Danti Cautela and Explorers

[Officer Genious]

The Aperio Caligula is the one with the Water-Fuel upgrade.

[cab]

Jul 5, 2014 11:32:17 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Jul 1, 2014 10:49:12 GMT -5 cab said:

I have plenty of success with Aperio Caliga.  In fact, it's pretty much the only starting ship I ever use because I always avoid fighting in the beginning.  Just don't carry stuff worth stealing and surrender when necessary.  Don't bother replenishing torpedoes.  Start accumulating trade permits and once you have enough of them do whatever you need/want to after that.  Of course, if you want to fight people you'll eventually want a different ship ...

Wrong ship- we're looking at the Danti Cautela, the one for explorers and scouts. I get them confused too.

He asked if anyone had success with any other ship that wasn't FAST/QUICK.  That's why I bourght up the Aperio Caliga.

[beverage]

I should have specified that has any has success with a Vessel with only Medium SPEED from less than 2x sails/hull ratio.

I too have had easy success with stealth and high sails making escape and avoidance a breeze.

Using Fast Agility (engine) with Medium Speed (sails) is a different story which was what I was having trouble with

Update:

THE DANTE CAUTELA IS NOT GOOD/FAECES FOR EXPLORERS but is bloody awesome for starting Combat classes. (change description to not include explorer class as that's a lie I tell you)

So after actually using the Danti as an aggressive/opportunistic Zealot I have just about had the best game (successful and FUN  of my ST career so far.

I have focussed on having two friends (Cadar and De Valtos for geopolitical reasons )

Boost pilot straight away and after Pilot is 200% of your level start Pirating/Looting everything that doesn't -ve effect your Rep.

I have become $cashed up$ and +ve Rep from restricted goods and plenty of XP.

Spend XP:

Pilot 200% of lvl,

Tactics 50% of lvl

Warrior 50% of lvl

STRENGTH [IMPORTANT] 200% to 300% of lvl

[Strength XP Tip: boost strength to at least 300% of lvl also, then AFTER LEVELLING OTHER SKILLS FOR AWHILE it becomes only 200% of level, boost it back to 300%. If you didn't know, strength does not increase your level (easier enemies) and will save your arse from Tens of $1000's of healing bills]

Ship Upgrades: I grab Shalun Mercs, Weapon Cabinet, Ancient Reactors, Sail Command Probe and  [can't remember right now].

Mercs and Weapon Cabinet are essential, the others are entirely optional and depend on your luck finding a new and better ship. Make sure you actually buy/loot Weapons to min 15/ideally 25.

Officers: On Insane difficulty I pretty much always go for the Veteran, Military Officer and Templar (even found the Hydra Templar in this game  for THE ONE reason that all Star Traders dread, THE XENO! That said if your willing to risk Xeno digestion then a Pilot/Military Officer/Templar will work well also (especially if you got the sail command probe upgrade!)

Now I just lurk through the quadrant Gunbunnying, Boarding and Looting. These skills and upgrades should see you able to conquer any other ship that might come along and be worthy of "Borrowing".

Torp-> Advance-> Gun-> Advance-> Engines-> Crew-> Board.

Highly Dependent on finding a few well stocked lvl 1 Spacetrucks early on (bahaha why any self respecting trader would fly one of these is remarkable, My Zealots eyes see only a Tin can with juicy contents that need only be opened with minimal effort)

PROTIP : Your sails suck basically, 1 bit of damage and W/F cost goes Too High......Run out of fuel.......Mutinous crew...........-1 Health etc etc. Always keep stocked on Luxury Rations. Loot Luxury Rations before anything else. Leave W/F to make room for Luxury Rations. Luxury Rations

Currently as of this minute "Hou Ditara" is Running around in the "Xeno Spectre" custom ship costing a cool $1.7 Million 8). Still brutally effective against non-xenos.

Xeno Spectre:

Hull 25

Armor 16

Engines 50   

Sails 50

Crew 160 (145 +15 Shalun Mercs)

Hold 180 (150 +20% Cargo hold)

Guns 45

Torps 22 (20 +2 Xeno Torps)

Xeno Crew Suits

Null Field Generator

Always carry a minimum of 65 weapz, Ideally 100 and NEVER EVER CARRY ARTIFACTS!!!

[beverage]

Update:

Hou Ditara is now dead.

[pendell]

What killed him ...?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Alex Fury]

I've got to ask a question, How is it possible to get those stats beverage? I can barely keep pilot at about 1.75 of my level, much less keep the others anything more than 1/3. Seems like some skills/attributes raise your level far faster than others

[beverage]

Jul 17, 2014 23:22:27 GMT -5 Alex Fury said:

I've got to ask a question, How is it possible to get those stats beverage? I can barely keep pilot at about 1.75 of my level, much less keep the others anything more than 1/3. Seems like some skills/attributes raise your level far faster than others

I apologize, those statistics are more of a general "ideal".

Strength adds 0/nothing to your overall level. Ideally, spend 400 "real life hours" bumping strength to 1000 without boosting anything else and you will remain at LVL 1(hope this makes sense as this is the core principle of this "build")

I have found that regardless of class or playstyle "Pilot" is the no1 skill in ST and keeping it 200% of lvl improves survival by a very large/"i'm having fun"/"you can't touch me" amount.

My gross generalization is my fault, I should have said that to aim for a Rough "200%pilot" "50%warrior""50%tactics" is a very loose guide. There will be always be a variance but as a general rule this will ensure success on the more difficult settings.

If you love Gunning and Torping opponents, then level tactics to at least 50% (ideally 75% at expense of warrior) or More of your level to make sure you are effective against the higher level Gunfighting/Aggressive Boarding opponents on higher difficulties.

If like me , you love boarding enemy vessels with a highly trained and effective boarding force, focus on keeping "Warrior" at at least 50% (ideally 75% at expense of tactics) or more of your level.

The key thing is, Boarding combat and its statistics(warrior and tactics), regardless of playstyle and character choice, is the the one key combat ability that will (almost) guarantee your continued survival and the fact that boosting strength does not add to your overall character level, yet helps your warrior statistic and character/captain damage negation is why I favour a minimum 300% strength.

Over an entire game:

If I want to pirate and loot, I focus on warrior so I capture intact enemies and loot as much as I can.

If I just want to survive, gain XP in combat and scavange any oppurtune decrepit wreckages of those I have gunned and torped and luckily not hull crushed, I focus on tactics.

You may also be over investing in Stealth. It is a double edged sword! Each point of stealth counts as 2 points against your Captain Level. I pump stealth only when a stray torpedo from an encounter I want to avoid hits me. If you press "ignore" in the encounter screen and they hit you with a Torp regularly, you need a little more stealth. (no % regarding stealth, I just use the "Avoid- Oh they hit me time to add a point or 2 to stealth till they don't theory")

Hope that helps

[Alex Fury]

It does help, and tried something along those lines.. Got up to about lvl 40, before my first (and only) alien encounter handed my captain his ass quite thoroughly. With about a 75 pilot, couldn't even escape. Stealth was about a 25

[beverage]

Thought I would throw a little update in here:

As a level 8 Star Trader using the boarding version of this setup I encountered a LVL 27 Narvidian and thought "Well, time to start again".
I was flying a "javelin class", awesome ship!
Imagine my surprise and joy when after about 9 turns of boarding combat Victory appeared

1 Hull remaining "phew".

I am certain that any other build would have resulted in a sure death.

[beverage]

Jul 23, 2014 0:14:06 GMT -5 Alex Fury said:

It does help, and tried something along those lines.. Got up to about lvl 40, before my first (and only) alien encounter handed my captain his ass quite thoroughly. With about a 75 pilot, couldn't even escape. Stealth was about a 25

I pretty much found out in a similar way that no matter how pimped your ship and slick your Captain is, most Aggressive Xenos are inescapable. That is why, in my opinion, strong boarding is a vital ability for any and all types of Captain on the higher difficulties. You won't always win mind you. But at least you have some hope instead of that sinking feeling when after pressing escape the Xeno closes