So currently I am working on building a set of ships back up. I don't want to have ship creep within what I'd like to start with and I like the roles and styling of Aegis. That said here is the list of ships I would like to acquire before PU.

Reclaimer - I like having 1 industrial type of ship as combat is my cup of tea. Additionally the cargo hold is quite big so I could dual purpose this ship as a freighter perhaps as well although it might not be as fast or manueverable as a dedicated hauler. Not sure how tough it will be but ny the looks of it should be tougher than say a hull series and as I am not much into hauling it should cover any needs I'd have personally or assisting someone else or group play for deep space salvage missions.

Vanguard - deep space fighter, scout, or bomber, with option for 2 players. Heavy hitter whether it is a short or long range op. Less manueverable than a short range fighter.

Redeemer - fun for group play. Heavy hitter, has some cargo space, small ops boarding, fits my style as a more combat oriented constellation and that drop pod with the marines will probably get some other options in the future, perhaps for more cargo so I could dual purpose it if I need to move some small cargo quicker from point A to B without crewing it.

And the dilemma... the Avenger and newly announced Sabre. I was not sure if I needed a smaller fighter as I would have the bigger fighter, the Vanguard. I know that Avenger variants will be coming down the pipe in the future. It could serve as a single man fighter or small cargo runner and burn less fuel compared to a Redeemer, little more nimble too. The Sabre is a single man fighter, more agile and harder hitting than the Avenger. I know the 2 come down to play style and what roles you want to fill. But a little torn if I should not creep into these ships as I can cover that with the Vanguard and Redeemer.

Any thoughts? Another thought is... just get a Avenger or Sabre too or both but trying to keep the ship count down.

I think after talking with Bandit my personal combo for starting out would be the following

Connie amondroma (Multi-Purpose) (The usual do whatever)
Vanguard Warden (Deep Space Fighter) (Escort)
Super Hornet or Sabre (Short Range Fighter) (Carrier Based)

Covers most of the needs for fighting and small cargo trips.

Reclaimer is fairly big but a great cargo ship. Redeemer was cool I had one till I sold it off in the latest rounds of cut-backs.

One of the biggest problems CIG is having is ship creep and the fact they billed a ship design as "X" and sold it to consumers and then continued the ship escalation war (See: Sabre). Think of all those Hornets that CIG sold and SuperHornets and then the different varriants of Hornets, only to shit dick the fuck out of the Hornet and with the current last several build turn it into a flying brick (half the speed/maneuvering) and seventy five percent of its original fire power. All because they didn't or can't really balance ships via concept designs, it isn't until you start lining ships up and pitting them against each other that you start to find the areas that need balance.

DO NOT BUY A SHIP BECAUSE OF IT'S SPECIFICATIONS!!

Buy a ship frame because you want to support CIG develop SC and purchase one that fulfills a "ROLE" you want to play. Let the rest of your HangAr be earned through in game effort. Just remember that you will be able to purchase in game credits for real life money, so you might as well wait until the ship creep dust settles and they have to lock down configurations and ship creep heading into a live title.

The single thing that makes me most happy about SC is that I broke even through grey market sales before CIG shut the door on it and my total cost of ownership for two accounts is $0.00 plus my personal time.

Thanks, just wanted some opinions.

I think some level of ship creep is good as I don't want to see everyone flying the same ship. For example light or entry level fighters we have the Aurora and Mustang, middle we have the 300i and Avenger, heavy upper end fighter Hornet and now Sabre. Just an example, and we also have the Cutlass, Xi'an Scout and Reliant. We have a lot of ships in this class that can be fighters or be multi purposed and I think that is good, it gives variation.

Kind of like in Eve, I think if I remember correctly starting out each faction had about 4-5 frigates, 2-3 cruisers, 2 battleships, and with a varying number of industrial (haulers) 1-4. So we had something like 16-20 frigates, 8-12 cruisers, 8 BS, and like 10 industrial. That is a pretty good start with a lot of variation as each faction had it's pros and cons with regards to weapons, armor, shields, speed, role, etc. With some ships being multi purposed better than others or fitting certain roles better than others but always with a tradeoff. Who remembers mining in a Caldari Bantam? Using a Vexor with mining drones? or Using my Amarr BS to pvp, rat in 0.0, then mine in it later.

I know as time goes on I'm sure CIG will have more ships that fill the same spot as other ships but I think it's a good thing as it gives people more choices. I don't want to see an Idris every time I see a frigate class ship, and I'm not sure if CIG has a set plan on how many or what type of ships they want from each faction/manufacturer. WE have a handful of Human manufacturers some more military based, others not so much, so I understand of course some manufacturers will pump out more combat oriented ships while others are more multi role utilitarian. I know the CIG model for ships doesn't fit as evenly as Eve's as their model is different how ships are allocated.

At one point in Eve I ended up being a collector and then I realized I never even flew the majority of my ships, and it seemed like a big waste to me. Less is more, and liquidated down to a small handful that I would fly for roles that I enjoyed, or could use for a few purposes. So I guess I said all that to say, just trying to keep the ship count down to what I think fits for me haha.

In regard to the current collectors in SC, the ones that are amassing huge piles of ships, I keep seeing them say things on the forum like, I will have my 2 wingmen fly this ship or that ship, I still have not seen CIG say 100% we will even have wingmen piloting our other ships. That was something said ages ago and all current references to npc by CIG these days have been for crew which still they don't say much about. At first I thought the wingmen idea was cool, but now, I don't like the idea as much. If it is something along the lines of hiring one, in a set ship, skill, for a certain duration that seems alright. Like hiring as an escort, or to help fill in for a big mission if you and your buddy would feel comfortable with just 1 more ship to help cover you.

Anyway, thanks guys, I might pick up a couple that fit what I'm looking for and then wait for it to settle a bit as you mentioned and see how things change.

I stand corrected, that latest 10 for the designers mentioned crew and wingmen/hiring someone to fly your ship. I really hope that has some steep limitations. I've already seen people wondering about that on the forum. Getting npcs to crew your fleet of Hull-E's and sending them off on missions. Not up for that situation.

That was the hole converting your "Pledge level packages" from a character slot into a Henchmen that can actually "level" (see: gain skill) as opposed to hiring a Henchman who has set skills and proficiency and cannot continue to "level".

I will be converting one Pledge Level package (that is a ship package that includes access to Alpha/Beta, not just the ship) per account to afford me a Henchman that can grow, if CIG actually implements as promised.

I have been hoping for 1 maybe 2 escorting ships run by NPC's and additional NPC crew on my main ship.

I am hoping that you can not just send them off to do trade runs for you they should be their to help you play the game not play the game for you

That was my goal had enough for a dozen at one point, now only 3 extra besides the main account. That is if they keep their promise for that feature.

Well with the size of that Idris, I need an NPC crew of 12 plus additional players for boarding and launch ships.

they are scraping Alpha / beta access and arena passes
from now on everyone who backs gets it all

if you had an arena pass you will be credited $5 store credit

if you have alpha/beta access you get 10,000 UEC

each payment is each package on an account
they will raise the UEC cap to account for this if you have multiple packages but you will not be able to buy more UEC until you are below the old limit

Well leave it to CIG/RSI, the sabre is available and the CCU is available now. With the military sale going on you could essentially buy the sabre and upgrade it to a starfarer or any other ship available over 170.00 with LTI. Sometimes I just shake my head at their business decisions.

people said the same about the Reliant LTI and CCU but then it was any thing over 60

True didn't think about that.

They didn't make those changes without the analytics to support it. I suspect they weren't selling passes as they had hoped and figured it was easier or should I say, had a higher propensity to drive revenue if they just rolled the program to it's current incarnation. Somewhere in the bowels of CIG there is a solid super analyst providing facts and data from what I have been told by a couple of the CIG insiders that do talk on the side.

Agreed - they were actually better off just letting ANY backer in w/o having to charge for it in-addition. It gets more people INTO the game to test ships/etc.

Definitely agree with Tasorin about the
"DO NOT BUY A SHIP BECAUSE OF IT'S SPECIFICATIONS!!"

Hell - even purchasing a ship for its "ROLE" is pretty up in the air, as you will be able to change a LOT of ships "ROLES" by swapping parts/modules.

Really - only reason buy add-on ships now if you WANT to support CIG and want the LTI in-game.