Explorer class - guide

[spike]

Mar 11, 2011 19:51:32 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

If you Harvest, you're an Explorer? Why?

I'm saying that, contra to the Merchant class Guide, Merchants should not be primarily Harvest-Explorers. I say that because, Harvest-Exploring and Resource-Exploring both use exactly the same ideal skill/stat set and exactly the same ideal ship configurations. If you invest in those skills/stats and ship configs for a character, it would be a big waste not to use them (of course you can choose not too for roleplaying or tactical reasons).

Whereas, if you are a Merchant, you have a different set of ideal skills (e.g. Negotiation, Charisma, etc) that you need to spend your skill points on pushing up, and you need a different ship config (e.g. you don't need huge crew, landing engine upgrades, etc) - so your specialisation efforts as a Merchant make you a weaker Explorer. And vice versa. Which is how it should be - specialisation and trade offs between character classes.

Sure, Negotiation is useful to an Explorer - it's useful to anyone - but it's not essential. The Explorer is getting his goods more or less for free (new crew to replace casualties costs no more than the fuel costs to another recruiting hall, and fuel itself is usually free for Explorers). The Explorer doesn't need a better Sell price much, and even less does he need to ensure a good Buy price. Whereas with a Merchant, buying and selling and living off the often narrow spreads between the two, the Negotiation skill is absolutely crucial.

Sure, there are common factors between the Merchant and the Explorer such as the importance of rumours, the use of Trade Permits, the need for cargo space, and the skills/stats/ship config to get the cargo safely to market to sell it. These are pretty generic as they apply to many other classes of character also.

And, as a Merchant, I could avoid trading in Contraband and so not really need to get Permits, Stealth, etc. This is a pretty cost-free choice for a Merchant. For an Explorer it's also a choice, but a much more costly one, since the Explorer would forgo a lot of free cash and free Rep by refraining from utilising his already-optimised skills/stats/ship in this way.

So, in my view, Merchants are not the ones who Harvest-then-Sell, as per the Merchant Guide. Merchants Buy-then-Sell. It is Explorers who Harvest-then-Sell, and Explore-then-Sell.

Starting-out Explorers might specialise in Harvest-only at first, to save the need to invest in Permits and/or Stealth. Similarly, starting-out Merchants might avoid trading in Contraband at first, for exactly the same reasons.

Over the long term, the difference between the classes has to be around their primary skill. For Explorer, the primary skill is Explorer. For the Merchant, the primary skill is Negotiate. A Merchant might Harvest-Explore or Resource-Explore from time to time, just as an Explorer will trade (Buy-then-Sell) from time to time. But not as the primary activity.

[oldalchemist]

I like Exploring the way it is, but I think Harvesting should have an option to select the goods you're trying to harvest. Maybe the Harvest button should open a quick survey of what's available on that planet:

Harvest: Captain, it looks like this rock is loaded with metals, water, and chemicals. There are also a few wild trouser trees and hat bushes on the northern continent. Which should we attempt to harvest?
WATER/FUEL
CHEMICALS
CLOTHING
METALS

[spike]

+1. Trouser trees and hat bushes rock. Stay away from the bikini swamps, they're full of Aliens.

[alienfodder]

Bikini swamps are where I live with my faction - the steel thong clan.

[blackgauntlet]

The Thteel Thong Clan? ;D

[rabidbite]

Mar 15, 2011 12:11:12 GMT -5 spike said:

Really? You would think Harvesting was the low risk activity - doesn't involve aliens, artefacts, stuff like that. The crew of the Nostromo in Alien, they were Exploring. Scary stuff. Harvesting seems more peaceful, more pastoral.

What I like about this is that you looked up the name of the ship in ALIEN, typed it in, and -knew- enough of us would understand what you meant.

(Some people have never seen the movie. Just like some kids believe Michael Jackson was born white.)


Sci-fi. I love thee.

[blackgauntlet]

Huh? I thought EVERYONE who is on this forum have watched Aliens. And ET. And Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind. And Howard the Duck. And Short Circuit. And Weird Science. And Electric Dreams.

God, I feel old...

And Mike was born white. He's just black outside.

[duranis]

Sorry that my first post here is a necro post but this guide has helped me a lot.

I have been playing this game for a couple of days on basic and really enjoyed it but found it really easy. I then decided to take the jump up to challenging but found getting started really, really hard.

Basically I had tried doing contracts, using trade rumors to make a quick buck and pirating on independents but it always ended up with me getting bad rep with 1 or 2 factions and eventually getting worn down and having to spend all my credits on repairing. Also doing it this way my level went up quickly but my equipment didn't keep pace so it got harder and harder to stay alive.

Last night I started my 5th or 6th pirate and decided that instead of going straight out doing missions I would give this explorer thing a go. I used the first few points you get to raise my explorer skill up and headed to Tucanae-Javat Mining.

Then I just explored and sold it all straight there. Within a very short amount of time I had positive rep with all but one faction (was a mistake on my part but not a big deal) and tons of credits. As an added advantage I hadn't leveled up too much so it was basically like starting the game out with better equipment, a bank full of money and positive rep with everyone.

2 tips for doing this are:
1) Whenever you go back to the urban section on Javat Mining to sell your loot, buy as much water as you can. Then cache this in the wild area. Sometimes Javat has a trade embargo so you don't want to trade with them but need water and other times they don't have much water in stock. Having a backup cache of water means you can just keep on exploring.

2) Keep a watch on trade embargo's and other things that will give you a negative rep hit for selling things like records. The negative rep I got was when I didn't notice that there was a trade embargo in place. Selling 1 hold full of goods got me about -60 rep in 1 hit.

What I did when there was an embargo in place was to go to another nearby faction and sell there. You get loads of records exploring so its easy to get the rep high enough to buy a trade permit. Also trade alliances are worth keeping a look our for as it is then ease to quickly raise rep with two factions at once.

Alternatively just cache what you find on Javat Mining until the embargo is gone.

Its also worth going out and buying the first rank of promotion with as many factions as you can as it means your less likely to run into trouble before your ready for it.

TL:DR version -
Exploring isn't just for explorers. Its a great way to get a head start in the early game with no risk involved.

[brucethebruce]

Exlporer is my favorite class to play. However, I don't think it's the easiest. I think it's the easiest to start with but I always get popped around 8th level. I've actually been the most sucessful with the Pirate class. I tried hundreds of Explorers on Crazy and it wasn't until I tried a Pirate that I've been able to keep him alive and break into the higher levels. (Once my Pirate hits level 50, I'm going to try Explorer again on Crazy. Once I can sucessfully do some of the other classes at Crazy, besides Pirate, I'll move back up to Insane.)

Don't get me wrong, like I said, Explorer is my favorite character class. I love the vision of my Explorer traveling through space to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no Star Trader has gone before... I just don't think it's the easiest.

[whitegauntlet]

I think that Explorer is a waste of time if that is not the only thing you do in-game.

[slayernz]

Explorer is a great class for the following reasons:
1) Easy money early in the game from finding lots of stuff during exploration.
Don't ever ever discount the ability to get several hundred k worth of funds within 3 game years or less. I've had explorers who were flying around in honor/pride class ships before turn 1000.

It doesn't matter that later on you don't do much exploring - getting money and the ability to upgrade/replace your ship early in the game can be the difference between thriving and just surviving.

2) 150% better cache protection is nothing to sneeze at.
Have you ever built up a large cache nest egg only to have some filthy Steel Song Treasure Hunter come and steel steal it all. Bastards! Wouldn't you want to have some extra insurance against cache theft? Look no further than The Explorer class to help you out. The Explorer has the second-best ability to protect caches in the game. Smugglers have 200% but they don't have the benefit of #1.

If you're good in the game, caches become part of your necessary lifeblood. By say turn 5,000, a good cache could mean the difference between a $200k trade ... and a $600k trade. Even better, your profit from the trade can be improved by caching in a surplus and selling in a shortage - literally 350%+ better returns on your investment.

3) Finally the best risk vs return of any class for early stages of the game
Sure you can make money in other classes doing what they are meant to be doing. As a bounty hunter, you can go after scum. As a Spy, you can do surveillance, etc. Each of these types of actions can potentially result in a ship to ship encounter. On higher difficulty levels, you seriously don't want to have hostile encounters at the beginning of your career. It's not just the risk to your precious self - but ship damage is very expensive to repair. Moreover, there is nothing worse than having so much sail damage that limping to the nearest port, you run out of fuel, have a mutiny and get killed by the crew.

Does this happen with the Explorer?!? Hell no. You go down to a planet, you throw crew at a hole in the ground, and with the few that come back, you get treasure. No ship damage. Maybe a HP or two to yourself, but you get wound protection and crew is expendable. If you're mining the Javat Mining planet, then you're going minimal distance between the wild and the urban areas (one turn takes you to orbit, second turn takes you to urban). Chance of encounter ... low. If damaged, chance of running out of fuel - even lower.

[sly]

You should make guides for the other classes too.

[bionicgeek]

Mar 12, 2011 13:59:22 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

ASAP the Bank will help with this. The Captain will be able to safe deposit a line of credits with a Faction. To take money from the Bank is free and easy.

To put money in the Bank profit sharing for the Crew and Officers is the deal of the day. That should help the real-world recruit story.

Bank? I haven't seen a bank...

[slayernz]

Heh heh ... the bank is something that was thought about long long LONG ago. However, the banks discovered that 95% of all captains ended up in lots of little pieces, and so the risk of loaning money with zero return was pretty high.

They all then decided that if you were fancy enough to have your own star ship (and crew), you are in the top echelon of society and don't deserve any money. Conversely, if you are destitute, with no ship and nothing to your name, the banks avoid you and you aren't even allowed to enter into their lobby.

So long babble short ... banks are evil, don't let you borrow money, and don't let you rob them! All the benefits of 20th century banking are eliminated!

[Feuerleitsystem]

Is it true that intimidation affects the max. expedition force and therewith the success of exploration?