So as I played through the normal modes of the game, I began to wonder what the biggest, meanest, most deadly ships you can make are. Naturally they also have to be quite tough and hard to take out. As I played through, I gradually built up from what I would call frigates to true behemoths.
If y'all are interested, here are some of mine, literally in order from least complex (and expensive) to most. This was basically the order I built them in. My rough rule of thumb was that when I had accumulated roughly twice the cash that my current ship was worth, I'd do a complete redesign.
For a little while I found a design I liked and that could complete most Elite-level regions pretty well, and made a fleet of them, with some minor modifications to each. The Albatross class of ships:
Regular
Frigate
Flagship
After I found even a fleet of them were too flimsy for anything more challenging, I started branching out into behemoths. I noticed that engines on the outer hull were often one of the easy weak points in armored ships, so... I did away with those, right quick!
The Deathclaw
From this, it became a bit of an arms race with the Elite-level ships. I'd be OK for a while, making minor modifications to my design, and then... I'd get ripped apart. OK, no worries, reload a previous save file, build up some cash a little more safely, and redesign. Bit of a novelty stage here with the Pacman ๐
Quickly enough, it became 'let's see just how big I can make a ship, keep it somewhat manoeuverable, and deadly as all hell'. This goal gave me the Tartarus:
That soon fell prey to that Crescent Doom ship with all its missile bays, and I needed to redesign yet again.
I have yet to lose a single battle, or indeed suffer more than ~$25k in damage from a battle, and that was from a very disadvantaged position (enemy snuck up on me while I was finishing off another one, and got some good hits into my missile bays). That's why manoeuverability is important, kids! A quick turn and some serious firepower, and we're back in business. I give ye the Eldrazi.
This is approaching the biggest ship you can make -- the wingspan is literally the entire building area's width, and the length is not far off, either. Granted, a lot of the rear and side is very thick armor, but then again we don't have shields on those sides. This could be a little more compact if I was willing to weaken the rear by placing engines externally, but this works so well I don't want to ruin it! This one will set you back almost $2.5 million. #worthit
No, really; you can make that 2.5million back in half an hour and have two of these monstrosities.
These ships are all also available in the Community Ships collection under the Tallow folder.
Let me know what you think! Any suggestions and critique are more than welcome. I'd love to see some of your impressive behemoth ships, too!