Help - Precursor Systems

[giuseppe]

Thanks for the replies, folks!

Yes, this is the mission where the Professor brings you to the Precursor system to collect artifacts, your way home is blocked as the Portal/Gate has run out of juice, and you have to go through an alternative Portal, which is guarded by a frigate (I can see a second wave lurking within the portal too).

I guess I'm underpowered then. I haven't seen any of that equipment in the shops - the highest level shield I have seen is the Aegis - and the FTU Warehouse is closed to me. Also, my pilots really only have pilot skills as yet, with Greyhair having Lone Wolf and Ternie being able to fly Level 4 fighters (everyone else is Level 3).

The reason for this is that the script has been pushing me into missions; I assumed that the dialogue saying things like 'Let's do this now!' meant I had to go straight to the mission without delay.

My mothership can't hang back in this confrontation, because then the Professor takes a lot longer to drop the frigate's shields (or gets blown up), while my fighters draw all the fire and when the shields do go down, there are only a couple of fighters and missiles left with which to hit the frigate. If my mothership creeps forward in support, it inevitably gets obliterated.

And you're saying it gets harder?

Does levelling up your pilots make that big a difference?

Thanks again!

[Unknown treat]

if i remember right, you need the prek that lets you acess the FTU tab. The icon is a triangle (i think) marked FTU inside and with a kind of "c" with a "|" (just like the $ but with a c instead of the s) in the at the bottom-right corner. I would link an image if i had one...

Originally Posted by giuseppe

I guess I'm underpowered then. I haven't seen any of that equipment in the shops - the highest level shield I have seen is the Aegis - and the FTU Warehouse is closed to me. Also, my pilots really only have pilot skills as yet, with Greyhair having Lone Wolf and Ternie being able to fly Level 4 fighters (everyone else is Level 3).

You really want access to FTU gear; the stuff is much better. Costs more too but that's kind of a given.

Originally Posted by giuseppe

The reason for this is that the script has been pushing me into missions; I assumed that the dialogue saying things like 'Let's do this now!' meant I had to go straight to the mission without delay.

Yeah, this is the main problem for many players. The script is not clear when you can take some time off to relax, explore and loot. Remember those "You are about to travel long distance, skip right to target (Y/N)?" Pick no, and you'll get to take the scenic route i.e. fly manually to the destination system. This is generally a good time to put the storyline mission on hold and go have some fun.

Although you're already this far in the game, you aren't totally hosed. Just reload to before you got Joseph and started the Precursor mission arc. Recruit Joseph then instead of heading to the rendezvous point (and thus starting the mission), retreat back to X297, land on the station there to make any ship adjustments, then fly out to Al Ariash and from there start training your team - see tips below.

Originally Posted by giuseppe

And you're saying it gets harder?

Does levelling up your pilots make that big a difference?

Although there's no actual "level" indicator, getting your team skills up is vital - the enemy has fixed skills and can pack better quality gear so really your only advantage is better pilots. This means you should take some time out to fight randoms and get your team some experience. Good equipment helps a lot too.

For starters fly around shooting pirates; they're easy meat. When you're comfortably crushing these guys, you can look at stations. Stations take a very long time to destroy and don't yield any loot or exp - so the only reason to attack them is that when you start shooting at them they will launch several wings of defenders. This is good news for training: position your team near a pirate station, save your game, then fire a couple shots at it and prepare to take on the ships it launches.

You can also read up the Hidden Cache locations thread to find treasure stashed in semi-random asteroids; it's a bit tedious hunting for them but the loot can be great.

When pirates get too easy you can start a feud against one of the large factions. This is more dangerous because they generally fly in larger teams and are much better equipped, and if you portal into a system "owned" by that faction they will usually have a portal ambush prepared for you. Recommend you pick a faction not related to your current storyline, e.g. if you are helping the military then fight one of the corporations. You can read up on the factions in the manual to see what kind of tactics and gear they pack.

When you're done savaging them, find one of the "reputation fixers" (check out this thread) and pay a bribe (warning: expensive) to fix your standing and they will be neutral to you again. If you don't pay the bribe you may run into problems later if the storyline brings you to areas patrolled by that faction. But by this time you should have loads of cash so the bribe shouldn't be a problem.

All this while the storyline mission is patiently sitting in your quest log so don't worry about it. Simply fly to the system the quest is asking you to go to and you can continue the story. Good luck!

[stivoknis]

I suggest using torpedoes when dealing with the capitals ships. They can deal a large amount of damage and the splash damage from the explosion can destroy and fighters nearby. Equiping one of your fighters or your mothership with a radar might be useful because torpedoes take a long time to fire.

Also the turrets on the alien frigate fire lasers, so a decent laser shield would increase the survivability of your mothership.

And major caliber guns are very helpful whenever you have to deal with captial ships. While the FTU warehouse is a great place to look for these guns, it is not needed. Smuggler bases often sell a few, I suggest looking there first because you will already be fighting pirates for exp anyway.

[giuseppe]

Folks, thanks a lot for all the advice; it is much appreciated.

I was about to give up on the game because of this one roadblock (5 hours or so gametime, ha ha), and now I'll give it another go.

Thanks all, much obliged!

[sharien]

if any of your pilots has one of the critical perks and snipe(ternie is a candidate)
you can just save before the contact and let her fire lasers/particle guns with snipe...if the crit triggers the frigate may be destroyed or at least severely damaged
noticed this when i once onehited a alien frig with ternies snipe on double asmodeus...but did only drop the shields when i tried on another one