Ok so I imagine most of us here have been playing a lot of Starfarer. I know I have. There are some ships I can put to good use and some ships I can't do crap with. I know some people can use each ship effectively so I'm looking for ship setups that work. I'll also give and explain ship setups that I have been using effectively.
First some general guidelines for the kind of setups I'm looking for...
- I tend to play most of my ships solo, because the AI often gets needlessly killed and then I just end up loading and trying to fight too many times over. I also generally hate battles with command points and try to stick with the "small engagements that don't leave much room for a grand strategy". When I do use AI ships, they tend to be fighters (if I have a flight deck) or Tempests, as those tend to die much less often.
- My flagships always have an elite crew since I generally have no trouble acquiring those.
- I always play with 100% damage to player, I don't play on handicap mode.
- I try to take little or no crew losses in the vast majority of my fights, otherwise I couldn't keep my elite crew members for long. This means taking significant hull damage on a regular basis is out of the question.
- While I'm willing to use them, I have a tendency to leave missile slots empty because I'm usually outnumbered and need weapons that will last me a whole battle.
The ship that puzzles me the most is the Conquest. Its purpose seems to be that of a fragile damage dealer with enough mobility to get to where it's needed and get out, but I find that its firepower is inferior to the Onslaught and Paragon and it has so little Ordinance Points available that I am forced to set it up lop-sided, where one side only has a few point defenses and I only use the other side in combat. Its shield is small and weak and I don't seem to have enough OP to afford improving the shields. The armor is unimpressive. To make the best of its mobility, I tried fitting auxiliary thrusters and augmented engines, which cost even more OP and gimped its flux dissipation.
I appreciate any good setups, mostly for a ship for which I'm not posting one of my own setups here, but the Conquest is really the one I'd like to make work. The Eagle may be another one but I haven't given it nearly as many attemps and none recently. I also have a half decent Odyssey setup but it's really not that impressive so suggestions are welcome. I'm also disappointed by the Medusa setups I've made so far, despite the praise the ship gets on this forum. Share your setups!
Now on to the ships I know how to use...
TempestThis one is a no brainer. One of the best and most fun ships in the game in my opinion.
Setup :
9 Flux vents
Resistant Flux Conduits. Every Tempest should have this, since it costs 2 points and gives you more than 20 flux venting. As a side bonus, taking a single Salamander hit directly on your engines will no longer shut them down. The only reason to not have this is if you're using 0 or 1 flux vents total which would be ridiculous anyway for a hightech ship.
Augmented Engines. Take your biggest strength and improve it some more. This makes it very easy to have full control over the battle.
Extended Shields. The Tempest is clearly not an armor tank. When you do take a hit, you want it to be on your shield and the default 90 degrees is a rather small arc. You could always dump this for a 10th flux vent and 3 OP to spend wherever you want. Or use the 4 OP on a missile weapon (I leave it empty).
Heavy Blaster on the RIGHT mount. This is your main weapon and I suggest you control it manually. Much easier to use if you hold shift so your ship automatically points to your cursor. Not very flux efficient but the high damage bursts are great and the flux damage is permanent. You could replace this with a Pulse Laser if you prefer its better flux efficiency and more forgiving aim. I put this on the right mount because the right mount has less frontal arc, which I can deal with easily while I leave the left mount (more forgiving frontal arc) to the AI.
Graviton Beam on the LEFT mount. You leave this weapon to the AI, as it can use beams very well. Good versus unshielded fighters and to force someone to keep their shield up. The only downside is that the flux damage is not permanent so if you need to slowly shoot down someone's shield, you should turn this off and use all your flux to fire your Heavy Blaster as much as possible. Lately I've been considering removing this weapon completely, but adding a second Heavy Blaster is pointless since the Tempest's flux dissipation cannot fully handle a single Blaster.
How to use this setup : Avoid taking any damage other than on your shields. Slowly dismantle the enemies starting with the fastest/most threatening. Take advantage of the Blaster's permanent flux damage if an enemy has strong shields. With a lot of patience, good flying skills and a bit of luck, you can take down ridiculously large Hegemony fleets or lone T-T ships without taking any damage. If you're patient, you can use this to capture much bigger ships and go straight from being a lone frigate pilot to a wealthy fleet commander.
HyperionIf the Paragon is Doctor Evil, this is Mini-me. Not as exciting to use as the Tempest, but it can be entertaining to sit in front of an enemy destroyer or cruiser and shrug off his pathetic attemps to break your tank. You may also die horribly depending on his weaponry...
Setup :
10 flux vents, 1 capacitor. The only reason I use 1 capacitor is because I have nothing else to spend a single spare OP on.
Stabilized Shields. Your shields will be up most of the time and the Hyperion's shields cost a lot of flux to run, so this is a good return for your ordinance points.
Resistant Flux Conduits. Any Hyperion without this is a bad Hyperion. The explanation for this is in the Tempest setup.
Extended Shields. Makes your shields cover 360 degrees, why not?
Flux Distributor. Not OP-efficient at all, but your flux dissipation is the huge bottleneck on this setup and we already have max vents and the RFC hull mod.
Hardened Shields. They're already pretty damn hard, this makes your shields ridiculous (even more so combined with an Elite crew which is super easy to get in a 5-man frigate).
4x IR Pulse Lasers and empty missile slots. The reasoning is that IR Pulse Lasers are the most flux efficient permanent flux damage you can get and your flux dissipation can't handle firing these constantly so upgrading to 2x Pulse & 2x IR Pulse is a waste of ordinance points. No missiles because in a very small fight, you've already won before it starts anyway. In a large fight, your missiles will run out before they do you any good.
How to use this setup : Similar to the Tempest except that your speed isn't nearly good enough to outrun Pilum missiles or most fighter squadrons. On the other hand, you have a BEAST of a tank for a frigate. All of your damage is permanent so you can slowly grind down almost any ship. You'll often be able to sit in front of a larger enemy and trade blows until they go down, long before your shields do.
AuroraThe only cruiser I really enjoy, it used to be the Paragon's little brother until the 0.52 patch nerf to its shield efficiency. It's still good but significantly less viable as a solo ship. If you're playing 0.52 or higher, I recommend switching to a Paragon as soon as you can afford it.
Setup :
30 flux vents, 5 capacitors. Again, the capacitors are there because it's better than not spending the OP at all.
Stabilized Shields. Your shields will be up most of the time and the Aurora's shields cost a lot of flux to run, so this is a good return for your ordinance points.
Resistant Flux Conduits. Any Aurora without this is a bad Aurora. The explanation for this is in the Tempest setup.
Integrated Targetting Unit. On a cruiser or capital ship, this mod becomes very powerful. Allows you to pick off your slower enemies from outside their range.
Hardened Shields. This used to be better when the Aurora had proper shields, but is still pretty much mandatory on this setup. Shield efficiency is even better for your survivability than flux dissipation because it affects permanent flux damage aswell.
Advanced Turret Gyros. This is really optional and you could always spend these ordinance points on capacitors, or remove the capacitors aswell and fit some missiles. Another option would be accelerated shields.
Heavy Blasters in the medium mounts, PD lasers in the small mounts, no missiles. The biggest threat to the Aurora is a swarm of faster ships, and faster ships tend to die quickly to sustained fire from 1 or 2 Blasters. PD lasers cost 1 less OP than their long range variant and do 50% more damage. Their range isn't that bad with the Targetting Unit hull mod. Missile slots are empty because fitting something useful in them would cost more OP than what we have left, but if I were to use them it would probably be rockets or swarmers. The large slot would work best with MIRVs but that's even more OP that we can't afford.
How to use this setup : Backpedal while taking care of the faster enemies as quickly as possible. Once that's done, it becomes much safer to vent your flux and the battle becomes much more manageable. Dominators, Onslaughts and Paragons can be very problematic depending on their weaponry so it may be best to avoid them unless you're bringing support along with you. An elite crew is pretty much mandatory. As with the Tempest, you could always switch the Heavy Blasters for Pulse Lasers for better flux efficiency.
OnslaughtIf you don't like showering your enemies with high explosives while taking hits like a man, go see a doctor. The Onslaught has the best armor in the game and in a face to face fight, it can usually take on anything easily except a Paragon, which it can still destroy with some skill and the right setup.
Setup :
50 flux vents, because destroying large enemy fleets or enemy capital ships can take a while and you're screwed if you can't fire your weapons.
Heavy Armor. As usual, make the most of your strengths.
Armored Weapon Mounts. Even with this, your guns will go offline regularly. Extremely useful on an armor tank like the Onslaught, it also gives a very nice 10% bonus to armor.
Expanded Magazines. Necessary for longer fights and at 10 OP, it's hard to pass this up.
Integrated Targetting Unit. At +50% range to all guns, this is a no brainer. I can't think of any capital ship setup that shouldn't use this.
With the amount of weapons this thing has, I'm just going to post a screenshot.
The weapons in the above screenshot are : Heavy maulers, railguns, flak cannons and heavy needlers. I'm considering replacing the heavy needlers but I'm still undecided.
The flak cannons are almost mandatory on a lowtech ship with poor shield converage. They're by far the best point defense in the game. I favor them over dual flaks because their ammo lasts longer, they have more range (crucial versus MIRVs) and they cost less OP. The railguns are used because their only downside is a 7 OP cost. They have perfect accuracy, great flux efficiency and good range for a small slot. The 2 heavy needlers complement the railguns for kinetic damage and their imperfect accuracy turns out to be a plus against fast fighters and frigates, since the spray of bullets will guarantee at least some hits. The heavy maulers give us our much needed explosive damage and can fire at 1500 range with good flux efficiency. Large weapons are not used because of lack of ordinance points. The 2 railguns in the rear medium slots are used because they're cheap and use little flux. Their purpose is simply to make life harder for fast ships trying to shoot our weak spot. Missile slots are empty (surprise!).
How to use this setup : This one is very straightforward. You can charge in if you want, depending on what you're facing. Your armor is ridiculous (2325 rating) and so is your firepower. Use your shields sparingly as they are far from efficient and your flux is better spent killing everything in sight. If you expect to be surrounded and don't mind abusing game mechanics, you can back yourself up against the edge of the map to protect your weak rear. It can be a good idea to manage your flux against tougher targets (enemy capitals mostly) by periodically turning off your kinetic weapons when shooting their armor and doing the opposite for their shields.
ParagonArguably the strongest ship in the game, with the only competition being the Onslaught. It has the best shield efficiency, the best flux capacity and the best flux dissipation, on top of great firepower.
Setup :
50 flux vents, 10 capacitors. The capacitors are simply spare ordinance points.
Accelerated shields. The only optional hull mod, could be swapped for more capacitors or some missile racks.
Stabilized Shields. Your shields will be up most of the time and the Paragon's shields cost a lot of flux to run, so this is a good return for your ordinance points.
Resistant Flux Conduits. Any Paragon without this is a bad Paragon. The explanation for this is in the Tempest setup.
Integrated Targetting Unit. At +50% range to all guns, this is a no brainer. I can't think of any capital ship setup that shouldn't use this.
Hardened shields. Because you want to have the toughest shields possible. An easy choice.
Autopulse Lasers in all 4 large slots. The most flux efficient energy weapons you can get, they have recently been buffed and have good initial burst damage. Flak cannons in the 2 universal slots. Why does this beast of a ship deserves the privilege of stealing the best point defense in the game from lowtech ships? I don't know, but you bet I'll do it. They get almost 360 degree coverage. They could be replaced with dual flak if you prefer but since Expanded Magazines aren't very efficient on a Paragon, I prefer the longevity of single flak. Pulse lasers in the medium energy slots and IR pulse lasers in the small energy slots. The reason for this is simple, we want to deal permanent flux damage to enemy shields and these weapons do it with the most flux efficiency. If you've read all the previous setups you'll probably be shocked off of your chair when you read this but... I leave the missile slots empty.
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How to use this setup : Activate shields, shoot stuff, it dies. I really can't explain this in any more detail. You could use tachyon lances but they're mostly useful when you have a large fleet, in which case you might aswell put them on an AI piloted ship.
That's it for now. I obviously use many other ships but I feel like those are the ones where I'm confident that my setups are very good and worth sharing. I also have a silly "Giant Piranha" Lasher setup posted in a different thread that I started, feel free to look that up aswell.
Alright, now I demand to see your amazing setups for those other ships I can't seem to put to good use!
