I don't know if this is a standard strategy, but it was novel to me when I replayed EVN and I decided to apply it to EVO this time around.

CAVEAT: this is an extremely lengthy procedure (several hours)

Building the ultimate UE Cruiser Fleet:

1. Do a profitable trade route in UE space until you get around 6M credits
2. Buy a Helian
3. Do enough of the UE mission to be allowed to purchase UE Cruiser
4. Go to any Miranu port and Hire 6 M. H. Freighters
5. Go to Gribn in Hatuli and fill fleet with Equipment
6. Fly to Thehir in the same system and sell all Equipment and fill fleet with Metal
7. Repeat 5/6 until you get 42M credits (each UE Cruiser is 6M and your fleet will have 7 including your ship)
8. Buy a UE Cruiser and outfit it with an Afterburner and 2 Fuel Tanks then refuel
9. Capture anything and choose Use As My Ship (smaller ships tend to be easier, I go after traders because the UE won't shoot them down while I try to board them)
10. Repeat 8/9 until you have 6 captured Cruisers and one of your own
11. Buy to Fuel Scoops and an extra Blaster Turret
12. CRUSH everything

Forgive me if this is total newb material. I just found it awesome when I had 7 Polaris Ravens in EVN. They were borderline unstoppable

For the INCREDIBLY lazy I have attached my Pilot file with this procedure done.

I gotta hand it to you, that is an effective adaptation of the Raven Fleet Creation strategy to EVO. Although, I do have a few comments here and there.

QUOTE (AlainODea @ Dec 27 2010, 10:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know if this is a standard strategy, but it was novel to me when I replayed EVN and I decided to apply it to EVO this time around.

Actually, the standard strategy deals in building a fleet of Voinian Dreadnoughts, not UE Cruisers. But that's whole other can of worms.

QUOTE

• Go to any Miranu port and Hire 6 M. H. Freighters

Personally, I'd capture the freighters. Miranu Heavy Freighters make costly escorts on their own, and six of them will put a major dent in your profit margins, especially on the long flight from Miranu space to the Hatuli system.

QUOTE

• Buy a UE Cruiser and outfit it with an Afterburner and 2 Fuel Tanks then refuel

I understand what the afterburner is for (standard combat equipment for maneuvers in flight) but what are the fuel tanks for?

QUOTE

For the INCREDIBLY lazy I have attached my Pilot file with this procedure done.

So, uh... where is it?

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Dec 28 2010, 06:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I understand what the afterburner is for (standard combat equipment for maneuvers in flight) but what are the fuel tanks for?

I figured they give me a bit more maneuvering fuel, but overall they make no major impact. What would you normally purchase for a UE Carrier? I would have gone to Azdgari space and gotten the maneuvering upgrades, but I was looking at a fairly pure UE game (aside from the expedience of M. H. Freighters)

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Dec 28 2010, 06:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So, uh... where is it?

I had attached it, but it looks like it got eaten by the forum (I'm kind of surprised the forum allows upload honestly). Here is a link to the pilot file on DropBox:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7843073/EVO UE Cruiser Fleet

Let's try again. DropBox seems not to link to the raw pilot file. I assume this is the resource fork rearing it's ugly head. Here's a ZIPped version that works:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7843073/EVO%20UE%2...ser%20Fleet.zip

What would I put on a UE Cruiser? Well, for starters, I'd switch out the fuel tanks for a fuel scoop (or two... I can't remember whether it was EVC or EVO that allowed the player two fuel scoops). Then I'd get either Phase Turrets or Neutron Turrets, depending on if I was fighting Crescent ships or Voinians, respectively. Maybe a little of both. And Dospect Armour is a must. That's pretty much it.

As for Dropbox not liking the resource fork, there was a recent update to Dropbox allowing it to handle resource forks. So an unzipped pilot file shouldn't be a problem. The fact that it is means either you haven't upgraded your Dropbox application (you need to do it manually by going to their website, downloading the update, quitting and deleting the old Dropbox, and starting up the new one) or Dropbox hasn't correctly updated their application to handle the resource fork.