Can a Gunbunny change his spots?

[hellion7776]

So... lets begin by saying I consider myself a fairly good Gunbunny. Majority of my deaths up thru Hard and Crazy have been either aliens, or me doing something stupid. With that, I see the flaw in range combat vs. Aliens that others have posted so I am attempting to try out the Warrior/Board tactic. With that, I have a few questions.

1) Why in the hell must I always take damage in a fight? With this build, I can usually close the gap fairly quickly and start boarding... but I have already started taking damage from Torps or gunfire.
2) With this tactic I am using barely any stealth so I am in combat MUCH more often, and since every combat equals damage how do I survive?
3) How do people make money this way? Is there a secret I haven't learned yet related to the prior two questions?
4) Is there a special combination the allows me to use less fuel with this style gameplay? I find myself using four times or more fuel while I'm gallivanting across the known quadrant.

Any tips or tricks the smart people have would be most helpful? As it stands i am stuck on Demanding and feel like a ate up n00b.

~edited because I figured out what I did wrong. I found that with the big ships, you do not need to maintain 2:1 hull to sail ratio to maintain good fuel economy.

[ncaoa]

I'm with you. Ive always been a gunner and cant manage to get a Boarding style captain of the ground.

[hellion7776]

Ok, someone PLEASE help me out... I just lost my best pilot because I was testing out boarding over gunning. I can survive the first 2, maybe 3 ships that attack me... but when number 4 is a bounty hunter with a HUGE ship and a full crew compared to my beat up group... its a no win situation. With Gunning that battle would have been cake... even with a full compliment of crew it would have been cake. But I just cant seem to stay healthy for a long trip... Anyone care to share... please!!!!

[martyparty]

If you're using a torp strategy, you'd top up your torps between fights, so what's stopping you from topping up on crew members?

[hellion7776]

I literally got attacked 3 times in 5 moves. Lost my favorite Cadar Zealot... died a little inside... =/

[martyparty]

You got to know when to torp 'em, know when to board 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run,
You never count your loot when you're floating 'round in deep space.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the whole trip is done

[martyparty]

I hope you at least tried to keep the range to use up all your torps in that last battle you lost.

[BlastGT1]

Feb 14, 2013 3:16:39 GMT -5 martyparty said:

You got to know when to torp 'em, know when to board 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run,
You never count your loot when you're floating 'round in deep space.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the whole trip is done

LMAO! Exalt!

[slayernz]

Where is Starfixer here - ... in my mind, he's our foremost expert on boarding vs gunning.

For the non-boarder folk, you can still survive in Impossible with a non-boarding strategy. My most recent captain died (from stupidity) on level 89, with 98 pilot, 100 tactics, 37 stealth, 22 warrior, 30 intimidate. He survived alien encounters - scummy Steel Song and the mad independents. His ship's log shows that in 437.21AE, on board my Royal Class ship, I got hit 5 times (health). Because I had neglected to heal from a previous encounter, I paid the price. Did I avoid doing anything risky? No, 1409 encounters, 586 hostile, 72 completed contracts.

[hellion7776]

Sounds good. Ill stick with the shoot and scoot style for a while then. Thanky... just a shame my poor dead Zealot wont be around to enjoy it...

[ncaoa]

A question for the boarding thread: Can carrying weapons provide a good enough off set of the dissadvantage of low Warrior when you get boarded? Boarding is how most of my captains die.

[slayernz]

Warrior is almost an essential skill when it comes to boarding - and in my mind no, having lots of weapons does not offset a low warrior level. It certainly helps, but without Warrior, you are going to get hits on a regular basis. Again, Starfixer is probably the person to jump in on this thread if he is still around somewhere

[athios]

I wouldn't suggest switching your existing character from gunner to boarder, as your skill points will likely not be optimal.

From starfixer:

For board strength: Warrior, Strength, Crew Numbers, Weapons, Tactics, Intimidate, Morale, Hull, Engines, Upgrades, Officers (in that order)

Reference: startradersrpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=tips&thread=3975&post=45056
Check out the thread linked above. It's specifically written for fighting Alien, but the general principles regarding boarding are there and apply to non-Alien combat too.

Note that the in-game description for Stealth says it's needed for boarding too, but it is peculiarly missing from the above list. Not sure why.
Also, Strength does not factor into your level, so investing in Warrior doesn't "cost" as much as you may think (i.e. you can invest quite a bit without making your other stats "fall behind" your level)

[ncaoa]

slayernz@athios: Thanks!

[slayernz]

Starfixer avoided Stealth because in the calculations used to determine level, Stealth is counted TWICE (because it's vewy important). Starfixer resisted premature level ups because in Impossible, when you go up one level, your enemy goes up almost 2.