Wow! I was really kind of stunned by how difficult it was to operate an Assault Scout successfully. (BTW, I really have to stop calling these ships "Assault Shuttles", since they really are "Assault Scouts".)
This is not a complaint ... I still really enjoy the game ... this is just the confession of a revelation.
The standard narrative furnished (in the starting screen) regarding this ship says:
Assault Scout
2 weapons
Good armor and shields
Small cargo and crew
Very low supplies
So, I started my 6th game (following two wins) with an Assault Scout, expecting that the 2 weapon slots would make this ship very powerful and therefore very easy to win with. Certainly, it makes fighting pirates and hostile Gruffs a whole lot easier; which helps you in surviving the first 5-10 Sectors.
But the small cargo bay makes it very difficult to reap money from finding and selling commodities; and the small crew is just crippling, when it comes to exploring planets or ship-wrecks (and forget about caves or Star Temples altogether.) In the first 8 Sectors of my new game, I lost more crew (including two officers) than I had lost in my whole, last, 53-Sector winning game. Even the low amount of supplies is a danger. I nearly ran out of supplies before finding a Space Station, in new sectors, a couple of times.
Fortunately, in the 9th Sector I was given the opportunity to purchase (wouldn't you know it?) my favorite class of ship, a Negotiator. I grabbed it! I immediately went from a crew of 13 (which only permitted a suicidally small Away-team of 4) to a full crew of 38 (which permitted a tolerable Away-team of 9). The Negotiator also solved the low-supplies issue nicely. My point here is not to bash the Assault Scout. For some players it must be the preferred starting ship (at least of the original four)
depending on their style of play! For me, it was almost fatal. The key is to consider your own preferred (and most competent) style of play, and choose the ship that best suits your talents. Other Free Advice (for new players):
Read pages 15-17 in the Approaching Infinity manual, so you know the key facts about ships;
Read this Discussion thread (including PvK's preceding post); and
Read DamienPS's Discussion thread about Favorite Ship Types.
Alternatively, you can just jump right in ... Guns Blazing ... Devil May Care ... Throwing Caution to the Wind ... Laughing in the Face of Death ... and Let the Chips Fall Where They May ...
...
Either way, be sure to have Fun! ...
