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!