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how to get the steltek fighter & drone without hacks

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:46 pm
by steltekwarrior
As far as i know i am the first one to accomplish this. im new to membership here but ive been playing the game pretty intensely for a week. i loved the original and this game is far beyond awesome.
From what ive read on the forums, the only way to currently get a steltek fighter is to hack the files. i found a totally legitimate way to get the fighter, and not only that, the drone too.
This isnt gonna be easy for noobs to the game, because you cant get it until a little way into the game, and you need a lot of money. I'll take you through step by step. First, I beat all the missions before oxford, making sure to make about 2 million from missions on the way. When i beat the oxford missions i immediately bought the drayman when it became available. At first my plan was to make 10 million from high paying cargo missions, but i ran into the mission payment glitch someone mentioned in an earlier post. no matter what i did I still wouldnt get payed for anything i delivered. so instead, I just went and tracttored a few 2.5 mill gothris and made money that way. it didnt hurt that i was on good terms with the kilrathis so i could just hunt them without issue. when i had enough money I went back to my centurion and finished the rest of the missions up to the final one. heres where it gets tricky.

you have to use the drayman on the final mission.

youre probably thinking that this is impossible, since the drayman is horrible for anything but slow ...SLOW... cargo runs. the trick is, you have to make it to the nitir jump without getting assaulted, which will happen eventually if you keep restarting the mission. also, you need at least 2 fighters in your fleet. besides being wingmen you need them for something later on. eventually when you jump out into nitir, you will be all alone with the steltek fighter while it talks to you. you only have about 20 or 30 seconds to tractor him in before you auto jump to blockade point. if youre lucky like me you can tractor it while in the process of jumping. so now you have the fighter in the cargo hold.

You will automatically jump to the ambush spot with the drone. when it comes straight for you, make sure your shields are all the way full, cause its steltek guns will ALMOST kill you before you can tractor it in. if you manage to tractor it, it counts as a kill and completes the mission. dont even need the boosted steltek gun after all.

Now heres the trick. when you get back to safe waters, you have to stop the drayman and do some rearranging. remember the 2 fighters i said to have in your fleet already? you need those now. eject the steltek fighter and use '[' to take control of it. then you have to dock it with your drayman. this takes you to the internal ship base, where you have to switch the fighter for one of the other ships in your fleet, paying 50000 to ship it there. this will place the steltek in your 'my fleet' list. do the same thing for the drone. you just traded the 2 ships you had before for the steltek ships. it doesnt matter what you do with the other ships you had, because due to some glitch the cargo on my drayman emptied when i went back to perry. i wasnt happy to do this all a second time to figure out what happened.

since I saved up something like 11 million credits, when i got back to perry i also bought the paradigm and a milspec stilletto. talk about a 1 2 3 4 combo!

now be amazed at the stelteks vast technology. the fighter is so ridiculous. not amazingly fast, 800 with afterburners, but the shileds are insanely strong and recharge instantly, the armor is stronger than the draymans, and the reactor pumps like 26 million mj/s. the best thing is 3 count em 3 boosted steltek guns. 57 mj damage each. thats almost 3 proton torps with every shot. amazing. the drone is awesome too, it is TOO maneuverable. you can hardly steer it its so touchy. it is fast, with 5 'drone steltek' guns, that do 10 mj each. one strange thing about it is that i have yet to find a limit to the number of cargo enhancers i can buy. mine already has 525 cargo space and i still can keep going. definitely a good ship to run drugs in.


i hope you are all impressed with my first post, and im glad to give the non hacking purists a real chance to use these awesome ships.

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:34 am
by Duke Derek
well done, i always considered trying to hijack the Steltek ships with the Drayman but could never be bothered. i once thought to try nicking them with the Paradigm but that's impossible because you have to have beaten them to legitimately buy the Paradigm..

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:12 am
by chuck_starchaser
Man! That's the best first post I've ever read, steltekwarrior; and I've been around here a while... :D

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:29 am
by steltekwarrior
thanks a lot chuck, i really would like to become a more active member of this community and i figure this is a good start. I would like to hear from someone else who tried to reproduce my results. i'll admit it is tough and arduous but it is very much worth it.

A couple updates:
The drone, i was an idiot, is capped at 16 cargo enhancers because of the 16 upgrade slots.... my bad. Secondly, the drone jumps instantaneously, there isnt even an animation. youre here one second there the next. One warning though, it only has enough fuel for 1 jump, so dont get stranded. its a pretty tough ship to fly, im about to go experiment with the fighter some more.

Ok the fighter just blew my mind. I was dissappointed with the steltek because the drone can only jump once. well, the fighter has enough fuel for 75, yes 75, jumps before refueling. pretty amazing. The shields will recharge from 1/3 to full in less than 1 second. its not fast at all, 300 max, 350 with AB, but it is virtually invincible. i took on anyone i could find during my 75 jumps, and never even got hull damage. the 3 boosted steltek guns will literally rip apart a gothri in 3 hits. it took me a little under 10 seconds to kill a drayman. this ship could be the ultimate fighting ship in the game, the only check that exists is the 350 max speed. This doesnt bother me much because i can easily dispatch of any hostiles and auto pilot everywhere. i hope this inspires some people to try and legitimately get this ship.

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:27 am
by Solon Halwinder
I'd like to see a new side campaign that involves you tracking down and hijacking the Steltek Fighter, then maybe another one after that designed to test just how well you can use it.

Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:50 am
by Duke Derek
that would be awesome. i heartily endorse this

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:01 pm
by TBwaar
I just got my very own steltek fighter and drone. I did just what you said and it worked perfectly. It took a few tries of course. I had trouble with the steltek fighter flying away from me as soon as i jumped to nitir (good luck catching ANYTHING in a drayman) I found however if I jumped with my tracktor beam fully extended I could usually catch the fighter as he flew past me. The drone is much easier to catch as long as you don't get totally destroyed by friendly fire.

Then I made the mistake of trying to save the game while docked in the drayman. That always caused me to spawn in nitir in a gladius with no jumpdrive. It was just bad all around. I did this to save after catching the steltek fighter but before i tried to get the drone. It messes everything up however because in doing so the blockade was gone along with the drone. You just have to get lucky and get them both in one shot.

Thanks for the tips, these steltek ships are sweet.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:44 am
by mostly_harmless
:(
having real trouble tractoring the fighter
i Jump in with tractor engaged, but always seem to be facing away from the fighter, by the time i can target & lock the fighter its way outta range!!!
help!?!

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:50 am
by Privateer Ferrius
Try using a ship with a high combat speed and afterburn after it :)

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:12 am
by TBwaar
I think ferrius missed the point - that you're in a drayman.

What usually works for me: Launch from perry. Auto to jump to nitir. When you're about 5,000 from the jump turn to your left and line up the right side of your target/cross-hair with the box around the jump point. When you're about 400 away or once it says jump, make a 90 degree right turn towards the center of the jump and hit J. This should point you in the direction of the fighter. You have to play with it and try it a few times to get it right. Make sure you lock on to the fighter. Autotrackers help too of course.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:17 am
by Privateer Ferrius
You -could- do that. Or you could just get something faster. That was kinda -my- point :P

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:41 am
by TBwaar
He's trying to capture the steltek fighter with a tractor beam. At this point the drayman is the only ship with enough cargo space to hold it. Therefore, to do what this thread is about, to get a steltek fighter, he has to use a drayman.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:46 am
by Privateer Ferrius
I'm pretty sure a Paradigm has enough space. Definetely not the engine power, though.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 6:02 pm
by TBwaar
Actually the paradigm is faster than the drayman. You are right when you say it has enough room, it has 20 times the space of the drayman. But at this point in the game you cannot buy the paradigm because the very mission you are doing has to be done before you buy the paradigm.

Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:20 pm
by Privateer Ferrius
If you're insanely persistent, the random number WILL eventually spout out a Paradigm somewhere.

<Double posting deleted by Spaceman Spiff>

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:13 am
by top1player
I really want to fly the staltek fighter!

However im at the point where am in a centurian and the drayman is not available for me to fly as i didnt buy one when i finished oxford

can i please use your save game to fly the staltek fighter or can someone tell how how i can hack the files to get one

thanks heaps!

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:56 am
by Spaceman Spiff
As well you might edit you the steltek vessel.
Check your savegame, the first vessel there (like centurion.blanc or stuff) is the vessel you use at the moment. (earlier you'll find your money).
Step1: Buy a ship you don't want.
Step2: Check units.cvs for the name (like centurion.blanc) of teh vessel you want.
Step3: edit your savegame, replacing the entrie for the ship you use at the moment with the name of the ship you want...

At least, this is the way I do it... ;)

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:55 am
by steltekwarrior
I'm glad someone was finally able to duplicate what i managed to do. I think one trick that will help you get the fighter with the drayman is to come to a complete stop in the jump point, then hit max speed right as you hit jump, and having your tractor already extended helps as well. It definitely takes more than one attempt, but the good news is that if you succeed it counts as completing the mission so you can just go save. It is kind of an ordeal to get the ships but its well worth it. Since you cant "legally" get the kamekh i see this as the pinnacle of what you can acquire in the game. The fighter is actually invincible for petes sake. Also, do not fly the steltek fighter to trigger the righteous fire missions, because they will take 2 of the 3 boosted steltek guns. anyway, play on people and i hope to hear of more success stories.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:52 pm
by TrigunX
Privateer Ferrius wrote:If you're insanely persistent, the random number WILL eventually spout out a Paradigm somewhere.

<Double posting deleted by Spaceman Spiff>
this is verry true

i started a second game that i realy only did cargo cargo runs ,to make enough credits to get the Paradigm ( as i had knowwhere near enough to get it the first time i made it thrue the PR missions)

it was offerd to me long before i got to the steltek/drone mission
and it seems once you have the Paradigrm lots of other ships are offerd to you that you dont normaly have offerd to you IMO

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:52 pm
by TBwaar
Was it the depreciated milspec version of the paradigm, or the stock version? Where did it appear? (at which base)

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:31 pm
by Privateer Ferrius
The .blank variants can show up at anytime, AFAIK. Some are more probably than others, though, obviously.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:50 pm
by TBwaar
ok, so basically you can get the paradigm anytime, anywhere, IF you are lucky. And of course you need a shipdealer were you can buy the ship. Or can you buy ships at the missions computer if there is no dealer?

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:56 pm
by Privateer Ferrius
Not neccesarily. The mission computer does not always allow you to buy ships if the base does not have a ships dealer.

Basically, you have a 1 in (number of systems) chance of it appearing in the system your in, muliplied by a 1 in (number of ships * number of each variant of the ships * number of systems) chance it appears at any system, and then a (faction with confederation) in 10,000,000 chance that it is buyable. (none of that is official and it's probably quite off the actual numbers in the engine, but thats the equation that fits the data I've gathered.) The game often generates things you shouldn't be able to buy (milspec ships, for instance), and then goes, 'wait a minute, you shouldn't have that' and deletes them.

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:05 pm
by TrigunX
the one i got was from Thisbury Refinery in Manchester
as soon as i got it and did one run with it the Draymon gladius stiletto Broadsword and Demon all appeard more often (sadly no kat ships yet lol)

and my plot score is only 6

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:28 am
by micheal_andreas_stahl
So you are telling me that all i have to do is make lots of money?