Space... The Anal Frontier (Space Rangers 2 Blind Ironman)

[Overweight Manatee]

Heh heh, I don't think you quite understand what Ironman is about. Trying to steal a gun while handcuffed and fight your way off planet does not give good survival chances.

If you ever have bad relations with a race or planet, you can change your identity at pirate bases. Its pretty cheap, you might want to do it very early whenever your character start says that you are hated by someone.

For future characters, you might also want to do the tutorial just for the extra cash it brings. The equipment trade run is hardcoded to be very profitable for a month or two before supply and demand is allowed to work, you can trade back and forth for about ~10k worth of cash. Not required by any means, but it will get you some better equipment to start off with.

3. I actually don't like RLs: they need rearming, do little damage per missile (excellent for shrugging it off completely) and worst of all - they hit anything in their path - including valuable trophy dom equipment! :fffuuuu-: Also, allies.

I've heard this before, then I take a look at my set of weapons and wonder what people have against 60 salvoes of missiles that deal 80 x 3 damage per shot? Also the weapons take up 10-15 space each leaving me lean to zip around and with ample cargo space to pick up everything, I've come back with a load of 700 nodes before.

Collateral damage is annoying, but if you don't overkill enemies too much then there aren't any missiles left over to destroy items. When I solo clean up a dominator sector I usually end with a full cargo load of stuff anyways. Most of the equipment lost is usually because they are blowing it up to keep you from obtaining it anyways, not because your dumbfired missiles are randomly hitting things in the depths of space.

 

[Ulminati]

Heh heh, I don't think you quite understand what Ironman is about. Trying to steal a gun while handcuffed and fight your way off planet does not give good survival chances.

Where's the fun in being a pussy?

Dread Pirate Lord Paco just picked a fight with 3 ships -- AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE! Update later.

 

[Ulminati]

Enter Lord Paco! Another human pirate, despite SR2s painful lesson: If you attempt to fight anything - anything at all - you die. Hell, if you look like you might actually win a fight, expect a random meteor to collide with you. Accuracy and maneuverability tagged, along with engines and mizzilez. Apparently that is the power combo. I have high hopes for Paco. He does have the blood of Bhaal in him after all. And even if he gets shot down, that means he'll have more time to finish his BG2 let's play.

As with all his predecessors, Lord Paco earns some quick cash doing the ground combat tutorial

Escort duty seems like an easy mission to run. We're deep in human territory. Even if whatever we're escorting decides to make a beeline for the dominators, the jump distance is so far our mission will be over befor ethey reach them.

Paco links up with the transport. On closer inspection, the hull has actually taken quite a beating already. (Not pictured). The ship makes a beeline for another human-controlled system, effectively spending a full third of the contract duration safe in deep space

Fortunately there was no unexpected greeting party in the next system. As an added bonus, the ship Paco was escorting landed and got repairs

It then proceeded to jump back to earth, where a fat paycheck was waiting for Paco. all in all, this mission was ridiculously easy. Maybe Paco caught the break none of his predecessors (except perhaps for heroic Hartman) were afforded.

They pay up with credits, XP and a lecture we could really do without. Pirate 4 life, yo!

The Venusian government are so impressed with Lord Pacos mad skills that he's afforded a once-in-a-lifetime oppertunity to ride with the King himself!

Some pesky paparazzi tries to score pictures of the King, but is dissuaded by a few missile salvos

Apparently the only zero-G that's zero-G enough for the king is in deep space. No complaints here, that's 2 weeks of guaranteed safety while in transit.

He then immediately jumps back. Paco has to overload his engines to get fuel from a nearby planet and follow the Kings ship. Fortunately, the contract is successful even if Paco lost sight of the Kings ship at the end.

Again the payment is quite good. Paco even receives a bonus.... thing. It gives damage reduction, which is a serious incline of Pacos survival prospects.

While decidedly un-piratey, taking missions from The Man seems to be the way to profit in this game. Since the sun system has been completely devoid of life so far, this seems like another cakewalk mission for Paco.

Just in case something happens, the radar is upgraded so Paco will spot it sooner

...And as soon as Paco takes off, he spots pirates doing their best to ruin his mission. Typical.

There are 3 of them. It's suicide to try and destroy them. but then, the mission simply stipulates that no civilian ships may be destroyed. Paco hatches a cunning plan...

He engages all 3 pirate ships, making sure to shoot enough at them to piss them all off...

...then quickly legs it to the nearest planet

Repairs are made, and he waits planetside for a few days

As soon as he takes off, the pirates reacquire him as a target, abandoning the merchants they were about to go after

They're pissed at Paco, but everything is going according to plan. No civilian ships are being attacked at all.

It takes several trips to the planet surface, but eventually Paco gets the timing down well enough that damage to his ship is minimal.

On the last foray off-planet, Paco gets a little eager and nearly bites the bullet for daring to hang around a turn too long.

But his diversion worked! The mission is a success! I think Paco will lay low for a month or so until the pirates get tired of waiting for him.

Join us nex ttime for another episode of Paco the Pirates Space Adventures! Will there be more hiding on planets like a sissy girl? Undoubtedly!

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

what people have against 60 salvoes of missiles that deal 80 x 3 damage per shot?

Spoiler

Well, you quoted a part-answer to that. Also, by the time you get to those damage levels, there are: a) better weapons to be had - including dominators', b) equally powerful shields and drones and c) doms with Vertixes.
Besides, I didn't say RLs suck ass, I said I don't like them. They're playable, but a few years in, I'd rather jump in, hit them with 3-5 Vertixes, grab the loot and get out. Plus, Vertixes are a good counter to doms' missles/torpedoes, as well.
Before that, I'd take Lezkas for range or cannons for up-close firepower and vulture it. As you may know, you don't actually need to hit an enemy ship to get part experience - it's enough to have it targeted the turn it dies, so extreme range of missiles isn't a necessity, on that account.

But I find powergaming to be of little fun in SR2, myself. It was way more fun when I was first playing the game, blind, mucking around and making mistakes. I suggest Ulminati to do the same and ignore all the generous spoilers around here, as well.

 

[Pope Amole]

It's quite lucky for you to get zoopies this early because they're one of the best combat artifacts in the game - hull's armor is one of the most important and hardest to upgrade parameters. Especially in the beginning where -5 damage cuts you a lot of slack in combat. Of course, you could've been given even better thing (like psi-accelerator or anti-grav bulb or droid jr. for the fullest comfort in hyperspace), but zoopies are still good enough. Artifactor sucks, though, totally and overly.

And, btw, since you're wasting ton of time on escort missions, buy some exploration drones from the scientific station and deploy them on the uninhabited planets - it's a very good way to get some artifacts and micromodules cheaply.

 

[RK47]

Buy a droid asap.

 

[korenzel]

Missile Launchers are really the only weapons with which one can safely deal with dominators early game. Combine the extreme range with good speed and the ship become impossible to catch and damage, which is important as Strong or Hardboiled dominators can take a good ship out in a single turn.

Do buy some probes and deploy them on unhabited planets. With the Super Technician drug you can buy the maximum amount and get good money, equipment and artefacts from what they find. They're all pretty cheap and a good investment.

I've done it twice or thrice, don't remember correctly, on the hardboiled in russian version of reboot (but it's not like it has some gameplay differences with english, eh?) Perhaps you were unlucky there? I mean, usually I was left with two or three systems(in one of the tries, it was a 4 system sector, where 1 of the systems were already captured - maybe that's the reasons why the dommies were not so keen on attacking the other three; well, blazers and terrons, Keller still continued to be a pest, but his warp incursions are kinda easy two repel if you have 2 rokkits) and it never was even close to being left with but one.

My couple of tries always ended with me having only one system, as Keller is really agressive and will attack constantly until eventually repairs and refuels drain the pool of money I get from the tutorial and some sparse trading runs. I've won the game on near impossible, with everything on hardest but dominators on Strong only. I just can't seem to make any progress in Impossible, should I wait ten or twenty years for technology to advance enough for battleships to be of any help defending sectors?

Hmm, but what were the difficulty of trading in this case? I mean, I always play with the worst prices and 5k per trip sound kinda insane on this difficulty (and early in the game, obviously).
As for the equipment - yeah, the window of opportunity is short, but if you sell almost everything you have(radar, grappler and other useless stuff), if you take an upgraded engine from the start(and the race/class combination with engine overload option enabled) and if the planets are more or less closely aligned, you can earn a lot of money there even with the worst prices possible.

These attempts were made at impossible, 200% difficulty, so prices were set at minimal. It's not that uncommon to find 40 or 50 price difference for luxuries if you manipulate prices at the delivery location (buying the rest of their stock and waiting a few days), so a hull of 100 tons yields very good money.

 

[Pope Amole]

My couple of tries always ended with me having only one system, as Keller is really agressive and will attack constantly until eventually repairs and refuels drain the pool of money I get from the tutorial and some sparse trading runs. I've won the game on near impossible, with everything on hardest but dominators on Strong only. I just can't seem to make any progress in Impossible, should I wait ten or twenty years for technology to advance enough for battleships to be of any help defending sectors?

Hey, if Keller is the problem, just get rid of the problem. In my runs, I have killed the bugger from the very beginning - yes, with starting (or maybe slightly better, don't remember already) hull and a pair of the basic rocket launchers. It's pretty easy, actually - since launchers are homing (more or less) and his arena is round and kinda obstacle-free, you just fly backwards in circles and popamole him with your projectiles while evading his vertix blasts. The hardest part is that stupid healing bonus in the middle - since bugger has a semblance of intelligence, he will fly to grasp it once it respawns and, obviously, you don't want him to regain those hitpoints you've spend so much time kicking out of him (well, not that much time, but it took me 20 to 30 minutes to kill him, IIRC). After that, things are much easier. Oh, and if you'll manage to find a droid junior or a third rocket launcher(sometimes you're lucky enough to get it from planetary scanning or black hole early) among the way, thing becomes a cakewalk. So try killing the Keller, after that it should become much more easier. And yeah, after twenty (or, rather, thirty) years military men do gain the possibility to protect them from invading dommies (more or less often), but that's nothing you'd want to wait for.

These attempts were made at impossible, 200% difficulty, so prices were set at minimal. It's not that uncommon to find 40 or 50 price difference for luxuries if you manipulate prices at the delivery location (buying the rest of their stock and waiting a few days), so a hull of 100 tons yields very good money.

Hmm, never done the waiting trick, but yeah, if it works, I understand how achieving such profits is possible.

 

[korenzel]

Ah, that explains it then. I just suck at this hyperspace game. I already had trouble beating Keller with a maxed out ship and the Droid Jr. artefact, I really can't picture myself winning against it with beginning equipment. I did give it a try and can actually kill Keller using your technique, but its horde of guards just rip me apart with their green balls that shoot very quickly and their yellow missiles if I try to make a run for the exit, and if I stay to clear everything out some kind of missile destroys me after a little while.

 

[spekkio]

to the fallen.

Man, I have to try this game some day... :/

 

[Ulminati]

It's pretty awesome to muck about in. Although I'm slightly miffed that every time I try my hand at space combat I end up sucking vacuum. I guess if I can find more mizzilez to equip to my ship I might pop moles before they can get in laz0r range, but that A) Seems really cheap and B) Requires that mizzilez are actually sold somewhere. I tried planetary search for "missile-thrower" and got no results

 

[korenzel]

You've got the right idea about missiles, just make sure your opponents can never get in laz0r range. Use a fast ship and plot the course manually away from your attacker to stay in range of the missile thrower, but out of range of their energy weapons. If you're faster than your target you can unload as many missiles as you have ammo loaded, and land on a planet to resupply when you run out, all the while avoiding any damage. It is cheap, but it's also the only way to ensure victory in combat during the early game.

Missile Launchers begin appearing in shops a few years into the game if you chose not to start with one (or two). You may also find one on unhabited planets using probes or loot one from dominators, but it's quite unlikely. As their level progress they get more damage and more salvos. Some micromodules also drastically improve their performance, from +10 to +30 damage per missile, and each Pigamar equipment adds +2 to damage.

 

[Pope Amole]

Ah, that explains it then. I just suck at this hyperspace game. I already had trouble beating Keller with a maxed out ship and the Droid Jr. artefact, I really can't picture myself winning against it with beginning equipment. I did give it a try and can actually kill Keller using your technique, but its horde of guards just rip me apart with their green balls that shoot very quickly and their yellow missiles if I try to make a run for the exit, and if I stay to clear everything out some kind of missile destroys me after a little while.

That's too bad. But maybe you'll give it another shot? Believe me, I too suck at any kind of arcade games yet somehow I managed to wipe out first his guardians, and then the bastard himself. It's not that hard after you get the feeling of it and you can pause the game time from time, to blow off the steam, that really makes it kinda easier.

A) Seems really cheap

It's not. Sure, any idjit can click with mouse on enemy while being a couple of screens away from it, but that's not the full picture of it. It takes some skill to use missiles beatifully, carefully plotting your and theirs courses so you won't hit the tastiest loot and so you won't overkill the dommie with your missiles and stuff, there are some nuances here, as a matter of fact, much more than with your average weapons since with them it's just point, shoot and hope that your hull, droid and shield are tough enough.

 

[RK47]

Early to mid game, you can't even use anything else but missiles against Dominators, they'd swarm and tear you apart the moment you enter anything less than 300 range. So just lead them around in a merry chase, emptying your missile bays at the fastest, and weakest target and never, ever go alone unless you're in a super hull and have a decent droid to repair.

I'm past mid game now and I'm still struggling to juggle the repair bills while killing Dominators. It's very dependent on luck. The moment I drop below 20k credits, I find some courier or hit mission to get back up to 50k before returning to battle.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Enter Lord Paco! I have high hopes for Paco. He does have the blood of Bhaal in him after all.

And even if he gets shot down, that means he'll have more time to finish his BG2 let's play.

 

[anus_pounder]

How many unique ships are there? I just coughed up 1.04 million for a 1200 Hull 'Rock' Ship in a military base. Is this the only unique ship military bases build?
Also, how does it compare to the unique pirate ship ?(assuming thats a different hull entirely)

 

[RK47]

How many unique ships are there? I just coughed up 1.04 million for a 1200 Hull 'Rock' Ship in a military base. Is this the only unique ship military bases build?
Also, how does it compare to the unique pirate ship ?(assuming thats a different hull entirely)

There's nothing unique..it's just they have different gun slots, tractor etc...

The dream hull would have to have all those slots on...while in mid game you can probably go with the slightly cheaper one with not many mods.

 

[Cassidy]

Some races hulls and equipments have reduced equipment wear. As far as I remember Maloq equipments and hulls are cheaper to repair but least resilient while Fayan/Gaalian equipment lasts more, but is more expensive.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Some races hulls and equipments have reduced equipment wear. As far as I remember Maloq equipments and hulls are cheaper to repair but least resilient while Fayan/Gaalian equipment lasts more, but is more expensive.

Hull doesn't matter I believe, especially since 99% of your hull repairs should be coming from your droid either way. Otherwise its:

Gallian>Freyan>Human>Peleng>Maloq

in terms of reliability and price.

It's pretty awesome to muck about in. Although I'm slightly miffed that every time I try my hand at space combat I end up sucking vacuum. I guess if I can find more mizzilez to equip to my ship I might pop moles before they can get in laz0r range, but that A) Seems really cheap and B) Requires that mizzilez are actually sold somewhere. I tried planetary search for "missile-thrower" and got no results

Its "Missile Launcher", missile thrower will never return results. Easier way is to go to the weapons sub-section, limit the classification of weapon to self guiding warhead and then leave every other field blank. Them being absent is probably still to be expected. They should pop up semi quickly somewhere unless the dominators eat up 95% of the map. If the map does get eaten up it can be a decade before you see another missile launcher. This is why those 2 starting characters who can begin the game with 2 missile launchers are so required for the harder difficulties where the dominators will always eat up everything but 1-3 territories early on, but on normal difficulty the coalition should only lose a moderate amount of territory before pushing back.

 

[RK47]

Yep. If you can't seem to contribute into the war by directly fighting it...then you should go trade and save up some cash to invest on Military bases to keep things safe...at least to slow down the Doms until you get your legs up and get 4x Missile Launchers....

I always prioritize courier missions or trades over military ops as long as the situation isn't too desperate.

Also, don't sell away precious cargo right away....wait for the inflation to kick in. By mid game, those luxury cargo will start fetching 300 minimum while drugs pull 900 on some planets.

 

[anus_pounder]

How many unique ships are there? I just coughed up 1.04 million for a 1200 Hull 'Rock' Ship in a military base. Is this the only unique ship military bases build?
Also, how does it compare to the unique pirate ship ?(assuming thats a different hull entirely)

There's nothing unique..it's just they have different gun slots, tractor etc...

The dream hull would have to have all those slots on...while in mid game you can probably go with the slightly cheaper one with not many mods.

1200 Hull and every single slot active. The downside was that 1200 HP reduced my speed by quite a bit.

 

[Azira]

There are three unique hulls in Rebooted. The Rock is one of them. It can be bought in a military base if you fit the criteria (having killed x dominators I think). The other two uniques are available in a science center, and pirate base. They have rather high demands as well.

All these three uniques have all slots enabled, making them very desirable, but the demands to get them are harsh. In my newest game I'll try to get the science station one, though I doubt it'll be easy.

If you go for the non-unique hulls, go for the "ideal" series, as they come with all slots enabled.

 

[Pope Amole]

All these three uniques have all slots enabled, making them very desirable, but the demands to get them are harsh. In my newest game I'll try to get the science station one, though I doubt it'll be easy.

Nah, scientist's one is the easiest to get, actually. No harder than the military one, at least. The only hard one to get is the piratey one since it requires a boatload of grinding and it's kinda iffy on the moral side of things. It's awesome in terms of power and looks, though.

 

[Azira]

I stand corrected then.

 

[Ulminati]

All these three uniques have all slots enabled, making them very desirable, but the demands to get them are harsh. In my newest game I'll try to get the science station one, though I doubt it'll be easy.

Nah, scientist's one is the easiest to get, actually. No harder than the military one, at least. The only hard one to get is the piratey one since it requires a boatload of grinding and it's kinda iffy on the moral side of things. It's awesome in terms of power and looks, though.

Tell me more. Plenty of voulenteers have signed up as pirates. Also, update should come later today or early tomorrow. Domestic duties have kept me busy.