Early game advice

[Stelar Seven]

So,

I'm rubbish at evaluating my capability to handle the enemy. I took the bait mission, then got the missions to hunt down the two groups of pirates east of Silverblum HQ.

Now I've both pieces of the encrypted message and about 60k eagles but no shield and still my newb ship.

The main enemy is threat 17, vs the 8 and 9 threat previous groups. It's got shields and a much heavier broadside than my newb ship.

How are you folks beating this thing? Should I just go maneuverable and try to get behind it? Do I need to buy another ship? Am I missing some tool or I should go back to SB HQ first?

In the last beta I got lucky on thisnl fight and just ran my magazines dry after hitting its drives, but that felt like a fluke.

How often are the rest of you getting crushed? Should I shop for better tools?

I have the Blue team base ship with all wasps and kinetic rails, was that the wrong weapon choice?

I tried buying the Bronze Drake but it got horribly crushed repeatedly..

Any advice would be welcome.

[Hexagoros]

I bought the Victory Falcon the instant I had like 60k. Then gave my (fully upgraded) starter ship to escort duty. I then bought the Bronze Drake as my second escort. That makes for a fairly powerful starting setup.

The Victory Falcon, when upgraded for max dps and a shield generator, will last you a very long time, as despite being (very) slow, it punches way, waaaay above it's price-point, and can turn on a dime - meaning despite being slow you can always have a broadside facing the enemy.

That said, you MUST put a shield generator on it, otherwise it won't survive long enough to do damage.

Edit: If you want, I can post my Victory Falcon build.

[OLO]

to build on what hexa is saying, you need to good escorts and a solid main ship as you progress, those tier 0 escorts are just a waste of money. I didnt realy run a shield till later, but rather focused very heavily on ensuring all 3 ships I had were solid and well built.

[Stelar Seven]

Originally posted by Hexagoros:

I bought the Victory Falcon the instant I had like 60k. Then gave my (fully upgraded) starter ship to escort duty. I then bought the Bronze Drake as my second escort. That makes for a fairly powerful starting setup.

The Victory Falcon, when upgraded for max dps and a shield generator, will last you a very long time, as despite being (very) slow, it punches way, waaaay above it's price-point, and can turn on a dime - meaning despite being slow you can always have a broadside facing the enemy.

That said, you MUST put a shield generator on it, otherwise it won't survive long enough to do damage.

Edit: If you want, I can post my Victory Falcon build.

Ok, victory falcon cokes from where and yeah, some fitting advice would be welcome. I'm still early, early game so I have no shields, will need to buy those parts, I thought the shields came from that blonde Npc

[Passan]

Also visit Crossington and Laventum Industry. They sell Speed and Light speed thrusters.
Greenvale sells Medium combustion engine and a mudule that automates fuel production.

[War Craze]

Which starter ship do you have? They aren't equal. I beat that fleet with Republic's starter, a River Mare I think it's called. But I got absolutely destroyed with the Kingdom starter. The republic ships are fast enough you can get into that sweet blind spot just forward and off to one side of their ships. Note that this will only work early game. The weapons that drop eagles with frikin laser beams on their heads won't care that you're outside the ships arc. And the mine launchers...

[Beravin]

Your starting ship makes a huge difference, as War Craze said. The red one is quite bad, the blue one is very good and the yellow one is decent. Basically, you can't go toe to toe against a stronger foe in this game, they'll demolish you. Gotta be faster and outrange them.

[keylocke]

i managed to reach the part of the story where i already have my own company and built my first factory after buying a license, etc.. etc..

and i'm still on my starter ship (lyndwyrm) i just bought the steel naval burst cannons from blueglade, a light civilian shield from everspring?? (forgot its name, the town where you bring minerva after rescue), a couple of laser interceptors for missile/torpedo intercept.

i managed to just solo even level 20+ fleet encounters (i have a hunting license), going for 30k a pop.

except for aetherhawk loft spams.. lol. my ship don't really have enough space for backward facing point defense. so they just rape my ass. i could convert some of my broad side guns into backwards point defense, but i'd be losing too much DPS that i need to break enemy shields used by stronger enemies.

[War Craze]

Take yourself down to Firefort. Better ships and weapons down there. Invest in some repeaters. Wasp missile launchers are pretty nice too, small with 3 rockets fired in each burst so it takes only a couple to overwhelm point defenses, which is grand as point defenses that aren't shooting down your rockets will keep themselves busy shooting you.

[Anlauf]

Iron Drake is a beast.

3 lights frigates or 2 LF and a freighter seems a strong unit.
This with long range weapons and Rodrigo long-range ability been working well so far.

Also avoiding the strongest fleets of course.

[War Craze]

You can get Stone Drakes up north that are even better than the Iron Drakes. Findhorn village.

[Antearz]

I did that encounter in the Starting Ship.
The Highrange Missiles Allow to just Kite out of Range.
So I never got Hit myself.

[Beravin]

Its what makes the veridian starting ship so good. Exceptional speed and pre equipped with a load of rockets. I had to run from a few fights because I ran out of ammo, even though I never took a hit. Was quite the problem. I'm experimenting with a munitions room right now.

[War Craze]

I have two munitions rooms in my fleet and they barely keep up.

[Antearz]

Originally posted by War Craze:

I have two munitions rooms in my fleet and they barely keep up.

Get more Armories then. ^^
I Actually replaced some Cargorooms on my Little Frigate cause the Missiles especially when You use the Gunners Range and Autofire Skill. Are very Ammo Hungry.

[Beravin]

Originally posted by War Craze:

I have two munitions rooms in my fleet and they barely keep up.

Depending on the size of your ship I'm thinking you need 1 or even 2 per ship.