What are peoples thoughts on a large number of cheap ships vs one expencive ship?
I currently have (all upgraded from omegas)
avanger waiting on cargo varient :S
315p
delta
omega.
For you, probably best to stick with 4 ships seeing as the money you spent on the Omega's is lost once melted and you'll only get the CCU/Upgrade value (about $60 at a guess?) so its absolutely worthless cos about $100 you've put into Omega's will be gone.
I've been tempted do something similar, and stopped cos they have $0 value. Great for gifting, having 1 of, or if theres a ship you know you'll stick with. But you'd be stupid to melt 3 of them and buy a more expensive ship cos you'd lose what you've spent on the Omega's.
For everyone else, if you've got say $200 worth of ships, then IMO it comes down to 2 things:
1) Are you playing it solo or in a group?
2) Are you bothered about dogfighting?
If you're in a group (of more than say 5) chances are you'll have plenty of sub-$100 ships, so a handful more is likely to be of little use, you'll be able to share ships and chances are theres a spare Hornet or 2 going free, so why persist with Aurora's & 300's when you're more help in another ship.
What will be more useful is having a role-specific ship, something that gives your group more options of stuff to do at a decent level. So IMO having a Freelancer MAX or DUR, Cutlass Blue or Red, that sort of ship makes more sense.
If you can afford a high-end ship (Orion, Hull C, Carrack etc etc), IMO thats often the best route, but only if nobody has one or you can make use of multiple.
If you're playing solo, its best to go with either a solid all-rounder (Freelancer, Cutlass Black or 300 etc) and if you can get a couple niche ships too, even better. Basically ships which dont restrict you too much, like an Omega/Gamma or Delta, cos they have no storage and role-specific ships, you cant haul or mine, stuff like that. At least with a 300/FL/Cutlass they're fairly multi-role. Try different things, progress in whatever direction you like best.
As for dogfighting, its the main activity in SC, and will be for about 6mo (That said, i have a Hornet trainer as 2 of my ships arent flyable, so a Freelancer should fit that bill till AC2.0).
I bought the ships i liked, but ive also bought based on what i know my small org will be able to make use of. I have a Starfarer and Reclaimer, and one of the main reasons is because they're not cheap, and i have no doubt we'd probably be able to buy both (or similar) in-game within a couple of weeks working together just 4-6 of us. The reason i've used my contribution on those, rather than a load of smaller ships (i still have an LN, Beta, Delta & Gladius, but the first 3 will be melted in time) is because in 2+yrs time when we've managed to buy a Hull B/C, its unlikely we'll need a Freelancer MAX. They're more (dare i say) 'end game' ships, and so i know in 5yrs time the chances are my Starfarer will still be in use, so will my Reclaimer.
I could melt the smaller ships down and buy a Freelancer MIS, i had the upgrade from launch till a week ago, but i realise its just a stepping-stone to a Retaliator, the 'missile boat' i really want. So for me its largely about knowing i'll still be using and walking around in these ships in years go come, rather than them being surpassed by a ship i already know exists in the pipeline. I wouldnt buy an Idris as its too big for us, 4-8 seaters is our limit, but in-game... why not. Maybe they'll be surpassed by monsters, but its likely it'd be too big for us.
Buy what you enjoy, what works best for the people you're playing with, and what you can get use out of now and in the future.
