How do you kill the damn aera?!

[Guest]

I was just an innocent cargo pilot, using my little Llama to run cargo missions, and hopefully do enough 10,000 credit missions to get a deadlier ship and become a pirate hunter. But now, there are Aera everywhere, and they attack me without mercy (I'm -100 with them). I blew up on of their fighters once, but that was in self-defense. I'm always under attack by those little bastards. I suppose there are ways to run or get on their good side, but what I really want to do is KILL THEM! They aren't worth the bio-mass they're made of. The problem is, I only have my original Llama, with two laser and two distruptors (both beams) and 100,000 credits. I want to know what kind of ship and upgrades I need to stand up to them, and how I can quickly make enough credits to Fight Back!

[Ampersand]

I'd recommend taking out a few pirates/luddites to start with to stop the aera from killing you for a while (and perhaps making a bit of money in the progress). In terms of upgrades, try getting a pacifier and fitting it with the heaviest reactor and shields you can get. 4 neutron guns seem to be capable of destroying aera ships, you can also fill the the two light mount points as well if you want. You might also want to the mult turn enhancer (I think it's called that), since it steers like a brick when you first get it (or it did for me, anyway). A cloak might be useful as well. If you've got any room left over, try getting a few capacitors or something.

Alternatively, go and work for the aera for a while, then buy an aeon or aevant (I can't remember which one it is), and fit it with 4 penetrators and a reaper cannon. (:
Richard

[Integral]

I've never figured out why the Penetrator is so popular, actually. Could someone explain what the advantage is over an autotracking Disruptor beam? Of course, this is mainly academic, 'cos the Aera seem to be extinct in my game..

Daniel

[Ampersand]

I tend to like the penetrator due to its 12 km range, especially since luddites seem to keep their spec drive on until they're within 6km, so you can start hitting them before their shields come up. I can't claim to be an expert on the weapons though, so there might be a better alternative.
Richard

[jackS]

I should note that the penetrator being mountable on all mount sizes is currently an unfixed exploit whose days are numbered

[jackS]

also worth noting as a general statement -

using a civilian armed cargo shuttle to attack military units of a major power is not generally considered the wisest of tactical decisions

[Integral]

I tend to like the penetrator due to its 12 km range, especially since luddites seem to keep their spec drive on until they're within 6km, so you can start hitting them before their shields come up. I can't claim to be an expert on the weapons though, so there might be a better alternative.
Richard

Doesn't that assume that they fly in a straight line and never make the tiniest deviation, though? (even assuming you have autotracking) OK, the AI pilots are dumb, so I can see that working

Daniel

[Ampersand]

In my experience of defend/bounty missions, in their first pass at you they'll fly straight towards you with their spec drive on until they get to about 6km, so their shields are up by the time they reach 4km. Of course once you get a few reasonably heavy guns, shields don't make much of a difference. (:
Richard

[Guest]

using a civilian armed cargo shuttle to attack military units of a major power is not generally considered the wisest of tactical decisions

Then would sitting there and getting shot to hell be preferable?

I can't spec once they're in close, which leaves my one option. And as stated before, I did not start this conflict. From the very beginning of the game, the Aera had a -50 against me. Thus, I have the right to vengence. All I need is a facilitator for my designs. I shall taste victory, the Aera shall taste blood! . . .of course, that's after I get out of this civilian armed cargo shuttle.

New question, which do you all think has a better overall combat effectiveness, the Pacifier or the Gawain.

[jackS]

Then would sitting there and getting shot to hell be preferable?

At some point we really do need to implement the "screaming for help on the comm network" aspect of civilian existence...

[Guest]

No, don't get me wrong, I like the ruthless aliens. You need a little something to motivate you. My main problem right now, is it takes me at least 20 minutes of real life time, to make 20,000 credits. And you need 400,000 credits, in order to buy a better ship, and upgrade it. Do I just need to keep doing 15,000 credit cargo missions, or is there a way to make serious money? I mean, I found a 50,000 credit mission once, but they wanted me to attack an Aera Capital ship. That would seem more like a 500,000 credit mission. I know I must be missing something, here.

[fizze]

well, to kill area lots of FF / IR missiles are a good point to start, imho.

and mad flying skills to outrun their weird ammo, are advised. so basically the llama isnt the wisest choice, as said already.

[Ampersand]

New question, which do you all think has a better overall combat effectiveness, the Pacifier or the Gawain.

The Gawain is faster than the pacifier, and probably has better manouverability, but it only has 2 shield emitters and no heavy weapon mounts.

In terms of missions, go through the cargo missions and see if there are two going to the same system, or a defend/bounty against a few luddites or pirates you can do en route.
Richard

[energyman76b]

Hi,

try to get something with turrets, like the franklin, or *cough* goddard, but you need A LOT of money for this bastards.

The turrets of the goddard are hammering away the shilds of the aera at 20km, so even if they are able to come close to you, they are so weak, you can easily kill them (same is true for the franklin). If there are not too much enemies you are pretty safe in a goodard (or franklin). Don't buy mules, plowshares (pretty hard to kill, but also pretty hard to kill something with), and small fighter crafts (just to fragile).

A lot of FF missiles is not bad too, and try to get autotracking (unholy expensive but a real live saver).

[Ampersand]

Has the franklin been rebalanced at all? Last time I tried one it could only take a level 1 or 2 reactor or something, so any reasonable set of weapons would drain the reactor in a couple of seconds.
Richard

[Guest]

Has the franklin been rebalanced at all? Last time I tried one it could only take a level 1 or 2 reactor or something, so any reasonable set of weapons would drain the reactor in a couple of seconds.
Richard

Nope - I'm thinking of just diving into the template file and setting it to three or four myself. Who designed these things, anyway?

~Sharpshooter - "For cryin' out loud, the ship in the hold generates more power than we do!"

[jackS]

alas... the franklin was intended to be (and will one day be) a diplomatic transport. For the moment, it's not much of anything.

[Space Pirate]

Another good ship to try is the Aereus. Use disruptor beams and heavy ion beams (autotracking), cloak device, strong sheilds, and FF missiles. (Aereus has huge missile capacity for its size). I can just rip through other Aera ships with it, just get close enough while cloaked and catch them by surprise.

I know, I know it's really expensive, but when you have the money, you should probably go for an Aereus/Goddard.

[Pilot67]

Pump your Llama ;]

With this config, I don't feel scared to jump into *any* sector.
It can easily handle 'a few' pirates, or a few light aeran craft.
I had a Pacifier (milspec) on an old savegame but I rarely go back to it.
I'll just keep this puppy until I can afford a goddard. It's a fun for contraband runs,
and can take a fair beating:
Hull:2000.00
isometal
ecm2
ecm3
cloaking device
second hull
polymer hull
reinforced hull
hawkeyeZX86
reactor 3
repair droid advanced
shield4 lvl3

autotracking on:
2x Ion beam
1x Disruptor
1x tractor beam (for scrounging stuff)
Are there any other goodies out there I can stick on this thing?

[JungleJim]

Another option is to mount a cloak (some ships won't take one). The cloak allows merchants to continue about their business without the rude interruptions by more militant factions.

[klauss]

Try adding:

rlaan milspec microshielding armor

If anyone kills you with that config, you got too bold. Any random encounter with hostiles is a piece of cake with that.

[seven]

I was stuck with a Llama for a LONG time due to some bad mistakes on my part. Course, I'm the type of gamer who enjoys recovering from getting my tail kicked instead of just reloading (what's the fun in that?), and I've had an entire Aera fleet after me for a while now. Every system I jump to, they jump in right after me so I've come up with a few indirect ways of dealing these fools without putting yourself in much danger.

1. Use the 17-ar (could be "or", can't tell with the in-game font) jump, the one with the asteroids floating around it.. weave through them as fast as possible and when they jump in after you, they'll be going full speed trying to catch up to you. Now hit F4 and look out at your rear window as they smash into the rocks and die.

2. If you hit your afterburner and run.. and keep running.. you'll take a few hits in the rear but generally you won't die. Then if you speed up the time it's like having spec on and they generally have a hard time catching up to you when you get above about 100,000 speed. Technically they can catch you very easily, but I've found that they dont' for some reason. They get close, then fall WAY back.. over and over.

3. Upgrade your hull and shields, and ram them. When lasers and mesons don't dent their shields.. your own ship will. This is the easiest way to kill them with a merchant ship if there are only 1 or 2 around.

-Seven