Black Prophecy

[Duoi]

one weapon type,  hull, ship and engines for the points. Do not worry about shields because they will just slow you down.

[Paitryn]

What do you guys need?

players lol. really its all dps, so whatever you find fits you the best is what you should go with. all your going to do is kill kill kill. theres no trinity, you can build a tank of sorts, but IMO its not really all that worth it. you just become a magnet for death at low levels and players are saying shields are only ok at high levels so id take mobility over damage absorbtion from only one type of weapon.

shields were really poorly implemented in this game IMO. even if density helps lower damage from other sources, it wont ignore it completely and the tradeoff of high mass and slow movement speeds needs to be traded even further with high points into tactics to stay mobile.

[Arawn]

Cool game... but leveling is slow... and i hate the feeling i get, like im in a bounty hunter ship :S

[Paitryn]

It depends. you went shields which is a slow moving ship. as for the slow leveling...hmm the right mission can help greatly.

for me doing the jump into battle missions early is a great action packed mission, but since i love areal/space combat a lot, this kind of mass dogfighting is fun to grind on. plus lots of loot and the xp isnt bad. you can find them in the station missions around level 7.

before that the partrol mission is lame, but about 5 missions in and you should level from 6 to 7 pretty easily. Yeah, its not the usual 10 minute leveling like wow or ground based MMOs.

depending on the time, I farmed transports in kamura battlefield at level 8. you would hate this one, but the transports had good xp and a LOT of loot and good quality as well. I got a lot of "gold" items from them as well as blueprints. vendor trash and grays of course. just dump the gray items as they take up too much mass and sell for too little. I farmed this for 2 levels.

level 10 its transports again so far, this time in the pipeline. the key to farming transports is that you have to destroy one and find it spawn point, then close in on that to a nice spot where you can destroy them as they spawn. they will continue to respawn again and again right in front of you. its cheap and boring, but if your solo, it serves the dual purpose of gaining good items to sell and you need, plus gaining exp.

the leveling hasnt been slow on my new character as it was on my first one, but I learned a lot from my mistakes and since I keep my weapons up to my level now instead of behind, im killing faster, therefore leveling faster. but it is grindy. but for a F2P mmo, they generally are designed that way so you play longer. especially since the cap is currently only 40 levels they dont want you capped out and bored.

downside to that is people get bored of grinding too.

[Paitryn]

The Interceptor Build.

For those that want a fast ship, I think i found a build that will work very well.

your skills that you work on are: cockpit, primary weapon (i see that all 3 can work here, but explosives would need grenade launchers not missiles) hull and engines.

engines: I put this first because there is a trick to engines. Only put 5 points into engines. the output of thrust, mobility and acceleration cap out at lvl 5, all other crafted or "gold" loot drops are either below or at the same stats. from talking to other players, higher level engines increase durability, where the original design of the game was to allow you to target specific areas. on the US server, we dont have that (some say EU does and hate it) so go to level 5 and find 2 blueprints for engines and craft them. if you crit on the crafting they will perform amazingly. also they start with 2 mod slots and a lot more to unlock if you find slot plus items. Mod these whenever you can find a good one. just that little extra plus a crafting crit can increase the output.

cockpit is obvious to level any other part.

weapon: stay lightweight. keep it under 1 mass per gun. I chose chain guns because of their .2 or .1 mass.

Hull: the mass generally stays the same on your wings, but you need all the hitpoints you can get since you dont have shields.

tactics: you get a free point so I put it in boosters. but put it in anything you want really. Uturn isnt suggested because you will turn just as fast and with better control on target. zig zag would be a good one because its great for something on your tail even with only one point. I think in the future i want to put more points here, most likely in boosters and zig zag for pvp purposes.

ok, so mass. Mass affects mobility greatly. at a 13.6 mass and good engines your moving quick and agile, your ships stats will show 2/3 full on mobility. however just adding a level 1 missile launcher and missiles (1 mass each) it goes down to half mobility. A low mass is everything to an agile fighter. that and your engines.

Ok so for extras make sure you have a good stack of nanobots (healing). I suggest 10 as a decent number. I only use about 1 per mission if solo, with a group usually none.

Tactics: stay moving, always strafing. never in a strait line. your tail is safer if the enemy can't shoot it constantly. when im gunning down a fighter, im always strafing left or right, and not always in the direction that would be best to hit the target. because i dont use tactics, i can keep my tail safe without sacrificing my target. with a little practice you can strafe into a turn and still track the target effectively.

also because of your superior speed, you dont need to keep your finger on the W key. set your speed at about 3/4 and then adust according to need with the w, or s and remember that slower speeds can sharpen a turn at times. for some reason, just like in SWG, reducing speed can increase turning, even though your mobility should remain the same.

a note on weaponry: the weapons are not all that sexy. they sound ok and the damage takes a little longer. thats why you need to keep this stat at your level or higher to put out the most damage/level range. you can kill quickly, but this style is more like a WWII dogfighter than something spacey or more modern with lots of range or quick killing power. Your gunning down your enemy so you have to track it well. takes some practice to use.

Crafting, crafting, crafting.

Crafted items appear (from every BP ive seen) superior to all loot, even gold items. craft when you find a good Blueprint, mod when you find a good mod. I should note that crafted items and mods do have a chance to fail and destroy the blueprint. but I havent had one fail yet so it may be a low chance.

As for crafting mats, if you are farming transports you will almost certainly get blueprints and the loot drop crafting mats you need to craft items for your ship. Mods only need that plasma, gas, (and that rock i cant remember the name of) to make. the tradeoff is that the mods take much longer to craft.

crafting does take time. low level crafting only takes 25 seconds, where a level 10 takes about 5 minutes. mods take 25 minutes so feel free to wait until you want to do something else like watch tv or eat a meal.

Crafting however is definately worth it IMO.

PVP team strategy for the build, I would see this playing an interceptor role, because of the speed we can sit back, see who needs help, and intercept the attacker. we can also be used as a first strike operative, scattering the enemy ships to chase, using our speed and mobility to avoid damage while the rest of the team take on the opponents one or few at a time. Just a few options availible to fill as an Interceptor role.

Thought I would give this one out and see what the guild thinks of the concept and where to adjust or improve on the build.

[Arawn]

I went Shield and Mechanical... with 4 Chain guns and missiles I kill really fast... speed and mobility isint a very big issue for me... I still faceroll in PvP... max speed is 274(bleh) but its ok.... I do really good.... I like the fact that when you kill someone he respawn somewhat near you... That way I can, and have, farmed lots of people... Thats how i leveled up to 8

I was doing a mission but it dint work... i was working on the Last hour of the Behemoth one.. it tells me to go there and download the security protocols but when i get there i cant do anything :S

[Paitryn]

yeah, like i said do station dock missions no open sector ones. they are too spread out and not worth it when you get chased down by lvl 15 Tyi players in pans. (pans is a big place for griefers) the behemoth mission is broken completely. sorry I forgot to tell you about that one.

missiles however will go away in damage over time unless you plan on continually putting points into them, but i would suggest choosing either mechanical or missiles. you can only max out 3 possible skills, so only one will be your weapon. I carried a lvl 1 missile mount and plague missiles and it helped me farm transports greatly between 8-10, but out in the pipline at 10 my chain guns were all I needed, missiles contributed far less in damage.

Max speed really doesnt mean much for you, except how fast you get to something. mobility is key its basically how fast you strafe, turn, or basically manually dodge.

[Keeloth]

Are there any build guides out there?  I don't want to accidentally gimp myself.

[Paitryn]

no. its pretty new and there are a lot of options available. my "interceptor" build is a guide I came up with based on what I have learned so far.

the only thing i know of, is that even by level 100, you can only max out 3 skills and have a total of 335 points to distribute. 100 of them would have to go to your cockpit in order to level the remaining skills, so that leaves you with 2.

the closest thing I can tell you is that you should understand how the game works to create a setup that works for you specifically. keep in mind that mass effects your ability to turn or strafe as well as your top speed, and that hull is your hitpoints, shields affect how hard you get hit, more or less like defensive armor ratings in other games, except this one can recharge. weapons are strictly playstyle. you can snipe from long range, gun your enemies down WW2 style, or go for massive missile damage. there is even a "melee" style that is based on flamethrowers and scatterguns.

I suggest playing around with skills as you want in the prologue. when you are finished and have a good idea what works best for you, roll a new character and skip the prologue. you then get the stats you want specifically and the gear for the level of those skills.

[Paitryn]

BP clan is created. I sent offline invites to Tbone mharz, eeth as they were on my friends list. if everyone wants to pitch in we can see about building a clan station and seeing how that works for us. need 10 members though.

[Mharz]

Thread NECRO!!

Myself, Tbone, and Manic are playing this game.  Sign up, download the client, and get busy!

[Manic Velocity]

My client crashed last night and when I tried to log back in it said I was already connected, even after waiting 10+ minutes.

I barely got past the tutorial, but it looks promising.

[Tbone]

I don't know if I can get back into it. It took forever to get passed the tutorial, but now I am remembering the game being such a GRIND.

[Mharz]

I don't know if I can get back into it. It took forever to get passed the tutorial, but now I am remembering the game being such a GRIND.

There is a certain grind to it for sure but it isn't as bad when you're playing with a team.  I know MxO had a little grind to 50.  =p  I remember how long it took my first pass through the prologue and then when I grouped up with other FA folks how the XP was raining down when we flew missions.

Anyway, I played casually for 2 days and made it to level 5, completed the prologue, and am about to start running missions in open space.

Some observations:

Same basic build rule apply - Upgrade your cockpit and wings early on so you can take a hit.  Pick a weapon style and stick to it, DO NOT spread your points around.  Increases in weapon damage per point spent at low levels is relatively small but gets more pronounced at higher levels.  Shields are generally frowned on but I did see a few people with builds that use them.  Weapons seem to favor explosives at this point but there's a balancing patch coming out that should level the playing field (or so they say).

If any of you do get in game drop me a line so we can hook up for missions.

[Mharz]

And the 2.0 patch went live today..

http://blackprophecy.gamigo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16947