I like playing sneaky types so I don’t want to go higher than the ship described as being like a very angry vole. I really like the description on the cutter and that veil and mirrors bonus but that hold is tiny and the crew allotment means a bad event = close to game over. I also definitely wouldn’t be able to use We Are Clay. Has anyone played the entire game with it? Is it at all feasible? The starting ship is also an option. I’d also like to know which engines are going to offer the best speed for each since figuring that out myself would require math and that makes my eyes glaze over.
In my experience, the starting ship + engine can carry you a long way. Things will be a bit slow, but fuel expenditure will be manageable. I’ve always passed over the Cutter because of it’s weaker hull, but even moreso the hold. Many times even 40 hold space feels a bit tight for me.
I usually don’t buy engines, unless I’ve got an heir inheriting a sizable amount of wealth. There’s a fairly simple to get quest engine from a certain source that works well up to the Corvette, if anyone else wants to elaborate on that with spoiler tags, feel free.
That said, the Corvette feels like the first true “upgrade” to me for those seeking to be combat capable while having a decent crew size so events don’t cap you in the knees. Really ought to have a surplus of money before making the plunge, though. The merchant ship is also pretty amazing to me, it looks like it’d be slow as sin with all that weight, but even with just that quest engine, it’s manageable, and 120 hold size means worries of being overburdened will almost never happen. Still, for a final assessment, yes, the starting ship is fully capable of clearing the entire game, and is even recommended to stick to for the first couple captains or so. I cannot recommend the Cutter at all.
Only ships really worth getting after the starter are the Merchant Cruiser and the Dread. Everything else is basically overpriced junk. Corvette has the same holdspace as the starter, so offers no real advantages there. If you really want to be sneaky, I guess you have to wait for the Zubmarine.
Just out of curiousity do the zubmarines have a date yet?
What about the frigate? It has a reasonable hold capacity (better than the starter, anyway), is lighter than the merchant cruiser and the dreadnought, has the full set of gun emplacements and a decent hold. Looks quite attractive to me, at least, but I haven’t got the cash for it yet…
What about the Steam-Yacht? +10 veils (and +10 to lots of other stats). 70 hold. No forward weapon, but 200 hull.
As for engines, for the first ship, Maybe’s Daughter and/or We Are Clay will give you everything you need. More than that, and the speed increase doesn’t warrant the fuel cost (they scale very badly). The steam-yacht is a pretty insane quest away, but, well, not bad if you don’t care about weapons, and, importantly, free.
I actually most like the 15k Frigate. It has all the space, all the slots, 70 cargo and enough hull to face down Mount Nomad & co, but that’s not what you’re after.
[quote=SporksAreGoodForYou]What about the Steam-Yacht? +10 veils (and +10 to lots of other stats). 70 hold. No forward weapon, but 200 hull.
[/quote]
That’s what I’m ultimately going for for my ‘canon’ playthrough. It seems though that to get it you need to go through almost every major storyline in the game after which I’ll probably lose interest so it’s gonna be a bit of a trophy item I get waaaay at the end.
[quote=Fredward]
That’s what I’m ultimately going for for my ‘canon’ playthrough. It seems though that to get it you need to go through almost every major storyline in the game after which I’ll probably lose interest so it’s gonna be a bit of a trophy item I get waaaay at the end.[/quote]
It’s just a tiny fraction of the storylines. My main concern with it is that it sort of feels clumsy compared to the Frigate or Corvette ( might be a very subjective feeling having to do with the size of it’s model, though :)). Frigate and Corvette would also be generally my ships of choice, depending if you’re more into combat or not. The Cutter gets you sunk in no time with just one not-so-fortunate encounter (or such decision in one), in addition to its total lack of use as anything but a post-boat. I never bother with the Dreadnought, it just takes more hits than the Frigate which should not be an issue unless you play like not caring for getting hit… the higher cargo capacity, like with the Trader, is not really important except for a few quite select occasions.
Curator’s quest can be done quite fast and with a bit of luck you will not need to complete ANY full storyline. If you are not going to swim in circles until right SAY will kick in, then you will need to finish Pigmote Isle and Isle of Cats and progress in Empire of Hands a bit.
edited by Riesbyfe on 2/22/2015
The starter ship, whether you like it or not, you’ll learn to get familiar with it. It can take you a long way but you’ll probably want to get something better when you can.
The Merchant ship IMO is the better first choice for any upstart captains. Large hold means you will have less to worry about where to resupply for long trips since you can just stock up while still having space for your questing needs. It has an Aft slot for a Suppressor(can spam full power, for small engines) or Milebreaker(10% fuel efficiency, for big engines), making its weight less of an issue. The only drawback is the lack of forward gun, making killing stuff slower. Oh it also have quite a lot of crew requirement, do watch your supply upkeep.
Corvette is a choice if you want to hunt things for profit early, rather than running quest stuff. Having 2 guns makes things a lot easier to kill. But the low cargo and lack of Aft slot makes traveling around a bit more costly. It’s also not ideal for a starter captain that don’t know what enemies are worth farming yet.
Cutter, is interesting. It’s low crew space means you barely need supply. If you use We Are Clay, you get 2 max crew and a single supply can last you a whole trip! That said, there’s a lot of potential danger for only having 2-5 crew and losing cargo space just so you don’t need to carry around supplies isn’t worth it.
The Frigate, is my favorite. From the Merchant upgrading to a Frigate is like trading 50 cargo hold for an upgrade in everything. But it also doesn’t come cheap.
The Steam-Yacht has really nice stats bonuses, but by the time you get it, you would probably have high enough stats and done with everything else that needs such stats already. And it’s lack of slots(no Aft AND Forward!) doesn’t make it any more useful loitering around.
Edit:
Rushing to get it might will probably be best left for veteran Captains with foreknowledge of where to get the stuff. But the rewards from completing the story will probably enough to buy you a Frigate though…
edited by Mica on 2/22/2015
[quote=Fredward]Just out of curiousity do the zubmarines have a date yet?[/quote]Nope. It’s purely vaporware at this point, so who knows when/if it will ever happen.
[quote=Reshemin]in addition to its total lack of use as anything but a post-boat. I never bother with the Dreadnought, it just takes more hits than the Frigate which should not be an issue unless you play like not caring for getting hit… the higher cargo capacity, like with the Trader, is not really important except for a few quite select occasions.[/quote]Well, the cargo capacity is important for those of us who have to haul craptons of cargo to remain solvent. Admittedly, by the time you can afford the Dreadnought, you are probably doing pretty well, but you were probably doing it on a ship without the forward gun. That forward gun makes all the difference! The hitpoints pretty much are irrelevant, but the extra firepower that forward gun gives you…
But those 40-hold ships barely even hold enough supplies. When I leave port for the deep sea, at least 40+ of my holds are full of fuel and supplies. On the starter boat, that means you’re basically carrying nothing BUT supplies.
edited by lusername on 2/22/2015
This. If you can afford that thing, money won’t be an issue anyway, so there’s no real use for all that cargo space anymore - as you will be able to resupply at will anywhere anyway. You should not even have to bother about the prices at Gaider’s Mourn anymore. :D[/quote]
Depends. With the Steamer, I go for about 10 supplies, 15 fuel, and 10 crew at the max. Then I take the North route via Venderbight, maybe Wither, then Palmerston (if it’s close enough nereby) and then cut it south-west again, normally trying to have my last stop at Quakers Haven. I never have problems resupplying on this route. And it generally makes me enough money to not having to repeat it many times.
The corvette I find to be a great little upgrade from the starter ship. It’s basically the starter ship, only you get get more weapons, a massive upgrade to your Hull points (200 from 70) (which is, in my opinion one of the biggest limiting factors on the starting ship when it comes to combat)[li]
You also have the flexibility of having a bit more crew than normal that helps in challenges like the wisp ways or the shattered citadel. But it’s not too much crew where supply costs become a problem. its not that much heavier from the starter ship so fuel won’t be that big of an issue. and the 40 hold space isn’t "that" big of an issue. You can still go all the way around the map by scheduling resupply points at locations like the Iron republic and Mt. Palmerston. Also, since you’ll mostly be searching for combat, It’s very likely that you’ll get supplies and fuel from the pirate frigates and ships you destroy anyway so keeping your supplies up as the corvette is more than doable.
It’s also on the cheaper side, only 4000 echoes.
The downside is that you’ll need a great forward mounted cannon combined with a good deck gun for it to be really effectively (I like using the HellThrasher and Momento Mori.) You’ll also need a respectable iron score (50+) So the Corvette ship takes a lot of… "start up" supplies.
Merchant ship than dreadnaut.
The ability to carry a literal mountain of fuel and supplies so you can get them at the iron republic/port carnelian/adams way/mount palmerstone is pretty significant.
Combat will never be a reason for me to pick a ship in this game. Just now I ‘killed’ Mt Nomad with one of those 15 damage cannons by just shoving against it the whole time and not allowing it to get the distance it needed to charge.
Although this might very well have been a bug. Still, I’d rather avoid combat than buy a ship that can withstand it.
That’s about to get fixed.
I don’t know about that - "vaporware" describes something that was promised but never actually materialised - i.e., a failure. Zubmariner has been promised, but there’s no reason to expect it to be available yet - we’ve only had the base game for a few weeks, and there was always going to be a delay before the DLC’s development cycle even began! There’s no reason to expect it won’t happen - it’s just not scheduled for any time in the immediate future.
As for the original question… I think all the ships have their role to play, depending on your playstyle. If you really want to focus on stealth and spycraft, and never do much in the way of combat or trading, the Cutter will do just fine - that is, I grant you, a very particular way to play the game, but it’s just as valid as any other, and your operating costs will be very low indeed. I’ve been playing the testing build, and combat really does feel more challenging - the upgrades that even the Corvette brings in terms of armour and weapons feel much more valuable. I think it’s a nice hybrid for a stealth/combat-based captain, who’s happy to leave trading by the wayside.
edited by Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook on 2/23/2015
My favorite is definitely the Frigate.
IMO the Dreadnought is a direct DOWNgrade from the Frigate: it’s slower, bulkier, worse at sneakiness, requires more supplies. In return you get… an iron bonus (terrible compared to the Veils penalty, Veils is far more useful in combat), better hull (which you wouldn’t NEED to take hits if you had more veils), and better hold space, which is its only redeeming value, yet hamstrung by its higher supply costs.
This is also because slots: having a Forward slot makes combat FAR faster and easier; Aft slot lets you equip the best ‘engine’, the Avid Suppressor.
If you DON’T like combat, or don’t mind it taking ages because you only have one gun, the Merchant vessel is obviously the best for long hauls, with its awesome hold. Other downsides: slower (but you can put an Avid Suppressor on it so **** that noise).
If you don’t value hold space, you’re probably a collection of sorrow-spiders masquerading as a person, and I don’t want to help you in any way.
[quote=Impish Axile]
If you don’t value hold space, you’re probably a collection of sorrow-spiders masquerading as a person, and I don’t want to help you in any way.[/quote]
You realize I’m going to have to consume your eyes now, yes?
And you see my point here, then. I don’t want to lose 50 freaking holds just to gain a forward gun! If you’re looking up from the starter ship, the Frigate looks better than the Dreadnought. If you’re looking down from the Merchant Cruiser…your perspective is a bit different: How many holds are you willing to sacrifice to get that forward gun?
But hey, at least it’s not a braindead choice and that there are reasons to choose either. Frankly, the loss in cloaking ability isn’t a huge hindrance to my combat style, as I can still sneak up on my foes just fine, after which I light them up for faster fire and the stealth value is lost. They sink, I sail away unscathed, with 30 extra holds to loot them with.
So why would you say 30 extra holds is bad? Are you a collection of sorrow-spiders?
edited by lusername on 2/23/2015