Hammerhead is not a very newbie friendly ship. It's relatively slow, it has very narrow arcs of fire and massive turret blind spots.
I wholly disagree with this. The Hammerhead is, after the Wolf, THE definitive beginner ship. It has one spot in the rear where turret coverage is limited, yes, but otherwise I don't agree with your points at all.
The Hammerhead has:
- Perfectly adequate mobility for a destroyer
- Above average hull integrity and armour protection
- A wide shield and good flux stats
- A versatile but also punchy weapons loadout that's almost impossible to equip badly
- Good turret coverage to the front and sides, and the ability to converge every single weapon forwards
- A brutally simple "press F to profit" ship system with basically zero drawbacks to using
- A low maintenance profile
And it's also the ship the player is taught to use in the main menu tutorials, so when they start playing the game they've also got some experience in it. All round it's a solid destroyer that can fulfill basically any role and is extremely easy to use.
(The Wolf I would say beats the Hammerhead on all accounts, aside from being a frigate with a narrow shield and much lower survivability if it gets hit. The Wolf also has capable weapons and the flux grid to back them up, plus carries what I consider the most forgiving ship system in the game that allows quick escapes if the player screws up badly.)
@tylertoo Yup glad you know about the invert shift function now, many people have trouble with the default strafe controls so knowing that you can flip it is always handy. Definitely keep with the Hammerhead since it's so easy to learn, but if you'd prefer something smaller and nippier (but also less able to take punishment) the Wolf frigate is strongly recommended. Other than that, everything InventorRaccoon said I second.