Help me not be terrible (also hello)

[squadronroe]

I picked up this game the first day it was released, I've been hungry for something in the vein of Trade Wars for quite some time and so I quite happily plunked down the $2 on day 0 to grab the Elite pack. Despite some unfortunate bugs with the iPad version (that have since been squished), I've been very very happy with the purchase. It's a lot of fun, and every time I open it up I end up playing for another few hours.

So help me not be terrible at the game! So far I've been shying away from all but the most basic of combats, because I don't want to die. Instead, I've been playing it safe and mostly doing delivery/courier runs for every different faction, and picking up every honorific I possibly can.

...however, the money is not rolling in fast enough! I've gotten enough to pop on a smugglers' hold and keep my crew happy, but little else. I'm completely awful at trading since I can't remember what planet is what (being able to get the planet's name somehow before telling my crew to go there would be nice), so should I just go all out and start shooting everything I see?

[martyparty]

Hello!

To make money roll in faster, get multiple delivery contracts to the same rough area whenever you can. The coordinates are in the form of (x,y), so even if you're not familiar with the planet names, you can use the coordinate numbers to aim for the same region.

To learn how to trade, you have to start getting familiar with the planets, so maybe leave that as a more advanced lesson. But when you're ready, go to the Status -> Cargo screen and click on a cargo item, it'll show the planets you've been to and what their buy/sell rates are. Some points in the Negotiate skill will help you get more opportunities to buy at a better price than you can sell elsewhere. You can buy a fair bit from Cadar Prime to sell for profit nearby at Kalflange Outpost or Syndicate Capital, and doing it over & over will get you used to what to look for when trading.

I usually don't bother trying to fight until my Pilot, Stealth, Tactics, and Intimidate skills are all at their initial maximums, and I've upgraded to a Fast/Quick ship. Even then I'll not tackle enemies which are 10 or more levels higher than me.

[slayernz]

Hey Squadronroe - welcome!

I'm not sure if the rumors system has been implemented, but to make money relatively safely, constantly check in the Spice Halls for rumors of shortages/surplusses. On a basic starting ship, you can still make $100k+ on a good shortage. With surplusses, you can definitely make money, but often it is closer to $40k or so as a typical gain.

Depending on the difficulty level you are playing at, combat is manageable, even at an early stage. For me, I prefer longer-range (avoiding boarding) type combat, so I focus on Pilot (to adjust ranges), and Stealth. Increase Tactics if you are missing your shots more often than you are hitting.

If you prefer a more aggressive approach, focus on strength and warrior. Starfixer has provided a lot of information on this approach, and the guidance he offers should transcend to the ipad version.

[amazinglyaudrey]

Choose explorer profession, clan javat, picky beggar ship.

Go to the first planet and complete the beginning mission. Fill up on water-fuel, then go to the upgrade screen and get whatever you can afford that gives you +cargo space. Then, head to the clan javat mining camp in the northwestern part of the map (it's the only clan javat in that area). When you get there, sell all but 10 water-fuel, then go to the explore screen. Use harvest to gather records until you have either a full hull or fewer than 8 men. Keep selling records to the mining camp until you can buy a trade permit in the palace view screen. When you need men, fill up on water-fuel and visit the surrounding planets' spice halls. When you have the trade permit from selling records (usually around 25 records for me), start exploring, focusing on gathering artifacts over weapons or electronics. Keep this explore/sell/recruit cycle until you have the amount of money you want (I normally do this to about $600k). I did this on everything up to crazy mode with plenty of success. Once you have the ships and upgrades you want, the universe is your oyster!

[contributor]

What difficulty are you playing at? And what character levels are you getting to so far? If you do lots of contracts and hit the convenient surplus/shortages it will take a little while to save up large amounts of cash, but by lvl 10 you should be able to get into something better. Are you losing battles and having to put a lot into repairs?

[slayernz]

At Crazy or below, the surplus/shortage thing is surprisingly effective - within a hundred turns or so, you'll be sitting pretty with a Javat Cutter (just get rank1 in Javat military), and you'll have a couple of hundred k worth of cash. Yes, avoiding battles when your captain (ie, his stats), or your ship isn't up to spec is a very good thing. Also, doing contracts can be a very slow way of gaining money because low-level contracts pay in pittance, and you often end up with repairs/fuel costs, etc being more expensive than your reward. Not to mention, you get stuck with reputation impacts.

Amazinglyaudrey has certainly described a viable start. For about 5 months or so, I only used Javat Explorer captains because of the strength of their start. There are a few planets that offer the best return for risk, and one is in Javat territory, and another is just out of Steel Song territory.
Koles' explorer class guide is a very useful read here:
startradersrpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tips&action=display&thread=178

[Cory Trese]

To answer the question -- Rumors and Conflicts are fully implemented in iOS.

[amazinglyaudrey]

Is Javat Cutter supposed to be one of the ships you see in the military screen? I've never come across that ship.

[squadronroe]

Holy cow, that's a ton of great ideas. Now I just need to get off work so I can start playing again. To answer some of the questions, I think I crapped out and went with the easiest mode to try to get my space feet under me. I'll poke around with the rumors and such, to see if I can figure that out before I restart the game.

Also it seems like the default ship you start with (before unlocking anything else) is actually not terrible at all.

[BlastGT1]

Nothing wrong with starting small. You really kind of have to with TB games if you don't want to throw your phone or tablet in frustration. Just ask Cory, sometimes pirates and chasing those last few XP get him too.

_______________________________

"Issue the standard Cadar greeting, Ensign."
"But sir, that's one of our allies!"
"I know that, Ensign. We're confirming that the treaty is still in effect!"

[ntsheep]

There is a planet at -10, 9 that is an easy place to explore. Even with only one point in my explorer skill I have had good luck there. No matter what class I play, I put at least five points in explorer skill and go hunting there. You can make some money real quick and get some good upgrades fast.

[squadronroe]

So I've been pulling crazy hours at work for the past few days and only got a chance to play again last night... and I did pay a lot of attention to the rumors this time around. Despite miscalculating the amount of water I needed and having to fight off a few mutinies, I managed to make around 400k and put myself into a nice new ship, the Jango Class. It's insane and doesn't have any upgrades yet. I pretty much don't have to worry about anything anymore, because my captain's skills and ship are pretty much amazing.

Now for my next goal, gaining ranks in some military org.

[ntsheep]

The Jango is a great low level ship, but try getting the rewards "Ships of Power\ Honor" unlocked. Those ships can help a bunch and are usually pretty cheap for a new captain. With a high rank for a faction their almost free to buy.

[amazinglyaudrey]

iOS doesn't have access to ships of power/rank/power II.

[ntsheep]

Well in that case it is time to start shooting Cory out a torp tube until he puts them in. Go to the "torp the person above you" thread and fire away lol.