I am not using any mods - as you can see - and was signed in on game creation and when attempting to submit that score. Im sure I didnt do any other things that could have prevented a successful submission of that score.
Well, it seems the random number generator was with me this time. I did get good equipment pretty early and even for free sometimes. What I tried to do was: Get through the game as quickly as possible (e.g. I did not farm anything, just cleared the systems) while trying to keep 3 1/2 conducts (I killed some friendlies).
What I no longer do is mine the first systems: Im just lacking the patience to do so. Also smuggling also brings a good profit in far less time. Although I made a lot of credits this way it doesnt show up in the high score entry. The reason is simple: I never found a commonwealth station later in the game and still have one mule full of illegal stuff
The first occasion I was lucky was in the arena: The Slicer didnt have a MAG launcher. So this was not too hard this time. I also got an onmidirectional turbo laser right before the arena.
The next lucky find was an omnidirectinal TeV blaster I hardly get in any game most of the time. Its right that lots of enemies resist particle, but the range is unsurpassed - for an omnidirectional weapon and it kills smaller enemies quickly enough. For stations I was lucky enough to loot a mark V howitzer. That equipment did last for a good couple of systems. I usually swith to an Akan 600 turret (which does impressive amounts of damage at +200%
but probably cant kill a Phobos: After 600 rounds it still had 43% left and I was out of ammo) but this time I used it only a short while. I found an Ares lightning turret and an Area launcher - both may not be the best weapons but are fun using. Nuking ares stations and defenders from the distance is definitely fun. I also played with an Ares micronuke cannon since I found no way to enhance the Ares launcher.Later on I tried the lightning turret plus an Ares positron cannon which worked pretty well against ships, but not against stations. I also killed one Phobos dreadnought with the TeV blaster and was surprised how much easier it was with a positron cannon. I tried to replace the positron cannon with a positron lancer and found it would cut a bunch of luminous to pieces in no time, but lacks range to kill larger enemies (but is good to bring down Iocrym shields - at least at +150% damage).
But as in most games the good old IM90 did most of the job
. However I wont be battling Phobos dreadnoughts with that in the future. Close combat in the freighter is way too exciting for me... I also was being chased and killed by five of them - there were at least three Ares shipyards in that systems. Fortunately I still had an insurance I bought at the arena and could avoid an early end of that game. The Corporate cruiser who brought me to a safe spot didnt make it btw. But the Ringer shipyard I tried to lure the 5 Phobos to did survive.Ill probably get a Nephren X1 for the Ares next time and save the Taikon200 for Heretic - if I have the money. The ion reflector I had this time performed about average: It does reflect ion, but feels rather vulnerable against positron. It also looses strength when reflecting ion.
I also screwed up on multiple occasion: I lost Rama whom I left to defend my autons when moving my squadron to a new system. Since I did not want to backtrack it happens to be encountered by some enemies or find some enemy stations along the way. If I dont dont care for backtracking I usually clear the system first and bring my autons in later.
What I also failed at was defending the Antarctica. For a side note: I got arrested and executed in another game for the destruction of that ship. Unfortunately I didnt remember how I upgraded my ship to that much firepower. The aquila cruisers were way tougher than I thought. I probably should have refitted my ship to gun and launcher to increase my firepower. I could kill one of them when inflicting good damage to two or three others.
I also did not have a clue about the Heretic missions. One after the other every research station was destroyed before I even arrived there. Maybe a transpace jumpdrive I did not have this time does help here?
After all I think I was extra lucky this time and harder enemies appeared later in the game. I think Im now prepared for Part II
- unless I want to achieve the same thing with the yacht and the wolfen - which I absolutely cant play...