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Originally posted by VoinianAmbassador:
Thanks for replying, Shayborg. It's a pleasure to match wits with you, as always.
Boy, that sure sounded sinister... 
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Doesn't a blaze turret have twice the rate of fire of a the basic gun? The other turrets don't, but I seem to remember that the blaze functions the way its graphic implies. That makes it two guns each (initial) and three guns each (max), effectively.
In other words, neither ship has an advantage here, in raw firepower. I'll drop this part if you will.
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**Front-mounted weapons have a longer range than turreted ones, sure... but you'd still have one front-mounted blaze... so you still could chip away at anything, if the Monty Python is your thing.
BTW, who uses autopilot in a dogfight? Sounds like a great way to buy the farm to me.**
I've used autopilot in almost every battle I've had -- which makes decent turning that much more important to me. It's more accurate than turrets, with a ship that turns well, and the range is longer. If used properly, autopilot is devastating, like SilverDragon said.
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Not if I exchange 15 tons of cargo space for ten tons of weapon space, it doesn't.
Mass expansions are expensive (50,000 credits, which more than makes up the difference between the scoutship and transporter), and not available on UE worlds. This makes it a mite difficult -- and not as worthwhile if you do manage to get to one -- to get it. Even so, of course, 50,000 credits is only two or three properly chosen missions, so it doesn't matter that much anyway, but if you care about the 25,000 credit difference in the prices in the first place, this is important.
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Most people trade early in the game, and then fight later. You don't need a large hold once you can finance yourself by running blockades and killing enemy fleets. The only time you need a big hold is early on, before you can afford something powerful.
I agree with SilverDragon here too -- rush deliveries (especially a few at once) pay as well and require less cargo space than more spacious deliveries. The only times I've really missed having a bigger cargo hold in a scoutship is when I was offered three or more missions to the same planet, and this is rare enough that it doesn't make much of a difference.
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The UE Transporter has effectively infinite range, because it has a solar panel, which acts like a kind of fuel scoop. This on a ship that only costs 75,000cr... at a time when you probably can't afford a fuel scoop, nor spare space for one.
It's only five tons -- what else would you use the space for? Again, like SD said, most secondary weapons are more or less useless this early in the game. Also, they only cost 40,000 credits -- again, by my standards, a minimal sum. I didn't know that the transporter has a built-in fuel scoop, but I would buy a fuel scoop with any ship I buy anyway, and it doesn't require much money or effort to get one.
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I'm sure that you and I know the game well enough that we don't really need those eight jumps. I have been known to contact the Miranu while I'm still in a Shuttle. Further (see the note about solar panels, above) you can't get stranded in a Transporter.
This topic is for people who still need to know the right ship order, right? You or I might be able to fly to Mirava blindfolded in a krait, but not everyone can. Also, like I said, a fuel scoop isn't that hard to get, and even if you don't get a fuel scoop, eight jumps of fuel should be enough to see you through to an alien race properly.
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With these itty-bitty ships, it's not so much about recharging your shields to fight again as it is about surprising that initial 'bounce' and living long enough to make it to your next jump. For that, I choose more shields and armour, rather than the long-term benefit of faster repairs. What are you doing in these ships anyway? Starting World War IV?
I see your point here -- if you plan on only jumping out of systems at the first sign of danger. Personally, I -- and a majority of other pilots, I think -- favor a more aggressive style of play; if I see a krait, helian, or Voinian Heavy Fighter, I take the challenge of destroying it. That's much of the fun of the game to me. The scoutship's higher shield recharge rate (not to mention the longer range of the cannons and the better maneuverability) make it incomparably better in a fight. No, I don't start galactic wars in these things, but I do want to be able to fight off assailants and destroy more than the occasional krait. I think much of this is an opinion question -- whether a pilot wants to pursue the "sedentary" trading lifestyle you seem to enjoy , or the aggressive, or at least brave trading, lifestyle I prefer.
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25,000cr isn't much money once you've got a ship you're happy with... but when you're flying around in a shuttle and trying to earn the purchase price, it's a more significant sum.
Like SD said, it's a minute or two at most -- not that much time, really. One properly chosen mission is enough; this doesn't count for that much with me.
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I still think the UE Transporter remains a viable alternative.
Maybe it is a viable alternative, just not for my style of play. The difference in the AI types typefies, I think, the difference in the mindsets of pilots who'll choose a transporter over a scoutship. The transporter is a wimpy trader, and the scoutship is a brave trader. The former is good for the peaceful types, and the latter is good for the more aggressive ones. It all boils down to a simple difference in opinion. I'll always think the scoutship is better, and you'll always think the transporter is better, only because we play differently. I think I can conclude, then, that the transporter is a viable alternative, but only if you pursue a peaceful trading lifestyle.
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