(had I read what Hiruma Kai wrote a few messages above, I wouldn't have written the wall of text below, as I'm saying mostly the same thing with different words, yet ... Shrike lover unite! such a blow against our beloved ship can't be left unanswered!
)
Several things contribute to making Starsector a great video game. One of them is the
great gameplay diversity it allows. Both in battle and outside of battle. There is not a single way to play. There are many ways. One obvious tool used to achieve that gameplay diversity is ship diversity, right?
Shrike and
Pirate Shrike - use them as bigger Wolf
with a unique gameplay, provided you like said gameplay - I you don't, that's fine as other ships will suit you better. How many ships allow either instant rush with shield up in front or instant flee with shield up in the back? How many ships allow having a medium energy turret fire in one direction, a shield up in another direction, and the ship move in another direction all at the same time? Biggest problem IMO is AI don't use it properly (mainly the mobility ship system issue), except maybe for pursuit. As a player ship I love it, it has replaced Medusa in my fleets (because Medusa is so rare).
Venture - use them as bigger Shepherd, either when you can't get Shepherd or when you reach a stage when you want to consolidate on bigger ships and you still need to do exploration. Unless I'm mistaken it as the same logistic profile as a Falcon, a good point for a utility ship that you can bring in battle. Indeed burn speed is an issue, fortunately Augmented Drivefield or Militarized Subsystem fix that easily. I don't use it often, because I usually do a quick transition from Shepherd to several logistic ships with Surveying Equipment for my exploration needs, but on a few occasions Venture appeared as the solution at hand.
I don't have much to say about Condor other than in my current run I still Have 2 Condor doing their jobs as I've reached mid/late game: fleet and station bounty duty, mostly around 200K and one 300K. They shall be retired soon, worked as intended I guess. Maybe Condor should have a 50 or 55 max speed (closer to Enforcer).
So count me in the "
those are not useless" camp. Hopefully, this
does contribute to the subject.
Also, IMO, thinking about this only in terms of balance or meta-game is preciselly missing the one point that matter. Think of it in terms of gameplay, "there is a purpose for this and for that". Please note I didn't write
niche, as the word seems to convey poor value to
what has the highest value here: gameplay. I would even go as far as claming: the meta-game viewpoint here can be dangerous as it might restrict one's view to "I want the best", which is indeed an issue in several video game community, especially where PvP fight is involved - and the balance viewpoint is dangerous as is encourage to level everything to a similar playing field.
I think the Starsector designers (and several modders too)
go to great length to provide great gameplay,
please do not undervalue this. This is not the only component of a video game, but it is a very important one.