Obviously rank points should not be wasted on decks, at least beyond a certain point. I know there has been a lot of argument lately that over the long run, once artifacts get online, small ships will always beat big due to their superior damage cap, so long as the small has the energy and attack which is close to the big ships. I agree with this theory (not sure how fun the build really is), but I have one serious doubt. My hypothesis is that a small ship which does not have enough deck for max potential scan will in the long long run be completely beat by a ship with enough deck to cover max potential scan, since the odds go with more scan for finding better artifact planets. Any thoughts on this?

You can always reshuffle modules around to accommodate scan for your runs, the benefits of a SSB are clear but it's whether or not you want the hassle as they can be a real pain especially with the new Npc's requiring up to 5k scan.

I was thinking you would need to adjust it to the min size for all available scan modals you have at that particular time. Not sure what the end total deck size for all scan modals might be. I counted 921 space from the modals I have offline and could buy. I'm sure that is leaving out some of the mission stuff I do not have. So you could go with maybe 1000-1200 deck and have the same scan benefit that a large ship can have. But super tiny would suffer from less scan. I am not doing the build myself, I looking to build docs for new members in case they follow the small build route.

all you need for the new NPC's are 5K+ scan

you can get that with only 400 decks
4 Continuum Analyzer - Mark III (size 96, scan 960)
Stryll Seeker (+10% scan), Subspace Seeker (+175 scan) and Continuum Beacon (+15% scan)

4 * 960 + 175 = 4015 scan
and the boosts take it to 4015 * 1.1 * 1.15 = 5078 scan

so it shouldnt be a huge problem even with a SSB build, as you need rank 700+ for the new NPC's
all you realy need is enougth cargo space to hold your modules, so you can swap things around depending on what you want to do with your ship

I'm not a SSB player my self, like my NPC modules to mutch for that
but take a look at, viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29506 and if you still think having a small ship is a disadvantage, I dont know what to say

last update - rank 150,
Minerals 1286 units / hour - Not increased this much as I have no need for mining planets atm.
Artifacts 5431 points / hour - Reached a goal of 5k, next goal is 10k per hour
research 3049 per hour

Still we are talking about deck matched to necessary maxed out scan, not maxed out decks vs med or small. Unless you are using piles of gp star chart purgers(if you did that with a small ship you will rule all no doubt), it goes without saying that a ship with more artifacts will get more purgers and hence more artifacts. A ship with more artifacts will eventually surpass a ship with a structural advantage such as small hull. I just have no idea of what kind of time scale we are talking about, for I have not done the math, I don't know the variables. It could take 2 years or 25 years--no idea. Basically more scan=more quality planets=more star chart purgers+maxed scan=even more quality planets--going on and on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_interest

If you build a ship that can autorank off of Stellar Cartography, then scanning becomes moot to a point, as you'll only need enough to scan a few planets on top of what you own, although you may choose to get more for efficiency's sake.

Lets presume, that you added all scan modules up right and all you need to install them all is 930 decks
(i havent bothered checking if you missed anything or not)

at rank 150 Crazor (the tread I linked to), have 234 decks
= a Deck / rank ratio off 1.56 decks pr ranks, that is so low that his dammage cap is based on his rank only

he keeps that ratio, all the way up to rank 600, he would have 936 deks then = enougth to install all scanners at the same time on his ship, so basickly as I sayed before all he needs is some 1000 cargo space to store them when he isnt using them

when he wants to scan for planets, all he need to do, is bring any weapons, defence and hull moduls he is running for combat ofline, and activate all his scanners, and scan for planets. once the scan run is finished, take scanners ofline, and bring weapons, defence and hull back online

as for cargospace.....
with 5K artifact production at rank 150, my bedst guess is he will have atleast 40K cargospace once he reach rank 600...


so, no scanning for planets isnt mutch harder for SSB ships then it is for large ships

That solves the problem.

It's also possible to use a MSB to combine the benefit of a relatively small damage cap with the benefit of more space to use when changing modules around to meet a demand.

your view is based on the conditions, which majority of players can not achieve, hardly the most experienced one unless they reset the accounts and get back some very nice planets.

btw, 1000 cargo only for modules, did you think about the artifacts? so maybe 1500+ cargo space minimum.

@to Crazor: I posted there direcly, for some reports, he does not show his PvP/mission performance nor ship equipment and as SSB he got to rank 150 in 3 months. Let see the more detailed report and then evaluate, if he has a good built SSB or just an SSB. I rather do not open the discussion, that Crazor has a huge benefit of retaking his planets after his account restart...
Therefore he is not a role mode of SSB player for new players in GL.

In general, why compare only Big ship vs small ship? This discussion seems to me like "black or white".
Where is the moderate built ship approach and the discussion of switch in ship build?
Did anyone considered to have ship with 1200 decks early (rank 250) to mount all researchable modules, use the advantage in PvP/raids and progress to SSB till rank 1200 and focus on NPCs/missions/hacks?
PS: If I missed on forum the link to MSB and ship build switch topic, please post me in commen the link. Thanks

Okay, two things.
False. His damage cap is 117 worked off of decks and 89.5 from rank. His decks are too high, technically.

Secondly,

Golgotha is a prime example of an MSB (there IS a thread somewhere). With ~2000 decks at rank 1000+ (iirc), he shows that a middle ship build can be the way to go.

Switching between builds isn't really as easy as you make out though, as there is no way to reduce decks the only way to switch is if you have it planned in advance or hear about it in time. This is all well and good, and works nicely for some people. I went cold-turkey on decks some 50 ranks ago and am slowly transitioning into an MSB, but I look at many of the players my rank and I still have more decks than some of them. Certainly, I cannot go full SSB until rank 2,499, which is a looooong time away. For the next 300 ranks (minimum), I'm still going to be an LSB.

Well, I heard, that he is kind of unstoppable


I am rank 128, thinking about moving from LSB to MSB or SSB. Depends on cons and pros.
With MSB at rank 90 I got 4 Doms MIII, all armorys, cipherbots etc. with small crew and research base!
Now only making space for all planned equipment (LSB)... later I plan adding decks only for NPC artifacts. So far I enjoy the game and have 7:1 ratio in PvP.

I'm currently in (and plan to stay as) a MSB. I managed to work it down to only what I saw as "essentials", but then the Merged Data Node came out and forced me to add another 20 decks to my build heh. Overall I would certainly recommend a MSB over any other type of ship build, due to my personal experience when combating SSBs (energy drains, but not necessarily "stronger" than a good MSB), and having been a relatively large build for my rank at lower ranks (where despite generally slightly higher stats, I would often be hit for more due to my increased decks).

Overall, I would say the pros and cons are:
SSB

• Pros: A huge energy sink, and certainly one to be tapped off a BT if hunting for badges. Good for those who solely wish to maintain a good record, especially as the damage cap limits ships of all ranks. The small damage cap will also aid in lasting longer on bases if you have the energy to maintain an attack (granted you have enough tactical officers to do significant damage), and guarding planets. These ships also typically have the lowest upkeep, due to a general lack of modules.
• Cons: Requires immense AP compared to similarly ranked ships if they wish to be anywhere near energy efficient in disabling their peers. If a SSB has only high AP for their rank, it is still quite possible that they will lose their hull faster than a very good similarly ranked MSB (although they would absolutely require more energy to be taken down by a high ranker or such). If you can't garner enough attack on the SSB, you won't be able to penetrate a good MSB's higher defenses granted by modules, and end up doing as much or less damage to them as they will to you. If you have an enormous amount of AP, this can be overcome by sheer number of tactical officers.

MSB

• Pros: A combination of a SSB and LSB. Typically you'll want just enough space (and perhaps a bit more) to install only the highest ratio modules for attack, defense, and hull. Depending on your style, your % modules may vary, but should always include the Merged Datanode, Kalvium Platings, Aegis Capacitors, and Velox Thrusters as a minimum. I personally will remove some defensive modules to install Surge Plexuses or Tetraseeker Targeters when I NPC/Base respectively, resulting in a temporary loss of only a few hundred defense for those modules' percent gains. This build allows you to configure your ship to whatever your current needs may be.
• Neutral: You don't have an extremely small damage cap, but it is smaller than a LSB's (and therefore more resilient), while being larger than a SSB's. Additionally, your upkeep is not as large as a LSB's, but not as small as a SSB's.
• Cons: You can't have everything installed all the time. Swapping modules in and out to transfer between attack (say for planetary invasions), turtling (hull/defense/shields, if you want to defend a planet and increase your durability), scanning, and energy builds (for rank ups or saving up energy) can wear on you, and is quite a hassle.

LSB

• Pros: You can have everything installed all the time. One of the best builds for convenience, as you can always have the maximum energy, defense, attack, hull, shields, scan, and cloak provided by modules at all times, allowing for easy completion of missions, finding of NPCs, or just general gameplay. You almost never have to move modules around, with the exception of removing relays before ranking (which could be eliminated, if you truly don't like it, by increasing your energy enough that you can autorank with relays on).
• Cons: With this convenience comes a higher damage cap, increasing the amount of damage you'll take in comparison to a lower decked ship. This higher damage cap means bases, planets, and other players all hit harder on you compared to if you had fewer decks. This is the least durable ship build overall, and you will likely have to use more restoration artifacts when combating bases, other players, or NPCs. In addition, these ships tend to be the most energy efficient to receive badges from, and also typically have higher upkeep due to the number of modules installed.

Of course, there are probably other pros/cons to each build that I have forgotten to mention. Honestly, the one you choose is based on how you want to play the game as an individual.

Wow, nice to be bought up I have 489 decks atm, currently rank 362, I dont plan on going over 500 decks for a while, just need enough for full perfect syncos and a few other things

1000 cargospace is basickly nothing

if you are a member off a legion with a artifact base, you can easily pick up 2-4 MSP's pr week, just from the artifact points you get from the base (depending on how lucky/unlucky you are)
add 5K artifact points pr hour to that = 120K points pr day

my guess would be around +20-40 cargo pr day...... = around 4.000 cargo space, at rank 150 for the first 3 months
should give him plenty off space to store any modules he wants to keep, and still have room for artifacts




true, Crazor isnt running a strict SSB build, where decks = Rank + 19
so atm it is his Decks that set his damage cap = max 117 pr hit





as I sayed, I'm not a SSB Player...., so for me a deck to rank ratio of 1.5 to 1 is small