SR 1 - late joiner

[Noctilucus]

Just a quick post to say that I only now discovered Space Rangers 1...
Too bad I missed the Stardock sale on SP2.

First I want to get the most out of SP1 though it's proving to be hellishly difficult - never died so often during any similar game as far as I remember!
Somehow in my third game I managed to improve a lot though very slowly (able to take on medium size Klissans only in the year 3010) but it's particularly the start which gives me trouble. Thanks to the various tips I've found on different forums, I'll give it a few more tries :)

Both games could use more promotion though!

[uk_john]

It's a PC only game, so you know it's going to be challenging. SR1 was supposedly more difficult than SR2. SR1 came with SR2 if you had bought the retail version, which can be got for under $20! In any event perservere and don't travel too far too quick (except in the tutorial part)

[Noctilucus]

Thanks for the response.
In the meantime I've finished SR1 which I now feel quite comfortable with and moved on to SR2 Reboot as it's more polished and even more varied. It is definitely easier than SR1 (except for text missions and the ground battle parts)

Perseverence was really the key-word; in one SR1 game at some point the Klissans controlled 88% of the galaxy and still the game was not lost, which speaks for the fine balancing that the developers imbedded in the game.

[uk_john]

Thanks for the response.
In the meantime I've finished SR1 which I now feel quite comfortable with and moved on to SR2 Reboot as it's more polished and even more varied. It is definitely easier than SR1 (except for text missions and the ground battle parts)

Perseverence was really the key-word; in one SR1 game at some point the Klissans controlled 88% of the galaxy and still the game was not lost, which speaks for the fine balancing that the developers imbedded in the game.


Reboot has much harder RTS Robot battles, because I believe the AI cheats. Also the AI generally has been improved and stories slightly changed to be made harder. So watch out for Reboot, it's been made as hard as SR1, if not harder! :)

[Noctilucus]

Reboot has much harder RTS Robot battles, because I believe the AI cheats. Also the AI generally has been improved and stories slightly changed to be made harder. So watch out for Reboot, it's been made as hard as SR1, if not harder! :)

Thanks once again for the advice.
As I made the jump from SR1 to Reboot without playing the vanilla SR2, I've never experienced the easy RTS robot battles. I'm avoiding them now as I haven't managed to win any except the tutorial (a few times I came close, eliminating 1 of the 2 enemies but never held out against the remaining enemy forces).
While in mid-game there are stronger pirates and bigger clusters of Dominators compared to SR1, you also have access to more and stronger weapons so for me it evens out. It's just harder to build an all-round ship as I feel I have to give up more cargo space to have a good speed and weapon layout versus SR1. On the other hand, you have bigger hulls available and more expensive Dominator loot.

Still in my first Reboot game (after 2 reloads because early on I died fighting pirates and once I died in a racing text game) and the Dominators have been fought back to 1 star system.
A fleet of rangers managed to take out Keller. I know the location of 1 other "boss" though I haven't seen the other one for a few game years now.

[uk_john]

@Noctilucus, you are right on all counts about the RTS battles. Let me give you an example. I used a Trainer that let me build as many robots as I wanted, of any type. Needless to say, I produced the best, most expensive units. In spite of this, it took over an hour to win the battle, and I still came close to losing it a couple times. At the end, despite producing robots on a constant basis (because the Trainer let me), I had produced 387 robots with the red team producing 548! All I can say is this proves the AI also must have unlimited robot build cpability on some level, or how could it produce twice as many robots as me when I had that Trainer!

After winning the battle I in no way thought I had cheated as much as I had 'lvelled the playing field' and I will use the Trainer for the RTS battles again after this experience.

Same goes for the black holes. Once you get 3 Dominator's it's practically impossible, and yet I believe they go up to EIGHT Dominators in a Black Hole!

Also, some of the text adventures are more like school tests, where you are required to do math rather than solve puzzles, which quite frankly is boring!

Lastly, it seems silly that after failing just one mission, a race doesn't like you any more.

I also don;t like that if you don't kill pirates two races don't like you and if you do kill pirates another two races don't like you!

Other than the above though, this is a brilliant game! :)

[Noctilucus]

UK_John: I've read the same comments on the RTS battles from other people. It's a pity those battles have been made so hard by allowing the AI to produce on such a massive scale, as they would make for a nice change inbetween all the flying.

Good thing that you warn me about the black holes... I've never used them much but so far I've only been up against 1-3 regular opponents which is pretty much a walk in the park as soon as you have a decent ship.

Quite honestly I'm avoiding most text missions as they are often long, difficult and/or trial-and-error. I prefer to spend that time trading or doing Fedex missions that often pay half the amount of the text missions anyway, in a much shorter timeframe and with far less risk. Like you said, especially the risk that your relations with a race can drop like a brick after failing a mission, poses too much risk to be worth it.

I can't complain about any races not liking me due to not killing pirates. While it's true that as a human pilot, my relations with Maloqs and Faeyans were less than stellar in the beginning, they've warmed to me after some Fedex missions (e.g. a successful Fedex from a Gaalian planet to a Maloq planet will improve your relations with the Maloq planet as well) and killing Dominators.
I did hit a tough spot once when picking up some loot right in front of a pirate (leading to 2 pirates ganging up on me and eventually killing me).
Other than that, I didn't engage in any pirate battles so far, though with my current ship I should give it a try to see how a more aggressive playstyle turns out to be.

Indeed, a brilliant and addictive game, providing much more variation and freedom than your typical space trader.

[uk_john]

Your pirate experience may vary, so good luck. As to the Black Holes, in Reboot you can set a time in the Options for the automatic pilot to take over. I have it set at 2 seconds, so if I don;t take control of the ship straight away the AI takes over, and up to 3 Dominator's does quite well, like I do, but at 4 it fails, just like I do, so the AI is just like me - which I find a little scary! :)

The only pirates I definitely go after are the one's that zip in just as I am about to pick up some minerals or an enine or laser or something - that is so annoying and is like he is just baiting me!

Such is the realism you give to this gameworld as you get immersed, you really do start seeing other races and ship captains as real people! Especially when, in Reboot, you get more conversations between other ships as they fight, etc!

[Noctilucus]

This time I started a game as a Maloq at normal difficulty and I see quite a change: much more pirates attacking me (due to strained racial relations) and I've died more frequently than in the first game.

I only jumped into black holes a few times so I've never been up against 3-4 dominators (though Keller may count for 4 ;) )
Either you're uncannily like the AI, or 4 dominators in the same black hole doesn't leave you enough maneuvering room inbetween encounters?

Now that I'm a Maloq, I suppose I should start taking a more aggressive stance and pre-emptively take out some pirates...

[uk_john]

This time I started a game as a Maloq at normal difficulty and I see quite a change: much more pirates attacking me (due to strained racial relations) and I've died more frequently than in the first game.

I only jumped into black holes a few times so I've never been up against 3-4 dominators (though Keller may count for 4 ;) )
Either you're uncannily like the AI, or 4 dominators in the same black hole doesn't leave you enough maneuvering room inbetween encounters?

Now that I'm a Maloq, I suppose I should start taking a more aggressive stance and pre-emptively take out some pirates...

Generally speaking, I only take out pirates if they are 'bad' or 'hostile', certainly,if they have an 'excellent' attitude to me I don't concern myself why (maybe I took out a competitor?) and just leave them alone.

[Noctilucus]

Generally speaking, I only take out pirates if they are 'bad' or 'hostile', certainly,if they have an 'excellent' attitude to me I don't concern myself why (maybe I took out a competitor?) and just leave them alone.

Same here. And so far I'm not even that actively attacking the "bad" ones.
Though it's an interesting question, what determines someone's attitude towards you.
I'm sure race, their occupation (pirate vs other), your relations with planets of that race in the current star system, your armament and cargo, historical fighting against them, ... all play a role.
Not sure whether your ranger ranking and your Dominator, pirate & other kills are taken into account.

[uk_john]

Also, there seems to be 'levels' in this Reboot version. Almost overnight is seems I cannot scan ships because their sheilding is too high, new technology has started appearing en masse at prices of 100,000 plus and generally there seems to have been a 'jump' rather than a smooth curve, meaning I am still trying to raise money for better compnents and hulls, just like i was at the start, but now I have 35,000c and everything is 50,000 plus, just like when I had 1,000cr everything was 3,000cr! :)

[Noctilucus]

I've seen other people comment on that before though so far I haven't noticed any such radical jumps. Though that's probably because I check out the available equipment whenever I land on a Gaalian planet and I wouldn't really notice if the most expensive hull I can't buy is suddenly 500K instead of 300K.
Like you say, there's constantly items (especially hulls or unique ships) out of price range but that also incentivizes you to play on and make more money.

What's a little annoying though are all those planets that keep selling weak, old material even when everyone is already using the more advanced stuff. I should really remember using the search engine to find better equipment, so far I never thought of doing that.
Right now I've got 250K cash on hand and nothing in particular that I want to buy urgently, though I keep seeing offers for unique ships for 1000K (and only available to those with a high piracy or military rating, which I don't have yet)