When you start looking into what gear you can use to help you out you'll soon realise that trading security is a balancing act. If you want to improve your chances based on equipment alone it's going to cost you, and not just money. It's a similar concept to what we went over in Section 1 about making sacrifices. In this instance i'm primarily but not exclusively referring to profit, more specifically, cargo hold capacity.
Invariably.
Unequivocally.
Ok i'll stop.
Here's a list of the items you can use that take their toll on your hold and your wallett.
Cloaking Device Mk3 Price: Up to and over $300,000,000 Occupies: 600 Hold Space and a CM equipment slot
A cloaking device can be a backup with a garunteed success if you have the cash. The batteries required to power them also occupy cargo space, so the impact on your shipment capacity is considerable. But if you find yourself facing a bottleneck system that's crammed with pirates, the cloak makes it too easy to slip by. I'd recommend carrying no more than 200 batteries at any time; which should equip you for one prolonged use. Cloaks occupy your empty countermeasure slot so it's a trade off for that defensive capability which, if you use it well, won't matter at all. Also note that the cloak drops your shields and takes 20 seconds to engage. Attempts should be made to cloak away from hostiles when possible.
Armor Upgrades Price: Ranging from <$1,000,000 to a little short of $1,000,000,000 Occupies: Between 2 and 300 Hold Space
Armor Upgrades are definitely worth looking into, especially because a smidge of your hold capacity can be traded off to nearly triple your hull rating. That triples the time it takes for a hostile to wear you down. Armor Upgrades also allow for other riskier applications; losing a persuer by flying near the neutron star for example.
Countermeasures Price: Ranging from a few thousand to $900,000 Occupies: CM Slot
Some will argue that they hardly do anything. Countermeasures are all about timing. If you use them properly, they will do exactly as they say on the tin. Not all countermeasures work the same, so if you're seriously thinking on using countermeasures effectively you need to understand how they work. For the sake of the guide we'll stick to the three most popular/powerful varieties because let's face it, you're not going to get very far with a cheap model. Countermeasures can be categorized based on four crtieria: Deployment Rate, Range, Effectiveness and Live Time. Deployment rate is how rapid the dropper dumps flares. The range is the radius around the flare where it can be effective. The effectiveness is the percent chance each flare has to suck in a missile, and the Live Time is the duration of time the flare is active. Now let's look at these with regard to the three top models:
Sentinel Countermasure Dropper
Deployment Rate: Medium Rapid
Range: 1000m
Effectiveness: 65%
Live Time: 5 seconds
Silencer Countermeasure Dropper
Deployment Rate: Medium Rapid
Range: 650
Effectiveness 75%
Live Time: 2 seconds
Now before we crunch the numbers it's important to understand the very thing we want to fend off. The bane of all shippers is the train cruise disrupter. It's got a hell of a range and an blast radius of 400 meters that will stop you dead with so much as a scrape anywhere on your hull. And if that wasn't enough, they went and gave it a big brother; the reinforced cruise disruptor with a blast radius of 550. Firstly it's very important to note where your countermeasure dropper is located on your ship. Some ship devs have taken the nasty habit of placing the CM hardpoint at the front of very long ships which leaves you at a disadvantage from the outset.
To better understand let's say your Fortress CM Dropper has a range of 400 meters and your CM hardpoint is located at the stern. Let's say hypothetically that you're travelling at 100 meters a second forward. and when you drop a flare it travels 100 meters a second backwards. This means for every second you put 200 meters between the flare and your ship. Now let's say the flare has a 2 second live time. This means the farthest it can travel before it burns out it will be 400 meters away. Add that to the 400 meter range of effect, your maximum effective range is 800 meters. Now let's say that your ship is 200 meters long and the CM hardpoint is located under the tip of the bow. After one second the flare has made it as far as your engines, after two it is 200 meters behind your ship. Giving it a maximum effective range of 600 meters. This means you're allowing the missile to approach and extra 200 meters more because of your hardpoint's rediculous location. Let's say you can fire off four flares in the time it takes the disruptor missile to travel 800 meters. That's four rolls of the dice with an 85% chance of success. Sounds good right? Now cut that down to 600 because of the stupid hardpoint placement, now it's three rolls. Now consider the likelyhood that your pursuer has fired not one, but a handful of missiles. Can you see where i'm going with this? The point is you need to be careful of forward placed CM slots, and to choose your model respectively.
Ultimately there's one thing you need to consider when choosing range or effectiveness. My advice is if you're flying big, go for range (Sentinel). If a train cruise disruptor explodes anywhere near your ship it will catch you out. I say keep them at arms length if you can help it, and the extra live time will allow you to field more than double the number of active flares behind you. If you want to improve your chances with the sacrifice of live time, try out the Silencer, but i'd stay away from the Fortress unless your flying anything smaller than an Behemoth.
Jump Drives
Jump Drives used to be operable on transport vessels but have since been restricted to capital ships only. So tough luck kiddos.
Docking ModulesCurrently Disabled on the Server
Price: Varies, but regularly costs north of $100,000,000 Occupies: 5 Hold Space
Docking Modules have few applications in shipping but for the sake of argument I will list one of them here. If you have hired an escort you can stow away your buddy in your dock while you make your way around. The idea is that when you're held at gunpoint, out pops buddy and begins lighting up the place. But in practice, it's not very fun for the escort and makes little sense since the same outcome arises if they just tag along as usual.
TURRETS
Discovery offers a wide range of turrets for you to choose from. All have their perks, but some are clearly superior than others. One thing you should be familiar with is projectile speed. A common mistake made by most new players is to mount several weapons with varying projectile speeds and expect your accuracy to go unaffected.
Wrong.
Freelancer will average out the speeds and apply the calculation to your targeting reticule. You'll soon find that all your projectiles are missing their target by a mile and you can't hit a thing that isn't stationary or flying right at you.
If you opt for different turret types with different projectile speeds be sure to group your weapons to stay in control. Otherwise stick to one turret type. Transport power cores are hefty, so don't be afraid to opt for power over speed.
As for my personal advice? You can take it or leave it. Charon turrets are slow, fire less frequently, have large projectiles and do a massive amount of damage per shot. As i've already mentioned, most transports can handle the output of a full Charon loadout no sweat. When you consider the kinds of fights you should be getting into as a shipper, the ones you have a chance of wining you will only win with Charon turrets. What i mean is, transports weren't designed to face off with snubs one on one. They're meant to provide heavy suppressive support to smaller craft that may find themselves outgunned. That's not to say other turret types cannot win fights. But if you go for a Zapper loadout, you're going to have a bad time.
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