Ship design

[Sundansyr]

solops said:
OK. Interesting. I have found myself spending money on engines in the early game and doing a lot of running away in order to complete trade missions and get $$$. Is this a common approach or do some of you like to jump in and start the killing right away?

Ohhh, no no no.

The best thing to do when first starting out is to ghost through a few systems. Just cruise around and look for weapons fire. Then sit back and wait. Avoid becoming a part of the fight.
Alternately you can hunt around the mercenary guilds for bounty missions. Take them in systems that are heavily guarded by Terran fleets (Terra, New Texas, ect). Choose smugglers or freighters early off. A lot of times the Terran fleets will take out your target for you. Heck, I've even had them take themselves out - by running into each other!

Wait until the fight is over, then sweep in and pick up the discarded cargo. Drop illegal cargo and cheap stuff (armor, bridge, ect). Keep weapons, targeting systems, drives and expensive cargo.

Find someplace to sell the stuff, and beef up your ship (or upgrade to a bigger hull).

Download the mod in my GraphX thread - it's got problems starting new missions, but it'll load saves fine with a few visual glitches (components mapped to incorrect graphic slots). That'll go away as you replace the parts.

The P&N mods also are quite good. The Peoples' Mod is visually cool, but there is no 'story'. It's just a shooter.

You will need a program to convert .png graphics to .bmp (I use photoshop, but other programs might work). I guess I should really put a readme into that zip file. Be sure to back up the relevant unmodded files before replacing.