Ok, i have seen this screwed up so many times with simple mistakes. Ok, there are many ways of F2P slaving.

1: The Fleet master - You use large fleets and generally have large amounts of Remote Control small amounts of other skills

2: The Extra Support - You use a small fleet of one or two slaves and generally have better skills than Fleet Masters.

You must choose which one you want to be. However, slaves are quite expensive to build and maintain. The higher the tech of the ship, the higher the cost.

First to build a slave, i recomend start at no earlier than lvl 10. You should have:

*Piloting 3 *Weaponry 3 *Engines 3 *Electrical Engineering 3 *Shields 3 *Equipment 3

You will also need: Remote Control 1. I will explain how later or just look at the link above.

SS Definition of a slave: [quote=nube cube]A slave is a ship controlled by you for use in Trading, Freight, Fighting or Defending.[/quote] A slave is just another ship bought at an ai base or built from a blueprint. If you have the above skills, you can build a slave

Lets start with a Zebucart. Its the basic ship you start Star Sonata in. Here is the setup I recomend:

Weapon: Etheral Laser (tech 2)
Shield: Slipstream (tech 2) or Ion Wall (tech 3)
Energy: Ion Bank (tech 3) or HotFusion+ (bought in Free Market) (tech 2)
Radar: Sost Radar (tech 3) or Huellet Radar (spelling unsure, tech 1 or 2)
Controlbot: Combat Controlbot (bought in Free Market)
Stasis Generator: Slave Stasis Generator 1 (bought in Copper)
Augmenters: Hestia Augmenter AND Minor Damage Augmenter

Im not quite sure if that all fits into a zebu but give it a try. I put some things in bold cuz loads of people forget them and wonder why their slave isnt fighting or why their slave isnt going into stasis when it dies.

Augmenters are also very important on slaves. I am lvl 406 with 2 Earthforce Frigate slaves. If they had no augs, they would only have 40/50k shields not 100k.

=== THE COMMAND SHIP ===
In a fleet you may think that the slaves are most important. A good command ship is also vital. I mentioned my fleet just up a bit. I have Earthforce Frigate slaves but use an Earthforce BattleCruiser as command ship. It is vital that u have a good command ship. Common f2p ships include: Hotrod+, Space Blue Alpha and Enforcers. A deadly setup for a f2p command ship would be:

Weapon: Bule Craziness (or Insanity if you can afford it)
Weapon: Etheral Laser
Shield: Ion Wall+ or Gigantic Ion Wall
Energy: Ion Bank+ or Gigantic Ion Bank
Radar: Sost Radar
Scoop: Electro Scoop or Drone Scoop
Engine: Bule Pusher (or Shover if you can afford it)

=== THE EXTRA SUPPORT SLAVES ===
I recomend using that Zebucart setup shown above with maybe Remote Control 2. It allows for 2 of them and isnt that bad if i do say so myself. Also, using Drones with them such as Magic Attack (tech 3) or Aether Drones (tech 3) are good. 3x Aether Drones + 2 of those slaves + You can take on one of those lvl 31 Space Blue Alphas easily.

=== THE FLEET MASTER ===
Fleet masters can be very effective. An advantage with fleet masters is that they have uber numbers (14 generally) and can take on larger targets. Bulk Traders - a tech 4 freighter, oftern considered nooby can make a very effective slave and command ship. Here is a good setup for one which requires extra skills.

Weapon: Heavy Tracking Laser (tech 4)
Shield: Ion Wall or Gigantic Ion Wall (ask a p2p to help u out) (tech 3)
Energy: Gigantic Ion Bank (Ask a p2p for help) (tech 3)
Radar: Sost Radar or similar (tech 3)
Fighter bay: Freighter Fighter Bay (bought in East Vindia) (tech 4)
Fighters: Chihouhouas. (tech 4 iirc). (4 per slave)
Controlbot: Combat Controlbot (Bought in Free Market)
Stasis Generator: Slave Stasis Generator 4 (bought in Copper) (tech 4)
Augmenters: Hestia Augmenter, Minor Electric Augmenter

Setup requires: Piloting 4 (10 skill points)
Shielding 3 (6 skill points)
Electrical Engineering 3 (6 skill points
Radar 3: (6 skill points)
Equipment 4 (10 skill points)
Remote Control 14 (42 skill points)

Thats 80 skill points which is 16 levels! You will still have extra levels left over for things like Drone Deployment, Station Management and other things.

Guide made by Thingi Magig - known as "nube cube" in Star Sonata. I hope you utilise this guide, thanks for reading. Go hit em hard slavers!

glad to be first to read it..... its pretty good.


The f2p community thanks you

Hi,

You say it is a guide for f2ps, and yet you do not mention anything about a good way to set up a f2p command ship. What should they aim for? speedy? tanky? stealthy? You just mention how good your EF Frigates are, and that your command ship - EFBC - is a good choice, however, f2ps cannot get the piloting to gain such a ship. Expansion on that section would be a good idea.

Also : People are often confused by how many slaves they can have.

Guide to number of slaves you can have:
You have a number of slots equal to your Remote Control skill, so four if RC is 4, eight if RC is 8.
To make a slave of tech 4, you need to have four or higher RC, the Remote Control skill determines the tech of the slave you can use, so if you ever go p2p, be aware that you cannot have t19 or t20 slaves, since RC stops at level 18.
Now, a slave's tech determines how many slots it takes up. Divide the tech by two and that is the amount of slots, rounded up.
So with RC 6, you can have :
Six tech 1 or 2 slaves, (1/2=0.5, rounded up = 1 slot per slave) (2/2=1 slot per slave)
Two tech 6 slaves (6/2=3, three slots per slave)
And you can easily work that out for any tech and Remote Control skill.


There are some other areas you might want to beef out a little, for the good of the f2ps who have yet to read it.

But overall, a good guide! I like that you included a basic slave layout.
You might want to mention that slaves are innacurate relative to players, and that laser weapons are a good choice.

The Paladin,

sounds good, but needs more work.


Kanga

Well, it is not that good, zebucarts are just too..... weak.


Here's the setup I made on my 10 slaves, and allows me to kill stronger things while still being f2p:


Volcom + with:

X-surgical Laser (or + version if you can afford it)
Medium Laser+
Lighthouse (NOTE: that's the reason you should put lighthouses on your slaves: sometimes if an enemy runs they will follow him, and if the slaves go too far away you can still see them and disable that option that makes the slaves follow the enemy) if the slavs got a bad radar, I also suggest a lighthouse on your main ship.
Slave Statis Generator 1
Barely Fierce Combat Controlbot (or the normal combat bot, I use this one because it gives a +10% to damage)
Enzyme Thrust+
Arat Radar+
Ion Bank+
Ion Wall+
2 Hestia Augmeter

This setup is really good for the ones with a high RC level, like 10. If you have a good shield bank like 15k and if you have a good strategy, you can kill a pax astralogica!


And there's the items that should be on the main ship:

Bule Craziness (or Insanity if you can afford it)
Liberty Shield Capacitor 2
Vazaha Protector 3 (or Vazaha Sanctuary 2 if you can afford it)
Mzungu Clap
Tibsi Radar*
Lighthouse
Mirror Dissipator
Jack Healer (just in case your slaves die)
Jelly's Tentacle
Enhanced Quartz Charger
Crusher's Special Modiffication's (TIP: if you can't kill Cadet W. Crusher, ask a friend to kill him for you)
3 Hestia+ Augmeters

Use lasers - they hit most of the time and many of them have decent RoF. Personally I use this setup:

Ship: Volcom+
Medium Laser+
Ethereal Laser+
Damaged Volcoms Mod
Glissom+
Tibsi Radar or Sost Radar+
Ion Bank+
Barely Fierce Or Quirky Combat Control Bot
Gear Glue 4
Slave Stasis Generator 2
Hull Extension
1 Minor Energy Aug
1 Minor Damage Aug
1 Minor Firing Aug

Bah, just use SBPs with micro HTLs or something

How do I train RC? I looked it up on the wiki page, but you can only train in a handfull of systems. And the wiki pages make it look dangerous. Will I safely be able to travel to these places? Or will I need to get the help of a group or p2p? For that matter, what is the warp level, will i even get there.

Also, what would be a good pick of ship for a command ship?

thanks

For 1-2 go to lavanite , 1-4 go to GM , and 4 - 14 go to serpica , 14 - 16 end of the universe and thats all i know ( and 1-4 is the max a f2p can get i think) And GM needs blue aethers ( SBA drops) , lavanite needs whispers (SB scout drops ) and serpica is trag - 6 m each or minned at the arena lobby

Also Bulk + slaves / NCC-bulk slaves with giga quantum banks , giga flux encasmant or just oversied , MMD , or HTL + / over sized , fighter bay , 4 fighters and a CB1 + or CB 1 oversized. At 2 , 4 , 6 , 7 slaves make a pwnage group with fighters and the full tracking weapons. Only drawback that they are slow so if u dont mind going slow get your self the same / better setup so they can keep up or use a paxius / enforcer / or pax x mas they make great command ships

P.S. hey nabaco what the hell is a SBP?

Serpica is w1 this uni.

It was also w1 last uni.(thats how EEC got his 4 NCC-Bulk fleet)

SBP = Space Blue Prototype

http://wiki.starsonata.com/index.php/Space_Blue_Prototype

I might actually feel mean if I let some newbie run around with that setup.

However.. seeing as my standard vintage slaves cost 150m+ each I'll have to post something else.

Med laser/+ if you can afford it.
Whisky outpost generator from whisky outpost, cadet academy.
enzyme thrust/bule pusher/muzngu pusher/old lady's.
damaged volcom's mod is free if you kill the outlaw's volcoms in volcom outpost.
Maybe a friend has prism bots left from caping?
hull extension.
3 minor damage.
tibsi radar or arat radar.
micro ion wall from micron.
volcom+ or zebu+ if you can fit it.
Slave stasis generator 1 from copper.
cram as much gg2 as you can and bombs away! (if you dg you will eventually get enough quarts X for them all.)

RC 10/14 is good.

If you can afford more then that your not a newbie reading a guide and don't need to know my setups.

I pwned every AI in sight with 9 hostile auged volcoms in test server

My personal setup, allowed me to kill Saws and SBBs:

Ship: Space Blue Prototype (T2), Available at Brigand's Stronghold for 320K
Weapon: Eth I+ (Higher DPS)/Urqa Qii (Few enemies are resistant to heat)/X-Surgical (Few enemies are resistant to Surgical)
Shield: Ion Wall
Energy: Quantum Bank (Or Mzungu Clap, if you can afford it)
Engine: Glissom
Radar: (Anything)
Augmenters: Speedy Firing/Damage
Other Gear:
Stasis Gen 2 (Liberty/Copper)
Super Quartz Charger
Gear Glue (duh)
Barely Fierce Combat Controlbot

With 14 of these and a good shield on your main ship, you can even kill an OS Tortise. Don't use any of the HTLs, they have a high initial damage, but they have a large recoil and low DPS. The SBP is maneuverable enough to aim anything.

The advantage of an SBP is that it's small and maneuverable, and with the new uni, it has increased hull space. It's also a much smaller target.

Augging for raw damage is a bad idea, RoF even more so. Slaves almost always have trouble powering, and since they can't dodge they need a larger amount of shields.

Thats where you are wrong.

I never had much trouble in dgs, my slaves had no real energy troubles either, and they had very heavy energy usage..

I haven't even bothered testing how they will last with the collision code though, before at least you could do the tanking instead.