Some problems and flaws with the purchasable ships [FEEL FREE TO ADD]

[Mantha]

I've bought quite a few and have noticed some issues with the many designs:

Burstfire Bomber- for a "bomber", a single rocket launcher (not even reloadable) is sad. Also, its "emergency ion thrusters", which aren't even on the hotbar, are useless. The acceleration is .01m/s and they only point foward. It's still my favorite small ship, but...ugh.

B980 Hauler- there is absolutely nothing protecting its single large cargo container from getting shot out from below, nor its hydrogen tank. It's a very pretty design, but if it can't keep its cargo safe, it's not a very good hauler. Also it runs out of hydrogen a little too quickly for long-distance hauls, but that may be the incentive to upgrade to the B60. And, it has no antenna. That's a small one, but c'mon, gotta have an antenna.

B60 Bulk Freighter- my most favorite ship of all, yet I can't help but complain that it has only 1 interior turret mounted atop the ship for "defense". It's a freighter, probably gonna be everyone's flagship cargo haulers, yet it can't even defend itself against a flock of birds. And its two side connectors are covered by its upper hull, so being able to connect with ships/stations is hard.

Fighter Mk. 2- I'm sorry, but it's pathetic. It's designed purely for looks. It's begging to have its weapons shot off by a single decent turret volley, as well as its thrusters. It's a deathtrap.

Cursor- the best of the fighters, but not without flaw. Its underslung battery is completely unprotected from being shot out from below, and two of its four gatling guns also stick out.

LCC-3 Freighter: You can't climb the ladder to the cockpit without opening the door it climbs up to first. That's really annoying to get used to. Unlike the B60, this has a whole gatling turret...that can only protect its underside, and poorly protect it at that. Worst of all though, IT DOESN'T HAVE A JUMP DRIVE?! What! This thing's bigger than the B60, is powered entirely by ion thrusters, but doesn't even have a jump drive? I think Specialized Heavy Industry has ripped us off! (Except for the deployable decoys, those are awesome)

The only ship I've bought so far that I had no issues with were the Blue Ambassador Explorer and the Courier, so obviously (at least to my standards) there ARE some very good ships to buy, but the fact that so many of them have such problems is very annoying. Obviously you can build your own ships instead of buy these, but a) not everyone wants to, hence the ships for sale b) if there are purchasable ships, why not make them worth buying?

As I said in the title, anyone can feel free to add their own experiences with these or other ships. Hopefully we can get Keen to improve these ships' designs in a future update.

[Mantha]

I have also submitted this as Feedback on Keen's Support site.

[ViccyQ]

I was curious if anyone else thought this.
I personally did not buy any ships yet but I was suspicious when looking through the catalog at the stations.

Specifically the hauler. I immediately thought the same things about protection and from that point I set out to design my own to address these issues.

However I think this is a great starting point and even a nice challenge to buy one then upgrade to our liking.

Question. Are these purchasable ships PCU heavy?

[Mantha]

Oh, definitely, they're easy to upgrade and re-fit. And no, they're all pretty low PCU. Only a few of the larger ones even have a medbay.

[Pondafarr]

I agree, there are definately some flaws and pricing issues. Why is the basic space pod so expensive? Because it has ions? Or the Yellow ship, visibly beat to hell, basic, yet grossly overpriced compared to a B-980. Personally, I've been able to retrofit 2 jump drives on the B60, 3 on the TT-420, and even 3 on the LCC. Just takes a little ingenuity, and sacrificing a cargo pod on the B60. (Really, not a loss, it is such a large ship, that with 2 jump drives, it can still only jump 600km moderately loaded) I play on a server where drones are prohibited, so antennas are not that important, but beacons are. Consider that these are supposed to be "basic" ships for you to upgrade and refine yourself to fit your needs. A few are almost perfect as is, and some are complete garbage.

[M.Red]

Originally posted by Mantha:

I've bought quite a few and have noticed some issues with the many designs:

Burstfire Bomber- for a "bomber", a single rocket launcher (not even reloadable) is sad. Also, its "emergency ion thrusters", which aren't even on the hotbar, are useless. The acceleration is .01m/s and they only point foward. It's still my favorite small ship, but...ugh.

B980 Hauler- there is absolutely nothing protecting its single large cargo container from getting shot out from below, nor its hydrogen tank. It's a very pretty design, but if it can't keep its cargo safe, it's not a very good hauler. Also it runs out of hydrogen a little too quickly for long-distance hauls, but that may be the incentive to upgrade to the B60. And, it has no antenna. That's a small one, but c'mon, gotta have an antenna.

B60 Bulk Freighter- my most favorite ship of all, yet I can't help but complain that it has only 1 interior turret mounted atop the ship for "defense". It's a freighter, probably gonna be everyone's flagship cargo haulers, yet it can't even defend itself against a flock of birds. And its two side connectors are covered by its upper hull, so being able to connect with ships/stations is hard.

Fighter Mk. 2- I'm sorry, but it's pathetic. It's designed purely for looks. It's begging to have its weapons shot off by a single decent turret volley, as well as its thrusters. It's a deathtrap.

Cursor- the best of the fighters, but not without flaw. Its underslung battery is completely unprotected from being shot out from below, and two of its four gatling guns also stick out.

LCC-3 Freighter: You can't climb the ladder to the cockpit without opening the door it climbs up to first. That's really annoying to get used to. Unlike the B60, this has a whole gatling turret...that can only protect its underside, and poorly protect it at that. Worst of all though, IT DOESN'T HAVE A JUMP DRIVE?! What! This thing's bigger than the B60, is powered entirely by ion thrusters, but doesn't even have a jump drive? I think Specialized Heavy Industry has ripped us off! (Except for the deployable decoys, those are awesome)

The only ship I've bought so far that I had no issues with were the Blue Ambassador Explorer and the Courier, so obviously (at least to my standards) there ARE some very good ships to buy, but the fact that so many of them have such problems is very annoying. Obviously you can build your own ships instead of buy these, but a) not everyone wants to, hence the ships for sale b) if there are purchasable ships, why not make them worth buying?

As I said in the title, anyone can feel free to add their own experiences with these or other ships. Hopefully we can get Keen to improve these ships' designs in a future update.

Your flaws are mostly combat relatet - but if something isnt to ones liking then just change or add something.

[Dan2D3D]

I see good ideas that should be added to the community Votes!

I hope you have added ONE idea per Feedbacks on the Portal so the SE programmers can have a look at and for the community to vote on.

[Dovah]

I personally liked the Prospector as an early large ship while being relatively cheap. Minor mining capabilities, assembler, and 2 basic refineries.
I strapped a jump drive on top, as well as a large refinery plus 8 batteries on the back, and covered it with gatling guns.
I built my own for the first time and then bought and retrofitted the b60 later on as a primary mobile base with some upgrades. One of my favorite parts of the b60 though is the landing pad on the back for small ships. Pretty new to the game, and love the ability to purchase ships.

[BurlsoL]

Main point of all these, really, is to just provide a cheap and readily available source of ships that players can just buy and use till they get their feet established and can build or improve their ship with. It is an engineering game, build your own or improve upon what you have.

[Spaceweasel]

I use the B-60 as well, modified of course. The main thing i added was two hydrogen engines for recharging the batteries in a hurry (until you get your hands on some uranium at least). You pretty much always need a full large container of ice on board with this set up though, between the thrusters and the engines this ship uses a lot especially if heavily loaded. obviously i keep the engines off when the extra power is not required.