Progression/ need help

[Mike]

So, I got the wolverine and leveled up so I can cap ships better/ have bigger pirate spawns. I am lvl 17 commander. I am not strong enough/ skilled / noob to solo the pirate regions.

In faction space NPC battleships and friends blob the ships I can take down and I get killed by the bigger enemies in the meantime that are near. I have yet to capture a ship because of this. Worse, NPC ships just blob solo pirates/ pairs I can sneeze at to take down and capture.

I only got 500K credits, but I have a good gunship. NPC loot drops seem to earn as much as I can by just minning asteroids. Bar modding or minning for credits I do not know what to do. I read some of the capture guides, but can't follow through because of the above issues. Don't know how to get out of this funk.

[mmihokovic]

I can suggest a few ways to get more credits without crossing heavy enemies:
1. Frelance missions will sometimes yield nice sum of credits (for example transport missions if destination is further away). Science, taxi and ferry missions won't demand fight often. Also, if your ship has cloak, use it to avoid fight...
2. If you aim to get credits from mining, try to secure cargo ship with greater cargo space, then find a rich asteroid field (glowing ones that have far more expensive materials). Using borehole torpedoes will also increase speed of mining
3. On lower levels capturing ships can be tricky. Choose small gunships, pound them before boarding and, if possible, get boarding expert officer on your payroll to help you out
4. Go to Spire station and buy financial related licenses and stocks to secure steady money flow in...
Later, new more complex freelance missions will become available, and hunt for heroes can bring millions.

Hopefully this can help :)

[Geek]

Getting too much experience early game means trouble.
At lvl 17 you shall have a frigate and at least mid range guns.

If you do not want to restart, you will have to find areas with less patrols to manage a capture.

[cb6dba]

On my first play thorugh I headed to Union Hub territory and mined the asteriods that contain shards.

You can earn quite a lot of cash that way, it is however quite boring :-(

[Sketchy]

To me, combat seems to be way better at earning you credits than boarding and selling early on simply because you just don't have the crew and transporter capacity to capture ships that are worth more than 500k when sold. What I did to earn a lot is grab the Legionnaire frigate, it is in Baeldor space and has a cargo hold of 100, and use the scavenger swarm on derelicts. Can't find a derelict? Make one! The weapon systems you recover from derelicts, and you almost always do get a weapon system, is worth a lot of credits.

[Geek]

It is absolutely fine to earn money by other ways, but that statement about boarding is wrong.
If you can get a frigate, then the Abeja can easily board ships that sell for several millions (ie imperial corvettes).

[Zenoslaf]

I have to admit, I still think boarding is the best way to earn easy money. Of course you have to meet some prerequisites before that to be successful at it.

[sfcwoc]

Along with the science, ferry, and taxi missions, don't forget about the maintenance missions. The non-combats don't pay as well as the assassination or capture missions, but they are do-able from 'square one'. (Don't let the 'threat assessment numbers' fool you on these non-combats, they can be done.) Also, buffing the Field Commander perk (left side, general category) will help your troopers boarding 'strength' against your target(s). Gas pockets can be mined as well. Having an Ion Tech license will pay you a little better for gasses mined, compared to the 'normal' remuneration. Same with the Miners' Guild license for all ores mined. When you initiate a boarding action: launch grappler - launch troopers - toggle any 'skill' feature deemed appropriate for the situation - turn away from any 'conflict', and drag your prize away from the battle, or towards your next/closest port-of-call (aka: station or planet); but at least try to get out of harm's way with your prize. Sometimes this has helped me keep the other 'wolves' off the kill.

[Crow 2-5]

save up for a freighter less then 500k, then mine up til you have like 2,500,000, get an Orca. nice turret coverage, fighter hangar, and it's a nice price. that should be a good enough ship for a beginner, or you can always stay a miner and get a much much better ship, but Orca's can be aquired at a lower rank.

[sfcwoc]

I like the Maur and Tunguska Freighter-class frames for the nice spread of lite weapons turrets placed about each, and their cargo cubeage. The Orca Frigate-class frame is also a great find, as mentioned above. Although, the Wolverine Corvette-class you're currently flying has it's benefits, as you may find. Buff (enhance) the lite weapons with Syntha 3's; the heavys - if ya got 'em - with Chronos 3's. Then use what top-of-the-line buffs that you can find, for your other endemic ships' equipment needs (grappler, shields, transporter, power, control/maneuvering, cloak, hangar, and et cetera...). Also, you can employ ships' officers that'll assist in the boarding effort, by adding their percentage of 'influence' on/for your troopers. There's a 'public list' of Boarding Officers posted in the SPG2/Steam Workshop/Guides section. Also, buff the Soak perk. This seems to be like adding on an extra layer of armor, vis-a-vis 'longevity' or 'hang-time', in a fur-ball.

[Mike]

Thankyou for the replies. Another question- If I start the bording process before NPC's start shooting the pirate NPC, Will they still engage that ship or will they seek other targets? If so, I could start boarding then shoot up the smaller ship.

[probe]

They will still fire at the target AFAIK. There's a pretty decent guide on how to make loads of money in early game by capturing Lyra ships

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=325420450

As somebody already mentioned the thing about leveling is to keep your economy on par with it so you don't wind up over-leveled and under-equipped (or "under-shipped"). Remember to bring scavenger drones as they can net you decent money from weapon systems.