Demo difficulty (or Do I just suck?)

[Morandil]

Is the demo difficulty reflective of the actual game?

The first assigned mission in the demo seems impossible even on easy (escort the Baumont, then get jumped by pirate cruisers and destroyers with only a destroyer to fight with). Am I doing something wrong? Are you just supposed to lose this encounter? I seem to get surrounded and all my shields vaporize before I get more than a couple shots off.

Or am I supposed to do so much before this mission that my ship is far better than what you start out with?

More importantly, are all missions this difficult in the demo and full game? If they are, I may pass on this game.

[Phoenix-D]

Some of them are, yes. But you -can- loose that mission and still progress.

[Wydraz]

I'll offer a little actual advice: take some cargo runs and build up your ship before taking on the first mission. You might get some practice combat in on the way too.

Missions get easier as your ship gets more powerful, and late in the game some of them are a cakewalk.

[PaladinX]

Heh, I raised 600,000 credits from commerce missions and bought the Cruiser Mark III before I took my first mission.

Bad part was I ended up destroying that Ammon Krie space station before I was told to because my ship was so strong, and...

[acepaint]

First do what PaladinX says and raise some cash to improve armor,shields,weapons etc. Then what I do is find out where the ship that you have to escourt is and find the pirates closest to it and try and lead them away and keep them busy until the the escourt mission is over.Works most of the time but you have to watch the ship you are escourting otherwise he may fly into another group of pirates.

[IdeoPraxist]

You might also want to use hit-and-run tactics. Target, fire your load, run away, position behind the enemy, attack. Repeat

If you're fighting fighters or satellites, you can ram them. Your ship won't get damaged much compared to being shot by them.

Rotate your ship so the damage is evenly distributed to hit your shieds and armour on all side. Internal component damage is deadly, so let your shields/armor take the punishment.

The Last part, is be patient. The game is pretty difficult at the begining, but it does get better as you improve your ship.

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENT: Perhaps the Starfury team should increase allowable tonnage in the demo so a few more weapons/shields can be added. Only after I bought a Cruiser Mark III the game became fun. With a Cruiser, I had good battles with 2-3 pirate cruisers. You really get shot to pieces, but with good tactics you can survive.

Good luck.