Space Rangers 2 - Dorminators
SPACE RANGERS 2: DORMINATORS
Compiled by Ancient Talisman
(or as known as Lac Long Quan)
Authors: various forum users whose name I really dont pay too much attentions
Forums: http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20267
http://www.elementalgames.com/forum/index.php?lang=eng
http://www.cinemawaremarquee.com
Most of data in this file was compiled from the users of the following forums.
Which part is my idea I will state clearly. Anything else can be considered
Anonymous. {I am really bad with tracking authors in this game).
0000-INDEX-0000
0001.Part 1: the (nearly official) FAQs for this game (you read this later if
you like)
0002.Tips
0002.01.Probes
0002.02.Trading
0002.03 News and data Search
0002.04 RTS Planetary Battles
0002.05 RTS Planetary Battles - Why your ass get licked
0002.06 Equipment
0002.07 Missions
0002.08 Stims and Diseases
0002.09 Combat
0002.10 Blackholes
0002.11 Miscellaneous
0003.Stats
0003.01.Races
0003.02.ATTACK
0003.03.DEFENSE
0003.04.TECH
0003.05.TRADE
0003.06.CHARISMA
0003.07.LEADERSHIP
0003.08.MILITARY RANKS
0003.09.RANGER RANKS
0003.10.PLANET PUBLIC RELATIONSHIPS
0003.11.PIRATE RELATIONSHIPS
0004.Quests
0005.Ways of Ranger
0006.Advanced Techniques (in progress)
I put this together to help new or prospective players and because the original
thread is getting a bit long-winded at 11 pages. I essentially did a copy and
paste from that thread (cleaning up grammer here and there), I hope no one
minds that I took their words without giving them proper credit. For the
record, I take credit for none of these (except the ones that are actually
mine). If you have a problem with me doing so, let me know and Ill edit your
text out.
0001.Part 1: the (nearly official) FAQs for this game
Where can I buy this game?
GoGamer (it says Space Rangers, but its really Space Rangers 2):
http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer.storefront/SESSIONID/Product/View/001SPAR
Play.com:
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=rcs&page=title&r=PC&title=587129
Interact:
http://www.interactcd.com/cgi/PrintDetails.cgi?index1=sku_number&search_on1=005060020471797
Frys Electronics (but not all of them call the one in your area)
Does the game use Starforce?
Yes, Starforce is the copy protection used by Space Rangers 2. Consider
yourself warned. Note that there have been no reported problems on this board
with the version of starforce on SR2. Please save the discussions of whether
Starforce is good or evil for another thread.
Do I need a DVD drive to play the game?
Yes, as far as I can tell, the game only ships on DVD.
Is there a demo?
No
Update 5/8/06: A demo has been released.
http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096484678/
Is there anything that would allow me to understand the game a bit better?
There is a narrated game play movie that goes through the basics of the game.
Its available for download here:
http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/spacerangers/other/SpaceRangersIntroduction.wmv
Is there a mission editor?
There is an RTS map editor, but right now its only in Russian. Download it
here:
http://www.elementalgames.com/download/rangers2/map.rar
Other useful links?
Publisher Excalibur
http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/
Developer Elemental Games
http://www.elementalgames.com
Original OO thread
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14837
Quarter to Three thread
http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20267
Developer forum
http://www.elementalgames.com/forum/index.php?lang=eng
What resolutions are supported?
800x600 and 1024x768
Any known bugs?
There does seem to be one bug. I've had it crash several times if I am killed
while jumping out of system (i.e. while going through the white rings). Anyone
else encountered this?
What are the major differences between Space Rangers and Space Rangers 2?
-RTS planetary battles
-Probes for uninhabited planets
-Medical bases (stimulants, cure disease)
-Business Centers (for market analysis, loans, life insurance)
-All types of ships are available for purchase
-More hull variations
-Illnesses and stimulators
-you can finance the building of a space station
-character avatars (rather than just the default picture based on race)
-Three new sectors
Is the combat "first person" i.e. freespace or wing commander style from the
cockpit of your ship flying with the joystick, etc? I am so confused
Nope, it's 2d, top-down
Is there a storyline?
The overall plot point is that there is an alien race (three, actually... three
different types of dominators all working together) trying to take over the
galaxy. There are frontline areas where these aliens are expanding, and large
battles that take place between the occupying sentient races and the invaders.
There are also all sorts of military, trade and pirate ships duking it out all
over the place as well.
What size is the games universe and is it always the same?
According to the manual, there are 60 systems and 250 planets in total. The
universe is randomly generated each time you start a new game, with planets
being randomly placed as well, the lone exception being the Sol system.
Can you name your ship or just your pilot?
You cant name your ship in the game.
How does the whole turn-based flight thing work?
{from Qt3} The game's turn-based movement is really pretty neat--it's a bit
like Laser Squad Nemesis. You plot your actions and hit the end turn button,
and then everyone in the whole galaxy moves simultaneously. In combat, you
might want to advance one turn at a time, but outside of combat you can just
double-click on a destination and the game will just run until you get there
(at which point it pauses again), so you get the benefits of real-time movement
when you need them. You can also hit the end turn button again during this
auto-movement to stop and change your orders.
Whats this about a flexible quest system?
{from Qt3} If you go to a government and request a mission (say, deliver this
package to X system), you can say "have anything easier?".
What this does is give you more time for the mission, but for less pay. So, for
instance, it may give you an extra month to deliver the package, or take over a
planet, etc., but for 300 less.
Inveraritys note: the same works in reverse. Asking for a harder mission means
more credits, but less time.
Can you describe the text adventures?
{from Qt3} It's a text adventure, like the old Infocom games, but with a list
of clickable options rather than a parser, and a little info box listing your
current status that (I assume) is different for each game (mine, for instance,
listed the number of days since I started the quest (important, since the main
event was on a timer), my funds, damage and fuel levels for the truck, my
current cargo, and my health, weariness, and hunger levels). They are also
illustrated, with still artwork for each location that you go to, and for
events and characters that you meet. They can be pretty complex and lengthy...
mine was, at least. It took me about forty minutes to solve, the second time
through (I died the first time through, when I miscalculated my fuel, ran out
in the middle of nowhere, and then got bitten by a poisonous indigenous animal
trying to walk back to town).
The paper manual that comes with the game sucks!
To be fair, the paper manual that comes with the game is really just the
quick-start guide The full manual is installed when you install the game and is
much more comprehensive, though still missing some stuff, and obviously, only
electronic. There isn't a built-in option to print, but all the pages are htm
files so you can print them yourself if you'd like - there are 58 pages total
and they are located in your Space Rangers 2 install directory, under
helpcontent
Im sick of watching that silly intro video. Can I automatically skip it?
The easy way to skip the videos is to go into Options-Space-Graphics and change
"Play Trailers" to "no" (thank you Qt3).
How do you destroy the drone-controlled spacecraft in the tutorial? He keeps
blowing me up!
Buy and mount a second weapon before leaving the planet to fight him.
Can you explain the starting conditions? Im not sure what race/class to choose.
There are 25 starting setups (5 races * 5 classes) and all have different
starting equipment, money, and relations with different races (you probably
know that however).
Starting Maloqi hulls have 4 weapon mounts (all other hulls have 3).
Maloqi and Pelengi hulls have 2 "special equipment" slots, Human and Gaalian
have 3, and the Faeyan one has 4 (actually not that important, since you are
likely to get a new hull before you finally get that many artifacts). Only
Human and Faeyan starting hulls have afterburners.
Also you get to choose 2 starting skills (more on that later) and 2 extra
pieces of equipment. The rocket launcher is a very good choice here because
it's an excellent weapon, it's small, and you get it way before it's available
for sale.
How does manufacturer race affect equipment durability and price?
Maloqs < Pelengs < Humans < Faeyans < Gaalians
Maloqi equipment is the worst, Gaalian is the best (Gaalian stuff is almost
twice as expensive as similar Maloqi stuff, and doesn't have to be repaired so
often).
All you starting equipment is made by your starting race, so choose wisely.
Do I have to play the RTS missions?
The RTS missions are completely optional. Youll have an option to turn down
all future RTS missions when youre given one.
How do I know if a system is dominator-controlled before I fly into it?
Just hit M to check the map key and see what color the system is. You can see
which planets are controlled by which races by doing that. Dominator controlled
systems appear blue-ish gray. If the dominators are attacking, there is a
spinning shield icon next to the system. If a race is attacking a
dominator-held system, there is a crossed swords symbol rotating next to the
system.
Is there an Afterburner or some such feature that allows me to fly faster?
hit F to use your boost, or it's the button to the left of the engine; this
doubles your speed. Your engine will take damage when boost is turned on.
Important note: Your hull must have boost in order to use boost. Some hulls
don't. You can tell if yours does by looking at it on the ship screen. If
there's a little box on the left-hand side (attached to the engine slot),
you've got it). Obviously, you can also tell if you've got one by hitting the
boost button (F). If it works, well....
I dont understand how damage works. Can you explain?
Heres the formula:
dmg = initial dmg * (100% - generator strength) - hull strength.
So if your ship has 15% generator and 5 hull strength and takes a 40 dmg
torpedo it will take 40 * 85% - 5 = 29 damage.
The above formula is true if your accuracy = target's maneuverability. The more
your accuracy # exceeds their maneuv #, the higher your weapons' minimum damage
raises. Likewise, if their maneuv is higher than your accuracy, your weapons
will have a lower max damage range.
What about Droids?
Droids are pretty straightforward, they just repair a fixed amount of damage
each turn (hull damage, if you want to repair equipment damage you need an
artifact called Nanitoids).
Where and/or how do you buy better equipment? Does better stuff appear as you
get cash, get military promotions and/or ranger points?
The technological level of the universe develops over time, so sayeth the
manual.
What do the thumbs up on the trade screen mean? I don't know if they explained
it or not, I kind of skimmed the tutorial.
The thumbs generally mean that you are getting a good deal. the more thumbs the
better.
How and why do stations appear and disappear?
The Dominators will destroy stations when they attack systems. I don't know
that any station will shut down though. Also the military bases like to go on
missions where they jump into a dominator held system with some fighters for
protection.
Also, if you dock at the commerce stations you can pay to have a station built.
You don't get to choose where, but you do get to pick what type of station is
built.
Does anyone know of any other way to get a planet that hostile (if you land
there, you go to jail) feel better about you?
Fighting the dominators is a good way to get everyone to like you, not sure
exactly how it works however. Something like if you liberate a Faeyan system
from dominators all Faeyan planets like you better
To tell you the truth, I don't even know why some of these planets are so mad
at me. For instance, Venus, which used to be extremely friendly towards me,
hates my guts. No other human planet does. I never shot any of their ships...
the only thing I can think of is that I failed a mission they gave me.
Exactly. Failing a mission is very bad for relations.
What do I do with excess stuff that I dont want to sell?
You probably already know that, but you can store stuff on planets and space
stations (a little box in to the left side of the screen in the ship menu), so
if you have a small ship and can't load enough goods for trading you can leave
all unnecessary equipment behind (guns, droid etc) and come back for it later.
If you are looking for long-time storage then don't use space stations since
the dominators have a nasty habit of blowing them up. Also military bases may
decide to hyper jump to a dominator system (with all your stuff in them) only
to die in a futile attempt to liberate it.
Can I only refuel by landing on a planet?
There is a secret way to refuel by flying into a star, but you take a lot of
damage, so you better have a strong hull.
To clarify (from Qt3): You don't have to fly into (over) a system's star, just
get very close. You'll get almost as much fuel and take a lot less damage.
Can you explain micromodules and artifacts to me?
There's two types of modules - some you drop on the relevant piece of equipment
(you'll get an icon on the equipment) and others need to be placed in the
little unmarked slots/boxes that some hulls have (some hulls have up to four,
one at each corner)
First of all, the stuff you put in the corner slots aren't modules - they are
artifacts ("special equipment")
So how do I know which equipment it is compatible with and if its compatible
presumably it fits in the appropriate slot?
Click on the micromodule and the compatible equipment is highlighted.
Only 1 module can be installed in each piece of equipment. Modules cannot be
removed later, so choose wisely where you put them.
I started fighting dominators last night and got a few cargo holds full of
nodes at a science base. There is an option to give them nodes or items for
research for 3 types of dominators...what are these?
Yes, there are 3 types of dominators, and each type has a control center you
must destroy to win the game.
I put everything I had into the first option (Blazeroids I think) and I got the
research time down to 5000 days (~42%). I also noticed that this isn't a global
setting, I went to another science station nearby and they were all still at 0%
research. So can anyone tell me what these do and why I should be helping to
research dominators (besides the obvious)?
Ok, I really don't know if research is done locally or globally (I always
assumed it was global for some reason). The stuff you give them is depleted
during research, so it might be just that they used up everything they got from
you before you arrived on the second science base.
Who gets the kill - the last hit?
Read in the manual that last shot gets the kill and full xp, everyone else who
damaged gets half xp.
Is there a way to get a history of messages? I had some messages ("I") that
popped on my taskbar thingy, but then just kind of went away on their own
before I could read them. One was something about my partner being killed, and
another about some authorities caught a pirate guy who was hounding me.
As far as I can tell there are two types of message that appear while you're in
free flight, independently of your actions:
1. Chit-chat intercepted between other ships - this disappears when you leave
the system; and
2. News headlines. These also disappear when you jump, but they're also listed
on the news reports at bases/planets.
If you have a quest to kill a pirate, and he gets arrested (damned drug
runner), are you pretty much out of luck?
I camped one for 2 months until the quest expired... You might be luckier.
If you check your news you may see how long he is arrested for and then know if
its a doomed quest.
If you search for say, "Singular Engine", the game returns a list of said
items. Each heading for the item has a yellow number to the right of it. Any
idea what that number represents? Also, any idea if there's a way to see the
size of the respective item? I don't care about the expense of an item; I just
want the smallest one I can find.
The number is the size of the item, unless we're looking at completely
different things. The store selection probably did change by the time you got
there.
Can someone explain to me why the price for certain ships parts are in red?
When the price is in red it means the item is damaged, I believe. The game is
just letting you know you'll have to repair it.
Can anyone tell me if ranger stations are the only place to get micromodules?
No, in fact it's the very worst place to get them. You may get a micromodule
after completing a mission, or sometimes killed dominators drop them. I have 14
spare modules in my cargo hold and I only bought one at the rangers' station
during the whole game.
I'm sure that loan is going to come and haunt me - anyone know what happens if
I don't pay up - do they start taking contracts out on me?
I don't know if this was the cause, but when I was unable to pay off a loan and
received many, many fines added to my loan amount. The big issue was that my
popularity dropped like a rock throughout the galaxy. I finally restarted a new
character because even after paying off the loan, every planet of every race
hated me and refused to do business with me. I can only assume that this was
because of the loan business.
On another note, is there any way to keep an income going solely through
combat? (without kill missions) Seems like the repair bill is always higher
than the worth of the goods I scoop up from the kill, I even have a decent
shield and armor to keep the damage down!
Yeah, in my current game (100%, year 7) I get a lot of money from combat. After
liberating a system my repair costs about 20k but loot is usually like 50k.
(For extra profit I use a combat program to make dominators drop equipment,
twice they dropped their main weapon that costs around 40k
In planetary battles, how do you capture the actual enemy factory? I captured
all his resource buildings, but there was no circle to stand on at the main
factory itself.
{from Qt3} You click on the "capture" command button, then click on the
building itself that has the little trapdoor thingy on it. It's confusing, as
you always click on the circle pad on normal bases.
Whats the flight path log?
{from Qt3} There is a "flight path log" feature where you can rewind the game
and check out what everyone was doing (if you could see them via
scanners/sensors I assume) during the last 30 or so turns (you can
increase/decrease this in options). So, for instance, I rewinded to the very
first turn and just watched where I went, from planet to planet, looked at
fights and analyzed them, watched other ships get into fights in the sector,
watch asteroids smash into the atmosphere of planets, etc. Relly neat little
feature.
I dont like the starting race I chose. Do I need to reroll?
{from Qt3} Did you know you can get your race changed at the Pirate Stations,
through extensive plastic surgery? Pretty neat.
Inveraritys note: this also helps if youve become a wanted man.
Whats the deal with black holes?
I think they were mis-translated and should be called wormholes. Regardless,
flying into one causes a mini game to launch. If you win the mini game (which
is real-time combat not entirely unlike Escape Velocity Nova combined with a
pinball machine), you get a non-standard tech item
and you get sent to another
part of the galaxy.
How does hiring wingmen work?
Your leadership skill determines how many wingmen you can have. If you dont
have any points towards leadership you can only hire the dude from the
tutorial. Also, you can only hire rangers that rank lower than you on the
ranger-ranking board.
Pirates keep threatening me. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?
{from Qt3} Pirates make big use of the scanner devices to see if 1- you're weak
and 2- you have a lot of cargo. To beat scanners, you need really good
shielding (notice those scanner things that say "get information about target
who has shielding less then X%") If you buy and install a really good shielding
system, 95% of the pirates will be unable to scan you and will leave you alone.
For the other 5%, just use engine boost and run from them.
You can manually control your ship ala Star Control 2 in combat, right? My ship
keeps fighting automatically.
When you click on an enemy ship, you're getting an icon on top of that ship
with two little ships fighting each other. That means autocombat. Click again
(or scroll the mousewheel) for two little ships with a crosshair (move to
weapon range) or two little ships with nothing between them (move to minimum
range). You should be able to change the default action in options.
You don't even have to use those automove commands. Just click where you want
to go, then target your weapons as I'm about to describe below.
If you can control you ship during combat like that, how do you make sure only
a laser weapon fires instead of, say, the laser AND missle launcher? Can you
fire one, then the other on the fly?
Hit 'W' to bring up your weapons panel (there is also a button on the bottom
right of your screen you can click on.) This brings up your weapons panel.
Either click each weapon you want to fire, then click a target, or you can just
hit 1-5 (with or without the weapons panel up) to choose which weapons to aim.
Hit ~ to select all weapons.
You can have your weapons shooting at different targets. For instance, you
could have one gun finish off an enemy, two shoot at another enemy, and have
two more shoot down some missiles headed your way.
Is it possible to have a research station upgrade an item multiple times, do
you know?
A piece of equipment can only be upgraded once. So if you are looking at
something and it has a green stat, then it has already been upgraded.
If you buy a new hull, do all of your components transfer over automatically?
What happens to any "overrun"? Do items just get dropped into the ship's
inventory?
If you buy a new hull you could only afford by selling your existing one, it'll
automatically swap them upon purchase. If you've got enough cash for the new
hull without trade-in, the new one is placed in storage on that planet, and you
drag and drop to replace it yourself.
It seems to be all most impossible to kill a pirate.About the time you start
doing some real damage to him he lands and repairs.Ad naseum.
The pirates, along with everyone else, have money and have to pay for repairs
just like you. Eventually, they will land but not be able to afford repairs,
and take off still damaged. You can speed this up by extorting money from them.
Can anyone tell me if there is a benefit to certain weapon types, or am I just
better off going for highest damage? For example, does a fragment weapon have
an advantage over an energy weapon?
There are no major differences between frag and energy weapons (energy have a
bit further range usually). Rocket weapons are a bit different however (rockets
usually take a few turns to reach their target and can be shot down).
Some artifacts only affect weapons of a specific type (like there's one that
gives all frag weapon a slow-down effect on enemy ships). Also some
micromodules give different bonuses to different weapon types (like the
Rocketon module give +10 dmg to missle weapon but only
+4 to energy.
Apart from this, the weapon type isn't important.
Can you explain Fuel Capacity?
It appears that fuel tank capacity is
Capacity = (Size / 2 + Tech Level * 5 + 5)
There are slight differences in rounding, with higher-tech races (i.e. Gaal)
rounding up rather than down, but otherwise that's it.
Thus, a size 20, tech level 1 tank holds 20 / 2 + 1 * 5 + 5 = 20 fuel.
A tech size 20, tech 8 tank holds 20 / 2 + 8 * 5 + 5 = 55 fuel.
Thus, for any given tech level tank, each additional unit of capacity requires
2 spaces. Cisterns, which you generally find on planets in wreckage, are 1
space per unit of fuel. However, your jump is limited to the smaller of your
fuel tank size or your drive limit, and cisterns don't help for that.
It has medals? Cool. Man I dream about this game every day. I read this thread
every hour or so hoping for new reports. I check reviews out on web sites. I go
to GoGamer and check the price and view the box art
Okay, thats still a bit excessive, even if you bought the game
Last edited by Inverarity on Mon May 08, 2006 2:35 pm; edited 4 times in total
0002.PART 2 TIPS
0002.01.Probes
You can buy planetary probes from various vendors. You can then fly to an
uninhabited planet. The planet will have a certain percentage of mountains,
plains and oceans. Each probe has the ability to scan one or more of these. So,
while in orbit, you can drop one or more probes into various orbits around the
planets. Depending on the quality of the probe, it will scan the planet's
surface for any resources over the period of weeks or months. You then return
to the planet and can collect any found resources.
I also found it worthwhile to buy a probe and scan some planets - sometimes you
get "micromodules" which can be used for upgrading your equipment further.
Probes can be very profitable. They seem to do better on planets that have some
land (i.e. not gas giants). Plop them down on Mercury, or better yet go to
another system. Then just go trade for awhile or do a mission or whatever, and
come back in 100 days or so for your goodies.
Lac Long Quan said: it worth money to pay for a stim boost (Super Technician)
then buy 7 probes in the beginning. A really worthy investment and profit you
almost within the first or second month.
Lac Long Quan said: and try to a quick fly into Dorm-held system, launch probes
in planets there. Return later, you will be surprised with the quality of the
loots on planet (or is it worth doing? somebody get back to me on this)
Lac Long Quan said: When harvesting loots in probing planet, ONLY get what you
can fly away with: first probes, second expensive and light goods, then cistern
or parts. what you left there still be there when you return the next time.
0002.02.Trading
A good way to get starting with trading is to go to a nearby 'economic centre'
in a system, and pay for some info on local trade routes. I was informed as to
a decent trade run taking alcohol between 2 planets that were 5 days travel
apart, which was a very safe milk run and let me build up some cash fairly
quickly.
You can't search for goods but you can search for planets. Like you if you are
heading to the Al Dagor system for a quest reason and want to bring some goods
with you to sell there, you can look up each planet in that system in search
and you'll get the prices.
Also you can just write "planet" in search and you get the 30 nearest planets
with the prices.
Lac Long Quan said: Write the name of that planet to get only info on that
planet.
Last night I learned that if a planet is in radar range and you right-click on
it, current prices will be added to your information bar. This is in the
electronic manual, but I missed it the first time thru.
I do like when you find a good trade run you need to get in quick to exploit
it. Once the supply has been reached the prices quickly go the other way. I
took two passes on a profitable trade run. The first was a huge profit, the
second a huge loss since I noticed the selling price change too late. I did
wind up ahead overall, so it wasn't all bad.
Lac Long Quan said: if you got big money and dont want to spend on equipment or
something, INVEST in goods. Not invest in Business Centre, but buying a high
number of high price goods like Luxury or Drugs, or Weapons. Store them on a
planet like Pelengs (best). Inflation happen often and quick, so you get a high
return (100% or 150%, depend on what kind of goods).
Lac Long Quan said to other would-be-sharks like him: dumping a high number
goods on a planet will lead to low buying price of that goods (the price you
sell to that planet) lead to no one want to sell to that planet. Over time,
that kind of goods will be exhausted in that planet. Go there, load the goods,
take off, wait for a few days, watching the price on that planet go through the
roof, return, sell. Shit load of money, I tell ya. Best work with luxury on
industrial planet. Or Drugs on Peleng industrial planets.
0002.03 News and data Search
(all from Lac Long Quan)
Pay attentionto the news. Various item of interests there. Some would be
outdate by the time it get to you, but they are still useful. click the i
button on the news item to save it to the bar. right click on it again will
delete it.
Chatters or galactic news will appear on that bar. left click on it will save,
right click delete. leave them alone and it will self delete in 2(?)days.
Use the search function intelligently:
"planet" get you 30 planets nearest to your positions. You analyse that to
determine trade runs.
"ore hull ran" will get you info about where sell gravicore hull ranger, with
what capacity.
"tal hull dip" will get you info about where sell mesostructural hull diplomat,
with what capacity.
The colors of the hull tell you which race made them. Hulls sold in Bases or
Centres more often than not are upgraded already and/or a bit damaged. (sold in
pirate bases definitedly damaged)
"frag" get you 30- info about every kind of fraggment cannon
"nameofranger" to find out where he's now. Useful for bounty hunting or escort
services (heh!)
... so on and so forth ...
0002.04 RTS Planetary Battles
In the RTS battles, the "pause" key on the keyboard allows you to give orders
to grouped units while the game is paused. For some reason, you can't give
orders to non-grouped units. This is very helpful.
Also, when you're building units (not bases), the game automatically pauses so
you can take your time while figuring out what combination to build.
Unit configurations favoured by Lac Long Quan:
Sniper: 4Launcher/3L+1Stun/Antigrav/Locator/Mortar. To take down turrets and
smash enemy from afar. retreat under fire will kill most of pursuers (if you
dont let them in too near).
Healer: 4 Repair/Locator/Antigrav. Never mix repair with gun, I hate that.
Some like to mix, I simply NOT. but feel free to experiment. they like to use
3L+1 Repar, in group of four or five. Locator increase the range of repair.
Assault: 3 Launcher+1Stun/Dynamo. If enemy use Stun, replace with Firewall.
Stun take down even turrets so beware.
Plasma gun is too expensive and not worth the resource IMO.
RTS tips from Quarter to Three
Why are you destroying their bases? You should be capturing them. It takes
about 10 seconds to capture them. Once you have them, you can build defensive
turrets, as well as reap more resources... and your robot cap goes up. If you
capture an enemy factory, you can produce your own units there. The point of
the RTS segments are to capture as many bases as you can. I couldn't imagine
winning without doing that.
You're 100% right about rushing being a good idea, but I have no trouble taking
down turrets. I just lasso a group of 9 robots, hit "a" for attack, click on
the turret, and down it goes.
Lac Long Quan said: "rushing" meaning in the first few minutes build unit with
antigarvitic legs to quickly capture plants. the idea is : ONE to get you
resources; TWO to up your robot caps to build army as quickly as possible;
THREE to deny enemy resource; FOUR to build strongpoint to defend against enemy
if that's your style(two missile turrets will take down at least 3 normal enemy
units). Me, I capture them then abandon them if they are near, build up defense
if they are far. when enemy force busied themselves with those, my 4 launcher
locator unit will take them down./.
Usually, when I have to take out turrets (if there are no enemies guarding
them), I hop into a launcher mech and do it myself. I can take out the turret
pretty quickly without taking any damage, because unlike the AI, I feel no need
to continue advancing once I'm in range.
Lac Long Quan said: my above unit will take down any turret by itself, no need
even to command./
You must, must, MUST capture bases as quickly as possible. Since they determine
unit caps as well as resources, they are the key to victory. In general, your
home base will stand up OK by itself, so don't bother leaving much (if any)
defending force. Get out there and get cracking, especially on hitting up
neutral bases since you can capture them twice as fast. You then have to make
sure they're properly defended.
You cannot overestimate the value of the healing tool. Stick three robots with
healing tools behind a laser turret and a missle turret, and they will be able
to repel almost any assault.
My current SOP is to build one four-mount robot packing launchers or plasmaguns
and antigrav for movement. Manually driving this guy around is the quickest way
to take out defending base turrets. I then spam tri-mounts, usually with
launchers and the healing tool, for the rest of the match (adding slowest or
fastest movement load-outs depending on resource income). If you don't allow
them to wander out into traffic (or into the range of enemy turrets), these
guys kick ass without being outrageously expensive.
RTS tips from Quarter to Three, part two
The basics behind ground battles are basically to use common sense. For
instance turrets can take far more damage than robots but are not invincible
and can't kill large groups quickly, therefore they need repair and fire
support. Given a small number of robots supporting them they can deal with a
large enemy force with few or no losses much better than large number of robots
with no turrets.
Avoid your enemies strength, attack his weakness. Don't fight large robot to
robot battles if there's anything you can do to avoid it. There's usually 2 or
3 enemy factions and it's every man for himself. If you can avoid their
attention (by not seizing bases near them, for instance) you can wait until
they send an attack wave against another enemy and then swoop with your own
strike force to sieze their production factility while it's vulnerable
(knocking them out of the game, if it's their only one).
Lac Long Quan said: Good advice. Mobility is life itself to infantry. Let enemy
units attack your defense point. Your healer will prolong the life of that
turret, while your mobile infantry attack them in the flank or the rear. Hammer
and Anvil, that situation. If enemy is too strong, get your asses out of there.
we will fight another day. Or if you insist, some of your sniper go get their
now-almost-defenseless base. That will draw their attention.
The basics of the ground battles is that the AI is so incredibly braindead that
if you do everything yourself, it's nearly impossible to lose. If you give your
robots orders and expect them to do well on their own, though, you're in
trouble. I have won every battle thus far with a complex, two-part strategy:
1. Expand really fast.
2. Build an uber-powerful robot and spearhead every attack personally.
Thus far, this strategy has brought me nothing but landslide victories. I
really wish the RTS portion of the game were better; it's a pretty jarring
contrast to the rest of the game, which is generally superb.
0002.05 RTS Planetary Battles - Why your ass get licked
Lac Long Quan said: Some of you have trouble with RTS Battles. That's probably
because you can not resist attacking the weakest force. DONT. attack them
evenly, so that they are equal to each other but inferior to you. The AI has
the habit attacking weakest force. So when you eliminate one base, they
devoured plants already and build up army then attack you. When they are equal
to each other they will attack you. DEFENSE. Draw them in near the turrets then
smash them. Repairmen will prolong the life of your units and turrets, long
eoungh for the success. Defense is the quickest way to deplete their resources.
0002.06 Equipment
I'm finding that at least at first it's better to shop around for smaller
equipment, rather than bigger hulls. Most of the ships available aren't really
much bigger if at all, but you can usually find components of the same
effectiveness at about half the size, with some effort. I've got about 85 cargo
free on my starting ship (human mercenary), with three guns, scanner, gripper,
etc.
Lac LOng Quan said: I can't stretch it enough: always get the LIGHTEST items.
even if other got better power. in long term light items pay you back greatly.
Light ship fly faster, retreat faster, trade bigger... The only exception is
your engine and only in the case of light speed jumping. And even that case is
depend on your judgement.
It's also very worth getting a droid to repair your ship - that made a very
great improvement to my survivability!
Lac Long Quan said: in the begining, perhaps a good shield is important, mostly
to stay out of pirate's eyes. If they dont know what you got, they will leave
traders alone. But if you play fighting, wait till 40% defense shield.
Another great thing to do is to upgrade your engines at a scientific base - I
can now jump 35 light years at a time, and I've upgraded my fuel tank to 53
tons with a micromodule. I've also got some black gunk stuff that regenerates
my fuel, so I now never need to stop for fuel. Great for courier missions.
Lac Long Quan said: if upgrade, do it in highest term. Dont play cheapstake.
First, you need to know that all standard equipment has 8 tech levels that have
different names and basic capabilities.
For example a level 5 engine is called "Splash drive" or something and has 700
speed and 29 hyperjump distance.
(you see can see the tech level of equipment in shops, there are little bars to
the right of the picture).
At start the Coalition tech level is 2 I think, and it improves all the time.
So new weapons, equipment and hulls start appearing. First there is usually a
prototype, then 3-4 more appear, and then it starts being mass produced.
Of course you may get lucky and happen to land on the planet where a new droid
prototype just appeared for sale but you are better off searching for it using
the in-game search engine.
You need to know the names of different equipment levels for that (they should
be in your manual).
Lac Long Quan said: Search dont show the level of the items. Pity, really! but
realistic!
Buying new equipment every time it comes out isn't a very good idea however,
it's better to upgrade your old stuff on science bases or with micromodules as
soon as you buy it.
this way it will still outperform the newer stuff and you won't have to replace
it so soon.
Lac LOng Quan said: a third level trader should repair before sell. Less
skilled than that should just sell unless you got very high discount from
pirate (25%+)
Happy equipment hunting!
P. S. Weapon levels also improve, but their name doesn't change, so it's a bit
harder to find a good one. (because can't see if it's a level 1 Frag gun or
level 5 Frag gun in the search)
Also repairing in a Military station is a lot cheaper than other repair areas.
Lac Long Quan said: not totally true. If you got high discount (16+) with
pirate, you got it cheaper than both military base and scientific bases. How to
do it easily? read on Pirate base sections and Pirate way sections
If you need to repair your artifacts, you can only do that on a science or a
pirate base.
Further checking clarified this. If you talk to the official in the base
Military or pirate (or even possibility scientific) they will do you a cheaper
rate than if you do a straight repair. Comparing the prices on a 91 repair the
pirate would do this for me at 71.
Lac Long Quan said: talking to officer always cheaper than straight repair. SR
only show your total damage worth. Repair directly like that can be done even
on planet, med/business/ranger centres.
0002.07 Missions
Government missions pay well, and I've been getting "special equipment", which
allows me to have better maneuverability, and unlimited fuel.
Lac Long Quan said: And good micromodules. And medals, which please my ego no
ends.
Be careful if you take missions to hunt down ships. They pay nice, but there's
a catch sometimes. In one mission, I chased down a target and took it out. Came
back for pay and they tell me "oops we made a mistake. That was just a civilian
passenger vessel." Completely pissed off one of the alliance races. Couldn't
even go into their sectors without them launching battleships at me.
Lac LOng Quan said: I stay the hell out of bounty hunting. And if I go hunting,
I got me fastest engine. leave goods and nonessential items behind. YOu got a
job to do and you have no time to play trading. Even looting minerals and items
should only be done AFTER the perp got killed.
Lac LOng Quan said: and fly light is true for other FED-EX missions as well.
some times the bloody flight cut it too close and a different in some 50 km
will determine the success. I once had to jettison goods to flight to the
planet. Damn that pissed me off! And do FED ex normal before beforyou got 25 LY
engine. Easy, even. After that you can play normal or difficult. And do
remember to get stim to up Charisma before accept missions. More money, you
know :P
0002.08 Stims and Diseases
I'm a bit surprised nobody mentioned stimulants because they are a major part
of the game. You get stims at medical stations, and what they basically do is
increase your skills for a few months (usually 5, blood something got 12). They
don't cost much at all, compared to their efficiency.
Diseases are same as stims but they lower your skills (there are some stims
that lower some skills and diseases that increase them, but that's more an
expectation than the rule). Diseases can be healed at medical stations.
You get all the warnings about how dangerous stims they are, but really, they
are pretty safe, worst that can happen is you getting addicted (a disease) and
that's easily healed.
If you buy 5-year medical insurance at a business center, you can buy
stimulants and get healed from diseases for half the price, so it's really
worth to buy.
Good stims for combat:
LLQ: either one should be taken before go to a Dorm system. enough for a fight
of your life.
Maloq *something* (not sure how to translate) Accuracy +4 Maneurability +3
Gaalistra of time Accuracy +4 Maneurability +2, ship speed increase! (only for
3 months though)
Good stims for missions:
Doubleplex Accuracy -1 Maneurability -1, mission payouts increase a lot
(I think it's very rare because Im in the 7th game year now and I haven't seen
it)
LLQ: I only see it once the very first game I play and stupid me doesnt know
what it is. Later I only saw it on other rangers. I suspect it exclusively is
for human. (anyone got back to me on this?)
Whisper of Ragobam Charisma +10 (do I have to explain? Charisma increases money
you get from missions) (and LLQ: Fucking AAA. Always get it unless you want to
play dorm fighting. Then again I like do gov jobs, and trade).
Absolute status Charisma +2, more time to complete missions (useful because
more time means more flexibility, you can take many missions at once and still
finish them all in time)
Good stims for everything:
Trade marking Trade +8 (good if you are selling something expensive, for
example if you are changing your old hull for a new one)
LLQ: Reserve a huge chunk of money. Get trade mark, then go shopping. and
remember to repair before sell.
Super technician Tech +5 (always good to have, less equipment deterioration,
meaning you save money on repairs)
LLQ: do remember to get it in the very beginning, then buy 7 probes. And
launch. A Super Technician + 8 Probes is the very best kind of invest ment in
the first 5 game year. And this is the best long term investment in skill you
can make. Save hugely on wear and tear, especially in fighting. without it,
after a month the guns got wear down to nothing.
Stardust Accuracy +1 Maneurability +1 Trade +1 Tech +1 (a bit of everything)
Lac Long Quan said: if you got your full allotment of drugs (2/2 or 3/3) with
no Blood something to get you increase immunity then you got high chance of
addictions. and diseases (?)
LLQ: about diseases, we really need a good list of diseases, what they do, who
they affect, time they run, chance to infect... Somebody do this and send to me
I PROMISE I will give them credits
LLQ: the best disease I swear by is Mysterious Luantanza. increase in Char,
lower att def, cant use in dialog extort money/cargo/attack options. And
sometimes (rare) they give you money. I try to get infected by that. Another is
New Lozione for Galians only (? Galian or Fayan? smb check this for me please!)
Increase in ATT and DEF, lower in CHAR and cant trade in food or medicine.
0002.09 Combat
If you're fighting Dominators, one of the most important things to get imho is
the droids that repair the cladding. I have one that repairs 40, and with the
high armor and shielding on my ship naturally, I can zip into systems, fight a
mob, and zip out, minimally damaged. I can really take out a few in a slugfest,
but last time I did that I ran up a 25k repair bill (yikes).
{from Qt3} To kill pirates early on, ask for lots and lots of help. Generally,
any transports in the area will be happy to help, non-pirate rangers will
probably help too, and occasionally consuls will help. Pirates, ranger or
otherwise, will not help. Get them all to give you a hand and you should be ok.
If the ship lands on a planet, it will take off a few days later and everyone
will pile on again. If possible, try to catch the ship a long way from a
planet. There's also a gun called Rethone that will slow down a target, that
helps too.
LLQ: Missile speed is 500 km (? not sure). so if they are faster than that,
enemy can outrun missiles and either get away or pepper you with missile of
their own. POint defense for missile is frag cannon. And although missile is
costly in reload in the first third of the game, ONE a salvo is three missile,
TWO, it enable you to get some exp when fight with Dorm. Let military guys kick
them ass. You stay the hell from afar and pot shot them. All of them. And dont
shoot near the sun, missile can fly into the sun and explode, BAD. Good
investment in all kind of weapon, all kind of game time. Because the next
missile weapon are torpedoes slow as hell at the time it's out. 12 missile (one
salvo from 4 tube) is enough to take down first level enemy. 3-6 salvo for the
next level. To outrun the missile Frostix is important.
LLQ: Frag weapon got it good in term of micromodule. So I choose missile and
frag. And in combat dont hesitate to use Dorm weapon. You dont lower their
selling value (to S Base) so shoot to your heart content.
LLQ: at least three save slots. First is when you just step into that system.
One is when you kill about 2-3 and got good health left. three is when you
wonder should get the items lying around or not.
0002.10 Blackholes
Droids, armor and shields don't work. Your hull size is still your hit points.
You can turn on autopilot, but it doesn't understand walls very well. It tends
to get me killed in most black hole maps. Autopilot works pretty well against
Keller, though, since the playing field is nearly wide open.
LLQ: autopilot work well for 2 ships. more than that you got killed.
You can only fire one weapon at a time. Having multiple weapons is still useful
though, since each weapon has a limited charge, and you automatically switch to
the next weapon when a weapon starts reloading. This has the downside that if
you're not watching the weapon display, your attack type can switch abruptly.
LLQ: and one good advice is using ONE kind of weapon. to avoid confusion.
You can assign weapons to two banks, the control key and the shift key. By
default everything fires from control. Despite what the manual says,
right-clicking does nothing. To switch a weapon's assignment, press
shift-number, i.e. shift-3 to switch weapon 3.
Each weapon type has a different arcade effect, which is often unintuitive. A
good normal-space weapon load may be very poor in hyperspace, and vice versa.
Frag cannons give you a fairly straightforward short range attack with a lot of
shots.
Multi Resonators give you a long ranged glowing ball that attacks fires
submunitions at anything it passes. However, the ball has a low enough speed
that you'll hit yourself if you fire it while under thrust. You get 3 shots
before you must reload.
Atomic Vision weapons give you a short range missile that seems to frequently
miss. You only get 2 shots before reloading.
Torpedo launchers fire huge glowing balls in all directions. You only get one
shot per charge, though, so this isn't as good as it sounds.
Vertex weapons (the Dominator heavy energy weapon) is pretty much the same as
the torpedo launcher, only it fires chevrons instead of glowing balls.
So far I've had the best luck with multi-resonators, though they're a pain
since you have to stop before firing or you'll hurt yourself.
My strategy tends to involve trying to seperate the ships if there is more than
one and then battling it out with that one. As they can only fire forwards
getting on its back and staying their helps a lot. Once defeated I look for a
health area (assuming their is one per hole?) and heal myself before going for
the next.
My black hole techniques:
Run like a sissy.
When you've got some distance between you and the enemy, turn around and shoot
while flying backwards. Run like a sissy if they get close.
Long tunnels work well for this.
Don't quit right away when you win. Fly around and try to find a healing
powerup (looks like a cross). Wait until you're fully healed or until it runs
out, then exit. Helps with the repair bill.
Flow blaster is nice for spamming (it's homing), and the Atomic Vision is
awesome as a sniper rifle. Haven't tried all the other weapons though.
If a good powerup is behind a wall, you might not have realized you just have
to shoot one of the fenceposts holding up the wall to get in.
Don't forget to run like a sissy, especially if more than one enemy is on top
of you.
0002.11 Miscellaneous
You know you can tell your wingman to dump everything in his cargo hold right?
He isn't so happy about that but he obeys
BTW, if you want to avoid spoilers, don't click on the other Rangers on the
high score list on the endgame screen. On the good side, it looks like there
are multiple ways to defeat each of the Dominator brains. On the bad side, I
have a decent idea of what some of them are now
Newbie Tips from Qt3 (yes, there is no number 4)
Quick Newbie Tip of the Day: When you create a new character you have the
option of selecting a couple of ship components along with your race,
attributes, ect. I didn't understand why after doing this my ship's components
seemed exactly the same. This is because the upgraded components are stashed in
the storage area of the starting base. You should also be careful which
upgraded components you choose; some of them like the repair droid are quite
nice but very costly to keep running. They also can eat up all your available
space.
Newbie Tip 2: Choose the easy mission option as a newbie pilot. I've run out of
time on a quest countless times, although generally by a couple of days. It has
nothing to do with skill and everything to do with your components. Don't screw
around 70 days is a lot shorter than you would think. Mission completion speed
is mostly dependent on your jump radius. If you have to make 4 different jumps
you'll have to land 4 times and refuel, which eats up a ton of time. Getting a
faction penalty hit sucks.
Newbie Tip 3: When you choose a Corsair or Pirate class and they say "You have
a bounty on your head in system X" BELIEVE THEM. Also don't attack a Merchant
ship near its race's planets, as the Mob Squad will be after your butt shortly
Newbie Tip 5: Unless you have a pretty solid reason to choose otherwise, a
Faeyian Merchant is the best starting race/class. Faeyian and Humans are the
only ones that start with boosters (very critical) and the Faeyian starting
merchant ship is one of hte larger starting hulls in terms of internal space.
Since hull upgrades are very expensive, the bigger starting hull really lets a
player do more early on which is nice.
Newbie Tip 6: If confused about what equipment to start with, a scanner and a
rocket launcher are good choices. Assuming a player took tip 5 above, the
Faeyian starting ship doesn't come with a scanner. The rocket launcher is the
only item on the starting equipment selection list that isn't available
normally at base technology, so if that rocket launcher is passed up then the
player won't get another crack at one for a long while. All the other starting
items can be purchased by a player as soon as they get their hands on some funds
Also remember to onload this equipment by hitting 'S' (ship screen) in the
starting ranger base and moving it from the storage box to your ship.
Newbie Tip 7: Combat skills are very important, even to people planning on a
non-violent mercantile focus. With the tangle of race relations and the ever
present pirates, skirmishes are inevitable. I always put one of my two starting
skill points into either attack or defense skill, and the one into maintenance.
Newbie Tip 8: Do the goddang tutorial. It's fairly easy missions with some
decent payouts.
Newbit tip 9: Do NOT fight the IP-47 drone craft in the tutorial until your
ship is armed with better stuff than the default laser. A rocket launcher + the
starting laser will work if you started with the rocket launcher. A rocket
launcher + a frag cannon is better. I've never tried it without the rocket
launcher because starting without the rocket launcher is silly.
Newbie Tip 10: Once clear of the tutorial, buy a probe and deploy it on a
uninhabited planet. The probe scans the planet and finds free
equipment/cargo/modules. This is generally time consuming, so the probe can be
deployed and then you can go about other missions or trade runs for 50-100
days. The probe cargo can make a great insurance policy if things have gone
wrong and a player is broke and needs money for repairs/seed cargo. Just go to
the planet, pick up the free cargo, and go sell it.
Don't forget to pick up the probe before leaving the planet, and have the probe
repaired at a planet/station before deploying it at another planet.
Last edited by Inverarity on Sat Aug 20, 2005 12:48 am; edited 2 times in total
0003.Stats
0003.01.Races
0003.02.ATTACK
0003.03.DEFENSE
0003.04.TECH
0003.05.TRADE
0003.06.CHARISMA
0003.07.LEADERSHIP
0003.08.MILITARY RANKS
0003.09.RANGER RANKS
0003.10.PLANET PUBLIC RELATIONSHIPS
0003.11.PIRATE RELATIONSHIPS
Amazing Games. Many Cheats. Such Wow.
