REPUBLIC MISSIONS
GRADE 0
Operation Midnight Freedom: (4 Comms and 645 credits)
(1 Comm and 330 credits)
Operation Searing Light (5 Comms and 1,584 credits)
(1 Comm and 330 credits, available after completing Fondor Escort)
(1 Comm and 330 credits, available after completing Fondor Escort)
GRADE 1
Operation Noble Gambit (6 Comms and 1,885 credits)
(level 20, 1 Comm and 645 credits)
(level 20, 1 Comm and 645 credits)
Operation Ardent Wave
(level 28)
(level 28)
GRADE 3
Operation Glory Cyclone
(level 34)
(level 34)
Operation Sunder Zero (9 Comms and 5,196 credits)
(level 40, 3 Comms, and 3,247 credits)
(level 40, 3 Comms, and 3,247 credits)
GRADE 5
Operation Grand Nova (10 Comms and 5,360 credits)
(level 44, 5 Comms, and 4,020 credits)
(level 44, 5 Comms, and 4,020 credits)
Operation New Eclipse (15 Comms and 7,848 credits)
(level 48, 5 Comms, and 4.905 credits)
I will be updating this list with what level these are obtained at and how many Fleet Commendations they are worth. The Grade 3 and Grade 5 missions are hard modes of the Grade 0 and Grade 1 missions.
BASIC CONTROLS:
Movement: There are two ways to move around the screen. The first and most common method is by moving the mouse pointer - the ship follows where the pointer goes. The ship 'glides' in the direction of the mouse point, so you have to be careful about your movement when around collision obstacles. The other method (thanks Kookyabird) is using the [W][A][D] keys. [W] is up, [A] is left, is down, and [D] is right. Combined with the standard movement your ship can do some nice asteroid dodging.
Blasters: Just left click and hold to fire your blasters. The speed of your blaster fire is dependent mostly upon your ship's Beam Generator while the damage of the blasters is affected by the Beam Charger.
Missiles: Right click to fire of your missiles. You have can 4 loaded at a time and the number next to the loaded missiles is how many more you still have left in the bay, which means you have that number plus the number of currently loaded missiles. You can increase the number of missiles your ship can hold by using a Missile Magazine. One of the nice thing about missiles is that they do lots of damage and they don't take away from the recharging of your shields. When firing with missiles, if you hold down the right mouse button you can mouse over 4 targets and when you release the button you will simultaneously fire all 4 missiles (Thanks RobDingo).
Barrel Roll: This simple maneuver is done by hitting the [sPACE] bar. Keep in mind it can only be used so fast and is most effective when you also move your mouse to a different part of the screen. Doing this can help reduce the damage you take. Items such as an Energy Shield and a Shield Regenerator can help reduce the damage you take as well, while Ship Armor increases the total HP of your ship. If these items aren't very high you'll need to use tricky flying and barrel rolls to limit the damage you do take on those harder missions.
As you level new space missions will become available to you. Most of the missions seemed to be unlocked every 5 levels. You'll receive a quest for each space mission the first time you do them and then they'll be lumped into dailies afterwards.
Just go to the bridge of your ship and grab those quests to earn some extra exp and credits. I recommend letting people know you're about to do them if you're engaging in conversation because you lose the chat window while in space (nobody can hear you scream) and it's easy for messages to get buried in exp spam if you use the general settings for your chat tab.
On the space station you can find a vendor that will sell Once you start getting
Tips:
Upgrade your ship. If you try to do these missions without any upgrades you're going to have a rough time. Grade 1 (hence why I call the missions grade 1) upgrades are recommended and can be purchased from the Starship Upgrade NPC on almost every planet. Alternatively you can get superior (prototype or artifact) ship parts crafted by a Cybertech - I highly recommend using these over the vendor items.
There is also an additional Starship Upgrade vendor on the main stations that sell gear for Fleet Commendations. Some interesting items available (some at the higher end of the levels) are the:
EMP Generator (which does damage to allies and enemies alike)
Power Conversion Module (allows you to enhance either your blasters or your shields at the cost of the other) This will create two new skills on your hotbar while in space (activated by using [NUMPAD 1][NUMPAD 2] to toggle the effect on or off.
Proton Torpedoes. These missiles are a little bit of a pain to use at first. They can only be fired on certain targets (which you'll know because the targeting reticule change) and you have to hold the mouse button down until they lock on. The other painful part about these is that if you have any Proton Torpedoes you will be unable to use regular missiles on targets that you can launch torpedoes at. While they can make life easy by killing the target (like the command bridge) in 1 shot, they're not worth the pain you'll have to endure against the rest of your targets.
EWP (Unable to be attacked - think invincible - for 10 seconds)
Don't lead the target. This isn't like most space games where you have to predict the trajectory of your foe. Just hover the cursor over the target and fire a few shots and then move on. I like to RP that the ship's computer does the calculations for the lasers to hit their intended targets.
Stop firing. If you're taking damage to your shield, the only way to let them regen is to stop firing your blasters. That means take caution with your targets and take them down quickly OR you can use missiles. If you know you've got a few to spare and need the extra protection, take down a few fliers with a missile.
Barrel Roll. Ships flying at you shoot at you and do decent damage. While it's ideal to take them out before they can get shots off at you (like when ships are flying away; kill them before they turn around and dive bomb you) it's not always possible. Hitting the [sPACE] bar will let you do a barrel roll which helps with dodging those blasters; just be careful where you roll. Some missions have collision areas (Archenar Interception) and the roll can smack your ship into an asteroid. Also; don't do your barrel rolls after you've been hit (like I did a few times in the videos)
Whirlwind. Yea it's a silly name but it's better than calling it the toilet... maybe whirlpool could work. There are a couple of times when you're taking a large amount of fire from foes in front of you (Archenar right after the capital ship and Pakuuni when you're chasing bombers. This trick allows you do dodge a lot of blaster fire by outmaneuvering your foes. Using [W][A][D] make a circle around the screen in a counterclockwise direction (clockwise if you're in the southern hemisphere) until you're safe. While you can still attack your foes this is even more effective if your cursor goes to the respective directions as well.
Hidden Objectives. There are a couple of objectives that reward decent exp that aren't displayed in the mission tracker. In the Balosar Outpost you can destroy the com relay under the station and you can destroy the bridge of the massive capital ship in the Makem Te Assault mission. Be careful when going after these because you might spend too much time, and too many missiles, trying to take them down.
Keep in mind that some bonus objectives can't be completed until you reach a certain level while the hidden objectives can be earned regardless of level.
