smilodon's shipyard

[smilodon]

As BSO gains traction and looks like it might make it as a supported game, I thought I would write a little ship guide to help new players and those looking to get more serious about the game. There is a wealth of information out on the web so this is by no means a definitive guide, more an overview of the ships available to us. At first the number of ships seems quite daunting but actually BSO devs have created quite a simple and straightforward set of ship options.


While each type of ship has different stats such as armour, speed, power consumption etc the main differences between them is in the number and type of equipment mount point that can be loaded with kit. These 'slots' come in four types and each class of ship will have more of one type of slot that the other classes.


Weapons(w) - these slots carry cannon and missile launchers. Obviously the more weapons you carry the more pain you can inflict.
Hull(h) - conversely hull slots carry armour upgrades and help reduce the damage your ship takes in combat.
Engines(e) - engine slots provide boosts to speed and agility making your ship faster and improve it's turn rates and booster speeds.
Computers(c) - these slots house equipment that improves your sensors and their range,. Also C slots allows you to equip computer support systems and computer warfare systems. Computer support basically temporarily boosts your ships performance and damage output. It also does the same to friendly players that are close to your ship. Electronic warfare has the opposite effect. It reduces the performance and firepower of enemy ships that come within range of your ship.


All ships have a certain number of these slots but different types of ship have different numbers of each. There are four classes of ship and each specialises in one area over the others. First though lets look at the three sizes of ship we can have. These sizes are Strike, Escort and Line.


Strike ships - are small light fighters. They excel in speed and agility but suffer from a limited number of slots, lower fire power and thinner hulls. Like most fighters they rely on speed and agility to hit their target without being hit back.


Escorts- are larger ships with more guns and more armour. However they are slower than strike ships and far less agile. These ships cannot dogfight with Strikes but can get into the blind spots of Line ships and other escorts. When they do their bigger guns can take down an enemy faster than a strike.


Line- these giants have massive amounts of armour, bristle with cannon and missile batteries and can give and take huge amounts of damage. However the a very slow and take ages to turn. A squad of fighters can make short work of a lone Line ship as long as they can get in close and fight from the Lines blind spots.


Each size of ship comes in four flavours.


Interceptor (Raider, Banshee, Fenrir) - these have extra engine slots and so will always be able to fly faster and turn faster than other ships. The Raider can become the fastest most agile ship in space, the Banshee can get inside a line ships blind spot and stay there and a Fenrir can chase down and run rings round any other line ship it finds.


Command (Heavy Raider, Spectre, Hel) These ships come with extra computer slots making them unbeatable at long range scanning and electronic support and warfare. While they might not be stuck into the thick of battle they will be your eyes and ears for approaching threats and can turn a battle by crippling an enemy ships systems or boosting your own ships abilities at the right moment.


Assault (Marauder, Wraith, Jormung) come with extra armour shots making them the tanks of BSO. They excel when fighting in close as they can survive long range attacks and deliver their hits from the thick of combat. I've read they are best used with the more powerful short range cannon and missiles as their armour can get them close to the enemy and keep them alive. Think of them as bombers rather than fighters.


Multi (War Raider, Liche, Nidhogg) these ships come with a balanced set of slots but carry additional weapons too. They're not the fastest, or strongest or cleverest ship but their balance allows them to take on any role. One important thing to remember is that the only upgrade route for multi role ships is to spend 'merits' . Merits come from killing enemy players and/or taking down enemy outposts. I don't imagine it will be easy to save up the required amount of merits to buy the advanced multi roLe ships (30,000 merits for the Advanced War Raider, 45,000 merits for the Advanced Liche and 60,000 merits for the Advanced Nidhogg) so I would suggest you look at the standard Multi when considering it as a choice and leave the Advanced version as a long term goal.

Finally it's worth mentioning the conceived wisdom says that larger ships are not necessarily better than smaller ones. Each size of ship has it's advantages and disadvantages. The best plan for the Squad would probably to keep a nice balance of strike, escort and line ships. If we all set out to take down an outpost in line ships we'll get wiped out by the huge missile defences the Outposts can use. But if we come with strike ships as well then they can take out the missiles while the line ships take down the base. It's about balance rather than all driving about in line ships.

[Ranualf]

add this to your thread smilo
there`s a lot of questions being asked about the various thing we find in our hold, as in equipment

Cluster- Strike(light) size
Nexus - Escort(medium) size
Plexus - Line(large) size

hope this helps out for all them akward moments of :help2::help2::help2: what is this for:helpsmilie2::helpsmilie2::helpsmilie2: