A comprehensive guide to Space Rangers 2!

[tindrli]

Now thats a proper droid

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

re:repairs.

Ok, you DO have to pay nodes for repairs, but only for special items or something, like IMHO. That makes them very annoying to have so now I regret picking this one up.

 

[Average Manatee]

Dominator-only weapons probably. I'll definitely pay attention to other Dominator equipment in the future now that I know they don't require nodes.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

I now have a void engine so I can't help using that since the higher level void engines go crazy fast with the psi accelerator, but I had a new 600 torsion engine with drover added and it was amazing for the early-mid game. I could jump across half the map.

 

[Average Manatee]

You can totally just keep two engines and hotswap them in space between speed and jump distance.

 

[laclongquan]

It's the courier's tactic~

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

I already get annoyed by all the equipment switching around though, not to mention space is always a concern in this game.

I finally got a good droid. I realized that I HAD used droids before but I thought they really sucked. The problem was I always got them early in the game and they had 200 HP/space and crap armor and I also didn't realize you could change their equipment. The first one in this game was sort of crappy but he was still a death machine, though he would get killed easily. Now I have a guy with more armor and HP and he is truly a monster.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

To kind of correct that steam guide, caphasitors are great weapons. So are lasers and fluxes because they have good range early on. Frag cannons are basically worthless because you will never get to fire them, they will have tons of shipt class fighters that will simply never come into range.

Even with longer range weapons this fucking game can be ridiculous in that respect and you can kill a legion of large ships and then find a SINGLE SHIPT you can't kill one on one in the same group because it has massively overpowered weapons and speed. Of course I play with the dominators set to max so that makes it much harder.

Also caphasitor is especially good. It's the BEST weapon for the hyperspace, easily. It's like cheat mode in there. The top damage rating is also very high for how early you get it and that is the only important one once you understand how the game works. It is as good as flow blasters on damage but you can regularly get them for only size 25 or less! It's also got good range at 305+ with some going much higher.

To start off I just slap some lasers into the default hull and immediately start killing dominators, no buildup no nothing. Then I go to fluxes when I can afford it (which suck in hyperspace though) then dump them for caphasitors or dominator captured weapons when they show up.

 

[anvi]

This was one of my favorite games when I first completed it years ago. But I tried playing it again and didn't like it. I found the trading really boring and you have to do it a lot to build up. And I don't like the RTS missions because some of them seem brokenly hard. The first time I loved the game, but I just rage quit every time I try to play it again.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

The RTS games are annoying because some of them are stupidly hard, even impossible. I usually just don't do them.

The trading is OK I guess but it is not very exciting.

It is actually fairly easy to jump in right away and do planetary defense against the dominators though, so long as you have longer range weapons. I start off picking the treton and engine as my special items and buy some lasers and go to town. Once you have a little money the nanobrolite and upgraded special items give you boosts to your attacka nd defense, and with the way this works in the game they are very vital.

If you take stimulators you can even do well in liberation missions.

I just started a new game and this time, I just liberated my first system 6 months in with all the dominator settings either at the max or close to it, without stims. I got several lucky equipment finds right off the bat though.

However if you get to where you can't engage the dominators then yeah the game gets super boring and is a drag. But remember there is also exploring the wormholes, which also makes you much more able to deal with them.

 

[anvi]

Thanks I am gonna try that, I will just skip the RTS missions, I have a real RTS I can do for that. The trading bores me but I don't mind doing it for a while to get some good cash and then buying uber gear to go whooping ass with.

 

[Average Manatee]

Most RTS missions are pretty simple. Protips: Get 3-4 bots with 3x missile launchers, 1x stunner, antigrav and locator/dynamo head, mortar. Position them with a clear field of fire, space them out in a nice napoleonic line (so they don't shoot each other), make sure they are all facing forward (they'll shoot first rather than wait to be shot), put 2-3 bots with repair and locator/dynamo behind them (but NO MORTAR, because they will shoot the mortar and not heal if it causes them to face the wrong way). You'll pretty much own every enemy coming your way indefinitely. And the AI does always run out of resources eventually. It's kind of harder in situations where you don't have good open areas and have to defend multiple sides, but the general idea is to push forward on sides that the AI isn't pressuring you on and getting a good defensive position set up whenever they come your way.

For trading, once you get some money the best thing to do is just dump a bunch of money in Luxuries then store them on a planet for a few years. Luxuries appreciate way faster than you'll gain interest in a bank.

 

[anvi]

They used to be easy in the first version I played when it first came out as just "Space Rangers 2". But I got a new version called A War Apart and I wonder if they borked the RTS missions because the first one I tried was impossible, and they were never liked that before.

 

[Freddie]

They used to be easy in the first version I played when it first came out as just "Space Rangers 2". But I got a new version called A War Apart and I wonder if they borked the RTS missions because the first one I tried was impossible, and they were never liked that before.

I have Reboot and War Apart versions of Space Rangers 2. I don't recall if it's in either or both but there is a separate difficulty setting for RTS battles. The thing for me was that they pay well and once you learn the tricks they are not that time consuming either.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

I was getting like 2k payout for the RTS missions which is a complete joke. Turns out that is what the 'unlucky' setting does for quests, or part of it. I tried again with it on normal and suddenly I get 20k for the starter RTS.

That could also be why they were so freaking difficult, though I am not sure because I have not been doing missions since then.

 

[Average Manatee]

The RTS missions scale up over time to become insanely profitable even on highest difficulties. We're talking millions of space buckos.

I don't think any of the difficulty settings affect the difficulty of the RTS missions, unless its giving the AI more money (which just means that you need to survive longer till they run dry).

 

[Freddie]

The RTS missions scale up over time to become insanely profitable even on highest difficulties. We're talking millions of space buckos.

I don't think any of the difficulty settings affect the difficulty of the RTS missions, unless its giving the AI more money (which just means that you need to survive longer till they run dry).

I recall there is but I don't have it installed at the moment and I'm too lazy to do that. Also, there are at least 3 (international) editions of SR 2. Original, Reboot and A War Apart, which includes Reboot content and have other additions. There was also SR 2 Revolution planned in Russia but I don't know if it's part of A War Apart or if it never materialised.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

I ave played all three of them and am playing A war apart now. It seems in the original that you would slowly work up in difficulty and always got easy ones. In this one it's random, and many are insanely hard.

A couple of the hyperspace maps are really ridiculous, too. Especially the boxy one with all the gravity trap nonsense.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yeah, the new ones tend to be harder and they are mixed in with the old. Probably a good choice from the standpoint of old players who don't want to play all the same maps again before getting to the new ones, but certain new early maps can be brutal if you get unlucky with how the AI acts.

My least favourite is the one where the spawns are on four corners and the only way to reach each other is the 4x laser defense thing in the center. The AI is way too good at taking it due to its ability to spam out lots of bots and tank the lasers while capping, and if/when it does it takes over the whole map.

EDIT: It's "Module". Also "Crater" and "Landing" can be pretty rough.

 

[anvi]

I ave played all three of them and am playing A war apart now. It seems in the original that you would slowly work up in difficulty and always got easy ones. In this one it's random, and many are insanely hard.

A couple of the hyperspace maps are really ridiculous, too. Especially the boxy one with all the gravity trap nonsense.

Know any way to fix that? I don't want to have to find my old copy of SR2, hoping to make War Apart work better.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

I ave played all three of them and am playing A war apart now. It seems in the original that you would slowly work up in difficulty and always got easy ones. In this one it's random, and many are insanely hard.

A couple of the hyperspace maps are really ridiculous, too. Especially the boxy one with all the gravity trap nonsense.

Know any way to fix that? I don't want to have to find my old copy of SR2, hoping to make War Apart work better.

You can mod the game and it looks easy. You can just take out certain maps completely.

I wish I could get all the text missions but I hardly ever get them, everyone wants dominator robot missions.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

Also, I suspecy setting the quests difficulty rating to 'lucky' will help.

 

[Average Manatee]

Quest missions are much more likely where there are lots of coalition planets. On the hardest dominator settings you'll basically need to complete the game to see most of them since otherwise the Doms will hold too much of the universe.

 

[Charles Eli Cheese]

Also another thing to nitpick about the guide - flow blaster is actually shit in wormholes. No idea what crack that guy is smoking. He says it has long range and high damage yet it is lower range and damage than the caphasitors.

I always avoided the wave phasor because of low range but if you gave it farsight then it could be as good as an atomic vision due to its multiple hit ability. And much smaller. I think I will try that out once I get more nodes.

 

[anvi]

I wish this game got a bigger budget sequel that lets you build your own empire while protecting it from the Dominators and trying to take them out.