Jamie.monro: I've played the previous space rangers 2 quite a bit (but never finished). Overall the "War apart" version adds more content, which is good and I do like some of the new additions (Hull damage modifiers for example) as well as the additional equipment.

Those pirates though...

I think this is the controversal change that people have talked about. They are incredibly difficult to take on; the dominators in comparison are a walk in the park (at least in my experience) and it is mostly due to the new weapons that the game has introduced; well just one really and that is the horrendous Lirecron missile launcher that the Pirates covet.

The missiles do very little damage, but 5 are launched simultaneously (vs 3 for standard launchers) and they do EM damage. However EM damage aside, these things are devastating damage wise because there are so many of them. A good number of pirates use them and I have seen a number of pirate ships use 5 of them at once. 5 lirecrons launch 25 missiles guarantees a minimum of 25 damage whatever your resistance is (since damage can't be less than 1). Now imagine 5+ pirates launching these missiles at you 125 damage guaranteed; sure you can outrun them, but they have 60 salvoes of these missiles, so you are going to be kiting them for years if you want to try to deplete them.

This does not even account for the EM disruption damage which reduces the effectiveness of all your gear (temporarily), so your shields become degraded, weapon range is reduced, your engines slow and more missiles hit compounding the effect. Death by a million paper cuts and there is nothing you can do about it.

I've found that use AOE weapons has helped me take on the pirates a little better, so I recommend weapons like the multiresonator (I use 5 of them). Get the best droid you can get; I have an upgraded droid that heals 102HP/turn +10Hp/turn via the artifact junior droid (also reduces the wear of your main droid). Nanotoids are very important as well to keep you fighting longer in battle. I've also found that apparently using a Tecronic fuel tank gives the nanotoids a bonus as the artifact turns green.

Get the fastest engine as well, because you will need to run quickly at times (afterburner is essential); the nanotoids are helpful here, as you can afterburn longer and know that these will repair systems given time.

You are going to have to kite a lot with pirates, there is no good counter for those missiles except to reduce the number of them being shot at you! (forget the rocketang, with a minimum of 1 damage guaranteed, they are mostly useless unless your hull and shield don't block enough damage to lower it to it's minimum), this makes battle against pirates to liberate systems fairly long and tedious (and then they cower off when you start to get the upper hand....the thought of pirate heads mounted on my ship and dash has crossed my mind at times of great frustration).

Edit:
I should also note that the pirate weapon Esodapher is also pretty devastating as it lowers your armour (nanocorrosion) which can take quite a while to recover (I think you recover 1 point per turn); these weapons are very effective at increasing the damage done by those Lirecron missiles. I have to admit the AI has a pretty good handle on how to equip their pirates.

If you are defending a system from pirates, or if you are at a pirate system with a friendly station, don't forget to land on a system planet (if you are defending from invasion), or the station to not only repair your ship, but to remove the EM disruption and Nanocorrosion status effects. It may seem a bit cheap to keep landing on a planet to ensure survival, but once you have heavy EM damage and nanocorrosion, you really are just an easy target and you have no retailiation capability (as EM damage reduces weapon ranges until you can't hit anything unless it is literary next to you).

Jamie.monro: Gremlion's advice is actually pretty reasonable. I don't know about targetting individual rockets, as I'm not sure whether AOE weapons work with targeted missiles (perhaps it does, though I haven't noticed it before, in which case Gremlion's suggestions are better then I thought).

Jamie.monro: I think though I would love to see the lirecron being removed from the game completely as they are useless for single ships like yourself, but beneficial for swarms like the pirates. I guess you could hire the maximum number of rangers based on your leadership and equip them with these missiles, but I still think they are mostly useless when you are using them, as it is more important to take out the ships quickly that are firing these missiles at you then to fight them with the same ones.