Hi lindsay.
well I've not explored all the professions yet but I'll give some thoughts.
Also note though, that niels is actually writing an advanced guide to the
game. He showed a rough draught of the first chapter of the trader guide the
other day, and I'm sure he'll show the others soon, so even if you are!
stuck some good resources will be available in the near future.
About my own experience though, the federation is a good choice because they
have powerfull ships and because they start off in a relatively safe system
surrounded by other systems. Back in s3 the federation were actually listed
as the easy option, with the outer rim listed as medium and the other two
listed as hard. While that isn't exactly true anymore it still is to an
extent especially at the start of the game.
Smugglers 5 has basically three groups of professions with each having a
more advanced option that starts with a corvet class ship and extra
skills.
One group, the fleet officer and bounty hunter are all about combat. the
pirate and smuggler are obviously all for looting, while the fleet trader
and free trader are the trading jobs.
I've only played the bounty hunter so far so can't offer tips on others,
sinse I rather enjoy missions and combat especially in s5 where the combat
is more difficult.
First thing to remember is that some ships are more powerfull than others.
The weakest fighter is the star wolf, with the star gun a little stronger,
and the avenger, dart sabre and orion trader ship a little stronger than
that. Shadowcat is the weakest corvet but will still be a very tough fight
at the start, and other corvets are again stronger. so, remember to think
carefully about the strength of your targit, sinse unlike in s4, you can no
longer just take on a more powerfull ship than yours and expect an instant
victory.
Upgrading your ship's equipment is very important if you want to start
fighting the more powerfull ships and earning the big bounties. I usually
start myself upgrading guns, ecm and missiles, but plan on upgrading
everything, sinse all the upgrades help. Ecm and missiles will provide you
with defense while obviously guns nd and targiting systems ar offensive,
and you'll need both.
In combat, in s5 I found ship's special abilities had a real affect (far
more than in s4). For instance the avenger has an ability to reduce ap
costs for firing your guns to 1 ap, giving you more chances to shoot in
combat.
Also, note in s5 your enemies will make far more use of special abilities
like taunt abd ducuokub, so you'll need to make doubly sure you have the
where with all to hit them and avoid their shots.
For bounty hunter, i found the taunt ability usefull for saving me from
damage, and obviously tractor beam helped when the targit was likely to run
away. The scattergun, giving you more accurate but less damaging fire I
didn't personally use much sinse usually I found it did more damage to try
and occupy my enemy with missiles while I shot them up, though the ace
ability that you start with, that gives you a super accurate shot at the
cost of two other abilities is usefull towards the end of combat when you
are down to the wire and really need to get that last volley in to win.
the basic rule of combat is always make sure you've got as much going for
you as possible. you generally speaking always get the first turn, so use
that advantage. the situation to avoid is hanging there in space while the
enemy gets a free shot with nothing protecting you, particularly sinse so
many enemies in the game use emp pulses to stun you, or to be shooting away
at the enemy with nothing to improve your shot (though until you get the
diciplin or targit lock skkills you might have to at the start).
So, always make sure there is a missile in play. I myself found the exasm
missiles most effective, sinse they have high damage and lower ap cost and
can reload relatively quickly, plus have ecm resistance which is a major
plus.
also remember to use as many ap as possible. There might be times when you
can't avoid ending a turn with a single ap left (this happens more than in
s4 sinse in s5 special abilities last 4 turns instead of 3), but generally
you should avoid this as much as possible, ---- so for instance my first
turn usually involved using taunt and firing a missile at the same time.
So, make sure you get the ap count sorted and give yourself as much
advantage as possible.
Another thing to be ware of in s5 in terms of combat are special events.
most often these are bad for you, sometimes they will affect both you and
your opponent, and on some rare occasions they will affect just your
opponent and give you an advantage (though don't count on those).
The commonist ones give you some sort of bad condition with the chance to
try and remove it at the cost of 2 ap, for instance the long distance
combat event gives you a massively reduced hit chance until you close the
distance, but closing attempts take two ap each and usually you have to try
a few before you succeed. The nastiest by far is the computer virus or
trater events, which lower your shield, stun you, and do all sorts of other
nasty stuff and should be got rid of top priority.
So, be carefull of those, but also keep up your defenses, ---- missiles are
actually great here sinse they can protect you from the enemy's guns while
you try to sort the special out.
For making money, in a fighter you can make most cash by taking out single
ships. Ambush missions give the most, that is taking out ships that are
bigger than yours, but you shouldn't even think about this until you've got
a good few ship upgrades and experience, especially against tough targits
like hellcats or orcas.
that means at the start your best option are search and destroy missions
against a single targit, sinse these pay more than patrols, and you don't
really have the cargo space to make supply missions a good choice (as a
combat pilot you should probably think about using your cargo space for
something else anyway like an extra shield generator).
also keep checking your sensors. A starwolf is a very easy targit but is
worth a flat 2000 credits, and all other fighters are worth 3. When your
tough enough to take on shadowcats they are worth 16 thousand, and all other
corvets 20! and this isn't counting cargo you loot from them either which
will get you another 500 to 1000 credits ontop of the bounty.
I don't think any named pirates with big bounties show up at the start of
the game unlike in s4, so you can't make a sudden killing and get a massive
amount straight off, but it's still worth checking. likewise, no enemy
traders with valuable cargo turn up either.
Obviously if your playing as a bounty hunter you won't have the ability to
commit piracy and avoid criminal flags, so stay away from friendly targits.
Also unlike in s4, you won't start seeing enemy traders with valuable
cargo either, (though even in s4 I never found this paid half as much as
ship bounties).
As I said, i've still got a lot to learn about the game myself, especially
the other professions, and i'm looking forward to the full guide from niels.
Hth.
all the best,
Dark.
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