Sneaky Spy Advice Required

[rawrpaw]

This is my first post on these forums (which I've been reading for a while) so I'd like to say hello first :)

Now down to business...

I'm playing most of my characters as a Spy on Insane at the moment and I can't seem to get passed level 20-25 without some horrible soul devouring alien devastating my ship. Alas the last 3 of my captains are RIP now due to the scum so I was hoping for some advice.

I spend early game breaking rule 1 which is probably where I'm going wrong - I make friends with everyone and purchase mass trade and death warrants, then I gather myself the best Mechanic, Pilot and Spy officers the Quadrant has to offer and spend most of the game fighting in Spy wars. My mass Death Warrants mean I'm able to spy on anyone and still gain XP / records money without losing reputation. When Spy Wars arn't available I run easy missions and pick pirates apart with my guns. I level Pilot / Stealth to 25, Tactics to 20, Warrior to 10 and Intimidation up to 5 or so and then just as I'm feeling confident I get massacred. Even purchasing every possible Rumor with my Spy Officer I still can't avoid the scum and the fateful game over screen appears as the level 66 alien wanders off gargling.

Please help a depressed Spy achieve greatness (and level 50).

Rawrpaw

[contributor]

What kind of upgrades and ships are you using? I achieved the Golden Age unlock with basically the same strategy, though I had very few encounters with Aliens and could always outrun them. Try investing even more heavily in Stealth and getting a ship with a ridiculous number of sails. That might help. One thing I didn't do was invest in warrior. I either make a captain who is a fierce border or not at all, investing in stealth and pilot so as not to get borded.

[Deleted]

Considerring stealth levels you up 2x more than other skills (which is bad) id go for investing heavily in pilot and getting a quick ship with a pilot officer and 10% hold and advanced bridge, escape shuttle and titan components upgrades. If yu encounter an alien that is too powerful to hit with guns, ram ram and ram. You'll either kill the alien or breach your own hull and use an escape shuttle to escape

You can try a boarding-strategy as well but I get the feeling that you would rather excel in guns and pilot than boarding and warrior.

[ncaoa]

I don't see having good relations as a problem.
If anything a very nice feat.

[slayernz]

rawrpaw What difficulty level are you playing at?

Although stealth is counted twice when determining your level, it still is important to manage your encounters. Stealth helps you avoid unwanted encounters, while still allowing you to have encounters. It helps you when you are being shot at, especially by torpedoes (so does a pile of solar sails). In saying that, Stealth of 25 is probably enough for your level.

The right ship (for your playing style) will help immeasurably. If you don't like boarding, then you don't need a large crew count. You need something with high engines and high sails (compared to hull size). Yes, high engines means you won't be as fuel efficient, but it certainly helps you when you are trying to change ranges.

If aliens are your nemesis, then spend more time in the green zones - it may mean planning your path more carefully and taking a little longer to go from A to B, but at least you'll get there without something bursting out of your chest

I play a completely different style of gameplay to Starfixer or another old forum poster, Fenikso. I avoid boarding like the plague - a good fight is one that results in enemy dead and me at a safe range To help that, I usually try and keep Pilot to about 1.2x my level. Tactics is 1x my level. Stealth starts at about 1.2x my level, but the ratio drops steadily as I level up. I usually flatten it out after about 50 or 60 (and at that stage, I'd be level 70+). Intimidate and Warrior is usually 0.5x my level - but again, it's because I'm not as aggressive as my forum brethren

[Deleted]

Pilot helps avoid encouners as well, and to be honest, stealth doesn't make too big of a difference for avoiding encounters. You'll still encounter aliens. Also, pilot and quickness does a horrible job at changing range at long, but if its high eough will avid enemy torpedoes. And at high difficulty, espcially on high levels, its important to prioritize. For example, as a boarder, my warrior is 230% level, tactics 90% level, pilot 80% level. If you want t be a ranged combat master, you should choose btw guns and torps. If you invest both in pilot and stealth, you'll die by aliens. Aliens balance out their skills, but their level is also rediculously higher than yours, so you have to focus on 1 or 2 specific skills to make up for it, and maybe invest in other skills as well, but at a much lower rate.

*Warrior/strength doesn't level you up as much as quicness/pilot or wisdom/tactics so you can leave warrior at a hgher percentage to your level more easily

[rawrpaw]

Thanks for your replies, it sounds like my play style is a lot like yours Slayernz, I don't attempt to board, rather gun the engines and loot or bravely tactically retreat. To clarify a few things; I'm playing on Insane difficulty, I take the first quick and fast ship with 30+ engines and sails, preferably with medium crew and cargo. I then take the following upgrades; Dreadnaught (+6 Armor) / Bulk Heads (+2 Armor) - I pick these to equalise my hull and armor and boarding defence / Naval Bridge / +5 Engines (+ short & med combat bonus) / +4 Sails (+ piloting bonus).

[contributor]

If you really want to just avoid aliens altogether you might stay away from the dreadnaught upgrade as that has a penalty for avoiding encounters and try the ASS (a.k.a. Advanced Solar Sails) upgrade which gives a bonus for avoiding encounters. If you find a ship that starts with 40-50 sails and do this, following Slayernz's advice on assigning XP, you should be able to pick your battles fairly well. Of course the number one rule of Star Traders is not really about making friends with everybody. It's that every captain dies eventually.

[Deleted]

Feb 11, 2013 21:22:09 GMT -5 contributor said:

If you really want to just avoid aliens altogether you might stay away from the dreadnaught upgrade as that has a penalty for avoiding encounters and try the ASS (a.k.a. Advanced Solar Sails) upgrade which gives a bonus for avoiding encounters. If you find a ship that starts with 40-50 sails and do this, following Slayernz's advice on assigning XP, you should be able to pick your battles fairly well. Of course the number one rule of Star Traders is not really about making friends with everybody. It's that every captain dies eventually.

On insane and impossible difficulties, alien encounters are inevitable. Best to work on a strategy to defeate them/escape them than avoid them all together.

One of my captains invested amost every XP into stealth, had a fast/quick ship with advanced sails which made its sails to hull ratio 3:1, omni-stealth, advanced bridge and ancient reactors. Had a pilot officer and spice. Encountered an alien on lv86 and died

Another of my captains invested heavily in warrior with some in tactics/pilot, had a medium ship with 225 crew and 40 hull, upgraded it with battle prow and mercanaries to help boarding, and weapon's cabinet to increase weapon storage. I carried 81 weapons, and had a militar officer templar and bodyguard. Got upto level 168 and was rammed to death by enemy pirate. But every enemy alien I encountered I killed.

Another one of my captains had a quick ship with over 60 engines, invested every XP into pilot, had pilot oficer with spice and titan components, ancient reactors, advanced bridge and escape shuttle. Every alien I encuntered I was able to ram, breach my hull and use escape shuttle. But with only pilot changing range at long is impossible so the game got boring with nothing to do.

[rawrpaw]

Hmmmz, do you think a gunning build would work based around tactics? Maybe Tactics 1.75, Pilot 1.25 and share the rest of the points evenly between Warrior / Stealth / Intimidate?

[Cory Trese]

Feb 11, 2013 19:12:05 GMT -5 @starfixer said:

Pilot helps avoid encouners as well, and to be honest, stealth doesn't make too big of a difference for avoiding encounters.

Disagree with that, but I think there are good arguments on both sides of the pro-Stealth and anti-Stealth argument.

Welcome to the forum rawrpaw ... playing on Insane before Crazy before Hard can be a recipe for frustration.

I'd say ramp up on some of the lower difficulties (and score sweet, sweet Awards) and when you're ready tackle the Insane difficulty again.

Insane and Impossible are intended to be very brutal. Not a good place to practice

[comminution]

Sorry this is a pinch off-topic, but I'd like to get help as well.

My pilots always die to aliens as well - I end up not being able to outrun them and they just board me and kill me. Generally, I prioritize raising Pilot the most, then Stealth and Tactics roughly equally (I don't put any in Neg/Exp, and only a little in Warr/Int; Int mainly to for the fuel-consumption). I generally try to make sure my engines and sails are 2x hull if at all possible.

What can I do to not always die to aliens? Seems like my main options are:
1) Raise Pilot/have high Engines/use Guns... then Ram if it fails
2) Raise Stealth/have high Sails/use Torp... then Ram if it fails
3) Raise Warrior/Tactics/Pilot, have big hull/crew, lots of weapons, and achieve victory via boarding? (what ratio is best for doing this?)

I'm sure I'm not getting it completely right, so just want to get expert advice

Thanks!

[rawrpaw]

Thanks Cory but I've managed all the other achievements except the level 50 on Insane. I've not really had an issue with other difficulty levels, or just seems trying to make a Tactics / Pilot captain is really inefficient. I'm picking ships with high engine to hull ratios and large amounts of guns but no luck! My level 19 just died to a level 35 as I couldn't keep them at range

[contributor]

@rawpawr The high stealth and sails strategy may not take you level 397 but it should take you to at least level 50 barring a very unlucky game. I've got a Spy on Insane at level 70 right now. He has met maybe 3 aliens in his career and every time has been able to run from them. He's got a bunch of ships, but is currently flying an Honor of Steel upgraded to have over 70 sails. I'm able to run from ships twice my level pretty easily. Also playing as a spy you should be able to get to level 50 pretty quickly without going into red squares a lot. Use the double agent strategy (selling records back to the planet you are spying on). It will boost rep with everybody if you've got death warrants and minimize flying all over dodge.

It's true though, the best strategy for reaching extreme levels is the Warrior/Pilot/Tactics/High Crew/Weapons and Boarding Officer strategy, exemplified by @starfixer. My spy will one day die, probably by getting boarded by aliens 3 times my level, but he's had a good run and besides my favorite stage of the game may be levels 1-15 so it's never a loss to have to start over.

[rawrpaw]

Thanks Lurker, I'm going to give Starfixers strategy a try on Impossible now.

I just got my Spy to level 50 using a fast/quick ship with my tactics 1x my level, stealth 0.5x, Int to match my hull (15), and everything else in pilot (about 1.6x). I took pilot, spy and bodyguard officers with +7 guns / escape pods / Advanced bridge / +5 engines / +4 sails. My strategy was to get med/close and gun, my bodyguard was to help when I got boarded as I had only 1 point in warrior skill to buy me time. Worst case scenario was to gun at 0 range if I couldn't ram to breach my own hull and escape pod. As I have 500-2000 rep with every faction I'm only fighting independant pirates though. I haven't met an alien yet so I'll let you know how it works out!