advice for pirate?

[comminution]

Hello,

Just looking for advice on a pirate I'm working on in Crazy, looking to unlock the Syndicate Hero award.

For my second ship, got the Rychart Templar for being fast/quick and its 84 hold, and was thinking to get the following upgrades:
1. Ancient Reactors (to get Engines above 30) vs 20% cargo hold (to get 100 hold)??
2. Escape Shuttle - just in case
3. Cargo Vault (increase the hold) vs Advanced Bridge (to help me in combat and when flying around)??
4. 25% Advanced Sail System (to get it from 32-->40)
5. Omni Stealth vs Predator Tracking? I'm torn because I don't want to avoid smugglers/merchants but don't want to get zapped by a Narvidian Carrier (which killed my last captain) but I'm also going to start taking Bounty contracts now that my ship is better.

For my next ship, I'm thinking Spear Cutter, Tiberia Dark, Dragon Carrier (I like fast ships with large cargo holds)... or maybe an Honor of Thulun if I can't find those. Any others I should be looking out for? Speaking of which, any tips on getting a Spear Cutter? I've played for a while now but have never seen those show up in military bases

For stats, I'm basically just focusing on Pilot and Tactics... maybe a few points in Stealth. Any suggestions on what's worked well for you?

Lastly, what officers? I'm thinking Pilot to help me in combat, gain more for passenger contracts, be w-f efficient... but what else? I'm gaining rep mainly through high-paying contracts toward Independents, sometimes through trading Artifacts, Weapons, Electronics I get from enemy ships, especially when Trade alliances exist. Mechanic just to save money on repairs? Tradesman for rep bonus during trade alliance? (Does he decrease rep loss during trade embargo?) Can't decide on this one.

In any case, any advice, tips would be greatly appreciated. This game is pretty addictive!

[piratekira]

I JUST made a breakthrough with pirate on crazy, trying for syn hero(starting as cadar) along with dark nemesis. Everything I tell you is just from my perspective. I've been reading on the forums here a lot for info so I figured since I found a way that is working so far for me I might as well share! Hopefully most of my info is accurate. Everyone else, please correct misinformation!

1. Ancient reactors are way better, no need to worry about hold. 84 is plenty for fuel, and engines yield combat and maneuverability advantages as well.
2. I agree this is vital when you're shooting for these awards on crazy+. I have put escape shuttles on all three of my ships on my current game, even though I have not had to use any yet.
3. Advanced bridge hands down. You can't carry stuff when you're dead. As long as your cargo is enough to hold fuel, you should take all flight and combat advantages.
5. I would rather go for sail cmmd probe here, because both of those are situational. Especially if you have the pilot/stealth with a fast enough ship to keep you away from enemies and keep you in range of targets.

The following build is using picky beggar for early combat and torpedo advantage.

I think it's important to note pirates starting level strengths especially starting out on crazy+. You start with 6 pilot and 6 tactics AND you don't have to put the costly points into pilot/stealth/tactics to get to 12. Max pilot and stealth out asap so you can get away and maintain torp range. I personally like to go 9 pilot 9 tactics so I can get some early combat xp and an early ship advantage(tactics help torp launching as far as description indicates). Then stealth to 9 and pilot and stealth to 12. Before going back to tactics I put a few into intimidate for fuel consumption then I finish tactics and keep on going with pilot and stealth(almost exclusively, currently at 24 I think). Stealth is actually pretty important because I think it helps you avoid hits in combat and also aids in combat maneuvers.

Early on I captured a blade class.
13 hull 6 armor 27 eng 27 sail 48 crew 52 cargo 24 guns 10 torp fast/quick.

Upgrades -> Extended gun decks(+7 guns) / Escape Shuttle / Water-Fuel Tank(make those courier trips easier and safer) / Propulsion System (+5 eng) / Sail Cmnd Probe (+4 sail and pilot bonus)

I found as I leveled up pilot and stealth nothing could touch this ship; I could move in and out of gun/torp range as I pleased and abuse the ships/characters strengths.

Run missions and kill factions you run into based on if they are on the opposite side of solar war or trade war. Take advantage of independent missions since you take no penalty as a pirate. For this build, pilot officer is vital. I'd like to have a MO as well as mechanic but I have yet to find one…the only officer I saw was political and I took it to fill a slot. However, I kind of like political for the syn hero pursuit. It helps keep you off embargoes and gives you more info when you're going against independents and alliances and such.

When it was time to upgrade, I wanted to get something fast/quick with excellent guns now that my pilot/stealth were high enough that I didn't have to worry about getting boarded(in an agile ship against most enemies). I found the Jango Class to be perfect. Called it Namek cause it's green.

15 hull 6 armor 30 eng 30 sails 55 crew 60 cargo 28 guns 9 torps fast/quick for 510k or something like that.

Upgrades -> Ext Gun Decks / Shuttle / Prow Gun Batteries (5 gun + cmb bonus after closing action) / merc (+15 crew because not enough crew to man engines and guns completely) / aft lance battery (+3 torp and bonus for torpedoes after retreating)
Prow gun batteries and aft lance battery….I didn't realize it until I wrote the upgrades down here, but they're kind of amazing together? LOL! I'm sure I'm not the first to discover that. Again though, it requires exceptional mobility in combat to really utilize, so pilot/stealth and a fast ship are key(I think).

Eventually I stashed that at the south east corner Cadar world to pick up my current ship. Forgot what it's called, I think it's new, guardian interceptor? I'm pretty sure it had guardian in the name, blueish in color with four orange jet streams(two in back and two near the front).

Ill just put the upgraded stats since I can't find it on the ship list.
16 hull 12 armor 38 engines 38 sails 53 crew 65 hold 26 guns 19 torp fast/quick, 730 or so

Upgrades: ancient reactors / shuttle / advanced bridge / solar sail coating / torp control pods

This one I just wanted to max torpedo capabilities. I didn't care for hitting 40 on eng or sails, just in maxing sails and finding the best upgrade for torpedoes. It's rare a ship can close in on me anymore so I just chill in torp range with this one. Hopefully I can unlock those ships of power and buy one that's awesome.

I was really surprised at how well I was doing with this setup. I had previously tried crazy meeting my before I could afford to fully upgrade a ship, and now I have 3 fully upgraded ships and Cadar maxed with De Valtos/Rychart on the way.

Fingers crossed I won't die and these shuttles will save me!

Best of luck to you!

[piratekira]

Hit syn hero. Ships of power are...underwhelming. Still looking for a really good one. I think for dark nemesis you have to have an enemy from syn and clan. As soon as I find the right ship ill terrorize the crap out of de valtos

[ncaoa]

Ships of Honor are much better. I love the Honor of Thulun.

[Cory Trese]

Dec 24, 2012 20:34:57 GMT -5 piratekira said:

Hit syn hero. Ships of power are...underwhelming. Still looking for a really good one. I think for dark nemesis you have to have an enemy from syn and clan. As soon as I find the right ship ill terrorize the crap out of de valtos

Correct -- for Dark Nemesis you need to have both Wanted flags (Pirate Skulls) for both Syndicate and Clan, which means at least two enemies.