New to Legends - but not Starwraith

[Scabbo]

Hey folks. Just recently bought Legends, my third Starwraith game. To be honest, I've always been interested (thus buying several of the offerings over the years), but have never been able to devote too much time with them.

Luckily, I've managed to spend some time with Legends, and I wanted to run a few thoughts and questions by everyone.

First of all, I quickly found a very nice profit for a relatively high-cost item in Sapphire, and several runs to Olympus very quickly netted me a good base 20 Million credits. With that, i upgraded my ship several times and made more runs to recoup the costs. I've *never* been very good at dogfighting in *any* game, so I knew I'd want a technological edge when I finally started.

Now to the questions and thoughts:

1. Systems and Sectors and Rep: I've read about this, and about how leaving an area will reset your rep (to a certain degree). How far does this extend? For instance, in Sapphire's main area, right near the planet, is a gate to another planet (begins with an E...forget the name) which is VERY nearby. Would going to that second planet wipe out any gains I've made at Sapphire? Obviously I'll be worried about such things elsewhere, but this was a good example.

2. Station Licenses: I've gone around the "northern loop" of the known systems and bought one station in each system. I'm going to do the same on the "southern loop" once I've re-earned some credits. Is this wise? I read that when you gain more money and rep, the costs for licenses go up dramatically, so it seemed it would be a good idea to buy everything I possibly could before I got too high.

It's risky, sure... I have to zip into a high-level, hostile system, do some very quick targetting, spam Countermeasures while my jump drive spins up, and then do a blitz-buy of the station license before missiles hit. And that is actually fun and exciting.

Right now, I'm only doing one per system. I don't see any downside to this approach. Am I missing something?

2. Exploration -- So far, the way I've been doing this is jumping a ways out and then zooming the nav-map out to see what shows up. Is there anything else I should be doing? Will "hidden" things show up this way? I mean, I don't expect these hidden containers to... I am speaking more of wormholes (I know *black* holes show up). OR do I have to literally see these hidden things with my eyes?

3. Naviagable Asteroids - To find these, should I be looking at the standard asteroids that are out there for mining, or should I be looking more for the REALLY BIG ones like the one in the Sapphire system (one grid down and one grid east, if memory serves)?

4. Enemy missiles - Do they run out of them? I think I recall them doing so in earlier games but I also seem to be running into guys who have quite a lot of these little buggers.

5. Planets - I've gone down to several planets. Mainly because it's fun and partly to see what there was to buy. So far, I haven't really seen much there that I could not get up at a space station. Aside from mining and scenery (both of which are probably good enough reason on their own), are there other benefits to taking the time to descend?


I may have more questions later, but I wanted to run these up the flagpole and see what people have to say.

Thanks.
--Scabbo

[DocHogan]

Originally posted by Scabbo
Hey folks. Just recently bought Legends, my third Starwraith game. To be honest, I've always been interested (thus buying several of the offerings over the years), but have never been able to devote too much time with them.

That's my exact history as well! Anyway, welcome to the newest incarnation

3. Naviagable Asteroids - To find these, should I be looking at the standard asteroids that are out there for mining, or should I be looking more for the REALLY BIG ones like the one in the Sapphire system (one grid down and one grid east, if memory serves)?

I'm really new at the game myself, and haven't gotten to get too far in it myself, BUT I'm fairly sure I know the answer to this question at least. Well, part of it anyway. Well, enough to say that that's a moon southeast of the Saphire Station...asteroids are all the same size.

Fairly sure, anyway...I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong

[49rTbird]

Hello Scabbo, Welcome to the forum and to Legends. See you out there sometime.

[Marvin]

1. Systems and Sectors and Rep: I've read about this, and about how leaving an area will reset your rep (to a certain degree). How far does this extend? For instance, in Sapphire's main area, right near the planet, is a gate to another planet (begins with an E...forget the name) which is VERY nearby. Would going to that second planet wipe out any gains I've made at Sapphire? Obviously I'll be worried about such things elsewhere, but this was a good example.

Reputation is achieved per system ... and there can be more than one planet in a system. Also, there are two types of rep: an overall reputation and a clan (faction) reputation. As your reputation improves among the Navy, Miners and Energy, you will eventually see an improvement in your overall reputation. Leaving a system might cause your clan rep to decrease ... but your overall rep will remain the same.

[MMaggio]

Welcome Scabbo,
Gaining a rep in Sapphire system is redundant. Sapphire system is a non-hostile system and that includes all the planets in that system.
You can actually mine the planets, just as you do the asteroids.
Depending on where you mine, you can recover water, oxygen, gold & silver from the planets. So visiting planets can be very worthwhile.
As for hostile systems, sounds like your tactics are right on.
At times it does seem as tho the reds have more missiles than God, but they have the same limits we do. They just don't seem to operate under the same "financial constraints" that we as players have to. Remember, you can shoot down missiles.
Using the nav map alone will not reflect all the hidden items you seek.
Best to just jump out to various sectors and do a grid search. Good idea to have a good science officer on board.
Just wait till you make that "southern loop" you mention. Bring plenty of cash!
Good luck & good hunting...

[Sinbad]

Hi Scabbo,

Welcome to EL. I'm also more of an explorer than a fighter pilot (although it's good to have some combat experience). My technique for exploring large areas of deep space is to make a horizontal sweep of 100 sectors, then jump up about 15 sectors (just enough distance to see the next section of the nav map when it's zoomed out), then another horizontal sweep of 100 sectors in the opposite direction, then up again by 15 sectors, etc. You can efficiently cover a vast area with this zig-zag sweeping. Of course you need a big fuel tank to avoid getting stranded in the middle of nowhere! In general it's enough to leave your nav map zoomed out, as detectable objects will show up such as planets, wormholes, and stations. Sometimes objects my be radar cloaked and won't show up on the nav map even if it's zoomed in. But usually you have some clue about their location, so you need to check for blips on your radar. Sometimes objects won't even show up on radar, like some of the beacons, then you have to just rely on visual contact.

If you're an explorer you might want to consider joining the Universe Explorers [UE] Clan. You'd be very welcome and it can be fun doing co-operative exploring, especially in more dangerous sectors of space!;)

[Ravenfeeder]

You have to be a tad careful about buying station licences. There's an immediate advantage in buying a station licence - you get some protection from the station, and you can buy items at a discount, plus no station fees.

What you have to watch out for is buying a licence at a station that you would wish to sell goods at, as you would also be selling them at a discount - wheels, and roundabouts. Thus; a station licence at a station you wish to buy from - good. A station licence at a station you wish to sell goods at - bad.

+++SPOILER+++ In the Sol system, never, ever, buy a station licence at Sol station

[Maarschalk]

Hi Scabbo, welcome to the game and forum, hope to see you out there....

Yes and like Ravenfeeder says, generally it is good to buy station licenses in the beginning but only from Stations that sell at a cheap price to get an extra discount on already cheap stuff to gain max profit at higher selling stations....If I want to buy a Station licence now it will cost me 1billion per licence...but I have at the moment 52 billion credits....LOL.....:P:P:P:P:P