New to Oolite - Help Me w/ Equipment

[PillowTalk]

I understand-for the most part, anyway-what each piece of equipment does I am just not sure what would be a good order to obtain them in. I already figured that the cargo hold would be the best first piece, since you only start with 100 credits and you'll be forced to move a lot of freight around to get by. But I don't want to run away from Pirates trying to steal my precious Food and Textiles; I'd rather blast them and collect their bounty and cargo for myself, in addition to the Food and Textiles.

After the cargo hold, I got myself a Scanner Targeting Enhancement because, before I looked on the wiki, I thought it would allow me to select targets with the next/previous keys. From my understanding, I would need both the Multi-Targeting System AND the Target System Memory Expansion to be able to select targets without looking at them with the targeting system activated. What would be better to get first, though? The more expensive memory upgrade (assuming, I can even install it first) or the Multi-Targeting System? Or maybe a second weapon?

[Cody]

Hi and welcome aboard - do you have fuel scoops and witchdrive fuel injectors yet?
You need the scoops to collect any booty - and injectors are invaluable.

[Thermonuklear]

I would go for the beam laser, especially if there's lots of pirate-blasting to be done!

[PillowTalk]

Hi and welcome aboard - do you have fuel scoops and witchdrive fuel injectors yet?
You need the scoops to collect any booty - and injectors are invaluable.

Not yet, no. I know eventually I will need the scoops; that was the first thing I looked up because I just kept crashing into cargo trying to figure out how to collect it XD

[Cody]

I'd make the scoops and injectors the priority items of kit, tbh.

[Smivs]

Hi PillowTalk, and welcome.
Agreed, scoops and injectors are essential.
By the way, for trading I'd forget the textiles and food. Buy booze or furs at tow-tech agri worlds and sell at high-tech industrial, then buy computers or luxuries there and take them to low-tech agries. That will maximise your profit margins. Also deal in gems, gold and platinum. Study the prices and buy cheap/sell high (of course!). The beauty is they go in a safe in your cockpit, so do not take up cargo space.

[rayner]

The expanded cargo bay is definitely a good first purchase, just as soon as you can afford enough cargo to make use of it.

If you're eager to stand and fight when you encounter pirates, I'd get these next: ECM System, Witchdrive Fuel Injectors (for outrunning ECM-hardened missiles), and Beam Laser. The Scanner Targeting Enhancement is also extremely handy for finding out whether a ship is a likely troublemaker before they get close enough to bother you (and it's very cheap considering how useful it is).

After that, it's a lot more flexible, depending on how you like to play. I'd put the Extra Energy Unit and Fuel Scoops near the top of the shopping list. Shield Boosters and Military Lasers aren't cheap, but they're worth every credit.

The Target System Memory Expansion and Multi-Targeting System are usually some of my very last purchases, after I've run out of anything else to spend money on. The Target System Memory Expansion is mildly useful, but becomes absolutely invaluable if you go Thargoid-hunting, as you can lock onto each mothership in turn and then toggle between them, ignoring the drones. I almost never use the Multi-Targeting System, but that's because I hardly ever use missiles anyway.

Well, that's my 2 Cr. Hope it helps.

[Commander McLane]

From my understanding, I would need both the Multi-Targeting System AND the Target System Memory Expansion to be able to select targets without looking at them with the targeting system activated.

Sort of.

You still need to lock each target manually in order to load it into the system. Once you've done that, you'll be able to toggle between targets. But the first step will always be to get each target in your crosshairs and press 'R'.

[Bugbear]

Personal opinion regarding order of upgrades.

Injectors would have to be the first upgrade to make. Better than ECM because it allows you to outrun all the non-OXP missiles.

Defence is important early in the game, so ECMs would be a good second purchase (injectors are good only so long as you have fuel to inject).

From that point, you are in a position to survive running away from most conflicts. In all honesty, while it is possible to fight with a pulse laser, it can be challenging.

Your career options from here open up and it really depends on your priorities.

If you want to be a trader, then the Cargo Bay Expansion is a good choice here, but it's not an essential purchase until you've built up enough capital to be able to fill it. e.g. 20T of computers @ 60Cr = 1200Cr. If you don't have at least that much credit + the 435Cr for the expansion itself, then the purchase isn't worth the outlay at that point.

If you want to be a pirate or bounty hunter, you'll need both beam lasers and fuel scoops ('cause the real money is in the cargo you can scoop from your victims - it's great when you can scoop 10kg of Platinum for nothing, then sell for 77Cr/kg).

The remaining upgrades to your ship range from being time savers (e.g. Docking Computers, space compass), opportunities for extra income (Mining lasers, Passenger cabins), defensive enhancements (Extra Energy Unit, Shield Boosters) and of course weapons (Military lasers, ECM Missiles, Cascade mines). What you get next is really up to you.

[Diziet Sma]

From my understanding, I would need both the Multi-Targeting System AND the Target System Memory Expansion to be able to select targets without looking at them with the targeting system activated.

Sort of.

You still need to lock each target manually in order to load it into the system. Once you've done that, you'll be able to toggle between targets. But the first step will always be to get each target in your crosshairs and press 'R'.

However.. later on, should you decide to install the Military Targeting System OXP, you can insta-target up to 16 objects of whatever type you're interested in (e.g. Offenders/Fugitives, Police, Hostiles, etc) with just one keypress or click of a joystick button..

[Commander McLane]

However.. later on, should you decide to install the …

Note that we were not talking any OXP yet. So far it has been only about core equipment, and vanilla Oolite gameplay, of which I personally consider the interaction with other ships via targeting them an essential part.

A shame that this beautiful thread gets spoiled by a link to a powerful core-game-mechanics-changing OXP so early.

By the way: my personal upgrade path is exactly like PillowTalk's: Large Cargo Bay first, because it allows me to increase my rate of earning, thereby giving me more money to invest into the other stuff. The next thing is some defensive/offensive stuff. I often also sell my missiles right away, because I don't use missiles for fighting anyway, and it gives me a little head start, maybe allowing me to buy another tonne of furs on the first trip.

I also as a rule run away early from every fight until long after installing the Large Cargo Bay. The only exception is when I run into a firefight between at least two police ships and a lone pirate. Then I try to get in and land the kill. Through target switching the pirate will have a nice bounty at that point, and sometimes I manage to wrangle it from the police (or the bounty hunter that may be present as well).

[Diziet Sma]

However.. later on, should you decide to install the …

Note that we were not talking any OXP yet. So far it has been only about core equipment, and vanilla Oolite gameplay, of which I personally consider the interaction with other ships via targeting them an essential part.

A shame that this beautiful thread gets spoiled by a link to a powerful core-game-mechanics-changing OXP so early. :D

My bad.. sorry for offending your sense of aesthetics..

However, the question had already been raised.. I was merely stating that such a capability does exist.

[cim]

General advice: Large Cargo Bay and Fuel Injectors as the first two, definitely. Probably injectors first if you dock with the money to afford either, but more likely you'll get the Cargo Bay first as the one you can afford.

After that ... if you're wanting to go into combat, I'd probably say: forward beam laser, ECM system and fuel scoops, scanner targeting enhancement and extra energy unit, aft beam laser. Further upgrades in any order, really.

Learning to use the aft laser effectively is one of the key combat skills. If you can use it as well as your forward laser, you'll be considerably more than twice as powerful.

The more expensive memory upgrade (assuming, I can even install it first) or the Multi-Targeting System?

The memory upgrade first, definitely. The Multi-Targeting System ... later, maybe never.

What the MTS does is allow you to maintain independent missile locks for each missile, so you can lock things up, then just hit the launch key repeatedly to fire them off at multiple targets. The catch with this is if you don't prepare the locks in advance, what you get is:
- lock missile on target
- fire missile
- lose target, because your next missile (which is now the active one) isn't locked on to anything
Whereas without an MTS, your next missile would automatically be given the master target. With the memory upgrade, you can cycle between previously selected targets pretty quickly anyway, so the MTS really doesn't save much time.

There aren't many things that require two missiles in succession firing at them, but you might well want to fire a missile to keep it busy while you press an attack with your lasers.

I'd recommend:
1) Don't buy the MTS until you've already got - and found time to get practised in using - the Target System Memory Expansion
2) Only buy it then if, even with the TSME's assistance, you find you're regularly too slow to re-lock missiles on to target when you're firing more than one in a short space of time.

The MTS is a good piece of kit for certain advanced piloting styles (where the few seconds it saves you when launching a full missile spread can be crucial), but it's also the one piece of kit which may actually make you less effective in combat if you install it without knowing how to use it well.

[Wildeblood]

A shame that this beautiful thread gets spoiled by a link to a powerful core-game-mechanics-changing OXP so early.

Especially that one. The only reason that particular OXP should be kept in circulation is as an example of poor scripting and what not to do. If you want that particular capability, Timer's excellent Target System Upgrade does it right.

But I agree with McLane, there is no reason to turn a "How to get started in the game" thread into yet another "Which OXPs to install first" thread.

[PillowTalk]

Learning to use the aft laser effectively is one of the key combat skills. If you can use it as well as your forward laser, you'll be considerably more than twice as powerful.

Do you just go into Aft view and shoot like normal?