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[GAlexander95]

Hi all, I just kind of started Starsector the other day. I dabbled a bit before in vanilla but really wanted to play more with some mods. The game is somewhat overwhelming as is to someone completely new much less without the large amount of mods I installed but I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly and enjoying it. I've found myself slowly amassing a fleet, taking over a planet and slowly building up bit by bit. One of the issues I've found though is some fleets seem incredibly broken, partly due to just their ships in general but also because I don't know how to lay my weapons out and what not properly. So can someone give me some advice - mods included, what are some of the best factions or ships in general to start to build my fleet with? I don't mind if it's overpowered really, I just want a general idea of what to look out for. I only have a handful of ships on me right now and I'm able to take care of a decent sized fleet pretty easily but then when engaging in some groups I get annihilated. I was watching videos for a general idea of some things but one such thing that I didn't really get was the weapons layouts. I know the colors for the variations like missiles, pulse weapons and all that but I don't know what's really just flat out good, I was going mostly by the DPS, points they cost, money they cost, assuming that the cost and DPS would make them better but so far that really doesn't seem to always be the case. I was doing autofit for the longest time because it felt a bit overwhelming, even pretty much ignoring vents and what not but I feel like it's really kind of screwing me over in the long run.

TL;DR

Most OP ships/factions to try to obtain or side with

Best weapons to look for and how to generally fit your ship well without autofitting

Also if it helps, my current modded playthrough I've sided with Diable Avionics and I'm running a few of their ships.

[SCC]

Get a bunch of Furies, get Automated Ships skill, obtain a Radiant through some cunning and enjoy. If you like piloting ships personally, you can also get a hold of a Doom for a flagship.

[GAlexander95]

Get a bunch of Furies, get Automated Ships skill, obtain a Radiant through some cunning and enjoy. If you like piloting ships personally, you can also get a hold of a Doom for a flagship.

I don't mind piloting ships myself though so far I don't like using the bigger ones. The lack of being able to turn much on the bigger warships has me wanting to switch back to one of my smaller ones again. What about weapons, do you have a preference? Missiles, energy, ballistic? Or should I generally try to have all three on a ship, evenly laid out?

[Ira]

There is no such thing as a best weapon or ship.

[SCC]

These are loadouts I used for my ships. Fury and Radiant variants are safe for the AI, but Doom's is difficult, you might want to try out some of default loadouts first.

[close]

The reason why Doom has 3 s-mods is because it's a screenshot from a different save. You can remove Reinforced Bulkheads from it and it would fit for builds without Special Modifications, and it wouldn't be much different in practice.

[GAlexander95]

There is no such thing as a best weapon or ship.

This doesn't feel very true, though. There's clearly some ships that are really lacking compared to others. So there must be at least some that are in the more "top tier" and some in the "bottom tier" side of ships and I'm assuming it's the same for weapons from some that I've used so far.

[SCC]

It's sort of true, but I'd say it's more accurate to say there are somewhat balanced ships, of which you can use any and still fare well, and there are outliers, which are so significantly stronger, it really sticks out (e.g. Fury, Doom, Radiant) and probably will be brought back in line soon.
As for weapons, though, it's significantly more situational. Besides Thumper, there's probably always at least one situation where you would prefer some weapon over all others.

[Yunru]

Longer range weapons are usually less effective, mostly due to the fact the AI doesn't care if it blocks friendly firing arcs, so either you don't have some form of wall to block them and the enemy closes quickly, or you do and it blocks your shots.

Missiles are very good, both in range and not being blocked by friendlies, but you'll want ones with good guidance, and you'll have to careful watch the ammo count.

[Ira]

Well yes there are ships that are not Top tier. Maybe even trash. But not everything in Starsector is about combat. And ships that shine in combat might be trash for exploring or trading. There is no ship that does it all.

[Ira]

As SCC and Yunru said. Everything is a trade off. There may be outliers but for weapons the ammount of those is pretty small.

[Kohlenstoff]

There is no ship that does it all.

You forgot the Apogee. It can carry it's own fuel, a significant amount of cargo and is also really good in Battle. The Apogee is the one ship for all.

[Ira]

The Apogee has its flaws as well. Its incredible as an exploring ship and a mid game fleet anchor but it has either bad range or no hardflux except missiles (which have limited ammo). That combined with no speed makes it helpless in certain situations (still a rly good ship tho). So running a fleet of only apogees wont work (not very well). And there are ships that are better in combat.

[Megas]

Doom (with combat skills) and Radiant are the overpowered ships of 0.95.  Fury is also powerful for its low cost.  Honorable mention to Afflictor flagships if the pilot is skilled with it.

There are no standard weapons that are much more powerful than others.  However, there are few that are clearly inferior to others (or no weapon at all), like Pilums.

[Kohlenstoff]

The Apogee has its flaws as well. Its incredible as an exploring ship and a mid game fleet anchor but it has either bad range or no hardflux except missiles (which have limited ammo). That combined with no speed makes it helpless in certain situations (still a rly good ship tho). So running a fleet of only apogees wont work (not very well). And there are ships that are better in combat.

Apogee Battle is a contact sport :-). Ram the enemies and push them out of their fleet while shooting them with Plasma Cannon.

But i have to agree. As most ships it has weak spots. But it can still do every part. Exploring, Fighting and carry it's Fuel and supply and some loot. Only few ships perform better in Battle.

[rabbistern]

There is no ship that does it all.

You forgot the Apogee. It can carry it's own fuel, a significant amount of cargo and is also really good in Battle. The Apogee is the one ship for all.

it absolutely is the one ship for all campaign stats, but very much not for combat. [i have to say im absolutely in love with the surveyor/salvager aesthetic and the game definetly needs more science/mining/otherwise non-combat-enterprises ships as featured in most mods but anyway] its armament is far weaker than a sunders, with less maneuverability on top of that. it does excel as a wall though due to their efficient shields, just block out the frontlines while your alphastrikers are on approach behind it.
there is a ship which is "the one ship for all" (combat needs at least) imo, the legion. its a jack of all trades sure, but it can be specialized for whatever you need and it will service you well. a true tank-healer-damage-dealer. whether you go for a defensive or offensive fighter complement, whether your weapons are artillery or daggers, this thing can deal damage (of all types too thanks to ballistic mounts) and draw damage, with the massive low-tech armor and plenty of fighters eating hits around it.