has any 1 tryed?

[flashy]

has any 1 tryed turning down getting the astarte do u get stuck with the mastif? or does your chosen path gift u with an upgraded mothership?

[Nanaki]

has any 1 tryed turning down getting the astarte do u get stuck with the mastif? or does your chosen path gift u with an upgraded mothership?

Turning down the astarte is a bad idea, as its practically better than the Mastiff in every way. In addition, you get an additional mission (acquiring the Astarte) which nets you loot and experiance.

If you turn down the Astarte, you will be stuck in the Mastiff for practically the entire game, as you do not get your final mothership until the very end of hte game.

[Groundtotem]

Oh shit, i turn down the astarte by accident without realizing later, but i thought that i would get another MS later. So does this really mean that i wont get a new MS until the very end?

[Nanaki]

Oh shit, i turn down the astarte by accident without realizing later, but i thought that i would get another MS later. So does this really mean that i wont get a new MS until the very end?

Yes. Trust me, the Astarte is probably one of the better investments you will make in the game. It is strange as your characters talk about it like it is a piece of junk, but in reality it is much, much better than the Mastiff (Same number of weapons, same number of systems, slightly slower, but much, much higher health and shields). Although I would say the Astarte has better weapons simply because it lacks the massive blindspots that the mastiff has.

Not to mention the mission for it gives you additional equipment and experiance, both of which are always in short supply.

[Groundtotem]

That sucks.......

I remember that they were talking about a ship and i was given an option, i missclicked without realising it. but i thought that i would get a chance to get it later :(.

[Binesi]

I really don't know why anyone likes the Astarte. It really is a slug (and the model and texturing... dang, what an illogical eyesore, it even has ships docking near the flames of the engine). It is so oversized it often has trouble docking with stations and passing through traffic. You limp around so slowly you pretty much always want to be in 8X mode or it is barely moving. Trying to line up a major caliber shot with it's pathetic turn rate is usually pointless. And for all that hassle you get a little bit better shields and armor. With shield upgrades and repair the difference will be small and you don't have to sacrifice mobility.

The ship barely matches it's description. The armor and shields on it can't last through any significant fire without major upgrades.

I restarted the game just so I could keep the Mastif. My only major complaint about it is the firing blind spots, but the ship is manueverable enough you can at least use it's concentrated turrets to an advantage.

[FerretStyle]

If you could get through the game on Hard with the Mastiff I'd be impressed... I just don't think it would hold up in many of the mid-late game battles. Work around it's limitations and the use it for it's strength - defenses. I didn't use shields on any of my fighters for the longest time, because I would round up so many enemies with my mothership that they were mostly safe and I could instead load them up with maneuverability, speed and cannon rate of fire systems.

Sure it's kind of annoying trying to dock sometimes but it's usually just a few more seconds of high speed mode. Just a bit irritated with the misleading information... it said in the letter that it had 25 maneuverability (which didn't seem like a big downgrade from the 30 of the Mastiff) but turns out it has 15 which is awful :(

[Killer]

Well I liked the Mastiff, but 1500 armor is just too low. I always change it for Astarte. The higher armor and shield are better tradeoff for the lower speed and maneuverability. I do not mind the speed, there is no need to hurry anywhere :) I only dislike how sluggish the Astarte is.



I really don't know why anyone likes the Astarte. It really is a slug (and the model and texturing... dang, what an illogical eyesore, it even has ships docking near the flames of the engine). It is so oversized it often has trouble docking with stations and passing through traffic. You limp around so slowly you pretty much always want to be in 8X mode or it is barely moving. Trying to line up a major caliber shot with it's pathetic turn rate is usually pointless. And for all that hassle you get a little bit better shields and armor. With shield upgrades and repair the difference will be small and you don't have to sacrifice mobility.

The ship barely matches it's description. The armor and shields on it can't last through any significant fire without major upgrades.

I see no problem, as the MS always stops when fighters are docking, so no engine flames there. And you are contradicting yourself in the sentence that armor and shields can not last without upgrades. And how about the Mastiff then? It needs even more upgrades!

[Binesi]

I see no problem, as the MS always stops when fighters are docking, so no engine flames there. And you are contradicting yourself in the sentence that armor and shields can not last without upgrades. And how about the Mastiff then? It needs even more upgrades!

If you put a Kali or even Aegis shield generator on either (which is not really hard to accomplish early in the game after you find a stash or two) the difference becomes quite small. In a long fire fight shield regeneration and repair rate becomes about as import as anything else. At least the Mastiff gives you enough speed and maneuverability you can play a bit more strategically. For example I like positioning it behind rocks and stations to survive some of those civil war battles you are not supposed to stick around and win or use the speed to string out the alien hordes into bite size pieces.

Actually, I would guess with System Mk3 and the right upgrades you could win the game with just a Mastiff - if it where possible to keep it. System Mk3 and a Kali makes you nearly invulnerable just from the shield regeneration speed alone. That would be a much more interesting challenge then running around in an almost totally invulnerable upgraded Lion Cruiser (and yes, I'm playing on hard). As soon as I got the Lion I pretty much lost interest in playing.

[Killer]

Well I disagree from the point that Mastiff/Astarte have only 3 system slots compared to the third MS. Have you tried the Alex campaign? There are so many Berserks in the last mission that Mastiff would last as long as a snowball in hell. But the same aplies to Astarte :)
But it is just a game. If you are fine with the Mastiff, then no problem :) Everyone has a different playstile. I prefer to lure enemies to fire on my MS and then let fighters to take them. And for this the Astarte seems better.

[Binesi]

I do want to try the Alex campaign, especially if you say it was tougher (although I don't really care for the Berserks as enemies.. a bunch of glass cannons you either kill very quickly or die very quickly). Even on hard the MSF route wasn't much challenge after I got the shield upgrades, antimissile and repairs fully upgraded with system 3 and laser turrets. You rarely need to undock your fighters, just turn on 4X and wait. After getting the Lion it was truly pointless. The hardest part was definitively the beginning of the game.

I guess that is often a flaw in RPG like designs. You either screw up your build and have a difficult time or you get too optimized and there is no challenge.

Maybe I'll hack the game files and really see if I can win with a Mastiff! ;-)