I’ve been flying around a class A ship for far too long. It was about time I got something that could hold a massive number of resources, have some firepower, and could jump a long distance. The last ship I got in The Secret Outpost Lair Of The Mantis would not cut it for me.
Buying A Ship
Now sure you could just go out and buy a ship. They sell many massive ships including class C. I was somewhat tempted to even do this. I even went to a few different shipyards to see what kind of options there were.
There is just one issue I've always had with just buying a ship. Unlike any other time when I buy something from a vendor, I usually have items to not only get my money back after selling but to wipe out any credits they had on them from restocking.
The only way to get your money back from the shipyard is by selling ships. You would need to sell a lot of ships with the way the system works with how much you pay for a C-class ship compared to how little you get selling a ship.
While I feel this is the only reason to even have credits is to buy a ship. What else am I going to do with massive piles of credits at this point in the game? I just hate the idea of spending them. There is also the fact that that is just any fun.
I would much rather spend those credits on ship upgrades and modifications anyway. That is if the ship I acquired in some fashion even needed such things done to it anyway. I was not fully done with unlocking all the skills to have access to end-game ship modules. I was, however, getting close, I wanted to start locking down a ship I wanted.
Stealing A Ship
My next attempt at finding a new ship I turned to space piracy! Is it, however, really space piracy if I'm just stealing ships from space pirates? It was at least a far more fun option than just buying one. I was also hoping this would resolve the problem of not having any ships to sell to get my money back.
So I went out looking for pirate ships to take on. In most situations, I'd blow up everything but the last ship. I’d then work on trying to acquire that last ship. The issue I kept running into at first was I'd blow up all the bigger ships.
This would leave me with such a small ship it would not be an upgrade. I, however, felt it was the perfect time to try and practice how the ship stealing mechanic works. To board a ship, you first have to knock out its engineering systems by going into target mode and focusing firing on it.
Many times, the ship would end up exploding before I'd knocked out the engineering system. Leaving me a bit frustrated and having to move on to finding the next set of pirates. At least I was rocking up a lot of ship kills I needed anyway for skill progression.
Eventually, I made it onto a ship that was a class B at the time ship. I then had to kill the entire crew. Once that was done, I sat down in the pilot's seat and took off from the system I was in. This then would take the ship I was on and make it my home ship.
Thankfully the ship I'd leave behind would not be lost. I’d just have to go to a shipyard where you can switch between the different ships.
The first ship I got I went and flew off to New Atlantis. I did not make it far. Turns out that when you steal pirate ships, they often have contraband on them! After that, in an attempt to avoid any further issues, I'd go around any ships I'd steal looking for any contraband. I’d then go sell the contraband at The Den station before heading to a planet.
You however don’t just get a ship for free even after stealing it. You have to then pay to register it. Ships also sell for next to nothing unless you have skills in prices which I don’t. Those fees to register took most of the profit out of selling a ship. In the end, for a ship valued at over 130k, I'd get maybe 3k in profit.
This also killed my hopes of if I just steal enough ships. I then could just sell them all off once I buy a nice one. That vendor is going to have lots of your money from registering and will reset once you get enough. With how little I'd be getting for ships, without something else changing I'd need to steal 100 of them anyway.
The other issue was anything that I wanted would destroy me. I went off to some deadly areas of space hoping to find something amazing. I’d just return to a tinderbox instead. The ship I had at the time had no business being out where I wanted to pirate something amazing.
There is also an annoying ordeal when you sell a ship. Everything on that ship since you have to switch your home back to a different ship gets moved to that ship's inventory. You get all the forks, cups, and anything else just lying around on the ship. So much junk to sell for so few credits.
Running Missions For Ships
At that point, I was just considering buying a ship from a vendor and being done with it. Thankfully there is more than one ship you can get from running a mission. I ended up talking with Walter Stroud after doing the High Price To Pay mission as I noticed he had further work for me.
Turns out he has a side mission that is called Overdesigned and it’s rather easy. Not only is it easy, but the choices you make have an impact on the outcome of the mission itself.
It turns out Walter Stroud’s company is trying to make a new ship. However, the team behind it can’t agree with anything. As a result, they are stuck, and you have been tasked with getting them back on track.
So, I flew out to his shipbuilding facility and met with the team. I could see they were having issues. None of them could agree with anything. That nonsense was going to stop once and for all! They were less than thrilled, even more so once they found out I had a few ship points designed myself after they attempted to say I had no experience with ships.
They said what do you want a kitchen sink and I said YESSSSSSSSSSSS 100000000000000000%. EVERYTHING. ALL OF IT. NOW
The first thing was easy to resolve. The budget. Some of these people wanted a ship moms could afford to buy for taking the kids out for food. I was not having any of that. I Demand the biggest budget. They had the balls to tell me to go get such an insane budget myself approved. I did so with the simple push of a button at a computer below the meeting.
Next up I had to talk with each of them. What they wanted in a ship and what I wanted in a ship were not the same. I told all of them they suck and to sit down. This was going to be my ship now and they were doing everything my way.
It was then time to do the testing and allow them to gather some data. Most of the mission expected this part was boring and easy. I was more than thrilled to go out and not only do a bounty mission. I also did the cargo mission as well as I wanted this ship to have everything.
After that, I still had to bring them all together to the table. I first attempted to go with the let's compromise option. Where everyone gave up something. I soon realized the ship they would build would have smaller cargo holds, fewer gun points and so no. I did not have any of that.
So, I took them all along in group building experience. They had to repeat after me till we all got so sick and tired of it that they agreed to whatever I wanted. I wanted a lot. So, it took a while.
After far too much talking and not enough killing. I think it would have been easier to just have killed them all but what kind of option would that have been doing so? I had fun one but then I'd have not gotten a fresh ship out of the deal!
The Kepler ship I got was a class C. This thing is massive and powerful compared to the tiny ship I had at the time.
I have to admit I have gotten lost a couple of times in it. Since this ship has everything or just about. There are a few floors of just stuff. It’s not an easy walk from the back to the pilot seat. I could however hold some wicked parties on this thing if I wanted.
This thing at least has everything I wanted. The biggest downside is trying to turn the ship in combat. It takes a little while to turn. It’s however got so much of everything else pirates don’t last long once they get into my line of sight.
This thing also has quite a lot of fuel onboard. While out test-driving it I'm out jumping from one side of the galaxy to the next. Without having to stop for fuel before making the next jump. It’s all just at once for me.
Final Thoughts
I really can’t stop laughing, this thing has both a ramp and stairs to get into the ship. Since there was no compromising on anything for the design part. It’s got some wasted space and features it feels on it. It’s, however, the monstrosity of a ship I always wanted.
Thankfully all my outposts I already have down the larger landing pad. As this thing Is massive. I have even landed on a few planets where the size is sometimes a bit of an issue with the local landscape of where I landed.
The one thing I have not done much of yet is upgrading modules or adding anything to the ship myself. I decided I'd wait till I had higher-level ship modules unlocked. I’m still not sure if this is going to possibly be my final ship or if I'll use it to pirate for something else.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Starfield.
Disclosure: Starfield received for free through AMD rewards from the graphics card I purchased.