Tactical Strategies

Hello Captains!

Now that Cosmonautica is starting to come of age and not really as early access as it once was. I feel like it might be time to start talking strategies so that newcomers and even seasoned players can get a good idea of what to do and how to get there. feel free to add to this discussion with your own tips and strategies.

1. Starting out
Start your journey with the Thunamon, which is a tiny vessel in the larger scheme of things and it leaves little in the way of room for you to secure money quickly. My suggestion is to go strictly a combination of Deliveries & Passenger layout with a Neureka Scilab (science lab) on board somewhere in your design. Don't be afraid to take out a Loan if you have to.

For efficient ship movement and progression you'll need: (Keep in mind you may not have all the Credits required to get the entire crew immediately)
 * 2 Pilots
 * 1 Cleaner
 * 1 Repairer
 * 2 Scientists

Set their shifts up so that there's little competition at the bunks (so 1 sleeps while the other works). You'll want to build up at least 6 Hitchrite Cabin4six (passenger seats) and three Vault6 Cargohold (cargoholds) in your design. With this setup you can accept any type of mission that doesn't require guns (the Combat Missions).

Keep your scientists working round the clock on ring, then ship upgrades, sure you might not be able to get the Rooms they're for yet, but once you have made enough money to buy a good ship with more room, having all the new rooms with all the upgrades will give you a significant edge once you start moving into bigger ships and other areas.

2. Trading (Deliveries) Missions
Now that you have the ship kitted out and have all or at least most of your crew, you need to look for missions. since you can accept anything besides Combat Missions, you can do virtually anything they require. With this design you can even carry 18 units of cargo and 6 passengers. Later on it is easier in smaller Solar Systems to consolidate as many jobs as you can going to the same planet Stations or close planets, this way every time you land at a star port, you can plan on making Credits. Plan your route smartly with the solar system map, and if you've taken multiple jobs and are taking multiple stops, be sure to check the bulletin boards at each stop to see if you can accept more jobs en-route which is more money in your pocket.

3. Smuggling Missions
Smuggling missions early on look tempting because they are quick profits usually in comparison to more reputable forms of trade but be aware of a few things:
 * Bribes + hacking are not cumulative. if you have 80% chance of success or higher with hackers, you're only throwing your Credits away trying to bribe them.
 * The more manned hacking stations you have the better your chances of evading detection. Take the cargo hold upgrades (in Research) earlier on when you don't have hackers to help slip through detection points.
 * Once you start traveling to other systems, you'll find that whats illegal in one system is not in another. Look at the Solar Map before traveling to a new solar system and try to stock up on as many illegal goods as you can before going there. Also: Invest in Hackers since they're lifesavers in smuggling and in Combat situations. Selling illegal goods in a system nets very good profit for those who can get through customs with them.

4. Hacking (Combat Scenarios)
Another way to make some quick Credits is by scaring pirates (or traders) into submission with your elite hacking skills. If you have a few max level hackers with a hacking station for each, you can disable an enemy ship in short order. Surprisingly often pirates will surrender quickly, and will call you with usually what amounts to a tidy 20 to 30k of Credits to make the combat stop which you can do without weapons. Note that this is not a foolproof way to make money since it doesn't always happen and if they have exceptional hackers of their own it can be difficult to downright impossible to pull this off. However usually a quick farscan of your target will give you an idea of what you can assume you're up against.

5. Run a lean, fast Ship
Operate your ship with as few Crew as you can feasibly get away with, since paying a salary for each crew member on the ship can be costly. Make sure they have various Skills so that they can multitask. Hackers should have non combat skills to assist with cleaning and repairs when not in combat. If you recruit cooks or Medics make sure that they have Repairer or Cleaner in their skillset since the upgrades for the kitchen and medbay render their other skill almost worthless.

In the near future consider your ship speed and note that a lumbering cargo ship is slow. It could take days to reach your destination where a cruiser while smaller and maybe with few places for optional equipment might get to the destination in over half the time: That is half the time that you're paying for your Crew's wages to do the same job: More positive cash flow. This becomes even more important when the Crew are all max level and you're forking over almost 2k per cycle to pay 6 crew members.

Combat
For those of us looking to put a ton of holes in another ship. a word to the wise: as of the latest update. running a mercenary/pirate path is expensive, and rarely profitable. however, it is fun watching enemies surrender before you have even fired a shot.

To be effective at combat. you really need a warship vessel. while cruisers will beat out anything in a travel speed scenario, in combat while not as sluggish as a cargo ship, they cant out turn a warship at all. which in case anyone wondered what the button top right on the navigation that looks like a ship with arrows pointing outward from the hull is, its a course adjustment button. get used to using it. you'll need it.

the second word of advice. be sure to make sure in your layout you account for your crews needs. simply put yes you can setup a sharkalon with a ton of cargo space and ammo if you skimp out on crew luxuries. but combat is hard on them. and if they start becoming unhappy and abandoning their posts or the ship itself. well. you get the idea. things are going to go poorly really quick. keep them happy and healthy utilizing only as much space as you absolutely have to. that way you have room for ammo and cargo that you pilfer from enemy vessels. also keep in mind that until chasing carrots actually makes it possible to salvage ammo from your targets, you'll be making a lot of return trips to port getting that ammunition since cargo space will be somewhat limited.

loading up with tons of ammo is pointless. you want your build to be able to take on enough skirmishes to fill your cargo hold. my sharkalon can effectively fight with its guns and torpedoes three or four full on engagements before having to return to port to resupply and sell off the booty from raids. at some point chasing carrots will implement a means to salvage ammo from your fallen foes. but as far as i can tell its not working yet. once that happens, returning to port wont be as important because you'll be able to at least partially reclaim what you used in battle.

So, you want to murder pirates? you need a warship. in case you're new and need clarification on what is a warship. my advice is to look at the magnifying glass at port to see the stats of the ships you're interested in. while most cruisers can pull double duty in combat. its going to be the ones with a ton of gun emplacements that are warships. (Piranho, Jellytox, Sharkalon, Pirate)

Weapons!

 * Turrets: Does light damage, but is great for suppression fire. More often firing multiple volleys of these at once will get the enemy to prematurely raise their shields and if you're able to time it right, you can sometimes get a well placed torpedo in before they get their shields back up.
 * Cannon: Fires a ball projectile that when upgraded will actually disrupt shields on impact. Can be tricky to hit enemy ships effectively, but the good news that is that regardless of whether they hit directly if a ship is within the radius of the explosion when it detonates, they will loose shields for a short time.
 * Torpedo: Basically homing rockets which have a somewhat longer range than the first two and do the most damage of any weapon in the game on the negative, they are also ridiculously expensive.
 * Your Ship: Yes, your ship is a weapon. The good news is that it costs nothing to t-bone your enemy with your ship usually resulting in massive damage. The down side is that if your shields go down due to cannons or hacking, you're going to take some hull damage from return fire.
 * Shield Generator: You'll need at least two of them with cycles in rotation (keeping one up while the other recharges).
 * Hacking Console: This doesn't really need introduction. (Read the above information about the usefulness of these) the more you have, the more havoc you can cause in combat to your enemies.

Combat is fun, but as of this writing it costs a small fortune usually. sometimes you can make money but more times than not you will simply break even. just be aware of this going in.