Upgrade starter ship or buy new one?

[Bjørn]

I've only been in a few space battles, but it looks interesting. I've only upgraded a 1000 credit laser to test it out so far, though, so I suspect my ship is basically still a tin can armed with slingshots.

I have about 80 000 credits now, and was wondering whether to keep the starter ship with and upgrade it with gear, or buy a new ship? And if so, any tips on a good one for around that price?

I'm only level 9, but when I jumped into a lvl 1 system earlier to explore, and was jumped by three lvl 5 pirates, they blew me out of the sky pretty quickly...

Getting the hang of power distribution and targeting and maneuvering and such, but any tips on which are the best type of weapons to go for? The missiles seem to be most effective currently.

Also, when I press 0 to repair the hull (like the pop-up message says), nothing seems to be happening. Is this a known bug? I'll try going into inventory and do a manual use of the repair parts next, but was just wondering if anyone else is having the same problem with the keyboard shortcut.

Thanks!

[Tenoshii]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

I've only been in a few space battles, but it looks interesting. I've only upgraded a 1000 credit laser to test it out so far, though, so I suspect my ship is basically still a tin can armed with slingshots.

I have about 80 000 credits now, and was wondering whether to keep the starter ship with and upgrade it with gear, or buy a new ship? And if so, any tips on a good one for around that price?

I'd recommend modifying your current ship. Learning how to attach additional guns and cargo modules is fairly straightforward process and can significantly improve your offense in space battles and your ability to hoard loot while clearing POIs.

Originally posted by Bjørn:

I'm only level 9, but when I jumped into a lvl 1 system earlier to explore, and was jumped by three lvl 5 pirates, they blew me out of the sky pretty quickly... :steamdeadpan:

Try and keep your shield power as high as you can and weapon power as high as possible. That way you can tank long enough to drop one or two ships before your shields are gone and you need to start repairing.

Would recommend you get Piloting Rank 1 so you can use strafe (spacebar). This allows you to continue movement in a direction while turning your ship where you want so you can quickly reacquire targets that fly past you.

Originally posted by Bjørn:

Getting the hang of power distribution and targeting and maneuvering and such, but any tips on which are the best type of weapons to go for? The missiles seem to be most effective currently.

For Class A setups I'm a fan of just running all Particle Beam weapons since they do equal damage to Shield/Hull. This also means I don't have to be bothered with missile locks.

To be honest though, just cram as much weapon power as possible for the weapon type(s) you want to use and you'll be fine. Once you get comfortable with using strafe and repairing, space battles become a lot more manageable.

Originally posted by Bjørn:

Also, when I press 0 to repair the hull (like the pop-up message says), nothing seems to be happening. Is this a known bug? I'll try going into inventory and do a manual use of the repair parts next, but was just wondering if anyone else is having the same problem with the keyboard shortcut.

I think it's actually O not zero that's the hotkey.

[Bjørn]

Thanks so much, this was very helpful tips

And I did notice now in the key bindings that it was O and not 0! I thought since 0 was the default key for medpacks that it was kind of the same for ship repairs, but...

Strafing sounds like a good tactic, so I'll get that piloting skill next. Haven't put one single skill point in ships yet.

The starter ship seems pretty well balanced with a decent cargo bay, so I look forward to upgrading it now.

[Cyrano]

Stick with your starter ship, I lost a bunch of crew members when I got a new one. Note that they weren't just on a different ship or in an outpost or whatever, like they disappeared from the crew menu. Just *poof* thanos snapped out of existence. Fiddling with earlier saves showed it was 100% switching ships that did it. Might have been because it was a ship I salvaged in space rather than one I bought?

Either way, new ship = risky (at least until they patch it)

[['w']]

lvl 14 now

2 ballistic, 3 lasers the 7k ones
I can win fights against 1:4 odds with a modified starter ship, all modules standard

perks:
piloting 2 (thrusters), (maneuverability).. finally reached now 3, class B ships
shield 2 (+40% shield)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3033739360

you boost spiral towards your enemies and thrust dodge the shots and before your heads cross you decelerate a bit, thrust and steer backwards to the tail of the enemy and boost with thrusts to circle faster.

You switch between laser and ballstic as soon as the shields are down, for that you hold alt and hold the down key, so all plips get substracted, alt+right arrow key to switch to ballistics and hold alt & hold arrow up so all plips get added automatically in few seconds

Always repair during fights.

PS:
You can always jump to a new system during a fight.

PPS:
Got strafe - thrusts on mouse key, or I need to hold and click too many keys on the keyboard for my taste

[Bjørn]

Thanks guys.

Originally posted by Cyrano:

Stick with your starter ship, I lost a bunch of crew members when I got a new one.

Woah, that doesn't sound good! And probably a bug, yes.

I'm about to take the first simulator test for the UC, but was wondering if I should wait a bit with that, since the piloting skills and such also probably applies to that?

I'll do some other things and get a few more levels before I start the simulations, I think. If I understood the instructor correctly, you get more bonuses and shorter time to citizenship the more waves you do in those simulations.

[Mirxwood]

I am still flying the starter ship without any modifications, had a few intense fights but wasn't killed once. I am thinking I'll probably start from scratch and build a brand new ship once I encounter a powerful enough enemy that I am not able to beat with my basic setup.

[Scrundle]

Steal a spacer ship, register it as your own and then just strip it down in the ship editor and build your own ship from it's basic parts, something to really call "Yours".
Keep Barrett's ship in storage just for posterity.

[It´sAllAimAssist]

do what you feel like, it´s pretty hard to mess up I think.
You will be rolling in credits, the game gives you ships in some quests.

if you want to mess around in the builder which you should.
I just put the biggest shield my perks allowed and the strongest particle beams my perks allowed (not auto cannon ones,tried em did not like), and the biggest engine my perks allowed ,stocked up on a few ship repair kit. And from the on it was a cake walk.
this is on the hardest diff.
most of the game I used some random garbage ship I stole which I modified.

then I got a really big c-class from a quest which I 6 C-class particle beams on.
in fights I cut all power but one pip from the engine and jump and max out the beams and most of the shield. rarely even have to use repairs anymore.

besides that, just put what you like/want in terms of cockpit, habs etc.

[Kasa]

Does ship battles become more interesting at a later date?
I've consoled away carry weight since I've found it anti-fun and so I'm wondering what to do with my actual ship.

Realistically It's been pretty useless to me so far.

[It´sAllAimAssist]

Originally posted by Kasa:

Does ship battles become more interesting at a later date?
I've consoled away carry weight since I've found it anti-fun and so I'm wondering what to do with my actual ship.

Realistically It's been pretty useless to me so far.

not that I´ve noticed. never turns into some sort of dog fight where maneuvering and resource management or anything matters.
keep the enemies in the middle of the screen and blast away.
I messed around a bit in the beginning and like the foot combat it´s more stat driven than gameplay driven.

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Don't buy a new one. They are expensive, and there are multiple free ships you can get.
For instance, the Mantis ship.

[Nighthaven]

Also to note, keep the Engines stats in mind, there is a difference between Thrust and Maneuverability. I myself noticed that way to late XD

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Originally posted by Scrundle:

Steal a spacer ship, register it as your own and then just strip it down in the ship editor and build your own ship from it's basic parts, something to really call "Yours".
Keep Barrett's ship in storage just for posterity.

Even that is costly.
There are ships you can get for absolute free, while this is going to cost the registration, which is quite expensive too (in the 12.000's)

[Sloul Des Tucs]

You can even get a C-class ship for free while playing the game.

[Sloul Des Tucs]

You'll eventually sink quite some money into ship components if you want to optimize them, so, I would suggest to focus on free ship to save money for that.