What's the advantage of larger fighter ships over smaller ones?

[Jo]

I was just wondering. I have an S class smaller fighter which compares very favourably to my large fighter ship in terms of damage, shield, and especially manoeuvring. Is there any particular bonus attached to larger fighters or does it really just depend on your fighting style? Thanks!

[LazerRay]

The size of the ship doesn't matter since its just the look of it, since is purely cosmetic, the rest is based on the upgrades and weapons you install.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Back in the early days, the larger fighters had much more storage then the smaller ones. Now that you can add storage it is just cosmetics and maybe saving a little on adding storage.

[Jo]

I could be wrong but the bigger ship does feel more solid and steady handling, perhaps because it's wider? I don't know really. The smaller one seems lighter and faster to turn but less easy to control in terms of steadiness. So maybe it depends on your style/preference.

[NZ.Zero]

they are larger :)

seriously tho the handling does differ, you can definitely tell, but the stats are determined by the base stats + upgrades, the stats are what counts. different ships have different base stats but with the right upgrades you can more or less make any ship into what you want it to be.

[Lindy Bomber]

Large wing fighters will start with more slots. Nose and engines have no effect on stats.

Once you upgrade to S class they can all have maximum slots.

https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Starship

[Lemurian1972]

Originally posted by Lindy Bomber:

Large wing fighters will start with more slots. Nose and engines have no effect on stats.

Once you upgrade to S class they can all have maximum slots.

https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Starship

This is generally true for all classes of ship. The ones with big wing pods of some type will start with more default storage, and generate a higher price. I tend to avoid them unless that's specifically what I'm looking for, or I'm swimming in cash, but the higher base money value and slots may lead to better returns. I don't pay close enough attention to my ship flips to say for sure, that's just my gut.

[Giacomo]

I just moved away from my starter ship and it was 5 mil to add storage, is that for 1 extra slot? Imstead I spent 3 mil to buy a ship that had 9 more slots, more tech/cargo space and all better stats except slightly lower damage. It is an explorer class though.

So far with my limited experience it seems cheaper to buy a more expensive ship and then upgrade it instead of the other way around?

[Jo]

Originally posted by NZ.Zer0:

seriously tho the handling does differ, you can definitely tell, but the stats are determined by the base stats + upgrades, the stats are what counts. different ships have different base stats but with the right upgrades you can more or less make any ship into what you want it to be.

Yes, I took the two ships out for a spin each to compare them and they did feel noticeably different in handling. Think I feel more comfortable with the bigger one though, it has solid all-round performance (and much better jump distance) although the smaller one has the edge in terms of damage.

I'm currently experimenting with various upgrades.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

This is my best ship as it currently stands.. I'm still improving it though, it's not at its full damage capacity yet!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2858239304

[remid0d0s0]

Teensy ships are handy for flying through (big) caves and strafing for cobalt geodes, just sayin'

Originally posted by Shifty:

I just moved away from my starter ship and it was 5 mil to add storage, is that for 1 extra slot? Imstead I spent 3 mil to buy a ship that had 9 more slots, more tech/cargo space and all better stats except slightly lower damage. It is an explorer class though.

So far with my limited experience it seems cheaper to buy a more expensive ship and then upgrade it instead of the other way around?

It's definitely cheaper to buy a bigger ship than it is to make a smaller ship bigger.

I think slots top out at 300,000,000 units apiece. Best to use starship storage augementation tokens (from frigate missions etc) for those. It can be pricey to completely kit out a ship these days if you aren't regularly running frigates.

The exotic I use most of the time is 48+21+21 and has a trade price of 172.5M ... I'm sure I spent a billion or three on it, even using a bunch of storage tokens.

[taniwhat]

Scrapping A and S class ships has very good odds of getting starship storage augmentation modules.

[Giacomo]

Damn, I'm still at rookie numbers. Took me a fair few hours to save up to buy a 3mil ship let alone want to spend 5mil on one slot

[remid0d0s0]

Originally posted by pwalt:

Scrapping A and S class ships has very good odds of getting starship storage augmentation modules.

Yes! I think it's guaranteed actually.

[Lemurian1972]

Originally posted by Shifty:

Damn, I'm still at rookie numbers. Took me a fair few hours to save up to buy a 3mil ship let alone want to spend 5mil on one slot

Just to be clear, you should absolutely NOT be using cash to upgrade ship storage. Save up 10-20mil (the more the better since it will let you keep at it longer), go to a 3-star economy system (found by installing an economy scanner on your ship) and then go to the space station and buy ships and scrap them. (use your scanner tool on ships as they land to quickly see what Class they are- buy A or S rank that you can afford, then scrap)

This gives you mods you sell back to the vendor for nanites, junk you sell back to another vendor for cash, and the chance to get storage augments that you install in your favored ship.

[Jo]

Yes I always get storage augments back from scrapping high level ships. I'm not really a fan of Exotics but will buy them up occasionally when I see them purely to scrap them. About 6 million a piece for an exotic isn't pricey at all when you have a healthy bank balance!

[SotiCoto]

Originally posted by Jojo:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2858239304

Wait... YOUR ship is called Dragonfly?
My original playthrough of the game I had a ship called Dragonfly, though mine was a red Explorer. I never took any screenshots of it though. I had another one called Moth for my Permadeath run, and I did take screenies of that.
I like the bug-style explorers best, though I'm using a Fighter called Jet Black this time...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857776032
I mean.. my options are limited as there is only one Fighter nose design I like.

Anyhow, I'm still not sure what the "potential" is supposed to indicate. Jet Black apparently has really low damage potential, but I can still annihilate pirates easily with it.

Originally posted by pwalt:

Scrapping A and S class ships has very good odds of getting starship storage augmentation modules.

Ah... so that is how you get those.
Random question though: Can you only scrap your current ship from the ship edity thingie interface, or does it include all the ships you've collected?

I just upgraded my ship's storage in the Save Editor because I couldn't figure out how to get those modules...... AND I've been just erasing ships I didn't need any more with the Save Editor the same way... because I didn't know how to delete them, and figured the device in the station would delete my active ship and leave me stranded or something.
It is a very handy tool, the editor. Not like the manual editing I had to do back in 2017 when I got stranded in space without a ship or something from jet-packing through the upper atmosphere... um... sorry. Train of thought got away from me there. I did used to get stranded a lot back in my 2017 playthroughs though.