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[Kyuss11]

I consider myself a new player, but I have played for several hours in vanilla and some mods.If the information I ask is here on the forums somewhere then please post links.I decided to get right to the point and just ask the questions.

Is there a manual or a guide?
Is there a list of ships from vanilla that explains what there purpose is?
How do you know what ships are good in the beginning to late game?
Is there any ships that can be viable through the whole game?
How do you know what weapons are better than others besides price or amount of points it cost?
What are the best ships for trading,bounty hunting?
What are the best strategies for turning on/off your transponder and does it work with larger fleets?
When equipping a ship,should you vary the different damage types or just make them all kinetic or ballistic etc.?

Please understand that I ask these questions to help very new players as well and perhaps learn some new techniques from other players on how,why, on what they choose for ships.
I know some players would say play the game and figure it out.That's what I do but with all the mods that add other mechanics,maybe a basic guide would be helpful to refer to.I understand that the answers to some of these questions will vary depending on play style and the role they play in starsector.This information is exactly what I'm looking for.Perhaps other players can ask more questions and make a guide if there isn't one already.
Thanks for your help!

[Deshara]

freighters haul freight, tankers haul fuel, shuttles are worthless and everything else shoots stuff & carries loot.
Everything but the latter isn't needed.

As for weapons, higher DPS = better, lower flux cost = more useable. If you have a weapon that you can keep using comfortably but doesn't put out enough damage, you can upgrade to one with higher DPS and higher flux.
RE: Transponder, best to leave it until you're more used to the game.
Best ships for trading are any ship with a large enough hold to carry enough goods to fulfill a contract that you can afford to fill (if someone charters you to fulfill a 3000 gun demand, there's no need to look for a ship that can carry 3000 guns if you can't afford to buy 3000 guns. Which is why earlier I said no to worry about freighters, unless you find yourself in explicit need of one)
When equipping ships; kinetic works well against shields, frag works well against broken armor and high explosive works well against something with armor up.
If a ship has shields up it's taking 0 damage anyway and most ships you'll ever face are basically dead by the time you've blown through their armor anyway so, equip flexible and cheap kinetic that's strong enough that you don't find yourself struggling to break through shields, and the rest should be your "hitting" guns, IE mostly flux-inefficient explosive guns (that you won't use unless you can land shots on an unshielded target) or some extremely flux-efficient frag guns that you can fire without worry about their firing cost (flak, Vulcans) to make the explosives shots that you do land deadlier than they would be on their own.
TLDR; if you struggle against shields, more kinetic. If you struggle to kill something after its shields are gone, more explosive. If you have a bunch of explosive guns and can land a good round of hits in but then don't have enough energy to keep dealing damage before they gets their shields back up, replace one or two of either your high-cost or low-damage explosives with a cheap frag gun.

If you want a good starter ship, you can work towards a lasher, put two machineguns on it (dual or standard, doesn't matter), fill the rest with a mix of explosives and frag that you switch around till you get comfortable with your output. If you're going out and picking fights in the game itself and not doing all the tweaking in the simulator, just be sure to be quick to flee before your armor is gone (the green picture of your ship in the corner) because if the enemy has anything to shoot at your missiles with, once your armor is gone chances are what they're shooting your missiles down with will do serious damage

[Dri]

Ehh, bro, it is looking like you just need to play the game more and figure out a lot of that stuff on your own!

Use the wiki to lookup stuff: http://starsector.wikia.com/wiki/Starsector_Wiki

As for what are the best this and best that, well, that's too subjective. Some swear by heavy armor and ballistics, others demand powerful shields and high top speed—you get the point. 

[Kyuss11]

Well, I've always been low-tech fan so its either the Enforcer or Onslaught.

The Enforcer is just a tank with 5 medium ballistic slots and 4 small missile. I put 2 dual flaks on the sides, then 2 hypervelocity drivers and then 1 heavy mauler in the middle. 4 annihilator rocket packs set to linked. The thing is just a beast - heavy armor, high hull and with burn drive it can really get around. Plenty of OP left over for 20 vents, some capacitors and a fair amount of hull mods provided you are speced heavily into Technology.

Onslaught, well... its the Onslaught, haha! With the new Technology skills giving up to 50% more OP you can turn the thing into a pure apocalypse machine. I go needlers in lights, 2 hephaestus assault guns on the sides with a storm needler in the other large slot, 4 medium rocket pods for a nonstop stream of rockets, 3 dual flaks with 2 on the lower sides and 1 in the front most medium turret... toss in some heavy needlers and maulers and its just gravy. You STILL have enough OP for 50 vents and lots of hull mods.

This was the response I would of preferred since it actually answers my question.Wiki link doesn't tell me anymore than the in game one does.

[Seth]

Yeah, also design, you might hate everything about some ship but the way it looks... you just forget about everything and fly it.
15 reserve BRDY Scorpions parked in the abandoned station FTW!

[Dri]

Okay, brah. Here's the ship tier list for ya: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8962.0

May be slightly outdated but that should have you covered.

[Sy]

there is no real manual or guide, because the game is still evolving. i suggest not using mods that add additional ships and weapons in the beginning (aside from maybe Ship/Weapon Pack and Underworld, which are designed to be very vanilla-friendly) until you have a better understanding of what the different stats mean, and how it all fits together.

to answer some of your questions:

• you can look at the stats of all ships and weapons in the codex, and their descriptions sometimes mention what they are good at. but most combat ships don't have a specific 'purpose', their roles in battle can vary wildly based on loadout, fleet composition, and playstyle. most transports (freighters, fuel tankers and troop transports) have clearly defined roles, which you can see by looking at their stats: a ship with high cargo space but poor combat-related stats is, of course, usually a freighter. ^^
• there is no simple answer to "how do i know if a ship/weapon is good?" because it depends on a lot of different factors. but i can give you some examples of ships that are considered to be quite good for their costs: frigates: Scarab, Tempest, Wolf | destroyers: Medusa, Enforcer | cruisers: Dominator, Eagle | capitals: Onslaught
• whether a ship is viable throughout the whole game depends on how you define "viable". Scarab is a great frigate, even in late game, and its mobility allows you to choose where and when you want to fight. but of course it can't match the firepower or durability of a cruiser or battleship. you can keep flying it in end-game battles, but you won't get as much done with it as you would with a bigger, more powerful ship.
• it's generally a good idea to have a loadout with mixed damage types, unless you are focusing on energy (which is basically already a mixed damage type in itself). kinetics against shields, then follow up with high-explosives to crack armor. fragmentation is usually only good in anti-fighter and point-defense (aka anti-missile) roles. besides damage type, the most important weapon stats are probably range, flux cost (lower flux is better!) and DPS.
• turning off your transponder is generally only a good idea while you're in hostile territory, or when you are trying to make it more difficult for a pursuing enemy to find you.

sorry i can't give good answers to all your questions, i understand the game can be overwhelming in the beginning. but much of the beauty of this game comes from its depth and variety, which unfortunately also means it's often impossible to give simple answers on general questions like these. there will be a proper, extensive tutorial at some point, but only once all the big gameplay features are in place.

if you have more specific questions (like "is ship/weapon X considered good?", "what do i best use for purpose Y in the early-game?", etc.), there almost always someone active in our Discord Fan Chat that can answer them. :]

[Midnight Kitsune]

For one, the Codex is your friend as it lists every weapon, ship fighter wing and variant (unless you are using Dynasector) along with their stats.
-There is no guide or such and the Wiki is old and outdated last time I checked
-The better (there is no "best" ship) ships are ones with lower recovery and supply usage costs as these ships have tons of "pros" like having access to ballistic weapons, they lose less CR per deployment, recover faster, better PD and are generally more noob friendly. Some early game ships like this include the Lasher and the Enforcer
-Currently most frigates lose most of their usefulness about mid game due to how fragile they are but they can still be used to cheaply hunt down and kill fleeing enemies
-Ballistics are currently better (For newbies at least) than most of the energy weapons right now due to having kinetics, longer range and much better flux usage stats. Just because something has a high OP, credit cost or DPS does NOT mean it is automatically good as many things are not shown on the stat card like velocity of the rounds, how the weapon behaves, and so on
-With trading, a buffalo is a god starter ship with the capital ship Atlas being the best "cargo space per buck" ship. HOWEVER, trading in SS is Different! In SS we have tariffs which means you need to take advantage of disruptions or better yet missions to make money.
-With bounty hunting, a good ship to use if you only want the cash reward is the Afflictor as it can get in, take out the bounty target and get out quickly due to its phase defense system and its system that temp overloads ships
-With your transponder, you generally want it on in system and near jump points and off when in deep hyperspace and when trying to hide from pirates/ patrols. If you are hiding, going dark is better as it cuts your "can be detected" range by 50% and turns off your transponder, however it also cuts your burn speed in half. One note about the transponder: it needs to be pressed twice to turn on or off
-When equipping ships, it is better to have mixed damage as it hurts the enemy more. If you have an odd number of slots, kinetic is better to go with as an overload can quickly lead a ship to death

If you have any more questions, let me know

[Kyuss11]

Thank you sir....I appreciate it.

I know there is a lot to learn and with 0.8 coming out some stuff will change and this game will only get better.

[Midnight Kitsune]

Thank you sir....I appreciate it.

I know there is a lot to learn and with 0.8 coming out some stuff will change and this game will only get better.

Yeah, the fact that much of a guide's contents would change alot after releases is why I (and most likely many others) haven't written one

[Sy]

Yeah, the fact that much of a guide's contents would change alot after releases is why I (and most likely many others) haven't written one

yep. i think there have been various attempts in the past, but over time those all became outdated.

[King Alfonzo]

Another possible source to help you out: http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11274.0.

H Helmut goes through and looks at weapons and ships from vanilla. Has some insightful ideas as well as clear analysis of ships and ship systems.

[Elaron]

A lot of the understanding I gained before buying the game came from watching YouTube videos, primarily those by Nemonaemo. Just bear in mind that anything much earlier than the Season 8 playlist are old versions of the game and mods, with all the differences you'd expect.

[StarSchulz]

 One thing to look at is the difference between low, medium, and high tech ships. Low tech ships usually have good hull/armor and ballistic weapon mounts while being relatively slow. High tech ships have great shields and primarily energy mounts, but generally have paper armor. Medium tech ships are somewhere in the middle of there, sharing a balance between energy / ballistic and armor / shields.

[Sy]

One thing to look at is the difference between low, medium, and high tech ships.

those labels can be somewhat misleading though, since "high-tech" in Starsector doesn't necessarily mean they're better. it's more of a different design philosophy. if anything, low-tech ships are generally considered to be more powerful, at least relative to their costs.