"Dirty Business" seriously?

[hojocat]

This is like the second storyline mission and as far as I have gotten.
First time I tried it got my ship blown up.
I went missioning and upgraded weapons, hull, shields, etc
Tried it again. Had to run away. The missions marked low risk were no problem.
Why is this marked "low risk" but so difficult? Am I doing something wrong?
Am I not supposed to defeat 2 or 3 battle cruiser things?

[drayelya1]

Well you could always pay the guy off if he’s irritating you too much.

This a problem I had at first when I picked RG up years ago. Early on you can’t really brute force missions. Even average risk/low risk missions can still give you problems. There a lot more to the game than brute force pew pewing the bad guys anyway.

Watch your shields, time your deflector properly and use your broadsides only when they’re fully charged. That will help some. Plus you can kite enemies away from one another. Try shooting up one until his Hull is exposed and then watch him run. There are also blind spots on ship broadsides. Learning these spots will let you pummel an enemy with your broadsides while not getting hit.

It’s also never a bad thing to hit your boosters and break off a fight and come back after your shields/deflector are recharged. I’ve won fights where I’m way out numbered with no hull left on either side of my ship just from taking the time to boost away(not warp, boost)and swinging back after my stuff is recharged. Don’t forget to fire your flak too if you have any equipped. It’ll save your hinny from missile swarms and fighters. Just hold the button to shoot flak down and the flak will do most of the work.

Really it’s all about learning how to maneuver your ship and when to get away from the enemy. I also don’t recommend using scatter turrets or more than 1-2 missile turrets as the missile ammunition is limited. Once you get to the late systems and dreadnoughts start popping up you’ll really have fun. :)

[WillieSea]

At the beginning, I come in behind the big ships, and let my mining lasers deal the damage. Most ships have poor a weapon arc on the back of their ship. Then I fish tail back and forth, also shooting broadsides into their rear shields. Works wonders, especially if you invest in the best mining lasers you can get.

[__]

as loading screen says, if you find yourself outgunned in story mission go and do side quests for money

[OC Celeron]

"Low Risk" missiions do tend to be easier that ones advertised as harder - but keep in mind that the risk listed is an estimate made by game characters and not an absolute scientific fact.

[Cookie]

Is that the mission where Sandar sends you after some entry level pirate scum? Are you still using the basic equipment or something? MK1 shields and maybe Garris should be enough to take him on. Maybe he's spawning near a fleet of something else nasty, like a Commandship?

[hojocat]

Like I said I have upgraded turrets, shields and other things.
"Well you could always pay the guy off if he’s irritating you too much. "
I don't know how to do that. I could not find an option to hail him. That's part of what I am asking. For this to be so difficult and only the second storyline mission and marked "low risk" there must be an option besides fighting to resolve it but I don't know how to do it.

[__]

Originally posted by hojocat:

Like I said I have upgraded turrets, shields and other things.
"Well you could always pay the guy off if he’s irritating you too much. "
I don't know how to do that. I could not find an option to hail him. That's part of what I am asking. For this to be so difficult and only the second storyline mission and marked "low risk" there must be an option besides fighting to resolve it but I don't know how to do it.

You press Y and then select hail while looking in the direction of ship. Get x2 mining lasers, it will take like 5 seconds to take down quest ship

[MTB-Fritz]

When I first started out I won many encounters by turning tail first-thing and hit boost while swerving from side to side kiting away from the big ships.

In almost every encounter the accompanying fighter craft are the actual danger, not the enemy capital ships. A small swarm of fighters will eat through your shield and armor in no time.

As every side of shields regenerates independantly offering different surfaces frequently will give the turned-away sides time to regenerate back up while another whittles down. While focusing on survival and damage migitation your turrets have the opportunity to negate the fighter threat in time. All the while your boosting ensures you stay out of range of the big guns who are limping after you.

While capital ships your size can be taken on however you wish (frontal assault, broadsiding, tailing) the big ships which outclass you by several sizes require certain positioning and manouvering in order to avoid their big arsenal. Depending on your own ships capabilities eiher tailing or staying ahead are the only real options as you wont outrange them. You cannot afford such manouvering if you have additional fighter craft swarming you.

The actual threat level doesnt really express the missions difficulty very well IMO. As the enemy set-up is more important to overall difficulty then the individual ships power. I had missions rating as "high" consisting of a single dreadnaught with only a 2 fighter screen. The missions was laughably easy. Then I got a dark blue mission (easy) which had 1 frigate but 10 fighters....got ripped up twice in that one so there......

Until you start to aquire hulls with 6+ broadside ports turrets are your main weaponry which I always found funny but learned to love them. The omnidirectional arc of fire as well as indepedant fire rate are a great asset even against enemy capital ships.

TL:DR

Invest into shields and turrets first. Learn to avoid damage by hit-n-run tactics.

[Count Jackula]

Yeah, in this order, maybe: invest in shields, then engines and boost, then guns....then learn/practice the hit/n/run, using the deflector and shield recharges.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Don't feel too bad if you're getting frustrated. This game was made during a pretty chaotic time in the developers lives plus it was made by just two people. It's not perfect by any means. You sometimes need a bit of patience when dealing with certain missions.