Buying first new ship

[W]

I've learned the mechanics enough to start making decent money. I have enough to purchase a new ship. I clicked on the ship I want and saw the only listed component was the engine. Do new ships come fitted out with basic components? Should I wait until I have money to buy components for the ship too?

[Triphemia]

Ships do come with a full set of components. (Component slots can never be empty. They always have some component in them.) But usually not very high-end ones. While the latest patch gives more details when buying a ship than previously, you will still need to check out the wiki to see what its exact starting loadout is.

The usual advice is to save up twice the purchase price of a new ship and use the extra to queue up upgrades in drydock while you continue to operate your old ship for a while.

[Grimelord82]

Interleaper is correct. I'd go so far as to say you want 3x the purchase price. Engineers and Princes can decrease ship buying cost by 15%+ and 15% total...so he's still right, hah!
Definitely check the Wiki out. You are going to have to dig a bit to find what you want: https://startraders.gamepedia.com/Ships

The Wolf Vector is loved for the Behemoth engine it has.
The Galtak Heavy has a Large slot passenger suite.
Degla Megalift starts with a salvaging module
Raptor Class has a good officer/crew to mass ratio and is accessible.
Horizon Highliner appears on paper to be a merchant TANK. I haven't used one before unlike the other 3 listed. The 2x Cargohold 4 is worth 450k in upgrades and half a year in time by itself.

What is it you want to do?

[davea]

If you are not playing on permadeath, I highly recommend using a save slot when you are ready to buy a ship. Then just buy the ship and look at its loadout. If you don't like that one reload from the save slot and buy another ship. It's a big enough investment that it is worth experimenting.

(Even on permadeath, you can zip the save game directory and do the same trick. I still recommend this for this one time purchase.) (In other games you can really see enough of what you would be getting, but here you cannot really see the loadout without purchasing it.)

[Trese Brothers]

You want 3X the purchase price if you expect to upgrade it fully before you fly it. This expectation is likely set by the ship you are currently flying. If it isn't that well upgraded, you might not need to do that much to the new one before swapping up. Depending, but definitely have extra cash. And time, as the upgrades will queue while the ship sits in drydock.

[W]

Originally posted by Grimelord82:

Interleaper is correct. I'd go so far as to say you want 3x the purchase price. Engineers and Princes can decrease ship buying cost by 15%+ and 15% total...so he's still right, hah!
Definitely check the Wiki out. You are going to have to dig a bit to find what you want: https://startraders.gamepedia.com/Ships

The Wolf Vector is loved for the Behemoth engine it has.
The Galtak Heavy has a Large slot passenger suite.
Degla Megalift starts with a salvaging module
Raptor Class has a good officer/crew to mass ratio and is accessible.
Horizon Highliner appears on paper to be a merchant TANK. I haven't used one before unlike the other 3 listed. The 2x Cargohold 4 is worth 450k in upgrades and half a year in time by itself.

What is it you want to do?

I'm playing as a merchant as I learn the game.

[Event Horizon]

Originally posted by Grimelord82:

Interleaper is correct. I'd go so far as to say you want 3x the purchase price. Engineers and Princes can decrease ship buying cost by 15%+ and 15% total...so he's still right, hah!
Definitely check the Wiki out. You are going to have to dig a bit to find what you want: https://startraders.gamepedia.com/Ships

The Wolf Vector is loved for the Behemoth engine it has.
The Galtak Heavy has a Large slot passenger suite.
Degla Megalift starts with a salvaging module
Raptor Class has a good officer/crew to mass ratio and is accessible.
Horizon Highliner appears on paper to be a merchant TANK. I haven't used one before unlike the other 3 listed. The 2x Cargohold 4 is worth 450k in upgrades and half a year in time by itself.

What is it you want to do?

Tbh all that info should be available ingame.

It could be either an option to preview ship components/skill pools or a quick summary along the lines of those which are given when starting a new game and selecting a ship. Preferably both of these things at the same time.

[Grimelord82]

I agree Watcher. The extra ship info we got in the last release is moving the right direction but we still need more about the "rare or unique" features of each ship.

It sounds like OP will want a merchant vessel like the Galtak Freighter / Galtak Heavy / Horizon Highliner. If they haven't unlocked much, then it will be the Heavy.

It will be very low on Electronics (defense) initially, but those modules take 3 days to install and are available most places.
Arcanum Freighter also has 3x Cargo4 pods, so it will need the electronics modules as well but otherwise looks great for the 5k mass. It is Zenrin only, so start as them/be friendly with them.

All this said, it's just as important to have decent trade permits with several factions if you want to trade heavily. Eventually you'll get contacts who have Rare Trade Goods. I think each primary faction zone has 1 type, like Locusts in Fifth Pass available to Cadar and Steelsong.