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I've decided to stick with frigates for a while as far as combat goes - upgrade to a cruiser for ratting/missions, get my industry skills up and produce my own frigates. However my question is this: what are the Weapon Upgrade equips I should be getting for my Incursus? Right now I run 3x 150mm Railgun Is with thorium ammo (generally) and a token shield booster.

I miss my Incursus. :) That was a fun ship to fly.

For frigate sized weapons the only useful weapon upgrade would be a Magnetic Field Stabilizer, for increasing your damage output a little.  There are also tracking speed upgrades, but they're generally overkill on a frigate with fast-tracking guns.

All other turret improvements would be tied to skills from the gunnery skill branch.

Thanks for your replies. Another question - do you think it's viable to solo Worlds Collide in a frigate, and what sort of setup would you use if you tried?

Yeah, that's a level one mission, right?  Should be doable in a decently equipped frigate.  I don't think you can even take anything larger through the jump gate, unless they've changed it.  There should be some tips on it in this thread (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=6514.0), if you're having trouble (St.Gabe has an Incursus setup in there for that mission, as the very last post).

Worlds Collide is, done right, really easy in a decent frigate.  I did it in a Merlin plenty and never had to jump out.

Don't run for the gate hen you warp into the second room (is it the second?  The one with the missile frigs that jump you when you warp in).  Be patient, fly immediately away from the attackers, who are on the edge of the swarm anyway, and out into empty space.  Take them down then kite any others you want to kill before jumping.  Make sure you're using the appropriate resists for the gate you choose when you have to pick one of two, and it should be a dawdle.

I ran it in my Incursus several times. Just shield boosted and hit afterburner when I hit the second room -- got into the third with my armor a bit dented, but otherwise fine.

You need a frigate to run Worlds Collide, yes.  I did that one a week or two ago in a Tristan fitted with two launchers, one drone, and it was a cakewalk.  The second gate had me a LITTLE worried but it wasn't close by any means.  I shot down a few rats in the first part but then I just ran for it, afterburnered at something like 644m/s IIRC.  Shield was gone before I got close to the second gate but I had plates and a repper and just cruised right through the whole thing.

I think the gate will allow an intercepter. It's really not that bad. I shield tanked through room two with just the small shield booster and a little bit of skill in shields. Nothing huge.

Just make sure you're hauling ass to the gate. If you're not well over 400m/s, you're not going to make it.

Gate in L1 WC will allow anything "frigate sized" ie. frigates and destroyers.   Strangely enough this also includes their T2 counterparts.

I meant destroyer. Not sure why I said intercepter.

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll give this a try tonight.

Interceptor *is* a T2 frigate :p

Increasing your survivability in a Gallente frig is all about getting a small armor rep (T2 as soon as you can) and a plate.

So, armor rep+ plate instead of shield booster+extender? Is there any particular reason?

It's not obvious with the frigates but Gallente ships are all armor tankers. You're better off learning those skills as they will be useful to you when you're in the larger ships with tons of low slots.

I'm glad to hear it's not obvious with Gellente frigs. I had to get some advice for my Vex after my first L2 mission had me down to the hull. Refitted with 1600mm plate, a medium armor rep, and damage controls -- life got easy at that point.

The small remote armor rep I've got for the drones has saved me a lot of cash, though....

I'm really surprised that everyone runs for the second gate in WC.  Is this necessity or convenience?  In a Merlin I was quite happily able to clear the area, and never even dipped into armour when I did the swarms a group at a time.  I know the Merlin is a neat little craft, but surely it's not that much better?

I don't know how it scales up.  In a frigate, I'd just rush through to the end, grab the NPC's, dock them at the station, then go back and clear everything; this way if my ship gets blown up I don't fail the mission as I can just dock and talk to the agent to report success whenever I want to.  But, L2 and L3 versions of the mission they may shoot too many cruise missiles or something, do too much burst damage at some point that they aren't survivable.