Vesta Overkill: Stock Solutions

[Cannon Fodder]

So the mission is definitely one of the harder ones. The game encourages you to play around, making your own ships, but I decided to play around with stock ships because I am a masochist. Also to spite everyone who keeps saying you can only win with custom ships.

I won twice (kinda).

The key, I found, was to emphasize missiles and point defence and to outnumber the enemy fleet. Missile schooners and laser skiffs fulfill the first two requirements, but in order to outnumber the enemy, I had to round out my fleet on the cheap. Patrol ships and orbital defence/attack craft fit the bill as these were ships that are very cheap but quickly filled up my tonnage limit.

I don't quite remember my exact fleet composition the first time I (kinda) won, but I remember it had the following:
- 2x missile schooners
- 2-3x laser skiffs
- 1-2x patrol ships (might've been orbital defence craft)

I was able to take out all the drones and missiles launched at me and then cripple the enemy fleet. I say I kinda won, though, because to win you must also destroy the Devastator Nuclear Missiles that are meant for the colony. I tried intercepting them after destroying the enemy fleet and I yeeted myself out of the system in the process.

The second time I won, I had a fleet of:
- 4x missile schooners
- 2x laser skiffs
- 2x orbital attack craft (these differ from the defence variant in that they have rail guns instead of 60mm cannons and thinner armor)

The strategy the second time around was not only to survive the drones and missiles with effective point-defence, it was also to overwhelm the enemy fleet.

I sent multiple waves of missiles at the enemy fleet before they intercepted my fleet. These missile waves numbered 150-250 missiles each. I played around with the flak-nuke ratio, but I found that the more in total the merrier. This battered and bruised them (and I think even yeeted the cutter out of orbit?) and I was more than a match for them when my fleet came toe-to-toe with them.

Winning this mission with stock ships is feasible. It's frustrating, but it's rewarding, too.

[Echo]

I achieved 100% capital ships unscathed with a stock fleet of 2 Escort Carriers and 2 Missile Schooners, and maybe 1 Skirmisher.

As for the tactic, first I planned two burns to hug Vesta (all of them with Vesta as my frame of reference):
1) At the start of the game, I planned a radial burn toward Vesta of ~1.5 km/s
2) I selected a point in the trajectory close to Vesta, clicked on Vesta, then selected the automatic circular injection around Vesta, then, depending on the outcome, I selected another point in the trajectory (farther away if the trajectory resulted in collision, closer if the orbit isn't very close to Vesta) that would result in a very tight circular orbit (the following is a screenshot of one of my attempts)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2579000045

Then I executed the burns, laughed at the enemy missiles and drones running out of dV or orbiting Vesta without trying to intercept my fleet, and finally I used missiles and drones to deal with every red blip in the orbital view.

[AtomHeartDragon]

I'd guess it should be possible to beat VO with nuke spam in which case 2 siloships plus something small (preferably with 60mm guns) should do it. You'd just need to intercept everything that's not flak missiles with nukes and do it in a very hands-on manner.

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by Echo:

I achieved 100% capital ships unscathed with a stock fleet of 2 Escort Carriers and 2 Missile Schooners, and maybe 1 Skirmisher.

As for the tactic, first I planned two burns to hug Vesta (all of them with Vesta as my frame of reference):
1) At the start of the game, I planned a radial burn toward Vesta of ~1.5 km/s
2) I selected a point in the trajectory close to Vesta, clicked on Vesta, then selected the automatic circular injection around Vesta, then, depending on the outcome, I selected another point in the trajectory (farther away if the trajectory resulted in collision, closer if the orbit isn't very close to Vesta) that would result in a very tight circular orbit (the following is a screenshot of one of my attempts)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2579000045

Then I executed the burns, laughed at the enemy missiles and drones running out of dV or orbiting Vesta without trying to intercept my fleet, and finally I used missiles and drones to deal with every red blip in the orbital view.

That's actually a really creative approach. The AI goes after you instantly so I figured I might as well hold course and rely on my point defense. In terms of actually using the orbital mechanics, I found intercepting the Devastator missiles to be the hardest and most time-consuming part, was it much of a challenge getting the drones out of the tight orbit to intercept the missiles?

[Echo]

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder:

That's actually a really creative approach.

It's more an exploit, since the AI doesn't like to send its drones and missiles in a collision course against any celestial body, even if they can intercept you before colliding.

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder:

was it much of a challenge getting the drones out of the tight orbit to intercept the missiles?

Not at all, you end up with an orbit that has a period of 5 h and 10-15 min and an escape velocity of a mere 60 m/s.

Maybe it's possible to reduce the ~1.5 km/s of the initial burn, as long as the enemy missiles and drones don't get to intercept you.