The Let's Play Archive

Escape Velocity: Nova

by Decoy Badger

Part 58: Ships Part 01 - Shuttles

Prosthetic_Mind posted:

Anything I missed?
EV's missions are also very shallow - SR2 had some crazy decision-driven dream sequences that EV could never really support.

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.