Help with crew combat

[T-Dog]

Hi,

I seem to be doing pretty well in the game. But every now and again I come up in crew combat where I fall well short. I got obliterated by some Xeno on a mission, and have been well beaten in others.

I'm pretty basic on the crew combat. Even with my captain at lvl 24 on Hard difficulty I'm using x2 riflemen, a combat medic on 2 and a swordsman on 1.

Here are some assumptions.

1) Levels as such don't make any difference to Initiative/hitpoints. I'm looking for fighters with high (+20) Strength/Quickness/Fortitude/Wisdom/Resilience

2) Levels as you increase (eg. rifles skills) make sure you hit often

3) I upgrade to armour lvl4 as quick as possible for better weapons

4) I haven't noticed any way to improve my armour. The Armour specialist contacts only have lvl 7 available. Can I get better armour by working on their rep?

5) I try and find a gear specialist to equip extra quickness/initiative.

And:

Any suggestions for a good composition of fighters? 

[MintDragon]

Hey @t-Dog, def check out the wiki on crew combat startraders.gamepedia.com/Crew_Combat

3) upgrading to weapons locker 4 definitely helps, it will arm your crew with the best weapons available. But it doesn't automatically upgrade/choose your armor, so be sure to do that manually
4) weapons/armor/gear are currently sparse; look for a lot more options in the next 60 days or so

Look for more threads like this on in the Tips and Techniques section of the forum, lots of good ideas on crew combat composition: startradersrpg.proboards.com/post/200376/thread

Would also encourage you to join the discord server; lots of players can give you real-time feedback/ideas on crew combat, gameplay, etc... discord: discordapp.com/invite/xTQPfZv

[T-Dog]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I've just gone into the game and the only armour available to me is lvl 7 stuff with a lvl 4 Weapons locker. Is there any way to find armour better than this?

[MintDragon]

There are contacts that sell armor, weapons, gear; but currently not many choices. As far as I know, the ones you can currently buy are only marginally better than Weapons Locker 4. But we'll be seeing a lot more variety in the near future :-)

But, you can get some really cool crew combat talents today; when used well, turns the tide in combat (even against Xeno).  Check the 'Talents' section of the wiki for ideas.  Also, might want to try out a run on Basic difficulty just to try out ideas for combat, then apply what you know to your current game.

[fallen]

@t-dog - can you share an analysis of why you fall short sometimes? The enemy does too much damage, you can't hit, you don't do enough damage? What strategies have you tried to mitigate these reasons for loss?

[T-Dog]

Thanks for the replies. My main problem was on a few mission combats. I just got hit too hard. Maybe it might be better to save some of the story missions, but I'm worried they'll disappear.

I had one where I had to go into a Xeno cave as part of the mission. They didn't one shot me, but may as well have, down to a few percent health and my attacks hardly dented them. They were lvl 36 and I was about 18 at the time. Thought I maybe should have equipped some armour before taking them on. Can't remember which story mission it was, but text after defeat reads something like: "The cave collapses, I guess we'll never know what was inside."

Day to day combat seems ok. But there was another mission where again I seemed to get hit really hard.

[MintDragon]

That one is the Da Rivesh story arc, really a tough one. Not sure if that arc is on a timer or not. When I stumble upon that landing zone and the story arc appears, I just put a blue star on the contact or landing zone and come back later when I have a strong enough fight team.

If nothing else, you'll know on your next playthrough not to attempt it early on :-) (I didn't survive the first time either!)

[Cory Trese]

Are you playing on Basic or Normal difficulty? That will help a lot in terms of learning to manage the different aspects of the game.

Another idea would be to try Custom Difficulty.

A lot of players I've emailed with in this situation resolve it by playing a few games of Pirate or Explorer and focusing on Crew Combat.