Hi Lordblood, and welcome to the Lancers Reactor!!!

What you're looking for is found in the spoiler forum, so I'm going to move this there and email you that I've moved it.

However, without any major giveaways, the bottom line is: the more credits, the higher your level. You can take missions, trade cargo, mine asteroids, or any combination. Your "reputation" is the key to gaining alliances. You'll notice that the "pirate" groups hate you. The trick of the game, if you want to become part of them, is finding a way to get in good with them. There are many ways to do this, but again, that's spoiler fodder, so I'll leave it to that forum for more direct answers.

Out comes the magic forum broom.....(swoosh)....see you in the spoilers.....

Now that I've moved the thread, remember that you get more than just the bounty when you take a mission. You also collect all the equipment and cargo from the ships you shoot down. This amount varies depending on the difficulty of your enemy. Staying in Liberty and shooting down rogues won't get you much more than cheap guns and countermeasure flares. Fighting outcasts and corsairs will get you very well rewarded. But remember, they can take out your Anubis (assuming you've got that) in seconds. Try to stay in good standing with the Bounty Hunters. They're everywhere and if they're in the red with you, you'll be fighting them constantly.
Now, I'll give you one hint to get you in good with the Corsairs (who have imo the best ship, the Titan): Go to Stuttgart, and fly between the Omega 7 gate and Omega 11 gate. You'll be going through a very large nebula. (don't use the trade lanes here, fly in open space.) Kill as many Red Hessions as you can. You'll be attacked by them pretty often, and they tend to gang up. In your Anubis, you should be able to take them down without too much difficulty. They're strong, but not that strong. You'll also be continually resupplied with nanobots and shield batteries from their ships you take out. After about 25-30 ships down, check your reputation. You should be low-neutral with the Corsairs. Fly through Omega 11 around the asteroid belt (it'll melt your hull if you're too close) going around planet Shultz (stop at Solarius station to sell equipment and cargo). Keep going "south" till you get to the Omega 41 jump hole. At Omega 41, fly southeast until your neuralnet picks up Leon Base. They will let you land since you've become neutral with them. (If any Corsair demands you drop your cargo on the way, do it, don't fight them). Land on Leon Base, and the Bartender will allow you to bribe him to become in the "green" with the Corsairs. You then can take missions from them, buy their ships and equipment, and have the uber fighter, the Titan.
This is one of MANY ways to change reputation. Also, almost every system has hidden wrecks with weapons. Some of them are better than anything you can buy as they're "prototypes". You'll need a Sabre (outcasts), or and Eagle (Freeport at Omicron Beta) or a Titan, as you need to have level 10 mounts for these.

Ok, enough of my spoilers, anyone want to add some?

Edited by - Boscoe on 1/10/2005 11:16:32 AM

ok, first off, thanks for replying Boscoe on such short notice I have read the section you've recommended, and I have found that only one thing would most likely solve this, I did install the patch for the server issue, because I wasn't able to connect to the "global server" on multiplayer, thought the patch might work. I did install the patch during the single player game.

I'm going to attempt uninstalling - reinstalling the game without removing the save files and see what happenes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ooo! now that's a nice piece of info! I was doing (almost) the same thing, I'm in new berlin, taking mission against the Red hessians! because I noticed that they're not on good terms with the crosiars! so I took a couple, and noticed a slight movement in the rep bar. (that's when I posted the topid about moving up) now, if I do what you added to the post, I should be able to gain the crosiars side in no time by flying the path you've suggested.

As for my attempt to fix the leveling issues, well, IT WORKED I reinstalled, load from last save, and took a mission, as soon as I shot down ONE Red hessian, I jumped from level 18, to 31!! Amazing huh! so I'm strongly advicing those of you who have the same problem, to uninstall, and then reinstall the game, without of course removing the save files. This is strongly recommended for those who installed the server patch 1.1 or something. the patch related to the server issue.

Now I guess I should be able to move on discovering more systems, believe it or not, I only have half of the systems on my navmap, when I viewed the one on the website, I was like "umm, where on earth did all of them came from?" so most likely, I'm going to get myself a brand new ship, load up with kickass weapons, and start. I do have over a million credit now.

I would like to note that the level some of you might advance to after fixing the problem might depend on how much credits you have, and how many missions you've finished, it doesn't mean that you're going to move to the same level I did if your problem was fixed.

thanks Boscoe for the great help, and thanks to those who noted the patch issue.

Also, especially in single player, use the trade routes on your map. They come in three flavors, friendly, neutral, and hostile. They will expand when you get closer to the "ends" that are shown. Look for vortexes and crossovers with the routes, and generally there's an unmarked base or jumphole there. In Multi-player, the trade routes are all vanilla white, so just keep the setting on neutral. This will help you immensely when trying for find all the hidden systems, bases, shipwrecks, and jumpholes. Also, land at each station you can. (you can't land at a hostile station) and talk to the people in the bar. Some have missions (looks like a suitcase), some have info you need to pay for (and exclamation mark), and others have free information (a box with "words" in it). If it's a blank box, ignore it. They'll have nothing to tell you. Read between the lines on the information, there is much information there. Bartenders mostly have bribes available, but sometimes they have information. A bribe will come up with a $ sign when clicking on the character.