Yep, the ship pictured in the second Attached Image, is the (RED, slightly menacing-looking) Negotiator class ship, which I am so fond of. (See my extended comments in DamienPS's Discussion thread on Favorite ship types.)
The standard narrative furnished (in the starting screen) regarding this ship says:
Unifier Diplomatic Courier
Good hull and shields
Large crew, cargo, & supplies
Shield Regenerator
Through my 3 YASD's and 2 Wins, to date, this class of ship remains my favorite. To be fair, I should not be too partisan on behalf of this ship class, because so much of the value and power of any ship (once you get 10-20 Sectors, or more, into a game) depends really on the Ship Components that you upgrade to, by either purchasing them, or crafting them yourself. That said, your initial ship selection (for me, at least) really tends to incline you into a certain direction (a certain style of play) which may be so successful, that it will not be easy to shift to another style of play. For example, I have promised myself to start my next game with an Assault Shuttle (so as to try another standard, starting direction). However, it will not be easy to forgo the Negotiator -- I just like the darn things so much!
Just to review the bidding on the last Negotiator class ship, in my last game, it had:
Weapon 1 513 damage with a cooldown of 2
Weapon 2 1,040 damage with a cooldown of 3
Weapon 3 3,157 damage with a cooldown of 7
Shield 3,487
Armor/Hull 2,362 (with a speed increase of 15)
Sensor/Radar Range:6 & Targeting:30
Thruster/Engine Evasion:15 & Spend Increase: 30
Warp Drive: Range: 4 sectors & Cooldown of 10 turns
Reactor: 3 weapon slots & 4 device slots
It had all these useful attributes (including a total speed of 250) by the time I had reached Sector 53, where I completed (won) a Tentaculon story-arc victory. Perhaps I could have ended with as good, or a better, ship by trading up to other/different types, but I'm not really sure about that. (I do remain attracted to Observer class ships, and Cruisers.)
Anyways, time to start a new game ...
... ! (Sure hope I can figure out how to use an Assault Shuttle, to best advantage -- any tips ??)
Re: Unlocking ships question
Threaded Mode