So I just picked up Space Rangers 2

[wildpokerman]

@McBain

I still have no idea what “Hull capacity” means in the fuel tank tooltips.

I always just buy the highest level Gaalian ones that take up the least space, but I still honestly don’t really know what the difference between the two numbers in the tooltip is.

Is that the part where it says how much fuel you have vs how much you can carry?

[Funkula]

Pretty sure, yeah. Hull capacity is the max storage, fuel is the current fuel level. They seem to always be the same in the shop because they sell full tanks.

[McBain]

@wildpokerman

Is that the part where it says how much fuel you have vs how much you can carry?

Christ, yeah it is. I just figured that out and I feel pretty stupid.

[JustinFletcher]

@Desslock

I missed this game when it first came out, but after playing though King’s Bounty and remembering the SR2 love, I’m really tempted to nab it. Still worthwhile?

It’s already been said, but it bears repeating: yes, you should absolutely buy SR2.

Elemental Games did a great job in creating the illusion that you are zipping around a living universe. Much of this has to do with Kieron’s point that the “game plays mean.” You are not the star, and your neighbors don’t sit around waiting to see what you’re going to do before they act.

And the variety in SR2 is insane, with the gameplay touching on almost every genre you could name. No, some of it isn’t very good (i.e. the FPS/RTS “planetary battles” are mediocre at best; the black hole fights are a love it or hate it proposition), but the turn-based fighting, text adventuring, loot collecting, ship configuring, stat enhancing, and trading elements are golden.

The learning curve is brutal as are the consequences of mistakes, but it makes your eventual climb up your chosen career path all the more rewarding. Buy it.

(Damn it, I think I just talked myself into buying SR2 again from Stardock so that I can get Reboot.)

[DoomMunky]

WOW this game is heavy-duty. It’s like the definition of a PC game.

I just finished the tutorial (thanks for the rocket-launcher tip, guys!) and now I’m completely at a loss for what to do. I wanna be a pirate and demand stuff from other rangers, but I’m very, very lame and noobish at this point. After reading through the other stuff linked in this thread (OO tips guide has some great info in the second post, as well as some awesome newbie tips, repeated below) I’m feeling pretty good about starting out.

Thanks for all the help!

@The Octopus Overlords FAQ

Quick Newbie Tip of the Day: When you create a new character you have the option of selecting a couple of ship components along with your race, attributes, ect. I didn’t understand why after doing this my ship’s components seemed exactly the same. This is because the upgraded components are stashed in the storage area of the starting base. You should also be careful which upgraded components you choose; some of them like the repair droid are quite nice but very costly to keep running. They also can eat up all your available space.

Newbie Tip 2: Choose the easy mission option as a newbie pilot. I’ve run out of time on a quest countless times, although generally by a couple of days. It has nothing to do with skill and everything to do with your components. Don’t screw around 70 days is a lot shorter than you would think. Mission completion speed is mostly dependent on your jump radius. If you have to make 4 different jumps you’ll have to land 4 times and refuel, which eats up a ton of time. Getting a faction penalty hit sucks.

Newbie Tip 3: When you choose a Corsair or Pirate class and they say “You have a bounty on your head in system X” BELIEVE THEM. Also don’t attack a Merchant ship near its race’s planets, as the Mob Squad will be after your butt shortly

Newbie Tip 5: Unless you have a pretty solid reason to choose otherwise, a Faeyian Merchant is the best starting race/class. Faeyian and Humans are the only ones that start with boosters (very critical) and the Faeyian starting merchant ship is one of hte larger starting hulls in terms of internal space. Since hull upgrades are very expensive, the bigger starting hull really lets a player do more early on which is nice.

Newbie Tip 6: If confused about what equipment to start with, a scanner and a rocket launcher are good choices. Assuming a player took tip 5 above, the Faeyian starting ship doesn’t come with a scanner. The rocket launcher is the only item on the starting equipment selection list that isn’t available normally at base technology, so if that rocket launcher is passed up then the player won’t get another crack at one for a long while. All the other starting items can be purchased by a player as soon as they get their hands on some funds

Also remember to onload this equipment by hitting ‘S’ (ship screen) in the starting ranger base and moving it from the storage box to your ship.

Newbie Tip 7: Combat skills are very important, even to people planning on a non-violent mercantile focus. With the tangle of race relations and the ever present pirates, skirmishes are inevitable. I always put one of my two starting skill points into either attack or defense skill, and the one into maintenance.

Newbie Tip 8: Do the goddang tutorial. It’s fairly easy missions with some decent payouts.

Newbie tip 9: Do NOT fight the IP-47 drone craft in the tutorial until your ship is armed with better stuff than the default laser. A rocket launcher + the starting laser will work if you started with the rocket launcher. A rocket launcher + a frag cannon is better. I’ve never tried it without the rocket launcher because starting without the rocket launcher is silly.

Newbie Tip 10: Once clear of the tutorial, buy a probe and deploy it on a uninhabited planet. The probe scans the planet and finds free equipment/cargo/modules. This is generally time consuming, so the probe can be deployed and then you can go about other missions or trade runs for 50-100 days. The probe cargo can make a great insurance policy if things have gone wrong and a player is broke and needs money for repairs/seed cargo. Just go to the planet, pick up the free cargo, and go sell it.

Don’t forget to pick up the probe before leaving the planet, and have the probe repaired at a planet/station before deploying it at another planet.

[Desslock]

@Naeblis

And what if you first comment about King’s Bounty? :P

I liked it. I wrote a short preview for the next issue of PCG which I probably shouldn’t pre-empt, but it’s definitely a new HOMM except in a RPG-ish 3D world to explore.

[TurinTur]

@DoomMunky

WOW this game is heavy-duty. It’s like the definition of a PC game.

I just finished the tutorial (thanks for the rocket-launcher tip, guys!) and now I’m completely at a loss for what to do. I wanna be a pirate and demand stuff from other rangers, but I’m very, very lame and noobish at this point.

While the idea of being a pirate in this game looks cool and dandy, it is one of the most difficult ‘roles’ to be in SR2, you should only try it after some hours of experience with the game and even then it will be hard.

[McBain]

I had forgotten how good this game is. Played for hours yesterday when I should have been doing something productive. :(

[zengonzo]

Productive?! You were perfecting your space privateering skills! Someday we’ll be up there, man - you want to be eating some mook’s space dust?

Get back to it!

[Tyjenks]

@Desslock

I liked it. I wrote a short preview for the next issue of PCG which I probably shouldn’t pre-empt, but it’s definitely a new HOMM except in a RPG-ish 3D world to explore.

Yay!!

[DoomMunky]

I have a question: Why are the various system names in different colors on my Galaxy Map? Is that a difficulty scaling system?

I’m still a total noob and can’t really kill anyone quickly. I’m currently looking for some lazer thing to slow them down (no escape for you!), and when I’m not salvaging random stuff that’s lying around I’m trying to trade effectively. Sort of a slow early game, it appears. Addictive as hell though.

[Lamalo]

The colors in the system names represents who controls the systems, yellow for Gaalians, red for Maloks, etc.

[mystery]

@DoomMunky

I have a question: Why are the various system names in different colors on my Galaxy Map? Is that a difficulty scaling system?

I’m still a total noob and can’t really kill anyone quickly. I’m currently looking for some lazer thing to slow them down (no escape for you!), and when I’m not salvaging random stuff that’s lying around I’m trying to trade effectively. Sort of a slow early game, it appears. Addictive as hell though.

Early on, beware the systems that are a pulsing red flare. These systems are currently under attack by Dominators. If you fly into them, most likely your newbie ship won’t have the range to fly back out, and you certainly can’t take them on by yourself, yet…so, game over.

[Gendal]

@Desslock

I liked it. I wrote a short preview for the next issue of PCG which I probably shouldn’t pre-empt, but it’s definitely a new HOMM except in a RPG-ish 3D world to explore.

I keep trying to like HOMM but everything else outside of the tactical battles is so thin that I quickly get bored of the game. Hopefully this will be what it needs to keep me interested beyond a few hours.

Oh and yes, SR2 is awesome. Curse my Starforce infected copy I picked up at Frys!

[DoomMunky]

FUCK. I have to leave my house in 3 minutes. For the last 40 minutes I hopped through 5 systems to get to an outlaw who was ferrying human cargo full of bioweapons when I was chased by his angered buddies onto a planet and was just getting ready to save when I was arrested, thrown in jail, and discovered I CAN’T save until I go through 67 days of confinement! I turned it off, and now I have to DO IT ALL AGAIN.

FUCK.

Save your game before you’re thrown in jail!

ps. Or, as I’m sheepishly now realizing, minimize your game.

pps. FUCK.

[Tankero]

Goddamn.

I wonder if I can buy these games internationally…

A man can only take so much positive second-hand impressions for so long.

[MMcGlumphy]

@Gendal

Curse my Starforce infected copy I picked up at Frys!

Reboot removes the copy protection…

[Equis]

So I managed to pick this game up via Impulse (Yay! Brad) and am liking a lot of what I see. Was really starting to get into it when I found myself at the planetary mission training quest. And everytime I try to start this quest, I get a CTD. (Sigh)

Did anyone else encounter this problem? I’m playing it off Impulse and assumed that impulse downloaded the most recent patched version into my comp. Surfing the various sites has yielded no clues.

Thanks

[Quitch]

Usual fixes for that problem were turning down the planetary resolution and or colour depth, both of which are configured separately from the space graphics.

[Qenan]

@Chuck

Yeah, add this one to my list of games that most everyone loved, but I could not get into.

Your list is a lot like mine. You aren’t alone.