I'm trying the assault ship variant now, the Star Warrior. It isn't as fast but against AI it's great, I can send out enough firepower on one turn to take out Sol ships in one volley.
Once all values are set, minor changes are met, and the game is about to launch on steam, then all the shipyard info will be updated.
Going back to Sol, but when people start invading territory I'll be playing defensive. I like being the tank in the battles to come. I think two good tanks to start with are: Honor Bound IV Defense Corvette: 18 hull points, 4 power 2x shield By far the best defensive corvette. Battalion II Defense Frigate: 29 hull points, 10 power 2x shield Extremely durable.
I tried a few different Firestorm cruisers. They pack a massive punch. Good thing the ships hull points have been increased, or these guys could wipe out another big ship in a couple of rounds.
That was the problem, some ships within a class COULD destroy certain other 'inferior' ships in the same class, either within their faction or across factions, in only one round! It was a game of license-to-kill hide and seek, first person to find the other wins. Not a good fight. It is still possible, but rarer for certain ships to use their high speed to stack 2 turns and wipe out another one, but even that has been greatly reduced, and it is much more difficult to do vs a player, AI don't matter that much
I'll never understand what the purpose of some of the ships is, a few are just plain bad, lacking too much in the firepower, toughness, or engine department is no good even if the remaining 2 are strong. The 50% hull increase raises the value of scoring engine hits and crippling an opponent as well as affords a little longevity, precious time to make thoughtful decisions and actually fight a battle instead of 'I have an inferior ship with 19 hull and my enemy can do that much damage in 1 round or go last one round then first the next and kill me in a dual turn strike with no recourse'. Glass Cannons with engines don't live long Tanks can't kill Those with Offense AND toughness lack the engine power to use either well enough to even bother having the systems in the first place! Hard to find a good balanced ship for all-purpose duty at some Class tiers. Engine power is king. If you can dictate who goes when and have 20-30 or more movement points at your disposal, you are in good shape. If you are at the mercy of another ship's initiative all the time, unable to break that 20-30 movement threshold, there's not much you can do except turtle up vs hit and run tactics. A corvette without at least 15 engine power.... is worthless. At under 15, you don't have the engine to power up systems to a minimal setting and keep up with half of the frigates out there, let alone other corvettes playing to the corvette strength: SPEED! Sometimes 15 engine isn't enough. 16-18 is good (affords you 1 to 3 power use and still match even the fastest frigate) 20 or higher is excellent.
Solid opener. Enough engines, decent weapons, and marine pods for XP as well as crippling an enemy corvette for an easy kill. Though something like the Star Warrior IV looks attractive with its 5 x 3 damage missiles (potentially 5x5 for 25 damage!), it's too slow to be effective on the battlefield without wingmates, and even still, can be easily avoided by other faster corvettes. Arming all 5 missiles will leave you with -10 out of the base pool of 15 engines (I think it's 15). Best to run only 3 missiles until you get power boost ranks, but even rank 5's 30% puts you at +4.5 rounded up to 20 total! Some corvettes start at 20.
