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[korda]

Does Salvage Rig has any advantage over Shepherd when it comes to salvage/survey play-style (since Shepherd has Salvage Gantry)?\

Consider this:

* Salvage Rig needs more skeleton crew (and at the same doesn't have any reasonable crew capacity),
* it consumes more fuel (and doesn't have any fuel capacity),
* it's useless in combat,
* it has no cargo capacity,
* it costs more.

And Shepherd has also Surveying Equipment and some OP left to install guns and Insulated Engine Assembly (to offset Civilian Grade Hull).

It seems that buying 3 Shepherds (+30% in salvage rating - since Salvage Rig gives 25%) gives you way more than single salvage rig that you have to babysit... Unless there is something more to Salvage Rig that isn't covered by Salvage Gantry description?

[SCC]

Salvage rig has also bigger salvage bonus (25%, shepherd has 10%) and the same maintenance (3 supply/month).
If you compare their fuel efficiency, you see that 2 shepherds and 1 salvage rig burn the same amount of fuel per light year, but rig gives you more bonus.
If you compare their supply efficiency, you see that 2 shepherds are costlier while giving less of a bonus.
More, if you go to the extremes and want 100% salvage bonus, 10 shepherds give 1000 cargo space and 400 fuel capacity, use 30 supplies/month and burn 10 fuel/ly, while 4 salvage rigs, a colossus and a dram have 915 cargo space and 420 fuel capacity, use 20 supplies/month and burn 12 fuel/ly.
So... It's more of a preference, it seems. Rig has advantage when need to have less ships because of limits, though.

[Deshara]

Rigs are more efficient when maxing out salvage bonus

[korda]

Salvage rig has also bigger salvage bonus (25%, shepherd has 10%) and the same maintenance (3 supply/month).
If you compare their fuel efficiency, you see that 2 shepherds and 1 salvage rig burn the same amount of fuel per light year, but rig gives you more bonus.
If you compare their supply efficiency, you see that 2 shepherds are costlier while giving less of a bonus.
More, if you go to the extremes and want 100% salvage bonus, 10 shepherds give 1000 cargo space and 400 fuel capacity, use 30 supplies/month and burn 10 fuel/ly, while 4 salvage rigs, a colossus and a dram have 915 cargo space and 420 fuel capacity, use 20 supplies/month and burn 12 fuel/ly.
So... It's more of a preference, it seems. Rig has advantage when need to have less ships because of limits, though.

Yeah, but you if you want some defense and care about maximum burn then early on Shepherd seems to better choice. I guess Salvage Rig starts to be good choice when you have enough fleet to protect it.

[SCC]

Y'know, I'm pretty sure that when you care about that much efficiency, you are able to protect your non-combat ships.
Early on shepherds are better because they're faster, more versatile and capable of any defence, while later it's more of a preference, as I said.

[korda]

Y'know, I'm pretty sure that when you care about that much efficiency, you are able to protect your non-combat ships.
Early on shepherds are better because they're faster, more versatile and capable of any defence, while later it's more of a preference, as I said.

I don't care much about efficiency. I was simply surprised when I noticed how versatile Shepherd is.

[SCC]

Well, if you don't care about efficiency salvage rig won't have any appealing values for you, since it's entire being is about efficiency.

[intrinsic_parity]

It's more about fleet slots for me. In early game, shepherd is good because you have space but by the end of a campaign, I'm not gonna waste 5 fleet slots on shepherds when I could use two salvage rigs.

[StarGibbon]

Problem with salvage rigs is that they dont contribute any crew or cargo space to your fleet, which you also need for good salvage, but they still cost 2 fuel per light year, jacking your expenses up.  Even if you're at 100% salvage bonus, that might be the difference between 20 units of metal instead of 10.  I'm not sure theyre worth the constant resource drain, all things considered.

[SCC]

You appear to have missed my post where I explained that when we're talking about cargo and maintenance, the rigs are better. I must say that they're worse when it comes to the fuel, however, since they (with additional ships, since they can't operate alone) are slightly worse.
In the "biggest bonus possible" choose whether you want to spend additional 10 supplies/month or 2 fuel/light year. It's funny that they appear to be the most economical (and better than shepherds) when you go for biggest possible bonus.

[K-64]

Problem with salvage rigs is that they dont contribute any crew or cargo space to your fleet

That's why you also have a freighter or two in your support section of the fleet. The amount of cargo a Shepherd can carry compared to an actual freighter is miniscule, and its combat capabilities in anything more than the first few fights you get into is dire. The issue with fuel... kinda isn't an issue since that stuff is extremely cheap to buy anyways.

[StarGibbon]

. The issue with fuel... kinda isn't an issue since that stuff is extremely cheap to buy anyways.

Nuts to that. Fuel consumption from fleet bloat can easily eat an entire mission paycheck when round-tripping to distant sectors.

[SCC]

Let's compare 5 shepherds vs 2 rigs + 2 buffalos.
Salvage bonus: both 50%
Cargo space: 500 vs 600
Fuel capacity: 200 vs 160
Maintenance: 15 vs 12
Fuel per light year: 5 vs 8
Also check out my first post in this thread, where in comparison 10 shepherds vs 4 rigs + colossus + dram similarly rigs tend to be more economical in the long run.

[StarGibbon]

I'll also add that my Shepard always makes it out of combat due to better speed and defense, but I often lose a rig when retreating. Something else to consider if you don't save scum and have to retreat sometimes.

[SCC]

Heh, I don't question that. Shepherds are more versatile, but rigs (with support) are cheaper in the long run. Pick depending on whether you don't have proper escort or you do.