favorite free ship...

keepcalmchiveon

what is everyones favorite free ship?

mine has been the Fe'rang Dread since i got it. cant put the beast down. im hoping the new winter one (Gok'tad) will be as fun. maybe a replacement for the Fe'rang, but thats a huge step to get to.

dirlettia

The Vorgon Ryn'kodan-class Carrier when I use a freebie ship, but my go-to is the Cardassian Damar-class Intel Science Dreadnought. What can I say, I love Carriers and Science ships!

nccmark

The Ferengi Nandi Warship, pretty much just for the bridge having bank/mail/exchange stations; easy to switch ships and beam up quick for stuff.

garaffe

The T5 Ha'nom Guardian Warbird.

discojer

I enjoy the Lokari Ho'kuun. It can have 12 sci or intel powers, so it's great at spamming spore infused anomalies

gaevsman

The Breen Sar'Thein Carrier is great, also...

foxrockssocks

I shall say my Son'a collector ship. Yes its a promo ship but I lucked out and got it free thanks to the anniversary giveaways this year. It isn't a great ship, but it is a lot of fun, especially when I get to deploy the sails.

Of the ships people would typically consider free, I really tend not to like them enough to fly them for long. I could mention the Nandi as it is a fairly unique ship and I did fly it a bunch back in the day, or the Risian weather control ship because the trait is great for a lot of my science ships, or the T5 Breen Chel'Gret which I flew for a long time even at T5U (sadly I missed the T6 version.) Really though, if I'm not flying any of them I don't think I can say I like them.

echatty

I'm another who likes the Ferengi Nandi ship. It's a tough little ship and it has mail/bank/exchange and a dabo wheel for those non-specific dabo endeavors.

alcyoneserene

Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser, because to me it looks really good despite the odd saucer section, and performs very well. It just sticks out from the rest, and adds to KDF's lineup of 5/3 DHC battlecruisers that aren't ugly as hell like Qugh or whatever future abominations based on Disco is yet to plague KDF, and boring fed beam-only cruisers.

foppotee

Performance wise between the newer Khitomer Alliance Battlecruiser & the Breen Chel Boalg Warship.

For distinctive appearances it is between the RIsian Luxury Cruiser & the Kobali Samsar Cruiser.

All Vorgons earning honorable mentions.

echatty

I admit I like them all for different reasons, but the Nandi is my favorite free ship. So far.

jamieblanchard

reyan01 wrote: »

The Risa 2020 summer event ship. Actually a decently performing Science ship.

That. I like that one a lot. Name escapes me at the moment. The Risa ships in general look very nice.

The Alliance cruiser is also pretty solid.

alcyoneserene

corinthalas wrote: »

reyan01 wrote: »

The Risa 2020 summer event ship. Actually a decently performing Science ship.

I gave it a big 'meh.' The pilot station does a whole lot of nothing for me, having virtually no synergy or interaction with EPG or science skills. The Lt tac station is too limited, but if you use tac in your universal station, then you've got a useless Lt tac station doing nothing for you. An extra LtComm sci station won't help much either, with so many science boff skills having linked cooldowns. I suppose you could do a LtComm eng station, but what does that really get you?

Pilot boff stations do have some abilities that can benefit a science build, though how effective they are I'm not yet sure:
- Reinforcement Squadrons: long cool-down, but acts similar to photonic fleet to draw fire off of you and help fire on your targets made vulnerable by Sci ablities; apparently they also use coolant ignition (EPG based) on your target
- Coolant ignition, EPG based AoE useful with control type abilities (GW, TB, rTBR)
- Attack Pattern Lambda, 20% chance to confuse for 5 sec so they fire on each other, not surprising NPC-based abilities in games tend to be super weak
- Form Up, all dmg bonus, which should include EPG, and it applies to ally too for the teamwork aspect
- Fly Her Apart, all damage bonus which should inc EPG however short it lasts
- Subspace boom, apparently EPG based kinetic-exotic blast with movement debuffs, should help make gravity wells more powerful

The pilot skill tree has some nice benefits to shields and mobility which helps sci ships as they are meant to be shield tanks, and maneuverability is important to them as they can't broadside when casting or using torpedoes. Even if temporal spec will be primary, the mobility boosts, all dmg immunity (rock n roll), even defenses help survive when every NPC in your anomalies suddenly focus fires on your ship as you melt them from the inside out.

echatty

jamieblanchard wrote: »

reyan01 wrote: »

The Risa 2020 summer event ship. Actually a decently performing Science ship.

That. I like that one a lot. Name escapes me at the moment. The Risa ships in general look very nice.

The Alliance cruiser is also pretty solid.

Risa Weather Control science ship.

jamieblanchard

echatty wrote: »

jamieblanchard wrote: »

reyan01 wrote: »

The Risa 2020 summer event ship. Actually a decently performing Science ship.

That. I like that one a lot. Name escapes me at the moment. The Risa ships in general look very nice.

The Alliance cruiser is also pretty solid.

Risa Weather Control science ship.

Thanks! =D That is a very nice ship, perfect for space magic-ing.

captainkoltar

I love the Risian Corvette. Really nice looks. I've got the Pilot version (not sure if it meets your definition of free, as you need to use a Fleet Ship Module to get it), and it's good fun.

alcyoneserene

@corinthalas sounds about right. This is why I say this game's a landfill of useless abilities, and balance passes can't keep up as new stuff gets added and the meta shifts around often in place of previous abilities (ex. weapon proc rate per cycle vs sensor-linked flat buffs, embassy plasma consoles, plasmonic leech, honored dead, competitive rep engines, etc.).