The best ship?

[Teouz86]

Hi guys, I have a question for you.
What are the best ship for the all class? I'm not interested about the aestethic, but only for the military view

[Imperial Good]

With Cradle of Humanity: XL -> Asgard, L -> Syn, M -> Katana.
With Split Vendetta but without Cradle of Humanity: XL -> Raptor, L -> Rattlesnake, M -> Dragon Raider.
Without any DLCs: XL -> Zeus Vanguard, L-> Odysseus Vanguard, M -> Nemesis Vanguard

The Asgard out classes everything. You can single handily clear Xenon sectors efficiently with just a single one. It can one-shot any other ship in the Universe (including Branch 9 Destroyer I). It is near indestructible in normal fights. Raptor is a very powerful carrier that can do a lot of damage while housing a large fighter fleet. Without DLCs the available XL ships are not really combat orientated, destroyers will likely do more damage.

The Syn is a no-compromise destroyer offering top tier fire power and shielding with its only weakness being speed, easily capable of strafe running Branch 9 Destroyer Ks without worry. Rattlesnake has similar fire power with top tier speed but is a glass cannon. Odysseus Vanguard is a long range siege ship, lacking strong shields and fire power. Odysseus can struggle to kill Branch 9 Destroyer I and killing Ks is a real slog.

The Katana is the fastest flying ship in X4, while offering decent toughness and fire power. Dragon Raider is the second fastest flying ship in X4 offering the best M class fire power but with low durability. Nemesis Vanguard is vastly inferior to the previous mentioned two in every way except turning where it is just slightly better. Cradle of Humanity adds a better variant of the Nemesis which is superior to it in every way that matters, but still falls short of the other two.

[grapedog]

Hi guys, I have a question for you.
What are the best ship for the all class? I'm not interested about the aestethic, but only for the military view

Remember to take anything you read here with a grain of salt, these are all personal opinions.

The katana is a great M ship, but it also handles like a whale... or the dragon raider which is literally made of paper mache and will fall apart if someone sneezes on it. The nemesis is really good too. But you might also like more of a gunship type....

Seriously, you need to play with the ships yourself, and see what you like and what fits your needs. You might find that you needs are not served by a corvette, or maybe a gunship isn't what you need... but you should play with them all to see what works for you.

[Whatever0815]

From my current experience with an unmodded 4.10, I'd say that mostly depends on two factors -- and I'd very much like others to hop in and correct and / or contribute:

1. Will you be piloting the ship yourself ?
2. Will the ship be in your current location's scanner range (this is where I am not sure. Is that a fixed range ? Does it depend on scanner range ?) while it is exercising your commands under AI control ?

I've had five Behemoth Vanguards (all M pulse, 2 L plasma turrets each) completely obliterate a Kha'ak Defence station in less than a minute while I was standing on the bridge next to the fleet leader commander. All five where firing their main batteries and the L plasma turrets acquired target and also fired. When standing on the bridge of a Rattlesnake about a 100 kilometers away, they hardly made a dent into the station.

Similarly, when the five Behemoths got swarmed with Kha'ak defense ships, piloting the support Rattlesnake myself made short work of the attackers (gotta love Flak ). Retrying the scenario with just ordering the Rattlesnake around amidst the attacked fleet and let her turrets do the job while being on a second Rattlesnake (equally about 100kms away) had my Behemoths hammered quite hard by the Kha'ak. Pimped TER shields really saved the day there.

The third time, I piloted a pimped Nemesis (4 x Bolt Repeater Mk2 + 1 x Ion Blaster Mk2) amidst the attacking fleet. That was great fun, and I am continually amazed by how the developers make the game code manage to distribute cycle time between visuals and "all the rest". The Behemoths fired their main batteries and their L plasma turrets. Basically the same outcome as if I was standing on the bridge of the fleet leader.

And I did a forth one, piloting a (pimped) Split all Tau Chimera right in the middle of the Behemoth fleet. Requires a different approach, as I can't tank, but, heck, this ship is fun to fly. The Behemoths did their thing as previous, but since that pimped Chimera was so absurdly fast, I just wreaked havok amongst the KHK as I did with the Nemesis.

I have no idea about TER ships, yet. So, while considering Imperial Goods excellent summary, keep in mind, that there's a lot more to "best ship" than just DPS, speed or shields and their recharge rate.

Edit: I am using the term "pimped" for an in-game modded ship, like for example Buckler or Piercer mods.

[Karmaticdamage]

I was going to post my opinion of the best ship in each class, but the terran fanbois have already descended apon this thread and any list I make will get quoted and argued with. OP, don't listen to a single person in this post, fly the ships yourself with different setups and determine which ones YOU think are best. This is a single player game and ultimately anything in the players hands can defeat anything in the AIs hands.

[Whatever0815]

I was going to post my opinion of the best ship in each class, but the terran fanbois have already descended apon this thread and any list I make will get quoted and argued with. OP, don't listen to a single person in this post, fly the ships yourself with different setups and determine which ones YOU think are best. This is a single player game and ultimately anything in the players hands can defeat anything in the AIs hands.

Yeah, like I go right now with Split ships - beefed they're wreath, unbeefed they're just death

[Teouz86]

Thank's for all answer, but i have another problem, i don't know how equip the ship... i have 3 colossus full equip with anti-aircraft but don't workshop with a k.. I wanna tra with a plasma but I make full plasma o mix with anti-aircraft?

[Alm888]

Thank's for all answer, but i have another problem, i don't know how equip the ship... i have 3 colossus full equip with anti-aircraft but don't workshop with a k.. I wanna tra with a plasma but I make full plasma o mix with anti-aircraft?

A Colossus? She is a carrier! She won't be in the main battlefield, so my advice is to just trow mostly flak turrets, probably with some M-dumbfire ones equipped with heavy dumbfire rockets for some long range warfare against XL/L ships or stations.

On other note, my favorite ship list (according to role):
Carrier: Colossus Vanguard
Battleship: Asgard (do I have a choice?)
Auxiliary: ??? No preference. They all are situational, I choose the one out of roleplay
XL Armed Freighter: Condor Sentinel (seriously, give me my Titurel/Lyramekron back)
L Trader: Shuyaku Sentinel
L Armed Freighter: Buffalo (again, no other options)
L Miner: Magnetar Sentinel
Destroyer: Rattlesnake (for personal dogfighting) / Behemoth Sentinel (AI destroyer rush), mainly because it needs the least amount of crew to staff
Dedicated Space Marines Carrier: Minotaur Raider
M Trader: Minotaur Raider (counts as a military ship, so pirates won't try to assail her)
M Armed Freighter: Cormorant Vanguard (another one-of-a-kind ship)
M Miner: Alligator
Corvette: None. Corvettes are junk, IMO.
Frigate: None. Even worse than corvette.
Gunboat: Peregrine Vanguard
S Trader: Magpie Sentinel / Courier Sentinel (love the cockpit / interior)
S Miner: Wut? Er… *runs away*
Heavy Fighter: Chimera
Standard Fighter: Takoba
Scout: Moreya (Unfair? Screw the rules, I have money!)

[oddible]

The answer to this question is always “it depends”. While everyone has already share best in class ships, a lot depends on your play style and what you’re doing with it. If you want an I Win button just mod yourself in whatever you want. Any game is fun because the challenge matches our skill and the things we like to do in game. So one game I role played as Split and only used their ships and helped the FRF take over the world! Have fun and don’t try to just thing there is one best thing for everything. Not in this type of game.

[j.harshaw]

Corvette: None. Corvettes are junk, IMO.
Frigate: None. Even worse than corvette.
Gunboat: Peregrine Vanguard

Interesting! Don't think I've ever seen anyone recommend a gunboat but completely reject corvettes and frigates. Would be interested to hear your reasoning.

[Diroc]

For ships you might actually want to fly (aka Daily Driver) I'd suggest you look at the following:

Dragon Raider (Fast and armed to the teeth with 6 gun slots) 1 shield slot. -My personal favorite.
Get FAF Marauder Dragon Raider's to bail anywhere.
Alternatively, buy at FRF Wharf.

Katana (Even Faster than Dragon raider but 4 gun slots) 2 shield slots. -Real good for getting around fast.
Get TER Katana's to bail outside Terran or Segaris space to avoid system security issues.
They are often on explore missions outside Terran/Segaris space in groups of 3.
Alternatively, buy from TER Wharf.

Kuraokami (Fairly fast, 5 gun slots) 2 shield slots. -Well armed and good durability.
Get Solo YAK Kuraokami to bail anywhere. As part of a fleet, you could have a serious fight on your hands.
Alternatively, buy from Yaki Pirate base.

The weapons you choose have a substantial impact on effective combat strategy. Experiment. Heat management is key. Use fire groups.
Good luck.

[grapedog]

Personally, my favorites...

S - 1 Asp Raider/2 Takoba/3 Chimera
M - 1 Nemesis/ 2 Katana
L - 1 Behemoth/2 Phoenix/3 Rattlesnake (though with the changes coming to the phoenix, it might jump into 1st)
XL - Collosus
Aux - Stork

[Alm888]

Corvette: None. Corvettes are junk, IMO.
Frigate: None. Even worse than corvette.
Gunboat: Peregrine Vanguard

Interesting! Don't think I've ever seen anyone recommend a gunboat but completely reject corvettes and frigates. Would be interested to hear your reasoning.

Well, when I say "Gunboat over corvette" I mean "Peregrine Vanguard" obviously. Minotaur Vanguard/Sentinel is garbage and Raider is not a gunboat but something entirely different.
Compared to vaunted Nemesis Vanguard, Peregrene has almost twice the dynamic (100 m/s2 against 58 m/s2 acceleration using ARG Combat Mk3).
She has +33% shield (three generators instead of two), which nets us +33% recharge rate. Like it or not, M-class is susceptible to Plasma/Graviton shots and some hits are to be expected. But Peregrine not only has extra generator (which means one extra hit before hull starts to take damage), but she recoups from a hit faster. Plus, a gunboat has much smaller profile (hitbox) to hit, especially in zenith/nadir projection -- the most important one during inevitable "turn around" maneuver when speed drops to zero and the ship is wide open to be shot (the less time this deceleration/acceleration takes the better, and twin engine helps).
And both Nemesis and Peregrine have equal missile storage, so if one wants a dedicated torpedo boat, there is little difference (sure, 5xTorpedo launcher will fire all 40 missiles faster than 2x).

All in all, it is my general policy: survivability before damage potential. Always. Blown-up weapons don't shoot. The longer a ship stays in combat, the more she contributes. A corvette is more prone to being blown up, potentially taking your hard-trained experienced captain with her.

And frigates? No. Just no. Giant clumsy bullet sponges. An Osprey is the worst: those 3xGenerators would not last long against Plasma Storm or Defense Drone assail (and Osprey can not even outrun Defense Drones!, which means once she is engulfed in a swarm -- that's it) because unlike L/XL Generators, M ones lack strong regeneration ability so effective shield amount of even pimped up with exceptional mods Osprey is nowhere near even a weakest L-class vessel with one generator.

In fact, I believe S-class ships have more effective shield amount in a typical battle due to good regeneration ability of S-Generators.

P.S. Oh, and 4xJian parked on top of a Colossus would make a nice turret battery.

[LameFox]

I also quite like the Peregrine vanguard, as they have the speed and agility that I can use them to hunt down fighters and the durability and turret coverage that the AI can fly one and still survive and shoot things. Plus, additional forward guns worsening cooldown annoys me on a personal level.

Corvettes seem to be mostly player ships, like a big fighter. They're very good with a player applying their weapons and avoiding enemy fire, but the AI isn't great at either of those, so I'm more reluctant to let them fly it when I get out. And there isn't really a situation that actually calls for me as the player to need 4-6 forward M guns. Big ships are all vulnerable to just sitting in a blind spot grinding their hp away or killing turrets, and gunboats have a better profile for that. Other M ships are all vulnerable to sitting behind them and killing them in a few seconds, especially the ones with mostly forward firepower.

Frigates I agree are just clumsier, easier targets with not really better protection to make up for it. Their hull is better but no M ship has good hull hitpoints for how easily hit it is, especially when it can no longer boost.


I do have to wonder why the Minotaur line seems to be a total downgrade.

[EGO_Aut]

My choice is mostly like Alm888 ones, but.

1. Ares is my Jack of all trades.
Tuned/modified it reaches speed of the Chimera (not tuned) and HP of a corvette. 4x Guns is not as good as 6x but they do not overheat as fast when you do not mix them.
All my carriers have a mix of Chimeras (Interceptors) and Ares (tanks)

2. I like the Split M Cobra, 2nd fastest ship (w Dlc), lot of HP and can carry 2x S and lot of "Marines" if you want to. But its a brick like a Dragon.

3. Transport ship for my HQ/Missions: Incarcatura Sentinel
4. Buffalo as Auto Traders

[Imperial Good]

The reality is late game you will not be sending S or M ships to fight big targets with plasma and gravatons anyway. Given the Asgard literally one shots both K and potentially even I. The only way the AI can kill a player flown Asgard is if they thrown enough fighters at it to eventually strip some turrets. The XL main battery can kill any L or bigger ship long before they can fire back.

Katana is purely for the speed. Like always, speed is good. Saves the player time, and lets them run away should they need to. Anything too heavy for a Katana to handle, such as a fighter swarm, the player will just bring in a heavier ship like a Syn or Asgard.

[LameFox]

I would say that's more of a mid game concern than late. When I have captured a bunch of ships and don't want to lose them then I will send something big like a borrowed Intervention Corps Asgard. When I have a bunch of factories and a shipyard and can afford losses I will just send whatever I most feel like watching at the time, because they are all ultimately renewable.

[Eyeklops]

though with the changes coming to the phoenix, it might jump into 1st

I'd love to hear more about this.

[grapedog]

though with the changes coming to the phoenix, it might jump into 1st

I'd love to hear more about this.

viewtopic.php?f=146&t=442925#p5087546

Looks like the developers didn't know that the phoenix was pausing for reloading and apparently, unlike the other destroyers, the phoenix doesn't have to reload i guess. So it should see its DPS from the main batteries increase by a substantial amount.

[budforceuk]

Between the Katana and Dragon Raider........

You know what, on paper the Katana is better, particularly the shield.

But........

Despite its speed it "feels" a lot heavier than a Dragon Raider, I find with the Katana as you turn in a fight, as you change direction you are constantly fighting against your own inertia which is effectively slowing you down, whilst this is nowhere near as bad on a Dragon Raider.

So yes the Dragon Raider is more paper tank, you take a lot less damage because you can change direction a lot faster.

Dragon Raider also has more guns, and can put out a lot more DPS if you use those close range flak guns.

Dragon Raider aesthetics are much better in my option the Katana is ugly.

But, on the flip side the Katana just does have so much more tank, and outside of combat it's faster for travelling about in.

I've played a lot with both ships and it's a close call.....

I think the Dragon Raider scales better against the Katana depending on your skill, Katana is more forgiving.