Next time I'll go for this sequence
dagger (rogues)
stiletto (junkers)
barracuda (some nip planet...)
anubis (order)

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That could be a bit difficult depending on how and when in the campaign your rep has been changed, but it looks like a good set of choices. I went with the best available ship from the standard choices (defender>crusader>dragon>anubis, I believe...some/many would prefer the barracuda as you did; I liked the look and feel of the dragon).

Incidentally, you might want to use "Kusari" instead of "nip"; I'm about as far from being politically correct as one can get, but I'm an American who has lived in Japan for a long time, and I can assure you that thousands--at least--of people find the term *very* offensive.

Anyway, if/when I redo the campaign, I might try to build up my funds much more and try to buy the Dromedary when the storyline takes me to Mactan; I can't recall whether my level at that point would have let me buy it, and it was moot anyway because I lacked funds at the time. It would be interesting to try to win the race in a Dromedary, for sure.

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It's a bit tricky, but I think I can pull it off. Maybe I'll throw in a freighter somewhere to make some money.

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That's why I was thinking of the Dromedary...IMO it's the best freighter because although it may lack the Humpback's armor it handles well and can even hold its own reasonably well in dogfights. Challenging, especially in some of the bigger battles, but workable. Of course, YMMV.

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What's your take on ship-choice?

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Probably the most efficient--though not necessarily the most fun and/or challenging--would be to use the best available fighters for the missions in the campaign and then switch to the best available freighters for the build-up-your-funds parts, putting off meeting Juni until you've made a lot of money and/or upgraded to the max possible at each level. You could end the storyline and immediately be topped out level wise. If I recall correctly, I suddenly rose to level 34 at the end of the campaign, without particularly trying to become super-rich. Then I adjusted my rep 'til I could go to Mactan, bought the Dromedary, ran a few profitable missions, and hit 38 pretty swiftly. Now I'm running parallel games, one in a Sabre as a hired gun of sorts and the other in the Dromedary as an aggressive trader/explorer. Both fun, but neither necessarily everyody's cup of tea. <shrug>


It's better to burn out than to fade away

Edited by - Balefire on 03-04-2003 10:20:10

ah - I didn't mean to offend anybody -sorry if I did. Honestly I didn't think it was considered derogatory, more like a term of endearment - like yanks, brits and so on. There IS such a thing as too politically correct as you say.

I doub't you can buy the dromedary from mactan at the first visit, it probably demands too high a level (First time there I was in a patriot iirc).

No worries, as my Australian friends say. I know lots of folks think it's equivalent to Yank or Brit, but I've never met a Japanese who thinks so, and I've been living here for over 30 years.

I wasn't intending to go all PC on you; just thought you might like to know.

As for the Dromedary; you may be right about the level, although I've seen posts from people who say they've run the race (Mission 6?)in a Dromedary (boggles my mind, actually), so the level requirement isn't tremendously high, but may very well be too high for the first time you get to Mactan. When I went back to buy it, after the campaign, and starting from somewhere quite far from Mactan, my rep with the Hackers was fairly good. I think this was because of in-campaign changes rather than from special effort on my part, but I don't recall exactly.

The funny thing was that I bought it and filled it with gold to take to, IIRC, New Tokyo (wherever gold was highest). As soon as I launched from Mactan, though, a Hacker demanded that I relinquish my cargo. I refused, and then had a very interesting fighting retreat for a *long* way. Friend to foe in one easy step, and took rep hits with all their--many--friends, who then saw me as fair game. In retrospect, I probably should have just rushed away instead of blowing up the Hacker and his wingmen. But that's where I learned that the Dromedary isn't so bad as a fighting ship, for a freighter.

A friend, BTW, has hacked the Dromedary specs just enough to change the three guns to Class 10 and mounted Nomad guns, keeping eveything else the same, and he swears by it. Seems a bit unbalancing to me, but to each his own. At least it's more realistic than another friend, who has modified the cargo space on a Sabre to 200+. <laughing>


It's better to burn out than to fade away

I'm doing Rhino , Dromedary and anubis..then back to Dromedary.

Dromeday is far better than humpback althought it has much less armour. Goes as fast as the rhino.

SP campaing is easy, provided you know the proper type of shield to use. Keep all three kinds of shields with you, and change to the proper type when you are entering new area. (you need to dock at a station first however...)

Also, until you get anubis, buy those 8.33 rate 700+m/s firing guns, as most of the time you'll be doing dogfigthing.

Interesting plan to use freighters all through - must make some of the story-missions kinda hard. I didn't know that the dromedary was more agile than the humpback (aka "brick".

My plan to use a dagger is failing fast - my rep shows rogues as neutral, but they still attack on sight and buffalo is hostile. Now I must decide to buy a bloodhound or a patriot (I'm never flying defender again!). Any ideas?

i want to try it with my custum rhino it has 15 or more harpoints

next time I go through SP, It's borderworlds only for me.
Starflier-Dagger-Dromedary-Stiletto-Sabre.

After that, I'll try one with just the civilian ships...that should prove a unique challenge as well.
Starflier-Startracker-Hawk-Falcon-Eagle

And after that...who knows?

Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless

Officer: "Freelancer, what happened to the transport you were escorting?"
Me: "He told me my ship looked wierd...I invited him to have intimate relations with my SunSlayer"

Where is the Buffalo Base? I'm actually friendly with the Outcasts after attempting a semi-suicidal attack on the Norfolk Shipyards. I had to run after at least 30 Liberty ships started to shoot back...

hey i started of like this

Rhino>Clydesdale>dromedary>? because i havn't completed game and maybe get drone for next after dromedary or a humpback

I'm doing pretty much the same:

Starflier>Dagger (after first SP mission)>Dromedary (after second Bretonia mission)>Cavalier?>Hawk?>Anubis?

? = Not there yet.

With a Dromedary, you can easily build up a nest egg so you don't have to use freighters again and only do missions or scavenging to level between missions. The dagger was fun just to see, but I wouldn't do it again, getting into the Rogues is far more trouble than it's worth.

Where in E7 is Buffalo Base?

A little update:

After killing a few more xenos the rogues finally realized I was their friend. I docked at buffalo (which is in the central southern badlands) and found that I needed to be lvl. 4 to get the dagger - ARGH.

So I bought a bloodhound (not doing that again), finished a mission and bought the dagger. Visually the ship is a treat, but it's no more agile than the defender! I'm quite dissapointed by this, but I'm still going to keep flying "strange" ships for the entire 2nd campaign.

i went starflier->patriot->defender->cavalier->barracuda->anubis->sabre

for the story missions ( dont laugh) i went starflier-> defender-> anubis. i think i only died on 2 of the missions too, most of the time i had the defender. now that i look back on it, it would have been alot easier to change huh?

gee, that guy's cool.