Starport: Galactic Empires/Ships

Ship Comments:

Antarean Speedstar - Great fuel efficiency offset by mediocre to poor everything else limit this ship's use to pure exploration. Its special, the Anti-Gravity Bomb, flings other ships away upon impact, although combat should be generally avoided due to the low maximum shields. (Note: with a Wisdom of 10 and three Intergalactics' Maps, the Speedstar uses only 2.5 fuel per warp, making it twice as good as the Dreamsower for moving cargo, with a cargo per fuel rating of 36.00.)

Avenger - This ship's prominent feature is its ability to cloak, leaving only a black outline against the stars and nothing on the minimap. While cloaked, the ship can fire AND receive damage, though the powerful Grav Cannon cannot lock-on. When using the cloak, auto-targeting cannons can still do you damage if you get too close to one, or are in the line of fire between the cannon and another player or NPC. As far as stats go, the important ones for fighting are quite sufficient, but the low shield max require that one rely on stealth.

Battleship - With better shielding and better armaments, this ship is a decent step up from the scout-class ships when looking to attempt combat. However, being in a tie for the worst fuel efficiency in the game, you had better have some warp fuel to burn.

Corporate Flagship - This ship, only buyable by heads of corporations, is decent in most areas but excels in none, and is thus replaced for any specialized job. Its special weapon is the Tractor Beam, which is somewhat awkward to use, but potentially deadly.

Dreamsower - This ship boasts the largest cargo capacity in the game, along with the only energy-draining special. Those, however are the only things it can boast, being weak, slow, and handling sluggishly otherwise. For intersystem cargo movement, the Galaxy Whale is a better choice here, since twice the top speed means the job is done much faster for very nearly the same fuel cost. however, for moving cargo around within a system, this ship can be considered a decent candidate.

Garbage Barge - This is the standard ship for moving equipment. Its the only ship with more than eight hardware slots, having 24, in addition to its 100 regular cargo slots. The barge itself is dirt cheap and players will often hire a barge for various jobs. Its defensive special weapon can knock out the steering of enemies' ships, giving you the time needed to escape. Having a low top speed but high acceleration, the barge is one of the easiest ships to maneuver.

Galaxy Whale - In order to move large amounts of cargo you want one of the three cargo ships; dreamsower, garbage, or the whale. Of these three, the whale has better shield and speed but costs much more. Its difficult to control and turn, so even the auto-pilot misses its target a lot. The galaxy whale has a fun and effective weapon called Repel that flings away nearby ships.

Imperial Starcruiser (ISC) - This ship requires a reputation above 5000 in addition to a massive 2 million in credits. Although expensive, its price reflects its features, with the best possible shields, speed, and energy regeneration rate in the game, and above average stats otherwise. Its special, the Photon Torpedo, has decent range and does heavy splash damage.

Intergalactics' Ship - This ship costs 10,000 tokens (10 USD), and is the only ship in the game that can be bought with real money. Thus, it is the best in everything but cargo movement. Beware! This ship's distinct purple glow will make you a target for other players, and dying means you lose this ship and must repurchase it.

Merchant Cruiser - This is the stock starting ship, and the only good thing about it is that it's free. Its Afterburners special is unique in that it affects your speed, but most experienced players immediately trade this in for either the Tyrolean Falcon, Garbage Barge, or Scout Marauder, since all three are buyable with starting money and materials.

Merchant Freighter - An overall improvement on the Cruiser, there is nothing to recommend this ship over other better choices except its special weapon, Point Defence, which can auto-target any projectiles in close proximity to your ship.

Scout Marauder - This ship has only its fuel efficiency to brag about, since its top speed is rarely reached due to its poor thrust, and its special weapon Reverse Guns is merely a slightly more powerful version of the stock Plasma Cannon that fires backwards.

Sethdar Cruiser - The top choice for players with a reputation of -1000 or lower, this fine ship can only be bought at the Pirate Base Chernyj Almaz. It handles and thrusts better than the ISC, but loses in a straight race. Its special weapon EMP Blast can temporarily knock out the thrusters of enemy ships. However, their turning and weapons will still be fully operational.

Tyrolean Falcon - This is probably a better choice for a starting ship for most beginning characters, being cheap, relatively fast, and having a the ability to eject other ships' cargo with the Cargo Disrupt weapon, as well as being able to generate shields by jettisoning cargo.

Vulture - With the worst fuel efficiency and speed, and poor everything else, this ship definitively claims the title of the most special-use ship in the game, with its Surface Missiles having the longest range of any weapon in the game plus an unlimited supply, which makes them perfect for assulting planetary defences.