The Starting Ships

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ThePrivateer
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Seeing as the thread about the sapphire was just recently locked, I have created a new one to discuss the individual ships, and more importantly, how to most benefit from them. I put this into Beginner's Luck, because it's the type of thing a newbie will most want to know - which ship to choose and how to get out to St. Kat's without become space junk.



The Freighter
It's slow and unwieldy and definitely not my first choice of ship. It's the slowest of the bunch and requires a propulsion upgrade to get an decent kind of speed. It can take only two weapons, so those slots are best used for a weapon and a launcher.

The other slots can be used for items, and ICX missile defense turrets, solar fuel generators, quantum computers and even patch spiders make themselves right at home on the large exterior.

It can take the heaviest armour of all the ships, making it a veritable tank. Of course, the massive cargo bay means trading is actually a good option, and you will find the Black Market a good place to get some trading going, or if you like to keep it clean, mining ore and selling it is also an option. If you can find a good trade route, it's possible to get some good cash early on.

You'll need the cash to buy omni-weapons, because the freighter has a slow turning speed, meaning firing a straight-line weapon is out of the question. Homing missiles and even autons will serve you well in this regard, allowing your freighter to combat even the quickest of enemies.

In summary, it's not a fighter vessel, but use it well and you could find yourself getting through the game, just be prepared to take things slower than usual.


The Wolfen
The Wolfen is the epitome of fighter craft - it's light and fast and well suited to the dangers of space. It comes equipped with dual laser cannons and a NAMI launcher, so its a good choice for beginners.

Whilst you can't put the heaviest of armour on it, you can stick an awful amount of weaponry on it, and you can easily take down most enemies by using heavy weapons. It is skilled in all forms of combat from every angle, but don't think of selling masses of items, as it's cargo hold leaves alot to be desired.

The wolfen is perfect for the Korolov missions, as you can easily defend the slow freighters from pirates. Using this ship, it's best to dart in quickly and get away even quicker until you can get a decent reactor to power a shield. Using missiles, you'll become the perfect strike force to dominate the stars.

In summary, its the easiest ship by far and a good one for beginners and experts alike, and comes across as unfarily balanced when compared to the other two.


The Sapphire
And so we come to the middle of the two - the Sapphire. It supports an almost equal amount of weapons bays and other bays, it has good cargo size and can have decent chunks of armour. It starts with less-that satisfactory weapons, is somewhere between fast and slow, and all other regards is between the Wolfen and the Sapphire.

Whether or not you want to use the Sapphire depends on how you want to play the game. You need to think when you play the game, need to dip into both aggressive, Wolfen-like combat, and slower, methodical cautious Freighter-styled gameplay.

If you want something that is between hard and easy, and offers a challenge to both the mind and the reflexes, try the Sapphire. Be patient, as you may not advance as quickly as either ships in credits or gear, but this craft rewards you over time.
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In terms of design, the Wolfen class gunship looks like it could hold more cargo than the Sapphire class gunship.

And one more thing, soon enough we should be able to play Jenna's and Rama's ship(we can skip rama cause his ship looks too 'commonwealth' gone rogue)
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Ttech
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asam3 wrote:In terms of design, the Wolfen class gunship looks like it could hold more cargo than the Sapphire class gunship.

And one more thing, soon enough we should be able to play Jenna's and Rama's ship(we can skip rama cause his ship looks too 'commonwealth' gone rogue)

right it probably could, however it is designed to hold weapons. An idea is that the Wolfen has a smaller cargo bay but a larger 'weapon' bay.
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ThePrivateer
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Ttech wrote: right it probably could, however it is designed to hold weapons. An idea is that the Wolfen has a smaller cargo bay but a larger 'weapon' bay.
That's how I always thought of it. The Sapphire looks more like a luxury yacht than anything else though, so I think it fits in with the general look and feel of it's background.
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Aury
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The sapphire I think also is larger in scale than the wolfen, but the sprites wouldn't show that necessarily.
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Ttech
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Wolfy wrote:The sapphire I think also is larger in scale than the wolfen, but the sprites wouldn't show that necessarily.
How do you know that? Specifically, most people look at the sprites, but thats not really shown through the sprites
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IceMephit
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Ttech wrote:
Wolfy wrote:The sapphire I think also is larger in scale than the wolfen, but the sprites wouldn't show that necessarily.
How do you know that? Specifically, most people look at the sprites, but thats not really shown through the sprites
Well, the mass of the sapphire and wolfen are the same.... so wouldn't they be about the same size roughly?

The freighter is more than 8X the mass of the other two, and with a huge cargo.
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Prophet
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I would assume the Wolfen's hull is more dense and packed with military comm and assorted hardware where as the yacht is ultra light weight hull with ornate (maybe even wood?!) interior and decadent opulence.

Wolfen = F-35 raptor
Saphire = Learjet
Freighter = C-17 Globemaster

That's how I think of them, at least.
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Ttech
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Ttech wrote:
Prophet wrote:I would assume the Wolfen's hull is more dense and packed with military comm and assorted hardware where as the yacht is ultra light weight hull with ornate (maybe even wood?!) interior and decadent opulence.

Wolfen = F-35 raptor
Saphire = Learjet
Freighter = C-17 Globemaster

That's how I think of them, at least.

Yeah, but a C-17 Globemaster still will make you **** bricks if it flew overhead and is pretty intimidating in many cases because it means usually something else quite powerful will back it up. Maybe a 747 Cargo?

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Antares V = Antonov An-225 ? :D
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Nah, a c-17's cargo is larger than a 747. But ,like the freighter, it is rather easy to destroy if you have the right equipment like a couple of 'high flyer' sam's, that or a 'gumpert' shell fired from point blank range. (note point blank for a gumpert shell is under 100 meters.)
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Ttech
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Chase wrote:Nah, a c-17's cargo is larger than a 747. But ,like the freighter, it is rather easy to destroy if you have the right equipment like a couple of 'high flyer' sam's, that or a 'gumpert' shell fired from point blank range. (note point blank for a gumpert shell is under 100 meters.)
I know a C-17 is larger, but it has the military classification
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