol wants to scan me, the planet won't trade with me at all.

[/quote] --LOL! Not an HTML guru and don't know why this worked the first time and not in the second quote. :)

Please see the screen shots below. This is how I have experienced things. I could not get the screenshots to show in the forum preview of this response, so I used Dropbox. Please see the links below.

This is what I see the second a patrol spots you, and I even get the docking warning (screen shot link #2) before the description on the pursuing fleet changes. In other words I see "Friendly. Patrolling." on the tool tip over the fleet, then I dock and get the second message. I'm guessing the patrolling fleet changes their stance during the simulated docking procedure.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l0et469ammtj97g/Screenshot%20%28310%29.png?dl=0

Once they see my ship and change their stance to "pursuing your fleet", then the military stations I have found so far will present you with this message.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp97hpjvsc96hb6/Screenshot%20%28311%29.png?dl=0

[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338964#msg338964 date=1629641686]
3. Was I correct in assuming that Galatia Academy missions that are 30 light years away are best handled with a skeleton fleet as I mentioned in the intro, assuming they are "find this", or "survey here"?
[/quote]
It's better to take fewer combat ships and more logistic ships, so you can explore more systems in one go. Assuming you want to explore systems along the way and aren't only gunning for the mission objectives...
[/quote]
Makes perfect sense. Thanks!

[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338964#msg338964 date=1629641686]
5. What's the upside to joining the Hegemony as fighting with them? Is that a good way for a new player to get new ships and make money or it is more lucrative to take the random bounties that show up on the mission list, as long as they are close and don't require a lot of fuel / supplies to locate the target?
[/quote]
A faction commission will get you some monthly paycheck (I honestly don't know, I'm averse to taking on commissions), bounty payout for destroying the faction's enemies for any reason, much greater access to their military markets (better ships and weapons) and that faction won't send expeditions at you (please be aware AI Inspections are not expeditions). The downsides are that other factions can become hostile to you at anytime, instantly, and that for every time that happens, your standing with that faction after you resign the commission will be decreased by 10 (so if you get a commission with a faction, it declares war on another faction, then you resign the commmission, your standing with another faction will be returned to what it was previously, minus ten).
[/quote]
Good to know. I'm guessing that once your standing reaches a certain point that they start coming after you and won't allow you to dock at their stations?
[/quote]
This is the bit I copied and pasted every time I quoted something in your post to mark it's from your post. It's also the first line in the previous code block.
Code
[quote author=Jo Jo link=topic=22541.msg338975#msg338975 date=1629648108]
If you get it now, great. If not, it's hardly necessary to do it that way and you can simply use
Code
[quote][/quote]
every time you quote someone. Code blocks on this new forum version is so abominable...
[close]

Once they see my ship and change their stance to "pursuing your fleet", then the military stations I have found so far will present you with this message.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp97hpjvsc96hb6/Screenshot%20%28311%29.png?dl=0
You cannot trade with the station at all now.

Good to know. I'm guessing that once your standing reaches a certain point that they start coming after you and won't allow you to dock at their stations?
Hostilities breaking out is an instant, unpredictable event. It's not "after a certain point", it's whenever the game decides your faction is at war with some other faction, even if you are near the other faction's patrols. It's not very nice, I say.

Haha! The Spoiler and your comments really made me laugh. I tried to incorporate a response with a better format after reading how you did it. ;)
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Gameciel

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2021, 09:28:15 AM »

For combat and ship selection, I don't think frigate sized combat freighters will do you any favors. Mule is a decent combat ship early on. I think it's better to just use combat ships. Don't be afraid to buy ships on the black market. You can't lose them, the worst things that can happen is you lose some reputation (like 5 or something) and possibly losing contraband if you have some (sell it before you make major black market purchases to avoid that risk). A few high end frigates (tempest scarab omen centurion) or destroyers like hammerhead and medusa will carry you through early game combat. I would say ships like wolf, lasher and enforcer are more tier two combat ships that will be decent but aren't that strong.

No... how come you missed SO hyperion :D. One point I want to add on to these suggestions is Safety Overrides, "SO" in short. Learn the behavior of many ships with and without SO is critical to move your gameplay to next stage both stratagically and tactically. Mostly only with SO you're able to "unleash the real power of a certain fleet". Thereby when you have confidence (I do), in early games when I only have a Hyperion +2-3 scarabs + maybe 1 medusa I dare to engage Medium Pirate armada and deals damage 10000%+ more to my fleet. Thought about clean victory without losing a ship and finish a big bounty hunting down a Pirate fleet with Atlas Mk2 with only a few frigates? It really enables your choices in a big picture through out your game play.
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SCC

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2021, 09:38:19 AM »

I'm honestly at the point where I'm still collecting weapons each time I stop at a station and although my storage at the station looks pretty decent, so far I have only found one AMB. Still quite slim pickings when I'm fitting my ships.
Compulsively hoarding all the guns already? We've got a born Starsector player right there! (Or you just saw someone recommend it, or noticed the guns don't sell all that well, but shshsh...)

I don't have enough game experience to follow you 100%. I think what you're saying is that you fly around unexplored systems and you discover wrecks, debris fields, and occasionally pirates? Are there any rewards for exploring the nearby planets, besides adding potential colony info to your record?
Yeah, there's stuff floating about in the outer rim. Just remember scavengers are not your friends. For surveying planets you get planet data, which is vendor trash that might be worth obtaining, but that depends on a given planet and how many surveying equipment hullmods have you got in your fleet; and ruins, which you can explore and which are almost always worth surveying, but the main draw anyway is the blueprints and rare items.

intrinsic_parity

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2021, 09:52:52 AM »

3) You will definitely save on supplies and fuel if you run a very minimal fleet, and that will probably be helpful for you. Personally, I like to explore the nearby area, so I bring a substantial fleet to hold loot I find, fight stuff, and survey planets. I frequently break even on supplies usually from looting and fighting, especially if I take the skill that reduces supply consumption.
I don't have enough game experience to follow you 100%. I think what you're saying is that you fly around unexplored systems and you discover wrecks, debris fields, and occasionally pirates? Are there any rewards for exploring the nearby planets, besides adding potential colony info to your record?
There are more valuable things than just wrecks and debris fields :D. There are also more things to fight than just pirates :o. Also you can sell survey data, and the higher tier ones are reasonably valuable. If you have enough instances of surveying equipment in your fleet, you can survey every world for 5 supplies, which is worthwhile.


All very wise words. I learned that I can fit ships with items purchased on the black market and then leave and be searched without losing them, and as you said the same with black market ships. I also agree that frigates die pretty easily and destroyers are a better investment in terms of survivability. I'm honestly at the point where I'm still collecting weapons each time I stop at a station and although my storage at the station looks pretty decent, so far I have only found one AMB. Still quite slim pickings when I'm fitting my ships.
Yeah the penalties for using the black market are probably too low, there's really not much to be afraid of. I don't think you can ever lose anything you buy unless it is contraband.

Specific high end frigates are very strong, but most of the civilian ones you will see at small markets are junk. When I want to get good combat ships, I go to the big military worlds and look on the black market. I just buy them with transponder on. Culan is a great place to find high tech frigates, and a lot of big Persean league worlds have hammerheads and tempests on the black market.

Also, hoarding all the weapons you get is a great strategy. You will naturally find more good weapons if you fight more enemies with good weapons, so that's another nice benefit of doing bounties.
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Jo Jo

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2021, 09:53:30 AM »

For combat and ship selection, I don't think frigate sized combat freighters will do you any favors. Mule is a decent combat ship early on. I think it's better to just use combat ships. Don't be afraid to buy ships on the black market. You can't lose them, the worst things that can happen is you lose some reputation (like 5 or something) and possibly losing contraband if you have some (sell it before you make major black market purchases to avoid that risk). A few high end frigates (tempest scarab omen centurion) or destroyers like hammerhead and medusa will carry you through early game combat. I would say ships like wolf, lasher and enforcer are more tier two combat ships that will be decent but aren't that strong.

No... how come you missed SO hyperion :D. One point I want to add on to these suggestions is Safety Overrides, "SO" in short. Learn the behavior of many ships with and without SO is critical to move your gameplay to next stage both stratagically and tactically. Mostly only with SO you're able to "unleash the real power of a certain fleet". Thereby when you have confidence (I do), in early games when I only have a Hyperion +2-3 scarabs + maybe 1 medusa I dare to engage Medium Pirate armada and deals damage 10000%+ more to my fleet. Thought about clean victory without losing a ship and finish a big bounty hunting down a Pirate fleet with Atlas Mk2 with only a few frigates? It really enables your choices in a big picture through out your game play.

Thank you. I just looked up a Hyperion, and I haven't run into any of those yet, though I did buy a Starfarer destroyer and one of the stock fits appeared to be a shorter range brawler with SO. I thought the SO offered more downsides than upsides so I took it off. Good to know it can be very valuable. Next time I dock at my storage station, I'll refit to the default with the SO and I'll experiment in the fitting screen to see the difference. Thanks for the tip!
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Jo Jo

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2021, 09:59:01 AM »

I'm honestly at the point where I'm still collecting weapons each time I stop at a station and although my storage at the station looks pretty decent, so far I have only found one AMB. Still quite slim pickings when I'm fitting my ships.
Compulsively hoarding all the guns already? We've got a born Starsector player right there! (Or you just saw someone recommend it, or noticed the guns don't sell all that well, but shshsh...)

I don't have enough game experience to follow you 100%. I think what you're saying is that you fly around unexplored systems and you discover wrecks, debris fields, and occasionally pirates? Are there any rewards for exploring the nearby planets, besides adding potential colony info to your record?
Yeah, there's stuff floating about in the outer rim. Just remember scavengers are not your friends. For surveying planets you get planet data, which is vendor trash that might be worth obtaining, but that depends on a given planet and how many surveying equipment hullmods have you got in your fleet; and ruins, which you can explore and which are almost always worth surveying, but the main draw anyway is the blueprints and rare items.

My goodness. There is so much to find out there. I had completely forgotten about the blueprints and ruins. Very interesting stuff. Yes, I have one cruiser with an exploration hullmod, so once I have more cash I should definitely go out and explore. BTW, I understand that you find ruins on planets, though I'm not sure where you find the blueprints and rare items. Are those randomly scattered around in debris fields with the wrecked ships?

Oh, great to know scavengers are not my friends. I had thought of them as neutral. ;)

Blame my gun fetish on Fen Muir. I've been watching all his fitting videos and I'm trying to understand his playthrough from April of this year. Quite a complicated game.
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Jo Jo

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #12 on: August 22, 2021, 10:07:01 AM »

3) You will definitely save on supplies and fuel if you run a very minimal fleet, and that will probably be helpful for you. Personally, I like to explore the nearby area, so I bring a substantial fleet to hold loot I find, fight stuff, and survey planets. I frequently break even on supplies usually from looting and fighting, especially if I take the skill that reduces supply consumption.
I don't have enough game experience to follow you 100%. I think what you're saying is that you fly around unexplored systems and you discover wrecks, debris fields, and occasionally pirates? Are there any rewards for exploring the nearby planets, besides adding potential colony info to your record?
There are more valuable things than just wrecks and debris fields :D. There are also more things to fight than just pirates :o. Also you can sell survey data, and the higher tier ones are reasonably valuable. If you have enough instances of surveying equipment in your fleet, you can survey every world for 5 supplies, which is worthwhile.


All very wise words. I learned that I can fit ships with items purchased on the black market and then leave and be searched without losing them, and as you said the same with black market ships. I also agree that frigates die pretty easily and destroyers are a better investment in terms of survivability. I'm honestly at the point where I'm still collecting weapons each time I stop at a station and although my storage at the station looks pretty decent, so far I have only found one AMB. Still quite slim pickings when I'm fitting my ships.
Yeah the penalties for using the black market are probably too low, there's really not much to be afraid of. I don't think you can ever lose anything you buy unless it is contraband.

Specific high end frigates are very strong, but most of the civilian ones you will see at small markets are junk. When I want to get good combat ships, I go to the big military worlds and look on the black market. I just buy them with transponder on. Culan is a great place to find high tech frigates, and a lot of big Persean league worlds have hammerheads and tempests on the black market.

Also, hoarding all the weapons you get is a great strategy. You will naturally find more good weapons if you fight more enemies with good weapons, so that's another nice benefit of doing bounties.

Thank you. BTW, I ended up with this "Remote Survey" thing and I'm not really sure how it works. It appears to give me basic info about planets within 5 of the grid squares from my ship, though I still have to go down and survey them which makes me wonder why it's valuable. Maybe there's another use for it I simply don't understand? I do think that the survey mods on ships are a good investment and I'm surprised you can get the cost down to 5 supplies per planet. You mentioned being able to sell survey info. Is it that you already have the info, and then you run into an agent that asks you to go there and survey a planet. Then you just say, been there done that. Here's the data. Please give me the reward?

Great idea to buy nice ships from the military worlds with transponder on and just take the small reputation hit. Genius! I also like getting better weapons from the bounties. Will have to give it a try.
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LennStar

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #13 on: August 22, 2021, 10:07:10 AM »

blueprints etc. can be gathered (with luck) at ruins. Or diverse remains of the good old time (look out for missions for domain era probe. Get paid to get the good stuff!)

btw. I prefer to use my frigates with the um... hard? shields mod - 25% less dmg taken. A frigate that takes only 60% of incoming damage and can get away fast is not that easy to kill (and even if they get killed, a slasher is not really expensive once you are out of very early game.)

Remote Survey gives you the hazard rate, but that is all. As a skill not worth it (char level is capped, so not "take all with time")
« Last Edit: August 22, 2021, 10:08:45 AM by LennStar »
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SCC

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Re: Hit a Rough Patch
« Reply #14 on: August 22, 2021, 10:33:41 AM »

Nah, remote survey is genuinely kinda rubbish.
You mentioned being able to sell survey info. Is it that you already have the info, and then you run into an agent that asks you to go there and survey a planet. Then you just say, been there done that. Here's the data. Please give me the reward?
Surveying a planet will reward you with a "Survey Data I/II/III/IV/V Class" item that you can sell. That is the reward. Survey Data serves no purpose but to get you money from surveying planets.
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