Opinions On Dreadnaughts

[Gandroid]

This is my first playthrough. I'm getting close to my first dreadnaught, so I wanted to hear some opinions on their effectiveness. I tend to do a mixture of trade missions, but I've found myself primarily doing Militia and Citizenrey missions. I did a lot of mining early on. I've hit the point where missions are more profitable, and enjoyable. I'm leaning towards the Blackgate in the long run, as I've had pretty good times with super-heavy ships.

[Geek]

I prefer the Polaris over the Blackgate. It may have the highest stats, but due to the ship size, the weapons are scattered around the ship, and that makes it not effective against swarms of smaller foes. Plus the Polaris turn significantly faster.

[Duneman]

Their size makes them a bit more prone to being hit, so make sure you've maxed the defensive systems available to you. That size also means that some of the turrets on certain models can't effectively strike at enemies depending on their angle.

Their main strength though is in the broadsides. With up to 20 cannon ports firing every second most weaker enemy ships die in 1 or 2 shots. The Mercenary Guild offers broadside system enhancements which can further boost their DPS.

If you enjoy turrets more then Destroyers aren't a bad pick. E.g. the Arcturus is flat so anything on a level plane with the ship, or above it, gets shot. The Merchant's Guild also has a model with 7 broadsides and 12 turrets, along with a mega-sized cargo hold.

[Gandroid]

I've been using a Mckinley which I've enjoyed. It's pretty large and slow, but I enjoy the huge hold for merchants guild runs. I've focused pretty heavily on defenses. I have a good amount of weapon boosting components, and have hit Mark V with all of my defenses. My weapons are still mostly Mark IV. I was leaning toward the Polaris just because of the shape and speed. The Blackgate seems really wide. Is the Sorcerer really as terrible as people say? Shame for such a cool looking ship. Also, would it be better to splurge on my weapons before moving on to a dreadnaught? I have about 5 mil saved up. I really enjoy devestating broadsides. Battles are a little boring when I rely too much on my turrets.

[Duneman]

The Sorcerer definitely suffers in the ways I mentioned.

The Blackgate actually isn't too bad. It seems really wide, but the ship is largely flat so the turrets have good coverage. With 20 cannon ports its broadside attacks can be devastating.

If you're in one of the Mk5 systems, like Vengeance, then try doing some Dead Drop missions for the Merchant Guild, or the 'paired warp drive' escort missions for the Mercenary Guild. The former can be an easy 1 million credits if you use a Null Grav Booster to run away from the enemies that show up. The latter take longer but tend to have good drop rates for enemy ship systems, which can include captured alien tech(generally seems to have a 20% performance boost compared to the same Mk of store bought items).

Since most of the Mk5 items are between 1 and 2 million you can outfit your ship at a steady rate.

[Cookie]

If you don't have MK6 yet, don't look at dreadnoughts. In fact, I wouldn't even move up to destroyers until everything is MK5 or higher.

[WillieSea]

Originally posted by Cookie:

If you don't have MK6 yet, don't look at dreadnoughts. In fact, I wouldn't even move up to destroyers until everything is MK5 or higher.

Sound advice.

Game difficulty is based on your ship, not the components in your ship.

[Wandering Mania]

Originally posted by Duneman:

The Sorcerer definitely suffers in the ways I mentioned.

Funny you should say that as I found that the Sorcerer is a lot easier to handle than the Blackgate in a few ways.
A: It's thiner and don't hit things nearly as often.
B: It does have a faster turn rate than the Blackgate.
C: if you use Flack turrets on the front nose, back and sides with lazers on the top it is very deadly.

The only downside to the Sorc I have found is camara angle (because of it's hight) as most the time you can't see if missles are incoming or have hit.

[Geek]

Originally posted by WillieSea:

Game difficulty is based on your ship, not the components in your ship.

Nope.
Difficulty is mostly based on location and at a smaller degree on the overall value (ship and all components except software).

[Cookie]

Yes, it factors both your ship and the value of your equipment. So that means you're much better off spending millions on upgrading from MK4 to MK6 (roughly doubling your stats overall) as opposed to getting a bigger ship with the weaker equipment.

[Cookie]

To respond to the OP more directly, my opinion is that dreadnoughts are the carrots dangled just out of reach during most of the game. By the time you can afford one with even MK5 equipment, there just isn't anything left to do but get more money or farm pirate lords for rare weapons. If you didn't enjoy the journey to acquiring a dreadnought, there's nothing left for you afterward. Just the same old routine missions to do, now in a completely overpowered ship with practically no risk.

As far as effectiveness goes, it really depends on how you like to use capships. The game is very well designed and well balanced for flying smaller ships. But I discovered very early on (first playthrough, first system, Mastadon) that one of the most effective strategies overall is to have the longest range weapons with good endurance mobility (null grav booster). Picking off targets of opportunity at max range isn't the max DPS you can achieve, but it's incredibly safe. Many targets won't even be able to fight back with just a bit of cash invested in range increases.

[Duneman]

Originally posted by Wandering Mania:

[The Sorcerer] does have a faster turn rate than the Blackgate.
. . .
The only downside to the Sorc I have found is camara angle (because of it's hight) as most the time you can't see if missles are incoming or have hit.

I found that ship turn speeds vary only a little if you cut back to the first 'gear' or a full stop when making sharp turns. Between that and a Null Grav Booster to kickstart movement in a new direction the Dreadnoughts are fairly maneuverable.

Personally I also would NOT wait until you have Mk6 equipment to get a Dreadnought. Mk5 is a pricing sweet spot that allows you fill all the turrets without much issue. Because a lot of the Merchant and Mercenary Guild missions at the Mk5 level pay about 1 million it's only 1-2 missions for that next weapon. Then you can leverage the full dozen or more Mk5 turrets for escort missions in a Mk6 system to help hunt for captured tech. Since the Mk6 items are 3-4 million each it takes a long time to fill them out.

[Cookie]

MK5 turrets and broadside maybe. I wouldn't recommend flying a Blackgate with MK5 defenses. You'll get thrashed by some of the highest difficulty missions, e.g. taking on Krunk's Dreadstar.

[Duneman]

Originally posted by Cookie:

MK5 turrets and broadside maybe. I wouldn't recommend flying a Blackgate with MK5 defenses. You'll get thrashed by some of the highest difficulty missions, e.g. taking on Krunk's Dreadstar.

Yeah, when I went for the Blackgate I had enough funds for Mk6 cannons, shield, deflector, hull, and booster.

[Wandering Mania]

Originally posted by Duneman:

Originally posted by Cookie:

MK5 turrets and broadside maybe. I wouldn't recommend flying a Blackgate with MK5 defenses. You'll get thrashed by some of the highest difficulty missions, e.g. taking on Krunk's Dreadstar.

Yeah, when I went for the Blackgate I had enough funds for Mk6 cannons, shield, deflector, hull, and booster.

That's also why I useally farm missions in a destroyer untill all equip is Mk6. Then go for a dreadnaught. Because you still have to fillout the extra turret ports.

[Gandroid]

Wow this is all great advice, thanks guys. I was wondering why I was getting rocked on "average" missions. I've been sticking to low and very low. Looks like I'll be focusing on equipment for a while. I do really like the look of the Arcturus, I'll probably stick with it for much longer on my next playthrough. I've had muuuuuch easier going having fully upgrade to full Mark V equipment on my cruiser. Feel kinda silly in retrospect.