Favorite ship for performing missions

[JungleJim]

I'm still new to the game and the most expensive ship that I own is an Areus. I was wondering what ships people prefer for making money in VegaStrike.

Cap Ships extermination -
I think it's obvious that the Goddard is by far the best ship for capital ship extermination. How much would it take to buy & reasonably equip one of these?


Star Ship extermination -
Would the Goddard be good for this? How about when facing like 18 star ships? What are good high & low priced alternatives for bounty missions? Does it matter, or do you just pick a system with a Kahan and lead the baddies to it?

Cargo ships -
For either buying & selling or taking cargo missions, what do you prefer? Does it matter? For instance could you take your starting Llama, slap a cloak on it and do any of these missions?

Other ships of interest-
Are there other ships that you've found are great for other duties I haven't mentioned here?


Thanks for your tips

[energyman76b]

Hi,

the goddard is the best ship, you can get. It has a lot of torps and weapon mounts and enough storage to serve as a reliable cargo ship.
If you want to hunt cap ships, the heavy torpedo load and the weaponry makes it a perfect cap-ship killer.
If you are more into hunting down swarms of starships, the goddard is again perfect for the job. While your enemies try desperatly to get close enough, your turrets will hack them to pieces.
Or you want some trading, 500 tons of space should be enough to satisfy your desires. HArd to get that full anyway


But: the goddard is not very agile. So you will spend a lot of money for extras.

[jackS]

Or you want some trading, 500 tons of space should be enough to satisfy your desires. HArd to get that full anyway

That's actually 500 cubic meters of storage space, not 500 tons. You can put as much mass into that space as you feel like (although you won't accelerate too fast if you do )

[energyman76b]

Hi,

yeah, my mistake

Oh, I found another reason why the goddard is a cool ship: it is faster (in combat mode) than most of the other ships.

[JungleJim]

Are there any similar "Best Buy" ships for the less wealthy? For instance when I got ~$1 M, I bought a Dosteovsky. When I got to ~$3 M I bought & equipped an Areus. Both do quite nicely against 1-4 other ships but get creamed quickly if I get jumped by more.

Right now I use 3x Razor Guns + 1 Reaper, Heat Seekers + 1 Torpedo. I haven't got the hang of using the torpedo yet (although I did get 1 fantastic shiot in which I killed 5 other Areus with 1 torpedo!).

Thanks,

[IxianMace]

I'm still new to the game and the most expensive ship that I own is an Areus. I was wondering what ships people prefer for making money in VegaStrike.

My personal favourite is the Areus. It can pack medium to heavy weapons, turns fairly well, and is capable of using torpedoes. Although it doesn't a hull as sturdy as the Goddard, can't pack as many weapons, and can't be equipped with turrets, I've found that it more effective overall, for all purposes, in dangerous and not so dangerous situations.

Cap Ships extermination -
I think it's obvious that the Goddard is by far the best ship for capital ship extermination. How much would it take to buy & reasonably equip one of these?

I really have to disagree on the capital ship extermination part, but if you really like the Goddard, the price varies from roughly 2.3 - 3 million credits. I recommend having a minimum of at least 2 million credits more on hand, to purchase various enhancements/weapons/etc. In short, you'll need 5 million or more credits overall, before you can think about starting to seriously equip this ship with the best hardware.

Star Ship extermination -
Would the Goddard be good for this? How about when facing like 18 star ships? What are good high & low priced alternatives for bounty missions? Does it matter, or do you just pick a system with a Kahan and lead the baddies to it?

The Goddard does pretty well on its own against small fighters, but in my opinion, it's vulnerable to being out maneouvred by multiple smaller vessels in a full blown skirmish with no backup. The turrets do help to alleviate this problem, but you do need some degree of micromanagement to effectively utilize them, and in the heat of combat, you'll probably overlook or forget about them, not to mention that killing enemies quickly will be essential, since you may slowly be being worn down.

My personal favourite small ship killer is the Ariston. Fully decked out with autotracking mounts (you'll have to purchase the upgrade for each mount if you buy the non-military spec version of this ship, but it's worth it!), this ship is extremely lethal to anything less than a Mule or a Goddard. Against Mules, this ship totally murders them in the hands of a skilled pilot, disable all of the Mules turrets, or simply match speed with the Mule and sit outside the range of its beam turrets while you unleash a torrent of punishment on it. Disrupter beams on all six of the standard medium mounts combined with autotracking is almost guaranteed death to any small vessel that you can catch. Aera military spec Penetrator guns on all six of the standard medium mounts combined with autotracking is just overkill... a direct hit from one burst of this combination is enough to do severe damage, depending on the ship you're targetting, the shields on one side will either completely collapse and the hull and armour will take heavy damage, or the ship will just split apart! One shot from all six guns and that's all it takes, they won't even know what hit them.

The high turn rate of the Ariston compared to the Goddard makes it an easy choice when deciding what you want to take into battle. The only thing you really have to worry about is your shield level, as your hull and armour can't take much damage. I've single handedly beaten a swarm of over 20 Luddites Redeemers by killing each ship very quickly. Choose only the best upgrades if you pilot this ship, you don't have much cargo space for enhancements. Although you won't be able to use torpedoes with this ship, the high amount of weapons you can pack here make up for it, the difference being that you'll only be able to do a lot of cumulative damage over time, whereas the torpedo simply delivers one big wallop in a very short amount of time.

Cargo ships -
For either buying & selling or taking cargo missions, what do you prefer? Does it matter? For instance could you take your starting Llama, slap a cloak on it and do any of these missions?

The Llama is a fine ship for performing cargo runs/missions. The first thing I do after I've loaded up my starting Llama with a better reactor, shields, and weapons (in that order, as a bare minimum to increase the chances of survival), is look for a cloaking device. Once you equip your Llama with a cloaking device, you should be able to cruise the systems with ease, and do pure cargo runs/missions to rapidly increase your credits, then think about purchasing your next ship/better equipment/etc etc.

Of course, ships with low amounts of cargo space should be kept away from (below 35 units of storage is unacceptable in my opinion, if you plan to haul cargo in your ship and mount enhancements and upgrades on it. The Ariston is one such ship that should not be considered for hauling cargo at all, it's a pure interceptor/ship killer in my opinion.

Other ships of interest-
Are there other ships that you've found are great for other duties I haven't mentioned here?

The Areus, Ariston, and Goddard are the only ships really worth considering in my opinion.

The Areus is my favourite overall ship of choice, since I can do anything in it with ease, from dogfighting, to 'small capital ship' killing (Corvettes, Mules, Lodur, etc), and it has a decent sized cargo hold for mounting many enhancements and hauling cargo.

It is torpedo capable, turns fairly well, packs a great deal of firepower, and yet can still be used for cargo missions. Everything you need to 'do it all', as far as I can tell.

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The Ariston seems to be centered on pure firepower, delivering enormous amounts of damage, without having the capability to use torpedoes. This ship is best used for killing small vessels, but can also be used against larger ships like Mules and Corvettes with great success. Since this is the most fragile ship of the three ships I like, I focus on scoring kills as quickly as possible, to spend the least time in combat under fire. Given the fact that this ship can be outfitted to do huge amounts of damage against small craft (excluding torpedoes) with autotracking mounts, it's perfect for quick assassination jobs.

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It seems the Goddard is a popular ship for most people, and I'm guessing that this is because of the high amount of torpedoes and missiles this ship can carry, along with its range of light, medium, and heavy beam weapons. This ship is also the only ship here that can be equipped with turrets. It has the strongest hull, and an excellent shield, along with plenty of space for cargo/addons. If your reputation with the Aera isn't very good, and you really don't want to spend anymore time in the Llama, then I would recommend this ship as your first new ship purchase, since it's a good piece of hardware in general, if you have the money to spare.

I prefer the slightly better rate of the Areus, and its weapon capabilities compared to the Goddard, and since I never purchase hull and armour upgrades and invest heavily in shielding, I'm not really bothered by the fact that the Areus has a lot less hull than the Goddard. Additionally, I've never really found the need for so many torpedo mounts on the Goddard, I've only needed the capability to fire torpedoes, so the single heavy missile mount on the Areus also agrees with my style of play.

(The only time I've completely emptied the Goddard's missile and torpedo tubes was when I was destroying a factory, I didn't need to, I just felt like it).

Finally, I'd advise you to stay away from the large capital ships, like the Ox and the Clydesdale. They're no fun to fly in my opinion, unless you like waiting and admiring the scenery around you for extended periods of time.

So really, whichever ship you purchase (not necessarily on this list) depends on what you want to do. Even a cloaked Llama is very effective at hauling cargo, but... who wants to stay in the Llama forever?

I hope that isn't too much to read.

[energyman76b]

Hi,

I usually use the llama until I have nough money for a goddard

The llama is not a bad ship, exspecially, if you invest in a lot of upgrades.

The Aeran ships don't have much cargo space. And upgrading them becomes a hell of compromises. Do I want the repair ai or the ecm3 or the shild upgrade?
And shilds alone are not enough.
If you want to kill fleets of plowshares a robust ship is a must. This little suckers just are soo hard to kill. The time you need to kill a couple of them, the rest is using making little holes in your hull.
The torp-slots are great for storing storm, hail and friend&foe

[pueblo]

the goddard is not the only ship which can be mounted with turrets. The franklin and its 3 turrets should not be overlooked.

[energyman76b]

But the franklin only has type 2 shielding - and the pd-turrets are not sooo mighty. A franklin is a nice ship, if you can not get a goddard.

[Guest]

could someone tell me please: which faction sells the goddard

[Nevita]

Any human or pro-human faction (Andolian, K'lkk, Unadorned, etc.). I've noticed however that Goddards tend only to be sold at Starfortresses, so if you want one you may have to find a Starfortress.

[Ygarl]

Any idea why I can't get VS to let me put a Cloak on my Llama (or any other ship I have!)

Am I doing something wrong? I try to buy it, and it says I can't fit it.
I'm playing the CVS version (updated pretty much every session...)

[JungleJim]

I don't know why some upgrades aren't available for some ships. I couldn't buy an Advanced Repair Droid for my Areus. I already had a Repair Droid but when I sold that I couldn't buy either the Advanced Repair Droid or the Repair Droid.

Go figure...

Anyway, I've finally accumulated 20+ M credits and am ready to buy a Goddard. The problem is I can only find Milspec. I'd prefer to buy a .blank and equip it myself. Based upon the suggestions provided above, I'm off to find a Star Fortress and a Goddard to test fly.

I have finally gotten the hang of fighting in the Areus with a cloak.

I accept missions to kill starships, the higher the bounty the better. I don't care how many escorts they use for protection. I cloak the Areus, fly up as close as possible to the mark (within 1000 meters if possible), depress the trigger, and uncloak. As soon as the uncloaking permits weapons fire, my 4 Razor guns & 1 Reeper tear through any ship in seconds. As soon as I've killed the mark I immediately recloak, reposition, and repeat for the next in line. Often I tear through a target so fast, I've killed 2 ships before I'm able to recloak.

I had previously tried to use the range advantage of the Reeper when engaging large numbers. These engagements usually ended with me in an escape capsule .

[Nevita]

The problem is I can only find Milspec. I'd prefer to buy a .blank and equip it myself

You know, now that you mention it, I've only ever seen milispec Goddards in the game. Mind you, I usually swap out weapons as necessary, and find that otherwise the Goddard is well equiped for my needs (minus cloak, advanced repair, and ecm).

[JungleJim]

1) I've found out one reason for ship enhancements to not work & also why some enhancements are seemingly not available for some ships.

In my case, I had bought a Milspec Goddard. Since I had already maxed out the previous ship (an Areus) with every enhancement I could get my hands on, these were mostly carried forward onto the Goddard.

When I test flew the Goddard, the cloak did not work. Also I could not replace my Repair Droid with an Advanced Repair Droid.

To get the cloak to work, I merely sold the cloak that came from the previous ship. The cloak then worked fine. It seems the Milspec Goddard has a cloak already built in.

To buy and use the Advanced Repair Droid, I had to sell my Repair Droid & also the Advance Repair AI. After I sold both, I could then buy the Advanced Repair Droid. After I bought the Advanced Repair Droid, I was able to buy back the Advanced Repair AI.

2) What is the recommended weapons loadout for a Goddard. The COTS Milspec version comes with 4x laser beam array, 2x Disruptor beam array, & 2x particle beam. Is there anything thats a bit more effective?

3) What's your favorite means of sniping PD turrets? Can Friend or Foes do the job? I seem to take a lot of damage when sniping Area capship turrets from close range (<4000 meters) with my beam arrays.

4) What's your favorite weapons loadout for an Areus? I've been using 1x Reaper cannon + 4x razor guns. This seems to run out of energy too quickly.

5) What's the difference between an Experimental -> Reaper Cannon and a Weapons -> Confed -> Reaper Cannon?

6) Has anyone tried the Fusion (or maybe its called a Plasma) Cannon? It seems to have an enormous range & damage but a mid-range shot speed. Would this do for sniping turrets or engaging cap ships?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[IxianMace]

1) I've found out one reason for ship enhancements to not work & also why some enhancements are seemingly not available for some ships.

In my case, I had bought a Milspec Goddard. Since I had already maxed out the previous ship (an Areus) with every enhancement I could get my hands on, these were mostly carried forward onto the Goddard.

When I test flew the Goddard, the cloak did not work. Also I could not replace my Repair Droid with an Advanced Repair Droid.

To get the cloak to work, I merely sold the cloak that came from the previous ship. The cloak then worked fine. It seems the Milspec Goddard has a cloak already built in.

To buy and use the Advanced Repair Droid, I had to sell my Repair Droid & also the Advance Repair AI. After I sold both, I could then buy the Advanced Repair Droid. After I bought the Advanced Repair Droid, I was able to buy back the Advanced Repair AI.

I think what you're experiencing is a bug related to ship upgrades. I don't think the upgrades from a previous ship are meant to be carried over to the next ship you purchase at all. This seems to be a new bug in Vegastrike 0.4.2, which wasn't present in Vegastrike 0.4.1 (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I've already reported this in the Bug Triage forum.

2) What is the recommended weapons loadout for a Goddard. The COTS Milspec version comes with 4x laser beam array, 2x Disruptor beam array, & 2x particle beam. Is there anything thats a bit more effective?

I'd say that loadout is sufficient. If you want to inflict more damage faster, consider replacing the laser beams with ion beams, although this will reduce your weapons range, due to high attenuation and short ranged nature of light ion beams.

3) What's your favorite means of sniping PD turrets? Can Friend or Foes do the job? I seem to take a lot of damage when sniping Area capship turrets from close range (<4000 meters) with my beam arrays.

I do not recommend using missiles against turrets that are designed to shoot them down. I've had good experiences blasting off turrets with beam weapons, guns also do the trick, only they take a little longer, as far as I've noticed. If you want range, try Aera military spec penetrator guns, or Ktek beams.

4) What's your favorite weapons loadout for an Areus? I've been using 1x Reaper cannon + 4x razor guns. This seems to run out of energy too quickly.

The razor guns are what take up so much energy when firing, to the best of my knowledge. My favourite weapons loadout for an Areus is:

Mount type - Weapon
LIGHT MEDIUM: Penetrator gun OR Disrupter beam
LIGHT MEDIUM: Penetrator gun OR Disrupter beam
LIGHT MEDIUM: Penetrator gun OR Disrupter beam
LIGHT MEDIUM: Penetrator gun OR Disrupter beam
HEAVY: Penetrator gun OR Ktek beam

LIGHT MISSILE: Heatseeker
LIGHT MISSILE: Heatseeker
LIGHT/MEDIUM/HEAVY MISSILE: Torpedo
LIGHT/MEDIUM/HEAVY MISSILE: Torpedo

5) What's the difference between an Experimental -> Reaper Cannon and a Weapons -> Confed -> Reaper Cannon?

Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed absolutely no difference in functionality, except for being unable to assign the Reaper cannon that been purchased from an 'Experimental' category to a specific weapons mount.

6) Has anyone tried the Fusion (or maybe its called a Plasma) Cannon? It seems to have an enormous range & damage but a mid-range shot speed. Would this do for sniping turrets or engaging cap ships?

I've tried the Plasma cannon. I found it useless, and not worth the money for what it offers (or perhaps I just don't know how to use it properly).
As for the Fusion cannon, I haven't been able to use it due to not being able to purchase it.

If you want to snipe turrets, I recommend beam weapons, although guns will also suffice. What kind of weapons suit you depend entirely on your style of play. I prefer weapons that have the longest ranges.

A weapon that does enormous amount of damage with a long range would be highly desirable for attacking capital ships. You don't have to worry too much about the projectile speed, since capital ships are so slow they won't move out of the way in the time it takes for the projectile to leave your gun and impact on the target. A high projectile speed matters more in dogfights vs small highly manoevrable ships.

[Guest]

So I bought my first Franklin, but I couldn't install a reactor from 'Heavy' category, although the ship itself is categorized as heavy. Is this a feature or a bug? With medium level 3 reactor my energy recourses were depleted in a couple of seconds of flight. Couldn't even shoot once.

[IxianMace]

There has been discussion surrounding reactor upgrades for the Franklin, and I think it was mentioned that the Franklin needed rebalancing.

[Space Pirate]

I bought an Areus and it is one of my favorite ships now that I've tried it. But, there is a problem. I can't buy a cloaking device for it, when I go to a Kahan to buy it, it shows up in red and I can't buy it. The cloaking device that was carried over from my Goddard to it didn't work. Do I need to buy an Aera Milspec cloaking device or is this some sort of bug? Well if it is a bug I'll just edit some files to get a cloaking device!

[IxianMace]

Are you running 0.4.2? Have you tried selling the cloaking device that was carried over from your previous ship before purchasing a new cloaking device?

[Space Pirate]

Yes, I'm running 0.4.2 and I did try selling the cloaking device that was carried over from my previous ship. But it still doesn't work, so I just edited some file to get a cloaking device! There's no real problem now.