I'm in the post-postgame. What type of starship should I be using?

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

I've been mostly focusing on Hauler, but I'm at the point where I could reasonably max out the storage on ANY ship. So now the question is, which ship provides the most utility? I feel like extra maneuverability and damage on the fighter could be useful especially on missions and against dreadnoughts, but on the other hand, an explorer could save me a lot of time and fuel warping around. Then there's exotic, solar, salvaged, alien, the starborn runner, and various other expedition rewards. I know I can switch ships basically anywhere I land, but its such a hassle, especially if I have to distribute various upgrade modules and supplies to ALL of them.

Should I just keep using the hauler, boring as it is? I don't even know if I need that much space, I've just been hanging onto a bunch of building materials anyway (stacks and stacks of ferrite dust, oxygen, magnetized ferrite, whatever seems to run out quickly) and it's not like I sell a lot of trade goods.

[Hykril Tynyx]

Exotic ships are considered to be some of the best all-rounders. Potentially good at every aspect of a starship if you can find the best upgrades to strategically put inside.

As many people have already said here - when you're at the endgame level of progress, the stats don't really matter all that much if you have all the good upgrades and maxed out your ship in every possible way, so it mostly comes down to what you "feel" is perfect for you.

Haulers have more storage space, but are rather clunky to control, especially in dogfights. Fighters are good damage dealers and very agile, but suck in other aspects. Shuttles are simply the worst possible choice. Solars are the next best choice after the Exotics in terms of overall stats. Explorers are bad at combat, but pretty nice in other aspects, especially hyperdrive jump range. Living ships are... an acquired taste, so to speak - they're not terrible, but don't really excel in any given aspect.

I'm more of an interceptor enjoyer myself because it's like a slightly less specialised (=better average stats) version of a fighter which has a very neat feature of being able to hover mid-air.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by Hykril Tynyx:

Haulers have more storage space, but are rather clunky to control, especially in dogfights. Fighters are good damage dealers and very agile, but suck in other aspects. Shuttles are simply the worst possible choice. Solars are the next best choice after the Exotics in terms of overall stats. Explorers are bad at combat, but pretty nice in other aspects, especially hyperdrive jump range.

Yeah see, some of those weaknesses can't be compensated with modules. That's what I'm most worried about. And depending what comes up, I won't always have the luxury of being able to just instantly switch ships.

Living ships are... an acquired taste, so to speak - they're not terrible, but don't really excel at any given aspect.

I just don't like living ships because they're lacking in upgrades. I don't even think they can get an equivalent for the infra-knife accelerator or rocket launcher. And even if they could, the rng is a pain.

I'm more of an interceptor enjoyer myself because it's like a slightly less specialised (=better average stats) version of a fighter which has a very neat feature of being able to hover mid-air.

I thought those also had specialized upgrades, but according to the wiki you can use them with normal ones. idk if the hover ability is that useful, but if it has good balance I might give it a try. The wiki also says "low launch cost" which is more important to me than warp range.

[Hykril Tynyx]

My interceptor has a warp range of ~1800 which is more than enough for my occasional humble travels. Infra-knife and rockets do most of the work in combat quite effectively with phase beam acting as a fallback weapon when I don't feel like using additional in-game menus to refill my shields. The storage space is big enough for me to have some essential refueling items and a bunch of various maps with plenty more room available for other stuff. The speed is excellent and the general manoeuvrability is good enough. I also barely ever have to refuel anything with all the upgrades. The hovering ability is quite nice when you're searching for something in particular on the planet or choosing a better spot to land, or simply getting lost in thought for a moment :D

The only problem with interceptors I'd say is they're random and finding an S-class one is quite a challenge considering how much time you need to invest in doing the prerequisites.

[maestro]

One thing to note about ships, is if you fly in first person, cockpits are different between ships.

Haulers have the 2nd worst cockpits behind shuttles, because it's hard to SEE anything while you're flying because the windows are so much smaller.

Meanwhile, explorers, living ships, and exotics have the best cockpits because they are so open with so little obstructions to your view. Fighters are a close second, but they're annoying in that their radio communicator panel (the one that tells you a pirate attack is about to happen) is in the very bottom-left and is only visible while you're flying fast.

Inventory Space does not matter because that's upgradeable with starship inventory upgrade items.

Stats can matter some, but with 3 S-Rank mods, you can make a shuttle good enough to take out wave 5 sentinels with some effort.

There's also extra bonuses on ship types that can't be gotten with mods:

Shuttles have decreased launch costs built into the ship (that stacks with mods), solar ships use way less tritium while pulse jumping (not that H3 is particularly hard to get) and also always comes in with a launch recharger without having to use another mod slot, haulers get a shield bonus, and sentinel ships can hover at 0 u/s in-atmosphere while no other ship (outside of two expedition-only ships) can.

So, in closing, choose your ship based on all the above combined with looks. I myself tend to wanna switch things up after awhile. Currently, I'm using the Starborn Runner but I may wind up with something else eventually.

[Noop]

Very cute how worried people are to not get the very best ship in a children's game that literally 5 year old kids could beat.
Then having 900+ hours in the game but not knowing what you like AND complaining about the guy who recommended using a glitch cuz "it cuts out huge portions of the game" while you said you are in endgame so there is literally nothing else to do.

If there ever was a thread where it's obvious that OP is very young it's this one LMAO

Bro this is a children's game. Just use whatever the ♥♥♥♥ you feel like today, and tomorrow you do smth different or not. who cares.

[maestro]

Not everybody likes using glitches and exploits in their game, despite how long they've been playing it.

I generally will only use exploits and glitches only to remove annoying features and/or unreasonable grind.

[wkitty42]

in answer to the original question, i would say whatever ship you like... they can all have 60x Tech slots and 120x Inventory slots... with the right mods, all can be fairly maneuverable and certainly win in any NPC battles...

FWIW: i have 3200+ hours in-game over 17 saves... that's fixing to be 18 saves when the new expedition starts... anyway, i fly a different Starship in all of them... after some ""midpoint"" where money is no object, everything mellows out and, for me, it doesn't matter what my Starship, Multi-Tool, or Freighter look like... they all go where i want and do what i want/need so i can get on with my base building and exploring

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by Hykril Tynyx:

The only problem with interceptors I'd say is they're random and finding an S-class one is quite a challenge considering how much time you need to invest in doing the prerequisites.

Somehow, I got another Interceptor that looked exactly like the Starborn Runner, and it had the Photonix Core too, but it was called the "Bashino's Lost Work". Since it was basically the same, and I didn't need two of them, ended up scrapping it at the space station (I kept the Photonix core though).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3419442992

I think I'd still rather use the mission reward than a random S class interceptor unless it looks exceptionally unusual.

Originally posted by maestro:

One thing to note about ships, is if you fly in first person, cockpits are different between ships.

Haulers have the 2nd worst cockpits behind shuttles, because it's hard to SEE anything while you're flying because the windows are so much smaller.

Meanwhile, explorers, living ships, and exotics have the best cockpits because they are so open with so little obstructions to your view. Fighters are a close second, but they're annoying in that their radio communicator panel (the one that tells you a pirate attack is about to happen) is in the very bottom-left and is only visible while you're flying fast.

I always use first person camera, for maximum immersion (plus the hud details that get lost in 3rd person). While my hauler is kind of annoying, I've never had a view bad enough to make me consider switching. Nonetheless, its a nice bonus to using something other than hauler.

Inventory Space does not matter because that's upgradeable with starship inventory upgrade items.

Stats can matter some, but with 3 S-Rank mods, you can make a shuttle good enough to take out wave 5 sentinels with some effort.

There's also extra bonuses on ship types that can't be gotten with mods:

Shuttles have decreased launch costs built into the ship (that stacks with mods), solar ships use way less tritium while pulse jumping (not that H3 is particularly hard to get) and also always comes in with a launch recharger without having to use another mod slot, haulers get a shield bonus, and sentinel ships can hover at 0 u/s in-atmosphere while no other ship (outside of two expedition-only ships) can.

So, in closing, choose your ship based on all the above combined with looks. I myself tend to wanna switch things up after awhile. Currently, I'm using the Starborn Runner but I may wind up with something else eventually.

OK this is definitely the kind of help I was looking for. I'll probably stick to the SR.

Originally posted by Noop:

Very cute how worried people are to not get the very best ship in a children's game that literally 5 year old kids could beat.

If there ever was a thread where it's obvious that OP is very young it's this one LMAO

Bro this is a children's game. Just use whatever the ♥♥♥♥ you feel like today, and tomorrow you do smth different or not. who cares.

"Children's game" what does that even mean? Just because it doesn't have realistic gore or sex scenes? Just because it's not M rated doesn't mean you need to belittle adults for playing it. Why are you even here if it's so immature?

Then having 900+ hours in the game but not knowing what you like

I've gotten complacent with the hauler, and I didn't feel like using every ship type in the game. Plus I can never decide what "looks" the best when there's so many options and you can't just freely switch ship parts like you can with the appearance modifier.

AND complaining about the guy who recommended using a glitch cuz "it cuts out huge portions of the game" while you said you are in endgame so there is literally nothing else to do.

It doesn't matter if it's the endgame or not, I don't want to be a lazy cheat. I can still do this the right way.

Originally posted by wkitty42:

it doesn't matter what my Starship, Multi-Tool, or Freighter look like... they all go where i want and do what i want/need so i can get on with my base building and exploring

I really don't like how my multi-tool looks, but at least you have the option of selecting staff parts, and all mts are mostly the same, you're not missing out on utility and they all can be upgraded the same way. My freighter sucks (still c class), but without using exploits or portals it's too hard to find an S rank, and if I switch, I lose all the storage slots I've installed

[taniwhat]

Starborn Runner/Starborn Phoenix/Sentinel ship. Because 'Hover'

The main differentiation between S-class sentinels is obviously how much of whatever they can do but in practice for many it's how clear the view from the cockpit is. For me that's a don't care, for some it matters.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by taniwhat:

Starborn Runner/Starborn Phoenix/Sentinel ship.

Ugh I didn't see the announcement for starborn phoenix and now I can't get it :(

[maestro]

Originally posted by Batabii • M&L: Brothership:

Originally posted by taniwhat:

Starborn Runner/Starborn Phoenix/Sentinel ship.

Ugh I didn't see the announcement for starborn phoenix and now I can't get it :(

Not a huge deal, it's basically the same thing, only gold plated.

I would not be surprised if it were possible to edit your "Account Save" (the save data that tracks stuff across all your saves, such as expeditions completed) to enable that ship in-game just like the Expedition Rewards.

But if you don't like glitching/cheating/exploiting, then you might not want to do this, but just throwing it out there.

I think it's kinda silly to offer an actual DLC for limited time, esp if it was free.

[Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD]

Originally posted by maestro:

I think it's kinda silly to offer an actual DLC for limited time, esp if it was free.

especially when I didn't even see anything about it in my Notifications. I didn't play the game during the redux expeditions. If I knew about it, I would have logged in right away. It wasn't even available for one full week.

[Pocket Dog]

Fly whatever you want, there's no wrong or right. I largely fly ships based off of aesthetics, because NMS is so easy that the differences in ship types are pretty negligible at the end of the day.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Thick Milky:

Fly whatever you want, there's no wrong or right. I largely fly ships based off of aesthetics, because NMS is so easy that the differences in ship types are pretty negligible at the end of the day.

Largely depends on the settings.

Try max difficulty and max technology damage and see if you think the game is so easy.

[Pocket Dog]

Originally posted by maestro:

Originally posted by Thick Milky:

Fly whatever you want, there's no wrong or right. I largely fly ships based off of aesthetics, because NMS is so easy that the differences in ship types are pretty negligible at the end of the day.

Largely depends on the settings.

Try max difficulty and max technology damage and see if you think the game is so easy.

I'm talking about the core settings, tough guy. The OP never mentioned playing with the 'hard' settings, so I assumed he was playing on normal difficulty, and on said difficulty, ship type is largely irrelevant.