Alright space combat gurus... I can beat three ships with my Razorleaf but if I do it's just barely and often I can't. End up getting blown away. This was in a mission dealing with Spacers. I completed it, but died a lot.
-> So do you have any tactical recommendations to manage combat better, or is it just be bigger and more powerful than the enemy?
I've done the systems power management, maxing out shields for example, but really it doesn't seem to make much difference, on my current ship anyway.
Flying around tends to end up being a looping exercise with the dual states of if they are coming at you, you are getting shot. If you are behind them you are good.
And it appears I can't upgrade shields on the Razorleaf.
-> So is that correct that not all ships can have all components upgraded?
So,
Ships are interesting. You have to really put it into two skills if you want to maximize your combat skills in space (hell I have them all unlocked and I still at times get spanked when I venture too far).
You want Piloting (this allows you to use Higher Class Modules). You can only use A class initially and as you unlock you will get to C-Class.
However, you also want Starship Engineering because although you can use them if you find a ship with it on them and capture it, you cannot get access to the really spicy parts until you put some points into this as well.
Any ship. So long as you meet the other requirements when you build it can be upgraded indefinitely. There are some things to consider.
If you install a B or C class Module, you need to ensure your Reactor is equivalent or better.
I.e. If you install a B Class Shield Module, you need either a B or C Class Reactor. If you install a C Class module, you can only use a C class reactor.
Same with engines, weapons ect.
If you want to skip on the Starship engineering side. You still need to at least unlock the Piloting, and then grab some missions to hunt ships (if you have an outpost in a high level system you can put a mission board there and you'll get higher skilled matches than if you use the City boards ususally, or at least that's how it works for me).
Make sure you have EM weapons, and its the last ship alive, then punch its shields down, target its engines with EM and blast until its disabled. Then you get within 500m and board it , kill the crew, capture the ship.
You'll be stuck with however it was configured but it can give you a better ship.
I've gotten some neat ones over the time I've been playing.
But, do not take those ships to a controlled port. Swap back to yours via the menu or an outpost. Most captured ships have contraband stashed on them. Going direct to port will get you fined. If you don't care about that then no worries, the AI will just remove the contraband, you pay the credits and ship is clean and yours.
Otherwise I take mine to an outpost with a Ship builder on it, I change the color of something, and it dumps all the garbage in the ship to its cargo hold, then I just pull out the contraband and space it.
Hope this helps,
-ST
