Terran Cadet start questions

[GHKtruc]

Is it possible to do like the least amount of combat possible ?
I don't think I'm good enough at this for now. Even tho is supposed to be one of the easiest start available.

[Dracon]

TER is only easy for economics, not for the early fighting part though, since the Kukri sucks.
But yes, you can avoid a lot of the fights by simply hiding behind the station.

Bonus hint though:
Once a certain someone vanishes, their ship will be left at their last known position, you can just go and grab it, as there is usually an intervention force guarding the area. Should make it easier until you CAN (!Conditional!) get the Katana.

[GHKtruc]

Is the other ship better ? Khukri got 3 weapons tho. The other only have 2

[joeball123]

Originally posted by GHKtruc:

Is the other ship better ? Khukri got 3 weapons tho. The other only have 2

If by 'the other ship' you mean the Takoba, then yes, I would say that in general the Takoba is a significantly better fighter than the Kukri. Two gun mounts is already enough for most of the roles you'd want a fighter to perform, and the Takoba is significantly faster than the Kukri - both in and out of combat - with the same engine as well as potentially twice as well shielded since it has room for two shield generators to the Kukri's one.

[GHKtruc]

Alright, I'll give it a shot. Anyone got some other tips for me maybe ?

[Bobucles]

The terran economy is very easy to master, it's literally 3 materials. Microlattice(weapons), silicon substrate(low tech) and computronics(high tech/hull parts). Get these three techs and you can get rolling. Terran space is also very safe. Saturn is rich in resources and deep in terran space. It doesn't get any raids at all. So you have easy tech, and easy mining.

The hard part of the terran start is the PHQ. All the research and upgrades require commonwealth wares, and the terran start has a huge disadvantage on that.

[Damedius]

The first few missions are easy. There are two harder missions later on which can be done fairly easily in something like a Katana.

[Frienby]

The Kukri is a flying coffin. Survivabilty of a scout ship with less agility. The other ship you get for free is a Gladius, see the spoiler marked above for how/ when to get it. It eats the Kukri's lunch... a heavy fighter, it'll take awhile to get where it is going, but has the guns and shields to punch well above its weight. If you know a Xenon ship's blindspots, can even strip a K's surface elements with it. However, it'll take a bit. lol

[Konril]

The mission chain from Getsu Fune and on is a part of the bigger Terran plot line and not exclusive to the Terran Cadet. The difference is that other starts need to build their relationship with the Terrans up to +5 and make their way into Terran space before they get the mission offer. But they can do it. The assigned wing-man will appear once the mission is accepted, instead of first thing when you start as a Terran Cadet.

The Terran Cadet and Project Genesis starts also have an alternative start to the Player HQ that you will be guided toward, which makes getting it slightly easier than if you just had the base game without Kingdom's End. (With Kingdom's End installed, the HQ just gets dropped in your lap when you get to the start of the Kingdom's End plot line if you don't start Terran.)

The whole Getsu Fune thing requires you to shoot down the engines of an Antigone Miner that's being irrational. But other than that there are plenty of other actors on the stage to help you through the actual combat. You can pretty much hide behind the station or freighter and the friendly turrets and other friendly fighters in the area will do all the combat for you. But you do get paid bounties for kills if you do help with the fighting. Savage Spur is going to be scary. Don't even try to fight and just keep moving in travel drive until the mission tells you to come back. But you'll be fine if you do so.

The real advantages of the Terran Cadet start is that you start with a +10 reputation with the Terrans, which makes the energy-cell gold-mine of Mercury available right out of the starting gate (with the blueprints to place your own energy-cell factory already known), and the fact that the Terran economy makes it a lot easier to make money from mining. But it also comes with the disadvantage of a -15 reputation with everyone else except the Seagaris Pioneers and Teladi Company. So it's not perfect.

If you don't need the hand-holding then starting Project Genesis with give you a +5 reputation with the Terrans and Seagaris Pioneers, which allows you most of the economic benefits of being Terran and a slightly faster start on the player HQ without the reputation hit with everyone else. You won't get access to the inner Sol sectors right out the gate, but it won't take long at all to earn that access. Non-Terran starts will be with a -15 reputation with the Terrans, which makes taking advantage of the Terran economy a little bit harder to do. The Project Genesis start also doesn't send you out to fight at all until you get into the shared plot lines and random missions. So it is my favorite of the non-custom starts.

Past the starting missions, you won't get bounties on ships that you don't get the killing blow yourself. Random missions to shoot down a certain faction's ships (usually Xenon or Kha'ak) you will need to do in person. But for most of the plot missions ordering the fleet you assembled to attack or even just relying on another faction where available works just fine. The one exception that I know of is the initial mission of the Fires of Defeat start, which has nothing to do with the greater Split plot or any other game starts. If you don't destroy the fleet before the Xenon do it for you, you won't earn the achievement. That's not something for newbies to worry about anyway. (It's kind of a Mission Impossible scenario.)