Why bother with multiple starships?

[Jaded Valkyrie]

Anything other than a hauler seems inefficient. Why would I want to constantly change out ships when I can use a single hauler, load it with techs to make it as good as anything else with more cargo space? At what point is the little bit of extra hyperdrive boost worthwhile? Do you really run into situations where a fully upgraded photon cannon from a hauler is insufficient or the lack of damage isn't mitigated by the better shields?

Am I supposed to jump to a system in an explorerer, land on my freighter to change to a hauler to finish a trade run then jump back into the explorer to jump again?

How does that work if I jump into a battle? Am I suppose to hurriedly hop into my freighter to change to a fighter?

What role is the shuttle supposed to fill anyway?

I really don't get it. Other than just for looking cool or personal preference of course. Convince me. Please and thank you :)

[BaneBlackGuard]

sometimes you feel like driving a sportcar sometimes you feel like driving a pickup truck. some people just like collecting cars they think are cool.

also having multiple haulers gives you extra storage space.

if you like fighting with a fighter or exotic but like exploring with an explorer, then yeah you'd switch to a fighting ship to go fighting first. if you like flying a hauler all the time and never feel the need to switch out, you can do that too.

Shuttles are super cheap generalists. basically meant for early game, but if you like the design and the cargo is enough you can keep flying that too if you like it.

There's no rigidly defined absolutes for particular tasks, it's just what you find to be better for your uses.

[Jaded Valkyrie]

Originally posted by BaneBlackGuard:

sometimes you feel like driving a sportcar sometimes you feel like driving a pickup truck. some people just like collecting cars they think are cool.

also having multiple haulers gives you extra storage space.

if you like fighting with a fighter or exotic but like exploring with an explorer, then yeah you'd switch to a fighting ship to go fighting first. if you like flying a hauler all the time and never feel the need to switch out, you can do that too.

Shuttles are super cheap generalists. basically meant for early game, but if you like the design and the cargo is enough you can keep flying that too if you like it.

There's no rigidly defined absolutes for particular tasks, it's just what you find to be better for your uses.

Ah so it all boils down to personal preference then. I appreciate the reply. Thank you. :)

[LoboFH]

Because variety is the spice of life.

... and the ships are really different now, with a hauler you get space but with an explorer you get better jump and it saves a lot of fuel in take off, it's the best ship to explore. Both can fight nice, so perhaps a fighter is not mandatory, but well, roleplaying.

Shuttles are cheap and balanced ships, good for early game.

[bigdale]

I like explorers because they have high maneuverability and only use 50% of the fuel of a hauler or fighter for launching. It's a good all arounder if you mostly run missions like me.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

It is something to spend credits on. While it may not seem like it when you first start out, you run out of stuff to buy when you get far into the game. Getting top of the line ships helps drain a bit of the excess...although you still end up with more credits.

It is fun to look for that sweet ride- whatever that may be to the person. I have two S class ships and an A class but spend about 80% of the time in my hauler. I have been using the A class fighter more recently. I am hopeful of finding an S class fighter. I still love my current one, but it would make my day.

Not looking super seriously. It helps to take a relaxed attitude in NMS. When it is time, it will come.

[LoboFH]

Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

It is something to spend credits on. While it may not seem like it when you first start out, you run out of stuff to buy when you get far into the game. Getting top of the line ships helps drain a bit of the excess...although you still end up with more credits.

It is fun to look for that sweet ride- whatever that may be to the person. I have two S class ships and an A class but spend about 80% of the time in my hauler. I have been using the A class fighter more recently. I am hopeful of finding an S class fighter. I still love my current one, but it would make my day.

Not looking super seriously. It helps to take a relaxed attitude in NMS. When it is time, it will come.

Good luck with that. I got a S Hauler (max slots), an exotic and a S explorer (not max slots though), but with fighters I am having a terrible luck, I found an A with max slots but all the S fighters I have found had crappy storage, not worthy.

[Asmosis]

Haulers dont handle as well as fighters for example, and they also spit you out to the side when you exit which results in falling off landing pads.

Explorers only use 50% launch fuel, so thats quite handy when your exploring a planet. With 6 hyperdrive modules (in tech and inv slots) you can get to something like 2500-3000 warp range?

Fighters have 12 tech slots instead of 8, so you can double up on more tech modules to make it significantly stronger in combat than a hauler.

Shuttles suck in every way, except that they might visually match a ship from a show/anime etc that you like, hence want to use it anyway.

Exotics are the best if you dont need the inventory space because you've maxed out your high capacity slots (seriously, we were given an additional ships worth of inventory space in exosuit this update).

[rattopi]

I specialize them to make it interesting, Fighters with pure firepower with no cargo slots to spare, Hauler if I want to build a base or mini outpost. Exotic explorer if I want to jump faraway to reach wealthy systems.

[MockTwo61]

Go one further if you upgrade your exo suit to max slots you dont need a big ship at all and can be satisfied with the speedy fighter ship with max pulse engines. I get the need for storage space early in the game as I did the same thing but later in the game with so many slots in your exo suit why not go for a speedy ship.

[birb3D.ttv]

I use an Exotic for zipping around warping and just exploring in general, an A Class 48/8 hauler with upgraded stuff for general farming use, and I recently got a 47 slot that I haven't put jack into purely as an extra inventory when hopping around multiple stations and trading (buying mats to make Fusion fuel),

[efreakingt]

I have a 48 hauler that sits in my freighter stuffed with resources. The rest of my ships are exotics. I'm still hunting one s class fighter just for fun but otherwise I run around in my squid ship most the time now.

The hauler helped me earn all my wealth but now I have no need for all that space and prefer tight handling.

[Jez Hammond]

They make awesome production-lines. If you build the best tech, then one for those, Collosus for their Circuit Boards, and another hauler for the two main 'stones' at the end of the line. Keeps things clear as day.

Apart from that, I travelled to the core in a 1299LY Explorer, now I use a pimped out 37+12 fighter.

[marstinson]

Can't speak for others, but I basically use three ships: fighter for fighting, explorer for warping long distances, and hauler for hauling stuff to the point of sale. Both the fighter and explorer are well tricked-out when it comes to weapons, shields, engines and whatnot (got my rear end handed to me one too many times after being being jumped in the explorer). Because they're fully tricked-out, they have almost no room for cargo aside from keeping Tritium on hand for refueling the Pulse Engine, but the hauler is just basics to maximize cargo space.

So short jumps are whatever I happen to be flying at the time, but I prefer the fighter for jumps into high-conflict systems; long jumps are the explorer. After reaching my destination, I summon the freighter, switch to the hauler, do what needs to be done, and then switch back to one of the other two. Repeat as needed.

I haven't found much of a use for a shuttle except in the early game. They have bonuses in all three areas, but aren't as good as the fighter and explorer. Exotics have the highest bonuses in all areas, but limited slots, so aren't very useful aside from looking cool, IMO.

[LeftPaw]

What I wan't to know is how you get rid of the bloody things. I have a hanger full of MOT failures.

[DeadSlash]

The only use outside of extra storage for me is decking an exotic out in all weapon upgrades, and using it to run a series of pirate mission in one sitting.