Short Newb Question: Which is a good scout ship?

[Good Wizard]

Hello,

I am not very far into the game (new to X), and at this time I am doing research at PHQ, will start the Hatikvah plot soon (already did it once in an earlier play through). I just built my first station, and have Rep 10+ with Teladi, Argon, Antigone and Segaris, so I can buy ships from them. Have several miners and trader running and around 16 mio Cr.

The scout has a 4+ star pilot (don't ask) and performs really well. But she has only worked sectors with friendly forces. She has orders to avoid combat (escape from attacks and piracy), and never ran into troubles, even at sector border (I suspect the game creates the enemies there only for the player). She flies a ARG Discoverer Vanguard now, best shields, only pulse laser Mk1, and best engines. She is very fast. Now I want to look at less friendly sectors and ensure her safety - so a very fast ship with good shields should do - correct?

Given the selection of ships - see above - I have now, which would you recommend?

Thanks

[Raptor34]

Personally unless you have some way to get more 4 star pilots easily, I'll take her off and put someone disposable in, exploring isn't exactly a high skill task.
As for good scout ship, Disco Vanguard is probably the best atm until you can get Pegasus, though I think Kestrels might be faster?
Just give them Mk 2 engines as iirc Mk 3 are really expensive and probably no guns, they are disposable if you want them to explore any actively hostile territory.

However, if the enemies aren't actively hostile, like say Xenon, then perhaps they might only target military and not civilian ships? The rep menu will tell you what they'll actively target. If so, a S courier type ship would work better as a scout as its classified as a civilian ship.

[strask412]

Personally unless you have some way to get more 4 star pilots easily, I'll take her off and put someone disposable in, exploring isn't exactly a high skill task.
As for good scout ship, Disco Vanguard is probably the best atm until you can get Pegasus, though I think Kestrels might be faster?
Just give them Mk 2 engines as iirc Mk 3 are really expensive and probably no guns, they are disposable if you want them to explore any actively hostile territory.

However, if the enemies aren't actively hostile, like say Xenon, then perhaps they might only target military and not civilian ships? The rep menu will tell you what they'll actively target. If so, a S courier type ship would work better as a scout as its classified as a civilian ship.

Any S(mall) ship labeled "scout" or "fighter" is probably fine for scouting and exploring. Strong agree with Raptor34 -- protect your 4 star pilot and put her in a position to do more important work. Plus -- scouting is a great way to earn xp and level up a lower level pilot -- wash, rinse, repeat. Once they hit 3 stars, though , find them a better job.

If you are looking for role play opportunities and really want to keep an expensive pilot like that as scout, the Segaris pioneers have a fighter that can take 4 mk3 small shields, making it the toughest damn scout to kill. I think it's the Kalis but I might be spelling that wrong. With two of the high energy guns it's not bad at killing xenon, too.

[Good Wizard]

Personally unless you have some way to get more 4 star pilots easily, I'll take her off and put someone disposable in, exploring isn't exactly a high skill task.
As for good scout ship, Disco Vanguard is probably the best atm until you can get Pegasus, though I think Kestrels might be faster?
Just give them Mk 2 engines as iirc Mk 3 are really expensive and probably no guns, they are disposable if you want them to explore any actively hostile territory.

However, if the enemies aren't actively hostile, like say Xenon, then perhaps they might only target military and not civilian ships? The rep menu will tell you what they'll actively target. If so, a S courier type ship would work better as a scout as its classified as a civilian ship.

Thank you I forgot to mention - I have the Paranids (not the HOP) at Rep 10+, so I can buy the Pegasus. This is the fastest ship in travel mode, but only has weak shields, (around 1300 even with TER Mk3).

Regarding the pilots rating: I use the LearnAllTheThings mod. There are enough threads over in the German forum and here, so I will not reiterate my reasoning for using this (as my only mod, btw.). I toned the mod down half (25% for 0-1 stars, 12.5% for 2 stars,...). It does take hours for a 2 Star pilot (2 stars gained using Seminars) to gain a star. But since ES has decided that mining gains nothing, trading only glacially slow, and only fighting a bit faster, I need to use it...

Interesting in your answer is your statement about -30 enemies (Xenon), who do not target non military ships! This is new to me, I fully expected them to gun down everything. I must have overlooked this in the REP menu...

Another answer mentions the Kalis (I can buy it at Segaris Wharf), and this ship is not very fast in travel mode, but can have whopping 5900 point shields with TER Mk3. I think I found it

[Good Wizard]

<...>

Any S(mall) ship labeled "scout" or "fighter" is probably fine for scouting and exploring. Strong agree with Raptor34 -- protect your 4 star pilot and put her in a position to do more important work. Plus -- scouting is a great way to earn xp and level up a lower level pilot -- wash, rinse, repeat. Once they hit 3 stars, though , find them a better job.

If you are looking for role play opportunities and really want to keep an expensive pilot like that as scout, the Segaris pioneers have a fighter that can take 4 mk3 small shields, making it the toughest damn scout to kill. I think it's the Kalis but I might be spelling that wrong. With two of the high energy guns it's not bad at killing xenon, too.

Thanks for the hint with the Kalis I will try it, I did look at the Pioneer Wharf, must have overlooked it. It is fairly slow in travel mode, but can have nearly 6000 shields. Will try it out.

Role play - yes. I know my pilots and care for my people, this is way I want to play it. This will become harder later on, when one has 20 or 30 ships and more. For the rest please see my other response above...

[Eyeklops]

I know it's not a scout ship but I use a Katana for auto-exploring. It's faster & tougher than most light scouts and I heard a rumor pilots level faster when exploring in medium sized ships.

[strask412]

However, if the enemies aren't actively hostile, like say Xenon, then perhaps they might only target military and not civilian ships?

Interesting in your answer is your statement about -30 enemies (Xenon), who do not target non military ships! This is new to me, I fully expected them to gun down everything. I must have overlooked this in the REP menu...

I think you misunderstood about the rep, my reading of Raptor34s statement was "If the enemies you face aren't as negative as the xenon..." like for example most gamestarts begin with ZYA at -15, which won't fire on you at all unless provoked but still rate as "enemy".

[Good Wizard]

However, if the enemies aren't actively hostile, like say Xenon, then perhaps they might only target military and not civilian ships?

Interesting in your answer is your statement about -30 enemies (Xenon), who do not target non military ships! This is new to me, I fully expected them to gun down everything. I must have overlooked this in the REP menu...

I think you misunderstood about the rep, my reading of Raptor34s statement was "If the enemies you face aren't as negative as the xenon..." like for example most gamestarts begin with ZYA at -15, which won't fire on you at all unless provoked but still rate as "enemy".

Yes - rereading it really helped

[Raptor34]

<...>

Any S(mall) ship labeled "scout" or "fighter" is probably fine for scouting and exploring. Strong agree with Raptor34 -- protect your 4 star pilot and put her in a position to do more important work. Plus -- scouting is a great way to earn xp and level up a lower level pilot -- wash, rinse, repeat. Once they hit 3 stars, though , find them a better job.

If you are looking for role play opportunities and really want to keep an expensive pilot like that as scout, the Segaris pioneers have a fighter that can take 4 mk3 small shields, making it the toughest damn scout to kill. I think it's the Kalis but I might be spelling that wrong. With two of the high energy guns it's not bad at killing xenon, too.

Thanks for the hint with the Kalis I will try it, I did look at the Pioneer Wharf, must have overlooked it. It is fairly slow in travel mode, but can have nearly 6000 shields. Will try it out.

Role play - yes. I know my pilots and care for my people, this is way I want to play it. This will become harder later on, when one has 20 or 30 ships and more. For the rest please see my other response above...

Takoba is better, 2 shields but way higher speed. And if they can't catch it, they can't kill it.
Or do like the other suggested and put her in a Katana instead. Though those are real costly. Maybe as an upgrade later.

[grapedog]

I use a pegasus vanguard for my personal scout ship if im out hunting kha'ak clusters down. Can get modded up pretty high... my pegasus has TER mk3 combat engines, and modded, travel mode pretty instantaneous reaching over 10k.... almost as fast as a radar pulse in this game.

For basic exploring any scout is fine, they're cheap where it isn't a big loss to lose one, and you should only possibly lose one exploring xenon sectors. All the other sectors are pretty tame.

[KextV8]

Takoba's make some nice heavily shielded scouts. Put TER Combat engines on it and it will basically enter travel and evade everything instantly too.

But, ultimately scouts die a lot even when you give them good ships. It's better IMO to take that high skilled pilot out and put it to work as a trader. Nothing else really needs high skilled pilots. Even combat pilots imo are better with low skill since low skill ones can't burn all their shields up with boosting and die. They really really need a global order or blacklist to prevent that behavior unless you actually want it IMO.

[dtpsprt]

Actually speaking if you seek fast scouting it's the Pegasus and only that (they can't kill what they can't catch).
If, however, you plan to use scouting as a means to gain exp for your pilots then put them on an M (or even L) ship!!! The bigger the scouting ship the bigger the experience gained... For this reason the Katana is a "obvious" choice, even though I have used Teladi Phoenixes at times!!!

[Eyeklops]

Actually speaking if you seek fast scouting it's the Pegasus and only that (they can't kill what they can't catch).
If, however, you plan to use scouting as a means to gain exp for your pilots then put them on an M (or even L) ship!!! The bigger the scouting ship the bigger the experience gained... For this reason the Katana is a "obvious" choice, even though I have used Teladi Phoenixes at times!!!

I can't imagine how long scouting would take in a large ship. I'm guessing a looooooooong time to clear a sector. I wonder how big the experience gain is over a medium. Time to send out the Asgard to do some exploring lol. I'll report back sometime next year after it finishes a sector haha.

[dtpsprt]

I can't imagine how long scouting would take in a large ship. I'm guessing a looooooooong time to clear a sector. I wonder how big the experience gain is over a medium. Time to send out the Asgard to do some exploring lol. I'll report back sometime next year after it finishes a sector haha.

Like I said one does this thing only for the ship's captain to get experience. You'll be amazed how fast it's gained this way. Half a sector brings experience from 2 to 3 1/2 stars!!!

[Imperial Good]

Scout ships discovering stuff level up fast. From personal experience I think they level up fastest of all ways to level up pilots. The reason they are 4 star is because they used to be poor but due to scouting they are not 4 star. I nearly have a perfect pilot from this in my playthrough.

The Yaki variant of Pegasus Vanguard is technically the best scout ship since not only is it the fastest S ship (faster than Pegasus Vanguard) but it also can defend itself against other lone S ships.