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Guides/Resources
Solace (183) Guides/Resources
FurySolace
TABLE OF CONTENTS


There's a different guide in each post. Titles are big/bolded to make finding them easier.

1. Basic survival checklist - By Solace
2. Myre's hunting guide - By Nightmyre
3. Group hunting rundown - By Solace
4. Guide to RCing - By Blah
5. Guide to Ship Design - By Nightmyre
6. Another Guide to Ship Design - By Initiate
7. Nebula Bashing Guide - By Iccyh
8. Target Hunting - By Iccyh
11/12/04 12:20:20 EST Quote Delete Edit
Solace (183) Re: Guides/Resources
FurySolace
BASIC SURVIVAL CHECKLIST
By Solace

In general
*Move as fast as possible
*Don't check messages or anything of the sort while IS
*Disable player tags while doing anything not involving docking.
*Use image pack if using IE
*Use cached images if using Opera
* BE ON IRC AT ALL TIMES WHEN ONLINE This is vital in a number of reasons -- survivalwise, because it will allow you to be alerted of enemy hunters, aggie nets, and other dangerous conditions.
* Dock in safe, high level ports with few other targets.

Trading
*Check scout drones you cross over for onliners
*Trade randomly, not in a rhythm.
*If you run into an aggy stack, don't look at the report, move as FAST as possible.
*Do not for any reason stay IS longer than you need to.
*Use scanners to check for aggies (or neutral stacks, if at war) before you start trading.
*Equip your freighter with a SSJD, scanners, cloak, DT, and SRG (if possible)
*Be aware of hunters in the system through system notices/forum posts. Keep tabs on their activity and movement (as shown by slight changes in their EXP)

Resourcing
*Do not fill ports over 24k goods, otherwise this will change the system map and alert watchful hunters.
*Resource randomly, NOT in a rhythem.
*Every so often switch to full scouts and undock/dock a few times to see if you're being camped.
*Memorize the locations of the "refine all" and "dock links" on your moniter screen so you can move there as quickly as possible
*Remember that the "refine all" page does not have to load before you click "DOCK," so deally try to hit "DOCK" as fast as you can, before the page refreshes.
*Do not resource over major ports.

Combat (solo)
This will be covered much more in depth in later posts, but briefly.
*RUN if you see more ships than you expected in the combat report (unless in a group fight)
*Pay attention IS at ALL times.
*Be very familiar with the way to get to REP ALL
*Remember you can deploy if you're panicked but don't want to run.
*Run if you start taking significant EMP damage (unless they are badly damaged and you can finish them off).
*Glance at weaponry in the combat report - if their ship is specifically built to kill your shiptype (flux/htorp versus your pure shield, for example) or yours is particularily weak against theirs (sabot/htorp vs droneship, for example), you probably want to run.

Ship Building
*Make note of the owners of the drones you ping at the stations. In the station, check which ones are online. See if they seem to be camping you (constant refreshes on last activity).
*BANK excess money at stations as you buy upgrades.

Align Shifting
*Memorize where "dock" and "undock" are so you can hit them quickly.
*Pick a remote/obscure port to shift in, not
*If aligning DOWN, go to a HIGH aligned system to a port which is selling illegal goods (which you can see since you're neg align), buy a load, undock, redock, lose a ton of align (and a bit of cash/turns) and the cargo, repeat. This will save time. Make sure you have some cash on hand to keep buying the goods
*If aligning up, have food in your holds before aligning up. Less effective, but saves some turns.
*Watch whose drones you ping when entering the system. Sometimes hunters will watch your remote examine, see you shifting align, and start a systematic search through the system.

Dronelaying
*Be VERY careful, because this exposes you for a long time IS.
*It's critical to note drones you are pinging at the ports, and the station. It's easy to tell if someone is dronelaying if they keep jumping back to the station, then to a different port
*Also be aware of any onliners in the station. They might see you popping in and our frequently, and call in a friend.
*Buy the right number of drones in the station so you don't have to waste turns
*Excess drones should be shield drones.
*After dropping a stack, jump back to the station using the "engage jump drive" button, not the "plot course button," to save yourself a second or more.
11/12/04 13:09:21 EST Quote Delete Edit
Solace (183) Re: Guides/Resources
FurySolace
MYRE'S HUNTING GUIDE
By Nightmyre


So, you wanna go get revenge on that guy who kept killing you while you were trading, eh? Or perhaps you want to kill those traders that keep stealing all your trade routes? Or maybe you just want to go genocidal on some poor helpless newbie? Well, despite what you might think, its not as easy as just getting a ship, sitting in sector, and refreshing like mad.

In my mind, there are three different types of hunting, each with their own specific strategies. This little guide will be split into three sections, each addressing one of the types, namely - Trader hunting, Solo hunting, and Group hunting.

Trader Hunting:

In most people's eyes, this would be considered the 'easiest' form of hunting, because theoretically there is no 'risk' involved. However, it can quite easily become very, very dangerous if you don't do it properly.

Trader hunting comes in a few steps. Firstly, target acquisition, then camping, then finally killing.

Target acquisition is probably the most difficult step here. You have three 'main' methods towards achieving this goal - Scout drone pings and informants. Scout drone pings are probably the faster way of going about it, but they have the distinct disadvantage that most people tend to not trade over scout drones who's owner is active. Informants are useful too, but again, smart traders won't trade with another person non-allied with them in port. The only 'reliable' method to acquire a target is to watch their experience and, when it starts going up, try to guess where they are trading.

The final method is the most difficult, so I'll elaborate on it a bit. Unless you plan on only hunting random people who stupidly trip your scout drone nets or trade with active players in their port, you are going to need to hunt specific targets - otherwise known as Target Hunting. To do this, you will need to know a fair amount of information on your targets. Firstly, you'll need to know who trades in the system you plan on hunting in. Secondly, you'll need to know WHERE they prefer to trade. Try to get a large list in order to give yourself more of a chance of finding a good target. Once you have this list, watch the online players list (OPL) to see if any are online. If you see them online, then watch their experience, either from the rankings page or from their alliance page. Also you can watch their alignment if they are not already at the system alignment. Once you see them trading actively (align going up/down or exp going up), you need to find out what port they are trading at. Traders generally pick one cluster and live at it. After you find out which port they are trading at, you go onto the next step, namely camping.

Once you've acquired your target and location, you need to camp outside their sector and refresh like mad. Of course, this isn't entirely riskless, as you could easily be ambushed. As such, it is HIGHLY recommended that you go for the full 100% chance to see in your sector. If you have say a 50% chance, and you camp, and a warbird jumps you, all they need is for you to fail on your first refresh to see them, in order to shoot and probably kill you. You should also have a fairly fast connection, so that you can quickly run if you are jumped. While camping for your target, you should try to resist shooting any random guy who wanders by, as you'll warn your target that you are waiting for him if you do. If your target does not undock for a while, it is advisable that you retreat a few sectors away into a low-visibility sector, and wait for him to continue trading actively again, as you either have given yourself away, and your target is either waiting for you to leave or calling a hunter to kill you, or your target has finished trading. Also, NEVER dock with your target to see if he is still inside, as the second he sees you, he will stop right away; the ONLY time when you should is when you are ABSOLUTELY certainn that you will not be seen - check their refresh status - if they are rapidly refreshing, don't try it - otherwise, check their refresh status after looking inside and undocking. NEVER look in the port while you are still docked, use your cache to see who was inside after undocking and retreating. If they refreshed while you were in the port, then you're screwed. Once he actually starts trading, you can move onto the final step.

Actually killing your target is possibly the easiest step. Unless your opponent has a very fast connection, all you need is a single examine -> attack to kill him. However, if the target is very fast, this is not always the easiest thing to do. There are a few tricks you can use in order to better let you kill your target. The first, and most obvious, is to simply buy an Interdiction Field. This will allow you to stop your target from leaving 50% of the time, if he has no SRG. However, this has many major drawbacks. If the target undocks and sees the aura, he will likely simply re-dock, as he will know you are there instantly. However, a very fast trader generally instinctively has his mouse ready to move, which means he will likely try to do so. If the target has an SRG though, he can freely leave sector, and there is no way he will continue trading. Also, even with no SRG, he still has a 50% chance of getting away, which means that you again give your position away if he gets out. It is, though, the easiest method. The next method, which is more 'popular', is to drop a couple of aggressive drones outside the port, along with a full scout stack. If the trader moves into sector, and the stack triggers on him, it buys you a few seconds to kill him. However, again this has some major drawbacks. Firstly, if the target has a drone transponder, he has a 50% chance to avoid the drones, at which point he will immediately dock and not undock for quite a while. Secondly, if the port is low-visibility and the target is cloaked, theres a good chance that the drones will not even detect the target, and once the target sees the aggressive drones, he will know you are there. And lastly, even if they do trigger, theres no guarantee that the target won't simply be fast enough to move out of sector instantly. The final method has the least 'drawbacks', but it also has the highest risk. This method involves actually getting an examine off - if you can't even get this, then you can't use it. What you do is, examine your target, then time the attack so that it occurs after your target UNDOCKS from the port. Which means you have to know how long he takes to dock/sell/buy/undock. If you time it properly, instead of getting the 'your target is docked' error, you will actually get a successful attack. However, as with the best of plans, this one has a glaring problem - namely that you cannot refresh current sector, as that will invalidate the examine. If a hunter shows up, you are a sitting duck. And naturally, once you actually GET the kill, it is HIGHLY advisable that you leave sector IMMEDIATELY, as you have just given your location away to everyone in the game.

As a summary:

Acquisition step:

- Drone nets
-- Advantages: Easy to lay down, quick acquisition of a target.
-- Disadvantages: Target has an easy time avoiding you if he is careful.
- Informants
-- Advantages: You don't announce your position, and people don't necessarily notice online people in port.
-- Disadvantages: If the trader is smart, he won't trade while someone is online with him in port.
- Watching EXP/Alignment
-- Advantages: You don't announce your position, and you don't announce your intention to hunt.
-- Disadvantages: Requires alot more research, and requires you to spend more turns looking for your target.

Camping Step:

- Aim for 100% visibility
- Try not to camp for too long with a slow connection
- Try to avoid shooting random targets who wander by
- If your target stops trading, go hide somewhere. NEVER dock with the target. Wait until he starts again.

Killing Step:

- Interdiction Field
-- Advantages: Easy to get and use.
-- Disadvantages: Gives your position away, weak against SRG users, and not guaranteed success.
- Aggressive Drones
-- Advantages: Harder to notice, weakens your target a bit.
-- Disadvantages: Gives your position away, weak against DT/Cloak users, and again, not guaranteed success.
- Delayed Attack
-- Advantages: Doesn't give your position away, and if timed properly, works very well.
-- Disadvantages: Need flawless timing, very risky if hunters are around.
- Leave sector immediately after killing your target. NEVER stick around and hope that another trader shows up.

Solo Hunting:

This activity is VERY risky, so you probably should avoid solo hunting unless you know what you are doing. The difference between Solo hunting and Trader hunting is that you are not hunting traders anymore - you are hunting WARSHIPS. Things that can shoot back at you. And things which can kill you. You need to be absolutely certain that you know what you are doing, or you could very easily end up in a pod instead. Solo hunting again, comes in a few steps - Acquisition, Targetting, and then Fighting.

Acquisition:

Acquiring hunter targets is not the same as acquiring trader targets. There are several distinct differences involved. The main method again, is scout drones. However, this time, you have to hope that they are actually hunting somewhere that you HAVE droned up. As such, it is not a very reliable method for getting a warship kill. The more reliable methods this time, are Informants and Notices. Informants actually work very well for catching hunters. Generally, a trader who is in port with a hunter can bait the hunter fairly easily, unless the hunter is very careful. By actively trading until the hunter undocks, the trader can bait for you. And then, when the hunter undocks, the trader can call you in to kill the hunter. As long as you have reliable informants, you can use this method with fairly good consistency. Notices are another method for getting kills. If you see someone is killing consistently in a system, it generally means that they are using drone nets to get them kills. As such, they generally will camp locations a lot more often. When scouting a system for possible kills, be sure to check where they have scout drones. You don't want to alert your target that you are looking for him. Once he gets a kill somewhere, you can try to jump to the location, to see if he is still waiting outside. Of course, you should jump two sectors away and scan in. The other method for killing warships is to try to actually bait them out yourself. Docking with them, and then camping outside, could entice the target to try to undock and take a shot at you. Also, pinging their drones to pretend you are trading could lure them in. However, this is very risky and foolhardy, as you could easily be dragged into a 1v2 fight or worse.

Targetting:

Once you actually know where your target is, you need to approach him very carefully. You can't simply jump straight to the sector and try to shoot him, because you risk getting completely smashed if you try. What you need to do is to jump at least 2 sectors away, preferrably into a low-visibility sector. Then, you scan your way in until you find a cardinal point around his location that you can scan from. Try not to use a location where he or someone else online has scout drones, as you'll possibly give your location away. Once you scan in, immediately back off, and then use your cache to find out what ship he has. Check his race and his level, then check his ship rating, and decide whether or not you can attack him, and what sort of strategies to use while fighting. Once you have decided whether or not you can handle him alone, check out his alliance. See if he has any allied hunters online. Sometimes, hunters will deliberately bait themselves to other hunters, waiting for someone to come attack, and then call for their partner to come in and get the kill. After you have decided whether or not you will actually go in for the attack, make sure that A) your drones are configured properly, B) your IRM if you have one is configured right, C) your weapon firemode is properly set, and D) you are cloaked if you have a cloak. Then, don't hesitate any longer. More you hesitate and keep thinking, less chance you'll have of getting it. And most of all, FOLLOW THROUGH! Don't enter sector and then suddenly decide you want to retreat and think so more, or else you'll simply give yourself away!

Attacking:

This is perhaps the most important step. Failure to execute this final portion properly could end you up in a pod when you should have otherwise not been. First thing to do when you are ready to attack is to examine->attack IMMEDIATELY upon entering sector. Don't sit there refreshing for a bit trying to decide! After triggering once on your target, quickly glance at your defense and judge whether you want to fire a second shot or not. But be fast! You need to be very confident with your ship, and know its capabilities, BEFORE fighting someone else. If you think you can fire another shot, then do so immediately. If you don't, then retreat and repair. Trying to repair while fighting is a very risky tactic, unless you know you can do it properly. Remember that your target is likely to try to shoot you as well. If he sees that he did not take very much damage, he is quite likely to try to attack you, and its probable that he can get a shot off before you repair. If you try to repair while fighting, you could end up dying because he shot too fast. However, don't panic and run immediately after shooting. Just because you've taken damage, does not mean you can't win. As I said above, know your ship. If you think you can kill him, then go ahead and do it, don't chicken out! One last thing you need to be wary of though. If when you shoot him, you see that there are more ships firing than should be, RUN IMMEDIATELY. You just MIGHT get out alive if you react fast enough. And of course, after killing your target, immediately retreat, and only then repair. Docking is the simplest way about this.

Summary:

Acquisition:

- Drone Nets
-- Advantages: Same as for trader hunting, easy to use and gives you fast results.
-- Disadvantages: Gives your position away, it is also rare to actually have hunters ping your drones.
- Informants
-- Advantages: Easy to bait a hunter, Quick, generally reliable.
-- Disadvantages: Need reliable informants.
- Notices
-- Advantages: Automatically gives you location of your target, something you can do without any prior setup as well.
-- Disadvantages: Target will not necessarily be in the sector after killing someone, not altogether reliable.
- Self-Baiting
-- Advantages: Target is easy to find since you are in port with him, or pinging his drones.
-- Disadvantages: Very, Very risky. Use with extreme caution.

Targetting:

- Jump to a 'safe', low visibility sector
- Scan your way in until you are one sector away
-- Pick a cardinal point around your target which has no drones preferrably
- Scan into your target's sector until you see him, then retreat immediately
- Look over your target's rating, level, and race, and decide if you can fight him
- Look at your target's alliance list and any MDP/MOP/FA'ed alliances and see if any allied hunters are nearby
- Double check your fire mode, drone setting, cloak status, and IRM settings
- FOLLOW THROUGH!

Attacking:

- Fire one shot IMMEDIATELY upon entering sector
- Judge and see if you can fire another shot
- If you think you can't, retreat and repair
- If you see more than 2 ships in your attack, retreat immediately
11/12/04 13:25:19 EST Quote Delete Edit
Solace (183) Re: Guides/Resources
FurySolace
GROUP HUNTING RUNDOWN
By Solace


A brief runthrough of the most important things to know when participating in a raid jump/group hunt/op escort.

* "PLOT XXX" means to enter XXX (coordinates) into the nav computer, so the jump link appears and you can move with one click. NOT to jump into the target sector. Call ready after you've plotted.

* "JUMP to XXX" means just that: JUMP. Jump even if the target sector is within walking distance.

* "Get within one jump" means you should move until you are within one jump of the target sector (in other words IN THE SYSTEM) with the target sector plotted and ready to be clicked on. DO NOT GO ALL THE WAY. If told to get within one jump, get there and call ready.

* Have ONE person lead the hunt squad. Decide beforehand who's calling the shots, and follow their instructions.

* DO NOT ARGUE IN SPACE.

* In group fights, designate TRIGGERS beforehand, players with good visibility / fast connections. THEY will trigger on enemy ships. YOU should be repping all as fast as you can.

* If your resolution is high enough, set up so both mIRC and TDZK to show on the same screen. Set the mIRC font to be small/easy to read so it functions better in less space. If you cannot do this, quickly flip back to IRC every few seconds between refreshes to see if any new instructions have been given.

* On most jumps / movement, the hunt leader will count down the jump in order to get everyone in the sector at the same time. "on three, jump to 42083!" "3...2...1...JUMP!" You should arrive in the sector right as, or in the second after, he says jump.

* DO NOT ASK FOR CONFIRMATION. If the countdown has begun, don't ask questions. Just do it. If an order is given ("plot 23099!"), don't ask for confirmation ("so we're supposed to plot to 23099??"). Hesistation will get the squad killed.
11/12/04 13:30:15 EST Quote Delete Edit
Blah (89) Re: Guides/Resources
FuryBlah
GUIDE TO RCING
By Blah



Welcome to the wonderful profession of saving (or ending) lives. RC's, short for Repair Carriers, are as important to raiding as the raiders themselves. However, while we may be as important as the raiders, we do a lot more work then they do. They have the luxury of being able to sit in open space and still participate in the raid; only one of them needs to be active. The RC's are constantly at work, making sure the raid can actually continue.

Your job seems simple: repair the raiders after each combat round with the port or planet. After you've done it for a while, it becomes that simple, but the starting out part is generally complex to some. A general run down of repairing someone:
-click examine on the person you will repair
-click the repair link that appears
-marvel in the wonderful repair screen that appears, for you shall be seeing it a lot
-since the game auto-selects the person you examined, click the repair button at the bottom of the screen
-rinse and repeat for next target

That is the most basic method of repairing. Examine-->Repair-->Repair. However this is a time consuming thing to do for more than 1 raider. There are two other methods, depending on what browser you are using.

For IE/Opera/Firefox users, you do the Examine-->Repair-->Repair, but when the current_sector screen loads saying, "You have repaired [this person] for X turns, gaining [so much] experience!", hit the back button. This returns you to the repair screen, allowing you to select the next raider to repair by clicking the button next to his name, then repair again. Rinse and repeat for all the raiders.

For Opera users, you have an option to use tabbed windows. You set up multiple windows, one for each raider you intend to repair. You then set them up so that the repair button is visible in each window. When you need to repair, click the repair button in each of those windows, and they are all repped. Hit the back button on each of those windows to return to the repair screen and wait for when you need to repair.

Now that you know how to repair, and the different repair methods available, I will go into set up for an op. First, you should be in #fury-rc and #furyraid. #furyraid is a requirement, you'll be calling (I'll go into calling soon) there and will find out where to go from the raid com (99% of the time will be myre). #fury-rc is where repair assignments are given out, and where you can freely complain about anything you want with regards to the op (including complaining about myre, despite his presence in the channel. He knows the usefulness of a private ranting channel).

The basic run-down of an op: You show up in the channels. Squads get set up (RC's should be on the escorts squad DEPLOYED in the sector), and the plot for the sector is given. DO NOT MOVE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO. I've seen people die from that. Repair assignments are given out in #fury-rc as the raiders do final checks. You move IS with the raiders, check aura settings (Baryon is negative, rest are positive), set repair drones, DEPLOY (I can't stress how important deploying is), and start repping every time the trigger says "FIRED!". The port/planet dies, you move out when the raiders do to next target, rinse and repeat.

For the art of calling. For some reason people don't like this task, I personally enjoy it a lot. The idea is after you repair your designated targets, you return to the repair screen and keep refreshing (F5) until all the raiders are repaired. You can tell because all of the numbers on the left side of the screen (right above the buttons used to select repair targets) will be 1's or 0's. That's the easy method. Multiple raid squads becomes more difficult, but you shouldn't have to deal with multiple squads very often. The reason I say 1's or 0's is because the escorts will have used power to scan or jump into the sector, and often don't repair themselves. Once the numbers are good, you go to #furyraid and call "REPPED". The trigger then fires another shot, you repair, and call again. You do this until the port/planet dies.

Design time! Designs depend on funding, but due to the economic nature of fury, I have created 1 bill RC's. Cheap and effective. For non-tamarans, simple add 10 Main Engine and 9 Drone Gangar upgrades to a stock carrier. Add on an External Repair Module, Energy Transfer Module, Subspace Jump Drive, and you're set. You will be told what aura you need to bring. For Tamarans, it's 13 Main Engine and 6 Drone Hangar upgrades, same equipment. Since you have a SSJD as a racial equipment, you can bring two auras. All of this, aside from auras, can be bought in 9k.

Non-Tamaran Build Path:
9201 - Carrier, ERM, ETM
9266 - SSJD, 10 ME's
9201 - 9 Drone Hangers

Tamaran Build Path:
9201 - Carrier, ERM, ETM
9266 - 13 ME's
9201 - 6 Drone Hangers

For some final points:
-Baryon Flood Generator = Drone Aura
-Radiation Pulse Emitter = Accuracy Aura
-Gravitron Disruption Field = Damage Aura
-Ion Stream Emitter = Repair Aura
-Squad = Escorts
-DEPLOY
-Drone Aura = Negative
-All Other Auras = Positive



That's about it, I reserve the right to edit this at any point in time if I think of anything else that is relavent. In the meantime, I leave you with some mild entertainment; my own personal top twelve annoyances and top ten loves of RC'ing :)

Blah's Top Twelve Annoyances as an RC
1) Not told who is raiding until everyone is IS
2) Being asked to switch drone auras
3) Double triggers
4) Lack of volunteers to call
5) Escorts requesting reps (during the raid, before/after is fine)
6) Being told how to do my job
7) Unneeded chatter in raid channel
8) White text when trigger says "FIRED!"
9) 'Rep me' from raiders when they arrive IS
10) IRC nicknames don't match in-game names
11) Nightmyre!! ;)
12) 8 and 0 are the same thing after staring at those numbers for 2 hours

Blah's Top Ten Loves of RC'ing
1) . means so much more
2) Solo repping a 3 hour raid, and the praise that follows
3) Getting a simple thanks at the end of a raid
4) Being a requirement for raids gives you certain... privileges that you wouldn't normally get ;) (Note: now that we have a large number of RC volunteers, you new guys don't get this one. mwuahahahahahaha...)
5) Praise for speed
6) Unquestionable trust over time
7) Learning all there is to know about raiding
8) Planet restocking
9) 'Pinging' escorts when time permits :)
10) Get my own RC channel to bitch, moan, and rant about problems during the raid
11/12/04 14:39:41 EST Quote Delete Edit
Solace (183) Re: Guides/Resources
FurySolace
GUIDE TO SHIP DESIGN
By Nightmyre


reposted from forums:

Introduction

This guide is by no means something to follow to the letter every time you design a ship. Feel free to be creative and add your own things as well. Its purpose is to provide a rough set of guidelines as to what you should be looking for in a ship.

When you are designing a ship, you need to first decide upon what you want to do with the ship. One of the biggest mistakes people make, is trying to do everything at once. Unless you plan on spending a lot of money, you cannot efficiently design to hunt both traders and warships.

When designing ships, decide upon one of two specializations -

A) trader hunting
B) warship hunting

These two fields are vastly different. The types of ships you want to use for the former, would not do a thing in the latter. And if you design an efficient warship, trader hunting is simply wasting valuable turns.

A) Trader Hunter

A trader hunter is a ship that specializes in killing traders of any kind. This includes resourcers, freighters, interceptors, and corvettes. Typical trader hunters will have high speed, high vision, NO DEFENSE, and BARE MINIMUM FIREPOWER TO ONESHOT KILL.

I cannot stress how important those two bolded things are to making a good trader hunter. If you waste unnecessary shiplevels on getting defense and firepower, you'll end up spending quite a bit more money than you should have to - and in my opinion, the best trader hunter is a cheap one. There is absolutely no reason to spend more than 2 billion on a trader hunter, and you can easily get away with spending as little as 500 million. Infact, typically the ships I get the most kills in a round in, are the ones I fly immediately after round start, which are usually under 200 million.

As a guideline, for a good trader hunter you should aim for:

roughly 30 speed
roughly 50 - 70 scouts, depending on where you will hunt
roughly enough firepower to oneshot a 500/500 ship. this means either about 1200 shield/armor damage, or about 500 shield AND 500 armor damage. Also, enough dronekilling power to kill about 10 normal combat drones - this usually amounts to two cyclone flak cannons, or swarm missiles.
enough targetting to guarantee 100% accuracy against 200 maneuver x2 and 10 leveldifference. this means roughly 120-130% accuracy.

B) Warship hunter

Hunting other warships on the other hand, is a significantly different experience. Now you have to pay attention to many other factors, and unfortunately, the one that falls off the list is speed. Unless you want to spend alot of money, or sacrifice in specific areas, you cannot go above base speed.

The following guidelines apply for warship design:

Defense
maneuver ship - aim for 750 maneuver, +- 50
shield ship - aim for 3000 shields, +-500
drone ship - aim for 100 drones, +- 25
carrier - aim for 250 drones, +- 50

Firepower
maneuver ship - a typical maneuver ship should have anywhere from 1000-1500 shield damage, and shouldn't bother with any drone damage, unless they were specializing in killing droneships, in which case they should have around 800 drone damage.

shield ship - remember that when designing a shield ship, your life is very limited. you have typically the defense to survive two shots and no more. this means that unless you have enough init to guarantee an out-init, you HAVE to be able to kill them on your second round. against a shield ship, you'll want roughl 2000 shield/armor damage, or if you go into specifics, the ability to kill 3000 shields and 1500 armor in two shots. Against a drone ship, you want a minimum of 1000 drone damage, preferrably as much as 1500.

drone ship - unlike shield ship, you typically have a large advantage when flying with drones - namely that most ships that use drones have naturally high init. however, don't let the damage from the drones fool you - you should be mostly ignoring the damage they give. as a rough estimate, take only half the damage that your drones say they will do, as the amount they really will do. beyond that, follow the same guidelines as the shield ship.

accuracy - aim for 110% accuracy with the gun you are using.this generally means 8-10 tcomps.

vision - aim for 100% visibility in 100% visibility areas. this generally means 40 scouts + scanner or 50 scouts without.

speed - base. if you have alot of money, you might get more, but speed is a waste here.

Specials

killing maneuver ships:

if you want to be able to kill manu ships, you will need to be able to do roughly 700 damage to them per shot. a good maneuver ship is configured to be able to 3-4 shot kill you, and have the defense to survive 4-5 shots at 500 damage per shot. if you up the ante and do 700-800 damage per round to them, you will win out. how do you achieve this? well , the best way to go about it is to just use more targetting computers. Typically, 14 targetting computers with a standard weapon complement, will make short work of a maneuver ship. However, you could also be unique, and go with special weapons. Harpoon missiles work very well for this, coming with a built-in 3 targetting computers. 75mm gauss cannons work nicely, but they can only kill armor. Flux secondaries have insanely high damage, so even if you hit only one, you do quite a bit of damage to them.

killing AI ships:

against AI ships, you will want to be able to either pirate them or kill them outright. pirating is the easy part - you can very easily configure your ship to simply oneshot full EMP them, by getting around 1500 shield damage and 1000 EMP damage. but killing is more fun. to kill an AI ship, you will want a minimum of 50 AI pierce. special guns help out here - particularly 75mm gauss cannons with grooved slugs, which come built in with some added armor piercing.
12/04/04 12:25:39 EST Quote Delete Edit
Initiate (455) Re: Guides/Resources
FuryInitiate
ANOTHER SHIP DESIGN GUIDE
By Initiate


First at all You always need the following equipments no matter what ship You are flying:
1)Cloak Device(sometimes the manu ships doesn't need cloak device)
2)Subspace Jump Drive[(exceptions:if you're hunting in a region where you can replace it with a more usefull equipment and switch to SSJD) for example i was switching to Harmonic Amplifiers last round when i was hunting in Nexus and changing to SSJD if needed for jump,call for help,etc.]
3)Scanners(exeptions:if you're an idiot or just want to die faster)

IMO You should decide where You`ll hunt first,not what You`ll hunt particulary.Anyway i prefer to use 40 scouts for 100%,50 for 80%,60 for 60%,70 for 40%,80 for 0% vis.In other words always trying to cap the visibility around 100% for a cloaked Wraith at the same level as I am.

After that - Weapons and Accuracy.Most of the time I use PHPs and SHP with the same accuracy or mostly 10-15% difference to prevent adding more targeting cause one of them doesn't have enough acc.(like CFCs/HTorps combo).After this there another decision You have to make - what You`ll hunt.For a sniper I recommend 15-16 TComps(most of the time i used HBC+EMPs,drain power pwns the IRM of the manu bird and most of the time it's one shot).Against a normal shield bubble I use 8 to 10 TComps(also depending by the weapon combo).Anti-drone ship - 6(the drone weapons have really high accuracy and the accuracy against drones is always capped at 80%).

Now's the time to choose how much weapons You`ll use.I think this mostly depends by the fact what are You going to hunt.If You're targets are traders/resourcers try to make sure You`ll have at least 200 drone dmg+450 shield+450 armor dmg(this doesn't mean You need to have 200/450/450 dmg rates in www.redial.net,I mean all Your weapons are capable to make this damage in this order).Using a Destroyer means You don't need any hardpoint upgrades to reach those damage rates.When I fly a cruiser or ranger and I`m targeting leveling ships i don't upgrade my hardpoints too,just using extra drones for the drone cleaning(if needed) and part of the shield.Of course this means You need a decent level,cause if You target a leveling ship I guess the target will be with atleast 5-10 levels above You.The killing machines a.k.a. warbirds without speed use at least 8 or 10 Secondary HPs and most of the time base Primary HPs.About them I only prefer to say - use replacable weapons from the same class(not obligatory,but it's a bonus) and watch out where You hunt (this means that You can reaload easy the Secondaries.I had a situation - hunting in 9K and reloading in 33K only with 16 speed....Believe me - You don't want to waste 2 days turns only for a reload!).

Also You have to make sure You have a good initiative since there's a big random number in the equalation.Try to get around 100(with the level bonus for the init included) if possible.

Well that's it....If You still have any money left spent them for some defence and speed(a luxury for a WB) ;)

Here are some simple examples for Derivian to get the main idea:

Derivian Destroyer for 100 % vis
http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianDestroyer-5-0-18-32-36-25-0!3-20!8-0!12-54!10-12-0!5-6-0-4-0!3-6-10-0-40-0!6-30-0!13-
Note:HPB can be switched to PHB if needed

Derivian Cruiser(could be used for any visibility,depending by the drone formation)
http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianCruiser-4-0-18-33-39-25-30-0!2-17!6-0!14-44!6-1!4-0!6-7-0-12-0!2-2!2-9-0-40-100-0!5-30-0!13-
Note:Depending by the alignment the secondaries or the primaries can be switched to other Energy weapons like Flux or Rift Missiles and become a shield/armor bubble eraser)

Derivian Carrier
http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianCarrier-6-0-18-24-25-40-0!3-31!2-0!18-39!2-1!8-0!6-8-0-20-0!6-40-260-0!5-30-0!13-
Note:Multi-functional,can kill almost everything,can die from everything :)

Classic Derivian Nebula Destroyer:
http://www.redial.net/shipcalc2.4.php?s=DerivianDestroyer-5-0-18-25-31-27-0!3-28!8-0!12-39!6-1!4-4-0!7-8-5-0!2-2-14-0-80-0!6-30-0!5-1-0!7-
Note:HTorps are the switch in this case.Here I should say that the Nebula Hunter ships aren't designed to kill other Wbs(may be only other Nebula Hunters).They should have lots of TComps(most of the levelers in the nebulas are high leveled and with some extra manuever upgrades).Also the speed is a must there,because You`ll need to do a lot of moving around and scanning while trying to figure out where the ressourcer You're trying to target is hiding ;)
12/05/04 20:25:33 EST Quote Delete Edit
Iccyh (5140) Re: Guides/Resources
Fury.Iccyh
NEBULA BASHING GUIDE
By Iccyh


Nebula Bashing!

While I'm not as practiced at this as some, I've worked with the best when it comes to n00b bashing and I've my own style which works quite effectively. Please keep in mind that I'm an Opera user, so I take things like being able to look back and open multiple windows for granted.

For a bunch of reasons, 18k is far and away the best place to go n00b bashing. There are lots of n00bs there and they usually in ressies. This means that they're easy to track and easy to trigger. More than that, unlike a place like 9k, you'll occasionally run across some nice high levelled types who are ressying at some port in the middle of nowhere in 18k. There are still a lot of hunters in 18k, but they tend to stay near the stations and the major port clusters while the targets are fairly spread out.

So, you're in 18k. This means you're going to need a ship that's got at least 100 drones on it, regardless of what hull you're working with. It also means you're going to need to some speed, since 18k is pretty big. For races, Tamarans and Derivians make the best pure bashers, as they spend less turns jumping and get a scanning bonus, respectively.

Since you're going to be firing at ressies and the occasional trader rather than warbirds, defense really isn't much of a concern. Just playing with a few designs, you can get yourself a high speed ship that does ~1.2k shields and armour damage, enough to one shot a ressy or trader for about $2b. For a high speed ship, you don't want something expensive, you just want something disposable so that when you have to reship for group combat or 'cause you got podded, it isn't like you're wasting a lot of money.

So, you've got a ship and you know where you're going. Before you even head to 18k, there are a couple rules you need to know.
1. Never jump straight to a station or port (some exceptions, noted later). Always jump at least one sector off and scan in.
2. Know who's hunting the area. Check the notices and check drones when you get to 18k. See who's online, know who you have to watch out for.
3. Watch where you park. 18k is a fairly central system and it's targetted for raids on a regular basis. None of the ports get very high, as the activty in 18k is fairly spread out rather than central, so the few higher ports tend to get crowded.

So, you're going into 18k. The first place you're going to stop is likely one of the higher level ports. Make note of who is there, since at the higher level ports you can usually find a number of the people hunting in the area as well as some of the levellers you'll want to be hunting.

Also, remember to check the drones anywhere you go, not just the scouts. If someone has resource drones around, that likely means you've found a spot where they like to ressy. Keep in mind where you've seen their drones.

So, now you're in 18k and you want to find something to kill. You've two basic choices.
1. Set up a drone net.
This is the more conventional option. I won't get into this into detail as I don't have much experience with this. However, most of the people you'll be hunting won't necessarily be cloaked, if you're looking to n00b bash. You don't need full stacks quite as much as you need to have them in good locations.
2. Watch the system map.
This is the less conventional option, it's what I prefer and it's a useful thing to learn how to do. This is what I'll be describing.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm an Opera user. This means I'm able to easily deal with multiple windows as well as to go back to see pages I've been at previously. It makes things like EXP watching and checking the system map *extremely* easy compared to other browsers.

To watch the system map, what I do is this:
With the system map open in a new window, I'll click the "Display" button in the top right corner, then check back to see if there have been any changes in the goods being bought and sold. If something's changed, that means you've got yourself a target. Plot the port where it emptied and go.

There is one major problem with this, you need to be *very* fast in order to make it work reliably. If it's a trader, you have a fair shot at catching them as they continue to trade, but if it's a ressy (and that's what it will be most times), you need to move *fast* as they'll usually finish a good then move on to the next port. Good luck finding a ressy that's moving around in 18k without blowing a *ton* of turns. More than that, you only get one shot, even if you are fast. If you are quick, you can see if the ressy is still in port, but after that, the only time they'll undock will be to either move or jump to the next location.

So, here are a few tricks to catch them, in situations like that...
1. Jump straight in.
To do this, you need to be very careful about where you're jumping, you need to make very sure you're not going thing at a port cluster or at a station. If one of those is camped, you could easily end up jumping into some wbs that you are *not* able to take on.
2. Set an aggy.
The ressy should have absolutely no idea that you're there, unless they got terribly lucky and refreshed just as you were in port. So, if you drop an aggy and they go to jump away rather than moving away, they're dead.
3. Be patient.
You don't always have to go after something when you see it in the system map. If levellers are foolish enough to fill/empty goods, they'll usually do it in more than one place. If you can see some sort of pattern in how someone might move, you can guess where they might go. For example, you see crystals disappear on the system map and there's another port buying crystals next door, it wouldn't be a huge leap to guess the ressy you're after just went over one.

Using this method, as well as just chasing a few people around, I once managed to get something disgusting like 20 kills in a night on one occasion back during 2.2 when I was in STS. I was flying a level 210 cloakless carrier, you don't need a big ship to get a lot of kills, you just need to know what you're doing. I know this works.

Some of the concepts here (such as the system map stuff) is very useful when doing other types of hunting, such as going after one specific target. I find this is more interesting than just chasing after pings as it takes a little more work and I think it's safer, no one knows to expect you to be around unless you've been in the notices recently.

So yeah, that's all I've got. I hope it helps.
12/10/04 18:36:13 EST Quote Delete Edit
Iccyh (5140) Re: Guides/Resources
Fury.Iccyh
TARGET HUNTING
By Iccyh


Call it target hunting, call it trader hunting, whatever. Killing levellers.

06/08/04 15:47:18 EDT
Iccyh (3106) R >FL+O piloting IGF Dollars and Cents destroyed [LoF] Stealth Mode Guy!, owned by TheRealCyber (521), in Sector 25001.

The idea here isn't to toot my own horn, but to describe how it is I work since people have expressed interest in the past. This wasn't any major kill or anything, but it's good demonstration of how you can take someone entirely by surprise, when they think they're invulnerable.

Now, this guy was no brain surgeon (he didn't check the notices and see that I hadn't already killed two people today at that exact port), but he *did* have a few things going his way, as he has a huge drone net all across 25k with 50 scouts on all of the stacks, and he's got a system that LoF basically owns.

What he didn't have were scouts at the node or any kind of luck. I'd been sitting in 24k IS for hours (as to avoid drones, I sit IS in random sectors rather than park at a port) watching LoF EXP. I saw him jump around a ton without his align changing, suggesting that he hadn't left the system (I knew he was here since I'd seen his scouts on the previous kills and while checking out LordFear). After he finished jumping around, he started doing what looked like ressying (his EXP went straight up with no signs of movement).

From checking out LF, I knew there was only one sector I could catch a ressy in 25k (aggies on the other two possible ressy ports), so I walked there (LoF has aggies in the most random places around here), waiting for him to come IS, didn't ping him when I moved in (50 scouts, 2 level advantage in 40% = 42% chance to see), and got the kill.

Even if I had pinged him at the node, I'm fairly sure he would have gone and EXPed because that would have been the only ping he'd get from me.

So anyway, that's how I work. I avoid places were people can see me at all costs, so that when I move targets will have no idea that I'm looking for them and so hunters looking to put me in a pod will have a hell of a time finding me.

---

Note on this, it's a little old (note the date on the kill). I'll fill this out and update it later, but this is a fair start to understanding how to find and kill people.
12/10/04 18:41:42 EST Quote Delete Edit
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