What does it take to make Fields of Opportunity Safe?

[sd_jasper]

Arg! All my ships want to use FoO to navigate through (I only send heavenly Armed Freighter to trade there). But just the simple navigation to the gates can be deadly for a Rihanna.



I'm on a war path now, I've captured 3 UA Phoenixes and am considering having them patrol the zone.

I'm also wondering if building a few stations there (will all the weapon upgrades) is would help?

Anyone have a suggestion on how to make these areas safer?

[hisazul]

Those destroyers will always attack any trade ship as far as I know. Even if you are allied.

Patrols won't help neither will stations... they just repsawn and they will outrun your patrols. Saving grace is that phoenix doesn't really mount all that much in terms of firepower and it's fairly fragile compared to things like OL ships even Lyra and Arawn and K and I and even Taranis. Also marauder version has fewer turrets then regular phoenix, I think it looses Plasma MA turrets.

Something I'm not really sure about but if their AI simply chases after ships classified as traders why not use those very same ships to trade... I know 50k universal storage isn't really... great... but worth a try at least.

[RAVEN.myst]

Short answer: you can't.
Longer answer: if you are capturing Marauder Phoenixes, then you are most of the way to your (partial) solution: those ships have "Fight" specialisation, but have cargo holds, which means that they can trade. The UA and Cartel marauders only attack non-"Fight" ships, so these will be safe travelling through those areas. However, of course, this isn't a total solution. Unfortunately, if you have traders moving back and forth between Albion and Omicron Lyrae (more specifically, Ascendancy/FarOut on the Albion side, if I'm not mistaken, and EclipseClouds/CommerceCore, again if I'm not mistaken), those ships WILL choose to travel via Fields of Opportunity, as they calculate shortest distance by number of jumps and such, even though crossing Serpentine Haze makes it a MUCH longer (and way more dangerous!) trip. (Also, unfortunately, there is no system/sector blacklisting feature in Rebirth)

Those Marauder Phoenix cargo holds may not be huge, but they are fine for trading high-tech, high value goods. Alternatively, if you want to kinda not worry about it much at all, you can try using Lyramekrons - large cargo holds and very strong firepower - they should squash those marauders (unless heavily outnumbered.) The downside, if I can call it such, is that you will become hostile to those factions over time, though arguably that won't make a huge difference (except that they may start shooting at your "Fight" vessels, too - probably not a big deal, that). The other downside: those freighters are pretty expensive, but can be worth it in the long run, if they save you from taking losses.

[Snafu_X3]

See the Wiki for details

In general if a tradeship needs to travel a long way to an IZ gate in TO it may well die due to the above factions targeting it. If its destination is outside the Zone it'll boost/jump away to an appropriate spot, giving it better resilience against those factions, but gate transition is almost always a relatively slow process (especially from Fields to Albion due to the huge rock). Therefore try to stay OOZ (& preferably OOS) while such transactions are going on, to reduce <tradeship's> flight time

Due to the v4 improvements Lyramek or similar heavily-armed tradeships will put up a better battle, but may well lose vs multiple PMs due to their lack of manoeuvrability.. plus (partially to do with that lack) they're a /lot/ slower to complete the trade run!

[Simoom]

Several solutions:

1. Use your own Phoenix Marauders to trade. This is the simplest solution, as the Teladi pirates won't target ships flagged as "Fight" specialization. It's also the only "official" solution if you wish to maintain good relations with UA and CAR.
   
   I would actually advise against killing/boarding UA and CAR's Phoenix Marauders, since turning them hostile to you actually makes FO even less safe for you (furthermore, UA/CAR do actually provide some trade opportunities). You can actually get Phoenix Marauders to spawn as part of kill missions, and board those instead.
2. Another simple solution is to edit your game save and make the Teladi Union hostile to UA and CAR (a very simple edit in faction relations. See my sig for details). This is actually my preferred solution since:
   • The NPC's can fight it out, you don't have to do anything. Makes sense anyway, the TU should pull its own weight to secure their own space.
   • Immersion. As much as the Teladi may be willing to turn a blind eye to illegal activities to some extent, they should only do so if it helps their profits. A bunch of pirate capital ships just flying around blowing up the whole system seems very counterproductive in every way possible.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

I use a "holy Energy Cell"-insect lamp against them:
A Lyramecron carrying one ec on Patrol escorted by some heavy (but fast enough to keep up with the Lyramecron -> no Fullmecrons) Destroyers.
The pirates will normally prioritize the insect lamp, because:
If the attack another ship of you it normally flees at least once successfully, the pirate will search the next player owned ship to attack.
It kills them fast enough to keep their number low.
the lamp is always present.
The lamp will attack hostile pirates on its own.
The Pirates will try to steal your ec.

[astreus]

A fine trick with TU hostile with UA and CA...... also the Ly trade ship as a trap is fine, folks!
But I truned it around: Phoenix raiding my ships - ok - I raid (board) Phoenix
This is easy and very profitable. A repaired Ph will sell for 55mil.

[sd_jasper]

A fine trick with TU hostile with UA and CA...... also the Ly trade ship as a trap is fine, folks!
But I truned it around: Phoenix raiding my ships - ok - I raid (board) Phoenix
This is easy and very profitable. A repaired Ph will sell for 55mil.

Yeah, I've been capturing them. My faction with UA was already shot and CAR came down quick (which I thought faction loss only happened if in a sector that had a base of that faction???).

Anyway, I have 4 Phoenixes now (would have had a 5th, but an NPC out for revenge or something started blasting one to bits right as I was about to board). I'm keeping them for trading for now since they aren't attacked.

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