Experimental Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannons?
Lots of people want them, but how to get your hands on them? Since Aldrin's factories don't currently make them, the only way to mass produce them is by way of an old exploit known as "Cloning". Many of you already know of this exploit; some of you may not. (Those of you who know how, feel free to skip the next bit.)
Quick Cloning Tutorial
The way this works: In a sector that contains both a shipyard and an equipment dock (there MUST be an equipment dock) -- when you purchase a ship, you are permitted to equip and upgrade your ship from whatever is in stock at the equipment dock at the moment of purchase. The key here is that if you bought, say, a 10 pack of a given ship, you're asked to equip them all at once, and the inventory at the equipment dock will be "cloned" across all 10 of those ships.
In other words, if the equipment dock has eg. 2 Photon Pulse Cannons in stock, then you can buy 10 cheap TS class ships, buy the 2 PPCs at the equip screen, and voila... you now have 20 PPCs. Note that you don't save any money -- you still had to pay for all 20 -- but you created 18 of them out of thin air!
Ok, then.
Back to Aldrin. The sector has 2 shipyards and 3 equipment docks (aka Unknown aldrin Bases), but the only equipment dock that is linked with the shipyards for equipping is the one in the lower left quadrant (location: -266km, 3.04km, -63.6km).
If you already have one or two EEMPC that you can drop off at this dock, or it happens to have some, then just make sure they're stocked (dock and drop your EEMPCs off) and then purchase a bulk quantity of ships at either shipyard (#deca.fade S is the cheapest option). Purchase the EEMPCs for them at the equip screen, and you're set. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.
Just make sure you meet a couple of prerequisites: First, Terran rank Warrior of Io or better, and Second, some cash. 10 #deca.fade S and 20 EEMPCs will cost you about 7 million credits in total -- around 40K for each #deca.fade, and 323,712 for each EEMPC.
And that's pretty much the basics. Here are my suggestions for securing at least one EEMPC as soon as possible -- if you want them, then you really do want to secure one as soon as you can, before whatever quantity that exists in the game gets "recycled" at the equipment docks.
Before you first jump to Aldrin in the Terran storyline:
(1) Make sure you are Warrior of Io or better. This is fairly easy. Take 3 of those free ships you've received and park one each at the Mars, Moon and Saturn shipyards (make sure you have the proper ATF sector access first). Alternatively, plant Satellites in those sectors. Hop into a fast M5 with Cargo Lifesupport, a Docking Computer and Trading system Extension, then scout around Terran space looking for taxi and ship delivery missions. Do a handful of these missions for a quick and easy rep boost.
(2) Make sure you have adequate funds, as stated earlier.
(3) Make sure you have a fast scout ship (such as the ship you used in (1) above) fueled up and ready to jump to Aldrin, or docked onto a ship such as a TM that can take it there.
(4) As soon as the Aldrin battle is finished and all hostile forces are eliminated, bring in your scout. Don't pick up the dignitaries yet. Xfer yourself to the scout ship, and do a bit of exploring.
First target should be the nearest Aldrin shipyard, which is at (-86.6km, -112km,-92.3km).
Next target is the Unknown Aldrin Base mentioned earlier (location: -266km, 3.04km, -63.6km).
If they have any EEMPC there, great. Buy some #deca at the shipyard, and do some cloning.
If not, then scout around Aldrin to the following bases until you find some:
Aldrin Weapon Production Base M Beta (location: -307 km, -22.5km, 44.7km)
Aldrin Weapon Production Base M Alpha (location: -274km, 0km, 106km)
Unknown Aldrin Base (location: -299km, 3.04km, 150km)
Unknown Aldrin Base (location: 55.1km, 5.51km, 157km)
Scouting them in that order will take you clockwise around the big rock -- hopefully you'll find one or two before making it all the way around. In my current game I didn't see any until I got to the second Unknown Base, and I was beginning to get nervous. Good luck!
Other possible sources: You can occasionally cause a hostile #deca fighter to bail out during the storyline, and if you're incredibly lucky, the ship might have EEMPC left onboard. That, or you might try harassing the Aldrin locals to see if you can get a Spitfyre to bail (or attempt to board a Springblossom). I haven't had a #deca bail out with guns onboard, and I haven't engaged in any piracy in Aldrin, so this is just speculation.
(Update: GCU Grey Area reports below that he has successfully boarded an Aldran Springblossom trader ship in order to obtain some EEMPC.)
Hopefully this will all get sorted out in an upcoming patch.
As for the M/AM launchers and SSCs -- I've had absolutely no trouble getting these; it's just a matter of rep. Servant of Terra for the former, Planetary Senator for the latter. In fact, buying them at the western equipment docks, oftentimes the inventory replenishes soon after I buy them out -- is this due to parked Aldrin weapons dealers cleaning out their cargo holds, or is it another glitch? I sent a freighter to the southwest equipment dock and tested this out -- I bought no fewer than 50 each M/AM and SSC from this dock, 1 or 2 at a time, and they kept on replenishing. Very odd.
In any case, the factories produce the M/AM and SSC as long as they have resources, so obtaining them isn't problematic.
Alrighty, that's it. Happy gun-hunting
Nice...
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