Best upgrades

Hi people. I'm a newbie who recently started playing EOC, and I love it. Pirating is fun, fun, fun. Right now I'm in ACT 1. I've just completed the "Heist" mission and have "liberated" the two turret fighters. I'd REALLY appreciate any advice you expert players can give on the best ship/weapon upgrades. What equipment should I concentrate on to improve my chances at this point? I've been trying to check everything out in the encyclopedia/database, but that offers no practical help. I now have access to a lot of new trades through the Stepsons, but I don't know which cargo to concentrate on in order to obtain the best items. Thanks in advance. [?]

"Blackbeard"

There are so many different fighting styles, I really can't offer any advice except try everything out and see how you like it.

Some people love ammo-based cannons (high rate of fire) and others won't use them (runs out of ammo in middle of firefight). Some are missile-hogs. Some (like me) like the energy based cannons (PBC's). Some like a combination of all of these.

When a new trade is offered, get one of whatever it is, load it on the ship, and test it out in the shipping lanes...

...the Venice-class freighter makes an excellent test-target.

No confusion; just wrong or right ... Only Solutions

Keep an eye out for better shields, heatsinks (increased firepower), and decoys too.
The game simulates everything.


Have Gun, Will Travel

If you want a better heat sink or shield, we could meet online and do some trading[}]

"Your ship has been disrupted for a routine check......"

Some people love ammo-based cannons

That was me until I got my assault cannons. Then I had all the power of gatlings but no ammo needed. Just perfect.

Act 1, huh? Well, lets see.

If you don't mind getting close up and personal, quadlight pbc have tremendous firepower. Very short range though, so using them in a dogfight can be trickier then something with a longer range.

For turret fighters, I'd reccomend simple rapid fire pbcs, later progressing to pulse accelerated, heavy, then neutron pbcs. The longer range works well for them, especially if you let them dock and function as a turret on the later ships. Stay away from gatlings for these though, as the gun babes are trigger happy, and will run out.

Gatlings carry tremendous firepower for their point in the game, but you have to keep feeding them ammo and they can run out in a mission. Not a bad choice for short, but intense plot missions, or if you intend to do a brief but intense pirating run (say, taking on a megafrieghter, grabbing the best stuff and heading back to base).

When the become available, get cutting beams. While not tremendously useful in a dogfight since they don't track even slightly like pbcs and since they have a low range, they're probably the best anti-cap ship weapons you'll get in time to use them for anything. And if you can catch a vette or a tug in a turning move where it's velocity is dead, you will torch it with those things.

Mining beams are similar to cutting beams, but slower and with a very short range. I'd skip them.



As for missiles, harrowers/seekers/deadshot are the primary combat missiles. I never use them that much, but you might find them more useful. Disruptors can disable a ship for quite some time, useful if you have to fight more then 1 enemy and they're dangerous. But you won't get many of those for a while, so be careful. LDSi missile are very valuable - the explosion annihilates missiles in flight, so a quick SRLDSi could save your butt when you've got six missiles on your tail. Not to mention, that I've found that LDSi'ing freighters at a distance from an L-point often gets you unusual cargo - at least with megafrieghters, vs what you get from the ones that come through the point.

Charges/REMs/Deathblows can be very useful for softening up an escort fleet on a large ship. I'd avoid that for now though - 3 corporate fighters could still probably trash you good.

Rockets you should just ignore. They're completely useless except against large, immobile targets, and they're just aren't many of those in the game. And half the time, a cutting beam works better anyway.




Other notes -

Upgrade all your other equipment. Better shields are more reliable, and a dead pirate gathers no cargo. Better countermeasures then flares make you much more survivable. Better CPU's have more program slots, and also increase the effeciency of your systems, making weapons more powerful, ect - slightly. Heat sinks (note - only gamma or omega heatsinks are an improvement over your deltas), power pods - anything that gives you more power is a big plus. Don't worry too much about stealth, it's near useless.