A safe start for new captains!

[johndramey]

All the folks that helped me out on this guide, please go check out my new pirate guide and let me know what you think! I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys can give.

[fallen]

Awesome post, sending it around the net!

[ChocoCrowbar]

Gotta say, this guide sure helped. I'm currently playing an explorer and slowly trying to get the Clan and Syndicate Hero unlocks in one go.

Currently lvl 10 barely reaching 5k turns.

Thulun -> 165
Javat -> 132
Steel Strong -> 50

De Valtos -> 178
Rychart -> 70
Cadar -> 22

I haven't seen so many trade alliances and embargos change so fast. Haven't really left the upper quadrant. I tried reaching the lower one and ran into an alien ship. Promptly docked, patched up and did a 180º turn back the way I came and ran into another one. All on my pimped out Danti Cautela. I only had my crew to thank for creating enough of a distraction on board their ship to let me reach mid range and blast them away with my guns.

[ChocoCrowbar]

I really really have bad luck. Just barely moved over deep space and BOOM a Bolllish Carrier Alien. Sigh... Lost a really promising captain.

[flazer]

Mar 27, 2013 18:55:03 GMT -5 johndramey said:

1 - Turn in first job, load up on water-fuel and, if possible, buy a trade permit with Javat
.........a - if you cannot get trade permit, do a couple contracts until you can
2 - Head to Tucanae-Javat Mining (-2,5)
.........a - create a cache in the wilds full of water-fuel, do this by dumping all of your water-fuel except 5 or 10.
.........b - explore with all of your crew, collect everything you can.
.........c - Stop when you need to either get more water-fuel, re-crew your ship, or sell some goods
3 - Sell your merchandise at the Tucanae-Javat exchange and buy all the water-fuel you can.
.........a - Be sure to never sell under a trade embargo
4 - Repeat #2 and #3 until you have ~~100k credits.
5 - Beef up your skills such that you are focusing primarily on explore, you want that up to at least 10
.........a - secondary focus is up to you, but I like to choose stealth and pilot

Question about XP and rank, bullet item 5... I don't appear to be gain XP by looting Atrifacts (etc.) and then selling.
Hence, no rank - something I'm doing wrong... err... or not right?

[joshelite]

Topics like this are not only helpful but have great info for new players.


For me, the best and safest course of action is to simply get on the good side with every faction. Its much easier to just acknowledge and surrender for ep points.


However, I loathe Rychart. My personal grudge with them has cost me many ships and lives.

[johndramey]

flazer - As for getting XP, if you are just straight up trading them I believe there is a very small chance of getting XP out of the deal. What you want to be doing is trading during a trade alliance, it always seemed to me that you would get quite a lot of XP from those trades and boost your rep with two factions!

joshelite - Glad you find the guide helpful, tried to make it as such. I don't mind Rychart so much, for me Thulun will always be the whipping boy

[danedaughtrey]

Hello everyone,
This is a great guide. Downloaded the game and have been trying to figure it out on my own, which I was obviously not ready for.
I followed your instructions and it made perfect sense and worked perfectly.
The only thing I didn't heed was the part about the embargos... Some virtual people were very angry with me, but the rest worked great!
I plan on apply this for my captains for start up money, exp, and rep. Then begin my campaign of mischief.

[johndramey]

Hello there danedaughtrey, glad you like the thread. Keep in mind, this is simply one way to start up your captain. It's not even a particularly smart long-term start if you are playing on higher difficulty, but it should be enough to get you off the ground and into a decent ship so you can learn the ropes on your own. If you want to look for some more information for newer players please refer to this thread, it has a lot of good information.

This is one of the first guides that I sat down to write and, while I'm still pretty happy with it, it shows that I wasn't too experienced yet. The main thing you should realize is this; when you follow this guide you will be sacrificing a little of your late-game potential for early game advantage. Explorers are nice, non-combat captains to play and they allow you to get huge amounts of cash with little risk (well, except to your crew and limbs!). However, points spent in explore will take away from points in the more... practical skills.

As you learn more and more in the game you should start to try to shift to a more late-game build. You can still follow the basics of the guide, but replace "exploration" with something else. Either buy/sell during shortage rumors or run contracts. When you get late game you'll need all of the pilot/tactics/warrior skill you can have.

With all that said.... Have fun! ST (and all of the other TB games) are deep and fun. There really is no "right" way to play. Consider them roguelikes, your captain WILL eventually die, it's the journey that counts.

[juicy]

This is an awesome guide. Thank you so much. I have a lvl 13 Explorer on Demanding. It seems nothing stands in his way now.

[johndramey]

Glad to be of service, juicy. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them, and if you have any tips of your own and feel like sharing you can do so. I'll post them up in the OP and credit you with them Until then, happy trading!