Beginner Armors

[Song]

Since I can't find the old topic.....

With the buffing of armors in RC3, it might be worth talking about what beginner armors (by which I mean pre-st.Ks) are best...

Personally I've taken a liking to Duralloy, which I never really liked in 0.99c......although I'm told the Luminous Armature (which is positively awful by the time the Luminous AI is using it) is extremely good before saint katherines star.

Plasteel is still my usual choice, especially Hevy (advanced is rather hard to find...)

And, of course, you can't turn down ultra-light titanium armour, can you?

[Ihlosi]

With the buffing of armors in RC3, it might be worth talking about what beginner armors (by which I mean pre-st.Ks) are best...

Solar armor. And a decent shield, since you can use one of the power hogs if you have essentially unlimited free fuel. Searching for a full set of solar armor is usually one of the first things I do in a new game, followed by a lv6 Yoroi shield.

I try to get an invicible class deflector in the systems after St.K. at the latest, which allows me to keep the solar armor for a few more systems (or even scout every system up to Heretic, and then switch to proper combat equipment and blow everything away).

I also try to make my solar armor radiation resistant (preferably by visiting a tinker while irradiated), so I can loot all those Sapiens ships and other irradiated wrecks.

[Prophet]

I will usually use whatever armor I manage to loot up to Rigel, and on to St Kats if I'm not doing well.
I try to match my armor to my shield:
If I have the monopole, I'll use a ceramic.
A Solon gets some form of reactive (and a kinetic weapon)

The solar-refueling and the solar-regen armors are nice because they reduce your expenses.

Borocarbide paste is great (if you can find it) because the irradiated wrecks often have good loot.

I rarely use the same setup (armor and shield) and I try different combinations each time and some set-ups work better on different ships.

[digdug]

regenerating plasteel, heavy or advanced can keep me running until st. kat or even more without troubles.
I managed to find only a R1 shield in this game, but now in st Kat I found a mammoth 50MW, that now it's around 38000 credits ! So now I'm saving for that.

[Ihlosi]

And, of course, you can't turn down ultra-light titanium armour, can you?

Given the choice between that and a piece of cardboard, no.

[Bobby]

My shield is almost always underpowered for fuel reasons, and I fly in a freighter, so I end up relying heavily on armor. I usually buy the best armor I can find rather than looting the stuff everyone else is using, with the exception of light blast plate from drakes.

I generally go for the balanced armors like plasteels (especially heavy), sometimes barricades, and anything really good in stores, like heavy blast plate. This last game I found 3 segments of light orthosteel in the second system, so I came back for them when I had the credits.

[Ihlosi]

My shield is almost always underpowered for fuel reasons, ...

See my posting about solar armor. Get it, love it. Get the biggest honkin' shield you can find, and don't worry about its power requirements anymore. Just hang around the sun for a few seconds to top off. Plus, you won't have to spend credits on patching your armor anymore, since very few things will get through your shield.

It also gives you all the time in the world to strip-mine most systems clear.

The only combination that could beat that would be worldship armor plus a few solar panels. However, since worldship armor isn't for sale anymore, we're out of luck there.

[goat not sheep]

oh....REALLY?!?
=D

i found 2 plates. TWO WHOLE PLATES.

at an adventurer outfitters. =3 still waiting on the other two.

as a side note, worldship plating should have more hp. YEs, they are pretty much invincible to damage...

but think about it this way. a worldship is like a PLANET. and each plate right now only has 250 hp. =\

if people were to build generation starships, i'd think they'd be pretty sure to have nigh-indestructible armor. buff it to like, 400 or something. diamond lattice-class, or octocarbide.

or even better, like the plates on the phobos.

it'll make the xenophobe challenge in the last system actually close to challenging.

[Psycholis]

i usually go for heavy blast blate + particle because makayev carries them more reliably than the akans and their advanced ceralloy. i prefer the 'boosted' armors and then add barrels of their weak component, ie octocarbide w/ thermo or heavy ithalium w/ ion (very rare). blast plate armors fit into that category and have more HP per level than the ceralloys to boot. i tend to use weak shields too, so by st. ks the best i have is probably a yoroi 500 or mammoth equivalent.

[Song]

Mammoth 25+50% is a really nice shield. In my current playthrough I've just passed Sanctuary with that.

Duralloy is really good........I've got Anti-radiation coatings.....but I'm tempted to try Duralloy+ Regen. Then if I can get a patcher arm/spider........it should be fun.

[Retroactive]

My shield is almost always underpowered for fuel reasons, and I fly in a freighter, so I end up relying heavily on armor. I usually buy the best armor I can find rather than looting the stuff everyone else is using, with the exception of light blast plate from drakes.

A freighter can still be tremendously powerful without having major fuel demands. In RC2, when worldship armor was common, I was able to get as far as heretic once in a freighter with no reactor whatsoever (i.e. with total power consumption limited to 25 MW). In doing so I realized that a number of high-level weapons have minimal power demands. The ones most suitable for the freighter are the Akan 600, which is particularly effective against Sung and Ares and is enhanced with hexagene boosters which are available 3 at a time from trading posts; the omni thermo cannon, which is effective against just about everything; the TM7, likewise effective against everything; and all launchers. The upside of using ammunition-fed weapons with the freighter is that you have the cargo space to store everything and the money to continually buy ammunition.

[Song]

To get back onto armos and shields....how good is this "Omsk" stuff I'm seeing aroundn Rigel and the like?

[Prophet]

I FINALLY managed to find a shield, after seeing plates scattered all over.

I have the Mark I omsk deflector with 2 light plates and 1 heavy plate AND the Hiro +50% rom giving it a total of 300 hp!
It's only drawing 30mW of power and regen's at 7.5/sec.

If you can find all the pieces definitely get it! I found the shield in the second system and saved up for it.
I may skip a few systems and just try to find some more heavy plates and the mark 2 shield.

That would be a 540 hp lvl 8 shield with no other bonuses only drawing 100 mw!

[Retroactive]

The problem with Omsk is that, at least in my experience, medium and heavy plate and Mark II deflectors are scarce to the point of nonexistence unless you order them. They are high-level non-military Makayev devices that are almost never encountered because they all have the "Rare" tag and Makayev stations do not sell shields and rarely occur in high-enough systems for the better Omsk equipment to be generated.

[Song]

I suppose that's the point.....you can have an incredibly good setup with Omsk stuff.....BUT you have to work for it, or just get lucky. Otherwise it'd just be too easy.