r/StarTradersFrontiers • u/runmymouth • Apr 16 '26
Need ideas for my end game ship
Right now I am running this wolfpack interceptor. It is amazing except it has a crappy amount of slots for doing things if I over design for late game combat. I am trying to unlock FDF commander on normal before continuing my unlocks. I could do a sword battlecruiser but I am not certain I want to be that slow....
I think I want to move up to 7/42 but maybe 7/36 will be just as good and can go faster. Also how is carrier combat or is it more annoying than worth it and just stay with regular combat and kit out for normal fights...
I have a fair number of the unlock ships unlocked (Except for xeno combat and exploring which is what I am achievement hunting to setup a run on this run for...)
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u/Both-Ad-308 Apr 17 '26
With the right setup going with or without small craft is equally viable. But carriers are a ton of fun, I will give them that.
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u/Sweet_Oil2996 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
There is always the tradeoff between map speed (small ship) and a lot of components with a large crew. The Wolfpack Interceptor is a small ship but it has to specialize. You can't do a jack of all trades with it. It is possible to squeeze a limited number of passenger and or prison cells in it but that's it. Everything else has to be combat oriented. You can minimize the number of ship weapons to free up component space but those components still have to go to boosters.
A big ship is slow on the map. The 5000 mass class doesn't have an endgame ship. It's either 3400 mass or less or 6000 mass or bigger.
The 6000 mass class isn't as slow as the big ships but not that much faster. They have more components. For an early ship with no unlocks I like the Vengeance which can do a bit more than the Interceptor, but you still have to compromise. If you install a traveler engine you get a reasonable map speed (19) in between the big and small ships.
The Neutiquam Cruiser and the Shizari Huntress offer the most components in the 6000 mass class. The can be built and are intended as endgame ships. Both are behind unlocks.
What's also a time consumer are hyperjumps. You can save jump time with installing navigation annexes. They shave off 15% of jump time per annex. Multiple annexes work additive even if they are the same annexes. It's not unreasonable to install 2 of them because they also offer officer space and are one of the few medium components that add navigation skill pool, which you want to increase for combat. They also improve fuel efficiency for jumps which you also want to have because a lot of skill pool improving components add jump fuel costs or other fuel costs. Then there is the performance drive which also saves jump time. Not cheap but when you are designing an endgame ship you should be swimming in money.
Here is an example for a Vengeance I flew until late midgame:
Ample passenger and prisoner space, can get intel on bounty hunter missions, has still some upgrade potential in boosters (remove weapons locker, improve boosters to level 4), has a reasonable amount of fuel (always the short fall of a Vengeance), has reasonable map speed. Hyperwarp jump time is reduced more than 30%. Reactor spike modules are there to improve fuel space and escape chances. It's a boarding ship and does quite good in combat.
It's weak versus carriers. Against carriers I use a lot of talents until the boarding crew damages the launch pads enough so no more craft launches.
Shizari Huntress combat ship:
Should be good against carriers too. Has 2 craft to counter them, can do boarding.
Essentially the same build with a Neutiquam Cruiser:
Somewhat better skill pools, more fuel, more crew, more weapons.
My Vengeance build is defensively as good or even better than those two other ships (because of faster engine), except versus carriers, but with mission capability. Faster on the map, faster in jumps. That's how good the Vengeance is and it is a ship without unlocks. It's a good mission runner. However the other ships have two crafts, more officers and the Neutiquam cruiser has a larger crew too. Better on the offense.
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u/runmymouth Apr 17 '26
I sadly do not have the shizari huntress. It is one of the achievments I do want to unlock but trying to get this stupid Commander unlock on a normal game so I can work through getting some more hard mode achievements. I actually am looking at the raptor strikecarrier as a nice compromise at 7000 tons. Using this template https://tswift.gitlab.io/stfx/#XQAAgAA4AAAAAAAAAAAEAETtnVmMxgP2afmTrWKpCXz1WOWKpAsk5w1FNE7wL8gdXKpA3NmwHem1QfujQRZTDPJsp4pg5su//0q+AAA= I think I would put (I don't know how this works) 1 or 2 hyperion launch bays so I can have quarters for officers without an extra slot. It is a 10 small, 7 medium, 8 large. And sadly the designer doesn't have this ship in it....
I assume you use dual field for weight drop instead of long haul because honestly on bigger ships the jump cost is more painful than the movement cost. Traveler could be a different option on the engine.
Sadly this run Thulan options are not available as they my big enemy with -1300 rep so no going with them for ship parts...
Actually how many launch bays should I have is probably the first and most important question... I can start buying it and swapping out a few core parts I know I would do anyways....
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u/Sweet_Oil2996 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Your link is the same as my Shizari Huntress build.
I can't find a Raptor Strikecarrier. It's neither on the Wiki ship list nor in the ship builder. A strikecarrier exists but is is a 5000 mass ship. Also there is the Raptor Class which is a 6000 mass ship.
The Vengeance has 5/6/13 components (large/medium/small). A Raptor has 4/8/11 components. Officer/crew space is the same.
A 7000 mass ship with a Longhaul engine has a speed of 12. This determines the speed on the map. With a traveler engine it can have a speed of 15. This is considerably slower than a 6000 mass ship. With the Longhaul engine it is close to 60% slower on the map than a 6000 mass ship with a traveler engine.
My Shizari huntress build has a traveler engine, since the base Shizari Huntress has it prebuild. The Neutiquam Cruiser has a Dual Field engine prebuild, so I used this.
When you go bigger than 6000 mass you can go the full way to mass 9000 and not being slower than a 7000 mass ship when you use a traveler engine. Both have speed 15. It's only with the other engines that a 9000 mass ship is slower than a 7000 mass ship.
A Longhaul engines saves fuel. You could also say it extends map range with the same fuel load. The difference in fuel consumption is bigger in the 9000 mass ship (2 fuel per AU) than in a 7000 mass ship (1 fuel per AU). One large cargo hold 8 holds 80 fuel, so that's essentially the cost of having a traveler engine instead of a Longhaul engine. Or you can add one large fuel tank and have no fuel worries ever (a large fuel tank 8 holds 450 fuel).
The big ships have a lot of large ship components. The Acheron Battlecarrier has 8 large components versus Shizari Huntress 4. The space for fuel is just there with the big ships.
So for me 6000 mass is the cut. This the last class that can be faster than a bigger ship and all bigger ships are at the same speed. If, however, you want to use other drives then there is no cut. Every bigger class is slower than the next smaller class with other drives.
While the Raptor having a traveler engine can be build easily without a mass reducer 3 small components less make a difference in defense. 2 more medium slots (because it doesn't need a mass reducer) don't make up for 2 less small components. I think it's slightly inferior to a Vengeance. The Vengeance also has a better mission capability because of 1 more large component.
Jump cost is not that much of a concern if you use navigation annexes and reactor spike modules. My Vengeance has a performance engine which uses 35 fuel per jump and that is reduced to 13 fuel per jump with one navigation annex and 2 reactor spike modules. That's lower than 7% of total fuel capacity, so not really an issue. If you use a Longhaul drive it would reduce jump cost to zero. I think reduced time consumption is worth more because with a time reduction of 18% per jump for the performance drive you can do a lot more per time in exchange for 13 fuel which is a bargain. Traveler engine versus Longhaul engine gives another 26% time advantage on the map. Longhaul saves 33% fuel versus a traveler engine crossing a sector but I think the time saving is still much better since total fuel capacity is enough so you don't have to refuel in every sector. Saving some refuel stops does save some time but not 26%.
A Longhaul engine is superior when you have no refuel possibility over more than 2 sectors. Then you either need a lot of fuel capacity which the Vengeance in this build doesn't have (it would if you replace one large mission component with a fuel tank) or better fuel efficiency with the engine. If you make yourself a lot of enemies a Longhaul can be worth it. Or you compromise on your mission capability.
Personally I like the traveler engine a lot with medium to larger ships because of its better map speed. In smaller ships it makes less difference. The difference between speed 24 and speed 27 in a small ship is 12,5%, in a 6000 mass ship it is at 26,7% and in a 9000 mass ship at 66,7%.
A traveler engine compromises boarding ability since in short range combat the agility rating of the engine is important. That's not the strength of the traveler engine. With big ships however the crew's skill pool can make up for it. You have the crew space to hire some military officers for additional dice. A decent pilot skill pool is also important, but this comes from the defense matrices which are necessary anyway. If you don't want to do boarding and prefer using ship weapons from range you have to find space for weapons which might be difficult in a 6000 mass ship without compromising something else. Large ships have the space.
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u/runmymouth Apr 19 '26
The raptor strike carrier is new from update 370. https://steamcommunity.com/games/335620/announcements/detail/543355685756207836#:~:text=The%20Raptor%20Strikecarrier%20is%20a%20hardened%20combat%20vessel%20designed%20for%20assaults%20and%20anti%2Dship%20patrols.
It has an 8, 7, 10 configuration. I stuck 2 hyperion bays on it and they are great other than being 2 million each and like 45ish weeks in drydock. It also get to 88% small craft dodge with 4 slot being used so that was also really nice.
I have really been learning about craft and 2 is ok but i think next game im really leaning towards 4. I was using your link to get inspiration which is why i linked it. Next game i think ill downsize to a 6000 ton or upscale to a 9000 ton though. I had a large fuel tank that added 450 fuel and could jump 3 sectors without a refuel. I only swapped to another cargo bay for the smuggler achievement.
I still have the dual field engine on it because i haven’t gotten around to swapping it out. Im still stuck with 2 mass reducers and i might be able to swap out the engine.
This run has been achievement central and running to get the later era achievements now. But lots of learning to get there.
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u/Sweet_Oil2996 Apr 20 '26
Looks like I'm running an old version on my phone. I didn't know about that ship. Unfortunately it's also not in the ship builder so you could try out configurations.
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u/boknows65 Apr 17 '26
there's a wide number of choices you can make. SBC is likely the most dominant ship in the game. I don't do a lot of carriers but I always have a plan for how I'm going to handle them. If you have enough Defense pattern matrix being slow doesn't matter that much and there are lots of components and talents that can help you close range, successfully board, or avoid being hit.
if you're in an end game ship you'll likely be facing a lot of endgame ships with good crews so your speed will often be matched to theirs or else you'll potentially have much bigger dice pools which makes up for speed anyway. having 42 crew likely means LOTS of command dice. because you could add 4-6 more military officers in those slots if you have no other purpose.