Noob Help: Equipment every ship should have?

[Avarice]

As the title suggests I'm wondering what equipment every ship should use regardless of race or preference.

For instance power generators are obviously one...

I've got by to level 20 without ever using computers or armor just shields and energy boosting modules, but I don't know if this is a mistake or not.

These choices make certain attributes worthless to get so I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

[Valgor]

You're right, a power generator is an absolute must, that's why the Fringe are a good choice for a beginner race.
Shields are also very essential, but you can do without them if you prefer lots of armour (which can't be recharged for free at planets and ancient recharge station, though).
Good engines are important as well, although you can use thrusters instead if you play a race that has a medium slot to spare, but mind the additional power load (which engines don't have).
As for weapons, use anything that suits your playstyle, but I'd suggest you keep some mines handy for the times when you're chased by a cluster of missiles or bounty hunters.
A cheap beam weapon for point defense is a good idea later on in the game, since flak and counter-rockets are a bit unreliable.
Finally, reserve your light slots for energy rechargers, additional power load providing components (tesla coils, reactor boosts) and, most importantly, crew members (remember to pay them well,
as they'll gain levels faster when they're at 80-100 happiness).

[Bluddy]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I find that Deadly Aim, which gives a very high crit boost, a cloaking device, which gives a crit boost and a damage boost, combined with bombs and mines pretty much annihilates everything (including planets) within a couple of hits.

[nox]

I don't know about 'every ship' - the tactical options are very very wide.

I would say that I have discovered a few general 'avenues' of play - but the only two factors that I find leading all of my ship designs is engineering and tactics.

Engineering because it covers -
- Power generation
- Capacitor Regen / boost / max cap
- Shield Regen / Boost / max cap

Tactical because it covers all offensive weapons and weapon systems.

You can forgo computers completely if you use area effect manually targeted weapons, but obviously that increases your micromanagement significantly.

You can also forgo computers if you rely on fighters. A combination of manually targeted weapons and fighters is very strong albeit not an obvious way to play the game.

I would suggest to a complete newb to plan on :

1) Not raising command too fast. A slow ship with a defense penalty sucks.

2) Think about how you'll protect yourself from missiles. You have a few options (Mines work pretty well, and are useful in general), flak is a tad specific and situational. There are other cool options such as a static field that damages everything around you, and bombs (which are useful but require a bit of micromanagement)

3) you will probably want at least 13 helm for a while, and 21 helm later so that you can put your engines into a middle slot. It takes power that way, but it frees up your heavy slot. I wouldn't put more than that until you have to. You'll only have to put more when you rank your ship up past 3 (which I don't recommend for a long time)

4) Shields by far are the best and most flexible defense. They use engineering, and you can use shield boosters which instantly recharge them. Those are probably overpowered, but for now they are the way to go.

5) Keep an eye out for "emergency energy" light slot items. They give you 660 energy over 30 seconds, or 20 energy a second, every minute. This is what you hammer on when you're out of juice and it will last you until the fight's over. You'll only have 4 light slots if you do things my way, so one is all you get.

So my basic template for a newbie would be -

Heavy slots (3) : Missile, Laser, Power
Medium slots (4) : Shield, engine, Cap boost, [mine/missile defense]
Light slots (4) : Shield power conduit, Emerg energy, 2xcrew

I recommend hunting for truly great crew, you can swap them between ships by trading in multiplayer. The best crew IMO are tactical/engineering + helm or computer. Even better are crew with those AND passive bonuses.

[Avarice]

Thanks for the replies people.

I was mainly worried I was doing something wrong by ignoring computers and a few other things.

Seems there are quite a few ways to go about leveling and gearing up.

[nox]

Lack of computers is not really obvious until about level 15 - you'll start missing more and more with computer aimed weapons.

Open your character page and look at your attack and defense stats. that will show you your chance to evade and to hit.

[Valgor]

A good alternative to computers are scanners, if you don't miss the defense bonus, since they'll give you additional Critical% .
From the top of my head, I think they also require less Computers (the stat).

[nox]

Scanners are especially useful for small ships where you aren't dealing with a huge defensive penalty to begin with.

Also if you use stealth and missiles (love it!) you can rely on offensive power rather than damage taking survivability.

[Avarice]

At what level ranges (in general) do you upgrade your ship?

I'd like a general idea on when to get a bigger ship without *as much* trial and error.

[nox]

Well I'm level 21 right now and I generally rely on two engineering/tactical crew.

I've upgraded my ship twice, for the two bonus slots in light and medium but I am also using the Fringe ship which has a bonus power generator slot so I can use all three high slots.

At 21 my effective stats are :

51 tactical
27 helm
8 structure
54 engineering (31 base)
5 computers
11 command

I have one crew that is 6 engineering and one that is 11 engineering. My crew are both pretty boring though.

To get another high slot I'd have to upgrade twice more, which would penalize speed and defense. This particular ship uses fighters and bombs. One trick I use, is that I have one very high level fighter and one very low level fighter. To be able to summon the fighters quickly I use a cap extender and an emergency energy.

At level 21 my fighters are level 28, and I can summon 6 of them. I'm probably going to go with Raiders because they summon 4 each slot rather than 3.

I'm not sure when I would upgrade my ship, but not anytime soon. with a small ship I am fast and agile with only 27 helm. I don't really need any more fighters.

I might try this same build with a different race ship - possibly. The racial bonus fighter slot could be useful for me.