which would you rather have. . .

. . .for general gameplay nit including boarding actions:


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NaffNaffBobFace

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For general game-play the Raven, Eclipse and Prowler are a bit too overspecialized in my opinion anyway.

A ship that has EMP and 2x gunz. Nothing else.
A ship that has stealth and Torpedoz. Nothing else.
A ship that has some seats and a couple gunz and stealth. Not much else.

Vs

A ship with a bunch of gunz, a bunch of Torps, living space, beds to logout, toilets, a hangar, toilet rolls (hopefully), Big shields, Big armour, a bathroom mirror, a shower or something, cargo space, hangar for another ship (or two if they are little Auroras maybe?), kitchen for food prep, very likely to be longer range than any of those little ships... and a pool table.

Not much competition, even 3 on 1 the 1 seems to be a winner.
 

Bambooza

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If you already have the money in the game, get the biggest ship.

The smaller ships will be easier to get in-game.
I have to second Montoya with the biggest ship will have the capability to more quickly generate revenue to purchase the smaller ships in world. The only caveat i'd add would be to make sure you have enough starting UEC to help fund the start up costs so it might be beneficial to buy up some UEC to help fund it. Already in the alpha its apparent how hard it is to get trading going on a starting credit of 10k as even the cheapest commodity its still not enough to fill the cargo hold and return a profit equal to operating costs.
 

marcsand2

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the biggest ship will have the capability to more quickly generate revenue
I don't think that a Polaris will earn a lot of money. A trader: yes, a miner: yes, a research vessel: probably, but a warship? probably not. The upkeep will be higher then the income, but what you have you will keep. If it gets destroyed, during duty, it only will take time to get it back. Smaller ships are easier to earn / replace.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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I don't think that a Polaris will earn a lot of money. A trader: yes, a miner: yes, a research vessel: probably, but a warship? probably not. The upkeep will be higher then the income, but what you have you will keep. If it gets destroyed, during duty, it only will take time to get it back. Smaller ships are easier to earn / replace.
I played X2 for years and went through most of the play styles it had to offer, cargo trading small, cargo trading big, passenger transport A to B, tourist sight-seeing cruise through various systems, system patrol where you'd take out pirates/pirate bases, invasion repel where you would push back the Xenon or K'haak invading a system en-masse, tiny ships, small ships, medium ships, corvette and capital ships... I played the lottery every time it came up on the station notice boards too. All were viable play styles except for the lottery which I didn't damn well win once, the cargo could bring a big payday if you found a big score but it could also be barren if a system was well stocked with Silicone Wafers or whatever you had filled your hold with for the best price. The combat missions were better payers as you were risking your ass, and if your ship was too small for the mission (like taking on an Idris with an Aurora) they would laugh you out of the station and tell you to come back with a more capable craft. Importantly you could mix and match what you did. I did a balance of 60%/40% trading to combat to keep things fresh and not feel like such a grind until I got to the Capital ships and could do both at once because they had the big holds for cargo and the guns for carnage, and importantly the hangar to be able to hold a fighter and a smaller cargo ship for accessing stations and ferrying goods to and from the Mothership.

There will be money in all play styles, and the rewards will offset the risks, even in cargo running: So you find yourself hauling perishable cargo which will spoil and expire if it does not get to its destination quickly enough - you'll get paid better for getting it there sooner maintaining a better quality, and not get paid at all and loose your initial investment on the stock if it all goes rotten before you reach dock.

[theorycraft/]

I am hoping the UEE provides missions in the outlying parts of systems which are general peace keeping/patrol routes that importantly pay a Retainer so if there end up being no contacts and it is a peaceful patrol the ship will still make some good bank.

It's lore that the UEE is under strain to patrol all the systems they hold, and some of the outlying and less strategic or profitable systems are starting to become infested with racketeers and pirates. You don't need to destroy every target to convince a cartel it may be worth moving out of a certain area, just knock out their supply route for instance, and they are as good as gone. How long would a pirate base be able to operate without regular food, water and toilet paper deliveries before they would have to consider shipping out? A week? Two? Enough game play there to keep a few Polaris in entertainment and low risk work given the amount of pirate positions in a system... A Polaris can take out a Pirate Freelancer and a pair of escort Pirate Mustangs or 300's, can't it?

I would not be surprised if the UEE put out little jobs like clear out a pirate nest or escort a particularly vulnerable ship through this system or that jump point. Plenty of work for an armed ship in a dangerous universe.
[/theorycraft]
 
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Bambooza

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I don't think that a Polaris will earn a lot of money. A trader: yes, a miner: yes, a research vessel: probably, but a warship? probably not. The upkeep will be higher then the income, but what you have you will keep. If it gets destroyed, during duty, it only will take time to get it back. Smaller ships are easier to earn / replace.
I agree with you in part. Smaller ships will be easier to earn/replace and will have less overhead to allow for more mistakes to be made while not greatly affecting ones wallet.

But as @NaffNaffBobFace says
There will be money in all play styles, and the rewards will offset the risks,
Play to the strengths of the ship and I have a feeling it will be profitable. Of course the higher paying mission types that the Polaris would be most useful could be locked behind a rep wall. At which point having the available funds to power through the lower rep would significantly help speed up the process.
 

Blind Owl

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I was firmly camped in the "smaller ship" category for quite some time. But as Montoya points out, if you have the money in the game, go for the larger option.

You can easily aquire the other ships later on. And the prowler alone is worth more than half of the Polaris...for nowhere near the utility.

Don't get me wrong, I love the prowler, the eclipse and the raven. I'd love to have a stealth fleet. And at some point I may. But the Polaris my friend....

She's a beauty
 

Blind Owl

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I gotta agree with all that. My boggle is, with a Prowler, an Eclipse and a Raven you might just take a Polaris. That option is haunting me.
As it should. We have theorycrafted the shit outta capturing vessels. And that would be a prize worth bragging about. Hell, we may end up doing it just for the rush.

However, clarification on the whole "keep what you capture" I do believe is necessary. Especially before decisions are made towards buying a fleet that is primarily geared towards capture.
 

marcsand2

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I played X2 for years and went through most of the play styles it had to offer
I played X2 (or was it X3?) for a while. My main profession was production, but I always went out hunting. Preferably not destroying the enemy ships. My fleet existed mainly out of repaired ships. The art was not to pick the biggest gun and blow away a ship but to shoot it up so far that the pilot would abandon it.

As it should. We have theorycrafted the shit outta capturing vessels.
However, clarification on the whole "keep what you capture" I do believe is necessary.
Salvaging almost destroyed ships was my approach, but therefor I need a repair shop.

She's a beauty
That is the spirit, I buy ships because I love them, not because they can become useful.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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I played X2 (or was it X3?) for a while. My main profession was production, but I always went out hunting. Preferably not destroying the enemy ships. My fleet existed mainly out of repaired ships. The art was not to pick the biggest gun and blow away a ship but to shoot it up so far that the pilot would abandon it.
[what you catch is what you keep mechanics being in the air at the moment]
Salvaging almost destroyed ships was my approach, but therefor I need a repair shop.
Man I totally did that in X2, being able to pick up pirate M3 Pirate ships and transports in the early game was a total bonus. I found using the Area Of Effect weapons worked in X2. I got my factories in Presidents End up and running automatically with a host of Pirate cargo ships (After the Kh'aak had wiped the sector out).

I ended up with both Paranid capital shops bristling with AOA weapons, it was way OP but you gotta have something fun to roll in, you could take on an entire Xenon invasion in one of those things and not scratch the paint if you knew where to position yourself.

There was an urban legend that turned out to be true, that if you got the highest pilot rating the Xenon L capital ships became able to be captured like that, the captains abandoning ship :slight_smile: I never got to that level but had a lotta fun trying, imagine the pay-day if you became adept at captureing an L's? I always liked the Boron Ray though, that rotating tail was cool... the shark looked better with its double tail, but was a bit ropey in combat because of its turning speed.
 
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Shadow Reaper

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Salvaging almost destroyed ships was my approach, but therefor I need a repair shop.
Yeah, the Crucible is highly underrated, IMHO. One significant difference in SC may be though, that NPCs and especially PCs, will be less lilkely to abandon a damaged bird but may instead fight to the last breath, so boarding is called for.
 

MegaMonkey

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Yeah, the Crucible is highly underrated, IMHO. One significant difference in SC may be though, that NPCs and especially PCs, will be less lilkely to abandon a damaged bird but may instead fight to the last breath, so boarding is called for.
Unless there is a penalty on respawn :D though I'm not quite sure if they talked about it yet... like, in eve the idea is you have clones, what is their approach to getting killed in SC? You just wake up from a bad dream after too many beers?
 
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