Part 58: Ships Part 01 - Shuttles
Prosthetic_Mind posted:
Anything I missed?
I'm writing up the next update, but studying takes precedence right now. In the meantime...
Let's Meet Our Ships!
The shuttle is, well, a shuttle, meant for surface-to-orbit runs. It's the weakest ship in the game, and one of the slowest as well. Under-armed and underpowered, it boasts a single light blaster, which is the bane of all small asteroids. Its 3 jump capacity and tinfoil armour don't exactly make it a ship-of-the-line either. The best use for this is for proceeding to the nearest planet and buying a better ship.
Threat level: 1/10. AI-piloted shuttles are universally cowardly, and will never pick a fight. Even if they do, a few hits from almost any weapon means you're about to capture yourself a new shuttle.
Combat rating: 1/10. Though you could spend millions of credits on making this into a toughened murder machine, it's not worth it for anything beyond novelty value.
The heavy shuttle is just a bit better than the normal shuttle in every way. The key point here is that it's cheap: you can buy it straight from your starting funds. Expect to be forced to run from everything save lone marauding fighters.
Threat level: 2/10. Heavy shuttles are usually cowardly, but upgraded variants mount 2 light cannons and boast a faster turn speed, making it dangerous for fighters to approach head-on.
Combat rating: 2/10. The extra room this ship has means you can mount a rocket pod onto it without much effort, making yourself a sudden threat to all fighters and freighters. Stripping all weapons and adding a Thunderhead lance (short-range beam weapon) can allow a heavy shuttle to bat far above its weight as well.