Idiot's guide to Space Rangers 2

[LCJr.]

There's one thing that really annoys me ...
I'm a gaalian mercenery, and when i kill pirates for no reason my maloq/peleng reputation decreases, wtf ?? the pirates don't even have to be maloq or peleng but the reputation decreases regardless of anything ...
i put so much effort to get a good combat ship, and this kinda sucks Sad
Oh and the reputation decrease happens also with escort missions, that is so silly - i'm hired to protect passive ships and that makes me a criminal, ARGH Shocked

You can go to a bussiness center and invest in fleets and military bases in systems owned by the race you've ticked off. It improves relations and I believe helps supress piracy. Investing in military bases also earns you military promotion points.

Helping out victims of the Dominators also makes you more popular but I prefer building bases.

I could be wrong but investing in bases seems to make the AI do the same thing. Competition over the ranger ratings I suspect. Seems everytime I finance a base the AI will build 3 more within a few days. Need to pay more attention that next time.

 

[Zomg]

Is there any way to locate a ship of a given name when you're in a star system? I'm annoyed at having to mouse around all over a system to find the ship I've got a bounty on.

 

[Svartberg]

Yeah, but if you go back to your original race, then I think you get your old face back.

Oh, one other point - on escort missions you can usually tell a pirate to leave the ship alone and they generally will if you have a powerful ship.

I just tested it and i got one of the ugly gaalian faces :/
I see what you mean about the escort mission, i guess getting them to pay you for their lives is basically the same idea - it's not profitable to kill non-dominators in this game.
But i still gotta say the game really lacks random bounty hunts on pirates, it's much more fun killing pirates and hear them cry for their lives, than killing a mindless killing robot.

 

[bryce777]

Try killing some rangers. They really lay a guilt trip on you. I felt so bad, I had to stop, and I usually am pretty merciless to npcs.

Random bounties would definitely be good....

 

[Svartberg]

Bryce777, tbh i don't try to think of "how it could be better" - but i bet that a lot of space rangers players got the impression there are bounty's on pirates (aside from the ultra rare government bounty's) from the intro movie, and like me got dissapointed with the pirate thing.

You can go to a bussiness center and invest in fleets and military bases in systems owned by the race you've ticked off. It improves relations and I believe helps supress piracy. Investing in military bases also earns you military promotion points.

Helping out victims of the Dominators also makes you more popular but I prefer building bases.

ahhhh ... i only noticed your message now ...
thanks for the info, going to be really useful.

is there any way to locate a ship of a given name when you're in a star system? I'm annoyed at having to mouse around all over a system to find the ship I've got a bounty on.

no idea, same thing i have with finding a certain planet (i know which number of planet it is from the sun, but i still need to look for it).
what i do is search for it on the database, see what kind of race/ship it is, and either get it from my radar or like you said do it manually.

 

[Zomg]

Some spoilery questions; don't answer them if the answer will cost me too much fun. I've only skimmed the thread in fear of having too many surprises spoiled, so forgive me if this has come up already.

I'm flying around in a Rogust Peleng Pirate hull (Fear Bone type), with mixed cannons and missiles, if you want to know about where I am in the game. I can't quite clear a Dominator infestation by myself, but I can usually take out enough ships that any nearby military come to finish the job (and shoot up all my loot) by the time I'm in real trouble.

1) So, how does the "sell Dominator gear to science bases" thing work? I do it for the money sometimes, but so far I haven't noticed what effect it has on the larger game.

2) What does the 100/50K disc you can buy from pirate bases do? I tried to talk to the Dominators after I got it, but I didn't notice any new options.

3) Will I get more copies of the Dominator "Interface" program, or should I husband the ones I've got for critical points? I've gotten up to "Pilot" rank in the army, and I know I can get more of the subprograms over time (you know how every once in a while you run into a Dominator ship with much, much better guns, shields and engines than the average Dominator mook? I love using the Alarm program on those guys - I got an energy weapon off one of them that has over double the range and damage of my heavily upgraded cannons unupgraded).

On the US release vs. the UK - I heard they put some of the missing text adventures from the Russian version back in. These are the ones I've run into, tell me if any aren't in the UK version (these are just identifiable names for the different ones):

Ski lodge manager
Secretary strip poker (much less lascivious than it sounds)
Impress the Maloq lord and his wife

I'll edit in more as I find them.

Complaints so far:

It's very annoying to upgrade your ship - chasing around items you find from the in-game Google is just plain dull. I wish you could pay a premium to a business center to run around and buy stuff for you or something similar. I found the game very frustrating at first, but in retrospect I was focusing too much on trading, which should probably only be used to get started, since you basically have to fly around with just an engine, a gas tank and a shield to make trading profitable in a sub-500 size hull. Also, I hate RTS too much to enjoy the robot minigame, but at least I can skip it.

The translation isn't too annoying - it's quite stilted English, but in a charming way, not incompetent word-for-word dictionary translation.

 

[bryce777]

1. Basically, the more gear you feed to the science stations the faster they research. Also, the more science stations, the faster it goes, as well. So, if you are claing up the dominators well then the research tends to go pretty fast. Each aea will research a solution to each dominator series.

2. This allows you to try to hack into each of the dominators. You can use it to weaken each of them signifigantly enough to have a reasonable chance to destroy them. So, the research is not absolutely necessary though if you have it it helps a lot.

3. As you get more ranger points you will be awarded more programs. A few times I have run out of interface ones, but I always end up getting a whole bunch more after that. I usually dont use them much, but in an emergency theya re good, or if you see a ship with good gear then pinging it with alarm signal once or twice can yield some nifty loot.

Ski lodge manager
Secretary strip poker (much less lascivious than it sounds)
Impress the Maloq lord and his wife

These are all in there. that assumes the stip poker one is the one I am thinking of.

Here are all the ones I have encountered in the UK version:

rubiks cube like thing
jumping from platform to platform
ikibana thing where you figure out patterns
corporate coach where you have team in corporate olympics
submarine one
find lost nephew on hillbilly world
hunt down pelengi pirate lord
zookeeper
pizza making
elected president
rockstar
Maloqi medicine hunt
Chinese checker like thing where you have 15 moves


I will list more later....

 

[Zomg]

Here's another question: Is there a way to get the Luantan (spelling?) disease reliably? I can imagine that it would be very nice if I decided to start a new game; level up Charisma from the tutorial XP, get Luantan disease and get the reward for 4-charisma missions right off the bat, not to mention the random payments.

 

[bryce777]

Mot that I know of - it can be pretty handy though, especially early on when every cent counts.

 

[Svartberg]

Zomg :
1. well, from what i noticed the only thing you need to think about when buying equipment is the weight, since they most of them (if not all) are default, and you just upgrade those afterwards at the science station ... and personally i don't bang my head too much to get the ultra light equipment, up to 28 for most parts and up to 40 for engine since it gets repaired most - and i just make sure the planet that sells it is gaalian, but i still get my needed equipment fast.
2. what blocked slots does your peleng "fear bone" has ?? i kinda need a new ship, and i'd rather have a shield generator than a repair droid, and only use 2 artifacts ...
3. why do you say trading is to only be used at start ? i checked the market research thing at a business center and saw 10-20k routes (with level 0 trading) while my fedex missions make as much money, the only question is if trading skill actually effects goods trading ? if not than i guess you're right.

 

[bryce777]

The trading skill just affects the prices you get when you sell old equipment, not actual trading.

 

[Zomg]

Alright, I've finished the game aside from not being able to beat Keller in the arcade game, and I'm not willing to slog out another bunch of hit-and-miss text adventure missions for cash to upgrade my hull, guns and shields just to make Keller beatable. I think SR2 has a pretty good foundation, maybe aside from the combat (which is initially interesting but becomes pretty miserable towards the end, when the Armor+Shield+Droid system makes ships much, much too sturdy, making for incredibly boring slugfests) but the translated writing and especially the characterization of the aliens and universe really suffer in comparison to a game like Star Control II. I don't regret buying it, but it feels like SR2 might be leading up to a classic game in a sequel rather than being a classic game itself.

@Svartberg: The "Fear Bone" pirate hulls have one artifact spot blocked, and that's it. The best hull series I ever ran across were Fear Bone pirates and Armorer rangers. On trading, the trading skill doesn't actually help - it just makes it so you can sell salvaged equipment at a higher price, which isn't even necessary for Dominator parts which can always be sold for full price (sometimes even double full price) t a science base. I assume there must be some translation error in play for that to be called trading. Using commercial stations to get trading routes often screws you, since half the time or more AI traders beat you to the punch and leave you with a huge, ship-slowing inventory that you can only sell for a tiny gain or even a loss. Since to really exploit trading you have to either get one of those gigantic specialized liner/transport hulls with tons of useful slots blocked off or trade while loading only an engine, fuel tank and shield (to prevent pirate extortion) there's not much reason not to take the simpler route and just do missions.

 

[Thydron]

"Ideal" Ranger Hulls (and some other types of ranger hulls - i forget which) have every slot open - i tend to stick to these, but it leaves very little room for cargo / large equipment since theres so much stuff on-board

 

[Svartberg]

hey, that fear bone sounds good, so it got everything open except one artifact - that includes the 5 weapons ?
I found 2 unique ships, and i was pretty dumb not to buy one of them (peleng battle cruiser with 1600 hull size and two blocked artifact slots) ...

I'm close to the end of the game, and i have to say i'm dissapointed about a lot of things - i really liked the design, equipment, quests, races and universe ...
but i think they really screwed up two things :
1. outragous repair bills, no matter how you play the game, sooner or later it will annoy you since you have to stick to better tech.
Apparently everyone in the universe can run 5 weapons with each of them costing 100k that basically means overall repair bill of 70k and more - needless to say you don't earn enough to make it worth it, but the A.I. can live with that - my ass.
2. monsters/loot scaling - not as bad as oblivion (they scale to the time and not your level), but still annoying - you kick everyone ass with an uber ship, and after a couple of years everyone has better weapons and kick your ass ... not fun, not sense of progression.

oh well, i'm too lazy to finish it now heh ... but was well worth the purchase.

 

[bryce777]

The hungry pechenka peleng hulls are the best in the game - they are the hugest and have nothing blocked except one weapon.

 

[merry andrew]

I just got the game a few hours ago... is there a bunch of information somewhere about the occupations you can choose at character creation? I know it gives a brief ship and race relations synopsis, but does your chosen occupation have a big impact on what you can do in the world or what kind of character you'll be able to effectively play?

 

[Svartberg]

I just got the game a few hours ago... is there a bunch of information somewhere about the occupations you can choose at character creation? I know it gives a brief ship and race relations synopsis, but does your chosen occupation have a big impact on what you can do in the world or what kind of character you'll be able to effectively play?

It effects the starting ship and your relations with other races, so you'll have a hard time being everyone hero if you started as a pirate (i.e. everyone hates you, and will be hard to get quests), but it won't give you any special options.

 

[merry andrew]

Makes sense, thanks.

 

[LCJr.]

Your rep changes based on what you do. You can start as fighter but if all you do is trade you'll earn one of the trader reps.

 

[merry andrew]

Sweet.

 

[YourConscience]

quest problems

I am probably just stupid, but has anyone found a solution for that one chess-like quest where you have like AAA_BBB and you have to switch all A's to the B's places and vice version. You can alsways move only the one next to the space or the next after the one next to the space. So the first two moves are obvious:

AA_ABBB
AABA_BB

You have to make the switching in only 15 turn but the best I ever did was 17. Is it possible at all?!

Or shall I really program a brute-force approach for that? (I am just so lazy - and c'mon, it's suppoed to be a game!)

 

[Norfleet]

@Svartberg: The "Fear Bone" pirate hulls have one artifact spot blocked, and that's it. The best hull series I ever ran across were Fear Bone pirates and Armorer rangers. On trading, the trading skill doesn't actually help - it just makes it so you can sell salvaged equipment at a higher price, which isn't even necessary for Dominator parts which can always be sold for full price (sometimes even double full price) t a science base.

The slot blockage is a combination of series and race. Peleng Fear Bones are like that. Others are not quite so impressive. I prefer the Hungry Penchekryaks, myself. They have 4 artifacts slots, and a weapon slot blocked instead, but there's an artifact that will give you a weapon slot at the expense of 10% shields. The 4 artifact slots tend to give you more flexibility since you can hotswap the extra weapon in and out depending on whether you need more shields or more firepower. Plus they tend to be huge. And look cool.

I assume there must be some translation error in play for that to be called trading. Using commercial stations to get trading routes often screws you, since half the time or more AI traders beat you to the punch and leave you with a huge, ship-slowing inventory that you can only sell for a tiny gain or even a loss. Since to really exploit trading you have to either get one of those gigantic specialized liner/transport hulls with tons of useful slots blocked off or trade while loading only an engine, fuel tank and shield (to prevent pirate extortion) there's not much reason not to take the simpler route and just do missions.

Trading is basically a losing game later in the game, since it's too bothersome for the human player to obtain timely omniscience (you can do it by searching planets, which displays their price lists, but the list is unsorted). I prefer to mine the wrecks of my enemies, shooting them down and selling their salvaged wreckages for cash. As a side benefit, this makes everyone hate you, so they all come running straight for you the moment you enter the system. Bonus! I like a target-rich environment. Also, no ninja looters when you shoot down military ships. Then the Dominators take over the system and you can shoot them down, too! KILL! KILL EVERYTHING! MUHAHAHAHA!

hey, that fear bone sounds good, so it got everything open except one artifact - that includes the 5 weapons ?
I found 2 unique ships, and i was pretty dumb not to buy one of them (peleng battle cruiser with 1600 hull size and two blocked artifact slots) ...

That's not really a unique ship, other than that it's a very large hull.

Here you can find a guide to the best hulls in the game by race and series:
http://www.elementalgames.com/forum/msg ... &page=auto

I'm close to the end of the game, and i have to say i'm dissapointed about a lot of things - i really liked the design, equipment, quests, races and universe ...
but i think they really screwed up two things :
1. outragous repair bills, no matter how you play the game, sooner or later it will annoy you since you have to stick to better tech.
Apparently everyone in the universe can run 5 weapons with each of them costing 100k that basically means overall repair bill of 70k and more - needless to say you don't earn enough to make it worth it, but the A.I. can live with that - my ass.

100K repair bills are not that outlandish. Blow away a few ships and a wreckage selling for about 25K will drop from the shattered wrecks you kill. Granted, this will quickly net you the aforementioned 100K repair bill after a fight, but when I do this, I end up with a 78% pirate rating, which means I get a 78% discount on my repair bills for being such a nasty pirate. Killing Dominators just doesn't produce the same level of payout because you have to deal with the ninja-looters, the loot-shooters, and the whatnot. Military battleships, on the other hand, rarely shoot their own loot when they're busy shooting at YOU, and do not ninjaloot. So shoot them down instead! Take their shiny weapons and use them for yourself, and sell the rest off as salvage! ARR!

Then take the rest of the money and make an occasional donation to the starving orphan fund when you need to visit a planet. You literally make a killing this way.

 

[YourConscience]

So umm, no one got this quest?

 

[bryce777]

So umm, no one got this quest?

If you do a search kingcomrade asked this at some point and I tried to explain the solution (with no real luck) but you might have better luck deciphering it.

 

[kingcomrade]

I wrote out the solution to this problem in text and posted it in a thread here, though I might be one off because of a counting accident in that post. I'm looking for it, I don't remember where it is. And yeah, bryce was no help.