Is there a better ship than the Barracuda?

[Anansi]

just beat the game with it. I prefer the speedy manueverable ships. With level 6 engines, defense and weapons I can go toe to toe with dreadnaughts. Plus 30 units of cargo space isn't bad either.

I went hammerhead, icarus than barracuda.

Any other cool exotic ships worth trying?

[Mad Magic]

Radovich

[ImHelping]

I think the Radovich is cool and all, but you gotta remember it can only aim 5 out of 7 of it's turrets at a broadside target.

Something to keep in mind if you are more interested in it's listed firepower than it's top speed for it's size.

[Starthief]

Where it comes to fast and nimble ships, I think I prefer the Scarab by a narrow margin over the Barracuda, with Sturville a close third. Those three aren't radically different in performance. I like having the extra turrets and hold space since broadsides weren't doing a lot for me anyway in the small ships.

Going up in size, the Dravius and the McKinley are my favorites. I liked the Radovich at first, but after it was killed twice in a row on a blockade run by 4 heavy fighters, I gave up on it.

Generally, I found my shields went down much less often in the smaller, faster ships, while I could still take on large enemies with mines. I had very little trouble in the McKinley or Blackgate though.

The Blackgate is definitely good, but I thought the smaller ships were more fun. To me its main purpose is an endgame marker. There aren't any fun goals after you can afford an all Mk6 Blackgate, so it's time to start a new campaign and remember how slow and annoying the Hammerhead with Mk0-1 gear is :D

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Starthief:

Where it comes to fast and nimble ships, I think I prefer the Scarab by a narrow margin over the Barracuda, with Sturville a close third. Those three aren't radically different in performance. I like having the extra turrets and hold space since broadsides weren't doing a lot for me anyway in the small ships.

The Scarab has 3 broadsides. It is tied with the starter ship for least broadsides in the game, of course it's broadesides don't to much. To be fair though, most early ships (even the Barraduca) starter sector top out at 4 broadsides anyways.

The Scarab IS a very cool ship for early on, tied Tennhousen for grand total amount of guns. I went with the Tennhousen because of it's better speed listings and because I was a cheapskate who didn't want to pay for 3 extra turrets at the time. Though I did wish I had more than 4 turrets for variety.

Massed broadsides are also less notable early in the game, before destroyers have started spawning. Which is another point in favor of the Scarab being a great ship early on. It just starts to fall off by comparison when ships start having a higher amount of guns total, and more secondary slots.

The Sturvile for example, may have 2 less turrets. But it's got twice the broadsides and a 3rd secondary slot to make life a little easier killing Dreadnaughts by comparison.

[Starthief]

Even 6 broadsides just sort of seems ineffectual IMHO. Against fighters and corvettes/light frigates, turrets are plenty. Against larger ships, mines (even with just 2 secondary ports) do far more damage than 6 neutron beams. I went through entire fights in the Sturville without even using broadsides, to be honest, but mostly I would use them for casually spamming them while also dropping mines right next to them.

WIth larger, slower ships, obviously broadsides are key.

[Anelyn]

Mines are great until you start fighting big ships that also use mines. And you will always be slowed from leech turrets and dump on (fired on) from every direction. So getting close to drop your mines becomes a double edged sword hehe :)

Scarab and other ships that have a decent amount of turrets positioned to focus fire on frontal arc and not on sides, is very effective at killing big ships from the blind spot - you don't need to use your broadside - well you can hit fighters on your sides with it etc - just sit there, deflector up when needed and let the turrets do all the work. Vanguard also works great to this extent and Damocles as well, because all turrets can fire in front cone arc.

While Barracuda for example, forces you to show your broadside to target(s) to hit with all 5 turrets (mainly because your high firepower comes from the group of 3 turrets at back and not the 2 frontal ones).

[Laz3456]

I am finding the word better a very subjective term in this game, for example I know the Scarab, Stuville and Barracuda are great ships but I have found myself still hankering after the Vanguard. I had it for most of my first play through as it has the right balance of speed, manoeuvrability, armour and firepower for the way I like to play but I do know it is not necessarily technically better than the others.

Cheers,

[Starthief]

Originally posted by Scumario:

I am finding the word better a very subjective term in this game...

Very true, the "best" ship overall is very much down to your own playstyle and tactics.

[mcqueen]

I'm a HUGE fan of the Baracuda, but later in the game you really start to feel the effect of its limited firepower vs. Dreds. Not that you can't kill them but it becomes a bit of a slog after awhile. :D

[apricot]

A speed-built Barracuda is also a great way of making money fast, as the courier mission can be done much quicker than combat missions of similar payout.

Barracuda + Mk6 engine/thruster/shields/booster + merchant guild subsystem that reduces engine EMP damage = can go through any ambush and blockade just ignoring all enemy fire, and keep racking up those $1M+ courier missions in Oceanus, one after the next. As others mentioned the slowest part of buying a Blackgate is earning the $50-100M for the Mk6 turrets alone, and playing courier build allows you to skip buying weapons and focus only on the speed/defense upgrades first.

Since I decided I wanna play a pure speed game I also picked the engine and thruster augs from the AI, making my ship even faster. But if you use Barracuda just as money making means to eventually get a Blackgate or similar, you probably want to opt for shield+shield booster augs instead, as they are of more importance to a capital ship.