Refining A Strategy of mine

[wolfie]

I'm new to the forum and the game but I have been playing ST for a few weeks now and I kinda got into a bit of a routine, for a reference I usually play on either demanding or challenging, but I plan on cranking that up once I get better with the game.

My strategy is roughly the same regardless of what profession or faction(s) I choose to side with, that is, I do contracts until I can get a decent cargo, then explore/harvest until I get over 200k (which doesn't take me that long, maybe about 30 minutes from start to 200k. Once I buy my second ship and have it upgraded is usually when I almost always die..

In combat I usually go straight in, kill the engines and either board or barrage their decks, even though usually just a few engine hits will take em down and leave the hull intact so I can loot 'em, including cargo, torps, and crew. I am working on the unlocks so I always destroy them, after I get those unlocks I will stop destroying (to stop losing rep so quick, lol)

Stay wise, I first get all buy stealth to max (without raising the captains non-skill stats) then I focus on pilot, strength/warrior (forgot which was the skill and which was the non-skill) with some into stealth, and I dump the rest into intimidate.

The main thing I wish to improve is Long-term survivability, thanks for taking the time to read this and hope someone would care to help me out, if you need more information on my play-style just let me know.

[beuns]

Hi wolfie !

First thing first : welcome to the forum


Here are my advices :

1- you may want to consider downgrading the difficulty your playing on. There is no shame in that, Trese Brothers game are hard to master, they are complex and deep and you will need time to master this one.

2- you should (IMO) consider raising Pilot first (and keep raising it for a long time). Whatever profession you are playing, it will help you get away from a fight if you want to or get in if this is want you want.

3- raising stealth is indeed a good idea. It will help you avoid fight.

4- you didn't say if you buy promotion often but : don't do that after the first time. Once you have access to the military base of the star port, stop getting promotion for a while (until your combat skills are high enough) because otherwise the jobs you will get from this faction will get tougher.

5- about unlocks, don't rush to the destroy. If you destroy every ship you encounter, your rep will drop so fast that you will have a lot of bounty hunter to deal with. Choose 2/3 faction you don't care and destroy only their ships when your job demand it.

6- manage your morale. Your crew will be more efficient if your morale is high (and you won't get mutiny...) so I would advise not enslave crew at each encounter unless your so low that you must get some people back. On the other hand, recruit at the spice hall every time you need.

I hope that helps.

[wolfie]

First off, I choose demanding/challenging because I first played on normal, but 1, I don't learn by playing it too easy, I just develop bad habits, and 2, normal didnt have any real difficulty: mind you I haven't got the 1000 suns unlock so no I never played a single captain a long time, it is mainly for me testing out strategies and getting a good grip of the game, because once I dive into a game I tend to not settle for second-rate anything lol...

Okay to clear the questions up..

I buy rank, warrant, permit and edicts immediately. I usually don't get too much rep with a faction to get more than the first couple ranks..

The only time my morale isn't up is when I am between planets and nasties get to me... Or I run out of WF and still have a few to go (another reason I don't play on normal, WF consumption is pitifully low..)

And I will definitely try the Pilot-first (after my required points into explorer, I use that too much not to...)

[xdesperado]

wolfie welcome to the forum.

Have you thought of not doing the exploration thing? Unless you are playing a dedicated explorer captain those are wasted points for all other captains, especially on higher difficulty levels.

There are plenty of good ways to make money without exploration. Work trade routes, watch for shortage and surplus rumors, when you get to around level 10 with good pilot and tactics skills take part in spy wars.

Try building very good rep with a couple factions so you always have friendly ports to refuel and repair at.

[wolfie]

I mainly choose to explore because I could rack up a couple 100K in a matter of minutes, without too much trouble, which in turn got me a better ship, and most of the upgrades I use, can't think of the names, but I choose cargo and crew mainly, because I don't buy a ship unless the rest is what I want, and I first wanted to be a merchant/star trader, then I found out only way to make a decent amount is surplus/shortages, except 1 time lol, but that was pure luck (de valtos prime and the planet like 4 AU away [4 squares incase I am usin the wrong unit of measurement] had prices of metal so that made 20-25 cash profit, and as I just started that world, after I did a couple contracts it was worthwhile to do that, and keep some metal at de valtos prime so there would be enough metal incase I needed some upgrades or repairs before the planet generated more..)

Anyways, thanks a lot for all the help, and I will look forward to possibly getting more advice when I wake up, but I just got done with a 14 hour shift at work, so I'm kinda tired lol. Also just as an FYI: I haven't experimented with spy/trade/etc wars. (Although the world I'm currently playing I'm using trade alliances to boost my rep so I can get the Big Tent unlock, and this world hopefully I can also get both the Doom Reaper's and 1000 suns)

Edit: and just noticed you mentioning getting good rep for repairs and such: so just thought I should mention I always have 2 factions with positive rep (and the rest are pissed and try to use my ship to feed the nearest supernova) and usually I at least get a rank warrant and a trade permit in those factions, and I have heard that increases the level of contracts, but I haven't noticed that much a change, but that could be because of the difficulty I play on.

[qbspy]

After you buy your 2nd ship are you usually broke? How is it that you are usually killed?

[wolfie]

Although when I first started I died for a variety of reasons (tried crazy once, it earns its' name) but now I usually only die from hull crush.

After I buy my second ship, and any upgrades, I try and make sure I got at least 20-30K.

And, on a side note: I have found and destroyed my first Alien a few minutes after I got back home, it was only an Alien Knife, (on my current captain I had a good amount of unused xp, so I capped pilot to my current max and put the rest in tactics)

I'm at work, but once I get a moment I'll post my ship and captain stats, because after looking at the forum a bit more i found certain stats will raise your level faster, and so stats should be more carefully picked... And as an FYI my current captain is level 9, (although I do gotta get to civilization lol, I'm probably gonna die if I can't find any more WF I bought out all the nearby planets, gonna have to find a good Economy planet..)

[beuns]

wolfie : if you mainly die from Hull crush, you should consider getting the "escape shuttle" upgrade which protects you from said Hull crush.

[wolfie]

Ya, I'm still working on the unlock for it, it's in my Top 5 unlock priotity list, lol, along with the doom reapers 1000 suns and of the ones that unlocks ship designs (I don't have the ship designer yet, should be getting in a couple weeks..)

[qbspy]

wolfie If you're buying death warrants, go ahead and stop doing that. You run a similar strategy usually? Try out the captain profession. Also, consider Javat if you like exploring. 20 thousand credits is risky after your second ship, with more experience that won't be as big a deal. I don't think its necessary to have beef with so many factions early in the game. That's probably why you are dying. Or you are going on kill missions. No need for that explorer! When you buy your second ship, make sure you leave cargo space for weapons. Always have weapons. Pilot is very important, but so are all the other stats. I think you should look at stealth. You have to hide from the spacers that are after your booty. I hope you've been recruiting officers. Very helpful. Sorry for my lack of explanations, I'm tired. Definitely buy the ship designer. Its awesome.

[wolfie]

I don't purposefully piss em off I just designate 2 as the ones I side with, the rest are simply collateral damage.

And yes I get officers (and I always recruit them if I have space, then I get a bit selective) and doesn't stealth stop aliens? Until I get all the alien awar unlocks I don't want to lessen their spawn rate, because I hear they aren't that common (in terms of in game turns per alien) in most cases..

[qbspy]

Giving yourself a little stealth won't prevent the aliens from finding you, especially If they sense that you have a big load of artifacts. For long term survivability though, stealth is pretty important. Isn't this an awesome friggin game? What faction do you like right now?

[slayernz]

wolfie
By focusing on Stealth at the beginning you are possibly doing yourself a disservice. The reason being is that Stealth is actually counted twice with determining your level. There is a level equation floating around that will shed more light on this, but it's important to know. If you bump up your Stealth right at the beginning to 9 or 10, you're probably already up at level 3 or 4. If you haven't also bumped up Pilot, you'll probably have a low pilot stat. I've always argued that you need at least 200% of your level, and when you start out, getting pilot to 15 or 20 as quickly as possible.

When you're changing up your ship, also bear in mind that you should always try to get your pilot skill higher than the hull points of the ship you are acquiring.

If you are a boarder type captain, another stat you should focus on is Strength and Warrior. Pilot first (always first), then start bumping Str/War up some.

[wolfie]

Thanks to both of you for the helpful advice.

qbspy: I agree, awesome game and also, my favorite factions seem to be thulun and de valtos, with the other Great House besides thulun and steel fortress clan as a close third.

slayernz: thanks for the tips on level:pilot and hull:pilot relations. EDIT: and ya, i usually board, depending on the state of my ship and the other, sometimes I change it up a bit, such as torp'ing em at a distance then moving in to ram then shoot their decks till they fall (if I'm low on crew and can't risk boarding) or just torp and board, if they have a bit more armor, but usually I just go in, spray their decks then board/gun their engines, with preference to boarding.

I rarely put points into stealth (except I may find it a bit more useful for the Hardcore Elite unlock to get the escape pod unlock (and the one right after that, for lvl 20 without changing ships, as so far my newest captain is doing very good, already got doom reaper I, and Hardcore Captain (the lvl 5 without changing ships) and I'm close the next Hardcore unlock (lvl 10) atm I'm trying to find some contracts for a couple factions to get rep up enough so I can access the palace for pardons, as my rep is good for most factions, but thulun and cadar absolutely hate my, I'm down to less than -50 rep with both, lol, I don't care about trade bans if I can make over 50-60k selling from a shortage to a surplus and they both have trade bans, I may lean towards a faction or two, and I may need some allies, but good money is good money

[qbspy]

Maybe you can take advantage of a spy battle to fix that rep.