questions about SoH II and surviving at lvl 30+

[imafan]

First off all: thank you for this game! I´m new to andoroid in general and have my device for roughly 3 month now.
First I intalled chess and secondly ST and I think I never need another game ever, except ST2 maybe. I think you heard this before, but this are definitely the best 2 bucks ever spent. I want to thank this extraordinary developer and community team for their hard work and dedication!

So every evening I´m finding myself listening to the unabridged audiobooks of the Dune Saga and playing a "quick" game before sleep and every night it´s getting later and later (it´s developing into an addiction I guess), until I´m dying alone in the void of space, either as last man standing against aliens or slain by my former loyal crew; ungrateful bastards.
Ok sometimes I make some navigational errors deep space and I´m not very solid in combat, aside my "torp-advance-gun-advance-engine/crew - till death" - tactic; but I think I´m working my way into the game.
I´ve managed to get most of the awards, even got some on impossible (chest is swelling), before they (all) earned the Rapid Death award (exhale) , may the captains r.i.p.. - I´m working on Exemplar Contractor now for the SoH II and besides that I´m only missing Rapid Rank III, Blackheart and Independent Captain, but they are for future unlocks so I don´t care at the moment.

My question for the SoH II award is if there is a possiblility to see how many contracts I´ve successfully completed and with which honor rating or to look up in any way if it is even possible for my current character to get this award.
In addition I´m guessing that the contracts don´t have to be from one faction only?!

My second question is about skill contribution. I find it very hard to survive at higher difficulty beyond characterlevel 30.
Yesterday I got killed by a level 15 pirate on crazy although I was at level 15 myself, so I guess it must have been because of my skill set. I just don´t know how to assing xp properly in the progressing game. I am seeking for a balanced game style so that I can take on almost every contract offered (SoH II). I tried as a Pirate and had every skill at 3 Points and was only raising Pilot, Stealth and Tactic from that point.
I already tried with an all 5 then P,S & T captain and wasn´t very successful either. I also had other approaches.
Since I made Expert Contracter the day before yesterday my current Master Captain (lvl14) is an spy for Rychart (Spice Hall feature) on crazy and has:

Explorer: 1 Charisma: 9
Pilot: 19
Negotiate: 3 Wisdom: 18
Tactics: 18
Stealth: 18 Quickness:19
Warrior: 5
Intimidate:5 Strength: 9

The point is, that I am attempting to master all the game and combat options; maybe start some boarding at last.
Obviously the skills also depending on the ship one want to fly, I´m unsure of this too.

Current Ship: Pride of Rychart

Hull: 22 Crew: 65
Armor: 13 Cargo: 65
Engines: 39 Guns: 28
SolarSails:44 Torps: 12

Upgrades:
Both Engine-updates (+11, to level out the Sails-Engine descrepancy and for the combat bonus of the Titan Components )
Leviathan System
Water-Fuel Tank
Predator Tracking Array (contract reasons)

From what I`ve read my assumption is that the Engines are most important for combat at mid and lower range so many of my characters go for the double Engines. Is that wise?

So if you have any tips how to make a survivable all-round character and maybe some boarding tips? That would be very appreciated.

I´m at a point that I´m anxious to take my most successful charakters for a ride, because I fear to loose them forever.

thanks

p.s.: please forgive my sometimes bumbling english due to the fact that I´m not a native tongue.

[blackgauntlet]

ST1 and ST2 only? Are you nuts?!

Get CK and TA too!

They kick serious ass!

[imafan]

nothing... whats wrong? too long, too polite, no love for foreigners?
anybody reading more than the first paragraph? nobody got a cpt. over lvl 30?
however, my cpt is dead anyway. died, as expected, at lvl 32.

blackgauntlet
thx, but considering that i have overall about 3-4hrs per week to play; i make at average 1-2 lvl´s per day, i think i got some time left before i get enough from this one. allthough the game is getting little bit slow with the new update.
thank you for the kick-ass-tip nevertheless.

[Cory Trese]

I will respond. Sorry for my slowness =)

[blackgauntlet]

Dec 14, 2011 0:11:25 GMT -5 imafan said:

nothing... whats wrong? too long, too polite, no love for foreigners?
anybody reading more than the first paragraph? nobody got a cpt. over lvl 30?
however, my cpt is dead anyway. died, as expected, at lvl 32.

blackgauntlet
thx, but considering that i have overall about 3-4hrs per week to play; i make at average 1-2 lvl´s per day, i think i got some time left before i get enough from this one. allthough the game is getting little bit slow with the new update.
thank you for the kick-ass-tip nevertheless.

1) Yes, it's too long and, yes, we hate foreigners... especially those that have more than 2 arms and spit acidic balls of organic spikes. We usually kill them on sight.
2) Yes, I did and my eyes hurt and no, mine is still alive. ;D If you're looking for an all-around captain, I (in fact MOST players) cannot help you because captains (like our vessels) are customised to OUR playing style. Comparing your vessel with mine, I'd ask "why more engines and not more torp holds?". So, I'm sorry but the GENERAL tips and hints can be found here and there in this forum. You should check out Fenikso's post.

And are you nuts?! This game updates almost weekly!! Find another game that updates this often and I'll buy you your next 10 games. ;D

[boeu]

To check how many contracts you have done go to palace, hall of records, captains score. It tells you there.

[imafan]

blackgauntlet
oh, it seems you taking it personally..., well it isn´t.


i am just very frustrated! i can´t get my capt to survive above lvl 30 for long at higher difficulties. i have no problems at hard, but at crazy or insane it´s always the same ...

i seem to get ahead very nice. i am winning every battle but suddenly there is one i can´t win and can´t retreat.

i hope my post is not getting to long at this point.

i did my share of reading the forum and i am striving to value the tips: i try to keep my pilot-skill 5 lvls ahead, push tactics and stealth i tried boarding with shuttle bay, or with leviathan-system and high warrior. i also tried without boarding but it appears to me, as i am getting more into it, that this is were the fun lies.

currently i park my capts at around lvl 30 because i have angst to loose them; i don´t like the idea of making a backup of my data - in my mind i can´t fly around with a captain who is already dead, can i ?

yesterday i used one of my parked commanders. he was at lvl 32, died at lvl 35 in a brand new costly ship with all expensive upgrades.
the rooster tells me that he won all hostile encounters. it literally says lost 0.

death certificate:

so, what went wrong?
as i said i just don´t know how to assing xp properly in the progressing game and i am also not sure about skill contribution in relation to ship type.
i consider 10+ torps more than enough, because i dock often. i usually use one or two and advance. i prefer to be flexible at shorter range, thats why i asked if the double engine makes any difference or sense?

boeu
thanks a lot. i usually delete the cpt immediately, i´ve read somewhere that´s better for the perfomance. due to your rooster tip i found a cpt who only needed two more contracts, nice. i got all unlocking awards now. this is aberrantly not so frustrating, on the other hand he was the one mentioned above...


thx again, i´m grateful for any reply

[imafan]

couldn´t insert death certificate as img (prob. noscript) so i attached it.

Attachments:

[Cory Trese]

do you use escape shuttles?

[imafan]

usually not, because it´s in the combat section and i tend to go for a boarding upgrade.

i used it a lot at the beginning, but since i mostly got slain on the bridge i try to retreat with Aft. Lance Battery.

[Fenikso]

Hi. Reading your posts and looking at your Captain's requiem, I have a few notes which may (or may not ) be useful. I have found that everybody has unique strategy and tips which work for one player fail miserably for another...

From my point of view:

1) Your Stealth is low. If you already have Quickness 42, consider improving your stealth to the same value -- it is going to be "cheap".

2) Your level is low. For your game turn I would expect more (around 40). As you are combat focused, consider taking part in some of the conflicts as Solar War and Spy Battle to get more XP. To be able to get XP from Blockade, the blockaded faction needs to be at Solar War with another and you need Rank with the opposing faction. To be able to get XP from Surveillance, the blockaded faction needs to be at Spy Battle with another and you need Death Warrant with the opposing faction. Also getting contract for either helps to gain XP. Higher abundance of "targets" during those events also helps .

3) If you find yourself being killed from enemy boarding constantly, this may be your strategy flaw. Try to get better on boarding range. Things which help:
• Higher Warrior skill as Warrior is IMPORTANT as you may have noticed in the game description of the skill .
• Take ship with a lot of suckers volunteers on board. I prefer at least 100 in late stages of the game. Here is the catch: a lot of engines means a lot of crew will be operating the Engineering section of your ship and thus not ready for fighting! The more Crew you have over Engines + Solar the more Soldiers the Captain has.
• Carry as much weapons as you can. Learn where you can get your fuel and carry weapons instead.
• Consider Armored Bulkheads upgrade.
• Watch your Morale. Demoralized Crew is not good at fighting.
• Try to find and recruit Military Officer (found during "The Mercenaries are congregating" and "Military surplus" rumors).