What race has the best ships?

Find answers to the most commonly asked questions. Only moderators may post on this forum.
Post Reply
Wonks
Quiet One
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 9:06 pm

What race has the best ships?

Post by Wonks »

This is a bit like asking "What is the best pizza topping?" Everyone will have their own opinions and their own favorite. So which race is the best for you? The best way to find out is to try one on for size. But there are some that may suit you better than others.

The differences in the races have to do with their ships. Besides the ships available to each race, there really isn't anything that makes them different from one another. With that in mind, I'd like to introduce you to some ship classes. This is a rough way of grouping different types of ships that belong to each race together.

1. First there's the free racial ship. Every race has one of these that is sold at the racial ship shop. It's not a very good ship, but what else are you gonna do if you run out of cash and need a new ship? Between the races these have only a very few differences.

2. Most of the races have a "scout" type. These are usually fast with low defense and sometimes carry forces. They are also very cheap for most races and don't have many holds if any.

3. Every race also has a "racial trader". These are normally pretty cheap and are better than a Newbie Merchant Vessel, but aren't as good as some of the neutral trade ships that cost a lot more. These typically have anywhere from 120 to 250 holds and varying speeds and costs from .8 million to 2 million.

4. The next is a class normally referred to as the "hunter" class. This is a pretty broad category. The Alskant race doesn't really have one of these (or any ships that are combat-oriented really) and races such as Thevian and Salvene arguably have more than one. They typically have medium speed, 5 to 3 hardpoints or lots of drones, and a generous alotment of scouts and mines. They normally have anywhere from 1000 (/10) to 1400 (/14) defense and cost anywhere from 3 to 7 million. They don't really have enough holds to make them worth trading in.

5. The final class is the top of the line in racial ships. This is usually called the "Warbird" class. These are the big guns. Every race but Alskants have 1 and only 1 type of this class. These ships are (usually) slower, but have 6 or 7 guns (lots of drones again in the case of Ikthorne) and no scouts at all. Some of them have mines and/or combat drones but never scouts. They also have the most defense of all racial ships with anywhere from 1800 (/18 ) to 2300 (/23). They usually cost from 10 to 13 mil although some are cheaper. Not many holds here either.


With the ship terms explained its finally time to move on to the strengths and weaknesses of each.

The Alskant race have the best ships for trading. All their racial ships have a lot of holds and each of the higher end ones has a different equipment type. The Alskant Trade-master is arguably the best trading ship in the game. However, Alskant ships lack any type of offensive strength. You could argue that the Deep-spacer is a hunter type, but with the 240 holds and the relatively poor defense it's really better suited to trading. Any Alskant that feels the ugre to get out and kill something will have to use a neutral ship to get the job done.

Creonti ships are huge. They have a lot of guns and tons of armor. But they are also slow for the most part and don't have much shield protection. Multiple mine stacks and Creonti ships don't mix too well. However, because they are so heavy in armor, standard shield/armor weapon configurations don't work as effectively against Creo ships because the shield weapons don't do a thing once they get through the light shields. Creonti ships can be tough to crack, especially in one-on-one fights.

Human ships are, for the most part, average. What makes them special is the addition of a Jump Drive to most Human ships. The Human Border Cruiser is able to carry a lot of forces and is a decent hunter, and the Human Destroyer is very useful in fleet operations.

Ik'thorne ships have just 1 thing going for them: Combat drones. However, this is an advantage in more than one way. Combat drones count as offense and defense. Ik'thorne ships have more defense than their racial counterparts. The Ik'thorne Mothership is slow, but has the highest defense in the game. Ik'thorne ships don't have many weapons but instead depend on drones. This means they can drop their drones whenever they like (nice for parking in fed). They are so dependant on drones that they are sold at the Ik'thorne Headquarters. However, their dependance on drones aren't always a good thing, and drones aren't always great for offensive power.

Thevian ships are FAST. If you want to have turns to do stuff almost every day, this may be the option for you. Overall Thevian ships are geared towards fighting more than trading. But their biggest advantage is their high turn rate.

Salvene are hunters and masters of disguise. Most of their ships have the Illusion Generator, which makes them look like any other ship of their choosing. Salvene ships are also not really geared for heavy trading.

The stealthy West Quadrant Humans are a lot like their normal Human counterparts, but instead of using the Jump Drive have developed Cloaking devices for their ships. But remember that cloak is only useful at higher player levels. Overall WQ Human ships are also fairly fast.
Post Reply