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Post by slayernz on Sept 9, 2015 1:07:01 GMT -5
Officer Genious don't forget that in Insane and Impossible, the difficulty of the game keeps going up as turns go by so if you're not investing in your own skills, the difficulty slowly becomes harder and harder. I actually had a really good table that outlined the game difficulty "level" based on turns, however I have no idea where I stuck the file. It's probably in one of my archived archives. Maybe it's in the Hall of Records. They hold everything else.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 9, 2015 0:57:24 GMT -5
Fourth Horseman great. It's easy to think you have to boost lots of different stats all at once, but a good rule of thumb for a gun-bunny is: Pilot pilot then more pilot. When you find you are able to change ranges with opponents at will (both going close, moving away, and holding position), you are at a good level of pilot. Start adding Tactics only when you start missing shots. 80% of your current level is a nice to have. As you can see with my pilots, it's a lot lower in some cases, because again, if you hit on a regular basis, tactics is at a good level. Stealth - I add it on a whim, so don't take too much notice of it. Sure it helps you avoid unwanted encounters, but if your pilot is up high enough, encounters are fine
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Post by slayernz on Sept 8, 2015 23:32:58 GMT -5
I was thinking about it and believe that you're de-focusing on Pilot a little too soon, and probably engaging in hostile encounters a bit early too. I looked at a range of Crazy pilots that i have in my roster, and noted down their stats. What wasn't captured was the fact that in all of the beginnings, I was very risk averse, avoiding combat like the plague. I stuck to friendly factions and of those, I usually had at least 4 (3 Syndicates, one house). Only when my pilot skill was high enough did I even think about attacking. My level 9 captain below would have just been starting to attack enemy ships aggressively. At Meow's level 17, I was able to attack any ship and be sure of victory. Slayer, and the Hammer were unstoppable Capt | Slayer | Meow | SlayerNZ | Glurk the Stoopid | Slayer | Hammer of Devaltos | Merc | Class | Pirate | Pirate | Pirate | Spy | Pirate | Pirate | Pirate | Lvl | 7 | 17 | 22 | 24 | 30 | 39 | 90 | Chr | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | Wis | 12 | 15 | 15 | 20 | 27 | 22 | 68 | Qui | 19 | 38 | 44 | 52 | 64 | 102 | 182 | Str | 9 | 9 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 22 | Exp | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Pil | 19 | 38 | 44 | 52 | 63 | 102 | 181 | Neg | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 9 | Tac | 8 | 15 | 15 | 20 | 27 | 22 | 68 | Ste | 8 | 14 | 14 | 17 | 14 | 5 | 34 | War | 1 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Int | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 1 | Encounters | 82 | 331 | 371 | 592 | 534 | 483 | 3039 | Hostile
| 10 | 118 | 121 | 117 | 200 | 243 | 1228 | % Hostile | 12% | 36% | 33% | 20% | 37% | 50% | 40% |
So recommendations 1) Avoid attacking until you have at least got 18 or so pilot under your belt 2) Stick to friendly faction space ... and keep at least half of the factions friendly with you 3) Watch faction conflicts like a hawk - they will be enough to undo all your hard work if you get it wrong 4) Buy a ship with 2EHr for combat, and 2SEr for efficiency. But remember that to keep things optimal, try and keep the hull size to your Pilot skill or below (roughly speaking) 5) Avoid the alien 6) Don't take on any capture/kill contracts until #1 is satisfied 7) Avoid the alien
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Post by slayernz on Sept 8, 2015 1:20:16 GMT -5
wiretown, I didn't trust/rely on the Samsung Smart Switch software. Instead, I used Helium to migrate the TB games. It was painful to set up (for some reason, the linking of the device to the PC was difficult), but once set up, it migrated everything really well.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 7, 2015 23:01:46 GMT -5
I agree with you that hitting an exaflop is pretty darned impressive. In fact, comparing it to a human brain, it's funny because our brain is already discarding a large amount of input data that is fed into it in order to provide the real-time multifunctional capabilities that it does so well. The human brain is, however, wired differently to a CPU where data can travel along multiple paths and neurons can be used in different ways simultaneously. The brain is analogue whereas a computer is binary. I bet you that you wouldn't be able to install Windows on the Exaflop computer. Or if you did, you'd suddenly find your processing speed drops back to Megaflops! However I looked into it a bit more I've decided that cat brains are better than any super-computer.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 23:04:47 GMT -5
Haha that would be awesome!!! my wife would be a little upset, because she wants the renovations done first - but if they are gift kittens, who can argue with that <grin>
When I did have cats, I took several thousand photos. Not many of the cats doing very very cute/odd things though. Maybe I didn't give them enough alcohol.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 22:49:43 GMT -5
Thats another good reason for playing on ST Free. Get a captain up to level 10 somehow, then import him or her over to Elite. If that captain dies, you can always reimport the captain over again so you don't have to go through the painful start phase. of course if you keep dying even on Free, it's gonna be a lot of no-fun Also - if you haven't unlocked a lot of things in Free, then it's gonna be more work than ever.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 22:45:48 GMT -5
I had 2 cats in New Zealand - had to leave them behind when I moved to Australia. Currently catless, however, I have befriended a neighbors cat, and she has claimed me as a surrogate owner.
I'm waiting to have some renovations done to my house before getting a cat of my own. Until then, I avoid the local cat shelters, because if I see a stray kitten, I'll have no choice but to bring it home.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 22:33:14 GMT -5
This is a one Cataflop It is an order of magnitude greater than the predecessor, the Cataflip
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 22:29:13 GMT -5
I've never found that faction ships respect boundaries. I have found numerous Steel Song ships threatening me in Syndicate space. At least I think they threatened me - I shot them up to pieces just in case. I've found Devaltos is a good starting faction because Devaltos Prime seems to have tons of rumors (very handy for starting out). Alternatively, Javat is good, because of that independent planet 2AU from your starting world (ie, sell your stuff there first). Leveling isn't too bad so long as you keep pumping points into Pilot - it's the one thing that will stop you from being run over by an angry captain. also, be as diplomatic as you can - kiss butt and avoid the risky restricted items until you are confident you can take on a ship or two. For me, my confidence comes after I get around 20 points to Pilot Pumping points into Stealth is to be avoided if you want to avoid leveling because Stealth is counted twice when it comes to the leveling formula. There are boarder captains out there who will also recommend pumping up your warrior skill too. I won't tell you not to because on Impossible, it is much harder to keep the enemy away.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 21:30:20 GMT -5
Officer Genious beeee the spy! When trying to survive on Impossible, you need every little advantage that you can get. A spy comes with good pilot, stealth and tactics, but most importantly, it comes with some weapons and electronics in the hold! Fly straight to an independent planet. Do not pass go. Do not Collect $200. Instead, sell your restricted goods at bargain basement prices, and buy up some WF. THEN go complete your first mission. You will have some WF left to be able to go do some missions or rumors. Remember - if you can, look for shortage or surplus rumors. You need quick money and you need it fast. Shortage/Surpluses is (for me) the fastest, safest way of getting reliable cash. Doing contracts is all well and good, but you tend to burn a lot of fuel for only small amounts of cash, and sometimes you get suicidal contracts to attack/destroy another ship. Hahahaha - as if you can do that as a level 1 or 2 captain without needing to pay for repairs that are double the price of the contract reward! Elite is certainly a way to get going but shuuuuuuuush, don't tell Cory - I recommend starting off your Impossible captain in ST Free. Why? The contracts you take up as you try and get your captain from, say level 10 - level 20, need to be close by. ST Free keeps everything in the top-left quarter of the map, meaning travel distances are a lot shorter and theoretically more manageable. When you've got an okay ship, and a bit of money and your pilot skills are up to 20 ... THEN import your captain over to Elite, and get going with the bigger contracts, better ships and upgrades. ST Free is a great incubator. Don't let any cat tell you otherwise!
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Post by slayernz on Sept 6, 2015 21:19:55 GMT -5
I suck at tap-quick games where you need a lot of hand-eye co-ordination. In saying that, I love most games ... and yes, I love casual games. Plants vs Zombies and other mindless "let's play this when I only have 5 minutes free" games are good. I love deeper RPG and story-based games but don't like picking them up and only playing them for brief snippets. You can't get immersed in the story and the spell of a game when you only have 5 minutes free.
However - cake - eating. I have to pick a genre. Aaaargh ... I'm a cat. 9 lives = 9 choices right?
If I have time to play - any game that has a decent story and good development has me. That includes RPGs AND strategy games, because if done well, both are just as engrossing as the other. Sandbox games aren't normally as appealing because they lack purpose. Yes, ST RPG is a sandbox game in that the story is a little vague, but that's where the character development and the multiple layers of game play get me.
My biggest problem is that recently I've had no time to play much at all - stoopid work. It means when I do have small periods of downtime, I do end up doing the casual game thing because I don't have the time/energy to commit to absorbing myself into the world of Steel - or even saving the quadrant from Xenos. Stoopid work!
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Post by slayernz on Sept 4, 2015 8:16:46 GMT -5
Thanking you kindly ... I would have done a flowchart for Steel Song attack strategy, but it kept ending up with someone pressing the self destruct button accidentally.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 4, 2015 4:15:53 GMT -5
Yes of course you are able to attack Cadar ships so long as they do anything remotely bad. If they are minding their own business and not doing anything bad, you shooooooould leave them alone - except if you suspect they are carrying contraband. Then you should really check. It's okay if you don't find anything. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
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Post by slayernz on Sept 3, 2015 3:05:05 GMT -5
You got a void engine. Admittedly, budgetary constraints meant that Cory could only provide the void part.
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