The starting ships in Eternity Port are somewhat underpowered (except for the Hercules, which is overpowered). I'd like to make the following changes:

Hercules

The Hercules is designed to be a multi-role ship (no slot restrictions) with 6 armor segments and lots of cargo space. I made the following changes:

  • Max armor down to superHeavy/9 tons tons (from 12)
  • Added a trader's cargo hold (just like EI500).
  • Increased drive power consumption to 3 MW (from 2 MW).

Raijin

The Raijin is a heavy gunship, but optimized to be fast. I made the following changes:

  • Cargo space increased to 50 tons (from 35)
  • Max cargo space increased to 150 tons (from 100)
  • Standard armor increased to medium/3.5 tons (from 3 tons)
  • Thrust ratio decreased to ~6 (from ~8).
  • Increased arc of external mounts to 60 degrees (from 40).
  • Downgraded to class I deflector (instead of class II) to save on fuel.

Spartan

The Spartan is a more traditional heavy gunship. I made the following changes:

  • Increased max cargo space to 200 tons (from 150)
  • Standard armor increased to heavy/6 tons (from 5 tons)
  • Thrust ratio decreased to 5 (from ~6.5)
  • Max rotation rate increased to 12 (from 9)
  • Switched from hull-plate ionizer to class II deflector (to save on fuel).
derakon 13 Nov 2018:

It's been awhile since I played EP, but I swear I remember the Spartan being the only one of the three I had any luck getting off the ground. The Spartan has good durability, and a starting weapon that's good enough to be usable in early-game fights. I *think* (like I said, it's been awhile) that I had trouble with the Hercules being fragile and having poor starting weaponry -- it just didn't have the punch to kill targets before taking a lot of damage. The Raijin, again as I recall, had slot trouble. Slots are a real problem in EP since you have to dedicate a slot to the CDM shard if you want to have any special powers. Having only two non-weapon slots is pretty limiting.

The boost to 50 tons of cargo for the Raijin will help a fair bit, as it means that a hold expansion (using up your other non-weapon slot) is no longer absolutely mandatory if you like having fun.

nms 13 Nov 2018:

If your algorithm said the Hercules was the best of these three, then it dramatically undervalues top speed and maneuverability.

@derakon: The CDM shard does not take up a slot. And the Spartan and Raijin, like other playership gunships, have 4 non-weapon slots, but one is required for the reactor.

assumedpseudonym 13 Nov 2018:

If your algorithm said the Hercules was the best of these three, then it dramatically undervalues top speed and maneuverability.

 I couldn’t agree more. You probably just nerfed the one playership in Eternity Port that could least afford to be nerfed.

megas 13 Nov 2018:

Hercules is basically a bigger and slower Sapphire without the money. It should either start with a bit more money (so it can buy a better weapon or something) like a Sapphire or start with a better weapon.

Re: Four non-weapon slots. I guess it is assumed two are taken by reactor and shield, so you really have two non-weapon slots to play with. No shield run is... difficult to say the least.

Raijin had slot trouble because it is a slower (and bigger) Wolfen with external swivels. With the new changes it should no longer be an inferior Wolfen. (If I started with old Raijin with Ship Broker available, I would probably buy a Wolfen as soon as I could afford one to replace the Raijin.)

george moromisato 13 Nov 2018:

I've enhanced TransData to generate these calculation, so you'll be able to see it in 1.8 Beta 4.

Here is the breakdown for the Hercules:

Slots:                80    (full slots = 10, restricted slots = 6.7)
Cargo space:           5 
Max cargo space:       7.5
Armor segments:        5    (because it has 6 segments; otherwise it would be 0).
std armor mass:        5
max armor mass:        6.7  (in contrast, Spartan gets 10/10 for armor mass)
max speed:             8.3  (Raijin gets 11.7, Wolfen gets 16.7)
thrust:                1.6  (Raijin gets 3.8, Wolfen gets 10)
drive power use:      -2.5  (others get no penalty)
special restrictions: -2    (must have cargo expansion)

Full calculation for all ships: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HD6_hj-Zu6IHGEaEDVi959Y3hg4RvXgtROKHMMDVJyA/edit?usp=sharing

See also: https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8679

george moromisato 9 Jan 2019:

In 1.8 Beta 5 I tweaked the algorithm a little to decrease the value (slightly) of cargo space and armor.