Tormented Teladi Start and Cap worth minus $2.5 Mil

[Bill Huntington]

I did the Tormented Teladi start this time. It’s all about starting with very little and clawing your way up one shield and one piece of software at a time. When I first started TC, I just hurried through this one, claiming the free ships, to unlock Poisoned Paranid. Now I really like this Game Start.

I begin with a Teladi Harrier, without even Fight 1. I want an M3 eventually, so I have to fight or steal the next step up in fighters, a number of times.

Getting a better M5 is not that hard. I take Defend Station missions, and try to get the opposing M5s to bail. What I look for is Medium Cargobay, not Small, and Laser Generator. The Harrier has 25MW, not bad for an M5. The Disco also has 25MW, but it can carry Medium cargo, so it can have a Jump Drive. The Yaki Fujian has better Cargo Space with 87 and Medium, but its Generator is a paltry 14MW.

I’m in a Disco looking for Paranid M4 Freight Transporters to ambush when I get a Return Ship mission for a Pericles. This is the Paranid M4, with a Generator of 56MW. Its Cargobay is only small. This mission is rated Very Easy, with a time of 2 Hours and some minutes. I wasn’t set up for the Xenon trick or Yaki trick. And parking it in a pirate station to remove the police takes a lot of time. And sometimes one or more police survive and wait. I took the mission expecting to sell it quick.

Then I thought about it. I only wanted the Pericles to get a better M4 or possibly M3. So I just rented this Pericles, and used it until its time was up. I got a red pirate Buster in Hatikvah, and managed to cap it. Still an M4, but it carries Medium cargo. Pericles Generator = 56, Buster = 51. But the Buster can carry a Jump Drive. So I sold the Pericles before the mission time was up, and got some better weapons and shields for the Buster.

With the Buster, I managed to cap a Perseus Freighter, and then it wasn’t hard at all.

I thought I had a $1 Mil cap with a Demeter SF XL. When I tried to sell it, I couldn’t. It had a cargo bay of 8000, with 10,000 Energy in it! And minus 918 1-MJ shields. A 1-MJ shield costs about $4,000, so that Demeter ends up worth minus 2.5 Mil !! Maybe I can get rid of it in a Ship Delivery Mission, but even that checks value. I guess I have to check the cargo bay of every cap now, to make sure I have something good. This is a known bug, previously reported. But still ... !?

Tormented Teladi is an enjoyable start !

[perkint]

Not had that yet, but I've seen other posts about it. Can you eject the shields?

Tim

[Afterburnerz]

An IRE to Rule Them All

Very Lucky start to the game.

Within 10 minutes of starting Tormented Teladi game in Tears of Greed, I had captured one of Duke's Demeters.

It still had 1 x 5MW shield, 3 x Engine tuning, 380 approx cargo extension and a Trading Extension.

The Harrier suffered extensive damage - hull down to 54, the loss of one of the IREs, however the shield remained.

That 1 IRE would also capture a Demeter SF (XL) belonging to the Duke within the first 90 minutes of game-play.

I jumped in the rear turret of the Demeter and set the engines to max reverse and gave that SF Demeter everything the little IRE could dish out.

There were 4 Teladi Police Harriers also attacking the Duke's Demeter SF at the same time and without their help I would never have captured "Marilyn Monroe".

Those police officers must have had a thing for her as they would follow the "naked" Marilyn all around Grand Exchange for the next few hours until I could afford shields for her.

[Bill Huntington]

No, Tim, shields won't eject. I can't think of any use for this one at all.

Afterburnerz, good job! With TT, it seems that you just have to be aware of possibilities. They can show up in a lot of ways.

Thanks for the replies !

[Jeraal]

Can you dock at an EqDock and sell the shields manually?

[Callidus Thorn]

Damn Bill, looks like you're cursed with negativity. What happens when you eject E-cells? Since the shields are presumably negative to counter having too much cargo, perhaps that would do something?

[jlehtone]

No, Tim, shields won't eject.

This is not a solution in your case, but would IonD fry "them"?

[Bill Huntington]

Jeraal: I can't sell them at all, or transfer them. I can add shields to the Demeter and the negative number goes down. But I lose money on that one. It would cost me $2.5 Mil to get the value of the Demeter to $0.

Callidus Thorn: I have been transferring E-cells without a problem. When I had another capped TS, I transferred 5,000 E cells, so there was cargo space on the Demeter. But the minus shields remained the same.

Jlehtone: Thank you !! I believe that will work. It should bring the number down to -1 shield. I'm not sure I can attack my own ship, but I will give this a try. It will take a while to get Boron rep to buy the Ion D and a ship to use it. This might be an answer !

[Bill Huntington]

I got 2 IonDs, and a Nova. I could attack my own ship.

The shields came down fast, but I ran out of E and still had -918 shields. The ship shows 5 1-MJ shields in the slots, and doesn't lose any or decrease the negative number. The hull only drops to 99%. I rammed the Demeter and the hull was 28%. More IonDs did nothing, and didn't do any hull damage.

This is early in the game, and I can't get an M6 with a larger generator, or afford more IonDs.

I don't use IonDs usually, so this was interesting. But that's it for now, so thanks for the help.