Hey guys,

First: Does anyone else play this game at all? The sub-forum for it seems dead!

Second: Has anyone else found the missions (at least the Malus missions) to be /hard/? I'm talking about mission 6 in particular. It's the mission where the Malus launch their first invasion into Alyssian space.

Third: Any good tips or strategies? Are there any ways to make money besides mining? On the mission mentioned above virtually all asteroids with resources are claimed by the enemy at the beginning. The enemy outnumbers you incredibly from the beginning as well.

Fourth: The units in the game, afaik, are meant to be useful regardless of technological level. I.e. The basic ``Fencer'' unit is still meant to be a useful unit even in later stages of the game. How do they fair (massed) against Duelists, Interceptors or the Alyssian counterparts? (Defenders, Starchasers?)

What's the deal with the missile versions of the Duelists and Intercepters? I haven't found them that much more useful when fighting against other Duelists/Interceptors or against Alyssian Defenders/Starchasers.

:) Thanks in advance.
~elderK
(Here's hoping someone responds!)

ORB is fun..

I like stealing their ships and scrapping them so I can build my own..

:D

Since it's very straightforward, I think no-one asks, cuz it's that simple..

When you like capering..this one is GUUD..

I know what you're talking about here. The trick is knowing that you keep all the ships you build on level 5 (First contact), except for the freighters. If you finish First Contact with 45 duelist:M and maybe 15 or so Interceptor:M, you should have enough firepower to take out all three capital ships that they throw at you, so long as you stay close to your base, don't get too spread out, and set your doctrine to a retreat/reload option. I believe I may have also built some beam arrays around my base.

The levels after this one ease up a bit. The Divine Path (as I think it's called) just punishes the unsuspecting beginner, and it's not immediately obvious that you can prepare in the level before.

As for the scarcity of resources... just Rock & Roll. The troop carriers will pay for themselves, through salvaging enemy ships, but using one requires a lot of attention. The asteroids are sometimes not even worth mining. 2000 RU will only pay for the resource base needed to mine it, and the resource base you build after. Most asteroids have less than 5000 RU. Space war ain't cheap.

About which fighters are better/worse...

I've experimented a little, with unexpected results. I'm fond of the missiled duelist, and it actually seems better at dogfighting Starchasers than the Interceptor. They're cheaper than the interceptor:M or marksman, but they seem to last longer in battle. Their only serious downside is that they're slow, but this doesn't seem to affect their dogfighting capabilities, only their travel across the map.

Fencers make great scouts. They're faster than anything (besides maybe the justice, which is maybe equal to, but not faster than). In dogfights they're useful for covering other fighters. They don't get targeted, because they're weak and unthreatening.

I don't bother with the plain Marksman. They DO get targeted, and they blow up quick. But once you have torpedoes, the Marksman:T is an amazing weapon against capital ships. You only need a few, if you can protect them.

I haven't pitted all classes of ships against all others, and I've noticed that different combinations of ships produce drastically different results. I believe there may be a rock-paper-scissors type game mechanism, where each ship supports the weakness of another ship, but more tests are needed.