Research priorities? Recommended Guide?

[raubrey]

Hi All,

I really enjoy SPAZ and am playing it more now -- rather than causally -- to the point I find myself not really understanding a good part of the game. I didn't realize the game had long terms consequences in research and othererwise. Just learned about Zombies o.0

But besides research questions, all I find myself doing is trying to get enough goons to bribe the UTA -- and/or ruining relationships. I guess my major questions are:

1. If you're suppose to specialize in weaponry how do you deal with shield/armor/hull?
I respec'd to beams and launchers (edit) but don't have a weapon good against armor.

2. I don't understand what goons are or where to get them other than missions that make you lose faction standing? I see crew pods and not sure what the difference is other then I usually have enough crew.

3. The mechanics of Zombies aside (I"m not that far), does it matter what your relations are and with who? Basically I beeline for UTA station (if I can) to take advantage of their blueprints and bribing them. If my relations aren't good I tend to take out more civys than I'd like. If the UTA has nothting more to offer me than I may attack them. Though that makes my bounty go up...not sure if that is avoidable.

4. Do most of you attack warp gates...I get slaughtered by this "purple stuff" :D

5. Do I want to specialize in shield, armor or hull or keep it more balanced?


Believe it or not I understand ships somewhat after playing EVE but don't understand them in this game so much.

So any help on these three is most appreciated. I've read a few guides but not seen anything that deals with long-term strategy or some basics (e.g. when to attack warp gates (I tend to get slaughtered).

Many thanks -- Spazfan

[Air Bear]

1. If you're suppose to specialize in weaponry how do you deal with shield/armor/hull?

put points into shield/hull/armor at about the same rate you put it into weapons. At least till like level 4 or 5 in all of them. Then focus on weapons more. And as you will likely find yourself running around the edge of the galaxy, you'll probably cap out your weapons. Then move on to hull/shield/armor.

Shield - Recharges fast. As long as you have shields up, no damage gets through to hull/armor. So it's your primary defense. Cloak does the same thing as shields but its much weaker, since you aren't supposed to be doing a melee slug fest with a cloaked ship.
Armor - reduces the damage your hull takes once shields are down. Better armors which you can purchase later in the game will significantly reduce the damage your ship takes.
Hull - represents your ships true hit points. Once the hull runs out you are dead. You can have a ship with no shields or armor, but you can't have a ship without a hull.

You will likely find that if you dump a few levels into these you will be able to handle those gate guards.

2. I don't understand what goons are or where to get them other than missions that make you lose faction standing? I see crew pods and not sure what the difference is other then I usually have enough crew.

Goons are your crew members. Goons are dropped primarily from exploding ships and stations. They can also be found in crew pods mixed in with floating space junk. If you hit those pods, it will eject between 1 and 20 crew members for you to pickup, depending on the size of the pod.

If you have more goons on your ships, they will repair themselves faster over time. They also act as a second kind of currency. You can trade them off to stations for resources or as a bribe. You aren't selling them into slavery... you're giving them a better chance at surviving than they would get on your ships :P

Goons also fight off zombies and other invaders. Once you get into the zombie infected zones, if zombies get on your ship they can capture it. Goons prevent this.

You can also use goons as an offensive weapon. There are a couple of weapons that shoot goons at enemy ships to raid for blueprints and to cause general mayhem.

3. The mechanics of Zombies aside (I"m not that far), does it matter what your relations are and with who? Basically I beeline for UTA station (if I can) to take advantage of their blueprints and bribing them. If my relations aren't good I tend to take out more civys than I'd like. If the UTA has nothting more to offer me than I may attack them. Though that makes my bounty go up...not sure if that is avoidable.

Playing both sides against each other and attacking whoever you please is kindof the point of the game. Piracy, arrrrr!

No it doesn't really matter what your relations are with anyone beyond the fact that they won't sell things to you.
The only stations I wouldn't recommend destroying are level 3 mining stations. They are the fastest at destroying asteroids and are a good place to farm for rez if you are low.

4. Do most of you attack warp gates...I get slaughtered by this "purple stuff" :D

Purple stuff? I have no idea what you are talking about.

Yep I attack warp gates. I almost never bribe my way through. If you are having trouble with them, try leveling up a bit (the warp gates never level up, they stay whatever level the destination side is). Keep in mind that if you blow up a ship at a warp gate, it will not respawn if you retreat and come back. Meaning you can take them out one at a time if you need to.
It sounds like you have almost no points into shields or hull. If you get even 2 or 3 levels into hull you will have much higher hit points and last a lot longer. Increase that and try again.

5. Do I want to specialize in shield, armor or hull or keep it more balanced?

Balanced. By the end of the game you should probably have all three of them maxed. You can get away with lower armor, but you will probably eventually be wondering what to do with your data points anyways.

Throw some points into the tech that boosts your engines and the one that increases your capacitor/energy also. Those will keep your ship from running out of power.

[raubrey]

Thank you much Topper. I found out what was wrong with my goons, in part, I guess having them at 100% surplus made me not gain them readily. So to be clear, they are the same as the crew pods blue and red I find? Often I get the message my crew is maxed but yet I dont have 150/150 goons (it might be as low as 40/150) I guess that is where I am confused.


As for shield/armor/hull -- I do have that balanced ...though recently upgraded shield to 4. Maybe I do need to move more or warp out or repair more.

Maybe I can take a screenshot of the "purple stuff" ...I want to say it is a blaster weapon of sorts and comes from (I think) the Helix. It makes a distinctive sound and it is harder to avoid with my slower ship...it's like a puddle when it shows up.

I guess then my main question left then is weaponry. Should I balance cannons/turrets etc. at low level and then specialize? I thought i wasn't suppose to have all -- beams/missles/cannons/turrets/drones -- and my favorites are the first two but I'm guessing that is not enough.

Thanks again for your helpful reply.

[Air Bear]

That surplus amount is the percentage of goons your ships try to deploy with. Meaning that when the ship blows up, if you have it set to 100%, when the replacement gets built, the replacement will have 100% of its goons filled in if possible. The problem with that is that there will be no room for new goons to be picked up because your ships will be full. It's better to set it somewhere btween 20-50%. But you only really need more than 20% for the zombie sections of space (which you won't find until later in the game).

What will happen if you set it lower is that your ships will start picking up those crew pods. Once you warp out, repair, or drop them at the beacon, all of the crew pods above a ships surplus quota go back to the mothership and become part of that 40/150 bar you see.

The difference between the colors of the pods is what faction the pods belong to. Red is UTA, yellow is bounty hunters, light blue is Civilians, and dark blue is your own or neutral. Depending on your relations with the faction and your recruiting skill, some goons will refruse to join your ranks and get pushed out the airlock as soon as they are scooped up.

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Moving more.. I assume you mean like dodging bullets and missiles and things? Yes, you should probably move more :P. Quite a lot of the weapons can be dodged. Particularly cannon blasts, missiles (yellow torpedos mostly, though regular missiles can be outrun), and bombs.
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purple weapon?
Some of the weapons slow your ship down. You might be describing one of the bombs, which the AI helixes tend to use. Its like a big rectangular weapon that when it hits, explodes. Everything within its explosion radius goes much slower for a short time. Then the bomb releases some orange spiraly firebombs which also explode and do significant damage. If this is what you are describing, you can either shoot it out of the sky or fly out of its flight path. Bombs have terrible turning radiuses and can usually be easily dodged.

There is also a gravity missile which slows ships. I usually have one on a missile ship once I unlock it, if I do missiles.
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"Should I balance cannons/turrets etc. at low level and then specialize? I thought i wasn't suppose to have all -- beams/missles/cannons/turrets/drones -- and my favorites are the first two but I'm guessing that is not enough. "

That's not a bad idea, particularly when you are still low level and havent unlocked the advanced weapons in your preferred weapon type. But you probably wont want to have more than level 3 or 4 in the stuff you don't plan on using. Probably don't put anything in drones unless you really plan on using them. For turrets, you really only want to put in enough to unlock double and triple turret mounts. But that should be a late game unlock, like after you've purchased those mount schematics from stations. And I can't remember if that's in the 'turrets' line or in some other line.

I personally either do beams or cannons and then usually always do missiles because I like them. Beams and cannons are going to be your primary damage dealers. Missiles are usually support. They *can* be your primary damage dealers but there's less control and you may find yourself hitting friendly faction ships quite frequently and you will probably find you want to be able to shoot things occasionally.

Turrets/Drones/Bombs all are mostly support weapons. Deployed turrets are useful if you are doing a cloaked build, since they can distract targets. Drones will go kill stuff for you but are rather fragile and completely 'hands off'. Bombs are really tricky to use well and often kill your wingmen or friendly ships. I would recommend holding off on messing with these until either a second playthrough or late in the game after you've maxed out stuff and you have more data points than you know what to do with.

[raubrey]

Wow! That really clears up a lot for me. After reading what you wrote a lot of it seems simple, but if you don't pick up on it, it's a tad confusing. I had *no idea* why I could pick up some pods and not others and what the colors where for, for instance. So I'm like going around looking for a special goon pod lol.

I did figure out today that the Goons # was for the Mothership and the Crew number was for me and then started dropping off goons to build that up quicker -- when I spent goons etc.

As for the mysterious puple weapon...it is the one with a bomb I suppose and firey things. I have a slow ship and often can't outrun it. I have a hard time outrunning the yellow torpedoes, I just upgraded my engine and may add a bosster.

Anyway you wrote really clear here, with a little tweaking this could be part of a guide or on a wiki. It's very helpful. Thank you so much!

[Ditchinit]

Pro Tip: If you find yourself low on overall goon count, but there is a nearby debris field that includes a lot of potential goon pods, remember you can empty your current ship's crew at your beacon (default key 'u'), then head back to the debris field and scoop up more goons. Use a ship with large crew capacity for the fewest trips.

[raubrey]

Originally posted by Ditchinit:

Pro Tip: If you find yourself low on overall goon count, but there is a nearby debris field that includes a lot of potential goon pods, remember you can empty your current ship's crew at your beacon (default key 'u'), then head back to the debris field and scoop up more goons. Use a ship with large crew capacity for the fewest trips.

Believe me, I feel like a pro space janitor. :D
But thanks -- it is a good tip for anyone not aware of such.