Several annoyances

P.S. Andur -- don't overlook the Point Defense Turret. It should also be available at this point. It makes a tremendous positive difference when defending against missles.

Is there something wrong with your sensors? It looks dangerous!

OK, I'll install that (the Cryo PBC isn't as good as I thought), and bettter LDA's, too (mining LDA's). There are 3 types of decoys listed on the encyclopedia: flares (what I got),decoys and smart decoys. I have no trouble with energy weapons attacking me right now, but until I got the Pursuit Drive, and even now, I had great trouble avoiding more than 50% of the missiles. Maybe I'll install the manual countermeasures mod.

At Toadskin, upon entering normal space, I had the 3 Marauders at less than 1km or so, all 3 firing, and the mines didn't like me either. When I managed to zoom away from the minefield, my hull was at 50-60%, and then 3 salvos of 3 missiles where launched at me. At one time, I LDS'd 120 km away from them and waited to see if my winmen did anything useful against them...but no Anyway, I played that mission like 15 times. Finally beat it, and the reward more than compensates for the effort.

Up to now, I was following the walkthrough (because I wanted to properly name my savegames, and the game was fairly linear). Now that I got myself well into Act 2, I'll go freelancer for a while, sightseeing and pirating mostly. With that puny tug, I had to resort to robbing poor freelancers (did anyone else feel really guilty marauding innocent freelancers on Act 1?). I have just gone to the inter-cluster L-Point defended by Maas with my A.Patcom, gatling weaponry and 2 quads and they didn't know what hit'em. Managed to beat 3 distress calls without problem...I'll go even more daring with that point defense turret advice of yours.

You'll see, Maas...it's payback time, and I'll give you light so bright that it hurts

*grin* Act 2 is honestly the most fun I have during the entire game. You're not quite so uber you blow up things without a care, but you're not just a target with guns either. If you can get a whole bunch, Rapid PBCs seem to work very well in groups. Heavies would be nice, but I'll be damned if I can find 3 terraforming pods, let alone 15. If it werent for raids on military bases, I wouldn't have 1.

And yeah, I felt a little guilty shooting indeps in act 1. Fortunately, you can hang out around Blackeye and rob marauders for a lot of stuff, and occasionally you'll get stuff they manage to knock loose too. But I'm losing my conscious now....don't stop shooting at a frieghter until it blows up. And I shoot Maas frieghters on sight, even if they're empty.

Originally posted by Phatose

And I shoot Maas frieghters on sight, even if they're empty.

Yeah, I know that feeling. But after visiting The Third Way, I feel compelled to shoot them too. Maybe that would teach them that the only inferior castes there are, are those with less megawatt firepower mounted.

Equipping active cooling, high yield injector and antimatter pod was a goooood idea.

Right now, I employ 3xquad light pbc's, and they work like a charm under 2 kilometers. Medium range, 2xgatling guns. I need to find better missiles than seekers, those just do 20% damage.

Finding missions on my own, w/o walkthrough, is as easy as visiting each system and following advice. I just...take my time to find at least 3k manufacturing units, 1.500 for replacing my lost t-fighter, and 1.500 for thos 10 hunter-seeker mines.


BTW, doesn't anyone think that the L-Point that takes you to the Gagaring Cluster should be better guarded? Right now, I have no trouble shooting at things there, and it's supposed to be a Maas stronghold.

The only time I had to back off from taking a freighter with the advanced patcomwas when I robbed everyone at the Mass neutronium proscessing plant ant the corporation sent 5 cruisers, 6 destroyers, and 20+ corvettes, tugs and inteceptors at me. After forty minutes, it looked like they had an endless supply, so I went home.

Just what is the point defense turret? I always mounted it, but I never saw anything. The docking auto turret, on the other hand, really turned the tide in my favor some times.

[Note to self: Insert signature here]

Baritone Black --

The Point Defense Turret moves and shoots very fast at missles only. You'll see missle warheads explode a click or so away for no apparent reason when you have one mounted. It, of course, doesn't get them all, but quite a few. If you ever played Mechwarrior, it's like the laser AMS in those games. The dock-on turrent is great except that you can't turn it off and on. It automatically shoots at anything "red". This can sometimes be a problem when you want to watch instead of fight. Same thing with that godawful self-defense software module. Do not forget to remove the dock-on turret if you don't need it (or you'll end up attacking ships while you're traveling through L-points). It can get you into real trouble.

Is there something wrong with your sensors? It looks dangerous!