Flagship or Habitat from new origin

[Segovax]

So after finishing the archaeology site in Payback:

The option to restore the battleship from the new origin is to either take a flagship, or a habitat.

Restoring the flagship gives you a cruiser you can't merge. Anyone know yet if there are options later to upgrade that further, or is it just a huge disparity between reward choices?

[Malkuth]

It matters what path your going down.
If Peaceful you want the Habitat to help build up your empire faster (its slow)and you pay the money.
If your going for war, you want that ship because of the Debt Collectors sending fleets to collect because you won't pay, you get a nice warship. That can hold its own against the first few attacks

Not sure if doing the archaeology site (I did it right off with first ship) starts the timer for the collectors to come, or if its by date. At either way they came for me at 2015. And 15 years after that.

[CrUsHeR]

The "habitat" is more like a ring world, with 10 max districts. Played a Megacorp so the 5000 bucks are nothing to pay the collectors.

Meh... and then the third Zroni digsite spawned in a system just being colonized by another empire. Still the same unplayable trash as always.

[Segovax]

Originally posted by Malkuth:

It matters what path your going down.
If Peaceful you want the Habitat to help build up your empire faster (its slow)and you pay the money.
If your going for war, you want that ship because of the Debt Collectors sending fleets to collect because you won't pay, you get a nice warship. That can hold its own against the first few attacks

Not sure if doing the archaeology site (I did it right off with first ship) starts the timer for the collectors to come, or if its by date. At either way they came for me at 2015. And 15 years after that.

But that ship is pure garbage. It's unupgradable, can't combine with other fleets, 600 fleet power. By the time the debt collectors get there 10 corvettes are on hand and tear them apart.

So a garbage cruiser vs a juiced up habitat with 10 districts and a passive +10% research just makes me wonder if there is some kind of situation to upgrade it later like the Grand Herald, or if it's just laziness on the dev side and simply a garbage ship.

[Lux Imperia]

Dev diary said it upgrades

[ThatGuy1979]

askin the important questions

[Volvary]

Originally posted by Lux Imperia:

Dev diary said it upgrades

To people playing this Origin and going the Flagship direction, REMOVE YOUR ADMIRAL before Upgrading your Flagship, as the game currently kills the Admiral while upgrading

[Segovax]

Originally posted by Lux Imperia:

Dev diary said it upgrades

Thank you, appreciate it.

[Malkuth]

Ya the flagship upgrades, and the Collector fleet actually seems to cap out after a bit to only about 4K.
starting to regret taking it though, the habitat seems to be a much better deal for getting science from it, and your payments are only 5K, until you kill off the Mega Corp. The sucky part is after you do go to war with the MegaCorp the collector fleet also keeps coming every 15 years or so direct to your capital, until you kill the MC. So you have to keep your cap protected.

[Segovax]

Originally posted by Malkuth:

Ya the flagship upgrades, and the Collector fleet actually seems to cap out after a bit to only about 4K.
starting to regret taking it though, the habitat seems to be a much better deal for getting science from it, and your payments are only 5K, until you kill off the Mega Corp. The sucky part is after you do go to war with the MegaCorp the collector fleet also keeps coming every 15 years or so direct to your capital, until you kill the MC. So you have to keep your cap protected.

Yeah. I have noticed it upgrades every time you research a new hull option, at least up to cruiser so far. It's a single cruiser with tier 2 weapons and tier 3 defenses but powers out at 8k... it's basically a floating starbase, and not as useful as the habitat. It's neat to have the way an L-drake is neat to have, but it's like having an L-drake or a size 10 relic ringworld segment. If it was a titan like the Grand Herald that is soft locked to something like 50-75 years after, it would be more useful, but as it is.. seems meh. Better than a trash ship at least.

by the time the debt collectors hit 4k you can have a fleet of 20 vettes with autocannons parked at home, though I took unyielding and threw a couple hangar bays in the upgraded starhold.

[lancegan]

The flag ship is great at taking out star bases flooding them with aircraft once you upgrade it once or twice. It does upgrade several times and the icon I see makes me think its equal to a titan more than anything else, but smarter since it didn't get hit once as it took out all of the MSI bases. Plus it cloaks so you can use it as a spy right off the bat. OP for sure.

[mortache]

Not only is the ship upgradeable, but it has kinetic and strike craft, which is good enough for a synergy instead of being a mix of random components like other event ships. The ship saved my butt against a year 10 war from a F. Xenophobe neighbor whom I later vassalized using this ship. And then I turned around and made MSI my tributary. Size 10 habitat is nice and all, but without Voidborne perk can you even build more than 3-4 labs on it? Meanwhile after researching Destroyers in year 30 this ship became a 4.5k fleet by itself, and there are advantages to having such a ship. A 4.5k fleet in year 30 would cost a LOT, and it would take losses in battle and drive up the attrition. Not to mention that the ship has cloaking, so you can get inside empires who closed their borders to you.

[Aethrys]

Habitat is overall better, because it's got research districts and it occupies it's own space, meaning you can still build orbital rings or another habitat over your capital. Some people justified the flagship because of the debt collectors, but you can easily fight them off with defense platforms on your starbase.

[mortache]

Originally posted by Aethrys:

Some people justified the flagship because of the debt collectors, but you can easily fight them off with defense platforms on your starbase.

The Debt collectors are pretty weak and can be beaten by just the starhold at least until year 30, but the power spike from the ship is great if it's immediately used for war. No AI except for the genocidal ones are capable of defending against such a force before year 20, and if there are genocidal empires I'm definitely taking the ship

[CrUsHeR]

Originally posted by mortache:

Size 10 habitat is nice and all, but without Voidborne perk can you even build more than 3-4 labs on it?

You don't build labs, you build districts. So with one habitation district for support jobs, you get 9x3=27 reseacher jobs, the designation gives +10% and the habitat itself has a +10% feature.

That's the same like an ecumenopolis can do with 4-5 full upgraded research labs. Though these districts don't have exotic gas upkeep.

[Dazzy_D]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

You don't build labs, you build districts.

You can build labs AND districts. As with all habitats, you have a number of open building slots in which you can build research labs, as well as the institute.

For the original question, the flagship is pretty good when fully upgraded and, depending on how you play, can be your only military ship for many many years with a high enough power rating to prevent hostiles from declaring war against you. It's a good cloakable ship that upgrades (free of charge, using constructor ship missions) a few times when you unlock better hulls and becomes quite powerful

For the habitat, you can use it for anything but the best choice is probably pure science. All 10 districts for science, maybe a holo theatre for amenities to keep the population happy (unless you use something else for happiness), a research institute then fill the rest of the slots with labs, upgrade the labs to complexes and then advanced complexes when the tech is unlocked and finally have any scientist in a scout ship* supporting the habitat's research for the 10-30% bonus (depending on their level) which is on top of the 10% 'Technology Cache' that comes with the habitat. That pumps out a HUGE amount of research and can be the only research habitat/planet you'll need until you get into the late game (depending on playstyle, of course).

* While you still have the debt collector's active, make sure you move the science ship away from the habitat or have it cloaked when the collectors are due to arrive because they insta-appear above your capital and will vapourise the scout ship the instant combat begins, which can be annoying if you have a high level scientist commanding it as you'll have to train up another.

If there are any housing issues, you might need to throw in a single Luxury Apartment (upgraded to Paradise Domes when the tech unlocks) in place of a lab to ensure there are enough houses for the workers. LAs and PDs also kick out a few amenities on top of the housing so you could use that instead of the holo theatre. You shouldn't need to waste a district on housing that way.

Basically, how are you playing your game? Which will help that playstyle more? A kickass flagship that can be quite deadly when used correctly and will help remove many xenos from existence when they're stupid enough to be living on your future territory or a beast of a research facility that starts a little slow and expensive but, once you're settled and your empire is underway, will help evolve your population and technology up to near god-like status so you have others ways of removing those selfish xenos who are squatting on your property?