Unlocking ships question

[DamienPS]

I have two ship types left to unlock see pictures attached.

Which quest lines are these on?

Thanks.

[ibol]

those are the monks and unifiers ships.

[OrionM42]

Yep, the ship pictured in the second Attached Image, is the (RED, slightly menacing-looking) Negotiator class ship, which I am so fond of. (See my extended comments in DamienPS's Discussion thread on Favorite ship types.)

The standard narrative furnished (in the starting screen) regarding this ship says:

Unifier Diplomatic Courier
Good hull and shields
Large crew, cargo, & supplies
Shield Regenerator

Through my 3 YASD's and 2 Wins, to date, this class of ship remains my favorite. To be fair, I should not be too partisan on behalf of this ship class, because so much of the value and power of any ship (once you get 10-20 Sectors, or more, into a game) depends really on the Ship Components that you upgrade to, by either purchasing them, or crafting them yourself. That said, your initial ship selection (for me, at least) really tends to incline you into a certain direction (a certain style of play) which may be so successful, that it will not be easy to shift to another style of play. For example, I have promised myself to start my next game with an Assault Shuttle (so as to try another standard, starting direction). However, it will not be easy to forgo the Negotiator -- I just like the darn things so much!

Just to review the bidding on the last Negotiator class ship, in my last game, it had:

Weapon 1 513 damage with a cooldown of 2
Weapon 2 1,040 damage with a cooldown of 3
Weapon 3 3,157 damage with a cooldown of 7
Shield 3,487
Armor/Hull 2,362 (with a speed increase of 15)
Sensor/Radar Range:6 & Targeting:30
Thruster/Engine Evasion:15 & Spend Increase: 30
Warp Drive: Range: 4 sectors & Cooldown of 10 turns
Reactor: 3 weapon slots & 4 device slots

It had all these useful attributes (including a total speed of 250) by the time I had reached Sector 53, where I completed (won) a Tentaculon story-arc victory. Perhaps I could have ended with as good, or a better, ship by trading up to other/different types, but I'm not really sure about that. (I do remain attracted to Observer class ships, and Cruisers.)

Anyways, time to start a new game ... ... ! (Sure hope I can figure out how to use an Assault Shuttle, to best advantage -- any tips ??)

[PvK]

I've tried the Assault Scout, with the idea of playing a captain who tends to never go ashore without need, and who is interested in and willing to blast other ships. I did quite well on Hard/Permadeath, though I kept losing my away teams and several sets of officers through foolish mistakes, and I eventually did a YASD which was my fault. I liked the ship, as it's fast and starts with a two-weapon power generator, but it is low in cargo and supplies, but that wasn't a big problem particularly after I had a thing or two to enhance supplies and/or reduce use. Low cargo meant I was less tempted to try to make money on shipping runs.

[OrionM42]

Wow! I was really kind of stunned by how difficult it was to operate an Assault Scout successfully. (BTW, I really have to stop calling these ships "Assault Shuttles", since they really are "Assault Scouts".) This is not a complaint ... I still really enjoy the game ... this is just the confession of a revelation.

The standard narrative furnished (in the starting screen) regarding this ship says:

Assault Scout
2 weapons
Good armor and shields
Small cargo and crew
Very low supplies

So, I started my 6th game (following two wins) with an Assault Scout, expecting that the 2 weapon slots would make this ship very powerful and therefore very easy to win with. Certainly, it makes fighting pirates and hostile Gruffs a whole lot easier; which helps you in surviving the first 5-10 Sectors. But the small cargo bay makes it very difficult to reap money from finding and selling commodities; and the small crew is just crippling, when it comes to exploring planets or ship-wrecks (and forget about caves or Star Temples altogether.) In the first 8 Sectors of my new game, I lost more crew (including two officers) than I had lost in my whole, last, 53-Sector winning game. Even the low amount of supplies is a danger. I nearly ran out of supplies before finding a Space Station, in new sectors, a couple of times.

Fortunately, in the 9th Sector I was given the opportunity to purchase (wouldn't you know it?) my favorite class of ship, a Negotiator. I grabbed it! I immediately went from a crew of 13 (which only permitted a suicidally small Away-team of 4) to a full crew of 38 (which permitted a tolerable Away-team of 9). The Negotiator also solved the low-supplies issue nicely. My point here is not to bash the Assault Scout. For some players it must be the preferred starting ship (at least of the original four) depending on their style of play! For me, it was almost fatal. The key is to consider your own preferred (and most competent) style of play, and choose the ship that best suits your talents. Other Free Advice (for new players):

Read pages 15-17 in the Approaching Infinity manual, so you know the key facts about ships;
Read this Discussion thread (including PvK's preceding post); and
Read DamienPS's Discussion thread about Favorite Ship Types.

Alternatively, you can just jump right in ... Guns Blazing ... Devil May Care ... Throwing Caution to the Wind ... Laughing in the Face of Death ... and Let the Chips Fall Where They May ... ...

Either way, be sure to have Fun! ...

[PvK]

Yeah, if you're used to running a big ship, I imagine the drop in crew, supplies and cargo would all be challenging. It can be done though. Well, I've lost many officers on away missions, but there can be relative safety if you use good enough equipment and send an officer (or a few officers) with the away team.

One thing I've noticed with a small fast ship though, is that when you exceed the 300 limit on speed, you can leave off some speed-increase components, and so earn more slots for other gear. Assuming you care about speed, which can be very valuable in ship battles if you use it carefully.