I got this game to be Han Solo and it delivered pretty well. Got me a rag-tag fleet of shuttles, drams, and small combat freighters, all of which were boosted by unstable reactor so that entire fleet had the highest combat move speed possible. Just ran away every time pirates or the Luddic Path came knocking.
Made a ton of money early on in Valhalla running heavy machinery there from the two Hegemony worlds that are around the same gas giant. Even though I sold most of it on the black market the fact that I was trading with their enemies drove my Tri-Trachyon reputation down to hostile. Hilariously, despite smuggling pretty much everything (except organs, got to have standards) pretty much everywhere, this is the only faction I've significantly pissed off ever.
After many, many smuggling antics selling in one place and then going elsewhere until the heat dies down, tragedy struck. Nifelhiem and Ragnar's orbits came close together without me realizing; I should have been tipped off by the unusual nebulas around Ragnar. Weakened by my constant smuggling (Valhalla-Ragnar is my favorite place to make money) the Hegemony patrols were pushed aside by a Tri-Trachyon detachment and patrol. The patrol attacked my rag-tag band. Most of my fleet was too fast to catch, but fifty crewman died to ship damage and a destroyed dram. Angry at my first crew deaths ever, I set about militarizing my fleet. I got a Hammerhead, managed to get a setup I liked (an explosive and kinetic long range gun combo, boosted by hammerhead's active ability to be a sniper ship). I also got a heron light carrier and an tug + 2 fighter-bomber wings to go with it. I set up my four combat freighters for combat, albiet not very well.
Unfortunately for me, while I was smuggling I ran afoul of a Tri-Trachyon fast picket in Hybrasil. I turned and fought it and... well. What I didn't realize was that A they were using advanced ships that were top of the line in their class and B their numbers were deceptive, as every one of them could fight, unlike my fleet. We did a lot of damage but inflicted few actual losses. All of my combat ships were destroyed and then a few of the civilian ships on retreat. This was followed by a long pursuit; my fleet finally got away with almost no supplies and fuel left.
This was, of course, unforgivable, so I've set up a new and better fleet by switching out the shuttles for mules and getting even more actual combat ships. The money to fund this involved a lot of smuggling, including buying 20K volatiles from the pirates at Umbra at <10 credits each then storing them and then ferrying them in several trips to Sindri worlds. Also moving 1.5K recreational drugs in that one Hegemony system with a lot of crime. Anyway, one of my goals is to have home base where the faction is willing to sell me military gear so I can freely piss off everyone else, and I settled on the Sindri Diktat as my faction of choice. Unfortunately, they're so stable that they never have missions or place bounties, and I suck at not pissing of authorities (multiple times I've accidentally left my transponder off). Despite making a point to never ever ever use the black market on Sindri worlds and sell as much as possible there I'm still only at +6 relations. My plan once I got my combat options up was to attack the pirates there in order to curry favor, but... as it turns out, pirates actually like me. That's right, I've done so much smuggling that I've gone from hostile to favorable with the pirates. Not sure if making the Sindri Diktat like me is even worth it at this point...
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Topic: Starsector [TopDown Sandbox RPG on Space] (Read 370510 times)