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| A Journey Into the Stars: An EV:N BR - Part Three! | | | Author: | | | IP: | nr11-216XXXX | | Date: | 04/01/03 12:04 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for EldritchEvil: 8.5111 |  | A Journey Into the StarsHello. I'm back, with the Third Part of my EV:N Battle Reports. To help you understand this complex game, I've created the First Layman's Guide to Nova which you should read before continuing. This report will include a Change of Ships, space combat, the Federation storyline, and monkeys. We'll serve cocktails and malt liquor at the lounge, smoke pipes like sophisticated persons, and enjoy ourselves. Also we'll have live entertainment in the form of Monkeys doing a tap dance and a brass band. Now sit back, relax, read the Alt Text, click on all the links and enjoy the show...
Hello! If you haven't read the first and second ones, go read them now. I mean, like, NOW. Thank you, just do a search for EldritchEvil. And now, on with the Report. I've added a new Plug In to my game. It's called Ship Variants 1.0.1. It allows you to buy every variant of the ships you can get, and I won't play without it. Variants are different versions of ships, with different weapons, shields, speed ect. Anyway, as you'll know from my earlier reports, I want to enter the Federation storyline. Unfortunately, the intro missions require 20 tons of cargo space. My Gunboat - the Executor I - has only 15. Now, I could cheat around this by modifying the Gunboat to have 20 tons of cargo space, but a sudden, unexpected feeling of honor and nobility welled up in me, and I rejected the idea. Besides, I had a better one that didn't involve messing around with ResEdit. I could hire some Cargo Drone escorts! If you're thinking; "Escorts? What are escorts?" then you need to go read my Guide. If you go; "Ah! Escorts!" then you need to continue reading. Thank you. Anyway. As you'll know if you clicked on the link (and you should) cargo drones add 5 tons of cargo space to you. Just one and I'll be in business. I got two, giving me 25 cargo space. They're cheap. I was happily going to go to different systems, checking the Outfit section for the mission (you get it there, random avail%.), but I had a sudden premonition of doom. You know somedays, when it's all going so insanely well for you, you feel like SOMETHING bad has to happen? This was one of those days. I attempted to take a 22 cargo mission aaaand...
"You don't have enough cargo space to take this mission." I checked my free space. It said; Space in your ship: 15 tons. Space in your fleet: 25 tons. I guess mission cargo can't be spread about. Ah well...
You cheaters out there (you know who you are) are thinking: "Ha ha! He has to cheat, just like us now! He's lowering himself to our level, and it makes us feel great!!!" Well, you are wrong. I am not going to cheat. I am going to buy a new ship. But what new ship? Well, I have several options. The Starbridge is a nice ship, 20 cargo space, powerful. Top of the line, and thus, expensive. Too expensive. 300,000 more than I have expensive. So that's out. Another idea is the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie is a nice ship, fast, powerful when upgraded. Its shields and armor are pretty weak, but the higher variants have better ones. 20 Cargo space too... A nice idea. But I'll need a good one to make up for losing my Gunboat. With this in mind I start heading to the Tichel system. The Tichel system has this planet, Viking, that sells Pirate ships. I land on Viking and check out the shipyard. Ugh. The Class II - lowest Variant - of the Pirate Valkyrie is too expensive. The Pirate Valkyrie is a much better version. It has better shields, armor, speed and weapons. It is also much costlier. With a profound sigh, I head back to Earth to see the price on the Standard one. Hmmm. The Class I Valkyrie is 275,000 credits, which is exactly my Ship's Trade In Value. See, ships have a Trade In Value that is pretty much the total price of all your outfits and your ship if you sold it all. This is subtracted from the price of the ship you're buying. This is a very nice system. But, the part of me that wants the best of everything ignoring price says "Check out the Class II!" So I did. It's 75,000 credits over my Trade In. I have 60,000. I could make that price! So I take a mission that's two jumps away, pays 15,000. Easy enough. With the money I get from my Bank Accounts, I end up with 80,000 credits. The aforementioned side of me says, "Hey! The Pirate Valkyrie was only 120,000 over your Trade in!" And so I begin to think. If I do a bunch of missions, I can get enough to buy a really cool Valkyrie! And so I do. I won't bore you with play-by-play accounts of my trips to Serenity and Ryll. However, I did get the very good Ferry Rock Band mission. This mission pays 100,000 credits total for the price of a small, easily defeatable pirate attack. I got this mission in the Ryll bar. I forgot to take a Screenshot of the first dialog, but all it is is Styles asking you to take him.
Yeah... I'm going to have to install a lot more Air Filters in the Executor soon. Also, excuse the horrible quality of the screenshot on the left. It's not my fault. It's COMMUNISM'S fault. Anyway, I set off.
I easily get to Cornwall, and land. After completing the first mission, which is just noting that there are some ruffians looking to rough the band up, which I do not entirely disagree with providing they ensure there will not be a memorial album. And then collecting my 50,000, I get to go to Galavan or someplace like that. As I lift off, the expected Pirate attack comes. It was over so fast that I could not honestly swear, in a court of law, how many ships there were when it started. It seemed like there was one pegasus and two vipers, but then there were no vipers and the pegasus died, so... Anyway, the ship responsible for this was a Krypt Pod. They are part of the Vell-os storyline, with 1000 shields and armor and weapons that bypass shields and cut to the armor. They were destroyed so fast I couldn't get a screenshot of them. Anyway... I jump through several systems, and completed the mission. I tried to get a screenshot but the quality of it, after all the resizing and such I had to do, was so make it unreadable. Pretty much was happens is that it turns out that the entire band are ROBOTS. Really. One of them catches fire on stage. Then Sly Styles is taken away for false advertising and fraud. Fun. I conclude that if this is showbusiness, I'm better off avoiding it. With a sigh that brings me back to my dilemma, I start going back to tichel to check the price of the Pirate Valkyrie. Hmm. Well, I can buy the Class II right now. But, my get-the-best side says, what is the price of the class III? Then my heart skips a beat. The class IV is for sale here. I remembered something. The Class IV Pirate Valkyrie is probably the most underpriced ship in the game, to the point of imbalance. For only 850,000 you get Four Railguns, Four Ion Cannons and a lot more firepower than a Federation Destroyer. Seriously, the ship is absurdly powerful. And it looks cool. But I don't think you quite grasp its power. Really. No one talks back to a Class IV. I saw a Pegasus disagree with a Class IV, and the Class IV ninja backflipped him into a wall. This one time, my friend Dave said he saw a Class IV uppercut a Terrapin, just for opening a window.
I want this. Badly. I could afford it, too, in maybe 15 more cargo runs. It's mine, I'm going to get it. I'm set. I'm going to painstakingly earn enough money to buy this baby. In the words of PvP's troll, Skull; "GLEE!!!"
And so did I set out on The Quest for the Holy Grail!!! Er, wait. Cut. Let's take it from the top.
And so did I set out on the Quest for the Holy Grail!!! Hold on. Cut. Eldritch? It's "Quest for the Pirate Valkyrie."
And so did I set out on the Quest for the Pirate Valkyrie!! Good. OK, take 5, people. Thus did I leave Tichel, with a mission to Wolf 359 for 40,000. I was starting to believe that getting this Valk won't be so hard after all. After a few more missions, I land on Greenwich, collect 15,000, and check the bar...
Ah, the bounty hunter storyline! This is a minor storyline that leads to the rebel one. I don't think I'll go that far, but it pays well, ending up in 150,000 credit missions. I accept.
I accepted. This will give me a chance to earn the 550,000 needed for the Valk, and increase my Combat Rating, AND give me a chance to show you guys some choice battle screenshots.
 Wow, tough fight. I ended up with 50% armor and 47 raven rockets. The problem was, if it was just a standard Abomination, I'd be OK. They have 15 or so Missiles and then no long range weapons. I could take it out with Raven Rockets at my leisure. However, it was a Dechanik class. This means, in addition to the nasty Fusion Pulse Batteries (F.P.Bs) it sports a 100mm Railgun. So it can hit me from very, very far away. The 200mm ones can hit you from 3 screens away. I couldn't close in on it to fire my blasters because of it's F.P.Bs, which fire 4 Fusion Blasts a second. I'd be slaughtered. Eventually, taking a lot of damage from Railguns, I won. Anyway, after another, oh, 5 bounty huntings and 3 cargo runs, I have around 600,000 credits - enough for my Pirate Valk! Flushed with victory over the evilness of finances, I make the jump to Tichel.
Isn't it wonderful... And it's mine, my own!
I'm was so excited. I just had to test it out.
Owned! Eat Ion Cannon, mr ugly Abomination! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! After poking holes in the hull of the Abomination, I jumped to Sol. My plan now is to fly around in a math.random() manner checking the outfitters for the Federation storyline. As I jumped into Sol, I saw a derelict leviathan. As I was low on cash, I boarded it, taking the Take Survivors to system mission. Hereafter follows a maddening trip through many, many systems, including Ginea and Rigel. You see, the destination was cleverly hidden. I couldn't find it. None of the nearby systems connected to it. It was like being in Auroran space all over again. Horrid. After that, I made tracks to Sol, and landed on earth. Still no Fed storyline. But... What is this?
Ah, yes, the Second of three Sigma Shipyards missions, culminating in usage of hypergates. I accidentally deleted the first dialog of this mission, thinking it was something else. Anyway, it runs something like this:
"As you step into the shipyards, you see the familiar figure of Rodney Andrews of Sigma Shipyards fame walking towards you. "Hello, Captain," he says. "I want to employ your services once again." He holds up his hand to forestall any replies. "Be aware that we will send you to someplace far away where you may come under fire where we cannot help you, to pick up something that isn't strictly legal, and bring it back here without being found out. Do you accept?"
This is an... Interesting mission. I have the perfect ship for it, though. If the Auroran ships scan you, you fail the mission. If you succeed, you get a handy paycheck (250,000 credits) and the possibility of the Third mission, which gives you Hypergate usage. Hypergates are, well, gates that are placed in strategic systems, such as the homeworlds of the Five houses, all the Spacedock # systems, Kania, ect. It's VERY useful for traveling long distances. I accepted. Then, I noticed two difficulties.
One, as you can see, is the obvious length of the trip. Maybe 20 jumps all told, and I'll probably get lost due to that fact that Auroran space is pretty much just a bunch of sneaky cul-de-sacs and dead ends that make you think you're going in the right direction. It's like their space was designed by poorly coordinated children, or ATMOS employees playing pin-the-jump-on-the-system, or ATMOS employees scribbling on napkins whilst hosting a raging party, or ATMOS employees attacking the space map feverishly with pencils to design jump routes. Well, maybe not that bad, but LORD, it is no fun navigating for the first time. This brings me to the second difficulty I will encounter...
 Yes. I forgot about this. You see, for each Legal "points" you get for a government, with the government's enemies you lose the equivalent number of points. As such, I am a criminal, evoking unprovoked attacks on me wherever I go. This could, as you clever little simians no doubt expect, complicate my passage through their space. I have to be careful, because if I die, THE REPORTS WILL CEASE TO COME FORTH. Think good thoughts and keep your grasping appendages crossed.
Here goes. I shoot off from Viking, jumping past battles between Federation and Auroran. Since they are so busy shooting each other into space debris, I can get by without damage. Once I get past the borders, however, that changed. Here's a screenshot of the firepower leveled my way in EACH AND EVERY SYSTEM. Actually, it was more like the firepower was ANGLED my way. Since space combat is up, down, diagonal, left, right, sideways, ect, to LEVEL a weapon my way would induce a certain notion of straight firing. But it wasn't really straight, since - HURkk...! *You hear the screeching of monkeys and screaming.*
Scary, isn't it? In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have blown up that Auroran Abomination to test my firepower. Oh, well. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. Eventually, I started to run out of fuel. I had only 6 jumps total and two Solar Panels, meaning I couldn't recharge fast enough to warrant my needs. Thus, I had to bribe my way on to a planet, specifically, Dani.
Good thing I have enough money. With a bit of tricky maneuvering, I land. Whilst there, I purchased two more Solar panels, a Map and three more Battery Packs. Solar Panels increase your Energy Recharge rate by cumulative amounts. Battery Packs add 100 fuel units, or one jump. This will also help me with my Ion Cannons, which cost fuel. A map explores the systems two jumps away from the one you're in.
As I suspected, I had taken a wrong turn. Several, actually. I had to backtrack four jumps to get on the right way, or, at least, what I fervently hoped was the right way. Luckily it was the right way, thank Mystra, and with my new jumps and solar panels, I could make it to Kont. Now, to deal with the Houseless there. You see, Auroran space is divided into five houses, in no particular order, Heraan, Dani, Moash, Tekel and Vela. There's also house Auroran which is all the houses reluctantly fighting alongside eachother against the Federation, the Dechtakars - Elite Warriors - and, finally, the Houseless. They style themselves as Ronins, but are really just pirates. There were two fighters, one abomination, one Enterprise, one Argosy and one cruiser. One of the fighters rushed me early one while the other ships happily stayed back, pelting me with Railguns and Radar Missiles. Due to a combination of the speed I was travelling, asteroids and my Pirate Jammer, almost none of them hit. I disabled the Fighter with two short bursts of Ion and Railgun fire, only to be bitterly disappointed when I discovered that they could not be boarded, probably because of the toxic conditions of the cockpit. Auroran Warriors, reportedly, do not bathe and they drink heavily. (The exception being the Heraan house.) With a sigh, I turned to face the Argosy, Abomination and Enterprise, who were all approaching. The abomination arrived first, and hurt me quite a bit before I blasted it into a wreck with Radar Missiles, Railguns and Ion fire. My ship actually has one more launcher than you can buy, making me able to fire them very fast. Then I engaged the Argosy.
After destroying the argosy (about 10% shields now), I opened fire on the Enterprise, which came up last. With both the Cruiser and the Enterprise firing railguns at me, I approached, firing Radar missiles and Railguns like a dervish. When I reached the Enterprise at melee range, I was down to 95% armor from Railguns and Fusion Pulse Turret blasts. Fusion Pulse weapons have a suprisingly long range, often disappearing from the screen, luring you into a false sense of security before slamming your ship like a wrecking ball into a skyscraper. Not that I am bitter. Anyway, with some dancing - namely, keeping the Enterprise between me and the Cruiser, so the Cruiser couldn't hit me, but COULD hit the enterprise, and dodging the relatively slow moving Fusion Pulse blasts - the Enterprise was subdued. I was down to 80% armor, despite my fevered dancing. Time to pull out all the stops. I paused the game, took a deep breathe, stretched my fingers, and resumed play. I switched my Secondary weapon from Radar Missiles(97 left) to Hellhound Missiles. I had only ten, but sometimes, ten is all you need. Hellhound missiles explode in a photogenic manner, which you will see in the below picture. They do a lot of damage, they are fast, track well, hard to jam, and, if you are hit enough, Overheat your ship. The effect is like Ionization, and the effects stack. Which means you can effectively immobilize a ship if you play your cards right.
Wow. This was the most exhiliarating battle I've ever engaged in. I was flying like never before. See, I play better in any game when I'm under pressure, at any game. And at 75% armor, with the specter of death looming before me as I took on a full-shields Auroran Cruiser, I was playing my best. I was actually anticipating the angel of the Fusion blasts from the cruiser, so I could dodge shots before they were fired. It was a lot of fun, and, when the enemy ship was destroyed, with me having 40% armor left. I crowed with victory over the Auroran savages. Then, I landed on Kont.
Bleh... Well, now the hard part. What's that, you say? You can't believe
that flying back to Fed space is harder than battling through a fleet of enraged Auroran ships? How little you know. I once had to try FIFTEEN times before I got through. With a determined expression, I lift off.
I quickly thrust away from the system, not wanting to be caught in a firefight without an escape route. As par usual, the Houseless forces jump in, but I am already jumping out. I have planned my escape route to take me on one of the rare straight lines of Auroran space, that leads into the uncolonized space that borders Auroran, Polaris and Federation space, to take me to Port Kane. One good thing DID some of the Auroran's hating me; they were too busy trying to kill me to scan me. I ran out of fuel just as I reached the uninhabited region of space. As I waited for fuel, a lone fighter attacked me. With a, "What the heck?", I turn it into space dust. Then, I finally make it to Port Kane. What a relief. Take a look at my map:
Wahoooo! Victory at last. With the stress of the battle weighing heavily on me, I took a break from playing. When I returned, I was ready to go to Sol to get my pay. But first, I turned my thoughts inward. I couldn't have done that in my gunboat. It's speed was too slow, it's weapons too anti-fighter oriented. Light Blasters and Raven Rockets won't win any fights against the Capital ships. Another reason why I couldn't have done this in my Gunboat is that it takes 20 tons of free cargo space to get it. ;)
OK! I jump to Sol, and get accosted by good ol' Rodney Andrews.
Okay! Now that I have enough money to buy important things (300k) I decide to pay homage to the weapons that probably saved my life: Hellhound Missiles. I sell two Battery Packs to make room for a Hellhound launcher, and jump to Rauther. I purchase several things there: One Hellhound launcher, which increases the rate I can fire, you guessed it, Hellhounds, one Port & Polish, which increases your Acceleration rate, one Vectored Thrust, which increases your Turning rate, and 47 Hellhound Missiles. Then, I do a few Bounty Huntings and land on Sol to collect my pay, when I visit the shipyards...
Ah, excellent; the Third Sigma Shipyards mission. This will help me immensely, and get me quite a bit of money to play around with for only a decrease in Legal Points. I accepted.
Ok... Let's go. This could be kind of dangerous - the Rebels do not like me very much, and as such will try to kill me. I quickly jump through the Nesre Primus system to avoid being scanned, and start mapping my way through uncharted space to get to Koria. After about two jumps, a Class B Rebel Starbridge attacks me, but I warp away before any damage is dealt. I reach the Koria system, and a quick scan shows a Class C Mod. Starbridge and a Heavy Destroyer Rebel Destroyer shooting at me. Also, Rebel II begins firing it's debilitating Ion blasts at me. I circle about, dodging Railgun, Ion and Hellhound missile fire, before finally landing on Rebel II.
Whew. Well, now I have 250,000 credits to play with. Actually, now I have 600,000 total... Enough to buy a Crew Member. The different Crew Members are another feature of Plug Pack v12. Each one adds to different attributes of your ship - For example, the Comm Officer adds to Missile Jamming, and the Operations Officer adds to shields and speed/accel/turn. There are three types of each Crew Member: Bad, Standard, and Good. The Good ones cost at minimum 500,000(Engineer, Good, Speed/Accel/Turn) and at Maximum 1,000,000(First Officer, Capture %?). But anyway, let me show you how hypergates work:
Looks cool eh? Opening a hypergate works just like landing on a planet, target it, press 'Land' once, go near it moving very slowly, press 'Land' again. Then, it brings up the map, but with some changes...
See those blue lines? Hypergates can only travel to nearby hypergates, namely, Nesre Primus and Kania, in this case. It takes no fuel and gets you there instantly, a very, VERY handy system. I quickly take advantage of this and Hypergate to Nesre Primus. I do a quick scan of the ships there see a Derelict Pegasus. I beat an enterprising Free Trader Thunderhead to it and board. Cool, another Take Survivors to System mission. After killing the angry Thunderhead, I take two jumps and land on Trusa collecting my 75,000. Then I jump to Sol, and land on Earth. I check the outfitters for the Fed storyline. Nothing! This is starting to get annoying - and a little suspicious. I should have gotten it way before this. I do a check in Slagbah's Walkthrough and it says, yep, any inhabited spob - planet for you non-EV addicts. Wait a minute... Gaming... Sense... Tingling... I open up Plug Pack v12 and check the Federation char. Aha! Three bits are set... Lets see. b511, that means "In a major storyline/minor that leads to major. No other storylines." b50 and b512? Aha! The culprit arises! b50 and b512 mean that I've completed the Federation Mission One. I do another check in the Walkthrough, and the second mission requires me to land on Spacedock III, in the Alphara system. I see. I don't know why whoever made Plug Pack v12 chose to make it so that the first mission is done, because if I hadn't checked I could have blundered about the universe for the rest of my life, and that gets boring for you readers. Wait, what's that? You don't know what I'm talking about when I say b## and such? I see.
It's time for Professor Eldritch to step in. OK, class! Today we're going to learn about bits. Bits are how EV:N knows what mission's you've done. Bits are expressed by b# and such. There are some 10,000 free bits, and only about 1000 are used. For example, on a certain mission, the Bits would look like this:
AvailBits: !(b511 | b515) & !(b50 | b6666)
OnAccept: b511
OnRefuse: b6666
OnSuccess: b50 b512 b515 b518
OnFailure: b50 !b511
OnAbort: b50 !b511
OnShipDone:
Confused? So am I. I only understand bits at their rudimentary level. What this translated too is this: Bits needed for Mission to be available: b511 OR b515, b50 OR b6666.
Bits gotten on Accept: b511
Bits gotten on Refuse: b6666
Bits gotten on Success: b50, b515, b515, b518
Bits gotten on Failure: b50 is gotten, b511 is cleared(deleted)
Bits gotten on Abort: b50 is gotten, b511 is cleared
Bits gotten on ShipDone?: N/A
Or that could be wrong, I have no idea. Anyway, I start going to Alphara to get the second Fed mission...
Hurrah and huzzah! Victory shall be mine in the name of ZOD- er, Eldritch. Anyway, off I go! As I leave Spacedock III, a few fighters attack me. I ignore them. I jump to Sol, and pick up the stuff. More fighters. Then I jump to Tichel and land on Spacedock II.
Cool, let's go.
OK, I'll do it. This goes on... and on... For 18 pictures - or 500k - worth. I won't torture myself by writing 18 img src= blah blah and nor will I torture you with go get this blah blah pictures. I will, however, show you the more interesting ones:
Bah. Anyway, each mission, an increasingly large number of Auroran ships attacks you. Eventually I got so irritated with them I made a point of attacking them every time. Then, finally, it ended...
OK... I'll go see Commander Krane. She's in, oh, every storyline. She's evil, cruel, calculating. She gets disembowled in the Rebel one. She's imprisoned in about three others. But she keeps coming back for more. (More imprisonment. Not more disembowlment.)
OK. Here comes the REAL federation storyline. Hold on to your hats. This should be good.
OK. I'm in the Fed storyline, thank Mystra. What a conclusion to the boring cargo missions! But bringing in the Terrorist will have to wait, because we're finished. Yessir, this is the end of Part Three. Thanks for reading, guys, it was fun. Come back next week for more!
_________________________
-EldritchEvil
The Warsmith
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