Newbe questions

[LouisdeFuines]

What produces most negative points in piratez?

[armadilloTank]

Spoiler:

You mean killer droids disguised as civilians?  I've only encountered them in hoppers carrying passengers, and it's always been the same: A couple of droids disguised as tough girls.  Said tough girls are far more resilient than your typical civilian so that's already a giveaway that they're not normal.  Another way to check is to middle click them, their image is actually a bit different from normal tough girls and (assuming you've already researched the normal tough girl and got her examination) middle clicking that image does nothing because you've technically not researched that special tough girl examination (and you can't ever, actually).

Thanks!

Spoiler:

Just to note I was only checking hoppers (likewise the only place I saw them). The ones I have shot down yet haven't had any. So I guess it is just to early or I haven't hit the right flag yet.

[Meridian]

Funny, to me it looks like you are spamming.

Armadillo has every right to ask a question here... and with 6 posts compared to your 300, he qualifies for "Newbie questions" a lot more than a veteran like you.

[LouisdeFuines]

@Meridian:
Only that I didn`t see a contribution to the game.
But ok, I will remove my last post.

If you think, that I`m spamming, then I can`t help about that.

I ask again:
What produces most negative points in pirates? If it are the space ships, how am I supposed to deal with it, since there is nothing to buy or produce for my anti-aircraft ships (ammu).

[legionof1]

Louis may have a larger presence on the boards then the average first timer, but that does not necessarily mean anything. Myself i had a few hundred posts in the piratez sub-forum before i ever ventured to any other part, so the reverse is entirely possible. There is lots more then just piratez in this forum.


As to the negative points problem, care to share a save so we can perhaps diagnose the problem better? Beyond that, from what little a can deduce from the screenshot its either bandits which you can ignore as they cause little to no score penalty, or there might be another type of craft involved in which case follow that one till it lands.

Aside from the rare case where the offending large negative score creating craft spawns out of coverage and remains there, the player is never denied the opportunity to interfere with the largest negative score sources.

[Zippicus]

I ask again:
What produces most negative points in pirates? If it are the space ships, how am I supposed to deal with it, since there is nothing to buy or produce for my anti-aircraft ships (ammu).

I'm not sure what produces the most negative points.  Generally speaking it's not going to be one thing that causes a big negative hit but cumulative small negative hits.  As to how to deal with that, normally the game spawns enough ground missions to let you get enough points provided you don't do terribly on said missions that is.  What you'll have to do until you get some kind of interception capability is follow them around on your airbus and hope they land (or not, depending on the ship).  Most of the ships flying around will land, and usually out of your radar range so that's why you have to use the "shadow" feature.  If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you launch your airbus for air combat, when you come in contact with the enemy minimize the interception window and advance time.  It will either land somewhere, run you out of fuel, or fly off somewhere you can't reach.  Research also gives you a lot of points too so the more brainers you have doing research projects the better, just make sure you can pay for them before you invest or you'll have a mutiny on your hands.

Try not to get too hung up on shooting ufo's down.  I generally wait till middle/late game before I start shooting ufo's down and that's mainly to advance the tech tree.

Edit:
Just to add, if you go around killing everything in sight you're doing more harm than good.  It's much better to capture people for ransom cash or interrogations.  This is especially true if you decide to hit civilian targets, you'll get negative points for capturing civilians and even more negative points for killing them.

[khade]

Shooting down anything other than civilian shipping is dangerous, and civvies tend to be worth negative points and money anyway, also earliest weapons are not going to cut it against the factions.  Research gives lots of infamy and infamy is actually worth money, so it's worth putting resources into your brainers pretty quickly, I usually try to hire them at the beginning of a month, as they are expensive to maintain and I want to get research out of them before having to pay wages.

Following people and looking for targets of opportunity is a good early way to find infamy, as are the missions that pop up.  Early pogroms are actually not great for your infamy, as you probably don't have the resources to keep civilians alive as well as your crew.


I can't emphasize enough that research is probably the most important source of infamy early on, it directly gives it and provides more ways to gain it as well as more tools to survive getting it.

[LouisdeFuines]

@Khade + Zippicus:
I should have postet the savegame before, here it is.
I get only few negative points in this, but the month before it rose up to 2500.
Dunno, what`s the reason for this but the UFOs I can`t down.

As to how to deal with that, normally the game spawns enough ground missions to let you get enough points provided you don't do terribly on said missions that is.

I do most of the missions, but it seams not to be enough anymore. I`m referring to mid-game. In the beginning it is absolutely no problem.

[doctor medic]

A quick look at your in game standing apart from losing some money and low score,is that you only seem to equip gals with heavy shotguns while neglecting most other options apart from stun rods for melee and a few grenades,otherwise you seem fine on the research tree apart from no workshop.

Remember that unlike the aircar the airspeeder can only take missiles instead of light weapons.

[LouisdeFuines]

@Doctor: Thank you for looking into my savegame.
I love the heavy shotgun, for it seems to have actually the best effect. Especially you hit nearby enemies very good.
Would you recommend something else?

Aside from this:
Most missions can be done by me with this armament.

I`m losing points for no known reason. The only missions, I don`t take are UFOs, for most of them don`t land in my game.

[doctor medic]

For starters you may want to have a few gals having dedicated melee weapons like axes and other higher tech melee weapons like barbarian swords or axes or even just throwing axes if they have the stamina to use them enough,heavy shotguns are fine but the double barrel shotgun is faster to fire apart from its aimed shot and has double the damage than the heavy shotgun,the combat shotgun is nice for its autofire and has a bit more accuracy while also being able to pepper unarmored enemies easily.
also some enemies are resistant to daze damage like osiron bodyguards so stun batons wont work,you might want to use gun buts or cattle prods for more effect and the melee weapons are also great ways to get rid of heavily armored enemies and tanks

The hunting rifle is a must for a early sniper weapon and im suprised you havent researched it so you can get more ammo for it easier.

As for the point loss are you sure you havent researched mutant alliance?If you have researched it and ignore pogroms you dont get the freelancer ones but the actual ones that do have a steep point loss if ignored,also you want to not go after goverment ships and smugglers too much as they have negative points for shooting down their crafts and the personel
gov can also appear on other missions like emergency beacons so if you want to avoid the point loss or want to get one specific person for a interogation you want its better to leave.

[LouisdeFuines]

I love the melee weapons. But against armed-to-the-teeth enemies it s hard to come near them.

One more thing:
How do I recognize smuggler and gov ships?

[doctor medic]

as the game goes on armed to the teeth enemies will also be armored as lobsters enemies such as the mercs and most of the trader's guild,knights and barons of hell and cyclopses to an extend.Not to mention the tanks that most non church and academy humans will have (dont melee cyberdisks) even a hammer can be useful against a tank or a merc.Which at that point in the game you wont be able to scratch them with most of your arsenal when a power armor or even carapace security guard opens fire with gauss weapons.Melee weapons that are fast are decent for lowly armored enemies while the big ones like hammers and axes are good against heavy armored enemies.

[LouisdeFuines]

Ok, but about the ships:
How do I recognize the ships, that downing gives me negative points?
And what, if I leave them, do the negative points not appear then?

Are UFOs the same going into negativ points?

[FG]

About ships: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Air_Strategy_Guide_(Piratez)
*events*:  https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Research_(Piratez)
and a few handy tips: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Tactics_(Piratez)