Big Bounty missions made easy

[pueblo]

I've been playing Vegastrike heavily since the latest version came out, and I really enjoy it. I find though that I might be exploiting the loose rules of bounty missions to capitalize. At this point I don't accept bounties unless they are for 50 million plus, unless i'm bored.

Remember that bounty missions are infinitely easier than defend missions. In a defend mission you must kill all the escorts of the attacker. In a bounty you only have to kill the first target that comes up when you approach the bounty point.

So if you would like to finagle millions of credits, pick the capital vessel bounty missions. I recommend picking the weak capital vessels to begin with, like the corvette or the mule, ships weak enough to be handled by a well equipped llama. Use your missile racks! The dumbfire missiles are not dumb! If you are close to a slow turret-free ship, then you can do the fatal blow with these.

Use sub-targeting by pressing 'b' to target the turrets on whatever you're attacking: it can be finicky on ships with many many turrets but it does work if you press it enough times.

MOVE! If you are in a dogfight without cloaking or anything it is advisable for you to do so. While recharging I will withdraw for a moment with spec and come back for another volley. If I am unable to get out (perhaps due to crippler) or wish to 'take it' for a moment, spin (roll, turn or both) around to spread the damage over all your shield facings.

If you have money to spare, or don't care about losing your ship, or for whatever reason don't want to go back to a savegame after an intense battle, you can eject before a big battle and 'park' your eject pod near a jump point or base, then cycle back with the open bracket '[' to your ship to go into battle. This way if you die, you can simply cycle to your pod and go into base. This is more effective than relying on the autoejection.

BTW, I am still learning this, so if you see anything that is blatently wrong or ill advisable, or wish to add, plz reply.

PS. I am playing with cycling between ships right now. Is it possible to dock somewhere then cycle back to a ship that is outside the base without launching the ship you just docked? Getting your ships out of dock seems to be easy, but getting them all back in seems to require buying more ships, since you can't launch an escape pod from a base.

[JungleJim]

How can you tell what sort of Capital ship is the mark in the bounty missions?

I've never been able to tell.

Also do you know what the range of the PD turret weapons are? I'd like to pick them off outside of their range if possible.

[hellcatv]

well we added labels to them now it's a lot easier in the latest CVS code...
we'll release a fixed 0.4.3 soon

it also eliminates the million dollar bounty bug

[JungleJim]

I noticed in 0.4.2 the ship class of the mark (the target of the Bounty mission) does appear for some (e.g. mule for merchant or pirate) but not others (e.g. Area capship).

[fizze]

duh, also in 0.4.1 they say the type of ship you have to finish off.
I also found several Aera capship boutny missions in busy (read sectory with VAST armies) sectors quite profitable.

if you're any lucky, you will have to liminate a ship (or fleet) that is at the moment being attacked by other forces.
even if you do not go for the kill, the mission counts as accomplished.

if you have cloak, area capships arent too hard to finish off, but you need a whole LOT of firepower - even if you dont have to worry about the fighters.