Had it installed in the past, but it changed to much of the game. Her Imperial Majesty's Space Navy looked very interesting, but appears to be stalled.
Same for me.. Gal Navy has too overpowering a presence.
Alex wrote:
Heck of a saving on consumibles like Military Missiles and the such.
I'd rather stick with my Missile Machine. That makes it possible for me to build my own hardheads from raw materials, for a cost of approx 1/3 of retail. 8 missile slots (the ninth is taken up by the MM) plus 4TC each of Alloys, Radioactives and Computers for making additional missiles, gives me a total combat loadout of 20 cheap hardheads.
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
I do courier contracts. Take enough of them on at once and you're in for at least one big fight before you deliver all of them.
I always go straight from witchpoint to station. That way I run into idiot pirates who think they can take me. If they abandon ship, I salvage it for extra cash.
If my hold is empty and I feel like relaxing, I switch my front laser to a mining laser and mine for a while.
I also trade whenever there's a good tech gap between two adjoining systems.
And I always buy and sell metals and gems.
I just got a courier contract worth 37,000 that takes me across the entire north edge of Galaxy 5. Dock at every station on the way and look for other contracts that are also on that route = tons of courier cash coming in and tons of fights with would-be assassins.
My older pilots got rich through trading then went over to cargo, mail, and passenger hauling quite late, when I realised just how much money there was in it, and that it was more challenging than just trading back and forth.
I've recently started a newbie commander (11 kills so far) who is already flying a Planet Express ship with one passenger berth and flying small cargoes and parcels as he can get them - mostly they want a more qualified pilot for these contracts, but I'm already reasonably well equipped and currently have about 20K cash - saving up for military shields etc. I'll need a lot more dosh before I can afford to carry high-value cargoes, but I'm getting there, meanwhile parcels are the real big earner.
OK, that was just over a month ago. I'm now up to 163 kills, all reputations impeccable, and more than a million in the bank, and flying a Boa Clipper with 5 berths and all mod cons except the Naval Energy Unit, which I have to earn on a mission once the Navy gets around to asking me. It took me a lot longer when I was doing this entirely by trading and collecting bounties, cargo contracts REALLY pay off once you have a the "Best in the galaxy" reputation, so does mail.
What I would like to go for eventually is a bigger freighter with the Boa Clipper's speed, agility and extra tankage, is there anything like that around that doesn't have serious drawbacks? I can't visualise an Anaconda Clipper somehow...
a bigger freighter with the Boa Clipper's speed, agility and extra tankage, is there anything like that around that doesn't have serious drawbacks? I can't visualise an Anaconda Clipper somehow...
D.T.T. Cyclops if 700TC capacity and 0.314 LM speed fit into your taste.
Well, that was lucky - took me about two hours playing to finish my current lot of cargo, parcel and passenger runs and get to a TL14 port. Where I found several Cyclops on sale including one with a Naval Energy Unit. And having already been in one quick combat, I really like it - certainly agile enough for my purposes, and seems pretty tough. Gave it every bit of equipment available and had 750k left afterwards, which seems a VERY good deal.
Something I really enjoy doing these days is play Combat Spectator.
Since this is a kind of new one, let me explain how it works. It's really easy. Launch into an area of space and use the Debug Console to create opposing forces. Examples include pirates vs police, police vs thargoids, traders vs thargoids, pirates vs hunters vs police vs thargoids, preferrably in significant numbers. Spawn asteroid fields and maybe a few rock hermits and stations for variation. Maybe move the planet and/or the sun at a suitable position for maximum effect. In a few words, set up a combat scenery and then just let it all run itself. While battles are underway, fly around and just watch the action happening. I find it quite gratifying, sometimes relaxing even. And, as an added bonus, it offers awesome action snapshot opportunities.
Something I really enjoy doing these days is play Combat Spectator.
Since this is a kind of new one, let me explain how it works. It's really easy. Launch into an area of space and use the Debug Console to create opposing forces. Examples include pirates vs police, police vs thargoids, traders vs thargoids, pirates vs hunters vs police vs thargoids, preferrably in significant numbers. Spawn asteroid fields and maybe a few rock hermits and stations for variation. Maybe move the planet and/or the sun at a suitable position for maximum effect. In a few words, set up a combat scenery and then just let it all run itself. While battles are underway, fly around and just watch the action happening. I find it quite gratifying, sometimes relaxing even. And, as an added bonus, it offers awesome action snapshot opportunities.
Hmm, I think there would be a market in-universe for rich eccentrics to be "Combat Spectators".
Some organizers would propose this with:
- a very hard-assed ship from which viewing the fight,
- some "picadors" to make the fight more heated,
- some "rabbits" to bring pirates into the fight zone,
- and of course some complimentary roasted trumble.
