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my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I played this game a lot as a kid. In retrospect, the game has a strong "what could have been" vibe. It's a lot of fun, the space given to you was enormous and fun to play in, but it feels unfinished.

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my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I will say that learning about Starlancer's plot is retrospectively souring me on Freelancer.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
For those playing along with the LP, there are a few things worth noting.

  • The starting ship is the most agile ship in the game. It takes a very good pilot, but it's entirely possible to win the game with it. It's actually easier to do so with it than with most of the other early game ships - their extra stats aren't nearly enough to help survive lategame enemies, but the starting ships's agility gives it the ability to not get hit in the first place, which remains useful throughout the game.
  • It's possible to buy an extra weapon on Manhattan before taking off. This is a very good idea, because
  • It's possible to stay behind during the big Rogue ambush and kill them off. You get bonus money for it when you catch up, but you have a time limit to do so before mission failure (implication being that King figures you're dead and moves on)
  • Get into practice of pressing the tractor beam button as soon as you hear something blow up. Otherwise, you'll miss out on a lot of loot, some of it unavailable otherwise.
  • You want a balance of weapons that are good vs shields and weapons good vs hull, with a bit of a bias towards hull damage.
  • You want your weapon projectiles to have similar speeds, otherwise they won't connect on target at the same time and you'll constantly be missing with some of them.
  • There are certain weapon types that do better against some kinds of shields, and worse against other kinds. You're not going to know in advance what your enemies are going to have unless you've already played the game, and usually not worth the hassle of preparing for, but if you're having trouble with a particular mission, this might be the push you needed.
  • More energy efficient weapons are generally a better choice over more powerful weapons. That having been said, the better a pilot you are, the more your damage is going to come in bursts as you move into a good position, unload as much fire as you can into your target, and maneuver away while your energy recharges.
  • Use boosters. Use boosters a lot. Boosters are very good at keeping you alive.
  • To get a faction's ship, you need to befriend a faction. To get a faction's weapons, you merely need to kill a bunch of them.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Missiles are good on ships that have a lot of mounts that would probably overspend your energy if you were to use them all, like the Rhino. (as an aside, sometimes upgrading your weapons is actually detrimental to your performance, higher tiers are usually less energy efficient, and you can't shoot more than your energy allows you to) A single level appropriate missile launcher won't really tax your income much even if you use it regularly, and it helps dispatch ships much quicker. You also might want to mix and match different kinds of missiles for killing stationary targets in the story missions because you can only have 50 of each type of missile in your cargo.

To use the travel lane network faster, learn to love the "free flight" button. You can select dock, wait for your ship to point itself in the right derection and go to cruise mode, then switch to free flight, and only switch to dock again when you're almost inside the gate. You'll only have a second or so of slow going before speeding up in the lane. Works with other stuff in the game too, like docking with planets. Try not to overshoot when docking with planets this way, tho :v: Also works with waypoints that you don't want to slow down for, just without the dock button.

You'd sell the nanobots and batteries because you don't expect to need them for easy missions and want to make room for looted ones (their price is the same when selling and buying)

my dad fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Feb 15, 2021

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I like the breaks from reality this game makes. Most Sci Fi is unrealistic as hell anyway, and trading some more in favor of fun is good. Planets look cool, landing sequences look cool, and it makes the game more memorable. Static trade lanes are a ridiculous concept, but they give the game a sense of scale withing a single system while still greatly reducing travel times and creating some interesting things you can do.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Big, long, risky trade runs are worth an episode of their own. There's some amazing smuggling you can do midgame due to plot-based reputation stuff. There's even an excellent freighter you can only get then.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Torrannor posted:

I can't remember this, which freighter is that?

YX Dromedary, at the Lane Hackers base you visit. Mediocre armor, but 275 cargo space and much more agile than you'd expect a ship like that to be.

e: It's probably my favorite ship in the game, alongside the starting ship, and another ship we won't be seeing for quite a while.

my dad fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Feb 18, 2021

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

far from optimal and possibly quite bonkers but I'm attempting it all the same

Ah, the Rhino.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Time saving tip: On the map, you can choose the waypoint option when you click on something, and the game will plot a course for you, including nearest trade lanes. You didn't have to fly 22k to the base, you could have travelled 3-4 to the nearest trade lane gate and done the rest at 10x speed.

е: Oh, you use it later in the video

my dad fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Feb 26, 2021

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

OutofSight posted:

At least get rid of the freighter, any freighter, for those story missions. Only suffering awaits otherwise.

Now, now, Borderworlds freighters are designed with combat in mind first and foremost.

Not this Liberty piece of crap, though. Winning the game in the Rhino is considered the ultimate challenge.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Cooked Auto posted:

And this is why I only flew fighters.
Also you should probably need to set up some proper weapon groups and not have every weapon firing at once because of energy drain.

Alternatively, using more missiles OR using lower tier weapons OR using more energy efficient weapons.

Xenos weapons are pretty great for this stage of the game.

fake edit: The antishield turret (or cannon if you lack turrets) is a must for any loadout. Exactly one, and no more.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
OK, to comment on something at the start of the video:

That's not actually the starting ship! The Startracker is an "improved" version of the Starflyer you start with, that can have one level higher weapon mounts, has very slightly more hitpoints, and is a lot less agile. Contends the Rhino in being the worst ship in the game, and the Rhino at least has OK cargo space and a bunch more weapon mounts. You cannot actually obtain the Starflyer anywhere in the game. Once you sell the one you get, that's it.

No point in buying the Startracker ever, imo.

e:

Fun trick with this mission: The artifact smuggler you scan? If you kill him with your weapons, you'll fail the mission. BUT if you bring his health down most of the way, and then bump him to death with your ship, he'll die without costing you the mission, and he'll drop some artifacts for you to loot.

Tip for the next section of the game: Xenos weapons are the best you can get at this stage of the game, and you can loot a reasonable amount of them in the surrounding systems

Mines are difficult to use right, but have an interesting advantage over other weapons: Any ship that can equip mines can equip any mine. You're only limited by player level in which ones you can actually buy. This lets certain ships punch WAAAAAAAY above their weight eventually.

my dad fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Mar 14, 2021

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

If this isn't the case I'll make a correction in a later update.

There is nothing called that way in the game. Are you sure you didn't mix up names?

By the way, when you see a guy in a Rhino get exploded by Rheinlader fighters, you can take a very risky fight to kill them. You can't reload the fight without going to a prior checkpoint,. If you manage to beat them, you get a unique turret as a reward, and it's good enough to be worth keeping a very long time.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
The cruise disruptor has a fun secondary (or, depending on who you ask, the actual primary) use: It causes ordnance caught in its AoE to detonate. Now, if a ship were to fire a torpedo, and you launch a cruise disruptor at the ship quickly enough, well, the consequences are going to be entertaining.

Speaking of missiles and torpedoes, something that took me forever to realize: The damage you take is multiplied by the number of components that got caught in the AoE of the blast. For regular missiles, this causes problems for ships that are very small or have several components that share a border in the front or the rear of the ship, and in case of torpedoes, well, you better hope your ship doesn't have too many components in total since the entirety of it is going to be in the blast radius.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Super sped up travel works better for the purposes of clarity than cuts, I think. If you did "OK, I got from point A to point B" like you did with the shield trip, just with... a bit different background music, it'd be great.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
The 3 totally not Rheinlanders in Liberty aircraft are the ones I mentioned in a spoilered comment before. If you can take them out (actually really difficult unless you position yourself right and use a million flares), you're rewarded with a unique turret that can last you almost to the endgame.

e: This is also where the cruise disruptor detonation trick helps out a lot.

my dad fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Apr 18, 2021

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Trent can be incredibly dickish when refusing plot missions, and his justifications for it in his diary keeps getting funnier as time goes on.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
The ability to turn quickly is also really important, but it's not listed as a stat. It's why one of the top 3 post-endgame ships is head and shoulders above the others, despite seeming weaker on paper.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Welcome to the Space Kingdom of Quake Color Palette. Enjoy your stay.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
We've reached my all time favorite rumor of the game. :allears:

Goddamnit Trent

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
You're completely invulnerable while docking.

The price list suffers from lacking any form of sorting other than price. The second best price for artifacts (that you know of so far) is on New London, you glanced over it without noticing.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

I just wanted to make a short announcement that my daughter was taken into hospital yesterday and she really isn't a good condition at this moment in time. She hasn't been well for a while and recently it's reached a critical point. There's a good chance that she will recover, but right now there's a lot going on with how to get her to that point. She lives 250 miles from me, I will be going up to see her on Friday and coming back on Sunday. I will record updates when I am able to do so, but please understand that things may become a little less frequent for a while.

To hell with the lets play. I hope your daughter recovers soon. Best of wishes.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

On second thoughts, let's not go to Omega 5. 'Tis a silly place!

Hahahaha, I was waiting for this.

Yeah, uh, that's the first interaction most people have with that system.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
"evasive maneuvers"

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
The trick with Mactan Base is that it's neutral, BUT turns hostile if there are Outcasts nearby.

It's not easy to land there, but it's possible.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
"video unavailable" for some reason

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I'm in Serbia, so 100% possible.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
It does, thanks.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
If you are using multiple missiles, equip a tier weaker or a homing version of a missile in addition to your main one. It reduces your damage output per volley, but extends your total missile damage output because each type of missile has its own ammo cap.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I wonder how that Rheinland fleet commander in the gas cloud is going to explain to his superiors "So, uh, 3 fighters showed up out of nowhere, massacred our fighter cover, blew up a battleship, and then just continued on their merry way"

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

StarFyter posted:

To be fair, that was actually nine fighters, there were six waiting on the edge of the cloud to join you... and they get shot down in very short order. (It's your fighter cover getting massacred there)

I was talking about the Rheinland invasion fleet Trent bumps into while flying with Lord Hakkera, not the alien superweapon factory.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
This is where people either learn the true value of the "instant momentum change" keys and merely die a lot, or they don't and die repeatedly and burn out, generally.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Groetgaffel posted:

I never got paid, and all they have is Liberty Ale

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Gothsheep posted:

Nomad's Sky

This is genius. :allears:

I change my preference.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Lemniscate Blue posted:

Did they really bring in Tony Jay just for that last couple lines, or had his character been featured in earlier cutscenes and I've just forgotten?

Rheinland Chancellor.

Sharing the voice gives the last scene a bit of a funny (and unintended) dun dun duuuuunn vibe.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I would insist on advising you to, after showing off what your SHF does to poor liberty scrubs who get in its way, try to grab the Dromedary this time around. :) It's a good ship, especially for its level.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
How can we possibly vote for anything but 3?

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
That was some nice mine use.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
The Dromedary is really good midgame ship, but it does have its limits.

Making a run from <space cocaine homeworld> to Liberty in a Dromedary remains the craziest thing I did in this game.

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my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
I did say Trent was an rear end when you pick "no" :v:

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