Hunting Enemy Ships

[Officer Genious]

Has anyone had luck with hunting Spies/Pirates? I've found their ships to be ridiculously well armed and make me bankrupt...

[MintDragon]

details details details my friend. everything is relative. ship/difficulty/capt level/captain profession/weapons/upgrades/are you seeking them or random encounter/why bankrupt???

[Officer Genious]

Jun 4, 2017 22:21:20 GMT -5 MintDragon said:

details details details my friend. everything is relative. ship/difficulty/capt level/captain profession/weapons/upgrades/are you seeking them or random encounter/why bankrupt???

Around level 7 this time, I was 11 last time. Demanding and Hard difficulties. Used Zealots both times with Comma der as secondary. I usually take on 2 torps, level 3-7 (most recently, 2 level 7 torps). I get annihilated by the enemy in one of the largest ships available despite me having one of the largest ships available, and I'm talking about the specific hunting enemy ship missions. I go bankrupt when I lose (or just die) due to repair costs, healing costs going over 30k if not more. The character becomes dead in water.

[grävling]

Do you have a Pirate that knows Barrel Roll on the ship? If not, get one. Better yet, get 2. Do you have Pilot Assist 4 on your ship? If not, get it. Do you have extra armour on your ship? Get some of that, too. How much Pilot and Navigation do you have in this crew. You need lots and lots and lots for this sort of career.

[fallen]

Officer Genious - feels like we could help more if you'd list your major crew players, their ship talents you are using the most, and the different types of upgrades you've installed. Also, a maybe a screenshot of your ship status page would let us see a lot of great detail about your dice pools. Big Pilot and Navigation can help a lot here.

[Officer Genious]

I already deleted the captain as I was stranded in a quadrant with minimal missions. I'll try again with another character. Preferably one rolling in money. I just found other missions like hunting fugitives on foot to be far easier and less expensive. Then again, that doesn't pay 50k in bounties...

[athios]

Jun 4, 2017 20:53:07 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Has anyone had luck with hunting Spies/Pirates? I've found their ships to be ridiculously well armed and make me bankrupt...

If you think they are ridiculously well armed now, just wait till you see the Enemy Ship Upgrade AI come out...

[Officer Genious]

Jun 6, 2017 18:19:56 GMT -5 athios said:

Jun 4, 2017 20:53:07 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Has anyone had luck with hunting Spies/Pirates? I've found their ships to be ridiculously well armed and make me bankrupt...

If you think they are ridiculously well armed now, just wait till you see the Enemy Ship Upgrade AI come out...

Have you had success hunting the enemy ships? I'm just curious as I'd like to hear some other thoughts.

[athios]

No, I on average have very little experience with offensive ship combat. Maybe someone else can chime in!

[resistor]

My best ship-combat focused build had a Cautela Heavylift, two small torps, two small missle systems, and a medium railgun (the one that takes four rp).

When starting the battle, I'd normally use the Mechanic talent buff that gives extra Defence, +2rp, and damages your ship components every turn. The extra rp gives more options for mobility and weapon use. After the first turn, the talent I use the most is Evasive Maneuvers, to stack defence.

I died at level 14 on Impossible because I surrendered to a Javati that I didn't know would execute me. I blame Cory. 

One final tip: invest heavily in Strength and Fortitude so your captain can have enough HP to survive some lucky crits from the enemy.

[grävling]

Jun 4, 2017 20:53:07 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Has anyone had luck with hunting Spies/Pirates? I've found their ships to be ridiculously well armed and make me bankrupt...

Build this and see how it goes for you. Works great for me ...

Guardian Interceptor

Deck 1:

Officer Cabin(x4) (small)
Weapons Locker A4 (small) -- (*** REPLACE THIS IF YOUR AWAY TEAM ALREADY HAS NICE ARMOUR and WEAPONS from Contacts ***)
Retribution Gravcannon (level 7 Gravity Driver) (large)
Luxury Suite (large)
M6000 Void Engine Ex -- I have no idea what the Ex does, but extra soak is nice.
Storage Hold 10 cargo (medium)
Barracks 4 (medium)

Deck 2:
M6000 Hyperwarp Ex (medium)
Capital Bridge 4 (medium) (Improve this to 4 early, but not as early as the 2 Assist Modules.)
Deflector Array 4 (small) (You already have one of these from the start. Keep it.)
Pilot Assist Module 4 (You already have one. Improve it to 4 as soon as you can. Don't go fighting ships without this upgrade.)
Nav Assist Module 4 (You already have one. Improve it to 4 after you improve the Pilot Assist.)
Defense Pattern Matrix (small)
Radi-Shield Pulse Booster (small)
Void-Shield Pulse Booster (small)
Advanced Mass Dampener 4 (x2) (medium)
Commander Plasma Artillery (level 7 plasma cannon) (medium) (I am not sure this one is needed -- I rarely use it.)
Torpedo Dual-laced Array(x2) (level 7 torpedo) (small)

.....

This ship does a lot of missions where it needs to move people. If you aren't into that, more cargo space instead of the luxury suite would be good. Looting is not much of an option for this captain, because 10 cargo isn't enough.

Get the smalls that improve your ability to avoid damage before you improve your weaponry (or improve it much). If you aren't taking damage, you can always shoot the enemy twice with a weaker weapon. If you are taking tons of damage, you may not last long enough no matter how cool your weapons are. And you will go bankrupt on the repair bills.

How to fight (talent wise)

Round 1
The first talent you want to use in a ship fight is Vigilant Scanners (level 8 e-tech). If you don't have that, you can use Evasive Maneuvers instead. You want to use these even if you intend to run like heck away from the fight. Put your defense up first, and then run away with whatever talents you have for that. If you start by laying down bolt, or sharp steering or what have you, you will escape all right but the enemy will give you a huge expensive repair bill to remember her with. Blast your enemy with your 2 torpedos.

Round 2
If you want to run away, and just trying to do so last turn didn't do it for you, now is the time to pop out a nice talent that helps with this, and run. If you aren't running, then you are advancing, and Vigilant Scanners in round 1 was the right thing for you, too. So assuming that you have made it to distance 4, put up a Barrel Roll (pirate talent). Hit her with the torpedos again. There are nice talents that improve your damage which can only be used at range 4 or 5, so if you want to use one of these next turn, don't advance so you can stay at range 4. Use the unused points to blast her with the plasma cannon. Otherwise, just advance.

Round 3
Here, if you are at range 4, pop out the talent you wanted to use, advance, and get her with 2 torpedos a third time.

Round 4 (or 3 if you just advanced in Round 2)
Now you should be at range 3, great, you can get her with the grav cannon. You'd rather be at range 2 -- and your enemy may be doing all she can to run away from you -- so get out Twitch Surge to be sure to advance. Or Try Devestating Approach if you want the fight over faster. Or -- there are a lot of nice talents you can use here. You might want to heal your crew with a medical one. Or fix morale with a command one. Whatever you decide, it had better not take a lot of time, because your enemy cannot take many blows of the grav cannon. Indeed, one blow at the not optimal range 3 often is enough to finish your enemies off.

--------

These fights mostly end with the enemy engines dead, or the enemy captain incapacitated. So there is lots of opportunity for looting, but you may not have a place to put any loot.

Have fun!

Grävling

[fallen]

grävling - really awesome ship build and guide, love it +1

[grävling]

Why thank you.

[Officer Genious]

I will try this once I raise more money to take on losses. Thank you!

[Alex Fury]

Jun 13, 2017 7:53:46 GMT -5 grävling said:

Jun 4, 2017 20:53:07 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Has anyone had luck with hunting Spies/Pirates? I've found their ships to be ridiculously well armed and make me bankrupt...

Build this and see how it goes for you. Works great for me ...

Guardian Interceptor

Deck 1:

Officer Cabin(x4) (small)
Weapons Locker A4 (small) -- (*** REPLACE THIS IF YOUR AWAY TEAM ALREADY HAS NICE ARMOUR and WEAPONS from Contacts ***)
Retribution Gravcannon (level 7 Gravity Driver) (large)
Luxury Suite (large)
M6000 Void Engine Ex -- I have no idea what the Ex does, but extra soak is nice.
Storage Hold 10 cargo (medium)
Barracks 4 (medium)

Deck 2:
M6000 Hyperwarp Ex (medium)
Capital Bridge 4 (medium) (Improve this to 4 early, but not as early as the 2 Assist Modules.)
Deflector Array 4 (small) (You already have one of these from the start. Keep it.)
Pilot Assist Module 4 (You already have one. Improve it to 4 as soon as you can. Don't go fighting ships without this upgrade.)
Nav Assist Module 4 (You already have one. Improve it to 4 after you improve the Pilot Assist.)
Defense Pattern Matrix (small)
Radi-Shield Pulse Booster (small)
Void-Shield Pulse Booster (small)
Advanced Mass Dampener 4 (x2) (medium)
Commander Plasma Artillery (level 7 plasma cannon) (medium) (I am not sure this one is needed -- I rarely use it.)
Torpedo Dual-laced Array(x2) (level 7 torpedo) (small)

.....

This ship does a lot of missions where it needs to move people. If you aren't into that, more cargo space instead of the luxury suite would be good. Looting is not much of an option for this captain, because 10 cargo isn't enough.

Get the smalls that improve your ability to avoid damage before you improve your weaponry (or improve it much). If you aren't taking damage, you can always shoot the enemy twice with a weaker weapon. If you are taking tons of damage, you may not last long enough no matter how cool your weapons are. And you will go bankrupt on the repair bills.

How to fight (talent wise)

Round 1
The first talent you want to use in a ship fight is Vigilant Scanners (level 8 e-tech). If you don't have that, you can use Evasive Maneuvers instead. You want to use these even if you intend to run like heck away from the fight. Put your defense up first, and then run away with whatever talents you have for that. If you start by laying down bolt, or sharp steering or what have you, you will escape all right but the enemy will give you a huge expensive repair bill to remember her with. Blast your enemy with your 2 torpedos.

Round 2
If you want to run away, and just trying to do so last turn didn't do it for you, now is the time to pop out a nice talent that helps with this, and run. If you aren't running, then you are advancing, and Vigilant Scanners in round 1 was the right thing for you, too. So assuming that you have made it to distance 4, put up a Barrel Roll (pirate talent). Hit her with the torpedos again. There are nice talents that improve your damage which can only be used at range 4 or 5, so if you want to use one of these next turn, don't advance so you can stay at range 4. Use the unused points to blast her with the plasma cannon. Otherwise, just advance.

Round 3
Here, if you are at range 4, pop out the talent you wanted to use, advance, and get her with 2 torpedos a third time.

Round 4 (or 3 if you just advanced in Round 2)
Now you should be at range 3, great, you can get her with the grav cannon. You'd rather be at range 2 -- and your enemy may be doing all she can to run away from you -- so get out Twitch Surge to be sure to advance. Or Try Devestating Approach if you want the fight over faster. Or -- there are a lot of nice talents you can use here. You might want to heal your crew with a medical one. Or fix morale with a command one. Whatever you decide, it had better not take a lot of time, because your enemy cannot take many blows of the grav cannon. Indeed, one blow at the not optimal range 3 often is enough to finish your enemies off.

--------

These fights mostly end with the enemy engines dead, or the enemy captain incapacitated. So there is lots of opportunity for looting, but you may not have a place to put any loot.

Have fun!

Grävling

Awesome walkthrough.