First-pass Rough Approximations

[pasuuli]

I've browsed a large number of the ships, trying to wrap my head around them all, and have come up with some rough approximations.

What I've done is attempt to pick out the general characteristics of each class of vessel (Raid, Patrol, Skirmish, War, Battle) and also find the most commonly appearing weapons used on that class.

Note that "most commonly appearing weapons" does not mean most powerful. And indeed, the one thing I've noticed in this exercise is the astonishing variety of weapons listed.

This is not an exhaustive effort. I used around 220 ships to make my generalizations.

Finally, this is not a particularly accurate effort either. I determined to find out general trends which guide each class, in order to get a feel for them, and I think my slapdash approach does a decent enough job for that.

 

[pasuuli]

Patrol-class Ships

Most of these ships have hull 4. Their speeds vary greatly from 4 to 12, but more than half have a speed of 12. Most of these ships only have 1 troop unit, although some have 2 and I have seen one with 4. Most carry breaching pods, and on average seem to carry 1.5 flights.

The most popular weapons used appear to be the Particle Beam, followed by the Twin (and Quad) Particle Array and Light (and Medium) Pulse Cannon. However, Patrol-class ships seem to have no consensus on weapon loadout.

 

[pasuuli]

Raid-class Ships

Most Raid-class ships have hull 5, with some 6s and 4s. Surprisingly (to me), they are not usually fast, generally staying in the 6 to 8 range, although there are a significant number which are faster (10 to 12 mostly) and some that are slower. Most carry from 2 to 4 troops. Most also carry breaching pods, and the average number of carried flights seems to be close to 2.

The most popular weapons by far are Particle Beams and Twin Particle Arrays, with Medium Pulse Cannons and Fusion Cannons next, followed by Light Pulse Cannon and the Graviton Pulsar.

 

[pasuuli]

Skirmish-class Ships

Most of these ships have a hull of 4 or 5. They are relatively fast, with appx 75% having speeds of 8, 10, or 12. Appx 75% have fewer than 4 troop units aboard. Most carry breaching pods, and on average also carry 2 flights.

The most popular weapons used appear to be the Medium Pulse Cannon and Particle Beam, which are by far the most common, followed by the Light Pulse Cannon and Twin Particle Array, which are about half as common.

 

[pasuuli]

Battle-class Ships

Most of these ships have hull 5 and 6. Their speeds are usually middle-of-the-road (6 through 8 ), with a range from 4 to 12. About half of these ships have less than 10 troops (with a large number having 2, 3, and 4), but there are a handful of ships which top out with 20, 30, 40, and even 50 troops. Most carry breaching pods, and they average out to about 2 flights each.

There are a large number of common weapons, with the Twin Particle Array at the top, followed by Fusion Cannon, Medium (and Light) Pulse Cannon, Graviton Pulsar, Light Pulsars, the Heavy Pulse Cannon, and the Heavy Laser Cannon. But of course, there's a wide variety of weapons actually appearing.

 

[pasuuli]

War-class Ships

Most of these have hull 6, although there are significant numbers of 4 and 5 hulls. Their speeds tend to be in the middle of the road (8 ), although there is a wide spread from 4 up to 14. Most have between 5 and 10 troops, although I see one with 40 troops. Most carry breaching pods, and the average number of flights is about 2. One ship carries a Scout.

The most common weapons appear to be the Twin Particle Array and the Fusion Cannon, followed by the Light Pulse Cannon and the Medium Pulse Cannon. As always, there is a wide scattering of weapons actually used. And, of course, the "common" weapons don't appear to be the "main" guns that pack the wallop for these ships.

 

[pasuuli]

Armageddon-class Ships

Using hulls 6 (and 5), these ships have no preferred speed, ranging from 4 to 10. They generally don't carry a lot of troops proportionally (anywhere between 'none' and 12), so about half have breaching pods. The average number of flights is somewhere around 1.7.

The most common weapons used include the Twin Particle Array and Laser/Pulse Array, but really there's not a lot of consensus here.

The impression I get is that these ships are lumbering behemoths with the sole purpose of planetary destruction (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[pasuuli]

Most Popular Weapons

Overall, then, the most popular weapons in my highly inaccurate survey appear to be:

215 - Pulse Cannon (regular, Light, Medium, and Heavy)
137 - Particle Array (Twin and Quad)
98 - Particle Beam
61 - Fusion Cannon
47 - Laser Cannon (regular, Medium, and Heavy)
40 - Graviton Pulsar
40 - Pulsars (regular, Light, and Quad)
26 - Matter Cannon
24 - Laser/Pulse Array
23 - Antiproton Gun
21 - Bolters (regular, Light, and Heavy)

 

[pasuuli]

And so, if I wanted to make some hasty generalizations, I'd classify ships thus:

Patrol - small, fast, light weapons
Raid - midsize, middle speed, relatively light weapons
Skirmish - mid to large, fast, medium weapons
Battle - large to very large, middle speed, heavy weapons
War - very large, middle speed, heavy weapons
Armageddon - huge planet killers

 

[JayRaider]

Interesting reading.
Looking at the big picture

 

[Tankdriver]

I would have expected less than middle speeds for the War class ships.

 

[pasuuli]

I would have expected less than middle speeds for the War class ships.

I'd expect them to lumber, too, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I suppose being too slow would be a tactical disadvantage?

 

[Burger]

A ship's level is only the amount of strength it possesses. There is no such spweeping classification possible. PL is not a classification or type of ship, it is only how good a ship is. It is an out-of-game balancing mechanism. No more. Any type or speed or class of ship can be at any level, depending how powerful it is.

 

[Locutus9956]

Erm one question: Where the smeg are you getting this 'most carry breaching pods' thing from? I cant think of many ships (in fact off the top of my head I cant think of ANY ships that carry breaching pods (not by default anyway)

edit: I tell a lie, the heavier Drakh ships carry em for free. But thats IT. I cant see a single ship for any other race that carries breaching pods unless you swap them out for fighters. Secondly no ship I can think of 'carries a scout' Drakh Larger ships again CAN do so but this is not built in and they can choose any type of raider to carry.

Im sorry, I can see what you were trying to do but this list just seems flat wrong on many points.

 

[pasuuli]

It's very likely there are errors. I essentially took the data from LBH's ship viewer and crunched it, without heed or regard for anything except numbers.

I would be very surprised if there weren't errors in the process. And, in fact, your feedback is exactly what I need and am looking for, in order to improve the process.

 

[Burger]

The error is in what you seem to think priority level means. It is not possible to classify or grneralize each PL, because it is nothing to do with the type or classification of ship. There can be any ship type in any PL, depending how good it is. Think of it more like a simplified points cost to buy the ship, rather than classification of ship.

 

[Locutus9956]

QFT - Burger

But also I'd still like to know where you got this thing about breaching pods from? Virtually nothing carries them by default yet according to your lists practically every other ship sounds like it does...

 

[Burger]

The only ships to carry breaching pods by default are:

- Raiders Assault Freighter
- Drakh Carrier
- Drakh Mothership
- Sleekbird
- Tantalus

Exactly one ship of each PL except Armageddon.

 

[locarno24]

There can be any ship type in any PL, depending how good it is.

Definitely.
An example I remember someone (LBH?) using to illustrate the point is that the White Star (about the smallest and most manouvrable ship in any fleet) sits in exactly the same slot as the EA explorer (the slowest, bulkiest crock of......ahem....an unmanouvrable, damage-soaking carrier).

Similarly, 'common weapons' doesn't work so well in a cross-race assessment. Every one of those fusion cannons was on a Minbari or ISA ship. Every Bolter was on a Dilgar ship. The matter cannon is popular simply because centauri have so bloody many ship types, whilst the antiproton gun and laser/pulse array invariably exist in 4 seperate batteries on a ship - even though they're not actually on that many vessels.

'Laser' 'particle' and 'pulse' are weapon names used by several races. Hence - they win.

 

[Tankdriver]

Still, I think what was attempted here was a nice try.